April & Scott: January 2009

To: Grape Creek Classes

Re: My Impressions of Life in Bella Vista Village, Belize, and of Peace Corps in General

A normal day in Bella Vista begins with roosters crowing from every direction, from about 4 AM and increasing in intensity through the morning hours. Men with machetes or pesticide tanks on their backs ride their creaky bicycles, often loaded with bananas, plantains, or another person on the front handlebars, toward the banana farms in the dark around 5 AM. On regular errands, a man gives his wife a lift by having her sit side-saddle on the frame in front of him, so that his legs have to bow out awkwardly as he pedals. It is also common to see women, whether Latino, Mestizo, Mayan, or black, ride a bike with a tiny baby perched either on a basket above the front wheel or holding on for dear life to the main tube of the bike frame.

School buses come and go by 6 AM, stopping along the highway and near the school grounds to pick up groups of men and women in tattered work clothes who also work on the farms and groups of students bound for the closest high school in Mango Creek/Independence. School buses painted with a bright red or orange stripe are used for public transportation throughout Belize. This is what we take to get to the capital or any town farther away than we can ride to by bike.

Taking the bus is an adventure. The widest roads in Belize are paved, narrow two lanes without a proper shoulder, and the bus drivers race each other to pick up the most passengers, often taking up the entire roadway while speeding side-by-side in the same direction and honking at each other. The bus drivers also do not slow down on hilly curves; rather, they speed up at the turns so that we lose our stomachs and feel like we are on a roller coaster. It can be sort of fun.

Most days in Bella Vista village are the same for families. Fathers and sometimes mothers go to work on the farm or in the little stores they own next to their houses, children go to the Roman Catholic School, and the women and sometimes Mayan housekeepers help with any number of chores in the household all day long. It seems that each chore takes much more time that it would take to accomplish in the States.

For example, washing clothes takes hours of hauling water, scrubbing, and rinsing by hand in the pila, a cement wash basin with a rub board on either side. The water from the center of town only runs to each house for an hour every morning and an hour every evening due to a meager well and an inadequate pump. As a result, water is conserved very carefully in rain barrels and various containers and buckets and then used frugally throughout the day by scooping a bowlful at a time from a basin. This affects everything from brushing one’s teeth to washing dishes. Just picture washing dishes in that situation. No running water. Soaking the clothes in Suavetel, clothes softener that improves the smell of clothes easily mildewed in the humid climate, follows washing and rinsing the clothes. Finally, the clothes are hung to dry outside, which can be hampered during the rainy season, although the sun is strong enough to dry clothes very quickly when it is not cloudy.

Cooking takes on a new meaning as well. People in Bella Vista tend to keep very few items in refrigerators and prefer to prepare and eat all of the food the same day, perhaps because the refrigerators are the size of a big TV. My host mother would choose one of the local chickens running around the village, owned by this or that person, cut its throat, bleed it, de-feather it, stew it, and serve it bones and all alongside the classic Belizean beans ‘n’ rice for lunch by 1:00 PM for her children, the time they should have been back at school. Even tamales have bones in them in this country. We usually were not served lunch in our host home until 1:30 or 2:00 PM. Remember, Belizean time is similar to that of all of Latin America. It is expected to be late by half an hour to an hour. Or more.

All of the children in Bella Vista walk home from school for a long lunch at midday, a break of close to two hours. The students return for a final two hours of classes before being released to play in the dirty streets, kick a ball around or play marbles, finish homework, watch TV, take bucket baths, and help their parents with the small business or chores until an early bedtime. There are not many extracurricular activities for children or youth, and it is not safe or beneficial for them to be outside of the home after dark in Bella Vista.

Most days follow this pattern, except for Sundays. Sunday is different in the village because for many farm workers, it is the only day off. Families spend time together, and everyone seems to be around. Many do chores and washing as usual because even a day off is not really a day off for the women, especially those who work during the week in addition to doing housework.

