Second Week in Belize : )

Hope all is well with everyone!

This week started off kind of rough but ended very well!

Monday-I started working with the BFLA. Before arriving, I felt so sick to my stomach from the nervousness about 1)entering my last semester of college and 2)entering the workplace of an atmosphere similar to what I would like to continue on with. My supervisor, Ms. Bulwer, had to step out for the day so she passed me over to Nurse Rachel who brought me up to her air conditioned office to explain her responsibilities with the teen clinic. After meeting with her I met with Patricia Smith who does a lot of the reports for all the BFLA clinics around Belize. Ms. Patricia is so sweet and down to Earth. She gave me a tour of the building and introduced me to everyone. I had met the teen clinic employees last week on our trip to Orange Walk so that made things a bit more comfortable until they had to leave for a workshop for the week.

After my tour, Patricia spoke with me about her responsibilities and then we had lunch and chatted for a bit. The rest of the afternoon was spent observing what goes on in the office and I ended up leaving around 2:30. Since I left so early, I walked to Terry's work to wait for her to go home. They typically have the food network on at her work and I got hooked on 'Worst Chef ever.' Glad to know I am cook better than some people!

I had emailed many of you the previous day and it was really nice to come home to a near full inbox of personal messages : )

Tuesday-Started off bad in the sense that Sunday I had not slept very well from nerves and Monday night was not any better. Ms. Bulwer was in the office so she started off by giving me a presentation about the BFLA, their services, and the order of employees. Next I was shown some games/activities that are used to educate youth about sexual and reproductive health. I was then left to organize the monthly calendar of Outreach programs (many which I will be attending) throughout Belize. The rest of the afternoon was spent flipping through some manuals, pamphlets, etc and observation. I'm not into American Idol but I watched the tryouts with the fam and they were pretty hilarious. Felt very tired though from not sleeping and not really being busy at work.

Wednesday-Started off well because I actually got some sleep but it was very warm and sticky early. On the way to work Terry mentioned possibly snorkeling on Saturday which I was thrilled about. At work, I went over to the hospital with Nurse Rachel to educate women who had just given birth about contraception and pap smears. Rachel goes every Weds and Nurse Sue goes every Friday. The waiting room was pretty full but the first difference I noticed was how easy it was to have access to go into the hospital (no id, no visitor's pass). The feel of this hospital compared to the ones at home was unsanitary. It definitely did not have that hospital smell. Upon entering the maternity ward there's no closed doors or hand sanitizer dispensers on the walls. The first room we went into had 6 beds: 3 filled. One girl was sleeping but I found out that the other two were 23 & 25 (new moms). Neither had ever had a pap smear and have never used contraception (I know what you're thinking, duh Sarah they obviously weren't using contraception if they were pregnant, but contraception is not just for pregnancy, but STI's and HIV too; at this point my jaw hit the floor but this reminded me of why I was here) Nurse Rachel discussed pap smears, where they are available, and how long after giving birth they could get one. I gave them pamphlets on all forms of contraception and breast exams.

The next room, all six beds were filled. (I could not imagine being a new mom and having to sit in a room of other new moms who I've never met) Another disadvantage of so many women in one room is that they are not as willing to tell us personal experiences (or lack there of) or ask questions. Only 1 out of 6 had ever gotten a pap smear and none were using contraception(can you say culture shock). Rachel said that about 65% of women that come out of there will go to the clinic but I was still in shock. Arriving back at the BFLA, I was reassured that I would not have to travel throughout Belize by myself like Ms. Bulwer had previously mentioned to me (wipes the sweat off my brow). I will travel with her or the team only.

I tried my first Belizean fried chicken at lunch time. It was really good and really cheap! ($2.25US for 3 pieces of chicken and fries). It was nice and sunny out so I took advantage of my hour long break to sit outside and get my dose of Vitamin D.

The afternoon was spent working on a presentation for the following day. Nurse Rachel and I would be presenting on STI's to 9-14yr olds. (9-14 yr olds & STI's!!!) She had the information she wanted to use so I put together a colorful (to catch their attention) but basic (to not lose their attention) powerpoint.

The evening was spent relaxing with the family and then Terry, Marty and I went to Terry's parents house so Marty could do a science experiment with food coloring that her grandmother had. Terry's grandmother and parents are so sweet and gave me REALLY good hugs : ) Terry's sister lives about her parents with her husband and 3 kids. When we walked up there Terry's sister thought it was just Terry until she saw me and screamed because she was in her underwear...talk about a great ice breaker(hahaha). Her sister is very sweet just like the rest of their family.

Thursday-Fresh fruit was cut up at work (pineapple, papaya, watermelon and oranges). The pineapple was delicious as was the watermelon but I did not care for the papaya. I sat with Ms. Bulwer and Nurse Sue while they worked on a yearly report but it is difficult to stay awake in Ms. Bulwer's office because she doesn't turn the lights on(migraines). I went up to Rachel's office where I could wake up while we worked on the activities we were going to use with the kids about STI's. After lunch we went to St. Mary's school to give our presentation. They uniformly welcomed us. Many were eager to participate in the presentation but it got crazy when it came time to do the activities (we all know most 9-14yr olds have a short attention span). We had originally planned to run two activities each but Rachel had to move her car so I ran 3 and she ran 1 when she got back. I would say it was a great learning experience all around because I was getting frustrated with the shouting out of answers and talking above me but I realized that is bound to happen with 50 students at that age level.

