Belize 2
Over the past couple of days, I've really gotten down to work on a couple of the programs that I'll be doing while I'm here. We'll be distributing condom boxes to bars and hotels, in hopes that they will encourage people to practice safe sex. Cornerstone had already had a limited condom distribution program going on, but we're going to expand it and make a few changes. Nobody had been taking the condoms before- the boxes were these big white things with the red AIDS Awareness ribbon painted on, and they were set out in full public view. N, the long-term Cornerstone volunteer that I'm working with, has a plan to make them more friendly and accessible.
We got a local artist to paint tropical scenes on the fronts of the boxes. He's really great- I'll take a picture before we distribute them so I can save a copy. We also glued cut-out bits from informational pamphlets to the sides of the boxes, so that they have a chance at communicating something even if people don't choose to take a condom. We'll fill them with condoms and distribute them around next week, and we'll be trying to place them in the mens room or other out-of-the-way locations so that people won't feel embarassed taking one.
This weekend, we're going to be at a huge community festival in Benque. We'll be working with a nurse from the public health department conduct free HIV testing and outreach. I made some flyers to distribute around to advertise the project, and then I set up her copying machine and copied the flyers and some health-needs intake forms for her. It's ironic how, even here, I feel like my secretarial skills are some of the most useful things I can do. I wonder how much medicine I will have to learn before that's not true anymore?
N and I have also been invited to give a presentation at a soccer camp next monday, to something around 100 teenagers. This is a little daunting, but I'm sure we'll be able to pull it off. We're going to plan what to do about it this evening, or during the Festival tomorrow.
This afternoon, N and I went to check out the Benque Festival. They were setting up but it looks like it's going to be great. Benque is out West of San Ignacio, along the bus line that I took by accident on Monday when I came in. The sun was out today (it's terribly hot) and the clear weather showed Benque off to a great advantage. It's a beautiful little town along the river. It's up in the mountains, so the town itself is very steep, and there's jungle all around. I'm actually thinking that I may head West when my time with Cornerstone is up, instead of staying in San Ignacio or going to the coast. The land is so beautiful here, I'd love to get even further out of town.
On the way up to Benque we got to talk to this guy from San Ignacio, and he gave us an interesting (though somewhat biased) look into Belizean culture. He told us that he didn't much like Benque because "all the guys there are faggots," and went on to explain that he had a real problem with guys hitting on him. He's twenty and looks younger, so I could see that he might attract some attention. He also expressed frustration that his girlfriend likes hanging out with gay guys though, of course, he admitted that he rather likes lesbians himself. Some things are the same in any country!
He also told us that he usually prefers hanging out with tourists and foreigners, because "they don't stab you in the back." Apparently, it's his opinion that Belizeans are nice to your face but talk about you behind your back. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Americans are just as bad- we just do it back in America, or on our Livejournals. This young guy also has a passion for blonde Caucasian girls, and he is hoping to come to the US someday where he can be surrounded by them. (I ended up knowing more about his love life than I'd really wanted to.)
Yesterday afternoon, I was the only person to show up for the Spanish class that they offer for all of the two-week volunteers. So I spent about an hour trying to talk with the instructor in my broken Spanish. She told me a great deal about the history of Belize, which was a British colony and still has the Queen's face on their money. I told her about school and it turns out that her daughter, who had come with her, is a Biology student at a local college. She's hoping to go to medical school in Cuba, because Belize doesn't have one. I got her address so I can send her some of my old textbooks- they're worthless in the states, because they're all old editions, but they'd be great down here. We talked about politics and economics a bit- food down here is about as expensive as it is in the US, but people's average income is a tiny fraction of the US poverty rate. As much as tourism boosts the economy, I think it has also artificially inflated the prices here.
I'm really enjoying getting to know the other volunteers, but the same old problems keep coming up. The only thing that they do in the evenings is go out to bars and drink. You know, lots of people have criticized me for not being able to just go along with that and nurse my diet coke all evening. But I really don't like the drinking culture- the assumption that all adult activities have to revolve around alcohol. I've got no problem with people drinking around me, but I have a problem with it when alcohol is central to the life of an individual or a group. Even if I hang out with the group, I'll never be a member as long as I'm sober. That, and I don't really much like bars. They're too loud to talk in, and it's the conversation that's really interesting to me.
