Not Much Happening

No pictures this week, and in general, it was a rather ordinary week.

One of the best parts of my week was getting a call from an acquaintance, Mary, who has lived in Belize for a couple of years.  She was a UCC minister in the States, and she belongs to Rotary, where I met her.  She had a friend in town, Jovanna, from Hawaii, who is a psych. nurse who had been working for a couple of weeks in a village in Guatemala.  The three of us went to Celebrity Restaurant near the Sea and had a wonderful time talking!  Both women are quite active in human rights movements, and we had a great time talking about progressive politics.  As we were leaving, a man coming in gave Mary a big hug!  He was an actor/director/producer from Belize who was here from his home in L.A. for the Belize International Film Festival!  I had actually seen him in an interview this week on television!  What a fun evening!

Other than having to block the door while a psychologist worked with one of my clients who had run away and was threatening suicide, it was a fairly usual week at the office!  The psychologist was called in because every psych. nurse within the health department in the country was on a retreat!  I thought the girl should be hospitalized, but after one of the staff took her (with a letter from me) to two clinics and the hospital emergency room only to learn that no one could see her, the private psychologist was called in.  She did an excellent job of working with the child, for two hours, until she was able to get her to agree to not run away, not hurt herself, and to take her medication.  Now she is on a 24-hour watch at the Centre, which meant that we had to hire extra staff.  Grrr....  Sometimes, working here is a little challenging.  Every psych. nurse on a retreat?!?  (I might mention that we have no psychiatrist at this time.  The last one left the country.)  I now sleep with my phone in case I need to respond to some emergency!  I am very attached to these children, so it really is not a sacrifice for me.

Today Dave and I went and had photos taken for our work permits.  The man who owned the shop was absolutely delightful, and Dave and he studied his problems with a voltage regulator!  I might add that Belize is a very small world.  One morning, Dave was trying to get out the door early in the morning to buy Johnny cakes for breakfast as the "Johnny Cake lady" was pedaling by.  He managed to get out without shoes, and gave her a shout!  She said:  "I heard you coming, Dave!"  Now, how in the world does she know his name???   Anyway, Dave was buying fruit at our local fruit stand when a man engaged him in conversation.  The man had lived in the United States and wanted to know where Dave was from.  He apparently had lots to say, much to the irritation of the shop owner who had probably heard the stories before and really wanted these two old men to leave!  Dave's father, who always knew the life history of our neighbors within hours of arriving to visit, would have felt right at home here!  And we would probably have a lot more neighborhood friends!

Rainy Week

We are definitely in the rainy season!  I would say that it rained some nearly everyday this week.  I actually enjoy it, as it is significantly cooler when there is a cloud cover and rain.  But Belize has very wet rain!  Often it is raining enough to get you wet, but not hard enough to warrant an umbrella!  We were planning on going to the Cayes with Yvette and her family today to snorkel, etc.  Too stormy!  We get a lot of thunder and lightening, too.

My week was busy encouraging the use of the token economy system of rewards (known as the ICU program) at the Centre.  I spent too much of Friday tabulating the number of ICU's given.  The good news is that many of the staff and over half of the children received ICU's!  I presented the ICU rewards on Friday evening to the cheers of the children!  I learned that ice cream is the preferred reward above all else!

