Tuesday August 2nd 2011

The plan today was to clean the house and pack. I woke up at 8am and did an hour workout. After working out and feeling quite satisfied I ate breakfast and began to clean the kitchen and living room. While I was doing this I began to complete the left over laundry I had. Its so weird how much dirt accumulates in this house and how this house needs so much more scrubbing and cleaning for me to at least feel somewhat clean in it. A full garbage can later while also completing more than half of my laundry and cleaning the kitchen, throwing away vegetables, the house was in a much better state. I almost forgot my meeting and rushed on campus at 12:15pm. Upon reaching Dr. McKays office I discovered that I was an hour early but she agreed to still have the meeting. After talking and catching up I suggested having a nutrition intervention or exercise intervention. She loved it! We started making other interventions ideas and she discussed the importance of getting in touch with Dr. Corvin especially in moving the project forward.

Dr, McKay also talked about involving the University of Southern California, Victoria University and Viturbia University. USF would still remain as the central university since this is mainly our project but having other involvement will help in asking the project actually work.  We also discussed the importance of the professional development of Alicia and Tita especially with sustainability. I also discussed the importance of removing the stigma surrounding mental health in San Martin and having that become a component of our project. McKay loved that idea. 

Another idea Dr. McKay suggested was a focus on men’s health issues especially since Public Health has really focused on Women’s health and women’s issues which are important but the lack of focus on men’s health has pushed many people away. I agree, we definitely have to redraw public health to include everyone. We also have to start looking for funds for our projects and writing proposals, which should be extremely exciting because there are many calls to proposals currently for the Caribbean and Central America Region. My only fear is that the project may loose the focus we have wanted to target if others involved do not understand where we want to go with this. I also worry about the sustainability of the project. 

Monday August 1st 2011

Today I was finally able to meet with Marissa. She finally showed up after me trying to get a hold of her for the past week. After trying to get our deposit back I became frustrated and just couldn’t deal with her anymore. She has tried to make this experience very un-enjoyable because she has definitely tried to milk us and take advantage. KARMA will get her back! After she left I continued with re-checking the entry to ensure that there were no mistakes in data entry and then started to look at some of our results. I’ve been doing some preliminary views on the surveys collected and it seems very interesting. Towards the late afternoon I started cleaning and doing some housecleaning. At 4pm I went on campus to use the internet and send out some emails and then met with Ruud who came over to watch "Basketball Wives"” our guilty pleasure here in Belize. After dinner was over I noticed the quietness in the house and it is becoming more apparent that time is going by.

Saturday July 30th 2011 (Belmopan Day)

Today morning I had to call Chris and Rich to inform them that I wouldn’t be joining them for church since I had the house keys and my roommate wasn’t yet home. They sounded disappointed and I was disappointed too. Thinking that Suzie would arrive by 11am like she had informed me, I waited around and prepared myself to leave the house however by 3pm she had not arrived. By then I was frustrated of waiting at home and decided to walk to the neighborhood park where I could hear music playing( I left a note letting Suzie know where I was incase she came later). Walking over to the park was a great idea because it is actually Belmopan Day today. Today is when the culture of Belmopan is showcased to its inhabitants and all those who want to take part. The coolest part of the day was the steel drum band that played songs from lady Gaga to Bruno Mars. After hanging out at their booth I walked around to other booths that were mostly food vendors and ran into Roberta who was at a booth with her husband showcasing the things they sell at their computer store. After sitting with them for a while and chatting I decided to try my luck at horse riding since the prices were pretty cheap. As I looked at the horses and decided which horse to take for a ride an owner came over and told me he would let me take one of his horses for free. Feeling a little uneasy I said thank you but I would rather pay. The advances eventually progressed to him asking me whether I wanted a boyfriend on the side despite me telling him I was already taken. He even admitted to being married and I was very disgusted and he was making all these advances in front of his 9-year-old son. I was embarrassed for him and sorry for his son. Because I was disgusted I decided not to get on any horses until later when someone older was also around. When I went back to Roberta and told her the story she said she was not surprised. That could be one way STI’s get transmitted so easily, awareness has to start somewhere, but how do you tackle this issue to show men that having extramarital affairs hurts their families?

