Belize
For those of you who don't know, I'm in Belize, volunteering with a local HIV/AIDS outreach program in San Ignacio. It's been a long time since I've updated here regularly, but it seems like a good idea to keep a record of sorts.
I arrived yesterday at the airport in Belize City. The Cornerstone Foundation wasn't able to send a shuttle to meet me, so I took the public bus to San Ignacio. There was some trouble wih the bus- it was late coming, the trip was long, and I missed my stop the first time through. Everyone was fantastic about it, though. The bus conductor told me where to get off and change buses, and helped me get my bags, with an utter minimum of "stupid american tourist" eyeraising.
I enjoyed the bus ride, though. It gave me a great chance to get a look at Belize, both the people and the country. The people look a lot like Americans, except that none of them are really white. All the other colors are represented, though, and it's a useful reminder that enormous diversity is possible without Europeans entering anywhere into it. At least three languages were represented on the bus: Spanish, English and the local Creole, which is rather similar to Jamaican. It's intelligible in writing, but not when spoken at speed, though I always have the funny feeling that I'm listening to English and just not understanding any of it.
The people dress like Americans and use technology like Americans, too. I was amazed to see cell phones and ipods on the bus which was, after all, a converted school bus without air conditioning or seatbelts. But that's like so much of the country, that I've seen. Not every house has electricity or running water, but there are internet cafes on every street corner in San Ignacio. Girls dress that they shop at the Gap, but no one has a clothes dryer an some people still do their laundry on rocks in the river. It's not that there's a huge gap between rich and poor- there is, but most people are poor and many of them still have these luxuries. It's the infrastructure that's missing. No decent roads, no thought of air conditioning, few hospitals, no doctors to speak of. But high speed internet for $0.10 a minute. It's a fascinating contrast.
The country itself is small- about the size of Massachussetts- and contains swamp, plains, beach and mountains. San Ignacio is in the Western part of the country, in the mountainous reigion that's common for tourists. Most tourists go to the mountains, for nature hikes and expeditions to the Mayan ruins here, or stay in the Cayes (Keys). The program I'm working with includes some local tourist attractions in addition to the work I'll be doing.
When I got in, I met the other two week volunteers. I'm the only one doing the HIV/AIDS program at the moment. We're sharing a two bedroom rooming house across the street from the offices. The longer term volunteers live upstairs from the office. It's a great bunch of folks. Of the two week volunteers, C is a teacher in an alternative high school in NYC, and A is a trained clinical psychologist who's currently between jobs. One of the longer term volunteers worked in menial labor for a while, construction and such, and then got a grant to come here. Cornerstone itself if a grass-roots organization, unaffiliated with any religious or political group and glad to stay that way. It's entirely woman-run and very woman-centered, which is unusual here (and something that I didn't even realize until I got here). They're wonderful people.
Cornerstone offers a couple of 2 week long volunteer programs. One is for Natural Healing, and that's the first one I heard about. One of the upper classmen at EVMS went last year. But when I looked into it, I was more interested in their HIV/AIDS program. It seemed to provide a better opportunity to do work in the community, as well as a great learnnig experience. Belize has an enormous HIV infection rate- from 3-13% depending on which estimate you look at. And like everything else, it seems caught in between the first and the third world. Western travel patterns and sexual freedom have been accepted whole cloth into the community, without Western health education or any significant empowerment of women. HIV/AIDS education is crippled by the Catholic monopoly on the schools which, coupled with the early age of sexual activity, means that lots of people get HIV before they've been taught how to use a condom. Later in life, married women have next to no way to require fidelity ot condom use. Prostitution and promiscuity are fairly common.
It's a big problem to tackle, and the country is still very much at the education and awareness stage. Prevention has to be the focus, because there's no real access to antiretroviral therapy here. Even a focus on testing is almost more risky than not- it's a fatal diagnoses, and the systems aren't really in place to encourage people to use condoms and prevent spreading the disease further. I'll be working with a peace corps volunteer and a local public health nurse to do education and free testing at a community fair this weekend, and then do outreach work in the community and at bars next week. A big part of this is distributing condoms and pamphlets to places where people might actually pick them up. I hope I'll be able to do some good.
While I'm at it, I'm getting a great exposure to another culture and another environment, and getting Spanish classes to boot. It's a working vacation, but it's still a vacation. I expect to thoroughly enjoy my time here.
Hope everybody is doing well! I'll be getting back into town (Baltimore) on the 28th, and I have to be back in Norfolk for school on the 14th of August. If you need to reach me, I'll be checking email from a public terminal every few days. In an emergency, you can call me on my cell phone or at the Cornerstone Office: 501-824-2373 (international call to Belize). You can also send an email to cornerstone@peacecorner.org with my name in the subject line, and somebody will give it to me.
