Patchakan, etc.

This week we rolled up our sleeves and got some dirt under our fingernails during the second week of Sustainable Community Development. The students had a chance to facilitate participatory exercises in a Mayan farming community in northern Belize called Patchakan. Meeting in the Community Center in the center of the village on Tuesday night, we shared a great meal prepared by a local women’s group and great conversation with about 30 members of the community. After dinner the students broke up into groups and worked with the community facilitating exercises such as community mapping, problem/cause diagramming, and Venn diagramming – tools used by development practioners across the world. Conversation was easy as the members of Patchakan have much to be vocal about. The main concerns that were spoken of include government corruption, bad roads, high taxes, expensive medicine, and a lack of political unity among the community. The rest of time in Patchakan we spent visiting a local farmers sugar cane field, an experimental farm, Fruta Bomba’s papaya fields and packing facilities, and a local health clinic started by Presbyterian missionaries. While in the community the students stayed in with local families, many with hilarious stories…like the group of four vegetarian girls who were fed meat at every meal. If there is one thing we will all remember about Patchakan it was the frigid cold evenings. It’s getting chilly in Belize these days – down in the 60’s at night. Time to pull out the wool socks and sweater! Somehow the papayas keep growing.

Wayne at the Belize Botanic Gardens

At the BBG I was allowed to take over an existing project which needed to be completed. It involved the construction of a display showcasing various plant products indicative of the many diverse ethnic groups found in Belize. The display was constructed using an old wooden children’s play house. I sawed the house in half, lowered the roof about a foot and a half, and then painted it with bright colors. Other than the aforementioned project I performed a few different odd jobs, and worked on the construction of a traditional Mayan hut, which was replacing an similar hut that had become rotted. The odd jobs I did ranged from weeding to preparing the welcome center for a conference, to picking star fruits and making juice from them. My work on the Maya house allowed me to help construct its walls and windows using only sticks and vines gathered from the jungle.

Meredith at the Belize Zoo

I had the opportunity to do an internship at the Belize Zoo. There, I was mostly involved with preparing the food for the animals, and then distributing the food to them. In the mornings we would prepare food for the birds; the Curassows, Macaws, Parrots, Toucans, and Toucanettes. They eat mainly fruits and corn. I was able to learn about these different birds, and even hold some of them. In the afternoons, we would prepare food for the Howler Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, Kinkajous, Tapirs, Pacas, Agoutis, Coatimundis, and White-tailed Deer. All of these eat mainly fruits as well. I enjoyed the afternoons more because most of the animals we fed were very tame, and I could pet most of them. The Kinkajous were my favorite animals of the zoo. Sometimes I would do some random tasks for the zookeepers, such as cleaning the food dishes, sweeping and mopping the floor, collecting leaves for the animals, or showing off the boa constrictor to visitors (see picture). Overall, a work day at the Belize Zoo was very fun, and much less stressful than most American days at work. There was always time to talk to others. The zookeepers were never too busy to stop and teach you something, or to tell you their life story. The Belize Zoo is a beautiful zoo, and I would suggest visiting there if you have a chance.

Raquel at University of Belize

I spent my three-week internship at the University of Belize as an intern for Dr. Ed Boles. Working alongside students from the Natural Resource Management Program, I helped with an Outreach Project with the local students of primary schools in Belmopan. We visited two different schools and gave a presentation on soil ecology and the little critters that live in the soil. The picture down below shows me and other students working with the kids of San Martin Primary School in Salvapan. Their eyes lit up when they saw the array of creatures before them squirming in Petri dishes and micro invertebrates under a microscope. Belmopan itself is a town that takes pride in the education of their youth. There are over ten primary schools in the small district and every classroom is filled with students. They greet visitors with a polite “Good Morning” (pronounced marning) and sit erect in their seats dressed nicely in uniform. When we entered the classroom with our lesson their interest was peeked and they gathered around the various activities learning how to build terrariums and treat the soil with kindness because of its importance to life itself. All in all I had a great time in Belmopan and was excited for my internship.

