some photos

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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.



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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.