PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

Last weekend, every trainee got the opportunity to go spend the weekend with a PCV that has been here for a year already and see how they live their lives. Since I have been living in San Ignacio in what I consider to be luxury, I was fortunate enough to see the exact opposite all weekend.

It all started with a night in Punta Gorda which is a 4 hour bus ride from Belmopan. The town that I was staying in didnt have a bus running that late at night so we had to stay in Punta Gorda that night. Punta Gorda is the district town of Toledo, one of the 6 districts in Belize. That night was a good time and I finally got to see the ocean for the first time. I was in the middle of some rant about how I've been in Belize for 3 weeks and I still havent seen the ocean. Then Rion pointed behind me and said it was right there. I said, "Where?" And of course, like the idiot that I am... I was literally 30 yards from the ocean the entire time. It was a little dark in my defense, but either way... I could have thrown a rock into the Caribbean Sea. I still wasnt sold on it, so I decided to taste it. Sure enough, it was salty. Good to know.

Now, moving on. We had a great breakfast in PG, followed by going to the market to get some food for the weekend. Little did I know that there isnt much food, or much of anything where I was going. Our bus ride from Punta Gorda was about 2 hours. None of which was on paved roads and we travelled probably 20 miles in 2 hours. Remember that Belize is only roughly the size of Massachussetts, but you can easily ride for 10 hours and not leave the country.

Upon arriving in San Jose, I looked around and wondered what we were going to do. My host looked at me and said, "what do you want do to?" My response was, "what is there to do?" "This is it." We were sitting there. No electricity. He had 1 spoon, 1 bowl, 1 fork. In a year of being in Belize, he has never had a visitor. Just because there was nothing to do, that doesnt mean I was bored. It was so great to do nothing for 2 days. Another note... I was stuck there. We got there on Saturday and there wasnt another bus leaving town until Monday morning.

Most of our time was spent looking at eachother and laughing due to the lack of things happening or just genuine good conversation. When I first walked into his house, I thought I was put with someone who had lost their mind. Have you ever seen "A Beautiful Mind"? This is what his house looked like. There were papers on the wall everywhere and it freaked me out a bit. Not to mention the newspaper article of a missing persons report.

Come to find out later, he is writing a novel and the walls are covered with character sketches, plot diagrams, maps of the town, timelines of the story, etc. It was obvious this is something he does a lot and has put copious amounts of time into. After learninga about the book, I wasnt freaked out anymore.

The rest of the time was spent hanging out with his "kids." He has basically adopted every child in the village. It's very funny because they are used to him, but then being that he has never had a visitor in his village, they didnt know what to do when 2 white people showed up. They mostly just stared. It was great, and before long there were kids coming from everywhere even after dark just to scream "nice to meet you" even though they couldnt see me due to there being no electricity.


One of my friends that I met along the way.

Im not sure this is something I could do and luckily, I know that I will not be doing. He is healthy communities and I am Youth Development and needless to say, I will not be in that remote of a village. Not to mention that he was in a Mayan village in the South and I will probably be in the North with a Spanish community. I think I would have a problem having so much "me" time. I like myself and all, but without human interaction... I'd be totally crazy in no time.

When we had to leave, the bus only leaves on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and every other Saturday. Now you would think that's not too bad. However, in order to leave, we got the privilege of catching the bus at 4:05am. Nothing like getting up at 3:45am to get on a bus. The sun is far from up by this point, which meant we got to wait for the bus by candle light. Then when the bus's lights could be seen from over the hill, he would take the candle inside and lock the door. It seems crazy at the time, but before long, it's just life. It's amazing to see what we can adapt to in such a short time.