Belize Journal - Fall 2011

BELIZE --
One of the things that makes CCSP Belize unique and awesome is the opportunity that our students get to do a 2-week internship at a local business or organization here in Belize. Everyone had great experiences and enjoyed new challenges at their internships. Here's what each student had to say about their weeks:

Rachael Machiele - Mount Carmel High School

For two weeks I was a student teacher at Mt. Carmel High School in Benque-viejo, Belize. Much to my surprise, after shadowing teachers for only three days, I got to teach my first general chemistry class. The next day I was a substitute teacher. Needless to say this was definitely a full immersion experience. The teachers I worked with were very talented, and I learned a lot from them. During the course of the two weeks, I taught six different classes of integrated science, wrote lesson plans, coached the track and field team, and tutored students after school. I was a bit intimidated for my first class and spent most of it talking all too quietly to the chalkboard. By my sixth class I could talk over the sound of the rain, and students were laughing, asking questions, and learning as much as I was. Thanks, Mt. Carmel!

Olivia Santana - Belize Zoo

For my two weeks I interned at the Belize Zoo. An average day consisted of doing many different jobs. I was a cook preparing food plates filled mostly with fruits (bananas, watermelons, and papayas), veggies (carrots, cucumber, and sweet potatoes), and depending on the animal a variety of "supplements" such as dog food, peanuts, horse feed, or sunflower seeds. Also, I filled the role of janitor cleaning water bowls and cages; I was a guide as I walked around with visiting groups of tourists and school children; and I was a friend as I interacted with the animals and zoo keepers. What I love most about the zoo is the fact that all the animals have names and stories. The zoo didn't go and take any from the wild; most of the animals were pets or "problem animals" in the area. One of my favorite moments of the week was doing a night tour our last night. We walked around giving the animals "snacks" and got a better view of the nocturnal animals. I also got the opportunity to hand-feed my favorite animal, the kinkajou! The zoo is an incredible place and is making a huge impact on Belize. It was an unforgettable adventure!

Deb Tam - Cornerstone Foundation

For my internship I worked at Cornerstone foundation, which is a local non-profit organization founded in San Ignacio, district of Cayo, Belize. The overall mission of Cornerstone is: to assist and empower those in need within the community. Cornerstone's objective is to help people help themselves, through educating those in need and recognizing their individual skills. Cornerstone strives to empower people, specifically women and children. Cornerstone has several projects and programs, but I mainly worked with the feeding program and the health program. The feeding program distributes 98 meals to schoolchildren that cannot afford lunch. I helped prepare the food and distribute it. I also ran arts and crafts for them each day. The other days, I spent teaching nutrition and health to 6th and 7th graders. During the two weeks, I helped re-design display boards for five programs: HIV/AIDS, women, health, feeding programs, and youth. These two weeks, I really strove to find delight in working hard, and serving others. Overall, I had a great experience.

Neil Berger - Black Rock River Lodge

Though my experience being and intern is limited to this experience and Apple Vacations, Black Rock Eco-Lodge is one of the best and most rewarding internships/experiences that I have ever had. To put it more simply: I love Black Rock. The reviews on Trip Adviser are accurate to say that this eco-lodge truly is unique. Working there was amazing! I was able to stay in one of the guest rooms, and was treated in some senses like a guest, though I ate with the staff and had to actually do work. I completed for the lodge a re-written and well put together version of their cabana book. I took data on their energy use and production, and compiled graphs to make this information available to the guests. I also made Black Rock a sustainability handout for them to give to all guests during the sustainability tour. My last project for the lodge was creating a compost pile (in the picture below). The staff here was great. Just like the reviews say, they are always smiling, and they go out of their way to make the guests feel at home. They are truly passionate about the environment, and they do it in a presentable and friendly way. This speaks to anyone coming into their community to spend one or several nights at this wonderful slice of God's beautiful planet.

