Final Days of Fighting Poverty in Belize

I can't believe how fast time flies. This past year and half of this blog has offered us a space to share our experiences with whoever decides to visit our page. More importantly, it has offered us a place to share our thoughts with ourselves. It has been a reminder to take a moment and reflect on the amazing things we have done, the people we have met, and the knowledge we have gained.

It is so bittersweet to be leaving. Today marks the end of this 11 month adventure and it is sad to to say goodbye to people and places that we have come to really love and have been a huge part in the people we have become. At the same time, we are so excited to be returning home, to figuring out what lies ahead. We have been opened up to so many new insights and perspectives and opportunities and it has really expanded what we thought was possible for our lives. Where before we were restricted to the narrow views of what life "should" be, we are now brave enough to open ourselves to all possibilities. We are ready to explore and create and participate and live a life that is truly ours, that makes us happy.

This time tomorrow we will be on a plane headed for Colorado, where new beginnings and long awaited reunions await us. With this comes the life of FightingPovertyIn Belize... as we end this experience, this blog that has served us well comes to an end as well. But don't fret! It too is only undergoing a transformation. It will continue to follow us in our adventures, taking on new roles and new meaning, just as our lives do too. Look forward to changes in appearance and in the URL but expect just as much love and attention. We will keep posted about these changes as they unfold.


For now, Adios! Colorado... Here we come!

The End

One more day and our program at IICD is over. After 11 months of pure learning adventure the time has come to leave for Colorado. It has been such a successful worthwhile time. We've been all over the states and interacted with so many varieties of Americans, truly we have a diverse country although cultural and societal segregation makes it hard to see (other then educators telling us we do).

Then Belize, wow what a time, a hard time, a good time, a blessed time. I feel that Belize is my adopted country and Otoxha my adopted hometown. Never have I felt the way I felt in Otoxha, a completely new experience for me, something I never thought I would get to see only to read.It made me realize that this world is huge and small. That our lives are to short and minds to narrow to be stuck in lala land. GO OUT AND SEE THE WORLD. I used to be scared or ignorant of others situations but now I realize all the fear instilled in me was not reality even if Fox says it was.

I've come to a feeling of intense love for humanity through my experiences of this past year, as well as a feeling of patience with those that are different. I'm so grateful for everyone who helped me through this adventure from my family to the villagers I came to love. For now I look towards the mountains and say "Power to the People!"

Futurtastic

It is increasingly clear to me: the media lies while people die, time flies by and democracy is on the rise. People occupying Wall Street and living there, while those bastards are trading stocks and drinking champagne up there. The homeless suffer another night while homeless numbers increase, even though corporate jets scream by like devils feet. God died thanks to evangelicals, only limbo awaits the funky soul. The critical mind jives by just to be stopped by tea bag sponsored lemonade stands. Keep in mind the world turns my friend, soon we'll be confused so clearly the world will improve my friend. The boss cries as he drops the bomb, over and over he prints the war bond, while people power gives rises day by day, soon the bomb will be coming his way.

Back in Michigan

Well after nearly two weeks touring and postering mid-west/southern U.S. we made it home safely. It was a grand adventure through drastically different accents. Now there is only one week left of this year long adventure until finally we return home.

Whether or not the blog will continue is something I'll have to discuss with Andra. But either way it has been a pleasure to spill out and evaluate our activities for the past 11 months or I guess since this blog started nearly 16 or so months. In the future I envision......combating poverty.......destroying ignorance(in myself and others).........enjoying the beautiful majestic mountains of Colorado.

Until later out!!!

Tour De USA

For the past 10 days we have continued our travelling streak by visiting some states around the US! Our first stop was the Indian Summer Festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is the country's biggest pow wow and what seemed like a great opportunity to talk to people about our experiences during this program and the new programs being offered at IICD. So, team parrot packed up our car with a tent and sleeping bags and a few changes of clothes and headed west! The "pow wow" was interesting... I had been to a pow wow many years back with my grandma on of our amazing summer road trips and absolutely loved it; the music and dance, the culture.. it was great and I expected this to be similar except bigger. Unfortunately it was too big. It was completely commercialized. With Miller being its big sponsor and their advertisements everywhere, your typical fair food and prices, the whole thing was more sad then fun. Still we went and talked to people, trying our best to do what came to do. Our accommodations in Milwaukee reflected this same disappointment. Where we expected to have at least somewhat "traditional" camping, meaning some trees and grass and a nice fire, we instead payed $30 for a small patch of grass in the median of a cement parking lot on the side of the highway filled with big fancy RV-ers. Yuck. Still, the whole experience was just another adventure under our belts! We made the best of it and then headed to Madison!
In Madison we had much better accommodations. We found a great couch surfer who had a Korean boyfriend and loved to cook so we were all spoiled with some delicious food which our fellow parrots from Korea especially appreciated  She also took the time to show us around town a bit and showed us some great places to put up posters! I was really excited to go to Madison and see the protesters still holding out for their rights. I expected to see at least a few people out there but it seemed it had been swept away. The only evidence that remained were some posters in a few coffee shops we visited and saw bumper stickers on the backs of cars.
From Madison we went back to Chicago where we got to stay with the amazing couch surfers we met when we were there fundraising. This was definitely one of the highlights of this experience. It was great to talk to them and share our experiences on the trip that they supported us in doing. During our time in Chicago we also paid a visit to all of the stores where we fundraised and gave a newsletter with a summary of our experiences, a thank you letter for their support as well as to those who graciously donated money to us, and a flyer for the new programs. We personally gave one to each manager at the stores and then sat outside the store where we spent more time and passed them out to the costumers, hoping to reach some of the people who donated to us! This was a very important and rewarding experience. So many people ask for money to do different projects and when people put their trust in you and what you are doing it is a huge gift and it felt great to go back and say "this is what you helped! We weren't lying when we told you what we were doing. This is what we accomplished and it was thanks to your generosity and caring heart". We also were offered a great opportunity to help out our couch surfer who was fixing up an apartment in a not so great area where a family of 14 were about to move in. We helped him paint and clean and fix it up. Afterwards he treated us to the best and original deep dish pizza... so good. The next day he took us on a little tour of Chicago. He has lived there for many years but he is also a taxi driver so he knows the city very well. He showed us the famous buildings, told us stories of the city.. it was amazing. We ended the tour with the best Chicago hot dog.

