Don't Stop Belize-ing

I am currently sitting inside my sister’s small cement apartment with a tin roof in Belize, listening to a rainstorm outside. We arrived at the Guatemala/Belize border this morning after an overnight bus ride and one change in the morning. Being hungry, we went straight into San Ignacio for breakfast. San Ignacio is the second largest city in Belize, which in a country of only 300,000 people, is more like a small town. For breakfast we went to Pop’s, a tiny, charming but crammed eatery, and ate fryjacks (fried dough) topped with eggs and refried beans- delicious!

And then to the 4- acre complex where my sister lives, which is located outside the “city” on a 400- acre farm. During the school year, it is a study abroad program called Creation Care Study Program (CCSP). Students from all different majors come for 5 months to study the environment, ecology, and spirituality in Belize. Some of the organizations I will be visiting are where students have internships throughout their semester.

Today is an orientation of sorts, where I have been able to meet some of the staff at CCSP and sit down with them to talk about a schedule for the week. I have made some appointments, but scheduling here does not happen the way we do it in the U.S.! Sometimes you just have to show up and do the best you can to connect with people and organizations.

I had an interesting conversation with Derek and Ashley, the directors of CCSP. I was curious about the structure of social service in Belize, where only 4% of the country makes above $24,000 ($12,000 USD). They said that the government has a difficult time providing for people, as poverty is widespread. NGOs, or non-profits, do a lot of this work. However, since the earthquake in Haiti, most of the social service funding in the Caribbean (Belize is considered part of the Caribbean), has gone to Haiti. Therefore, the funding for many social service agencies is currently very low to nonexistent. I had never thought about how the disaster in Haiti would greatly affect other countries in need in the Caribbean.