Musings

My toes are sun tanned!! For two months I've been wearing open-toed sandals and now my toes are perpetually dirty-looking and my instep is noticeably still white because of the straps that protect the rest of my foot from the sun.
Buses and feet are the main means of transportation, especially for those of us who are prohibited from driving. There are few cars in this country and even fewer roads. The country is connected by four highways and a few dozen or so dirt roads. The speedlimit on the highways is 60mph and with so few cars and virtually no intersections to contend with, I think that makes sense. The scenery along the highway that I travel most often is spectacular - mountains, valley, plantations. Most of the local citizens travel by bus for village-to-village or town travel and by bike for in-village travelling. Most villages are located on or just a few miles off a highway. So walking is also a common form of getting about.
Fashion here is very Americanized. I've seen more NBA shirts that I typically saw in Virginia. In one Saturday, I counted 9 Lakers, 7 Suns, 7 Bulls, 5 Rockets, and 1 Spurs!!

Greetings!

A little over two months I said goodbye and headed off to Belize. Little did I know I had so much to learn (the least of which is that my communications options are very limited, but I hope they will be improving shortly). I'm posting this first blog four days after completing the training phase. An today I began my assignment - literacy advisor for a church-sponsored school in a small sea-side village. Belize has adopted a church-state cooperation in the management of their "public" schools. Some of these schools are run by Catholic, Methodist, Anglican churches or by the government itself, but all follow the same state-sponsored curriculum with some room for individualization.

I'll try to share some of my impressions. Hope you'll find something of interest to you!