As you can see it is quite the adventure on.. There are more stories to tell but I will save it for the next post. I am sure Brian wants to chime in on all of this as well! More to come!

Some notes on America

This latest trip has brought a flush of emotion being back in America. It has been incredibly nice and also overwhelming to be back in the whirlwind of corporate media bombardment. Yesterday was very emotional with it being the 10th anniversary of 9/11, still our destiny (U.S.) is being shaped by that one horrific day.

But I believe I expected this to happen in some way, being back here. Still I haven't had much time to process the Belize trip and now I fell as if I'm constantly in motion again. In Colorado I think that time will come where I take a deep breathe and lay may head for a moment. Then of course it's back in the swing of things dealing with the IRS and just finding a way to live in this world.

I feel hope though for humanity in general. Right now I'm in Madison and you can see that the people are organized and still active and fresh from their Tea Bag experience. People are waking up on the right and left, it's clear to see people are discovering the traps of the Purples or Republicrat Elites. I look forward to this upcoming year in America and challenging myself further and pushing my praxis. I love America, I love people, I love HUMANITY!!!!!

Power to the People!!!!

Catching up!

It has been a while since I have written anything, not because there is nothing to say. In fact is the exact opposite. There have been so many emotions, so many things going on- I haven't found the time to organize it all in my mind enough to share it.
Coming back to the states was amazing- as our flight landed in Chicago Brian and I both almost cried. Finally we have returned to our home land! Please don't mistake our deep love for our home and our families for us not enjoying our time in Belize. Truly- this was such an incredible experience and I feel so blessed to have been able to live in Otoxha and have all of the challenges I had, to know all of the people I met, and to learn all of the things I learned. Yes, throughout it all we couldn't wait to get home! This is because we love our families dearly and it was incredibly difficult to go through everything without being able to lean on them for support or love. However, in their absence, Brian and I learned how to depend more on ourselves and on one another. We have really grown as individuals, have overcome obsticles we never thought we would have to face, have discovered how strong we really are and have become even stronger. As a couple we did the same. We supported one another through incredible times of both  utter happiness and pure misery. We were there for each other when we were so sick we thought we might just die up in the jungles of Belize, or wished that we did just to end the pain; we laughed together, cried together, explored together, learned together, and grew together. We became different people, better people, alone and together.

Now we are back in the states and we have Colorado in our eyes.. we can't wait to be reunited with our home and our families. It has been difficult to adjust to being back however. In my dreams I dreamt of being home back to where everything was exactly how I remembered it. Of course this was naive because while I am out on crazy adventures the rest of the world doesn't just stand still. Everything is always changing. But now I am here, a different person but expecting to enter back into the same world, and realizing it is not so. Now I am having to adapt, to catch up. I am trying to learn what the world that I left is like now and how the new person I have become can fit in. What is my role now? Where do I belong? What do I do with this knowledge and experience and understanding that I have gained?

Heavy huh?

In the midst of all of this processing, life back at IICD is busy as always. Our team has been preparing to leave on a nother adventure. Tomorrow morning we will go to Milwaukee to attend Indian Summer Festival, the biggest powow in the country to talk to people about our experiences and pass out information about the new programs offeref. From there we will head to Madison where we will continue to the same promotions at the capitol where people are still standing strong in solidarity for their rights. Then we will leave Wisconsin and head to Chicago where we will visit the stores and the people we met during our fundraising trip before Belize. From Chicago we will travel to Atlanta to do the same thing, stopping in Louisville for a couple of nights to promote there and to take break the long drive a bit. Phew.

Promotion Newsletter

Tomorrow Team Parrot heads out for another adventure. This time it is all over the states thanking those who made it possible for us to go on the trip. We will go back to all the markets we fundraised at, thank the store manager and hand out this mini-newsletter to customers:::

Institute for International Cooperation and Development

In Cooperation with Humana People to People

Fight Poverty Belize Report

To all of our supporters:

The January Belize (Parrot) Team 2011, The Institute for International Cooperation and Development and Humana People to People would like to say a very special thank you to you!

Without the incredibly generous support of the stores for allowing us to stand outside and talk to people about our goals and missions and to the many people who believed in our cause and lovingly gave what they could, we could not have done all of this amazing work. The experiences we have had have been truly incredible for us and we have had the opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of the people we worked with both throughout the United States (including Detroit, Benton Harbor) as well as in Belize and throughout Central America.

