I said to myself a
few weeks ago, "If I can get through May, I can make it through the
Summer." I was referring to the
unbearable heat wave at the beginning of the month--when we had to wait in our
oven of a house daily without fans for the electricity to come. Well, I am here at the end of May--more than a fourth
the way done in Belize and I slept in a long-sleeved shirt last night. This
last week has been fun. Now, I just have to make it through the rain!
It has now started
to rain. We got back from working in the
school today, and the clouds gathered in, and the rain came out of
nowhere. In fact, the vendor across the
street had his cart tip over, so a bunch of the girls ran over with me to help
him fix his cart. By the time we got the
gate open in the yard, we were each soaked to the core. We helped him turn his cart right side up and
save the fruit and other stuff. WE then
just played in the rain for a few minutes.
I am devoting a lot
of my time to the Mary Open Doors project.
Sarah has come on board and is working with us on the project and is
helping us sell it. Heather and Sarah
compliment each other extremely well.
Heather is bright, heard-working and dedicated to the project. Sarah would make a great politician--she can
sell it. It also helps that the
organization has a really great reputation in the area. Last Thursday, we went to the Rotary Club
meeting in San Ignacio. The breakfast
didn't go as well as we had hoped. We
did, however, meet the guy who was on International House Hunters. The night before I moved here, my mom had
Tevo-ed International House Hunters-Belize and we watched it together. It was exciting because they were even
looking at houses in San Ignacio. Well,
we met, and it was great to talk to him.
He is retired young, but worked as a teacher at UNLV for Disaster
Management. You can imagine how excited
I was to be able to ask a lot of questions about it. He said that it is a growing field,
especially in hospitals everywhere.
Anyway, we went to
Belmopan on Tuesday. We started by going
to Rotary Club meeting, and then we headed over to the British Commission
office. It went extremely well--except
for the lunch, which was at a Chinese Restaurant that worried me. Anyway, we were given a very warm welcome,
and time to explain our cause. Many
people came up to us after and asked for more information and gave us more
contacts that they thought would be interested in attending the event. There is a Women's Club in Belize that works
a lot with Mary Open Door as well as
CDF, which we are working with on another project. We were also sitting at the same table as the
US Ambassador to Belize. He purchased a couple of tickets, and got our
information about a grant opportunity that would be perfect for Mary Open
Doors.
I have been reading
a lot about nonprofit management this summer, and this week has been focusing
on financial stability of organizations.
Mary Open Doors is a great organization that serves thousands of women,
but the staff consists of two women who are stretched as thin as they can
go. The organization is trying to keep
overhead expenses to a minimum, but hiring an additional fundraiser would
probably benefit immensely, or getting board members to network for them. Mary Open Doors would have never known about
the grant if they didn't have people out in the area advocating for them. The grant alone would more than make up for
the costs of hiring a new employee. I am
enjoying working with Heather and Sarah on this project.
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Yesterday, we went
to Belize City. We took the early bus,
and it was an express, so we got to the city in about 2 hours, which is so fast
for a bus. We didn't have a meeting until
11:00, so we meandered around the tourist areas for a while. We found one area
where we had to give them our IDs to get into the area. It was where the Cruise ships drop off
tourists. It was night and day from the
world outside. We found a chocolate shop
that boasted Belizian chocolates. I
laughed because Belize is not big on the chocolate. There's a little bit of it, but it only goes
to foreigners because it is so ridiculously
expensive. They did have lime-salt-milk
chocolate, and chocolate perfume. Even
the tourist shops were air-conditioned.
We got out and I wanted to get away from the tourists. We headed over to the Korean Embassy, which
was moved, and we couldn't find it, so the taxi brought us over to the Raddison
Hotel, which is where the Rotary Club meeting was suppose to be. We waited there, and then found out that the
meeting for the day had been canceled.
Luckily, some of the employees at the hotel said that the manager was a
Rotarian. We were able to talk to him
and he gave us more information for next week's meeting. We then turned around and walked back to the
bus station.
We were all craving
burritos, so we stopped at a store and got three burritos. It took forever to get us food. The owner was so proud to serve us. He was so nice! The food finally came, and he asked us to
prepare for a wonderful feast. The burritos came, and well…. It was shredded
Chicken, Cole slaw, Kraft American Cheese, and Ketchup. The
owner was watching us, so I ate all of it because he was so nice, and soooo
proud. We then hunted for a fruit stand
to find something that would put a different taste in my mouth. The picture on the side is of Heather and I while we are waiting for lunch. I think that the crabby-hunger is coming out in our face. I also love the natural paleness of my arms in comparison to my face. We were all a little concerned that we would be getting sick from the burritos or chinese food over the next few days. We then saw a sign for "Belizian Chinese Fast Food," and all agreed that we probably shouldn't ever eat there. So far, I haven't gotten sick here, but I have been pretty careful, and wouldn't have eaten the burrito if I didn't love the guy selling it to us quite so much.
We got on the bus,
and came back to San Ignacio. Sarah and
I were laughing that it was a flashback to the mission--a perfectly planned day
that completely fell through. It's fun
to have Sarah here because she often
says, "wow, this is like Korea" and it is fun to have someone else
say what I have been thinking. Now, I just have to survive the rain!
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