I arrived yesterday at the airport in Belize City. The Cornerstone Foundation wasn't able to send a shuttle to meet me, so I took the public bus to San Ignacio. There was some trouble wih the bus- it was late coming, the trip was long, and I missed my stop the first time through. Everyone was fantastic about it, though. The bus conductor told me where to get off and change buses, and helped me get my bags, with an utter minimum of "stupid american tourist" eyeraising.
I enjoyed the bus ride, though. It gave me a great chance to get a look at Belize, both the people and the country. The people look a lot like Americans, except that none of them are really white. All the other colors are represented, though, and it's a useful reminder that enormous diversity is possible without Europeans entering anywhere into it. At least three languages were represented on the bus: Spanish, English and the local Creole, which is rather similar to Jamaican. It's intelligible in writing, but not when spoken at speed, though I always have the funny feeling that I'm listening to English and just not understanding any of it.
The people dress like Americans and use technology like Americans, too. I was amazed to see cell phones and ipods on the bus which was, after all, a converted school bus without air conditioning or seatbelts. But that's like so much of the country, that I've seen. Not every house has electricity or running water, but there are internet cafes on every street corner in San Ignacio. Girls dress that they shop at the Gap, but no one has a clothes dryer an some people still do their laundry on rocks in the river. It's not that there's a huge gap between rich and poor- there is, but most people are poor and many of them still have these luxuries. It's the infrastructure that's missing. No decent roads, no thought of air conditioning, few hospitals, no doctors to speak of. But high speed internet for $0.10 a minute. It's a fascinating contrast.
The country itself is small- about the size of Massachussetts- and contains swamp, plains, beach and mountains. San Ignacio is in the Western part of the country, in the mountainous reigion that's common for tourists. Most tourists go to the mountains, for nature hikes and expeditions to the Mayan ruins here, or stay in the Cayes (Keys). The program I'm working with includes some local tourist attractions in addition to the work I'll be doing.
When I got in, I met the other two week volunteers. I'm the only one doing the HIV/AIDS program at the moment. We're sharing a two bedroom rooming house across the street from the offices. The longer term volunteers live upstairs from the office. It's a great bunch of folks. Of the two week volunteers, C is a teacher in an alternative high school in NYC, and A is a trained clinical psychologist who's currently between jobs. One of the longer term volunteers worked in menial labor for a while, construction and such, and then got a grant to come here. Cornerstone itself if a grass-roots organization, unaffiliated with any religious or political group and glad to stay that way. It's entirely woman-run and very woman-centered, which is unusual here (and something that I didn't even realize until I got here). They're wonderful people.
Cornerstone offers a couple of 2 week long volunteer programs. One is for Natural Healing, and that's the first one I heard about. One of the upper classmen at EVMS went last year. But when I looked into it, I was more interested in their HIV/AIDS program. It seemed to provide a better opportunity to do work in the community, as well as a great learnnig experience. Belize has an enormous HIV infection rate- from 3-13% depending on which estimate you look at. And like everything else, it seems caught in between the first and the third world. Western travel patterns and sexual freedom have been accepted whole cloth into the community, without Western health education or any significant empowerment of women. HIV/AIDS education is crippled by the Catholic monopoly on the schools which, coupled with the early age of sexual activity, means that lots of people get HIV before they've been taught how to use a condom. Later in life, married women have next to no way to require fidelity ot condom use. Prostitution and promiscuity are fairly common.
It's a big problem to tackle, and the country is still very much at the education and awareness stage. Prevention has to be the focus, because there's no real access to antiretroviral therapy here. Even a focus on testing is almost more risky than not- it's a fatal diagnoses, and the systems aren't really in place to encourage people to use condoms and prevent spreading the disease further. I'll be working with a peace corps volunteer and a local public health nurse to do education and free testing at a community fair this weekend, and then do outreach work in the community and at bars next week. A big part of this is distributing condoms and pamphlets to places where people might actually pick them up. I hope I'll be able to do some good.
While I'm at it, I'm getting a great exposure to another culture and another environment, and getting Spanish classes to boot. It's a working vacation, but it's still a vacation. I expect to thoroughly enjoy my time here.
Hope everybody is doing well! I'll be getting back into town (Baltimore) on the 28th, and I have to be back in Norfolk for school on the 14th of August. If you need to reach me, I'll be checking email from a public terminal every few days. In an emergency, you can call me on my cell phone or at the Cornerstone Office: 501-824-2373 (international call to Belize). You can also send an email to cornerstone@peacecorner.org with my name in the subject line, and somebody will give it to me.