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!

"What a Week"

And I am quoting the President, because I could not agree more!  What a week!

I had an interesting professional task early this week.  I felt that a girl with whom I've worked needed an evaluation for medication.  This meant that one of the staff and I walked something more than a half mile to the Kings Park Clinic with the girl so that she could be seen by a psych. nurse.  Belize seems to have no psychiatrist, at this point, so psych. nurses are doing evaluations and prescribing medication.  The first psych. nurse we saw only worked with HIV/communicable disease patients, but with persistence she was able to set us up with the correct psych. nurse across the parking lot.  What a wonderful experience!  After waiting a long time, because she takes time to evaluate her patients, we were seen by the nurse.  I spoke with her for quite some time, reviewing my assessment and looking in the computer records of the child's previous appointments in the south of the country.  Then she spoke with the child for a long time, and we left for the return walk with medication in hand!  The nurse made a good call, in my estimation, on the type of medication.  I was so impressed!  Excellent service!

Dave, though, has not had a good week.  He flew premature twins to Belize City to the hospital, but one of the babies died.  Then he was to fly the next day to Guatemala City with an infant with a heart defect, but the baby died the night before.  The same thing (a planned trip to Guatemala City for a baby with a heart defect), and that baby died the evening before.  Dave also had an out-of-control psychiatric patient whom he flew (strapped down and sedated, more or less), which was nerve-wracking.  I mention these flights to illustrate how stressful his job can be.  Today he has been gone since early morning, transporting the same patient to two different hospitals, ever moving to the better equipped hospital here in Belize City.  He has good medics with him who take care of the patients well, but he is in the left seat, flying under very stressful situations.

And Dave had to deal with "Rattletrap," which tried to rattle its last rattle!  Dave and I went out the highway one morning on our way to the hardware store when he received a call that he would need to get back to the airport for a flight.  As the phone rang, and we were trying to turn left into the store parking lot, the car died.  He was able to get it started and into the parking lot.  No time for the errand, so we headed back on the highway--when the car died again.  This time it refused to start.  Dave called the BERT office, and they sent an ambulance over to pick us up.  They dropped me off at the Centre, which is on the way to the Municipal Airport, and took Dave to the plane.  Later the car started, so Dave returned to the BERT office to pick it up.  Rattletrap didn't rattle for long.  When Dave came to pick me up at the Centre, it must have died 8 times returning to our house.  I was pretty sure that I was going to have to push it!  We made it into the driveway.  The following morning, I walked to work, and Dave took the car to a mechanic, fortunately just down the street.  After something with the radiator was fixed, it seems that we have Rattletrap up and running!

On Wednesday night we joined Yvette from BERT at the annual Rotary dinner where the new officers are installed and awards are given out.  Noteworthy was how cold the room was!  Loved it!  And dinner was great!  We saw many people whom we have met in our short time here.  Four people received Paul Harris awards, including the founder of the Belize Zoo.  Hidden under her shirt through the dinner until nearly the end was a baby crocodile!  I believe her name was Rosie!  I wanted a picture of it, but didn't get one.  Rosie is being trained to be a "petting zoo" crocodile...well, that may be going a bit far, but one who can be shown to children and adults who visit the zoo.  She was the cutest thing!

Speaking of the Radisson (which I was when talking about the Rotary dinner), they gave us a discounted membership in their fitness club and pool access!!!  I am so excited!  We worked out last night after Dave was off call, and today we need to return there to get our official cards with our pictures on them.  I had hoped to go do some water running and get a little sun today, but it is mid-afternoon, and my chauffeur has not yet arrived home.

Next week will be a busy one for me at work.  A number of people from Florida will be here for their annual trip to work at the Centre for a couple of weeks.  We have already received from them 4 computers for our learning centre for the children.  They are huge supporters of Dorothy Menzies Child Care Centre!  And on Friday, we will be going to a Sports Day in Belmopan with all of the children, including those in children centres around the country.  My goal for today was to find a yellow shirt so that I can be identified with the yellow clad children from DMCCC!

