WIN Belize

I should have written this last Friday as soon as I got home, but I was exhausted and fell asleep at about 9:00.  This past week has been exhausting, but that serves me right for spending a week relaxing with my family.  On Friday afternoon, I was able to give the final recommendations to Agatha at the Women's Issues Network of Belize.  The nonprofit in Belize City is struggling with having a sustainable income for the organization.  Sarah, Vanessa, and I have been working on a report to present to them.  They were looking at creating the Women's Business Network of Belize (WBN).  So, we started researching plans for the WBN. 

We decided to interview different businesses and organizations.  This is why the three of us traveled down to the Toledo district in the south.  The south is considered the poorest district in Belize.  There are a lot more indigenous people and tourism (the number one income of Belize) isn't as developed in the south.  I actually loved Punt Gorda.  Sure, the sea isn't the same Caribbean blue down there as it is in the cayes--this is because there is a lot more rain, which creates the five rivers that mix up the sea in the area. 

I still love Punta Gorda.  The Maya in the south speak English as their second language, and you hear hardly any Spanish.  The people work together a lot more, too.  I deeply appreciated this idea of community.  Sometimes it is for the good and other times, not so good.  Our tour guid told us of a story about two little children that went missing.  There was an accusation of an American, but they didn't have any evidence, so the people got into a bus, and drove to his house and burned it down.  He was not in the house, but relocated to San Padro shortly there-after. 

Although that was an example of the bad, there is still a lot of good in the communality of the people.  They create businesses and organizations and genuinely take care of each other.  This is an attribute that so many people in the world have lost.   I won't give more details about the trip down to PG because I already wrote about it. 

The presentation went extremely well, and Agatha was very grateful.  She even asked me to continuously follow up with her to make sure that she is working on making it happen.  The adjective "happy" doesn't even begin to describe how I felt.  Elated.  Maybe that comes closer.  Anyway, we took pictures and talked a little more about how much I enjoyed this project.  We then headed for the bus.  On the bus ride home, I thought about the events of the afternoon.  Working on this project was the highlight of my summer.  It was why I got to travel down to PG, and probably has a lot to do with why Punta Gorda is my favorite region of the entire country.  My parents came to visit and I drug them down there, and I think they wondered for a little bit why it was my favorite so much. 

I realized that I know exactly what I want to be when I grow up (nonprofit consulting) and then I realized that I AM DOING IT! And I have been for the past year.  I also admit that I would love to work for WIN Belize and figure out how to get this project off the ground and see it come to fruition.