nearing the end

Only 2 more days of clinic left and then 2 more days and I am home. The month has gone by fast. Yesterday was extremely busy with tons of mothers and their children. We gave out a lot of tylenol. Everyone had a URI... that and of course the staple of scabies. I went on the Wednesday morning market run for my last bit of fresh papaya, pineapple, and bananas. We had a speaker from Sustainable Harvest International come and speak this lunch and he was fabulous. The group teaches locals how to grow fruits and vegetables using organic, sustainable techniques in hopes that they will incorporate the foods into their diet and grow enough to sell at the market. It seems like it is doing great things throughout Central America.

On the downside, my computer has decided to go caput... at least from the internet standpoint. For some reason the wireless connection has never worked here and I have no idea why. I tried downloading a new driver software and the like and nothing worked. Now the ethernet card has also stopped working. It cannot sense the connection and yes it is connected on both ends. I think I am going to have to let Dan take a look at it when I get home. Blah.

Nothing much else of news or importance. I am getting excited for Match Day which is less than a month away. I want to know where Jimmy, Skidaway, and I are going to end up next year. I don't know if I am going to write another blog entry before I leave, but we shall see. If I don't, I will see most of you soon.

titles escape me

Another day in clinic, nothing too exciting. After clinic we went back to the University of Belize to do free sports screenings. A pretty busy afternoon, which included a stop at the coffee shop. yum. Here are some thoughts on my mind right now. Yesterday I mean an older American couple who are volunteering for the Peace Corps. It was great to talk with them and get their perspective on Belize as they have been here for almost 8 months. The Peace corps has almost 70 volunteers in Belize and their are countless other non-profits here. We discussed how Belize is poorer than the U.S. but it is not as poor as many of its neighbors and has benefited from a relative stable political structure. I wonder why there are so many people here, myself included in those people; because as I compare it to other places I been, I believe that the need is not as great here. I think the big draw is that Belize is welcoming and a relatively easy place to adjust to, as compared to other parts of the world. (I use my experience in India as my personal comparison). Its just an interesting thought. And the people who are here are doing good things and I do not fault them for coming here. I appreciate the effort and any step taken to reach out to the world is a noble step.

My other pondering of late concerned my reaction to people who walk by me while I bike and how that has changed since a year ago. Last summer, a pedestrian try to knock me off my bike while I was biking at 4 am to get to the hospital to round with my surgery team. Ever since then my heart seem to skip a beat when a pedestrian walks toward me while I am on a bike. Its weird, especially as I have had that reaction here in Belize. A change in perspective that is hard to shake, maybe for the good.

That's it for tonight.

another weekend passes

I spent the weekend here in P.G. Saturday I biked into town to Jeff's house and borrowed his kayak for a little ocean fun. It was beautiful and I saw tons of fish below the sea's surface and tons of jellyfish above. Also passed a fisherman perched on a rocky outcropping - it seemed like an ideal place to spend the day. I also "borrowed" Jeff's hammock on his porch and took a long nap, ate some ice cream, and just took it easy. Today I again biked into town, which seemed a lot more difficult this morning if I stayed here much longer I would definitely invest in a bike with an adjustable seat and non-rusty chains... I spent the day at the Coral House Inn at their pool and met a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers. Another relaxing day in the sun. The only bad part of the weekend are my burnt lips, hopefully they heal fast.

just another Friday

Fridays seem to be slow around here, although Erwin states that the Friday that students and doctors leave is always the busiest so we shall have to see what next week brings. I saw our regular visits HTN check-ups and children with diarrhea. But no scabies. We found out why we don't see Botfly with its long emerging worm in clinic. People know how to extract the worm at home using saran wrap and tobacco and see no need for the doctor. Too bad for us as it would be something new for us to see.

Matt left today as he had arrived a week before us, so now we are down to four students. Tim, Kara, and Emily went to Placencia, which I opted out of as I had spent my first weekend on the island. Instead I am haning out in P.G. this weekend, alone in our treehouse. I am going to borrow Jeff's, one of the administrators here, kayak tomorrow and explore the ocean for at least a little while. I am excited. Today I got a ride into town and then biked back about a 30 minute trip on an one-speed bike with deflated tires. I saw a really cool crab - yes, I get excited about crabs I did teach Marine Biology for a year. He (or she) was striped like a Zebra and shaped like a swimming crab. He was definitely aware of me and I had to be sneaky to get a picture. The crabs antics brought me much amusment. Not much else planned that is all too exciting. I am feeling poor at the moment with all of the upcoming expenses that Jimmy and I are going to have and I feel like just taking it easy.

