End of the Year Review

A Review of the year

Year one as a Jesuit Volunteer in Punta Gorda, Belize has come to an end. The sixty plus retreats I’ve led for teachers, 7th grade and 8th grade students are complete, my second year roommates have left and I am beginning summer work including: summarizing outcomes of retreats, documenting Church birth records from 1900 and earlier to assist an anthropologist whose research involves tracking migration patterns amongst the Mayan people in the Toledo district, visiting villages and exploring the “back a di bush”. Below is a summary of what I have done this year and a bit of how life has been as a Jesuit Volunteer.
First Term
During the first term I put on retreats with Fr. Dick for the teachers in all 30 schools (12 retreats total, merging the small schools with an average number at about 18 teachers per retreat). During this first term I was also going out to villages in the Toledo district by myself on motorcycle to conduct half day retreats for the 7th grade students who would be making their Confirmation in March. The first few months in Belize were most challenging since I was adjusting to living in “intentional community” (living in a house with three other Jesuit Volunteers with certain responsibilities and objectives in mind), trying to accept my role and learning to work closely with priests in a developing country, and searching to carve my own path instead of trying to live up to my predecessors.
Despite my challenges and questions about my presence I was able to keep going and find meaning and inspiration by trying to put to use my anthropology degree and by becoming involved in current issues in the communities I was in contact with. With the mix and cultures and especially the strong presence of traditional and indigenous culture, to would no doubt be a fruitful place for me to live and exercise some of the academic theory and personal interests that formed over the past few years. I became aware of and interested some of the socio-political issues in the Toledo district (most southern district encompassing the 30 schools I work with), especially land disputes and cultural preservation projects amidst the exponential increase of Belizeans in the global economy.
One day that really sparked my interest and concern in preservation vs. modernization issues, and whether or not these disputes are either/or, was at the opening a computer lab in one of the Mayan villages sponsored by a US Oil Company. I gave the ”Vote of Thanks” on behalf of the Catholic Schools directed towards the oil company, who sat in a panel form, and to the villagers who stood around in the school court yard. I was surprised that a school that doesn’t even have flush toilets or sinks would receive a state of the art internet computer lab first. The computers were donated to the school in order to persuade village leaders in five different villages, who are sitting on oil, to get on board with the oil companies and allow for drilling in the their villages and the neighboring Sarstoon Temash National Park. Walking away from this day I wondered what the impacts of the computers would be in the village and how long they’d be around.
After almost one year with these computers, the teachers have credited their increased high school entrance scores to the programs that the computers offer and especially towards students with learning disabilities in the classroom. This village also has a gang presence (red and blue representing blood and crypts) and recently had its first armed robbery and shooting in one of its stores. I don’t necessarily blame the shooting on the computers but during this shift from traditional practices to increased participation in the mainstream global economy I’ve found it important to think about factors influencing changes and how changes are being implemented.
(Below I have included more of my thoughts on these issues)

Second Term
After a long Holiday break and traveling up to Merida, Mexico, where I studied in 2006, it felt very comforting to get back into life in Punta Gorda. For the first time in about six months I really felt at home and content with where I was and what I was doing. Although I thought the culture shock chart that we were given at orientation was a bunch of crap and didn’t apply to me, there was something on the chart about six months being a major turning point. Maybe it just took some time for me to realize that the grass is not that much greener in the neighboring Latin America countries and that there’s a lot here for me to experience and learn.
From January to the end to February I was leading day retreats for the Standard Five (7th grade) students. Most of the retreats I did on my own and was able to strap my items to the back to the motorcycle and cruise out to the village, spending the night many of the weeks. My most memorable night was when I was sleeping in my tent in one of the most remote villages and I received night time visits from dogs barking, pigs snorting and a mule sniffing me out all right around my tent. I enjoyed spending the days with small groups of students where I could get to know them. Beginning with high hopes, trying to follow closely the planned agenda and encourage complete participation, my focus shifted to just trying to make the day fun and enjoyable for the students. About 15 of theses retreat days led up to Confirmation week, March 2nd-7th. Eighteen confirmations in six days with the Bishop of Belize and a handful of priests we spent traveling from village to village. It was the longest week in my life, but I was able to find entertainment in little things like watching people fall asleep, listening to Mayan hymns and the questions the children would ask the Bishop. It was really exciting to be a part of these days and to see how special it was for the villagers to have the Bishop come to their village.
The day after Confirmation week I traveled to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary and Jaguar Reserve to climb to the top of Victoria Peak, the highest climbable mountain in Belize. During the four, physically exhausting, days I saw some beautiful and rare wildlife, connected with nature and was able rid myself of some of the built up anxiousness I had accumulated from the 36 hours I spent in Church the week prior and managed to stumble my way out with no serious injuries.