We cannot say thank you enough. It was so inspiring to have so many people come together to help fellow human beings in our own country and around the world. What a great reminder of the generosity and care for our others that still exists in this large and sometimes seemingly disconnected world. Your generosity is so greatly appreciated and we hope that you can also take pride in knowing that you helped make an incredible difference in the lives of people all over the world

North Belize: Douglas Poverty Fighters

We are International Volunteers of IICD who just came back from Belize after we had finished our project for 4months. Before we joined this program, we were really interested about the situation of world poverty and different cultures. So we jumped on January 2011 Belize Team and trained 3months to be a volunteer. After that we traveled several countries in Central America for investigation, we built up our passion from this investigation before starting the project in Belize, Finally we reached into Douglas Village Orange Walk district in North Belize on May and started our project “Child Aid.”

First, we were giving education to 25 families about hygiene, agriculture and family situation. And We also gave Moringa Seeds (medical tree) and plants for nutrition, made Fire Wood Saving Stoves for a family. This is really important to help them have a sustainable system.

We always attended Village community meetings and discussed about action or festival for Village’s development, so we could get permission and do promote what we wanted to do for the village. We had Saturday activities for Art class, and Movie night. And also we had Ping pong class for children who know only soccer without knowledge of any other sport.

We got village cleaning campaign every month with children and parents, it was a good time for the village and they got basic hygiene education with us. They had summer vacation season while we were working, so we got permission for teaching children for two months from the principals of two schools. This gave a good opportunity to learn new experiences giving courses such as hygiene, sports, art and geography. We got really close with the children, they didn’t spend wasting time, we were really happy.

Supporting children from parents to go school is really important. So we decide to make thanks gift for parents with children in the school. Children should know how to appreciate their parents, also parents should know how important it is to support children’s education. Many children in Belize give up school after they graduate primary school, because of the family economy. Specially, many women do house work whole life without education or any experience. So we stared women’s group for enjoying and income generation. We gave various courses as second hand product, drawing, yoga and massage for new experiences and enjoying. Our second month, we made goal for income system, and chose sewing and cake course. So we found people who really want to share and expert from women’s department in town and connected each other. And also they got many different cooking and nutrition classes from us, when village had festival they stared to sell their first product. That was really big change for women who didn’t have any income.

Belize is the highest per capita HIV/AIDS positive country in Central America. Before we held campaign, we attended USAID conference and got good knowledge. After that we had HIV/AID action campaign, we visited family, educated women’s group and acted in village festival with pamphlet and 500 condoms.

Every village wanted their village sign. They are already finished basic sign building. So we gladly gave hand to them, and started paint two village sign. Even if we are not expert painting but we did best design work that matched with the people and village. We were really happy when People said whenever they see the sign they will remember us.

We prepared festival for village income with every leader, and work together with every group of people in the village. The open-day, we got a lot of money by football marathon and many events, that was used for development of village. This was our last big action. It was really valuable time to could see big changed village.

We were not just giving help, whatever, wherever, we were always together and shared. And always thought that thanks people in USA who helped a lot us to could go helping Belize. We really think that helped development these villages is your warm hart and our hands.

South Belize: Otoxha Poverty Fighters

We (Andra and Brian) decided to leave on this 9 month adventure after realizing, really what did we know about the worlds people. We both had a strong passion for humanism and knew it was time to act on that passion. So we found the perfect opportunity in the Institute for International Cooperation and Development to go fight shoulder to shoulder with the worlds poor. After 3 months of training in the U.S. and doing community service within our own country we left for an investigation period in Central America. There we experienced many different cultures and different socio-economic situations, this experience helped prepare ourselves for our more permanent home base in our village.

Our team arrived in Belize May 3^rd, from that time we split into two teams. Sunny and Hyunny went up north and Andra and I(Brian) went south. We stayed in a beautiful village inhabited by the Kekchi Maya the village was called Otoxha, or in Kekchi windy(oto) river(xha). The village has about three hundred inhabitants which all speak Kekchi of course, most speak English and some speak Spanish as we lived close to the Guatemalan border.

We lived in a thatch house with a dirt floor there was no electricity or running water, for us it was very primitive compared to what we were used to in the states. But after four months we survived and ended up loving the living conditions in Otoxha. Our time was spent mobilizing 28 different families in the community. We worked on many projects and educational workshops some include: organizing and painting the library, craft classes, malaria prevention etc. But I will highlight some of the more important achievements while we lived there.

Gardens

Humana People to People really promotes gardens in the projects. This is so families can have fresh vegetables on a daily basis and receive vital nutrients to their diets of mostly corn tortillas. In the end the families built 26 gardens each around 5x5 meters. Nearly the whole village of Otoxha now boasts a garden, we actually didn’t build any gardens, we only mobilized the families to want to help themselves. It was a major struggle at first but by the time we left many families were expert gardeners.

Kids Club

The Humana project we were at was called Child Aid. So naturally one of the focuses of Child Aid is the children. We had a very successful Kids Club in which we played games and taught the children to be active in the community. One of the most memorable experiences was when the children came up with slogans such as “Keep the environment healthy and clean,” and we all painted them on signs, we placed these all around the communities to raise environmental awareness. This gave the children a sense of accomplishment and kept the adults conscious about these issues.