pharmacist for the day

Today we had mobile clinic in Barranco, a Garifuna community south of P.G. I was feeling better this morning but not completely up to par, but decided to go because I can only lie around being sick for so long. Since all five of us were able to go today, I opted to be the mobile clinic pharmacist, which basically involved slicing pills in half and counting them. I am so glad for pharmacists back home. We had a traditional Garifuna meal for lunch which involved a lot of plantain and fish. It was good, but I avoided large portions in respect of my stomach. I think one of the more interesting things I found out today was that at least some of our patients go to the various health clinics with the same complaint in order to get "stockpiles" of medication. Our intake nurse, for lack of a better word as he does much more than that around here, told me that a family I saw yesterday had gone to the P.G. clinic before coming to see us at Hillside for the same complaint of scabies. He also said that years ago one of the doctors at Hillside would go on home visits and look at everyone's medications. Supposedly he found enough medications in peoples' homes to run the clinic for 5 years. I know that is an exaggeration, but it is an interesting phenomenon. Everything we give out is free and so is the medication at the P.G. clinic, and virtually all patients walk out of the clinic with at least Tylenol, which if you believe this information they might not even need because they have stores of it at home. Tylenol is pretty benign but it is a little scary to think that they have stockpiles of other medications, such as the scabies cream lindane which can be neurotoxic lying around their houses to use at their convenience.

Anything interesting phenomenon is the market produce here. A lot of it is not from Belize at all. In fact yesterday morning we saw bags of produce from Guatemala being dropped off. Its a little strange as one expects markets to have local produce and the grocery stores to carry the imports. Although the Minneapolis Farmer's Market also has the same phenomenon. I think the issue is more on my radar right now as I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbabra Kingsolver and The Ominvore's Delimna before coming here, both of which talked about the environmental impact of shipping food across long distances. Granted shipping food to Belize from Mexico and Guatemala is not the same as shipping produce to the US from New Zealand and Argentina, but it is the same concept. I find myself wondering if it would be possible to be a local-vore in Belize. I think it would be quite hard. As for the above books, I highly recommend them as reads. They are fascinating and make you re-think your particular eating habits whatever they may be.

I also want to put a plug in for A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah and They poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Deng, Deng, and Ajak. Both are true stories out of Africa. Beah talks about the war in Sierra Leone, and how he was sucked into becoming a boy soldier. It makes you realize you never know what you may become under difficult circumstance. It also shows how vulnerable children are to war and violence. The second book is about the lost boys of Sudan and again another touching story about children torn apart by war.

Anyway, enough typing for now. I have a little over a week left before returning to the cold of Minnesota. That is definitely going to be a shock to my system.

sick.

Since I last wrote you we had an internet malfunction. Last night the internet was so slow. It wouldn't load anything and we were scared that we had overused our quota for downloads and uploads for the month and perhaps may be doomed to no internet for the rest of our stay. But it seems to have resolved itself and hopefully will remain online until I leave.

Yesterday Kara and I went on home visit with Pat. It was interesting to see how many of these patients lived. Most of the patients were elderly and homebound. They suffered from diabetes and hypertension. The homes were often in a state of quasi-disarray and not as nice as most American homes. I realize though that many of the patients I have taken care of in Minnesota especially at HCMC lived in similar conditions or even worse. The plight of the family-less elderly person in America is often a sad one, and I wonder if they even have it worse as it seemed that at least the people here had not been abandoned. They still had family and friends who cared for them, even if they were poor themselves.

The biggest thing in my life however right now is the gastrointestinal bug that had hit me with a vengeance. It is not nearly as bad (yet... fingers crossed) as what I got on my peds rotation last year nor the food poisoning I suffered after eating Shawn's chicken last winter, but bad nonetheless. I skipped evening clinic today and may not make it out to mobiles tomorrow, especially as the bathroom situation in the villages is not always amiable to bouts of gastro. I am also missing out on birthday celebrations for Matt, one of the Brits, who is turning the ripe old age of 21. I know, its not a big deal for him.