As if all of those local activities and stressors were not enough, we were watching closely about news from the Supreme Court on DOMA and Prop. 8.  We were thrilled to hear of the decision that clears the way for Jeremy and Jonattan to marry!  In fact, we spent an hour talking via Facetime with them last night.  Jeremy and Jonattan have talked with their immigration attorney, who has been in a meeting on the ramifications of the decisions on binational gay marriages.  The outcome of that is that they will be getting married on August 11 (we think--date needing some finalization)!!!  They are so excited, as are we, and making quick plans for a blow-out party celebrating their union!  The quick date poses some challenges for Dave, though he hopes to find a solution to be there for at least a day or two, but I want to get there the week before so that I can shop in San Francisco for something to wear!!  When I read the Supreme Court decisions earlier in the week, I dared only be cautiously optimistic, but California has moved quickly to reinstate gay marriage, and all looks good.  More legislation and rulings will likely be needed in the future to guarantee this right for all, but it is a solid beginning for equality!

Weekly Update

A no picture week!  And only because I forgot to take pictures!

The week was full of work for me, including a meeting with a social worker with and on behalf of a child.  My laptop is now totally geared up, so I have been creating some record keeping tools for myself.  And most interesting was a meeting with the Department of Human Services and representatives from most of the child care centres in the country.  (BTW, I love how my computer at work corrects my spelling to the British/Belize standard!  Behavior=behaviour!)  The meeting was really engaging with a lot of discussion.  One agency, Laugh out Loud (isn't that the greatest name!), which is located in the jungle of south Belize, is fairly new.  As they are trying to develop record-keeping and trying to understand all of the regs, they stimulated a lot of interesting discussion.  Interesting to me is that DMCCC, where I work, is the model for  the country in terms of record-keeping--interesting, especially, when considering that we have the most children to keep records of!  The Department is moving to an electronic system of record-keeping, so some of the training was to educate us on the way the fancy Excel spreadsheet works!

The other exciting occasion of the week was having Yvette Burks (Dave's boss at BERT) and her children (well, young adults), Clayton and Jess, over for dinner.  They are such fun, interesting people!  Clayton and Jess spent much of their time entertaining Maddy, who was devastated when they went out the door.  She hasn't had so much entertainment and attention in her life!  And Maddy is certainly the people cat, who will forever be a two-year-old.  Special, too, was the gift that they brought along:  a set of dishes!  We washed them quickly and used them!  They look beautiful in blues and yellows with my table runner from Cayo...and I forgot to take pictures!  Too busy cooking!  Cooking was a bit of a challenge in that I could not find all of the ingredients that I wanted, so adapted, and I had to use the oven, which is calibrated in Celsius!  It is a wonder that it came out at all!

Dave did a bit of flying, including through some fairly intense weather.  Tropical Depression #2 is gone.  (It was not officially declared a tropical storm until it reached Mexico, as the winds here were at about 35 mph and storm declaration is at 39 mph sustained wind.)  But the amount of water that fell from the sky is more than I've seen in all the years in New Mexico, I swear.  We are still in the rainy season, thus the weather that Dave has seen while flying.  More rain falls in the south of the country, where he most frequently flies, than here.

Maybe pictures next week?!?

Tropical Storm 2, 2013

A short blog to mention the forecast today:  "incessant rain!"  And that is a quote!  Above is a picture of an intrepid neighbor headed down our street.  I am not a bit sure how I am going to get to work this morning!  Our street and drive are definitely underwater!  

The children are home from school.  Instead of snow days, I guess they have Tropical Storm days!  Tropical Storm 2 for 2013 is stalled on top of us.  Yesterday, I was at the grocery store, and the television there had The Weather Channel on, which featured this storm with pictures of Belize!  I figured that was a bad sign, and it looks like we have days more of rain before us!

Here is another picture of our street!

And for Dave's friends...here are a couple of pictures of the engine in the BERT Cessna.  I don't know why I found these pictures on his camera, but I'll share them!

OK...off to work!  Umbrella in hand!

Weekend Pictures of our Holiday on Ambergris Caye!

Dave had his first weekend off, so we left Belize City late Friday afternoon to fly to Ambergris Caye.  Dave was able to "borrow" the airplane (since there is no back-up pilot right now to fly the ambulance), which gave me an opportunity to see a bit of the area from the air and to land on a couple of the runways that Dave frequently uses in his job.

We took off from Belize City, and I spent most of my time taking pictures.  (A really great thing about a digital camera is the ability to take a lot of pictures and to edit them later.  The only problem with that is the two hours that I spent since arriving home doing the editing!)  Here are some pictures from the Belize City Municipal Airport runway.  Yes, it is certainly close to the Sea!  And I can see the building in which I work in the city scene!  I'd have to point it out to you in person for anyone else to see it!