Jana at King’s Children Home

Found in the capital city of Belmopan, King’s Children Home (KCH) is a place where children can find refuge. Children who are victims of abuse, neglected, or orphaned are placed in the Home. I had the opprotunity to play with/look after the children of the Home. I got to change dippers, make bottles, and help with homework. During a typical day, when I arrived in the morning, it was time to walk the children that were in the primary grades to school. After returning to the Home, the toddlers and perschoolers were waiting to play. I would be with them all day until the school children would return home in the early afternoon. It was then homework time. I would work with mainly the primary grade children. It was a nice trip down memory lane in most of the subjects. Some days instead of doing homework I would read books to the children that did not have homework. They would bring me book after book to read. It brought great joy to my heart to bring these ever familar stories to life. As of today there are 42 children residing in the Home, raging in ages from 4 months to 18 years. The children were like any other children that I have delt with; they were curious, wanting love, and full of energy.

Kourtney at Chaa Creek

For my internship I spent two weeks learning the proper techniques of breeding and caring for the Blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides) at Chaa Creek Butterfly Farm. Chaa Creek, an ecotourism resort, is located in the Maya mountains, and each day at 6:00 am I would walk with my host family 3 miles through beautiful trails, and then cross the Macal River by canoe to get to work. Daily tasks at the butterfly farm included: providing the butterflies with fresh fruit, cleaning caterpillar containers, collecting and counting new eggs, and hanging new crystalises. I also collected and learned about many species of butterflies and the proper way to mount them. Since butterfly production is slow during the fall season, I had much time to personally get to know the staff from many departments and listen to their views on Chaa Creek as a sustainable resort. It was a wonderful experience, and the conversations I had with staff were some of the best experiences I have had in Belize so far. Not only did I learn much about butterflies, I learned more about myself and what it means to truly live sustainably as a child of God striving for shalom.

Julie at Maya Center

I spent my internship at Maya Center, a village sitting at the foot of the Mayan Mountains. I worked with Aurora Saqui, an herbalist in the village. Along with her husband, she owns Nu’uk Che’il Cottages, a conjunction of a restaurant, cottages, and a gift shop. I helped her do various things the first week, including cooking in the restaurant, making herbal remedies, working in the gift shop and learning and writing about the Mayan culture and beliefs. The second week we compiled work from past interns, Aurora, and myself to put out a book on Mayan culture, traditions and the importance of plant life for medicinal purposes, crafts, and for food. It was a great experience, as I learned so much about the plant life, and the traditions of Mayan beliefs. Aurora has a deep passion for her culture and a fear for its future - as she is seeing each new generation forgetting their heritage. I am grateful to have been able to share a little of that passion and some hope through the writing of the book. It was inspiring being around someone who knows such a great amount about the uses of plant life around her, both wild and domesticated.

Brandon at Monkey Bay

I worked at Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary for my internship located about 10 miles outside of Belmopan. Here I worked for two weeks gardening in their many different flowerbeds and making four new vegetable beds for Monkey Bay to grow some of their own food year round. The first week I pulled weeds, planted a few new flowers and plants, and tended a flowerbed full of young Aloe Vera plants. After the first week of work I returned to start the new vegetable beds. It took all week to clear away brush, till the earth, gather wood, and finally lay down the beds. All the work I did at Monkey Bay was by hand but if I were in the United States I probably would have used machinery; because of this and the fact that I was creating new vegetable beds the work I did tied together with the concept of creation care. Working in Belize is much different from the United States because of the lack of pressure to get the work done in an exact time schedule and the work consists operating with your hands instead of machinery.

Amy at the hospital

I did my internship at three different health care facilities in the Cayo District: the Mopan Clinic, San Ignacio Hospital, and La Loma Luz Hospital. I was able to spend a week at each location and compare the different levels of health care, including the large difference between the public and private hospital. Most of my time was spent observing the doctors and nurses, registering patients, taking vitals, and helping wherever I could. I really enjoyed traveling with the Mopan Mobile Clinic out to the village of Arenal where we vaccinated children under five and distributed a worm treatment tablet to the school children. The village sat on the Guatemalan border and was only visited by the nurse every couple of weeks. I was also able to observe quite a few surgeries at La Loma Luz, including a laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. The largest difference between health care in Belize and in the United States is how long the patients must wait. All Belizean clinics are run on a first come/first served basis. It was not uncommon for me to see a patient in the clinic for over four hours. They never complain about waiting to see the doctor, because waiting is a fact of life in Central America.

