The Snowball Effect

The holidays passed by just as fast as they approached and I couldn’t have asked for a more humble and fulfilling way to spend my first Christmas away from home. I attended a church service at the main village church, where I watched the children sing their Christmas carols in Spanish and wear robes with attached angel wings. I spent the rest of the holiday stuffing myself with black cake, a Belizean favorite.

A couple of other Peace Corps volunteers and I headed over to Caye Caulker, for a fun in the sun, relaxing atmosphere for New Years. The island was filled with tourists, which felt strange to me. I caught myself wanting to start conversations with people and tell them how “life really is” inland; the poverty, broken school system, corrupt politics, thatched roof houses, lack of medical care… As I continued to think more about it I came to the conclusion that people don’t know what is going on in developing countries because they choose not to. Travelers don’t set an agenda to scope out the dilapidating areas of a country- what fun would that be? Why ruin their vacation when they didn’t come to Belize to see or hear about things of that nature?

I actually regret a bit not staying in my village to celebrate New Years. After having such a satisfying Christmas visiting families in their homes, exchanging gifts with my old host family, and feeling the all around good vibes from my community members, laying on a beach with a bunch of other American’s just wasn’t doing the trick for me. I am at a really good place in my village, at the school, and with my overall well-being right now. Can I repeat that? I am very content at the moment. It feels great for me to finally be completely comfortable with being here. I have my daily routines, my women friends that tease me about my lack of cooking expertise, a dog that I am learning to love, and an empty house that I am filling slowly but surely.

The anxiety and self doubt that I was experiencing for a while has diminished. The new school term started in early January and I have been non-stop since then. I am currently running the library that was set up in the village by the previous PC volunteer, where I conduct mini lessons with the students when they come in as a class and read short stories to the younger children. I keep it open after school so that the kids can come in and do “arts and crafts” or check out a new book. My mornings start off with working with a group of students studying for the National Spelling Bee, which is held at the end of February. I have also started my remedial reading classes, and have taken on a writing class once a week for the 5th and 6th grade class to help prepare them for their national writing exam. This is definitely my favorite academic project. I never realized how natural and fun it would be for me to teach writing to that age group of students. Outside of school I have started a women’s fitness group, the other project that I love so dearly. Women ranging from young mothers with hopes of losing baby fat to women in their mid 40s and on the verge of diabetes come out and walk/run at the football field in front of my house 5 nights a week. I add ab workouts and fun little games, and Fridays are FUTBOL day- a half-field soccer match between the ladies. Imagine 12 women running around, half with no shoes on, the other half in flip flops, and not a single one wearing a sports bra- my group of champions!

Brace yourself- my most exciting news has yet to come. Are you ready? My village is working on starting a PRESCHOOL- headed by a group of focused community members and yours truly. I cannot even begin to describe how exciting and rewarding this project is to me. I am not able to imagine a better fit project for me to embark on for the next 2 years. I lie in bed at night and think about all of the theories and methods of early childhood education classes and the countless preschool observations I was forced to do in college, and now I will be putting these concepts into action!

The current status is as follows- My goal is for the preschool to open in September, when the schools open back up from summer break. A teacher would be hired and paid by the government, and he/she and I will co-teach the class. I will essentially “train” this person through the school year, and this person will continue as the head teacher when I leave. I conducted a village survey last week and there are approximately 21 children that will be between the ages of 3-4 next fall. I have partnered with an NGO that works with 41 countries world wide on garden projects for schools and families, along with starting preschools all around Africa. They have in their project proposal to start preschools in Belize also, but this would be the first one that they will have assisted with here.

They tell me that they can supply just about everything that a productive, functioning preschool needs- paper, glue, crayons, scissors, along with tables, chairs, and a playground. To add to this, they can provide the preschool with all of these things for 5 years. They tell me that there are no “conditions” or if/ands/buts to this, except that there must be collaboration and assistance from the community, me as a Peace Corps volunteer, and the government. The end results would look something like this: the community being in charge of refurbishing and fixing up the building, me training the teacher, the government agreeing to pay a full time teacher, and the NGO taking care of everything that goes inside the building. I am not being pessimistic, but I am being realistic- I am not putting all of my hopes into the NGO working out, only for us to be left empty handed when September rolls around. As the saying goes, If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

I attended my first village council meeting last week to discuss with the council my proposal for them to donate one of the rooms from an old four room school building that is no longer being used in the village. I gave my spill about the importance of preschool, the statistics of the village, and how much the students could benefit by having an extra 1-2 years of practicing their English speaking all in SPANISH- I guess I am picking up on the language more than I thought. The village council approved of the idea and gave me permission to start cleaning and fixing the room immediately. There is a lot of work to be done- a new roof and ceiling, plastering of the walls, rewiring of the electricity, a door, a bathroom and sink, the list goes on forever. I stayed at the meeting after my part was over and caught myself feeling like I was stuck in movie theatre watching a cheesy foreign film without subtitles. I was so lost in the fast Spanish conversation that I just sat back and begin to imagine my own pretend dialogue of what I figured they were saying by their actions and the words I could pick up here and there. Although I didn’t understand most of the meeting after I did my talking, I am glad I attended- it reiterated my opinion of everyone being disorganized and unprofessional in this country.

I have to send in a letter and application packet to the Ministry of Education next week, and they will decide if we meet the requirements for a paid teacher by the end of April, so they tell me. I don’t think that I would be as apt and ready to start such an extensive of a project in my village if it weren’t for the complete support of the parents. The parents of the future preschoolers are of the younger generation here- they see the importance of education, they know how crucial it is to know English in the school system here, and they have been fully supportive in this whole process. They ask me when we can start cleaning the old building, and the moms volunteer their husbands to be ‘handymen’ any Saturday that I need them. I will hold a parent’s meeting next week to talk about fundraising ideas and possible ways for us to receive donations in order to start working on the old room. The future starts today! Please, spread the word to anybody and everybody who might find my project interesting. Elementary schools might be able to donate old educational games and books that are age appropriate. Individuals might be interested in a monetary donation or may have puzzles, books, and games that their children have outgrown. I will take whatever I can get. Please keep me and my project in your thoughts- this is a very exciting, yet demanding project to take on. Everything from the building and equipment, to the policy and curriculum is in my hands-with seven months to make it happen.