We flew over the Caribbean Sea within the Barrier reef, and I wish that the photos could do justice to the many colors.  (Picture-taking through an old airplane's window is a little challenging!)  One of the noteworthy land scenes is the shallow water and the many cayes or islands, most uninhabited.  I think we should buy an island--as long as global warming is stopped in its tracks!

We passed Caye Caulker, which has an airstrip, and arrived in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye only 15 or 20 minutes after leaving Belize City.  Ambergris Caye is a major expat community.  Lots of people from the States and probably elsewhere are coming to Ambergris to retire in the subtropics.  There are many resorts which make it a big tourism site as well.  I chose a resort far out of town to the north, the X'Tan Ha Resort.  I think I liked the name, the price was good (it is off-season) and the beach was described on their website as "pristine!"  Once landing in San Pedro, we were picked up by a resort van and taken the few blocks to the water taxi, which we rode about 20-30 minutes to arrive at X'Tan Ha.  The first photo is a not really clear one of the runway into San Pedro, taken through the propeller.  The second picture is of Dave waiting for the water taxi, and the third is of our approach at sunset to X'Tan Ha Resort.

We were greeted with rum punch, and since they had no diet Coke, I was forced to drink rum punch all weekend!  What a sad story!  As this weekend was short on time and as Dave really wanted to relax, we chose not to do any tours this trip.  We considered a snorkeling trip, but it would have taken most of the afternoon.  Instead, we chose to read books and lounge by the pool!  Oh, and eat!

X'Tan Ha Resort is beautiful!  The rooms are beautiful, the view spectacular, and the people are incredibly nice!   There is a nice restaurant on site, and you can actually eat anywhere--the seaside bar, the restaurant or your room.  We chose the bar and the restaurant.  One of the exciting features in the beautiful room was the king-sized bed!!  (I never thought that I would have a double bed since we bought our first queen after college in 1972...but here I am, full circle!)  We had views of the Sea and of the pool.

The following are pictures of my rum punch upon arrival, the beach, the pool area and me standing in the Sea!!

I read almost two books, as did Dave, and swam in the pool.  Now for the most annoying part of the trip:  the bugs!!!  What a problem!  We came prepared with insect repellent, but it was no match for the insects.  Since I had repellent on almost every part of my body, one found my ear to bite!  And hands were a favorite feeding place.  We had sand flies, mosquitoes, and what they called "doctor flies" (or at least that is what I think he said), which had yellow wings and had a vicious venom!  Dave does not usually get bitten much (hence, I think he does not coat himself in repellent as much as I do).  But he is the one who had the big reaction to a fly bite:  his hand swelled up, as did his forearm and elbow!  I gave him benadryl, which may have helped, but it is still swollen--a lot!  This is the season for bugs with all of the moisture.  I think it would be better in the dry season!

Speaking of which, we had a thunder and lightening storm and rain in the night!  I had to get up to watch the lightening flash over the Sea!  Beautiful!  But it also was a sign that a rather significant storm is approaching Belize.  So we had to get the water taxi to come early, and rush to the airport to take off and reach Belize before more weather arrived.  I missed going through the shops of San Pedro (which is what I was planning instead of that snorkeling trip), and I missed the lobster feed at the Resort!  Lobster season opened on Saturday, and I really wanted to have some fresh lobster!!

Here we are flying out of San Pedro (note the clouds) and into Belize City--and the short runway at Municipal!

While the weekend was a do-nothing weekend, in terms of activities, it was relaxing.  Lots of pool-time!  And at least I have a little color to look like I don't belong in Ireland!  (I was very good about sun-block, though!)  Dave learned that he doesn't want to take the plane on holidays, as I guess he worried about it being safe and sound on the runway in San Pedro.  And we want to take some driving excursions to see more of the country with our feet on the ground, like our trip to Cayo!  But as far as having a break and pretending that we were tourists, it was perfect!  Of course, our story at the bar was a little different than the other tourists!  LOL!

The rain has poured here in Belize City for part of the day, and Dave couldn't do an ambulance trip due to lightening this afternoon.  So I would say that we made good decisions all around!  I am grateful to have had the vacation!