Grant at the Itzamna Society

I spent my two weeks working with Itzamna Society, a development agency that grew out of the villages of Seven Miles, San Antonio and Cristo Rey, which sustainably manages Elijio Panti National Park and works to further communities it represents. The first week, I helped the village chairman of both San Antonio write a grant for a new pre-school and for an Internet café. I also helped the chairman of Seven Miles write a grant for a new road and an environmental education center. The next week I helped Itzamna Society facilitate a weeklong workshop for firefighters. The workshop consisted of two parts; forest fighting and community fire safety. Three Guatemalan firefighters came to the workshop to teach the Belizean participants. The community fire safety course taught the participants how to tell their villages about fire prevention and safety. The forest fighting course taught the participants how to actually put out a forest fire. During both of the courses, I took pictures and film to record the event. I also ended up taking the courses with the rest of the participants, which proved a little difficult since it was entirely in Spanish. I managed however, and ended up getting certificates for both of the courses!

Marcel at Mayflower Bocawina National Park

For my three-week internship, I worked at Mayflower Bocawina National Park, in Silk Grass. It’s over 7000 acres of protected land, with hiking trails going to 3 beautiful waterfalls. Every day, I went to the park with one of the wardens and did work with them. This included opening up the office and signing in visitors to the park, usually followed by doing trail maintenance for most of the day, using machetes. I was pretty awful at using a machete for the first week or so, but by the end I was getting the hang of it. It was really great working with the different wardens, talking with them a lot and learning so much about how the park functions, and also about the different plants and animals in the park. I’ve considered becoming a park warden before coming here, so this was all really fascinating and useful information. While I was there, I stayed with a Garinagu family in Silk Grass. They were so hospitable and fun to be around. I was struck by how close-knit the village is, and how much everyone cares about the other people in the community.

Nick at Cubola Productions

My internship took place at Cubola Productions, a local publishing company promoting virtually all Belizean literature. Though having a full-time staff of only ten people, this small company distributes their books all over the Belize and is currently involved in a wide range of different projects. I had the unique experience of being able to participate in a variety of these. One day I would spend writing a promotional article for local travel magazine and the next I would come into work and have to help draft a grant proposal for UNESCO. Other days were spent merely editing office letters and book reviews. I found myself with more personal responsibility and freedom then I was used to. Some days I wasn’t given assignment at all, and I needed to seek out my own projects. This professional atmosphere taught me how to excel and succeed outside the classroom. However, I quickly learned that my writing style needed to change. I needed to learn how to step away from the habits of college essays and frame my thoughts and sentences in professional language and style. This was a valuable learning experience that helped me hone my writing ability, beyond the classroom. My two weeks at Cubola exposed me to the Belizean context in a powerful new way. It gave me a chance to work alongside local men and women and hear their stories, it gave me a chance to hear the literary voices emerging in this newly independent nation, it showed me the struggles facing small businesses in Belize and the entire process a book goes to before you find it on the shelf.

Abram at Las Cuevas and the Belize Zoo

I had two internships over a three-week period. My first internship was at Las Cuevas Research Station, the heart of the Chiquibul Forest Reserve and National Park. I spent most of my time assisting a team of Canadian researchers, who were doing a study on bee diversity in the Chiquibul. There are around 24,000 species of bees in the world, and many of them can be found in the tropics. Our job was to collect as many species as possible, and we did this in several ways. First we would often just walk along the road and trail, netting any bee we came across. We also set up “bee traps”, which were basically pieces of paper tacked to trees that contained certain scents. One group of bees, known as “orchid bees”, are attracted to these scents, since the males use a “complex scent palette” (or, basically, as many scents as they can get on themselves) to attract females. We would stand by these “traps” and catch any bee that flew in. Once we had collected the bees (and killed them by placing the insects into a jar with ethyl acetate) we would pin them in the lab. The pin was placed slightly to the right of the center of the thorax, and then the bee and pin were stuck into a collection box with other individuals.
My second internship was at the Belize Zoo. Here I worked primarily with the “keepers”, taking care of the animals. We started our day by preparing food. This included chopping fruit, mixing dog food and honey, killing chicks (for the raptors), and so on. We usually fed the animals simply by entering their cage and placing their plate of food inside (and taking the pervious day’s food plate out). Some animals we fed by hand through the cage, however, and, for some, we simply dumped buckets of food over the fence. We also spent much of our time cleaning out cages, changing water, washing out and refilling bathing areas, and so on. This is a picture of me feeding Wildboy. Wildboy is one of the “problem jaguars” in the back, which were brought in from the wild since they were killing livestock.