Open Day

In our last month we organized a successful soccer tournament and an Open Day for our project and the villagers. In the villages the schools do not receive government funding so all proceeds went to the school. In the end we were able to get donations from the government of Belize, the Ministry of Health and get 10 teams to come and play. We sold and promoted healthy foods instead of alcohol and in the end raised $1440 for the local school.

Thanks to the generous donations we received in the U.S. this was possible. Throughout the experience we kept the spirit of solidarity in our heart with those who supported us in this adventure. Without the enormous heart of many Americans the children of Otoxha would not have benefited. We thank you once again from the depths of our hearts, thank you! To find out more information or to contact us go to fightpovertyinbelize.blogspot.com or email me at unionmade@hotmail.com

A New Adventure

Being back in the states has been.....well nice. Its back to the fast paced Institute for International Cooperation and Development life and still I've had little time to process everything we just went through. But here at IICD you must find time to process things on your own time, because during the day you hit the ground running.
In two days less then a week into being in Michigan Team Parrot(me, Andra, Sunny and Hyunny) are leaving again on another adventure. This is our time to raise awarness of our Belizean experience as well as to thank the people who granted us to fundraise outside their stores 8 months ago and to prmote IICDs exciting new programs.
First we will join a three day pow wow in Milwaukee, WI, there we will camp and pass out materials. Then off to Madison, WI to see the recently erupted capitol and to poster on every streets lampposts. After that off to Chicago, IL to stay with a friend and go to our former fundraising hubs to passout newsletters. Then to Louisville, KY for a few days......more postering......Then finaly to Atlanta for five days to raise awarness about Central America and about our experiences there. Then back to Michigan.
In total it will be a two week non-stop trip. Driving and driving, singing the songs, America my beautiful here we come!!!

Back home in USA

We made it back to my motherland the USA. After 5 months in Central America it is good to be home. We will miss Belize and I'm sure this isn't a permanent goodbye to our adopted country. My feelings are a bit strange as I feel in limbo between the village and American civilization and the impact of our adventure has not fully come to a close. I want to say thank you to our families who supported us through this process and to IICD and Humana for the experience.

More then ever I feel happy to be an American and I am sure this is where I belong. I think there are many problems here economically, culturally etc. but what place doesn't. The only difference is this is my home country and this is the place I can have the biggest impact. This parallels in our village of Otoxha. Although I think we did a great job only motivated individuals from Otoxha who believe in the unity and betterment of their home can carry on development and educational work that will seriously impact the community. We hope we left a small spark in some of the women of the village who are starved for a decent and equal lifestyle.

But solidarity will continue to guide me in life and I can't wait for what adventures lie ahead. For now I am in Michigan for another month then back home to Colorado, the future is open and I see the sun coming up red!!!

Leaving Otoxha: Comments from Brian and Andra

Brian:

This communiqué is from Bella Vista fresh from our last day in Otoxha. Four months of living in the village is over and a new future awaits. We haven’t posted in quite awhile, we’ve been busy!!! And now I can finally reflect a little.


Just this last week Andra and I organized a marathon/open day in the village. A marathon is a football(soccer) tournament and the open day is sort of a mini carnival for the community. The point of the marathon/open day was to raise money for St. Marks RC Primary School upcoming school year. It was a great success, 10 teams showed up to play. Along with St. Marks we were able to find many partnerships to make this an all around great day for the community. The Honorable Eden Martinez came for a short bit and supported the marathon with money and uniforms for the Otoxha football team. We were able to get a donation of toothbrushes from the Ministry of Health to give out to the children. Red Cross came to give out information and materials along with our own. Humana donated a bunch of clothes to the women and children, as well as fixing the latrine before the open day so visitors had a comfortable place to do their business. We had a successful raffle of chicken wire and other prizes, including a punchboard and piñata. We had various other games organized such as volleyball and sack races. It was an amazing day and we were both really proud of ourselves for organizing the event, in total we raised BZ$2880 or US$1440 for the school. The principal and PTA were really happy with the results and were already planning school trips for the kidos.

It was sad to finally leave but we also were ready. We held a little goodbye party and gave the children in Kids Club graduation certificates and had a nice 30 minutes of constant pictures being taken in a machine gun fashion with all the families. Now were really excited to organize our thoughts on the accomplishments and mistakes of the last four months so we can aid future Poverty Fighters in their solidarity work with communities. But now Colorado is in our hearts and minds, but keep on checking for new posts they should be coming in more rapidly these next few weeks!!!




Andra

Wow. We are in our final, final stretch. This morning Brian and I left our village and headed down to Bella Vista with our back packs packed. I can’t believe it! As we walked up the road in Bella Vista towards the Humana office we were remembering the first time we made the trek with our backpacks on when we first arrived here 4 months ago. Now we are wrapping up, preparing our final presentations and getting ready to make the journey home. The last week after our open day marathon was a bit of a whirlwind of emotions. It actually seemed like it took forever. We started to say our goodbyes to people and started mentally preparing to leave (as well as a lot of packing and cleaning!) which really put us into a state of limbo- half in Otoxha and half already home. There were moments where I felt so sad to be leaving and was reminiscing about all of the people I got to know and the river and beautiful environment and unique living situations and then there were other moments where I was day dreaming about seeing my family, reaching home and what it would be like to see my precious nieces and nephews, about what lies in our futures.. I got so far into this feeling that I really felt like I was already home. This has been such an incredible experience, one that has really offered some enlightenment in many important areas. There is much more time and reflection needed in order to fully conclude on all that I have gotten out of my time here. For now I just want to share my excitement- we did it! There were times in the middle where it felt like such a long time, with no end in sight and now that we are finishing up it feels like it wasn’t that long ago that we came to this same office, nervous and anxious with anticipation as we had our welcome meeting and awaited our arrival to our new villages. Now we have adapted to a completely different life then we are used to, had so many new experiences, and have grown so much. Of course this is something I am so grateful to have done and something I will never forget and at the same time it is time to go home. Tahocaray and Shequay Otoxha! (Kekchi for: Thank you and Goodbye!)