My other interesting work event was taking a little girl to the clinic for a recheck for her psych. meds. We were given incorrect information when we were told that my favorite nurse was working on Thursday.  At Kings Park clinic, I was told that I could take the child to the Port Loyola clinic instead.  For that, I called our driver to pick us up and take us, as it is quite a ways south in the city.  And I would never have found it on my own!  We had an interesting experience.  I asked for the nurse, and was directed to the back through a door--to the kitchen!  I swear!  The cubicles for the psych, clinic were in the kitchen!  So we were told to sit (no one asked us who we were), which we did.  At this point, I am completely at a loss as to what is going to happen.  Meanwhile, my child is sitting beside a woman, beautifully groomed, who is schizophrenic and talking to someone.  At times, she would get agitated, yelling at said person to sit down!  My poor child is clearly wondering what is going on!  The nurse is dealing with another issue in one of the cubicles with someone not happy to be there (a man said that it was his sister).  When she came out and looked at us, she gruffly said to an assistant, "What are they doing here?"--which is when someone asked!  I explained that we had been sent here from the other clinic, and then we were ushered through the door to the "real" clinic (i.e. out of the kitchen) to an office where we met the nurse, who turned out to be very nice!  And she quickly looked at the electronic chart (you have no idea how grateful I am to Belize for having electronic medical records), and off we went with our medication.  Then I explained to the child what was going on with the woman who was talking to seemingly no one.  Soon, a woman approached asking me something (I couldn't understand the Kriol), and so I asked my child, who said that the woman needed help reading the bottle of medicine.  I explained to the couple how to measure the liquid and how many hours to give it and for how many days!  I was happy to help once I understood!

The other big news this week is our Belize Jaguars being in Portland, OR to play football (soccer) against the U.S.  We watched until the first half was nearly over, turned the T.V. off, then heard our whole neighborhood yelling!  So we quickly turned the T.V. back on to see the replay of the goal!  So, okay, the U.S. won.  But I was so proud of the way the team conducted themselves and played, particularly that two of the guys were offered a bribe to throw the game, and instead of taking it, they reported it!  I have to say that I was super impressed.  These guys work hard jobs and then find time to practice.  They are not a professional team.  And they do not have money.  But they are honest!  Loved it!  I am totally hooked now and had to watch yesterday's game against Costa Rica, which was a little disappointing given that a Belize player made the only score for Costa Rica.  Oops!

Dave and I have made it to the gym 3 times this week!  And now we have a friend there...a man who works for Tropic Air, who Dave occasionally sees and talks to when he is at Municipal Airport.

Friday night we went out to dinner (see above picture) at Samathi Indian Restaurant.  Absolutely wonderful food!!  And it is just around the corner from us!

Now I am blogging and listening to my Sunday morning "concert" of gospel music.  My neighbor across the street has gospel music going full blast every Sunday morning.  I love gospel music (with a little bluegrass and modern Christian music mixed in)!  So this is fine with me.  I just wish I knew if it were coming from a radio station (not that I have a radio) or a TV station!  I'd turn it on, too!

Volunteers,Sports Day and Burns...All Unrelated

In the foreground of this picture, taken at Sports Day (more to follow), is the picture of a young woman from Florida (note hat), one of about 30 volunteers who came from Dunedin First Presbyterian Church to volunteer at Dorothy Menzies Child Care Centre.  The group exemplifies the best in missionary work!

About three years ago, a group came from this church to volunteer for a week or two and were struck by the needs and delighted with the children, so they have spent their time since then raising money and returning to the Centre annually to make a big difference in the infrastructure and operation of the program.  This year about 30 people came from Florida.  A group went to work building cabinets for the new girls' dorm and painting and decorating the inside and outside of the dormitory building.  Others held a week-long day camp functioning on site with music, arts and crafts, etc.  Meanwhile, a math camp, in conjunction with a church school, was held with several of our residents participating.

The volunteers also researched on several prior fact-finding trips what might be done to improve the disciplinary program at the Centre.  Taking a key from Trinity School, which is just around the corner and where many of our children attend school, the volunteers put together a token economy to reward positive behavior.  The program, "ICU" (as in I See You), is one that is used at the school.  On two days, the volunteers presented a workshop/training to provide staff with the structure of the program and tools with which to implement it.  The volunteers used the system while at the Centre, and the children were excited to be participating.  The children received their recognition for a job well done on Thursday evening and had an ice cream party to celebrate!  Our intention is to see that the program is being used on Monday by staff (without our mentors, sadly) and have a staff meeting on Wednesday to check in with people on how well it is going.  Keeping track of all of the ICU slips filled out by staff and for staff (they, too, have an incentive program for implementing this) has fallen to me!  I didn't want the staff to be burdened by the task...I'd rather they be cheering acts of Honesty, Kindness, Respect and Responsibility.  I might add that the group from Florida brought computers for use by the children and staff, clothes, toys and goodies for staff (lotion, etc.)!  And some of the volunteers will return in one month to monitor the program that they have begun.  I want to acknowledge them for the completeness of their mission...finding out the needs of the community, networking with the community to create a program that can work, donating time and money and goods over the long run (not just a week here or there) and monitoring the success or bumps in the road to assure that what they put in place will really make a positive difference in the Centre.  And NO proselytizing!  Just humble, hard work!  Kudos!