Tikal

Traveling the notorious bumpy roads of Guatemala, passing through the healthy lowland rainforest, we arrived under a canopy of greens at Tikal, one of the major cultural and populated centers of the ancient Maya. We started our journey through the massive 1500-year-old site, imagining what this place would have looked like with the estimated 200,000 people scattered throughout the lush jungle. Some of the most spectacularly excavated sites of the Mayan world, we had a chance to hike those steep steps to the top of some of the highest structures in the park. We strolled through old growth forest noticing the buttress roots (taller than Marcel!), spider monkeys playing in the trees, and several of the estimated 324 species of birds in the Tikal region. Students enjoyed seeing another ruin other than our Xunantunich neighbor. Leaving the park we headed to Casa Zapote, a locally operated guesthouse where we shared dinner and stayed for the night. The students were anxious for Sunday afternoon when they could start their weeklong holiday. Until then, they sat back and enjoyed the views from Casa Zapote's veranda.

God and Nature

Which class is fed by steady doses of U2, Bruce Cockburn, Leonard Cohen, and Smashing Pumpkins? God and Nature when taught by Brian Walsh. Although we really missed not having Sylvia here, Madeline and Lydia brought a youthful spirit to the Nab and sketching and watercoloring with Irene in the afternoons provided an always encouraged creative escape. Brian is inclined to provocation and he didn’t disappoint. First morning Brian swiftly disabused us of the cherished notion that the gospel is primarily about going to heaven when you die. In so doing, he helped us see how our reading of Scripture can be, and often is, distorted by alien categories we impose on the text. Armed with his “hermeneutical rules” (such as “Read the New Testament with Old Testament eyes” and “What is the therefore there for?”), Brian gave us the tools with which to read Scripture on its own terms so as to begin a reconstruction of our worldview that is more faithful to the biblical witness. Hopefully we came out of the class with new eyes with which to read the Bible and to see the world, with imaginations renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit, and with wisdom about the art of living well as agents of shalom in God’s good creation. Oh, I almost forgot. We also shared bedtime stories each night, another indispensable part of the art of living well. Milk and cookies were a nice added touch the last evening.

Fore Afrique!

Arriving in their rusty, weathered Isuzu Trooper (ahhh the memories), the Maroon Creole Drummers (maroondrumschool.com) greeted us warmly with huge smiles. Emmeth Young and his four band mates make up Fore Afrique, brilliant drummers dedicated to preserving their Creole ancestry through drumming and dancing. After sharing dinner together (thanks Miss Martha and Shelly!), the performance began. They brought dozens of drums, ranging from small fingers drums made of bamboo to drums made of large hallowed out mahogany stumps that echoed throughout the campus. The history of the Creole in Belize is fascinated, Fore Afrique explaining it through song and dance. They played rhythms like Djole, Kuku, Kakilambe, Soli, all with roots ranging from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Belize. We watched carefully as Emmeth swayed back and forth to the complex beats, playing so quickly at times his hands became a mere blur. After several traditional rhythms it was time do a traditional dance. Traditionally the way this dance is done is to form a big circle in the night around a full moon in the center of the town square and then have one person go in the middle of the ring and do the dance (often a fertility dance), an intricate movement of the feet, hands stretched out as if in flight. We did our best, but by the end it became an entertaining, sweaty dance off. As the night came to an end some picked up drums and learned Creole rhythms with Emmeth while others browsed through the handmade drums, shakers, rain sticks, and jewelry Fore Afrique brought with them. The rhythm continues – any given night we can hear the pulse of drums coming from the student’s cabins.

The Garden of Nabitunich

With some roots here and there holding us up, we finally received our seedlings. We started out with tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes. After planting, a few brutally hot Belizean days and a few torrential downpours depressed our poor seedlings. We are down to tomatoes, peppers, 3 lettuce plants, 6 sweet potatoes and hopefully some soon to be sprouting spinach, carrot and potato seeds. After visiting the Mennonite Community of Springfield we learned a couple of things about gardening in Belize: plant early in the season and plant vegetables we can actually grow and harvest. Their advice will definitely be followed in future gardens, they certainly know what they are doing! Whether we bear fruit or not by mid December, the gardening journey we have traveled has made it all worthwhile. Students have remained diligent working in the garden weekly to maintain its pristine look. We can say that we have more garden vegetables growing than weeds, that the soil is hoed regularly and that water is applied modestly from our low-pressure hose. Low vegetable yield or not, we have watched a community and a love for the land sprout, blossom and fruit over night. Those two things are the sweetest and most nutritious vegetables that can be grown. Good work everyone with your hard work. Can’t wait to bite into one of those juicy peppers!