I should probably go back to resting, and drinking water. Hope none of you are afflicted with what I have,

presentation for the local college students

Clinic was very busy today. Go, go, go. Sick kids with upper respiratory infections, rashes (there seems to be a plethora of rashes here), and other things. After clinic we went to the University of Belize - Toledo Campus to present on Diet, Exercise, and Stress Management to the local college students. It went well, although they weren't as interactive as I am used to from my days of teaching mainly elementary aged students. It was like pulling teeth to get them to respond to questions. I think it went well overall and I don't think I spoke too fast, as I sometimes have a tendency to do. Afterward we went to town in hopes of getting iced coffee but the shop was closed as she had just moved. :( I finally tried Charlette's across the street - tortillas, fried chicken ( it is always fried chicken down here) and beans. It was good, especially the home-made tortillas. Tomorrow we are heading out to mobile sites or to home visits. I am not sure which I am going on. It should be good either way.

We discovered the local movie rental store, which rents movies for about $2 US dollars but you have to be careful as the entire movie is not always on the disc and others are obviously taped in the theater. No quality control here.

That's all for now. I now go back to trying not to scratch my mosquito bites.

Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary

Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary, the world's only jaguar reserve, is about a three hour bus ride ride from Hillside. After Matt made a quick call Saturday morning to make sure we had a place to stay, we walked down our gravel road to the bus stop. When arrived at Maya Center, the village gateway to Cockscomb we discovered that all of the hotel owners where gone for the morning, which meant no place to stash our stuff before heading into the park. Oops. We pondered and decided to take a taxi in and perhaps stay the night in the jungle in the parks cabin. The back-up plan was to pay to stash our stuff for the day in the park and then either take the bus back to Hillside or find the hotels open on our way out and stay. We headed in after a quick grocery stop and decided to stay the night for $5 a person. Not bad. We hiked to a waterfall, swam, and then hiked up Ben's Bluff (named after one of the original jaguar trackers in the park) and viewed Mountains. It was a pleasant day, at least for me. When we got back to the cabins, decisions split about what to do... Emily didn't feel well and decided to head back to Hillside. Eventually Kara and Tim decided to go back as well. Matt was in a world of indecision but eventually decided to stay with me.

Matt and I did a couple hikes after they left, including a night one in hopes of seeing a jaguar. Of course we didn't but we could hope. We did witness the evening howling of the howler monkeys but only glimpsed the braches moving as the monkey jumped from tree to tree. Today we hiked to Twin Falls. It was so hot and humid. I cannot remember the last time I have been drenched in so much sweat. And the sweat refused to evaporate because the air was so humid. In the end, I think the hike was worth it. We came upon a beautiful fall in the middle of the jungle and had it completely to ourselves unlike the falls the previous day. We hiked out, ate same mac and cheese for a short of brunch and then bunkered down to hike out 10 km. It wasn't bad except for the heat and the fact that my patagonia courier bag is grossly mis-proportioned for me. For some reason the model I got for the trade-in of my old pack which was malfunctioning is sized for a giant. The highest it can go on me is my butt, and is not the most comfortable way to carry a load. I ended up deciding to carry it with the strap upon my head like a sherpas. It was a thousand times more comfortable, and not nearly as awkward as I though it would be. I need to do something to fix the straps, though, either trade it in, return it, or take the sewing machine to it.

That was my weekend in short. Take care.

canoeing down the rio grande

Clinic seems to always starts out like it is going to be extremely busy as people show up a half hour before we start seeing patients. Thus we get "slammed" when we open our doors. But it soon slow downs. I saw an entire family today all afflicted with scabies. Scabies is everywhere it seems here. After clinic we headed to local a resort. Matt, Tim and I went exploring along the resorts trails. It is a little disorientating to wander in the rainforest without any changes in terrain. We went for the whole turn left at every intersection and ended up at the base of the lodge far from where we thought we were going to be . At least we didn't get lost. Jimmy can smile about that.

We went to the lodge to meet a Belizean who Emily met in town and promised us a canoe/kayak trip. We canoed down the Rio Grande looking for monkeys, crocs, birds of all shapes and sizes. The river was very calm and an easy paddle. It made want to get a kayak once again... oh wait I have never gotten over wanting a kayak.

Conversations with my fellow students here have made me realized how strange and sheltered my childhood was. I knew this before but I haven't been confronted with the fact for awhile. I need to remember that my childhood was different as I talk to patients, especially teenagers. I know I don't really understand the world of "normal" teenagers. But maybe that is good thing as I won't make any assumptions about life as a teenager. At least I hope I don't.

Jimmy is packing up our stuff, getting ready to move out at the beginning of April. It is going to be strange to come back to nothing. Hope all is well at home.

valentines and my half birthday

Jimmy and I refuse to celebrate Valentine's Day, but ever since we met we have celebrated my half-birthday which is Feb 13th. Kind of a leftover celebration from childhood, as I was unable to celebrate my summer birthday in school, so got to bring in treats on my half birthday. Yesterday was the first time we haven't been together to celebrate my half-birthday. Jimmy was a little distraught when he discovered this, but he made a way to make the day special by writing me a poem. It was sweet.

