Friday, November 27, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOBBY!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful son! I love you and miss you so much! I hope you had a wonderful day today. You are the most wonderful son any mom could hope for!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. Thanksgiving isn't celebrated by Belizeans but all the Peace Corps volunteers gathered together on the Wednesday before. It was a wonderful dinner but have to admit that I had some trouble on that day missing Ashley, Bobby, and Aubrey and of course the nieces that usually get together for Thanksgiving. It just wasn't the same. I miss you.

I will be going back to San Miguel tomorrow and move into my 'cursed' house. So, if you don't hear from me for awhile you might want to call the Peace Corps office to make sure I'm still alive. Of course, we joke but if you could get the 'FEEL' of the Mayan K'ekchi people this is no joke. This past week was spent trying to get things ready. I had to dig a hole for the latrine so Aubrey will have a place to 'go' when she gets here. Then I put in two walls for a shower and ran pvc piping inside so I can have an inside shower It's actually one of the nicest homes in the village but no one would live there...except me!

With the house near readiness, I will be able to dive head first in a number of projects within San Miguel. I had anticipated that my Peace Corps experience would be projects involving hard labor (which I'm always up for). Instead, there are three major goals of Peace Corps. The first is to go to countries that want us there with help in training, technology, health issues,etc. The second and third goal involve the exchange of cultures--both directions. Now I'm supposed to assess what it is that my village wants...NOT what I want to do FOR them. So obviously, there are still questions in my mind where to begin. One thing that I notice is that there is no recreation in the village. The K'ekchi are such hard working and disciplined people with little or no time for anything else. They are staunch in maintaining their culture that they fear is slipping away. Of course there is the disappearance of the ancient Mayan civilization so they are desperately clutching to retain their heritage. I have heard that there are only 7000 K'ekchi people on the planet...most in Belize and some that are still in Guatemala. So you can imagine their trepidation about their youth becoming more 'worldly' aware. They fear the youth will marry outside their ethnicity and the inevitable disappearance of the their ancestry. Personally, I think this is happening right now. It's sad. They are such proud people. So...I wandered completely away from my train of thought (me????) but my point is I wish they had some form of recreation in San Miguel...a playground, a basketball court, a swing, a park bench---ANYTHING that doesn't involve work or school. Perhaps my first project...???

I miss you all. And, God bless us all...love, tracy




Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Roger visits San Miguel

I have several blog ideas but none have totally materialized to put in print. One of my fellow PCV visited my host family in San Miguel this last weekend and he published his blog on commonsense.typepad.com Roger is a wonderful writer hence paints a vivid picture of some of what I'm doing at present so I happily refer you to his most recent blog--'San Miguel'.

Hope you enjoy. God bless us all, tracy

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Jupiter aligns with Mars!

Many nights I have laid in my thatched hut wondering exactly what my purpose here is supposed to be. I received a little taste. Let me tell you a story:

Monday morning, I get a text from my friend (PCV) Erica that there is a medical/dental team in Punta Gorda. They( group known as 'Healing the Children') were discouraged because they had flown here from the U.S. with pretty much a complete operating room setup to do cleft palate surgery but the liaison here had dropped the ball and they had no patients. I get the text from Erica as I am walking the 5 mile trek (hilly, gravel road) to my village of San Miguel. Finally ONE truck comes by and I flag him down for a lift. Turns out he has a son with a cleft palate. Anthony has the surgery the next day. I email all the other volunteers to see if anyone knows of others and that this group is willing to drive to pick them up or pay for their transportation. A volunteer near Belmopan knows of a 14 year old and he rides the bus down on Wednesday with Emily and has the surgery that afternoon. (Turns out the boy was 19--he wasn't sure)

In the meantime, I get to Punta Gorda Tuesday to meet the cosmetic surgeon, oral surgeon, and staff and convince them to come again and I will see that they have patients. One of the nurses was downstairs treating a child with an acute infection--simple antibiotics and tylenol. She asked me to do the translation to the mother as far as the medication goes and I was able. Amazing! The nurse also mentioned that this wasn't really within her auspice but she could see the 'need' (as I did) and I assured her that rules lose their grip when you cross borders. I have already seen children die from innocuous maladies. The child may have been lost had the nurse NOT intervened. It's enough to break ALL your hearts.

So there are a group of dentists coming to a nearby village in February and I volunteered to do the 'screenings' to give them a (very) rough idea of what will be needed.

So it's a start in the right direction...it's good to follow the signs sometimes!

God bless us all, tracy