The Final Month and The Kids Club

One more month of Fighting Poverty in Belize. Now that were 3/4ths of the way finished everything is coming together smoothly and also with a sense of urgency. I think this last month we have really found our bearing in the community and more of an understanding with the people and its culture.

This last month has been very successful and I would like to highlight the Humana Kids Club one of our bigger successes in the village. We started in early July to organize the Humana Kids Club, we decided to do this in concert with other "kids clubs" being organized throughout the country by Humana, the only difference being that the other Kids Clubs were for tots going into school and ours was for kids of all ages. This was due in part because we aren't fluent in Kekchi and the tots don't usually speak English. Anyways consistently we have between 10 and 20 kids attend, it is every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am. The Kids Club is focused on education and especially getting the children active in their communities so obviously that's what our activities focus on. Getting the children involved in the community is also a main point in the Humana People to People Child Aid projects throughout the world and I think we have really done some good work living up to "Child Aid." Here is a chronological list of the Kids Clubs so far:

1st Kids Club(KC): We taught the children about being gracious. And stressed the importance of saying thank you and your welcome (since we've been in the village the only times we've heard these two common phrases is from ourselves). We stressed to them that they should go home and tell their mom thank you for cooking for me. After later investigation I'd say at least half improved. We ended with a tag game called shark and minnows.

2nd KC: We had a geography lesson about Belize. The children located where on the map they lived and also drew pictures of Belize marking important towns and places of cultural interests. We continued with lessons in graciousness and also emphasized empowerment in the community, the kids were running around yelling "POWER TO THE PEOPLE". Sharks and minnows marked our conclusion of the day.

3rd KC: We started with cleaning the community center and around the area, then we made cards for those we love and appreciate. The kids also talked about sharing with each other and respecting boys and girls. The children had a good time and after a game of very muddy baseball took their cards home and gave them to their parents.

4th KC: The children learned about the importance of keeping the environment clean and the devastating effects of plastic in water sources as well as on the soil. The children broke up into groups along with the help of a local high schooler and came up with phrases regarding the environment, such as: "Keep the river clean for us to play," "Keep the environment clean and healthy" ect. They then painted the slogans on wooden signs we prepared earlier.

5th KC: We went around the village and placed the signs in strategic locations near the river and at high traffic areas (high traffic in Otoxha hahaha). This was particularly a fun event, the children were all beaming with pride on their success of working towards raising environmental awareness.

6th KC: This was our latest KC and a very empowering one it was. We had a "Kids Congress" in which we discussed points to make into a "Declaration of the Kids Club." A particular problem throughout the KC's is the little girls are shy and maybe due to their culture not promoted to speak up (which parallels with the village women). But Andra especially worked with them to speak up at this event and voice their opinion along with the often loud overpowering boys. We started with a first strong declaration that everyone voted on and approved saying "All kids are created equal." We came up with about 10 or 11 others my favorite being "Adults should respect the opinions of kids." We were really proud of the little Otoxhains and it is clear the KC's are having an effect on them.

In the future KC's we will paint the declaration on a community latrine Andra and I are in the process of renovating and they will present it on the Open Day/Football tournament we are organizing for the village.

I can already tell this month will fly by, soon we will be in our homeland where humanity will continue to guide us. For now we are committed to Otoxha and ensuring that this last month is a memorable one.

Brian and Andra Report Week 11 and 12

Week 11

Week 11 was overshadowed by the Midway meeting. This was a very successful and insightful week of preparing and giving our presentation as well as hearing from the successes of our comrades up North. The Midway gave us a chance to reflect on our actions taken and pat ourselves on the backs for our successes, as well as prepare ourselves for the next two months in our communities.

We were graced by the presence of our Head Master Trine from the Institute of International Cooperation and Development Michigan who came down to see Humana People to People Belize’s projects as well as to attend our Midway. This was especially nice to catch up with the news of the states and hear about our friends in Michigan, it’s always a pleasure to be around Trine and she gave us sound advice during our Midway which was a big help to our morale.

During Midway we were reunited with Hyunny and Sunny our dearly beloved teammates. It was good to hear about their successes and troubles and how they live on a day to day basis. We hadn’t seen them since we split to our communities in May but it seemed like it was only yesterday when we were spending all day together working to prepare for our projects we are now in. They seem to be doing a good job in their communities and their work with the women and youth groups was inspiring.



Week 12

This past week since Midway has been very successful, despite both of us struggling with being sick on and off. 4 new gardens were started and 3 were completed. This includes building a fence, building up rows, planting, and discussing and implementing strategies to protect the seeds from the rain.