Third Term
The third term began in April and it was time again to start up a new round of retreats. The first two weeks of April I planned the second round of teacher retreats and Standard Six (8th grade) retreats. My goal for these retreats was to incorporate real situations and issues that are found in life in the Toledo district amongst teachers and Standard VI students respectively. Violence is on a rapid increase in Belize and a variety of social issues connected that have swept across the, up till recently, peaceful and safe Belize. Influence from the United States, namely Belizeans connected with gangs in the States who came back and most recently the prevalence television are changing society and behavior of youth. One striking image that stands out in my head is seeing a mother and teenage son standing next to each other in one of the Mayan villages. The mother was wearing a traditional Mayan skirt and blouse with no shoes and the son is wearing a bandana with US $100 bills as the design, a Michael Jordan shirt with actual nose, eyebrow and earrings pierced into the image of the shirt, ankle length jean shorts and white basketball shoes. Changes in styles from one generation to another are found everywhere in the world, but the schism in behavior and outlooks on life, especially in remote Mayan villages without electricity or water systems, is something that has stood out to me and thus inspired me to design retreats around these shifts in society.
The topic of the teacher retreats was about violence in the Toledo district and how to implement nonviolent solutions to the violence that exists on the street, in classrooms and in the homes. The skits were the highlight of the days where the teachers acted out scenarios in a violent way first and then had to act out a nonviolent response to the situations. The three scenarios were: disciplining a student in class who seems to only react to corporal punishment, confronting and responding to a family member/ friend whose drinking has become out of control, and responding to speculations that someone close to you has not been faithful to his/her partner. All three of these were acted out with violent and nonviolent ways and then were discussed amongst the group. I was impressed with the way the teachers laughed and joked about these situations and then discussed them in such an open, yet serious way.
The Standard Six retreats had many similarities with the teacher retreats since we discussed many of the same situations, just more specific to the lives on young teenagers. It was really interesting to go from school to school and observe how different the students are from one village and school to the next, not in clothing or music like you would in one suburb of the states to the next, but in levels of confidence and social skills. For the smaller schools (sometimes only 4 or 5 students) we would combine the students in order to put them in contact with others their age. One of these days I picked up six students from the Garifuna village and transported them along with a few others from Mayan villages to the furthest Mayan village on this route. The Garifuna children were much more confident and outgoing in discussion. It was neat to watch them form friendships and have the host students take the visiting ones home with them for lunch. Racial difference really seems to be a minor issue, if any at all. There are cultural differences effecting behavior, but discrimination and racism are not so common, at least not obvious like you find in the States. Another retreat I picked up five students from Blue Creek village, a village that has a cave which attracts many tourists. We traveled to a village called Aguacate, ten minutes further along the road which ends there. The students from Blue Creek had no problem getting up and acting out the skits and sharing their thoughts. However, the ones from Aguacate, especially the girls, where very shy and uncomfortable to speak up. Maybe it has to do with their teachers and whatever or not they practice speaking in front of the class, but I think a major factor is the degree of exposure the students have. I hope that by confronting and bringing light to the social issues that others their age deal with (drugs, sex, and robbery) will help them begin to think about these and try to form their own opinions on why something is right or wrong.
After about 11 months being in Belize I have come to regard this place the same I did as when I lived in Grosse Pointe or Chicago, as my new home. Sure each one is drastically different and they all provide me with a different ways of life, but the reality is, wherever I am I experience the same challenges and joys in life.


Note about Land Disputes
Issues concerning indigenous land rights and oil exploration in protected areas are ones that we’ve all learned about in school and seen on the news. It’s the same story that has occurred time and time again, just with different names and faces. The resource may be different, the group of people affected may vary and the location changes but it’s the same chain of events. There’s land and/or resources that are discovered with the potential to produce dollars with the right equipment and transportation methods. It’s usually not accessible by the local people so some powerful person, usually disconnected with the region, comes in and puts to use the resource or land that was otherwise not being used, or at least not be used as efficiently by locals. Through this extraction, dollars and jobs are being generated, therefore boosting the economy, somewhere. What happens in between this process and in the aftermath is commonly not accounted for or paid attention to. Everyone involved is trying to do the best and allow for livelihood of their family in whichever place they are, but too often it becomes us against them instead of everyone working together trying to come up with a solution where everyone can benefit. When it’s viewed as a dispute between multinational corporations against indigenous peasants, it’s easy to identify one as the oppressor and the other as the oppressed, although usually both sides are trying to do good for whomever they are representing. But what happens when you look at disputes between Mayan subsistence farmers, who grow corn and beans just for their family, and Environmental Organizations attempting to establish protected areas in order to preserve the ecosystem and wildlife from destruction. Both in effect seem to be fighting for just causes, but either side becomes hostile if you the other wins out. Any thoughts?