Updates and our trip to Toledo!

Hi everyone!

First, let me say I'm overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and kindness hearing from you that various items are on the way! Thank you so much.

I wasn't able to 'caption' the pictures on the last blog so just to let you know...1. everyone participating in Raul's garden which is anxiously waiting for your seeds! (The other family there is the one I mentioned in an earlier blog...the lady in the orange dress is the widow) 2. Brella decked out in my reading glasses from Sue Beale and my $.50 consignment hat from Aubs! 3. A jaguar 'kitty' that I had to enclose for Pete Carantza! and 4. my pet 'tarantula' (not hardly) and no, Sue Beale, we didn't need a machete to kill it but there just aren't tons of options...fly swatter wouldn't do!!!

I am in a town called Punta Gorda which is the southernmost town in Belize right on the Caribbean Sea. It is quite quaint here but we are mostly enjoying air conditioning, toilets, and the first WARM shower I've had since leaving Florida! The ten of us have been visiting our future sites...it became clear to me today that the log cabin I've always dreamed of building in North Carolina is really supposed to be my future 'home' here in Belize. It's incredibly beautiful here in the rain forest. We traveled miles on dirt roads in the two Toyota Land Cruisers. (We'd make a great commercial for Toyota as these two vehichles are built tough!) The sites are incredible but we're really going to be out in the middle of nowhere--or everywhere. Maybe one of you will come visit me...we could backpack all over Belize!

I will find out exactly where I will be this Friday. I trust it will be where I'm most needed!

Pictured is our group of 'fearless 'community health volunteers! I'm sort of the odd-ball (for more reasons than one!) because all are young, recent college grads and then the one older married couple.

God bless us all, love, tracy

One More Week

It’s been a tougher week—have a little touch of dysentery that’s lasted almost the entire week. I may be checked for parasites today—ugh! Also, I found a tarantula near my bed. My host mom killed it with my machete…oh well, the life of a peace corps volunteer!

It’s been a month now that I’ve lived with my host family. My family and our hut are considered well-off compared to most of the villagers and yet they have never seen a train, a plane, TV, a movie, any kitchen appliance, etc. Even though Raul can speak 4 languages and is very bright, he is illiterate. The children have no books, few toys and spend most of their time helping their mom who goes non-stop from 4:30 am to 8 pm. She washes the dishes bent over in the grass with 3 buckets (wash, rinse, dry). She does laundry everyday at the creek and carries heavy buckets of wet clothes back to the yard to hang on the line. She prepares three hot meals every day including hand made tortillas with each meal.

Despite this description, they are exceptionally happy. When Raul comes home from work, the three children SPRINT to him. The interaction between family members is fun to observe…they playfully ‘punch’ each other and then laugh. The kids are resilient and tough. When they get hurt, mom and dad just laugh so the child never cries too long. In school, the children receive ‘lashings’ for misconduct. Now when I walk to class, many children call out, “Hi, Miss Tracy”. Today the group of Standard 4 (six grade) came to my class to hug me one by one and thank me for the presentation I did yesterday on dental health to their class. Gratitude abounds.

Tomorrow the ten of us leave for a 4-day trip to our sites in Toledo (even though they keep the final selection a surprise!?!) I think I should be able to do one more blog before I actually get placed in the rain forest of Toledo. I love you all.

God bless us all… tracy

One little seed!

Only have a second as I am at the Peace Corps Hdqts. 'listening' to a lecture on handling stress so I can't be long...

So I had mentioned to Raul (my host dad) that if he wanted a garden I would help him...I did not get much response at the time. Then on Thursday of last week, when it was a national holiday, he said "Tracy, are you ready to start the garden?" I was happy to hear this as I know that if it's only my idea, it won't be kept up after I'm gone. So, we proceeded side by side to dig up a section of the yard quietly making suggestions to one another and getting the soil ready.

The next day as I was working again (Raul had gone to work) several neighbors came to 'pitch in'. They were asking me what we were going to plant and I told them the only seeds I had at the time (leftover from the Peace Corps Community Garden) was cilantro, okra, tomato, radish, and cucumber. I offered half of what I had left to the mother of the group. With that she said, 'thank you so much', then started crying and walked away. Her son and daughter stayed to help me transplant 'pups' from their plantain and banana tree. As we were doing this, I asked the daughter, who was 17, why their mother had left crying. She quietly told me this story. Their father (on this past Father's Day) had been drinking heavily and drank rat poison and died. Their mother had been so worried about how she was going to take care of herself and the eight children. Now, because I had given her those seeds, she knew that she was going to grow vegetables and sell them to provide for her family.

If this story doesn't make you want to buy a pack of seeds and mail them to me, I'd be surprised. PLEASE, all of you, KNOW that one little seed can change the lives of a whole family.

God bless us all. Love, tracy

Sunday in Orange Walk Town!

Greetings from Orange Walk Town! I am living in luxury this weekend! This weekend all the new volunteers are visiting with the volunteers that have been here for a year. My pen pal, (the contact that I had before I left home) Diane, invited me to come to her site in Orange Walk Town which is in the northern part of the country. She is in the education sector and works with a counterpart here (the principal of the elementary school). The principal (Letty), Diane and I are going for some Cerviche in a couple hours. Diane has an apartment above a small church that she has fixed up very comfortably. Yesterday, I insisted on buying her a fan for her apartment. It feels quite comfortable right now even though the thermometer is reading 98.8. In her kitchen, it reads 99.9. The breeze from the fan feels delightful while I'm typing away on her computer. She (obviously) has electricity, has running water, and a toilet downstairs! This is quite a treat! She is waiting on me hand and foot and even gave up her bed while she sleeps in a hammock in the kitchen. I am taking advantage of the electricity to get 'caught' up with my computer contacts! It's a nice break from the rats that scurry around at night and the frequent tarantula sightings in Armenia.