Although there are not as many churches as bars in Bella Vista, churchgoing is prominent in village life. However, Sunday is not necessarily special in this regard because religious people in Bella Vista go to church every night of the week, and on Fridays, it is normal to attend services the entire night. There are primarily Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Catholic churches. Scott and I have personally noticed differences in the way the Christians treat us and the way they conduct themselves compared to those who are not a part of a church. They are more likely to be trustworthy, hard working, dependable, and honest than those who do not call themselves Christians.

We are helping a youth group apply for a program and receive funds to begin an Internet Café in Bella Vista so that high school students can complete their homework without commuting. The youth who will coordinate the project are turning out to be those who attend church because they do not steal, let their friends use the computers for free, or fail to be responsible in keeping the facility clean and secure. They also are the ones trying their best at school so they will actually take advantage of the opportunity to use the computers for homework assignments.

This seems discriminatory, but in the developing world, there are very nearly no rules, not like in the States. Political correctness does not exist. People refer to other races with every slanderous name imaginable in normal conversation. Whole villages revolve around one political party’s whims, denied critical federal funds if the political leanings of the village do not line up with the party in office at the time. Infrastructure is lacking, from law enforcement to road maintenance, entities we take for granted in the States. For one thing, most people do not even own the land nor know who does in Bella Vista!

It is a culture of every person for herself or himself. No one has a concept of waiting in line, or waiting for a turn. In the store, the person is served first who cuts up to the front and thrusts money in the face of the storeowner the fastest. If the bus is almost full, a person boards the bus and finds a seat by shoving children, elbowing the lady with the baby, and grabbing a seat before the elderly. It clearly pays to be selfish here.

Many of my perceptions of the world, social justice, and making right the wrong have shifted during my stint so far in Peace Corps due to the reality of daily life in poverty. There is often boredom, tedium, desperation, or apathy, and the rest of what you might expect in life does not matter, except for survival or escape to something better. Any kind of development work, especially Peace Corps in its long-term commitments to solidarity and sustainability, is a delicate balance of taking the pulse of the village, understanding how things work through the political and social fabric, and finding a respectful role in which to encourage and promote change. The important words to understand are solidarity and sustainability. They look and sound good upon reading, but they mean something quite radical when carried out.

The holidays in Belize have been different, expectedly, from any others I have had in my life. Strangely, they are pleasantly different and seem somehow more special and enjoyable in a way, perhaps because they involve no stress, latent from jobs, money, or trips. They are what we make of them, simple, and even a single phone call to family or a mere visit from a new friend can seem powerfully significant and can make me want to cry.

The little Nicaraguan family, our former neighbors in a one-room shed, stopped by our new place after church on Christmas, and the kids gave me hugs and proudly showed me their new necklaces and generally looked precious in their best attire. They were sipping juice boxes and looked pleased with themselves, and it made me smile for a long time that the family cared enough to come and see me.

As with most experiences in Peace Corps, I believe the lesson has been to learn simplicity and to focus on relationships. It also constantly causes us to ask questions like, are we becoming "better" people, or "worse," for this experience? It does seem that whatever traits we already possessed are often accentuated. But, what is at the heart of volunteerism and humanitarian work and development? We continue to notice the innate selfishness of human beings, both within ourselves and our new community.

This year, as part of trying to be a stronger, more assertive, more decisive me (though balanced and kind, like my mother-in-law or my host mom), I decided to make my birthday as positive as possible, given the circumstances. I requested going to Placencia to snorkel, my first time ever, and a red velvet cake, like Scott and I saw on a cooking show when we were staying with another Volunteer couple. Funny, I never liked red velvet cake before.

Above are a few photos of snorkeling, despite the interspersed storms. You can see where the clouds began to part for us to have a sunny spot in which to snorkel. I even saw barracudas and a sting ray up-close! Also, check out Scott's new ride that he put together with a good deal on a frame from New York that actually fits him. I think the striped seat and matching grips he found in Belize City are rad, and so does every other villager who happens to pass. In fact, I am endangered when riding behind Scott because if the staring person is on a bike when he passes Scott, he fails to look forward again until he has very nearly crashed into me!