Pilot Day: Thursday June 23

Performing the Pilot

This morning we left Belmopan at 7:30am. We met at the bus station to head to Belize City. The ride was a little longer than the ride to San Ignacio since we were on a regular bus, so there was a lot of stopping and going. I was actually very excited to go to Belize City since all we have heard are the horrors of staying there. When we drove into Belize City there was more action than in Belmopan, which is the capital. More cars, more noise more people.  We got off the bus and got into a taxi that shuttled us to Cleo White polyclinic. I think it was a great suggestion to have Roberta (Mrs. Timbrell) with us because we probably would have been taken advantage of, overcharged or something worse. The short 7 minute ride drove us around the city  and I could definitely tell that Belize City may still seem to many Belizeans as the capital of Belize. Once at the Cleo White polyclinic we met with Mrs. Wade who welcomed us and introduced us to some of her staff. Once getting our bearings she showed us where we would be administering the survey, which was in the waiting room. A lot of the people just stared at us and I wondered if any of them would volunteer to help us in the process. As we gathered our bearings Mrs. Timbrell began her appeal informing the waiting patients on who we were, what we were doing and asking whether anyone would volunteer. After 2 or so minutes of no one budging and blank stares a lady raised her hand and said she would do it. I approached her introduced myself and she informed me that she also worked within the health field and had to pilot test surveys so she knew how hard it was. At the end of the survey she gave me her opinion about the questions and said she was impressed that we had questions about domestic violence since it was a big problem here in Belize. She also said that asking about cervical cancer screening was also good because it would probably raise awareness in Belize since most women were hesitant to do it.   After her volunteering slowly more patients raised their hands. I think they were more curious into what exactly we were doing. After completing about 2 surveys each we thanked the hospital staff and Mrs. Bell and headed to the bus station across the street for Trial Farm. 

The Trial Farm pilot will be more like what we will be doing because it will entail us actually going up to different houses, knocking on doors, asking for participation and then administering the survey. The drive to Trial Farm is in a completely different direction and we headed further north into Belize. After about an hour and a half on the school bus, which is the public mode of transportation, we pulled into Trial Farm a sleepy town. Once at the hospital we met with the Public Health nurse who introduced us t a Peace Corp volunteer from NY.  She agreed to take us into the community we were piloting in and wished us luck. We then split into groups and began administering the survey. The entire process was pretty amazing because I was faced with some situations where I would be administering the survey and a family member would interject and give their opinion. Since I was a welcomed guest I would listen and nod and interact and then ask the question again to the person I was initially interviewing, At the end of the survey most people were very happy that we were doing the survey in Belize and said that it was much needed especially since they felt like the government was not doing much to address health issues and concerns. On the bus ride back in the evening we were so exhausted that we did not debrief like we had planned. Instead we will debrief tomorrow when we all meet up at UB.  I now hope that the community of San Martin is receptive to us working there gathering this information and I hope to learn something out of this entire experience, which I am sure I will and I definitely cant wait.