Things continue to go well here. I should start taking pictures to show everyone when I get back.
We got a local artist to paint tropical scenes on the fronts of the boxes. He's really great- I'll take a picture before we distribute them so I can save a copy. We also glued cut-out bits from informational pamphlets to the sides of the boxes, so that they have a chance at communicating something even if people don't choose to take a condom. We'll fill them with condoms and distribute them around next week, and we'll be trying to place them in the mens room or other out-of-the-way locations so that people won't feel embarassed taking one.
This weekend, we're going to be at a huge community festival in Benque. We'll be working with a nurse from the public health department conduct free HIV testing and outreach. I made some flyers to distribute around to advertise the project, and then I set up her copying machine and copied the flyers and some health-needs intake forms for her. It's ironic how, even here, I feel like my secretarial skills are some of the most useful things I can do. I wonder how much medicine I will have to learn before that's not true anymore?
N and I have also been invited to give a presentation at a soccer camp next monday, to something around 100 teenagers. This is a little daunting, but I'm sure we'll be able to pull it off. We're going to plan what to do about it this evening, or during the Festival tomorrow.
This afternoon, N and I went to check out the Benque Festival. They were setting up but it looks like it's going to be great. Benque is out West of San Ignacio, along the bus line that I took by accident on Monday when I came in. The sun was out today (it's terribly hot) and the clear weather showed Benque off to a great advantage. It's a beautiful little town along the river. It's up in the mountains, so the town itself is very steep, and there's jungle all around. I'm actually thinking that I may head West when my time with Cornerstone is up, instead of staying in San Ignacio or going to the coast. The land is so beautiful here, I'd love to get even further out of town.
On the way up to Benque we got to talk to this guy from San Ignacio, and he gave us an interesting (though somewhat biased) look into Belizean culture. He told us that he didn't much like Benque because "all the guys there are faggots," and went on to explain that he had a real problem with guys hitting on him. He's twenty and looks younger, so I could see that he might attract some attention. He also expressed frustration that his girlfriend likes hanging out with gay guys though, of course, he admitted that he rather likes lesbians himself. Some things are the same in any country!
He also told us that he usually prefers hanging out with tourists and foreigners, because "they don't stab you in the back." Apparently, it's his opinion that Belizeans are nice to your face but talk about you behind your back. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Americans are just as bad- we just do it back in America, or on our Livejournals. This young guy also has a passion for blonde Caucasian girls, and he is hoping to come to the US someday where he can be surrounded by them. (I ended up knowing more about his love life than I'd really wanted to.)
Yesterday afternoon, I was the only person to show up for the Spanish class that they offer for all of the two-week volunteers. So I spent about an hour trying to talk with the instructor in my broken Spanish. She told me a great deal about the history of Belize, which was a British colony and still has the Queen's face on their money. I told her about school and it turns out that her daughter, who had come with her, is a Biology student at a local college. She's hoping to go to medical school in Cuba, because Belize doesn't have one. I got her address so I can send her some of my old textbooks- they're worthless in the states, because they're all old editions, but they'd be great down here. We talked about politics and economics a bit- food down here is about as expensive as it is in the US, but people's average income is a tiny fraction of the US poverty rate. As much as tourism boosts the economy, I think it has also artificially inflated the prices here.
I'm really enjoying getting to know the other volunteers, but the same old problems keep coming up. The only thing that they do in the evenings is go out to bars and drink. You know, lots of people have criticized me for not being able to just go along with that and nurse my diet coke all evening. But I really don't like the drinking culture- the assumption that all adult activities have to revolve around alcohol. I've got no problem with people drinking around me, but I have a problem with it when alcohol is central to the life of an individual or a group. Even if I hang out with the group, I'll never be a member as long as I'm sober. That, and I don't really much like bars. They're too loud to talk in, and it's the conversation that's really interesting to me.
Things continue to go well here. I should start taking pictures to show everyone when I get back.