Aint no other day like a Holy-day
Saturday July 2nd
So today would have been the day we would do the Health Fair for San Martin but things have not really worked out as we planned. We think that next year it would be better to have the health fair especially since they take time to plan, budget for and execute. Also by then we will have built relationships with organizations throughout Belmopan and also UB will have more “buy-in” into our vision. Caitlin and I are definitely interested in coming back and seeing how the process has proceeded.
So this Saturday I went to church with Rich and Chris and their daughter. We went to the same church we visited last Saturday and this time a different guy preached. He sounded un-Belizean maybe Haitian (he had this accent that is very familiar in Florida). The church was filled with mostly children from the orphanage and there were a few new faces that I had not seen last week that were present. After singing a few hymnals without the aid of a piano and also participating in Sabbath school the preacher began preaching at 10am. The message was interesting and very different from what I have heard and lasted about 45 minutes. During the 45 minutes I found myself sweating from the humidity and heat that was interrupted by short bouts of rainfall. Coupled with the hot weather the flies and bugs were buzzing around and would bite anyone they were able to land on for more than a few seconds, so to deter them I would fidget in my seat and try my hardest to pay attention. The message was different and Chris mentioned that she didn’t like the way the sermon was preached because it seemed like a sermon that was used to scare people into being good. She also said that she realized that most preachers in Belize would preach those types of sermons and wondered why that was the case. After the sermon we headed back to Chris and Rich’s house and made lunch, which consisted this week of baked potatoes (Belizean potatoes seem a little more starchier than potatoes at home), salad, stir fried garlic and broccoli, and a fruit salad (mangoes, cantaloupe, pineapple, banana) that I made. MMMMM… after eating so much fried food this week having greens and fruits felt very rewarding. As we ate we talked about the how my research was progressing and they also wondered why the Belizean government did not allow imports of vegetables and fruits into the country. Its interesting because there are many factors that are affecting the health of people here and politics has a large part to play. It seems like everything is PUBLIC HEALTH, everything is related to health here. As 2pm approached Rich and his wife dropped me home and told me they would pick me up next week. When I came home the house was empty and the girls had left me a note indicating that they were at Perk-up, a coffee, Internet café. I was glad for the solitude and rested on my bed for a few hours before getting back up again and feeling somewhat bored. After a few minutes I turned on the TV and surfed the channels looking for something and found a CNN special about sex trafficking of women which is also an issue here in Belize, sometimes its sucks to be a woman because in many societies you are a voiceless individual. I wonder if next year we can tackle this issue in a survey or intervention?
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