Emilia Nilsson - Belize Botanical Gardens

I interned at the Belize Botanical Garden, working with the five men responsible for the 45-acre property and adjacent nursery. The garden is run organically and home to many native and exotic tropical plant species and I learned some of what goes into growing these plants. The garden also applies for grants to educate the public about such issues as conservation. Most recently they received a grant to educate school children about the important role of savannahs in Belize. This ecosystem is home to many plant species found only in Belize. The grant also covered extensive research on Belizean savannas and the creation of a mini savanna in the garden, which I got to weed of encroaching forest plants. Some of the other tasks I participated in were pruning trees infected with pink disease, shoveling mulch and wood chippings, and watering and pruning plants in the nursery. I particularly enjoyed the beautiful way the garden presents their extensive collection of orchids and palms and the dedication of the staff to engaging children with the earth around them.

Anna Willis - Chaa Creek Butterfly Farm / San Ignacio Resort Hotel Iguana Project

My internship consisted of one week at the Chaa Creek Butterfly Farm and one week at the San Ignacio Resort Hotel Iguana Project. I learned a lot about Blue Morpho Butterflies and Green Iguanas, especially about why they are important to their ecosystems. Green Iguanas, for example, live along rivers and eat the vines that would kill trees. Trees in these "riparian zones" are important because they filter water and prevent erosion and flooding.
Internships in Belize are a little different than those in the US, so it was interesting to observe those and other cultural differences that I would not have had a chance to otherwise. I was really immersed in the Belizean world for the first time. I was shocked by the boundless generosity of my organizational and homestay hosts. I bonded with my host family, and we had a lot of fun together. My whole experience was a mixture of work and play, learning, serving, accepting, and growing. My internship weeks taught me that I can perform both much higher and much lower than my expectations, and showed me areas where I can grow.
I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to intern with these organizations and live with Marisol and her family for two weeks.

Elyse Vierra - San Ignacio Community Hospital

Well, I do not have any experience working in a hospital in the states, so I don't really have a huge base to compare my experience to. But I will say that I enjoyed it and that I learned a lot. It was definitely different than, say, volunteering at the hospital in the small town where I live. For starters, SICH is tiny for a hospital, especially considering that it is the only public hospital/clinic that services one of the larger cities in Belize.
The workers were friendly and seemed to get along pretty well, for the most part. All of the nurses were willing to teach me things and put me to work whenever they could. Some were very encouraging to me and my desire to learn, and my interest in the medical field. I got to practice my Spanish a little bit, since some of the workers and patients spoke only or mostly Spanish. I also got to be around a fair amount of Creole, which I hadn't really experienced before. The collision of cultures takes place every day in SICH. This is a good internship for anyone thinking about going into the medical field, and I enjoyed my learning experience!

Lizz Wormald - Belize Zoo

Animal management internship at the Belize Zoo: amazing. The picture below is me with a young howler monkey's tail wrapped around my neck. Umma is her name, and she was donated to the zoo after being kept as a pet. The internship was very hands-on - I told a jaguar to roll over in the zoo's jaguar encounter, regularly muddied my pants playing with the zoo's off-exhibit otter, "Liz," prepared monkey and macaw food, got cat-called by a yellow-headed parrot, and held and introduced a six-foot boa constrictor, Balboa, for incoming tourists, among other things. Also, I fed the tapirs, which are gentle beasts that look like a prehistoric rendition of what you'd get if you crossed a hippo with an elephant and a horse and shrunk it. The zoo doesn't capture any of their animals, but takes former pets, injured animals, or "problem" animals from around Belize and nurtures them to wellness in their laid-back zoo. The zoo was started by a woman named Sharon Matola with a few animals and a hand-painted sign on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and has become considerably influential in affecting local and international perceptions of wildlife and ecological concern.

Michelle Alkema - Friends for Conservation and Development

I spent my internship at Friends for Conservation and Development in Succotz. FCD is a non-governmental organization that works to educate and empower the public to be better stewards of their environment. For my internship I worked under the environmental educator. I spent my time drafting educational material such as a brochure and poster to promote the Chiquibul Cave System along with other projects. I also traveled to several villages with FCD on trips to meet with farmers who were starting apiculture (bee-keeping) projects and who were participating in FCD's Integrated Farming System program. On the weekend I had the opportunity to go to a bi-national conference for the watershed alliance. We met at Bald Hills in Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve with the watershed alliance community leaders from both Guatemala and Belize. The conference was an opportunity for the leaders to assess their successes and failures in the last year and to develop new goals for the coming year.
I really enjoyed my internship. FCD is a very good organization that does a lot of important work in Belize. Traveling to Bald Hills was a highlight for me. The area was beautiful and observing the local leaders who had been empowered through environmental education to care for the rivers that they now valued so highly was inspiring.

