On our way, On our way...

So we are done with our volunteer work!!! Pretty crazy that 2 months have FLOWN by. We have accomplished so much though. Though, there is still SO much to be done on the program we were working on. Jim and I are definately going to keep trying to do all that we can remotely to try and ensure that this National Assessment and Assistance Program is successful.
I think where I left off with fun stuff was after July 4th weekend :)
We definately missed being in the US for the 4th but managed to have a good time here anyways :) Our last week of volunteer work was jam packed with work and night time celebrations. On Tuesday, we worked a lot during the day and were informed late in the day that our meeting with the Ministry of Health Information Systems team was going to be on Wednesday instead of Thursday so I had some work to do preparing the final Access database. After work on Tuesday, we played soccer (called football here of course) with our volunteer friend Libby. Libby is awesome - she is from NY and is helping us w/ our HIV/AIDS program. She is going to be here through December so we are trusting her to see all of this through. She has organized for people in town to play soccer after work. Even though I have never really played before, I got out there bearfoot with a group of local guys and played. I didn't do very well but at least I got some exercise and got to meet some more locals. There was a whole team from one of the local bakeries there practicing for their big game on Friday night. The Director from Cornerstone, Anna, showed up to watch with her two girls, Shantel and Karyna. Shantel is 17 and helps at the office and Karyna is 9 and is around the office a lot too so I have gotten to know both of them. They are awesome. We will be able to show pics when we can finally get them online. Tuesday night, we played spades with our roommates and FINALLY WON! Yes, we were stinky all summer but somehow pulled through. Thea, Eric, Mom and Dad, you probably don't want to hear how bad we lost most of the time but I think we have gotten better so we can do better in Myrtle Beach.
On Wednesday, Jim, Catherine (another volunteer from Manchester England that is working on the HIV/AIDS program with us) and I headed to Belmopan to meet with the Ministry of Health's IT department. They had the Canadian consultants in town that are designing the National Health Care System. We met w/ Norbert from Accesstech and then the head IT guy at the MoH, Ian, and his assistant Gabriel. Though they are TRILLED about our program and are eager to integrate it into their national healthcare system, they will not have availability until October which is unfortunate for us. Based on that response, I spent the rest of Wednesday posting listings looking for a volunteer with J2EE experience because Norbert said if we could bring a volunteer to Belize for 2 - 4 weeks, they could get it done w/ their supervision. So we are searching hardcore for someone!!! At least it was promising to know that they thought the Access database we had developed was good and would be easy to get online once they had the capacity :) I actually learned something at Accenture after all those years :) It is going to be great when this is all integrated and we can say that we designed the HIV/AIDS assistance aspect of Belize's National Healthcare System!!!
Wednesday night was pretty hilarious. There were these Russian Dancers (random I know) at the local Princess Casino. They were set to perform at 11pm and most of the Cornerstone volunteers (currently 20 of us) had planned to go see the show. We got there a little early and our friends Dominic (a peace corps volunteer) and Kevin (a baker who used to be a Cornerstone volunteer) were playing roulette on this machine around a big table. We decided to join them. The free drinks are insane here - not like in US casinos. They are giving you rum like it is going out of style. Being here we have learned to enjoy rum which I never drank before because it is so cheap. Jim and I actually ending up winning $15 US on the machines - we had only put $5 US in :) Most of the other volunteers came over and played with us and we let them play with our winnings as long as they didn't go below a certain level. I had some lucky streak where I guessed everything so I was helping all the other people and getting their luck up. The dancers were crazy. One of them was this crazy hula hoop lady who managed to hula about 20 hoops. She even brought JOBBY up onto the stage (the area right in from of the bar cuz this place is so tiny) and he managed to hula a little. Too bad we weren't aloud to bring our cameras in because this would have been a classic picture. This was the cheapest night in Belize. We drank free rum, ate free food and made $15 US. What a night.
Thursday, we were super busy at the office trying to get everything in order for when we take off. At night, we went to a Gender focus group that Melissa is putting on trying to break the gender barriers that there are here in Belize. Belizians still believe that the woman stays at home and cooks and cleans etc. It was funny because we had to perform these skits. It was awesome. After the focus group, we went to the Stork Club, the only AC place. It has karaoke on Thursday nights and since Colin and Jackie love karaoke, we met them there. Most people followed soon after. Colin sang a lot and all us girls even sang Girls Just Want to Have Fun. It was a great night. It is funny to see all the Gringos/as (white tourists) since all these fun, lively songs and all the locals sing these love ballads all serious. It is definately a different perspective.
Friday was our last volunteer day in the office! We had a meeting to set up the local community organizations to provide assistance for our program at the Red Cross in the morning. There is still a lot of work to be done though. We were busy in the office showing everyone where the stuff was that we did and burning it onto CDs for us. It was really nice, the program director and founder were saying how much they were going to miss us. They said they miss all volunteers but we were different. We brought a certain level of presence to Cornerstone and were able to get SO much done in the little time we were here. To celebrate our last day, we went out to dinner at our favorite restuarant in town, Hannahs, after work. Since we were so beat from the week, we crashed at 8pm and slept in till 8am!
We are off to Mexico tomorrow!!! Hope everyone in the US is good and we can't wait to catch up when we get back there on the 18th of July!

