I'm a slacker and I haven't blogged yet, but it's because I've never done it before. I'm in Belize loving my experience.
We are working in a garden...the group that came to Belize last year
built a garden to a high school but the rain that came later on
destroyed it...so we're making it more permanent/sustainable. It was
nice that we had something to jump into and get started with right away.
We got to Belize on Thursday May 10 and were working in the garden the
next day. We removed the dirt and wooden walls that were there from
before , dug trenches for the cement and cinder block garden walls
(instead of wood like it used to be). It's hard work but it's rewarding
to see the progress we've made.
I've also had the opportunity to teach about health awareness in
schools and in a village. We did demonstrations- a couple minute's each
on topics such as dental health, nutrition and exercise (emphasis on
avoiding obesity and diabetes and getting volunteers in each classroom
to do a push-up contest), eye health, the dangers of smoking, CPR and
what to do when someone is choking -the hyemlich manuver. In the village
we mainly talked about dental health especially for the children. Any
adult who was willing we took their blood pressure. It was really cool
to use my background from nurse assisting to take blood pressure,
especially since I never used it after getting my CNA.
We have weekends off and
Monday was a holiday here called common wealth day...so a group of us are
on the island of caye caulker...it is so amazing. I got to go
snorkeling- It was a day trip from 10:30-4:00...i am FRIED....like a
freakin lobster...no joke. I saw a
manatee, touched a nursing shark and sting ray. One of the guys on the
sail boat we took out to the snorkel spots knew how to handle the
animals and brought them up close to the surface so we could touch them.
The shark was rough and felt like sand paper. The sting ray felt slimy.
We saw sea turtles, one of the turtles had a missing front foot. There a
lot of different fishies and it was cool to see the coral reefs. Oh and
we saw an eel.
It was my first time staying in a hostel. It was pretty decent. I slept on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. No one was above me. For two nights it was only people from our help international
group. The last night we had a guy and girl from Israel in the room. There is a
cool hammock that I've enjoyed chilling in...listening to music, reading
or resting.
The latest thing I have going is working on making a connection with an organization helping victims of sexual exploitation. First I called the founder of the Child Development Foundation but she wanted more information so I just sent her an email about my background, information about HELP International (the nonprofit group I'm volunteering through), and the how we could fit in with the projects they offer. I hope that we will be able to work with this organization.