Mark Wolstenholme - Chaa Creek Mayan Farm

I did my internship at the Mayan Farm at Chaa Creek. The farm provides local, organic produce to the lodge at Chaa Creek, and employs workers from the local communities. For most of these men, Mayan is their first language, and when conversing with each other this is what they spoke. But fortunately for me the majority of them also spoke English, so communication was not too difficult. During my internship I worked alongside these men doing daily farm work such as watering, pruning, weeding, planting, and building various structures for the plants. I also learned how to make and maintain compost, and how to use worms to turn horse manure into potting soil. The part of the internship that I enjoyed the most was handling the goats that they have on the farm. Every day I would help to bring them out to pasture, and then bring them in and feed them at the end of the day. Each day was an adventure attempting to bring 'Zeus,' the one adult male goat on the farm, in and out of his pen. Because I was only an intern I did not handle him, but it was fun to see the guys experimenting with various methods of herding him including using a wheelbarrow as a shield against his horns, letting him run wild and setting traps to lock him in the pen, and finally using multiple men with ropes to subdue him. I had a great time working on the Mayan Farm and getting to know such a great group of guys, and I gained valuable, hands-on experiences in large scale organic farming.

Liliya Abildayeva - King's Children's Home

I had the privilege of interning at the King's Children's Home in Belmopan. This is a private, non-profit organization that provides residential care and support for children that have been abandoned, abused, neglected, or orphaned. My responsibilities were very general and spontaneous. Interacting with the children and staff was significant in understanding my atmosphere and investigating the social dynamics of the home. Throughout my two weeks, I sought to get to know the individuals residing at the home, encourage whomever I could and give a helping hand to anyone that needed it. This included assisting in the kitchen and laundry duties. Also attending to babies and toddlers that need caretaking, feeding or changing. In the afternoon, children came home to eat so I helped set up the tables and meals. After school I gathered the children and walked home with them. Then I facilitated the kids with homework which was to be done as soon as they returned home from school. My objective was to make any small, positive contributions that I could. The key was to focus on the "can do" instead of the "can't do." I have hope and assurance that God used my presence in subtle yet moving ways.

A big thank you to all the organizations, and also the Belizean families that so graciously hosted our students in their homes for two weeks!

Belize-
The semester is flying along and we only have about four weeks left, but a lot left to see and do! This past week, Corey Beals from George Fox University joined us to teach us holistically about God and Nature. Through a series of readings, discussions, hikes, swims and presentations, we engaged our mind, heart, soul and body in a thorough learning experience.

What better place to learn about God and Nature than to be in nature having class on a log overlooking a sparkling azure blue pool with many small waterfalls cascading down a local tufa dam?

A major "text" of our class this past week was our homestay with some local old-order Mennonites. Through attending church, horse and buggy rides, and going to sleep when it got dark out, we got a taste of a life lived intimately with the land. We were also challenged to rethink our choices about technologies that we choose to adopt, what is good for community, and the importance of community in our faith.

We studied what good work is by "sub-creating" our first raised garden bed on the new campus. Neil (Eastern U '12), Joshua (Student Life Coordinator), Michelle (Dordt '12)

In class we studied some of the effects of dualism ("If A and B are distinct, then A and B are also separate") on our culture, and learned how the perspective of us being separate from one another, from God, and from the land has caused much harm in our world. Corey suggested that we try and view the world through a lens where things can be distinct (i.e. I am not you, God, or the land) but not separate, so we can understand ourselves intimately connected with God, others and the land.

Midway through the week, we threw a birthday party for Olivia, who loves (and dominates at) a game called Dutch Blitz. Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Olivia and her teammate Emilia, proud champs of the Dutch Blitz tournament

Leaving campus one morning, we found a tree snake in the bushes and had fun holding it (until it released its musk on us)

Rachael (Calvin '12) tried to appease the serpent with a starfruit

At the end of the week, we traveled to Blue Hole National Park and ventured deep into the earth to explore caves and an underground stream.