Anyone with Java/J2EE Experience want to help out?

Sorry for this quick and blunt post but we are at the end of our volunteer stint. We have made AMAZING progress on setting up this national network to assess and provide needs for children and their families affected by HIV/AIDS. The database I have been developing in Access was supposed to be put online by the Ministry of Health this month but unfortunately they are under tight deadlines to roll out thier new national Health Information System. They are not going to be able to bring our database online until October and we are rolling out national training starting this month. If ANYONE knows ANYONE with webdesign, form input, databasing, Java/J2EE etc. experience, please get them in touch with us :)

This is a great great opp for someone to work with the Ministry of Health here in Belize and have a national impact on Belize. There is an opp for them to come here to Belize for a month or so or for them to try and work remotely from their home :)

THANK YOU!!!!!

4th of July - Belize Style

So instead of spending our 4th of July on the water in Virginia, or up at the O'Brien's picnic in Rhode Island or at Jen's cabin in Wisconsin, we spent it here in Belize.

On Saturday, July 2, Jim, Jackie, Colin, Melissa and I rented a car to go to Jaguar Paw where Melissa's boyfriend Paul works as an Aeriel Trek guide. We woke up really early to get the car and hit up the farmer's market. We rented what the agency called "A Brand New Trooper from the States with CD player". Let me describe to you what "Brand New" in Belize means. It means it has just arrived in the countr but has been in existence for sa 10 - 20 years. This "Brand New" Tropper had over 200,000 miles on it! It came from Santa Barbara and had your typical UCSB stickers on it. It drove though so no complaints there :)

Jaguar Paw is a resort in the middle of the jungle on the Mopan River. Paul was our guide and took us on the Zip Lines/Aeriel Treks through the jungle canopy. We put on our hard hats and harnesses and ziped through the canopy enjoying the ride - along with the scenery and wildlife. It was crazy fun - we took video cuz I know you all are dying to see Jim strung up in a harness.

After we zipped, we had lunch and picked up our tubes to go cave tubing. To get to the caves, we had to hike 45 minutes through HARDCORE jungle. We had ants and bugs crawling ALL over us by the time we got to the cave entrance but had learned a lot about all the local trees. We now would know how to survive in a jungle if we had to - though, our memory might not serve us that well under stress if we had to.

We hoped on our tubes and entered the cave which had a deep river flowing through it. It was insane and SOOOO COLD! We never thought we would be that cold in Belize - I had goose bumps the entire time! It was crazy when we all turned our headlamps off and enjoyed the vast darkness of the cave. We passed through 3 seperate caves, one which had a waterfall inside it. It sounded SO large from the back part of the cave but when we came upon it, it wasn't as loud as it had sounded! It was beautiful though.

Jackie, Colin, Jim and I treated ourselves to a lobster dinner (it is in season here and pretty cheap) Saturday night because we had a car and could drive to the restuarant. We also had Cayo Twist for the first time, the legendary Soy Ice Cream place in San Ignacio. It is about a mile up a HUGE hill so we hadn't been there before. Belize is pretty advanced with tons of vegan options - Michelle and Robert would love it here.

Sunday we were busy cleaning up our house to get ready for the July 4th/Canada Day party we were throwing that night. It was pot luck so all our friends brought over some great food. We played flip cup (even though we had to teach 1/2 the Americans & Canadians as well as all of the Brits and Aussis) and had a sing off between the Americans and the Canadians. It was HILARIOUS. The Canadians read a beer poem before their anthem talking about the misconceptions of Canadians. It was awesome. We started off with Yankee Doodle, then broke into America the Beautiful and then ended with the Star Spangled Banner. It was classic. So we didn't have hot dogs and burgers but we did have National Spirit :)