Back to life in Belize. Yesterday started out with a trip to the market where I stocked up on fruits and tried a Belizean fruit called Caimito or Star Apple. It was super sweet and maybe a bit overripe as it is suppose to taste like grapes according to the internet. :) Clinic was slow. Although I had an interesting run-in with a patient who was probably an untreated schizophrenic. He grabbed my face and then tried to grab mg again while leaving. It made me very uncomfortable. At least nothing worse than that happened. Last evening we went to watch traditional Garifuna dancing and drumming in PG. We also tried it ourselves... well I was forced to but it was fun in the end.

Today mobile clinic was canceled, no not because of Valentine's day, but because our medical director's back still is not better. Thus we headed to Blanco Grande National Park to hike and swim. The others all jumped off the cliff, but I couldn't do it. You would like that I would be okay with heights and falls after rock climbing, but I am not. A little strange. Tonight holds perhaps dinner in town. Pat, a nurse practitioner from the States, has offered us a free lift into town. Free rides are always nice. That's all for now. I think we are heading to Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary this weekend. I'll tell you about on Monday.

a day with a cuban doctor

We went to San Jose village today. Our medical director at Hillside was unable to go with us as his back has been giving him grief. We were gearing up for a day off, when word came that government doctor at San Antonio had few patients and would come with us, Thus, we headed off to the village once again on bumpy dirt roads. Belize like much of Central and South America has quite a few Cuban doctors. I was interested in seeing how they function, having been told that medicine is quite good in Cuba and that their training was supposedly comparable to ours.

Clinic turned out to be quite frustrating. Some of it was probably due to a language barrier, The Cuban doctor's English was not perfect, but it also had to do with philosophy. We are so use to asking complete histories, doing full exams and then presenting them to our preceptor (the doctor overseeing us). We set about to do this but quickly found that the doctor only wanted cheif complaints and then s brief physical finding. He had no time it seemed for more. A patient would complain of headache/backache and they would get Tylenol. They would complain of cough and have some coarse upper respiratory sounds and they would get amoxicillin. I felt that we were giving drugs out like candy. He seemed to want to give everyone Tylenol and/or Benadryl. It was crazy. It reminded me of my experience of being a patient in India back in college when complaints were given and then drugs were doled out. It was crazy to be a part of and definitely made me appreciate the American, British, and Australian doctors that come here and provide an alternative to this type of care. It was also shocking because it was not what I had expected coming into the experience. Maybe Michael Moore wasn't completely right about medical care in Cuba in "Sicko."

Finally made some real coffee, but the beans were a little bitter. I will have to see if Jeff's one of the administrators here at Hillside who also happened to be roommates will Will Shortz of crossword fame, home roasted coffee is better. Hope all is well at home and that the cold weather soon ends for you.

snake scare

Today was another clinic which I spent seeing scabies and trying to erase viruses on the volunteer laptop (which we were unsuccessful at). After clinic, I heard screaming from the Admin building. Turns out there was a snake hiding in the rafters. We rushed to see the neck that turned out to be quite small and not nearly as exciting as we hoped it to be. It looked like a Belizean version of the garter snake. We headed into town today and found this fabulous coffee shop run by an American. I am so excited to finally have real coffee after days of instant Nescafe. We ate dinner in town and it was fabulous (and cheap). It is a little strange as it seems that often eating out ends up being cheaper than making food. Probably because everything we know how to make is imported from the US and elsewhere. Hence food is more expensive here than home. Except for fruits and vegetables.

Tomorrow we head to a large village of 1000 to 2000 people. It suppose to be busy. I am interested to see what life in a larger village. I hoped you all enjoyed the pictures I posted yesterday. I will try to post some more later.

some photos

Click below to see some pictures

Belize

tobacco caye

We had a short clinic on Friday, where I got to see my first kid since I have been here. Exciting stuff for this future pediatrician. We headed off on the local bus to Dangringa where then we planned to take a boat to Tobacco Caye. The trip there went off without a hitch and was as comfortable as it could be in a old beat-up school bus. We were talking amongst ourselves (Matt, Tim, Kara, and Emily - the other students here with me) that Belize is a school bus graveyard or at least retirement community. You see buses everywhere and I even saw one from Hennepin County, Minnesota in Independence. Crazy. The boat ride to the Caye was bumpy but definitely worth it. Gorgeous postcard Caribbean sea water and scattered Mangrove covered islands. Tobacco Caye itself is this tiny little island that you can walk around in 10 minutes tops. It is covered in beach houses and palm trees. I think it use to be a mangrove island that they settled and then dredged up sand to make it inhabitable. This is happening all over Belize. Kind of sad really as tourism is encouraging the development of islands on the reef at the expense of the native habitats. Mangroves are important hurricane barriers from what I recall so it shall be interesting to see what happens as development continues.