On Friday a Sports Day was put on by the Belize Department of Human Development for all of the children in centres throughout Belize.  I cannot believe how well it was organized in such short period of time!  At the last minute, they had to change the location to a field house in Belmopan as this week has seen daily rain.  The above picture is of the children playing games in the field house while showers fell off and on outside.  The social workers and staff of the department were in charge of all of the activities and the wonderful food that we had--barbequed chicken, beans, coleslaw, tortillas, plus slushies, hot dogs on sticks, nachos, popcorn and cupcakes!  I was sure that children would be sick on the way home!  A couple of jumping houses were available for young children.  A trampoline and face-painting were there; outdoor races were put on with prizes for the winners!  Each program within the state was introduced, and each performed a song for the group.  Only one accident happened that needed medical attention, and it would be a little girl who had been clinging to me, overwhelmed by the number of people.  I had finally engaged her in an activity with the little kids and had left...and she fell, splitting open her forehead to the tune of about 3 stitches.  She returned and ate a hearty lunch and would have played a lot more, but I thought she needed to be out of the sun and drinking water, so I spent the afternoon with her in toe.  Such a cutie!  We also have a new little guy who has spent most of his 2 years on his own, so he just goes at full speed at all times.with no concern for boundaries!  It literally took a village to keep an eye on him, and at one point, I saw him "escape" into the caretaker's basement, with a volunteer running as fast as she could to retrieve him!  We travelled on two buses for the hour-and-a-half trip, making for a very long day.  But it was great fun for the children!

The children wore shirts in bright colors, and the staff wore yellow.  It made for a colorful party!

Outdoor races are above!

Dave had a dramatic week, as well.  He was called to Placencia in the south to pick up a burn victim, a young man who was burned over 90% of his body when a butane tank blew up.  He was conscious on his trip to Belize City, but there is no burn center in Belize.  There is a fund, which Yvette Burks, Dave's boss, oversees, that is typically used to raise funds quickly for children badly burned so that they can be swiftly moved to a burn center in the United States.  She was able to activate her network, and immediately received pledges of money, enough to hire a jet to transfer him from Belize to Augusta, GA where she had found a hospital and doctor willing to accept him.  He was able to leave here in a record 36 hours (with Yvette walking the 4th of July fill-in staff at the US Embassy on how to pave the way for him to get into the US without a visa), and we know that he made it to the hospital!  Amazing work on Yvette's part and with the cooperation of many, many people.  The 28-year-old man has a wonderful reputation of being a hard worker, and he was married in February to a woman, who is a social worker from Texas.  So...if anyone is inclined to donate to the fund that is trying to pay for as much of this as possible, let me know!  It was a fairly traumatic experience for Dave, and only one of the two or three flights that he had that day.

And finally, we had a concert behind our house!  The Belize Jaguars Football team (think soccer) went to Portland, OR for the Gold Cup tournament.  This is the first time that the team has made it to a Gold Cup tournament, and with the sponsorship of a Ministry head and Mayor of Belize City, a fund-raising concert was held at the ITVET field, just outside our house!  I was disappointed by what I thought was a poor turn-out, but so many of the best artists of Belize performed!  It was a wonderful concert, seen by me through opera glasses (ok...my big binoculars) and inescapably heard through the windows!  Fabulous music, and with some of the tutelage of my teenager friends here, I knew who some of the groups were!

Above, the field being prepared.  Right, a reggae star on stage!