Tropical Storm Matthew

All the volunteers are either on stand by or consolidated waiting for Matthew to pass. It looks like the storm will hit southern Belize (Toledo and Stann Creek Districts) - lots of rain and possible flooding. We have downpours of rain all week - the ground saturated. The good part is that we have cool air and a nice breeze. Since I'm in Belmopan, I'm on stand-by which means we need to stay home. All the other pcvs are under consolidation, they have to gather in one place: most at the Garden City Hotel (soooo glad I'm not there!) and the southern volunteers are situated in Punta Gorda. I have one fellow volunteer at my house since she doesn't want to stay at Garden City too. The storm will pass here tomorrow and head inland towards Mexico.

The Independence Day celebration ended Tuesday with a parade. Each of the major towns and cities had a celebration parade, music, dancing, and fireworks - the biggest one held in Belize City. The Belmopan parade lasted about a half an hour along the main street called "The

Ring" - it rained at the beginning but subsided in tim

e for the rest of the parade. This past week another volunteer and I saw a play from the local theatre group about the history of Belize Independence from the settlement days of the British until the day of Independence. Last weekend, the day that I ate cow's foot soup - the city had a small gathering of

dancers at a park nearby.

Along with my counterpart and the office assistant, we had our first district training of the board - the Cayo DAVCO. I put the agenda and the training program together and Mr. Lopez and Jacklin conducted most of the training. The goal of the workshop was to train the trainer (board members) to go out to the village councils to train the councillors on how to hold a meeting, taking minutes, and basic record keeping. This first training session went well -

we'll take this on the road to all the other districts. Along with the training I'll start setting up DAVCO offices in two districts and get them functional.

The NAVCO Annual General Meeting (AGM) is next Saturday - hopefully, the gathering will have a good turnout of all the village council chairpersons and the district boards. Last year it was held outside of the NAVCO building on the agricultural trade show grounds, but this year I convinced them to have it indoors - spending all day in the heat, humidity, and possibly rain was not my preference. The event will be at the George Price Peace Center - the place where I did the conflict resolution summer workshop for the high school students. It has air conditioning, indoor restrooms, and a good PA system. We'll have an exhibitors showroom this year - four embassies, the United Nations Development Group, Belize Women's Group, a couple of the ministries, and Peace Corps (of course) - a small beginning to promote NAVCO and the rural villages.