A Visit From the Bio-Diesel Dudes

This week during Environmental Literature we took a break from class to listen to Seth and Tyler Bradt, professional kayakers turned professional veggie-oil travelers. They have started the Oil and Water Project (www.oilandwaterproject.com), a traveling educational program promoting the awesome possibilities we have using renewable resources. They left Alaska months ago and are headed to Chile in their rig, a 1980’s red Toyota fire engine fueled 100% by animal and vegetable oils. Upon completion, this will be the longest vegetable oil trip ever. We helped them fuel up right here at the Nab by melting pure pig lard on our stove and pouring it straight into their fuel tank attached to the back of the rig. They hoped the two five gallon buckets of lard would get them to Nicaragua! After their visit we started to think about how we might start collecting used vegetable oil from restaurants around us to convert to usable fuel for our vehicles. Next leg of the trip, a veggie-oil powered yacht through the South Pacific, veggie-oil motorcycles to travel the rolling hills of New Zealand. Check them out SoPac!

The Poet Creates the World...

READING LIST:
Ralph Waldo Emerson – Nature
Henry David Thoreau – Walden
Wendell Berry – The Art of the Common Place
Annie Dillard – Teaching a Stone to Talk
Aldo Leopold – A Sand County Almanac
Walt Whitman – Song of Myself
Barbara Kingsolver – Small Wonder
Steven Bouma-Prediger – For the Beauty of the Earth
Lawrence Buell – The Environmental Imagination
Rachel Carson – Silent Spring
Sigmund Freud – Civilization and its Discontents

Drew Ward spent the week with us for Environmental Literature, more appropriately titled Imagining the Earth. 15 students participated in this class, the others scattered throughout Belize on their first week of internships. We dove deep into these amazing texts, allowing our imaginations to wander as far as they could go. We spent the beginning of every class looking at poetry and scripture and the evenings we watched films (visual texts that clue us into deep metaphors). Poetry, prose, short story, novel, film, newspaper, song, lyric, art – what do these have to do with creation care? How many times did we say, “Is this an environmental text?” throughout the week! The students became experts at answering this question. Midweek we traveled to the Mountain Pine Ridge and conducted class on the deck of Five Sisters Lodge, a beautiful location overlooking the cascading Five Sisters Falls. Cant take a student that close to a waterfall and not expect to end up in them. We enjoyed lunch and a swim at Big Rock Falls, a postcard swim hole and a local favorite. We concluded the week with worship service of extraordinary measures, carefully planned and carried out by the students. A great week it was!

Too much reading not enough time…

Reading was the task this week. Page after page students turned, some at distant white sandy beaches, some lying in hammocks in the palapa, others biking into town for a cozy spot at their favorite café. The main task was to prepare for next week, Environmental Literature. In between pages students spent their time woodworking on the lathe, making homemade paper, crocheting, making bookmarks from local flowers, building a picnic table and bench with scrap wood, slack lining, riding horses, watching the rain, gardening, caving, eating Cayo Twist, or playing games together.

Manicured Boys, Smiling Girls

Spa night was a huge success! Everyone had a blast with the night’s activities. With dimmed lights and soft music, the normal gloom that would accompany entering the classroom was transformed to an entrance of relaxation. Students helped each other reach a deep mellow with a homemade oatmeal facial cleanser, carrot and banana bread facials, a soothing sugar foot exfoliate, manicures and pedicures, massages, and an anti-itch station for all those mosquito bites. Another activity involved Jared busting out his trimmers to help people lose some weight. First and last up was Marcel. He looked a little tired of the day’s heat and the laborious morning task of primping himself for all his fellow CCSPers. Marcel, brother...you look beautiful to me all of the time. He is now in the elite group of students who have gone under the trimmers to find their true Belizean look. The group includes Rachel, Raquel, Wayne, Gloria (not by choice she just hasn’t grown much hair yet, though I heard she has the ability to grow or shorten her hair with a mere thought), and now Marcel. Who knows who else will join this group as the heat rises, sleep deprivation sets in and the pains of early morning primping become too much. Overall, students left Spa Night with glimmering feet, open pores and smiles on their faces. But for future Spa Nights a natural deodorant should be part of the night’s event, as our smells remained offensive.