Anyway, the reef is very accessible from the beach at Tobacco Caye and we spent the weekend snorkeling, spotting all sorts of sea life. The reef was awesome, although you could definitely see evidence of coral die-off and I couldn't help but wonder what it had been 10-15 years ago. Thanks to Jimmy for telling me to bring my mask and snorkel - it definitely got good use although I think I actually ended up taking his... oops. When we weren't snorkeling we were relaxing in hammocks and on the docks. We met the locals which turned out to be interesting characters as well. We were going to stay longer today, but it stormed all night long last night and it looked like it was continue to storm today. We didn't want to get stuck on a tropical paradise - work duties to do - so we caught the morning taxi back to Dangriga and the caught another school bus back to Hillside. A great weekend and I am glad I had the chance to see Tobacco Caye. Although, the first day I was a little sad and I sat and pondered how much Jimmy would have loved the place and how we were not getting to share in the moment.

Below is a map of my trip so far. Enjoy.



View Larger Map

election day

It's election day in Belize, which meant no mobile clinic for us. Instead we headed off to Blue Creek and its cave. The cave was enormous and the creek runs all the through it. Thus in order to explore you have to be willing to swim, in the dark. It was quite fabulous. We went without any guides and swam around until we decided head back to the entrance. The outside of the cave was covered with boulders, not quite big enough to boulder. I wish they had been. I really miss climbing and there is not much of it to be had here.

It was cool to see the voters today with their fingers covered with ink, proud to show off their participation in democracy. Tomorrow a morning of clinic and then we are heading to Tobacco Caye for a weekend of snorkeling and relaxation on the beach.

market day

I went crazy at the market today. I bought papaya, pineapple, bananas, eggs, some strange fruit or vegetable that they said was good, and this corn mush thing or some sort that was wonderful. Oh, and I even willing bought green beans. Today was a slow-ish day in clinic. I realized I am quite rusty in my medicine skills right now. I hate feeling that way.

I cut up my papaya this evening. YUMMY! I love fresh fruit. The pineapple is ripening on the counter. I should have picked a riper one. We are cooking fresh fish for dinner. Awaiting the results. Tomorrow we have the day off as it is the elections here. The elections are a little crazy, with rallies all the time where the parties pay people to be bussed into town. They also pay people to wear their shirts with party slogans. Crazy but not as crazy as election time in India. This is supposedly a big election. The current PM is supposedly corrupt and has been giving away land, right, whatever to his friends and supporters. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Hope all is well at home.

super tuesday

It's Super Tuesday and I am wondering what our country will decide while I am away. I have the New York Times up to watch the results role in as we are tv-less at Hillside. We talked a lot today as a group about who might get the nomination during our long ride back and forth to the village where our clinic was held today.

Clinic was slow as they had just been their a few weeks ago and usually the villages only get a doctor every 4-6 weeks. There was a lot of scabies which I have been told will be a common issues amongst the villagers. I only saw one patient, a women who had a non-reducible hernia and who needs to have surgery sometime soon. The only issue is that there the closest surgeon is in Dangria which is several hours away. (I am not sure of mileage as I not sure exactly how far the village was from Punta Gorda and I don't believe will recognize the name of some small village in Belize). I hope she is able to get to the surgery and hopefully nothing happens before she can get to Dangria. The village was beautiful set in the jungle mountains of Belize. It was interesting to drive and see crops scattered among the rain forest vegetation. Corn interspersed with grass, trees, and vines. No bare soil to be found.

We road into town this afternoon on one-speed beach cruisers. I always wonder if the locals find it odd to see "rich" foreigners huffing and puffing it around town. I am sure they must thing that we must have enough money to buy a car or at least pay for a taxi. It was a pleasant ride, but definitely more work than riding my bike at home. Oh, I love the coke down here - so much better than coke back home made with sugar, not corn syrup. I think I am going to have to frequent the Latin American markets when I get back to the states to get some of the imported Mexican coca-cola.