At 5pm Suzie and her boyfriend joined us at the Belmopan fair by then some of the booths had cleared out and a Dunk contest had begun. After watching the games we listened to some Punta Rock and walked home at 9pm. Tomorrow Suzie will and her boyfriend will be leaving to go to Caye Caulker and will be leaving the country after that. I officially will have 12 days left in Belize. Where has the time gone?

Monday July 25th- friday July 29th

 

Data Entry

On Monday I woke up, ran at 7am and did a 20 minutes workout. Perfect start to a day. When I was finished Suzie was still asleep. I decided to prepare myself for the day. At 11am we headed for the UB library. While there I tried to fix the Epi Info database but after 4 hours I realized that the file was corrupted and was exhausted. We then went home at 5 and Suzie decided to reenter the Epi Info since I felt so frustrated with the program. By 9pm the Epi Info had been redone and I decided to do a 30-minute workout. As I headed out to the balcony I looked up and saw the largest spider I had ever seen. After running back inside and refusing to workout outside I decided to do my workout in the living room. Lately there have been more spiders coming out so maybe that’s the big mom or something. Either way I was inside and it was outside. After my workout I headed to bed.

            Tuesday morning was much the same. I woke up to do a 20-minute kickboxing workout. After that I readied myself for the day. By 10am I had began entering the data into Epi Info. At 12pm Suzie headed to the library while I stayed home working on the Epi Info until 3pm.  Suzie then came in at 3:30pm and continued working on the data entry. We are coming to the end.

            On Wednesday Suzie left to go get her boyfriend while I continued working on data entry. By the time she came back it was 2:30pm and since they had arrived late they decided to go and get lunch. By 7pm they returned. By then I had prepared dinner and was watching “Captain America”. I don’t understand how they have movies that have just opened in the U.S playing on TV. Gotta love the black-market.  At night, Suzie entered some surveys and we went to bed.

            On Thursday, Suzie and her boyfriend left for their vacation in San Ignacio and are supposed to return tomorrow afternoon, while I continued working on entering the surveys. I also tried opening up the work that Suzie added but could not locate it and had to start re-entering data. Thinking that Suzie would return to Belmopan on Friday evening so that I could get help at entering the remaining data I was instead informed that I wouldn’t be getting any help since Suzie would be staying that Friday night and coming on Saturday morning. Thus the remaining time was spent on entering the houses into Epi Info. We have officially completed 155 households. Data analysis will begin this weekend.

Sunday July 24th 2011

 Life and death

I woke up at 6am since we were supposed to be in San Ignacio by 9am. After getting ready I sat in the living room and waited for Suzie to emerge from her room at 7:15 I knocked on her door to discover she had not awoken yet. After asking her if she could be ready in a few minutes I waited and hoped we wouldn’t be late for our appointment with the horses. By 7:35 we had left and that meant we had missed the opportunity to catch the 7:30 am bus. As we walked to the bus stop I wondered about horses and the entire experience and whether we would make it on time (especially since we had haggled our way down to $25 US and did not have a receipts. When we go t to the bus stop at 7:55pm we saw that the next bus was supposed to come at 8am. 8am came and passed, next bus 8:15am. That came and passed. I was now more worried. At 8:50am the bus pulled in, to make it worse the bus was really full and we had a difficult time finding seats. In the end we ended up sitting three to a seat which doesn’t usually happen. I think the bus management felt bad since the bus  was so late that they allowed us all on the bus. Once we were packed in we headed to San Ignacio. At least it wasn’t raining outside because that would have meant closed windows and hot air in such close proximity.

