I could tell you....

As some of you know I spent 3 days last week in a village named Bronco. It is the southernmost village in Belize and where my friend Laura is living. It is a small Garifunia community that is considered the spiritual capital of the Garifunia people. I went there so see a ceremony called a Chugu. It is a spiritual ceremony to lift a curse off of a family. It is a 3 day event that pretty much the entire village and people from all over the country come in to participate in it.

Now I could try to describe dancing around in this temple, 100 bodies swaying together to the beat of the drums. I could try to explain the beauty of the people and the drumming and the singing/praying. I could try to tell you how sitting in this temple was the first time that I felt like I really did join the Peace Corps. I could try to tell you my shock and my American skepticism when I witnessed the first person catch a sprit. I could try to make you understand that by the second I was a full believer. I could try to describe going to get smoked out so that the sprits wouldn’t follow us home. I could try to tell you the fear in my heart when someone caught a bad sprit, not for myself but for that person. And I could try to tell you the sense of overall calm and safety I felt as entire temple full of amazing people prayed for that individual. I could try to tell you how calm I felt once they bad spirt had left. I could try, but it would truly never be enough.

No one except for Laura and Sam, who experienced this with me will ever truly believe or understand this experience. I have really debated writing about this at all. At first the American in me wanted to laugh at what I was seeing, but after participating in it I have no doubt. I was fearful that writers would as well. This culture and the people in this culture have already become such a special thing to be it was hard to think about write about it and having people at home laugh or think lightly of it. I find it amazing that I get to part of a culture, even if it is only for two years that has such strong beliefs and sacred rituals. The sense of community and willingness to help one another is unlike anything I have ever found in the states. If there was some kind of Peace Corps lottery I won it hands down. There is no where I would rather serve and no one else I would rather live with than the amazing people I have met in the Garifunia community.

Other than my two days in the south everything else is still going well. I start “work” on Monday. School starts on the first of Sept but I’ll be doing workshops with teachers for a few weeks first. I have gotten a few questions about this so I guess it’s time for me to tell ya’ll what exactly I’ll be doing this year. A few people seem to think that I’ll be teaching. False. I’m a teacher trainer I’ll be training the teachers and helping them with their classroom management and lesson plans. Also, starting a reading program will be a big part of my job. I’m not sure exactly what this is going to look like yet. I do know that I want to make good use of the library and have teachers bring their students over to use the resources we have. I think that one of the keys if not THE key to being the literacy rate up is getting kids to ENJOY reading. READ READ READ!!! Most kids aren’t exposed to many books other than the texts they use in class. I want to them learn that reading is fun and exciting and can be an escape or something that you can use to learn from. There is so much more to reading than their science texts. I will also being doing a few pull out reading groups with some of the younger kids. Also, I hope to start a GLOW club. This is a Peace Corps initiative started a few years ago. It will be an afterschool club for kids in upper standards (like middle school ages). We will work on self esteem and peer pressure but also fun things like gardening and cooking! I’m really excited for this project and hope it works out! There are other small projects that I’ll be working on but I’m honestly not sure what exactly my year is going to look like. I’m so excite to get started and get working!!! Also there are a few committees that I’m on/hopefully will be on. First is the VAC committee. This is the “volunteer advisory committee” basically we having meetings without distract every 3 months and they take volunteers concerns or suggestions back to the Peace Corps staff. The second committee I’m currently on it the Peer support planning committee. We (the pcv’s in this country) want to start some type of peer support system in country so everyone also has the support they need. Well I’m on the planning committee to plan how we want this to look. I’m really excited about it. It (the planning committee) is brand new and we haven’t met yet but I’m excited to see how this works out and be on the actually peer support committee one day  I’m also applying for the WID/GAD committee that works with gender issues here in country. The GLOW club I want to start is something this committee started. Also they hold Camp GLOW every summer for girls. We will see!
Of course everyday here is a challenging, even the days that I spend sitting in my hammock reading all day. It’s a challenge to spend so much time with yourself. You are really forced to look deep down and think all the thoughts you have been avoiding for years. However, I am loving every second of it and learning more and more about myself every day. I love waking up and having NO idea what my day is going to bring and who I’m going to meet.

I think for today I’m going to head to my host families house and hang out for awhile, perhaps hut down my counterpart and see if I’m supposed to do anything this week!

Its been awhile (sorry I forgot!) but here are some more happy thoughts!!

~We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them. -Kahlil Gibran
~Kathleen Kelly: Why did you stop by again?
Joe Fox: I wanted to be your friend. –You’ve got mail
~Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –MLK
~Knowledge plus character-that is the goal of true education. –MLK
~The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are. –JP Morgan
~Listen and Make the connections. Between you and them-Make the connections. –ASB Voices