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 1st 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, 1st form classes, and KINDLES very
soon!