Once we got to San Ignacio I was approached by the taxi driver who said he had been waiting for us. We got in and headed back towards Lomaloss SDA hospital and pulled of a road headed to the stables. Once there we realized how hot it. HOT!! After the taxi driver talked to the stable hands they prepared the horses for us to ride. While we waited we talked to the stable hand of the other stable who said we should have come earlier because the other horses had just left. I didn’t know what he meant since the horses were in their stables and we could see them. I then understood what he said when one of the horses they were preparing for us decided to just fall on its side. UMMM NO!! I definitely was rethinking this horse-riding experience. Was it worth it to get on a horse that wasn’t that stable? What was even wrong with the horse, was it rabid? After being adamant they brought another 2 years old brown horse for me ride. They then told us that it would be good to ride bareback since it was easier on our legs. We tried bareback, it was a no go. We then got English saddles put on the horses. As we were about to head out another couple who owned two horses said they would not ride the horse I was assigned because it was being trained to race. Because of this the stable hands decided to pony-ride us (meaning they would hold the horses while we were on them) to the river. After hearing about the sewage in the Macal I don’t think I will be going in for a dip especially since we are down river from where the release occurs. As we rode my horse would get a little startled by cars but once we were out in the open country it was quiet except the clicking of the horses hooves and me making conversation with the stable hand holding my horse. As he kept reassuring me about my safety I asked him questions about his life how he got started with horses, Belize, etc. it was a good conversation as I learned a lot about horses and taking care of them. By the time we got to the river I was a lot more calmer and we took a break by the river while the horses went into the water to cool down and ate nearby grass. After 45 minutes we headed back to the stables. On our way back they et the horses trott which was a little scary but pretty awesome. When we got back to the stable we helped to wash down the horses to cool them off. By then more people were gathered drinking Belkins. After 20 minutes we were invited to sit under the tent with them while we waited for the taxi to come back.

The conversations occurring around us were funny and varied. We then learned that we were in the midst of some of the gagsters of San Ignacio from one of the stable hands. He even said if you were alone with your bag you would be robbed but you are here with us and we are happy so you are okay. We then heard stories about racing horses and the importance of not caring what other people say. As we waited, more men came and pulled out some drug paraphernalia. I declined and sat in conversation with the other stable hands. Some of the stable hands then headed to the stable we had rented horses from and the stable hand we were with explained that 2 of the horses had laminitis because they had had diets that were unbalanced and mainly consisting of protein. We asked about who bought the food and we were told that the owner of the horse was somewhere in France partying and had not provided food for a while. They then told us that the horse had to be killed because there was no cure for laminitis and the horse had benne suffering for a while. One of the guys they led the horse away as it limped. It was sad because all the other horses became tuned in and just started quietly in their direction. After a while the taxi pulled up. As we talked we heard the distant sound of a gun shot. I guess the deed had been done. I cant believe my ears were witness to that.

            As we headed back to San Ignacio I couldn’t help but wonder about the fragility of life. We then headed to Cahal Pech, walked around, took picture. On our way out we talked with the lady who sells souvenirs and I was able to see Xichel and the medicine man (not sure what his name is in Maya). She then told us that pregnant women should not eat cool things but only warm things she even said that they shouldn’t eat certain fruits like pears. It would be great to do some type of medical anthropology class here in Belize. I think I would learn a lot. After walking back down the hill we headed to the San Ignacio hotel where we lounged in the pool for an hour and a half before heading back to Belmopan with beef quesadillas.  It was a successful day besides the horse dying.

Saturday July 23rd 2011

San Ignacio

Basking in the excitement of getting an awesome grade on my EOH (Environmental Occupational health) final exam, this morning Suzie and I went to San Ignacio. I was really excited today morning because yesterday evening I discussed with Suzie what things I had yet to do and really wanted to get accomplished here in Belize. Since Suzie hadn’t been to San Ignacio we headed there at 10am. The ride took the usual 1-hour and some minutes. When we got there we headed to the market, which is a few steps from the bus station, and walked around to see what mementos we could purchase to take back with us. After walking around and scoping the stalls we planned our plan of attack and were able to purchase a few of the slate stone Mayan calendars and some necklaces. Since Suzie is planning to come back to San Ignacio with her boyfriend later this week we walked around San Ignacio looking for tour companies and prices for different activities. I still want to go horse back riding. The prices we got were $50 US and up for 2 hours and the price went up as you increased time. We then went to a local restaurant which also houses Sergio who gave us an awesome quote earlier when we had gone to Caracol earlier in June. His price quote was also a little high. Since we were already in the restaurant we decided to get lunch. It was hard to make a decision but after getting input from individuals who worked in the restaurant we settled on Pineapples juice and Beef quesadillas, Mmmh GOODNESS!!!!