We also had another Village Action Group Meeting where we taught about how to make organic pesticides, and the importance of composting and mulching. We also talked about the seriousness of malaria. We taught them the symptoms and the best ways to prevent getting mosquito bites i.e. filling puddles, chopping grass, picking up trash etc. Along with this theme we also talked about lemon grass as a mosquito repellent. We gave out plants to each family along with recipes for tea and instructions on how to plant and use it. Later in the week each family that we visited had planted the lemon grass near their house and garden.

This week we also continued our kids club with lessons in geography, making thank you cards to people in their lives that help them, and continuing to learn about good manners and graciousness. In each kids club we always play a good physical game. This week we played sharks and minnows, and a good game of baseball. We also started making signs for the trash drums we placed back in June. We made one that says “Keep the River Clean and Healthy” as an example and will work with the youth and the kids club to design and paint the rest of them next week.

We organized a meeting with the teachers, the principal and the PTA to discuss the idea of having a marathon/open day at the end of August. They were all very excited and on board with the idea and are ready to help us. We talked about having no alcohol and instead promoting nutritious food with the sale of fresh fruits. We also discussed having more games such as three legged races, potato sack races, etc. to create a fun family friendly event. This week we will talk to the Alcalde and Chairman to set up a community meeting so we can get everyone involved. We agreed with the PTA and teachers that this is the best and only way to have a really successful event. Everyone had a lot of ideas and we are looking forward to moving ahead with the plans.

We also mobilized a group of kids to help us plant 40 Moringa trees. We talked with them about how many great things the tree can help with and that it makes us very strong. We have plans to plant more trees and to discuss the uses of Moringa further in the next VAG meeting and in the kids club.

Midway Thoughts and Feelings

This weekend was our midway meeting where we got two days to be reunited with our fellow Parrots Sunny and Hyunny who have been working in the north. We shared what we have been working on, our challenges and accomplishments, and what we will work on for the next two months. It was really great to to get some advice and feedback from everyone. We also had a special treat by having Trine our headmaster down here for the meeting and to visit the projects. She is so level headed and has so much experience that I really appreciated getting to talk to her and to hear her advice insight about what we have been doing.
Things have really been picking the past couple of weeks as we signed up new families and gave them chickens, gave three families new baby pigs, have really been pushing the gardens forward, etc. Now on top of that we are returning to our village with new ideas and motivation. We are ready to kick some serious butt these next two months.

We also got two little baby chicks for ourselves- we named then Trotsky and Emma. We love love love them. They are so cute. We aren't sure what we will do with them when we leave- we know they will be someones dinner but we don't want to think about it. For now we are enjoying the company. They come when we call them and are just so darn cute. And they eat the bugs!!

More to come soon!

Midway Report

1. Who you are and why did you decide to become a poverty fighter?

My name is Brian Winkler. I am 24 from Colorado, USA. I decided to join the Poverty Fighter program because IICD’s curriculum caught my eye more then all the other organizations in which I searched. I found that Humana and IICD genuinely works for education and development in communities all over the world, I was impressed so I joined.

2. Your projects and your achievement during the first 2 months?

Projects/Achievements

-Computer Class for Standard 6 in St. Marks Roman Catholic(R.C.) School

-Helped organize for a community High School graduation party

-Started semi-successful nursery

-Attempted multiple times with minimal success to start a women’s collective

-Wrote a grant for St. Marks RC School. Now we are searching for a donor

-Organized a book drive in which all St. Marks students had the opportunity to receive 3 books each

-Started to fix community latrine. Still in progress

-Helped with school garden and primary students graduation party

-Started a kids club aimed at cultural and community empowerment

-Found 5 new families for Child Aid Toledo and gave 3 of them 10 baby chicks

-Ran numerous Village Action Group meetings

-Distributed 3 female baby pigs under a pass-on loan system to the most motivated families in Otoxha

-Made/Ran a punch board for Otoxha marathon in which we raised a few hundred dollars for the school

-Organized the school library which was in a chaotic state

-Painted the library and Andra composed a mural

-Finished 14 gardens with 6 near completion

3. Statues of the family task list?

Task List Questions and Answers

1. Strengthen the economy of the family. Promote food and nutrition security

1a. The family has a vegetable garden of at least 5x5 meters:

Started. Around 3/4ths of the gardens are finished, not including the new families.

1b. The family has at least 5 fruit trees:

Started. Were in need of new seeds.

1c. The family has a production of chicken, fish or other protein rich food:

Started. The original families received chickens under the Strong Children project. 3 of the 5 new families have received chickens.

2. Health and Hygiene. Keep the environment clean

2a. There is a good system for household waste:

Started. We have discussed and showed some families how to start compost heaps. We will push harder for compost heaps with the families. Also we have encouraged everyone to use and burn in the Humana garbage drums.

2b. The family members have access to and use toilet or latrine and keep it clean and nice:

Started. Some families already have latrines. We are in the process of fixing the community latrine. And we will be searching for funding/materials to build new latrines.

2c. The family has a good system for ise of the gray water:

No start. We have plans for a future gray water workshop.

2d. The family applies to malaria and dengue prevention:

Slow start. Have plans for malaria workshop. Looking for partnerships to receive mosquito nets.

2e. The family participates in community actions:

Started and ongoing with latrines, Open Day/marathon, gardens and garbage clean-up.

2f. The family beautifies their surroundings:

Finished. Otoxha needs no beautifying, literally.

3. Health and Hygiene. Awareness about health and nutrition

3a. The family is TCE compliant:

No Start.

