Beginning of a New Year

2011 - hard to believe we are in this decade, that I came to Belize in 2009 and working through my last months.  I spent New Year's weekend with my San Antonio family - again, I was reaffirmed that village life was not for me (bucket baths, rocky roads, and no phone service).  I was pleasantly surprised to see changes with the family.  The two youngest kids actually had conversations with me in English.  All the school kids were at their top in class.  I helped make corn tortillas, ate escabeche (onion soup), and, of course, stewed chicken and rice and beans.  We walked to the community center to watch the fireworks at midnight - most of the villagers were there, and it was a beautiful, star-studded night.

Lots happening at work -  the re-elected NAVCO president is making drastic changes; one that includes ending Mr. Lopez' position as chief administrative officer, my counterpart for the site.  This move came out of left field, nobody saw it coming; Mr. Lopez couldn't believe it since the two of them worked closely and was personally hurt by his move.  Mr. Lopez, being an optimist, quickly connected with various contacts and now has a job offer from the ministry which he accepted.  So, it looks like I need to rethink my job there - I fear that the president thinks that I can take over some of the work which is directly against Peace Corps goals of training and building capacity and not to replace Belizeans.

The weather here is wonderful - cool with a nice breeze, it stills gets hot during the day but not the intense heat and humidity of the rest of the year.  I have control of the insect population except for the fire ants - they are driving me crazy!  Hanging my clothes outside to dry is a battle of how many ants attack my feet, legs, and clean clothes.  I tried spraying Fish (pesticide) under the clothes line, oiled the ends of the line with vegetable oil (on the recommendation of Emma - it's suppose to stop the ants from crawling the lines and into the hanging clothes), and dumped buckets of the wash water along the line path.  I even avoid leaving the clothes basket on the ground and now run, pull off my dried wash, and keep moving my feet, but to no avail, I still get the itsy bitsy ants in my toes, ankles and up my legs.  And, then, to top that off, I still find a few ants crawling on my dried wash, yuck!  As you see, I would never make it in the village.

I have good, happy news - Kimberly (my daughter) and her friend are coming end of March for a visit.  Another group of friends are coming in February.  With these visits, I can feel time passing quickly.