Down to Work - Life Goes On...

One thing for sure...my time here is not boring.  Finally, an update on what's happening at my site.  Mr. Lopez is gone and is now at the Ministry.  He ran for nomination as area representative for Cayo South but unfortunately lost the election.  He would have made a great area rep because his heart is truly for the villagers welfare.  The Ministry cut the budget by half, the board met to sort out what to do next.  The electricity was cut off last week because of past due payments and the telephone was cut off this week.  Ms. Corona, the board secretary, has taken the administrator role, and, this was the best development yet.  She is currently the senator from Stann Creek, DAVCO board president, NAVCO secretary, and Pomona Village Council chairperson.  I have taken the role of helping her with the office - she's articulate, focused, and motivated to sustain NAVCO and the DAVCOs.

I still plan to travel to the other districts - we received money from the British High Commission to implement the DAVCOs training which means that I can along with Jacklin proceed with the training and assuring the offices are functional.  Another great thing is that the new Peace Corps volunteer group landed in Belize a couple of weeks ago, and two are targeted for two of the districts.  That's really exciting because then I can work with the new PCVs along with the current ones already here to strengthen and continue the work for the village councils.

Katherine, the PC volunteer, who moved to the Belmopan Library site, is doing a tremendous job of helping the library become more visible and active.  Ms. Mary already had a reading program but Katherine formalized the reading program with rewards and outreach - the response was phenomenal, so far, she had to add more days because over 100 kids joined the reading program.  She planned a movie night last week - the movie "Yogi Bear" was shown on a full screen (a white sheet tacked on the outside wall of the library) - the kids and families brought blankets, and we sold popcorn, pastries, and drinks.  We had more than 150 people sitting on the grass laughing and enjoying a family night.  I loved watching them because in Belize a movie shown on a full screen was non-existent.

This weekend, Carol, another older volunteer, and I enjoyed two nights of concert performance by a visiting pianist, Seth Montfort, at the George Price Center.  Performing arts in Belmopan continues to be infrequent, so this was a treat for us.  Tonight is the final concert of the series, and it's been wonderful to hear classical mixed with Caribbean, jungle, Mayan, and jazz music.  This performer is amazing - he's memorized all his performing works plus his own composition.  He lives in San Francisco and leads the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra.  Well, time's up - we are off to the concert!