3b. the family members have a high standard of personal hygiene:

Nearly finished. The families have a very high standard of personal hygiene but some families need to use tooth brushes on more occasion.

3c. The family has clean drinking water:

Started and maybe finished. We’ve discussed with families about filtration methods but the families all seem content with the pumped ground water.

3d. The family understands the importance of getting the right nutrition and vitamins and they act accordingly:

Started. All the families who have received seeds we’ve had personal discussions on the nutritional aspects of eating vegetables. We will make a bigger effort with nutritional education in the VAg meetings and Kids Club.

3e. The family members, and especially the children, receive a visit or visit the local health agent or clinic for regular checkups:

Finished. Constant visits by brigades of doctors and the community is always informed about them coming from the churches.

3f. There are no malnourished children in the family:

Started. Children are seemingly healthy but big improvements can be made in their diets especially by eating fruits and vegetables.

4. Pre-School

4a. The family sends their preschool aged children to preschool:

N/A. No preschool in area.

4b. Discuss with the family how they cam support the development of their children:

No Start.

5.Active children and youth

5a. Children of the family participate in the kids club:

Started and continuing . Strong start with lessons in graciousness and of community fraternity.

5b. The youth of the family participate in the youth club:

No Start. We’re in the process of finding a youth leader.

5c. Discuss with the family how to look at their children and why they should take their children seriously:

No Start. Were searching for the best approach to this necessity in life.

6. Children in difficult situations

6a. Identify children in difficult situations:

Started. No obvious signs of serious child abuse except it seems the community accepts mild lashings of the children from their parents.

6b. Find Solution:

No start.

7. Education

7a. The children in school age attend school:

Finished. All primary age children go to school.

7b. Encourage the parents to be able to read, write or that they participate in classes:

Started. Having difficulty mobilizing adults to care about this subject.

7c. Encourage the parents to further educate themselves:

No Start.

7d. Children who are behind in school get support:

Finished. School is out until September. We offered the principal help with this but he never took us up on the offer.

7e. All families have at least 10 good and interesting books on their book shelf:

Started. We held a very successful book drive. Each child was given 3 books, so if 1 family has 1 child at least they have a minimum of 3 interesting books.

8. The family

8a. At least one of the family members participate in the weekly lessons of VAG:

Started. We have had semi-decent family participation in the VAG’s. We have had trouble mobilizing the VAG leader but are quickly finding solutions to this problem.

8b. All children have their birth certificate- or the process to get one has started:

Started. Need more family info on this subject.

8c. The family members have their social security number and nationalty/residence/work permit papers:

No Start.

9. Income generating activities

9a. The family has an income generating activity:

Started. Here are the income generating activities begun we know of- Chicken production, Pig raising, craft/art activities and large scale garden production.

9b. The family understand basic business management:

Started. Failed to catch the interest of families, new attempts will be made.

10. Cooking facilities

10a. Build fire wood saving stove:

Started. We have held a few discussions with interested families, possibility of future stove production.

4. Action weeks results and plans?

Results

Our first action week was placing the Humana drums and cleaning the river with the children. It was extremely successful and the river was free of plastic if not just for a day. The children learned the importance of keeping Otoxha clean. Nearly 80 children and 5 adults participated.

Our second action week involved mobilizing the community to bring wood to families who needed it for their garden. This was a 2 day mobilization with nearly 20 people involved, mostly children and they learned important lessons on why community actions were important.

Plans

Community action involving building latrines.

Community organizing for a big marathon/open day for Humana benefiting St. Marks RC school.

5. Plans and goals for the next two months?

-Finish renovating community latrine

-Continue Kids Club

-Start garden committee/Humana group

-Continue Womens Collective attempts

-Finish gardens

-Start gardens in Dolores

-Organize a movie night

-Build new latrines

-Hold Open Day

6. Challenges and problems and how have you solved them?

-“Here the culture is hard.” Being in the Kekchi/Maya culture had been eye opening but very difficult. Women are especially exploited in labor here and also the women seem particularly jealous of each other, selfish, and lazy when it comes to helping others or themselves with projects we try to implement. We have motivated many women who said “they are to lazy” by saying “no you are strong, help your family and mobilize the kids and your husband to help.” This method works after being emphasized a few times. The men work on the farm on occasion but do minimal work if compared to the woman’s constant barrage of duties, but on occasion they will help with our projects and are more easily approachable then their female partners. I think 5 years here would be sufficient to really make a change in this hard and solidified culture.

- Onorha our VAG leader has been particularly unhelpful in mobilizing the families or even informing the families about meetings. We have been applying more pressure on her as well as finding other motivated individuals who can easily make up for her lack of effort.

-Kekchi the communities language is difficult for us to understand. Naturally this creates a barrier between us and the community. We have learned some expressions but not a sufficient amount to be even a little fluent.

- Lack of privacy. Often we hear people go into our house when were not there, just to look at what we have. Also people will just come to are door and stare at us as if were animals in a zoo. We have dealt with this by just dealing with it and it has gotten better as time goes by.

7. Partnerships that you expect to receive?

-Search for concrete companies and write a letter expressing the need for a partnership between the company-Humana- and community to build much needed latrines.

8. Ideas and plans for the 4^th period

-Make a video about our experiences from the travel period to the end of our project.

-Distribute our final report to interested parties and at places we fundraised.

