Keepin' Busy

We just came off a long weekend for Pan American Day. I have heard two sets of stories about Pan American Day in Belize. Some celebrate it as “Columbus Day”, or the day Columbus bumped into America, and others celebrate it as the day that the Mestizo people traveled South into Belize from the Yucatan Peninsula.

We have started to figure out how to mix up our week day nights after school. I have been getting rides into Sylvester Village a couple nights a week to play futbol with the fellas, and Zoia started her first dance class last Thursday at the village community center.

The “community center” was a large open space with about 5 beds in it and a pile of old 80’s donated books. We cleared the beds away, hooked up the music, and waited for all the dancers. About 15 women, myself, and Paulisito (also my right fullback) got it cracking as the whole village looked through the door. The dance class has some serious novelty value in these parts. Zoia broke it down as usual, and everyone else tried to keep up. She taught some cumbia, merengue, salsa, and a little reggae. The women, and Paulisito, ranged from ages 10-40. It was a good time, but next class Zoia will close the door, so the whole village doesn’t act like it’s a performance. The women were justifiably real self-conscious.

Since the adult class on Thursday nights was such a hit, but also such a spectacle, Zoia has created a class for the girls of the school two days a week at the same community center. Right now she is teaching hip-hop on Mondays, and African on Wednesdays. The movements are very new for the girls, but they seem to enjoy it very much. Those same two days, I coach the boys futbol team on the village cancha. Our team is 14 boys ranging from 4-8th grade. I take Siboney for the first half of the practice, where she attempts to do jogging warm ups with the boys, and then proceeds to cry at half field when she cant keep up. I then take her to the dance class for the second half of the class, where someone in the village inevitably buys her a dulce, and she jumps on the beds in the community center for the rest of the class.

When we are not teaching dance class or playing/coaching futbol after school, we are working. The school has very high expectations, and as with any teaching job, there is lots of planning to be done. Prior to arriving, we had this notion that we could kinda cruise on by because we were in Belize, and for some reason there wouldn’t be high expectations. I think Zoia and I would both attest to the fact that we are working harder here than we have at any job in the states.

There are also days when we are not coaching or teaching, when we are able to take a ride on the horses, take a jog around the farm or on the airstrip, feed the chickens, or pick fruit from the farm (bananas, oranges, mangoes, avocados, or breadfruit). There are obviously no restaurants nearby, so we cook every night.

I will spare you all another long futbol story, but will add that I had a hat trick in our last game at Indian Church a couple weekends ago. Apparently the little Belize futbol circuit here has never seen a gringo who can play a little. You would think that there might be a little love for the newcomer, but instead the hate seeps out of peoples pours. Apparently teams are out for me now. Great. Our team advanced to the second round of the tournament, where the competition gets much harder. Our next game is against Pine Ridge in the village of Guinea Grass. We play on Nov. 2nd.

We are trying to get our hands on a car, but with our remoteness it is very hard to get anything done. A whole day excursion is basically necessary to make it out of the bush and into some towns. Not to mention the fact that we are in Belize, and things move a bit slower in the tropics than they do in the states.

We are enjoying ourselves, and try to inhale the beauty of the rainforest as much as possible. We are slowly learning about the natural remedies and birds that surround us. We are in the midst of the rainy season. A relatively fierce rainstorm has come thru Gallon Jug just about every day for the last month. Apparently the village will easily break its rainfall record for the year. Many villages South of Gallon Jug are being flooded as a result of incoming Guatemalan rivers that are rushing really hard this time of year.