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