-Make a virtual scrapbook of our experiences from being a DA in Michigan to the end of our project in Belize.

-Figure out our future!

9. What will you do after the program is over?

-Go home to our beloved families which are dearly missed.

-Promote new One World University/IICD program in Colorado and surrounding states.

-Join TG

Midway Report

Midway Report

Expectations and Reality

Times have been tough here- I think we are really coming to a point where our expectations and the realities of Otoxha and our experiences here are coming to a head. We are really being challenged by the people and their culture. Brian gave you a good look at the men and even a little about the women here and this description really plays a part in our work here. Its so amazing how much they are only worried about themselves, the only time they care about others is when it offers some new gossip to spread around. With the women's collective we finally have one woman, Adela, who is more than motivated to learn and share. She is really the only things that keeps me going. She mobilized one other woman to participate as well but she won't talk directly to us even though she knows english well and is afraid to be seen at our house by other woman in the village. Every day the women ask us where we are going and why, not out of innocent curiosity but out of this jealousy that exists among all of the women. When we are down in town, the women come into our houses to snoop around- we know this because we tie our door shut before we leave so the dogs don't push their way in and when we return our basic square not is replaced by a hammock knot. They also still come and stand at our door and just stare at us, and even if our door is shut stand and peak in through the cracks. Oh, its quite exhausting at times. Its now an almost daily ritual to spend time at night re motivating ourselves and trying to remember why we are here and to keep going strong. We are still getting good work done are having successes with the gardens and we just have to keep focusing on that and moving ahead- its only 2 1/2 more months and we are trying our hardest to make the most impact that we possibly can in such a short time.

The Men of Otoxha/Vent Session

The men of Otoxha are a very, hmmmm a macho bunch. For example the culture certainly is paternalistic and the gender roles are well defined. The men farm and during planting season are constantly busy, out nearly every other day in the early morning to mid-day. You'll see them all with a machete and rubber boots tired from certainly a long walk from their farms which are far from the village. This is because they use slash and burn tactics and don't want their city to become the next ash farm. I would say from some discussions with the men I've had on the whole farming business, in total it takes about 8-9 months of the year. Right now from June to September the men are idle while waiting for harvest.

The other tasks men have consist of fishing and hunting gibnut, playing football(soccer) going to church and on occasion some will go to town to get drunk. Actually it's not a bad deal for them, I would say it's extremely rare not to find a man laying in his hammock while his slave(wife) works. His slave which in Otoxha is a rather miserable bunchworks constantly all day, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and taking care of the children. The only kicks the slave has is talking about people behind their backs and laughing about someone getting seriously injured or just telling lies about people to create community division (which in Otoxha there is many). After two months the women almost violently refuse to help each other, and when offered an opportunity to benefit the community will possibly yell at you. All the while the man bosses from his swinging throne.

I wish I had a better outlook of the men and women here, I wish I had more time to be here so I could really penetrate their culture and fix some colonial and religious deviations that severely effected them in past history, Of course not all are really that bad, Adella an amazing person, who is motivated and really wants to learn everything we offer is actually not from Otoxha, which doesn't surprise me. And some families once you get them one on one and help them with the garden or other projects and compliment them, really for an instance seem very nice. And after this task they usually ask you "hey can you show me how to do this" or "yea teach me this now" and we say "well why were you saying no to this at the community meeting or saying nothing at all?" It's clear to see they want to benefit themselves to one up their neighbor, which in principal I stand firmly against.

After two months many of our hopes have been crushed. Some still glimmer with a fading light. But at least now we know the people more and aren't blinded by ignorance. Still we are determined to help, knocked down by reality none the less and ready to stand back up.

Week 5-6 Report and Some Comments

These past two weeks we helped the school prepare for a big football marathon/fundraiser. Unfortunately it was cancelled at the last minute because the prize money that was promised by Eden Martinez didn’t come. We continued working on the mural for the library that is now in its final stage needing only a few touch ups and then it will be finished. We are still pushing the gardens and are about half way finished. We have asked the principal Mr. Ac if we can use his truck to get wood from the abandoned lumber yard for the families who need fences. Once this is done many families will be ready to plant. This was also graduation time and we helped Mr. Ac set up for his daughter’s graduation party that was on Saturday. It was quite the party to prepare for. We now have two women who are committed to doing literacy classes, math classes, and computer classes. This is a part of starting the Otoxha Women’s collective where the women can work together to be empowered and independent. We are hoping that a few more women will join but are focusing our attention on those who are motivated to learn. We also began a nursery of orange and lime trees, we were aided by a few local children who took great joy in helping us.

Comments:

Since last reporting our time has been much better spent in the little village of Otoxha. We were reeling from cultural shock for nearly two weeks and now all is settled and better. I think it's a rare thing for people to wake up in the morning and see so many different varieties of baby animals(including humans) walking around making all sorts of noises and wobbling behind their mommies. It's something I am always grateful to see and will cherish it because surely this is one of the few places to have such a joyous experience as this. In the U.S. agro-business has destroyed the humbleness of the small farmer and the lives of the livestock, so they can make a sickening amount of profit while hiring the least amount of Americans possible. Baby animals can be sure to be tortured their whole lives in a pen the size of themselves, but here it is different and even though this last week I experienced the slaughter of 5 grown pigs I was grateful to see them roam free and happy for years before we enjoyed them.

Till next time, Brian