PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

They have been telling us for months that there are two seasons in Belize: rainy and dry. Rainy season usually lasts from June-November and the dry season is December-May. Give or take a month. The difference has been that until the last few days, it has rarely rained and many have said it was one of the driest rainy seasons in a very long time. Somehow I think Al Gore warned must have been right.

I brought this nice rain jacket here because someone told us it rains all the time. I have carried it for roughly 77 of the 80 we have been in country. It has only rained 3 days during the day where I've been. I'm assuming you can guess just which 3 days it rained.

But today, I am ready! Yesterday I witnessed some of the hardest rains I've ever seen in my entire life that have been fairly consistent for the past few days. Why is all the rain coming now? That's an easy answer: It's still hurricane season. The Caribbean has a new friend named Ida hanging out right now.

Currently Tropical Storm Ida, but formerly Hurricane Ida, is messing around with Nicaragua. She goes back and forth between tropical storm and a hurricane like women go from the blue dress to the red dress. We wont even get into shoes. Current projections say she will take a dip back in the sea tomorrow to gain some strength then cruise up the coast before making landfall again around Cancun, Mexico. The course just so happens to be Belize's coastline. hoo-ra Belize.

Now don't get all worried, Peace Corps has a safety plan for everything. Probably too much to be honest, but its for our own good. They have different stages of safety. They are:

• All Clear - Just any regular day where nothing is going on
• Standfast- Danger is lurking and we are not allowed to go anywhere. Sit waiting for further instructions. Report to your warden your location (there is 1 warden in each district that reports every one's location to PC).
• Partial Consolidation- Everyone meets at a consolidation point in their district and waits together for further instruction.
• Full Consolidation- They bring every PCV in the country to Belmopan and put us up in the luxurious Gar Den City Hotel until everything is back to "All Clear."

Currently, we are at Standfast waiting for instruction. Don't be worried, I have a Leatherman and I think I know how to use it. I have my trusty rain jacket too!

Everyone in Belize right now doesn't seem to be worried, so I will let my paranoia come from them. All the kids still run around, the teachers are smiling, life is good. "Belize is a blessed place," says my principal. I guess I'll believe her.

Basically this is nothing, but I'm still new here so it's exciting to me. In a few months, Standfast will be some joke until the next thing happens and real action begins. I do not wish to see anything too serious because we all know those who lose out the most will not be Peace Corps. It will be those who have the least and live closest to the sea. Most things are all fun and games to us, but the truth is that people's lives could be at stake. Houses may be destroyed, roofs will have to be replaced, crops will be ruined, and we will all be safe and sound inside a hotel room.

It's the biggest contradiction to Peace Corps' mission of integration into a community. Send Americans there to support a community until they need it most, then pull them out to be with the rest of the gringos. Sure, it's about safety, but it's still not fair.

So for now, I will Standfast with my community in Yo Creek, and wait for further instructions.