After quenching our first and satisfying our hunger we headed back to the bus station and stopped at a tour company and after haggling we were able to get horse back riding for 4hours for $25. JACKPOT!!! We then went to the market to purchase some melons (Cantaloupe and watermelon) and pineapple but got sidetracked b the Macal River. There we met a gentleman named Michael who we talked with for a while. He revealed to us that the Macal river was not clean because sewage was allowed to seep into it and he did not understand how both political parties would not do anything to prevent the sewage from leaking into the water. We then headed back onto the bus satisfied and excited for the horse back riding that is going down tomorrow but convinced that we would not set foot into the river.

Tuesday July 19th through Friday July 22nd

             These past days we have had off to do homework and prepare and take out final exams. Suzie and I have been at the library studying daily, looking over our assignments. On Wednesday I was so nervous because I was unsure of whether I would do well because of pre-exam jitters. It is also exam week here at UB so we have seen a larger than normal group of students here at the library studying for exams. Everyone seems a little stressed. My hope is that the internet does not go out or that power does not fail us, but its been sunny lately so I don’t think power will go out especially when it sunny and there are no environmental elements messing with the power or internet. Suzie and I have also been running every evening, which has really helped to relieve stress.

On Friday I woke up at 7am and looked over exam notes. I debated bringing my earplugs but talked myself out of it since it was a Friday and the library was normally empty on Fridays and I wouldn’t need it, or so I thought.  I walked to the library to start the exam at 9am. By 9:30 am I was ready to start and logged into the exam. There were not a lot of people at the library, which was good because there was not that much noise to contend with and I had enough space on the table to spread my materials out. 100 questions, 2hrs and 30 minutes. I remember thinking please don’t let anything go wrong and I began the exam. 20 minutes into the exam Suzie walked into the library and inquired whether I had started. With a quick nod she was aware that it was in progress. I noticed that the Internet was a little slow but at least it was in working order. When I got to question 30 there was a time out in the Internet, which made me, freak out since I was already falling behind. I asked Suzie if the Internet had gone out and she agreed. Within a few seconds it was back on and I continued to do the exam. At question 40 it timed out for a few minutes and I asked Carmen if it was out. She concurred and proceeded to call the technology department at UB while I cursed internally and became angry. Within a few more minutes it resumed but my timer on my exam was still ticking forward. I remember thinking “this better not happen again” and of course at question 51 it happened after 1 hour and 10 minutes had passed. By then I was over the UB Internet and I told Suzie I was relocating to the one place where Internet was guaranteed, the Bull Frog. Although, I had agreed earlier in June not to return to the Bull Frog because of their service I was desperate. I packed hurriedly and Suzie packed her belongings. I am so grateful that UB has taxi’s services right outside the library so I approached one with my laptop wide open and told him “make haste to Bull Frog, I am taking an exam right now, please”. I think the look on my face really expressed the urgency in my voice and we were on my way. 5 minutes later we pulled into Bull Frog and I rushed inside while Suzie helped by hooking up my computer to the power outlets and I continued my exam. Of course since Bull Frog is a hotel/restaurant the radio was blaring and we were approached on whether we wanted to eat. I really did not care and so Suzie ordered a coke for me while I continued my exam. With all the stress around from relocating and the radio I started to feel like I wouldn’t get enough time to go over questions so I started to give best guesses to questions and also stated to mark down these questions on a sheet of paper. I was running out of time and quickly. Even though the exam was an open book exam I had already lost considerable time and started to get very sad. At 2hours and 25 minutes I made it to question 99 and went back to the questions I had left blank. Oh yea, thank you black board for having Test survey which allows you to see al your questions at once and see all the blank ones so that you don’t have to go through each question to get to the blank question, THANK YOU.

            Anyway, I was able to go over the 12 or so questions and give my best guess, I then went to question 100 answered and with 30 seconds to spare submitted my exam, with the feeling of dread and sadness. I then emailed my professor and explained my sadness on how I did not think I did well. After so much sadness I started talking to my sister about the exam and expressed my sadness. I was very angry with the Internet and I was over Belize, I deserve and “A” because I studied my material, I just needed more time. After waiting a few minutes and trying to lift my spirits I still wished I would get an answer from my professor either confirming my fears rejecting them. After 3 hours I got an answer. I did amazingly well a 93!, Guess who got an A? I did!!!

Belize has certainly showed me how much I appreciate small things like Internet. The grade was a good close to the summer semester and gives me 3 weeks of no stress especially about schoolwork, well besides the IFE. Talk to you on Monday.