One thing that made me really uncomfortable was one of the teachers disagreed with some of my statements but instead of saying it in question form she proceeded to say out loud what she believed to be right while misinforming the students at the same time. Another reminder of why I am here because if the teachers do not know or know the wrong things then the students are only going to be misinformed which will lead to the problems that exist today. It is a tough situation because the age of engaging in sexual activity seems to be getting younger & younger therefore S&RH education needs to be taught younger but at the same time, there are adults that do not even know what is going on (the community as a whole needs to be educated).

As we were leaving, a couple of the girls approached me and touched my hair (insert own opinion). Terry informed me when I got home that St. Mary's is one of the poorer primary schools.

Friday-Left early for a local high school (Canaan) to give a presentation on contraception. We had about 45 students to present to in a small schoolhouse room with no circulation (on one of the hottest days of the week). Before the actual presentation, I handed out a 10 question quiz about contraception to see what these students knew already. While Nurse Rachel presented, I graded them and the top 5 scores got a BFLA pen. A majority of the students got 6/10, while about 10 people got 7&8/10 and one girl got 9/10. Two of the questions I was not even aware of the right answer before Nurse Rachel told me so I did not expect many to get those right. This presentation went a lot better and although there were several students that were disrespectful, the teacher mentioned that she would deal with them later.

After lunch, Ms. Bulwer and I developed some learning objectives and descriptions for me for the semester. Finally! an idea of what I will be doing while I am here. At twenty to five she had me enter some information into a powerpoint that I could use for a paper I have to write about the organization (I was not thrilled that I did nothing all week and on Friday, right before it's time to leave, she wants to give me something to do). She is sweet but can be really confusing sometimes.

After work, I relaxed for bit then got ready for my first night out in Belize! Terry's friend, Alberto, picked us up around 10 and we headed to the Riverside Tavern. It is a really nice place (reminds me of one of the nice downtown bars back home). To my surprise I was not the token white girl either : ) The prices for beer are so cheap here compared to a bar back home though(like $2-3). We hung out there for a while and enjoyed a lobster,shrimp,saugage,beef nacho mix. We left to go to club Next at the Princess hotel & casino. It was a really fun looking club & they were playing some good music but it seemed that everyone from the Riverside came too but that was about it for people. We didn't stay there long. Alberto mentioned that Saturdays are the popular night for the club so we'll have to try again later. Alberto and Terry seem to have a great time in each other's company and I had a great time my first night out! I was also excited to go home and not have to get up at 6am!

Saturday-I woke up around 8:30 to get ready for snorkeling but I got nervous when I looked outside and it was so cloudy and gloomy. Upon opening my window it was cool out too. Next thing I knew I was rushing to get ready to go.

The people that work for Terry are really nice. We boarded about 15 minutes after I arrived. There were many older couples on this tour but there were some young people too. The excitement was really getting to me because I remembered these were the perks of working in such a beautiful place for the summer. The boat ride out to the private island took about 20 minutes but time passed by quick listening to the other people talk about where they've been and what they've seen. Come to find out, most of them were from Canada & one couple was from Long Island(who proceeded to tell me that Syracuse is way way way North...uh not that far lady haha). We dropped the people who were not going snorkeling off at the island then we ventured out to open sea to snorkel! Where the boats dock at the island is a manatee area so we had to go really slow and I was hoping to see one but no luck today. We arrived at the area for snorkeling and it is part of the barrier reef that stretches for hundreds of miles. I put on my snorkeling gear and was about to get in the water when I peered out behind the boat to see a huge sting ray jump up and out of the water about 100 feet from us. I got really nervous at this point(1. about him;2.about why he was jumping). But I did not succumb to my fear and I was the second person to jump in. The water where we got out of the boat was about 3 1/2 feet deep so I could stand but I stayed close to the other woman that got in until I got comfortable. The water felt great & it was clear!! It was nice that it was cloudy because I didn't have the sun beating down on my pale skin.

Snorkeling was AMAZING! I hope to do it again before I leave. I saw some colorful fish of all sizes, a school of blue fish, a HUGE lobster (probably 2+feet), a little lobster, an itty bitty starfish, coral all over and another sting ray (too close for comfort)! The water eventually got pretty wavy but it came just in time to head back. When we got back on the boat, they had brought the smaller lobster on board so we all had our photoshoot with it. We arrived back at the island and had about an hour & fifteen minutes to relax, eat, drink, etc. I ordered some food and a beer and headed down to the beach (thinking to myself...man I could get used to this). After I ate my food, I walked through the water a bit and collected from shells. I found some little conchs with orange shells all over too. I ventured on to an area with a whole mess of huge conchs washed up on shore. Venturing back I had a picture taken of me with a palm tree shorter than me! Visited the manatee museum which had some pretty cool stuff.

The crew & tour were amazing! I look forward to seeing them again.

I walked home from the tourist village and upon doing so, I had every person welcome me to Belize and try to sell me something. I also got asked twice if I needed any ganja (probably to celebrate Bob Marley's birthday) and spoken to by almost everyone else I passed. Very interesting walk home needless to say. I arrived home to be rushed again to shower and change to go to Daniel's parents house for a BBQ. My hair was so knotty from the sea water and wind that brushing my hair after was quite the process (shaving my head sounds like a good idea). The BBQ was really nice. I met many of the relatives who were both welcoming and hilarious. The food was excellent along with the endless flow of beer coming my way courtesy of Daniel's brother. I had amazing grilled chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, and beans. After snorkeling, sunning, eating, and chatting, I was quite relaxed and tired from the festivities.

What a great ending to a long week! : ) As the days progress I am getting really comfortable here and have enjoyed the time already spent. Looking back on the great times I have had and looking forward to what is to come! : ) <3