I will be in Armenia until Oct. 2 when we will be heading to our individual sites in the Toledo District (south Belize). At that point, they drive us to our individual villages and drop us off with a new host family. We are required to live with the family for a minimum of a month, after which you can choose to find your own 'place' or stay with your host family. Apparently, most choose to live on their own for privacy and freedom's sake. I hope there are SOME people in the village that speak English as I feel incompetent in K'ekchi at present. Then for the next two years I will be trying to facilitate positive changes to improve the quality of life and health of the 'village people'. I think they have it all over us in the U.S. when it comes to finding happiness...much for me to learn from them! The K'ekchi people as a whole are nomads that have for the most part fled from Guatemala and the slavery imposed on them there by the Spaniards a hundred years ago. They are mostly farmers and hard workers. The men within the family are definitely the head of the household. For instance, my host mom, Emetria stays at home with the children, cooks three hot meals a day, does the laundry almost daily down at the river, serves food to her husband, Raul, first, then me, then the children, and then sits down finally after everyone is nearly finished. My family seems quite happy with their existence and even though Raul and Emetria speak Maya (Mopan) in our house to each other and the children, it is crystal clear to me that they love each other deeply and have so much fun with the 'little' things in life. They are always laughing together (maybe they are laughing at ME?!?!) but I don't think so. Just talking about them now makes me miss them! I will be taking the bus (4 1/2 hours) back to Armenia tomorrow. I bought Emetria a frying pan which I know she will flip over! They love to hear stories about Ashley, Bobby, and Aubrey and my friends back home--YOU! It's a simple and happy life. Were it not for the illnesses, diseases and sanitation issues, I wouldn't want them to change one bit. Hopefully I can help them with those issues. It's interesting how they just expect to lose someone in the family from things like a snake bite (fertilance kills you in a matter of just a few hours), a very treatable (to us) disease like bronchitis, malaria, or even a dog bite. (For the record, I have had a total of 5 shots already (2 hepatis, 2 rabies, and 1 typhoid and still need to get another 5 within the next five weeks. We also take an anti-malaria pill every Friday for as long as we are here). This is on top of all the innoculations I had before I left.

Last week, Brella woke up vomiting and was running a very high fever. With my own children, that wouldn't have freaked me out (as they will be quick to tell you that I never 'babied' them) but being here with all the infection and bacteria transmission gave me cause for more concern. She improved over the next two days so it was probably a routine virus but it makes one think. I've grown so attached to her. You all would adore her! The thought of possibly losing her that night to a routine malady really scared me.

I hope I haven't bored you but I wanted to take advantage of the use of Diane's computer because I may not have this opportunity again for quite awhile.

God bless us all! Love, tracy

Happy Birthday Dino!

Happy 50th Birthday honey! Wow!! Happy Birthday Craig, too! Soon is Betty and Katrin’s birthday too! I miss you all so much and wish you all the happiest of days and year!

This week has been a real integration week with my community. I find it interesting and refreshing to see a ‘neighborhood’ that is so diverse in culture and ethnicity to get along so wonderfully. Because most of the huts have no windows or doors people just naturally go visiting and all are so graciously welcomed. I’ve yet to encounter a toothbrush and even though my host family has a latrine, only the parents and I use it (the children still prefer the yard). There are several health issues right here in this village and the need for assistance is great and yet this is just our training site!! I’d love to stay here because there’s need but the Peace Corps has designated 9 other sites in Toledo as being much more in need of our help. Peace Corps only goes where it is asked and only addresses concerns that the village sees at ITS needs, not what we think it needs.

I really miss all of you but I feel I’m in the right place for me to have the greatest opportunity to help others. I lie in bed at night and my mind races with all kinds of ideas of ways I can be of service to these people. I hope you all will be honored that a lot of my plans revolve around my best resource—YOU!!! I’ve already called upon my team to donate a frying pan to my host mom. I’ve asked Dr. Gandhi to donate 50 toothbrushes and floss for a presentation I’m doing on Oral Health Care to the school here. ( Dentistry is non-existent here unless someone has a toothache and then they go to either Belmopan or Belize City to get an extraction.) It’s the tip of the iceberg but it’s how all great ideas start…inch by inch, row by row. Speaking of rows, I have decided to put in a vegetable garden at my host family’s house so if any of you could send me seeds (tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash, watermelon, broccoli, etc.) it would be most appreciated. They say they have never heard of broccoli so I’d love to get some seeds and try that. Don’t worry about sending too much, they will be used while I’m here I promise you! The diets here are so deficient in fruits and vegetables—could be the reason for so much illness and malnutrition. I told my family I would put in a garden if they promised to keep it up once I leave. They said they are excited about their new garden!

I can’t believe how much I value my friends and family back home. I feel like I’ve been living in a place of ungratefulness and wasn’t even aware. The things I took for granted amaze me. I’m sorry and I promise that when I see each of your faces, I will let you know how much I care.

God bless Ashley, Bobby, Nicole, Aubrey, Jeff, Dino, Duchess and Chunk and every one YOU! Love to all, Tracy

Friday in Belmopan

This has to be short but because I have to catch a bus back to Armenia before dark and the sun is going down. K'ekchi lessons are going well and the technical training is intense. Tomorrow on our day off we are planting a village garden and Sunday on our other day off we are building a latrine! So much for relaxing... Love to all and sooooooooo appreciate hearing from everyone

God bless us all