Goings on through pictures

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Since my posts have been lacking in pictures, I added a good amount from the past couple of weeks.

A. Molly and I had a romantic Tropical Tgiving without an oven. The cake was an interesting debacle but turned out delicious.

B. Some pictures from the Nim Li Punit trip.

C. Big Falls, a local village, had a Bizarre (fun fair school fundraiser). We stood out like sore thumbs as two of the only four white people there and were therefore the entertainment for 79% of the children there. At first I thought they were hanging all over us because they thought we would give them money, but Molly said that Mayan women only pay attention to the youngest child, so older children are often left yearning for any sort of affection. We had a posse of children following us around all day, and, shedding my miser identity, I was throwing dollas around like the Terlatos buying beers, snacks, and game tokens for our band of babies.

Work update: I'm still working to find out my place in the organization. Things take a lot longer to get done around here, as is common pretty much everywhere outside of the United States. It's frustrating having to wait on this inherent slowness, especially with such limited time down here, but I am definitely learning patience.
So far I have been developing a project idea funded by the Organization of the American States for income-generating activities for a local women's group. My ideas were worked into the budget and we will be starting a passion fruit garden for the women to grow and sell to local restaurants, hotels, and markets as juice and concentrate. I'd like to start marketing their crafts a bit better and also hopefully put together some dried fruits. There is so much I'd like to do with this women's group, but Mayan women are unbelievably shy. They understand English, though mostly speak in Kekchi, an ancient Mayan language. A majority of the older women are illiterate and I would love to get a group together to start reading, but I have to work very slowly on this. I've already gotten the reputation among Ya'axché as "crazy about women".
We met this incredible lady who runs this enormous citrus farm. We were visiting farms to discuss cover cropping between citrus plants to avoid pesticides and to increase soil fertility while reducing erosion. Farmers are traditionally male and too proud to seem overly open to any new ideas that we might present to them. It came as a welcome shock to be greeted by a powerful woman, proud that she was running her entire farm alone, taking care of her mother and her children. We'll be bringing the Arachis pintoi cuttings to her farm next week to help with the planting. I'm excited to be able to spend some more time with her.

Less than three weeks until my brief return to the US!

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Photos

Tropical Tgiving
Molly hard at work

Gourmet tgiving
Cake without an oven, soup type thing, tortillas...

...and
Mashed potatoes and pineapple.

Final product
All artwork in Belize is cheesy, as you can see from our beautiful, tropical mural.

Oh hello!
We got all dressed up for the feast.

Romantic tgiving
The fluorescent flash doesn't do the candlelight romance much justice.

Batty
The little buddy who terrorized my room that night, then slept in the kitchen after being shooed out by broom.

Ya'axché tree at Nim Li Punit
Where the organization takes its name.

Caaaakes
Molly commented that whenever she couldn't find me at the Bizarre, she would walk into the pastry room and see me drooling over something.

Filthy little children
These girls were adorable, but seriously filthy. The one on the left literally absorbed things from our body, such as the hair tie I had to use to put up her greasy hair and the pin that held up my shorts to keep her dress from falling off.

Abelino's family
We still haven't decided why Abelino's wife refused to look at the camera.
Oh ps Abelino is one of our rangers.

Playing with garbage
Playing with littered plastic cups and cardboard boxes with Abelino's kids.

Have I mentioned the cakes yet?
Beer, cakes and more cakes.

Exasperated
End of the day filth and the children who kept forcing me to do airplane with them.

Comments

[gubba]

hey
well, here I am again, siting at SMM, It is Hospitality nite. We are serving chocolates.......great combination! It is six at night and i have Alyssa in the car. She can see me in the window.Lovedyour latest blog....just everything!!!! pictures and prose. Will you make one of those cakes for Christmas? I am feeling good and It is good to feel good!!! It's back to my projectsand speaking of that.......... your Mom has said that you all are gifting me manual labor as a Christmas gift......maybe do some staining? I am so excited!!!!!! and speaking of that, I can't wait to see you and hear of your experiences in Beliz. Love you, Gubba * we are serving chocolates and wine