Outdoor Leadership Program

Lots has been happening down here!  Which is why I haven’t had time to post on the ole blog!

John Paul II Jr. College is up and running!  We currently have 30 students enrolled and we are quite happy with this number.  By the grace of God we have 3 qualified teachers attempting the interesting task of providing 30 Belizean students with a Liberal Arts education.  

JPII Camping Trip Outdoor Leadership Program

We kicked off the school year with our 1^st annual Outdoor Leadership Program.  Let’s just say the vision of what our Outdoor Leadership Program will be is … not what it looked like this year!  But that’s okay, we’ll get the hang of it and I can see it getting better and better each year. 

 This year we set off with a couple of trucks, 8 students, and 4 staff.  One truck was filled with normal camping supplies and an interesting assortment of food.   Well, what was interesting was the 200 ears of corn for 12 people.  One of the funniest things about the trip was watching Monica, a new American volunteer teacher, learn how Belizeans operate.  The food was one of the things she didn’t get.  “Corn?  200 ears?!  Is that normal camping food in Belize?”  “Pasta, potatoes, and eggs… with no seasoning?”  Another comical thing to witness was Monica noting we didn't bring any pepper and the Belizeans all assuring her that we did as the pointed out the three bottles of hot sauce.  Oh yes, "pepper" is hot sauce here, which makes sense, and if you want black pepper you have to specify BLACK pepper, otherwise you will get habanero hot sauce.  We were divided into cooking teams of 3 people each and given free range to make any combination of food for the day.  They system worked out well.  But the sanitation was another thing Monica found shocking.  We washed and cooked (everything that was boiled) in rain water.  We were staying at a house that is normally occupied by the caretakers who live there, up on the mountains, to guard the radio station equipment and tower.  The view is amazing.  Sitting ourside and seeing the view of the rolling mountains on all sides of us.  It's beautiful up there and so silent!  We didn't see another human being on any of the roads or trails for the whole 4 days we were there.  Well, except the man driving a log truck one time.  There’s no running water or electricity,  a small cement house with 2 rooms and one bathroom that quickly smelled like an outhouse as soon as we arrived.  The Belizeans are used to using rain water for everything it wasn’t a big deal at all.  Monica was quite surprised that washing dishes and cooking with rain water was acceptable and we weren’t going to get sick.  I knew the Belizeans wouldn’t get sick… but us two Americans… have to wait and see.  I had to pull teeth to use our filtered water (we brought for drinking) for the soup we made the day I cooked. 

 

Entering Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve

Our little house where the girls slept.

  

The shed/washing area where daily laundry was done. 

We woke up at 5am each day, prepared breakfast in the dark, ate, and took off for a hike at 6am.  The first day we hiked along a trail/road high up where we had awesome views of the rolling hills.  We made it to Baldy Beacon, the third highest place in Belize at 3,300’ (the highest is 3,600’) and since we made such good time we continued hiking for another few miles.  We hiked about 12 miles that day and returned back to the campsite in time for lunch.  When planning we were a bit worried about the endurance of the students but after the first day we could see they’d be fine physically with all the hikes we had planned.  

 

The group

 

Pictures from the first day's hike. 

 

Stopping for a snack (most likely corn)

 

 

That afternoon we started the Outdoor Leadership Program ACTIVITIES… now, this is the part that was up to Miss Betsy.  Interestingly enough, I have no experience or expertise in the area but TIB!  You do what needs to be done, if there’s nobody qualified… then you do it… you do your best and pray God does the rest!  I planned a few “team building” activities and that was about it.  Luckily the students were very open and had already gotten to know each other, so they were laughing and really enjoying the games.  Hopefully they learned something, too!  

 

Fr. John is less than thrilled with this activity.  

 

A maze where the only way out is to ask for help... you should ask Fr. John yourself how he felt about this!  Let's just say he refused to ask for help and therefore could never get out of the maze :)  

 

The view from our campsite.