I was excited to see my first toucans this morning - a pair in the trees behind our treehouse. Tomorrow we get to go to the market and get fresh fruit, vegetables, and supposedly fish. Should be great. I love wandering through the markets of the world and I am excited to finally get fresh tropical fruit. The "supermarkets" don't sell fresh fruit really and it has been disappointing not to sample the produce of this country.

Enough for now. I hope all is well back home.

day one of work

I spent my morning in PG (Punta Gorda) at the mental health clinic. Kriol a hodge-podge version of English is very hard to understand. You would think that we would be able to get it but no. Anyway, the hospital reminded me of hospitals in rural India, small, many patients to one room, and not in the best condition. Then we had an afternoon of orientation where we learned about the history of Belize, which I won't go into. Spent the afternoon trying to figure out why my wireless connection won't connect. I can see the network but it won't connect and cannot figure out why. Luckily the Ethernet input works. Any I wish my brother Dan was around to work his magic on my laptop.

I played with Ian, one of the staff members sons this afternoon. I brought out the trusty frisbee and we tossed around. He got pretty good after awhile. Perhaps I will convince him that ultimate is a better sport than soccer or I should say football is. :) Jimmy keeps emailing me about our trip to Peru which is making me excited to go. It is going to be fabulous.

There are tons of the birds around our "treehouse" at Hillside. I am making it my goal to learn what they are or at least the common ones. I realized that knowing the common birds back home help connect me to a sense of place.

One of the biggest things I have thought about recently is how trying to be environmentally friendly in the developing world, especially as a traveler is extremely hard. Plastic is everywhere and they definitely do not have recycling capabilities. Appliances are old and tend to use lots of energy. I find myself wondering how I would deal with it long-term basis if I moved here. And yet there are some things that they do better than us. A lot of the medical equipment that we throw away are re-used here. But I don't think that would be the case if money was not an issue. This reminds me of a story I read on how plastic jugs has replaced clay pots in India, creating a huge amount of waste as plastic does not degrade but clay pots do... I know I am off on an environmental rant. But such has been my thoughts as of late.

Tomorrow we head off to one of the villages.

vacation done. work begins.

After my stay in the Global Village Hotel, which I spent watching a pirated version of "The Pirates who don't do anything." I went to the airport to await my luggage and catch a plane flight to Placencia. My luggage took forever and the airline people were veryunhelpful until I talked to the manager and he took my back to customs to fetch my luggage. I made it off to Placencia withot a hitch and arrived at the Westwind Hotel. A quaint bed and breakfast type place on the beach. (If you ever go here, strike up a conversation with the owner George he will talk your ear off about Mayans, Catholicism, Mormons, Belizean politics and anything else. His perspective on the Spanish invasion of Central America is worth hearing even if you don't believe him). I met a bunch of Canadians in their forties - I always seem to meet Canadians --and we hit it off. Enjoyed dinner with them and talked about politics, religion and everything you suppose to avoid when you first meet people. I also made friends with the hotel cat, Squeakers, who decided that my lap was a pleasant place to lie. I spent most of my days walking the beach, looking for lizards and birds, swimming, snorkeling, and reading. Fantastic. I also managed to scare up a croc. Glad he was on the small side and not interested in people. I left today on a boat and then hopped a bus to Punta Gorda. En route I met Matthew a Brit who happened to also be volunteering at Hillside. The bus was late.. no surprise and hence missed my ride to Hillside. I guess I had the staff worried but I would have thought they would have expected Belizean buses to be late. Anyway, I gave them a call and got a chance to meet their adorable boys and headed to the clinic.

We had orientation and pizza this evening and then the whole crew headed off to a bar to watch the super bowl as I am sure most of you did this evening. I opted out hoping to unpack and try to figure out the internet, It took me an hour. I couldn't find the password and then I couldn't connect no matter how I tried. Turns out they disconnect everything each night as thunderstorms have a tendency to knock everything out. I finally found out where the connection was and then went on the search for the key. Obviously found that too. Still don't know the password though so I have been unable to upload pictures from my computer. I promise pictures will come.

Tomorrow I head to the local mental health clinic to see how that is delivered in Belize, which I am sure is worlds away from the US.

I think the coolest thing I have experienced this trip is the kindness of fellow travellers. The Portland couple who told me about the free hotel from Continental also bought my dinner that evening unbeknownest to me. The Canadians I met also bought a meal for me. Didn't expect any of that. People can suprise you every day.