Forest Ecology

There’s something eerie about walking along jungle trails that you know are frequented by jaguars…especially when you are walking at night with nothing but a headlamp to light the path in front of you. This was our introduction to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, the only jaguar reserve of its kind and the site for Forest Ecology. Even though the chances of you seeing a jaguar are rare, you can “feel” their presence — claw marks on trees indicate that these large kitties also need scratching poles. How do you get university students to roll out of bed before the break of dawn? Mandatory birding. It was painful, but it's really something else hearing and seeing the jungle come alive with keel-billed toucans, violacious trogans, red-romped tanagers and other colourful tropical birds, all 400 species of them. Erik Linquist, our professor for the week, had a contagious enthusiasm that moved many to actually enjoy waking up that early. Other highlights of the week included investigating what happens to human excrement in the jungle (thanks for the samples B. and Grant!), swimming in the pristine waterfalls at Tiger Fern, and listening to a Mayan Medicine Healer share her herbal remedies. Now we’re back at the Nab getting some R & R (resting and reading). A few students suspect that they may have new friends (botflies) living under their skin. We’ll see how many we can count...

Sustainable Community Development

After a nice long weekend in Caye Caulker, the students got their first day of school outfits on and sunk right into school mode with Sustainable Community Development. Terry Jantzi (EMU) hung out with us for the week and helped us explore issues of globalization, poverty, development strategies and paradigms, the principle of unintended consequences, immigration, tourism, structural injustices, and most importantly how development has affected Belize, our home. The students enjoyed visiting the Mollejon Dam, a facility built on the Macal River generating electricity for the countries rising needs. Look how good everyone looks!

ORIENTATION WEEK TO DO LIST:

1. Hike to Vaca Falls (a beautiful cascading waterfall on the Macal River)
2. Tube down the Macal River (ride the rapids, enjoy the views)
3. Climb to the top of Xunantunich (one of Belize’s largest Mayan ruins)
4. Visit the Belize Zoo (Central America’s most celebrated zoo)
5. Tend the garden (prepare the soil for lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers)
6. Exercise (play sports with the locals in San Ignacio)
7. Get to know the neighbors (play bingo with the residents at a nursing home)
8. Wash cloths by hand (scrub those nasty smells out)
9. Go birding (spot a Keel Billed Tucan)
10. Play Frisbee Golf (watch out for poison wood)
11. Go to Caye Caulker (enjoy the beaches and the snorkeling)
12. Medicate (Get rid of fleas I got in Caye Caulker)
13. Rest (school starts tomorrow)

A Day in the Life

Wake up about the same time I usually go to sleep.
Hug mom and dad.
Board a plane head south, way south.
Eat my peanuts, drink my ginger ale, memorize Sky Mall.
Look out the window.
Notice the turquoise Carribean Sea, see the outline of the Barrier Reef.
Arrive at the airport.
Feel the heat, the humidity.
Think to myself, “What am I doing here?”
Meet my new family.
Throw my four months worth of gear in the back of an old beat-up school bus.
Board the bus full of strangers, pick a seat, watch intently out the window.
Head west, almost to Guatemala.
5 miles from home, bus breaks down.
Think to myself, “What am I doing here?”
Walk a few hundred yards, jump on a tightly packed local bus.
I’m “home.”
Step off the bus, wait for 19 others to unload.
Walk the half mile driveway, a dark, bumpy, country road.
Pass horses, cows, sheep, chickens.
Open the gate and see my name on a cabin.
Turn my key.
It’s cute, it’s quaint, there’s a scorpion on my pillow.
Quickly set up mosquito net.
I hear a bell ring, an old school house bell.
Dinner. Rice and Beans, stewed chicken, plantains, lime juice.
Compost my scraps, wash my dish, walk around curiously.
Sit down on the grass with my new family.
Thousands of stars light up the sky.
Think to myself, “What am I doing here?”