I had a conversation with my class last week. I gave them a simple journal prompt that asked them what they wanted to be when they graduated from school. Two of my students started smiling at each other from across the classroom. I asked what they were smiling about? They replied that they knew what the each other wanted to be after they graduated. I told them to write in their journals, and that I would let them share their responses after 10 minutes of writing. I selected the two boys first. I asked them to share with the class what they were smiling about. They told the class that ever since they were in Infant 1 (1st grade) they had always wanted to be tour guides in the rainforest. More specifically, they both had decided that they wanted to essentially be naturalists that showed tourists about the natural remedies that the rainforest had to offer.
About a week later, I had the students bring in one natural resource from their communities as an introductory activity for talking about what natural resources the Mayans might have used. I expected the students to bring in fruit and pieces of wood. Instead, the students brought in various types of plants. Of course I don’t remember any of the names off the top of my head, but there were easily about 10 different natural resources from their communities that were used for everything from headaches, to pulled muscles and injured bones. Some of the plants needed to be boiled, while others rubbed onto the skin, while others could just be eaten as is. Now the students could have easily picked any plant out of the forest and pulled a quick one on me, except for the fact that every student in the classroom confirmed exactly what each of the plants was called and what it was used for.
Now prior to arriving here in Gallon Jug, I had only read about the rainforest in books, and seen it on movies. It is a spectacular place. Zoia and I have had the opportunity to drive thru the forest. We have seen foxes, owls, ocelots, snakes, jaguars, and many other animals that have native names that I cant remember. The experience of seeing something for the first time that you have only read about can be compared to the likes of seeing the ocean for the first time. The rainforest is, indeed, a great wonder of the world; a sincerely magical place.
We have been so hammered with rain that all of the rivers have overflowed. Many parts of Belize have called natural disaster warnings. We are fairly safe because the rainforest drinks most of the rain, however the two roads in and out of Gallon Jug have been flooded. One of the trucks from Gallon Jug tried to pass the Rio Grande a couple of weeks ago. I would guess that the overflowed portion of the river was about 100 yards long. The car made it about 80 yards (almost to the end) before the front wheels went up, and the rest of the car continued. There were 5 or 6 dudes (all fathers of children at our school) who climbed out of the windows and swam to the side through a pretty rough current. One of the guys could not swim. He stood on top of the roof of the car until someone threw him a rope. Scary shit! The thought of loosing someone in such a tragedy is a horrible thought within itself, but even worse when you consider the size of our community.
Our community is made up of three entities: Gallon Jug Farm, Sylvester Village, and Chan Chich Lodge. Gallon Jug Farm is where we live. There are 6 other families who live on the farm, for a grand total of 19 people, including children. About 3 miles away is the village of Sylvester, where most of our community lives. Approximately 30 thatched-roof houses surround our futbol field, and extend from one riverbed to another. The village has one store, a community center, two churches (one Catholic and one Evangelical), and of course the futbol field. There are probably about 150 residents in Sylvester Village. The 3rd point in the triangle is Chan Chich Lodge, which is about 3-4 miles from Gallon Jug and Sylvester Village. Chan Chich is one of the worlds premiere jungle lodges. Tourists pay big bucks to come stay in the jungle, ride horses, hike, bird watch, and relax. There is a small village that makes up the workers of Chan Chich. I would guess that the population of Chan Chich is about 50.
Our entire community is no larger than 300 people. As you can imagine in such a small community, there are not many secrets. Bonchinche is people’s favorite past time. Everyone is quite literally related to one anther. One family’s grandfather was sick last week. As a result of his illness, the family went to go visit him. About 1/8th of our school was missing.
I was told that a National Geographic photographer/USC professor came out here to photograph something or other. He ended up visiting our school. He told our principal that in all of his travels throughout the world, he has never seen more “pure” children. The word “pure” is a perfect description for these people. They are genuinely beautiful, gracious, gentle, and caring people. Their physical characteristics are strongly Mayan, with significant traces of Asian ancestry, as the Mayans probably crossed the Baring Strait from Mongolia. The Mayan hierarchal system is vaguely familiar in our community. Certain families rise to the top in regards to school achievement, more desirable jobs, and social networks, while others follow different destinies.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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