The next day Fr. John and Mr. Rudolfo decided we would hike down a “very steep” trail that they had never been on but both really wanted to “explore”.  I was worried about where this trail would take us since some of the students have nothing to hike in but their flip-flops!  “Very steep” was unfortunately not an exaggeration.  Monica and I realized that Belizeans don’t bother with switchbacks, they just cut straight down no matter the incline!  We were moving pretty slowly going down.  After an hour we found ourselves suddenly in a rain forest like environment completely different than up above where we were camping.  It was amazing to be down there in the midst of the thick plant life.  Soon enough we came upon a stream and took a nice break.  Fr. John went swimming, or “bathing” as they say here, and Mr. Rudolfo ate a couple ears of corn, which he snacked on several times a day.  After we took our break we split into two groups.  The less adventurous group (and I believe wiser group) decided to head home realizing the uphill hike would be challenging.  The more adventurous group continued on to do more “exploring”… ending up hiking a total of at least 14 miles and cutting through the bush to find a road that they thought was there even though they couldn’t see it.  Lucky for them they were right.  At least Mr. Rudolfo got to use that machete he was itching to use on the hike.  We all met up at home for lunch, another interesting creation made with corn, potatoes, pasta, and/or eggs, had more “Leadership Activities”, and celebrated our daily Mass.  Mass was a wonderful addition to this camping trip outdoor leadership program.  Each day it was peaceful and intimate with our small group praying together and having quiet time with God.  Mass and being in God’s beautiful creation… can you think of a better combination?! 

 

The creek on our second day hike.  

 

 

having Mass in our make-shift chapel

We also went to the creek eat day to “bathe” and wash clothes.  Another thing Monica just couldn’t wrap her head around.  Most of the students washed their clothes each day, either in the creek or with the rain water at camp.  “Why not just wait and wash them at home?”  but when she asked this question to Mr. Rudolfo he replied, “Well most people are just used to washing whatever they’ve worn for the day and hanging it up.”  It’s just part of the routine here.  So, although it was too humid for the clothes to really dry on the line, they were still washed daily. 

 

Riding in the truck on the way to "bathe" in the creek

 

Filling up water jugs to bring back to camp while we bathe in the river.

 

The drive back was the most adventurous part of the trip.  The last day we packed up camp and burnt all the garbage (yes, even the plastic… here they use plastic grocery bags to light fires) before stopping at 1,000’ Falls and bathing at Rio On Pools.   

 

1,000' Falls

 

 

"Rio on Pools"

 

 

eating lunch by the pools

The drive home was the worst part of the trip for me.  The roads have a “washboard” effect due to the rain and run-off.  You can see it in the picture.   

 Unfortunately, Fr. John’s truck has the tendency to fishtail very easily and that combined with the washboard roads is a dangerous combination.  I could feel the back of the truck slipping quite often and finally it happened, we spun all the way out to the left and then all the way back to the right.  Thank God I was driving the supply truck and not the people truck that had 6 people in the back!  Those 6 people were watching us fishtail out of control.  All was okay and we continued driving to the Rio On Pools where we calmed our nerves in the pools.  After eating lunch (more potatoes!) we headed home.  The roads are basically not roads, they are dirt paths littered with ruts and rocks the size of small boulders.  There were spots where I literally stopped and made a plan of how to attack this situation in my little ford truck.  Within 5 minutes of leaving the pools I felt the truck pulling to the right and sure enough we had a flat… the worst flat I’ve ever had, the worst flat I’ve ever seen.  Somehow I managed to put a big punctured hole in the SIDE of the tire.  After a few minutes the other truck came back to help us, which is good because it took about a half an hour to get the spare tire off the truck.  Thanks to Mr. Rudolfo and 3 students, we were back on the road and this time the people truck followed us.  We drove home about 2 hours on that little donut spare, which made Monica and I nervous, but seemed to be perfectly fine according to the Belizeans!  

All in all it was a wonderful Outdoor Leadership Program, especially for our first time out!  We learned a lot of valuable tips for next year’s program.  God blessed us with wonderful weather the whole time we were there, in fact, I kind of didn’t want to come back to the lower elevation in Benque because it was so cool and breezy up there!  Thanks to everyone for your prayers!  I will be writing more about the first week of Jr. College classes, 1^st form classes, and KINDLES very soon!