Wrapping Up

Belize is over and I have started school again. Everything has been so fast. I got home last week on Thursday, moved into my apartment and started school and work on Monday. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to live in Belize. I learned so much about myself (how I interact with different people, deal with conflict, and step out of my comfort zone), about sustainable development, researching, and implementing projects, as well as cultural interactions. We are so blessed to live where we do. I wish that everybody was able to have an international experience like I have. Some of my favorite projects were the Leadership Seminars, Rural Health Campaign, and finishing up the adobe stoves.

I want to again thank everyone for their support and donations that made it possible for me have this experience. I love you all!!

Cydnee
Belize Team 2010

Una Semana Mas

I have one more week left! This past week we finished up the Literacy camp as well as the Conflict Resolution. We had little award and presentation sessions for each class where the parents came. That was a lot of fun. Over the weekend my friends went to ATM which is this really cool Mayan site, where you get to hike around and you have to swim through some caves. I was hoping to go with them but my back had been hurting pretty bad just from walking around. Once they returned home they confirmed that I probably would have died, if I would have gone! So I guess it is good that I stayed home. Anyways, this week we taught our last leadership seminar, I was able to work at the summer school in Succotz, and I am currently in Belmopan. We are finishing up our lesson plans so that we can give them to our partner organizations. Tomorrow I will get to work at the school again and on Friday, I will be going to Arenal (on the Guatemalan border)to help finish up Adobe Stoves. That will be fun. I can't wait to see you all. Love you tons, and thanks for your continued support throughout my endeavors.

Day 100

Can you believe that I have been living in Belize for 100 days now?? SO weird! ANyways...I am feeling so much better. I have been traveling to Belmopan everyday to teach my Leadership Seminars, Conflict Resolution, and Literacy. Four of us practically live at the George Price Center. It has been extremely exhausting working with kids all day again-kind of like the Expressive Arts Camp-but it has been super fun as well. I would love to share what I have learned from assisting in teaching conflict resolution, when I get home. Literacy has been fun teaching kids how to read and write. My children can't read at all, so we've been practicing the alphabet for the past two weeks. They started writing the letters a couple of days ago and that has been cool. We have a presentation and my kids are going to sing the ABC song and draw pictures of what they have learned. I'm excited to have the parents see what they are doing. I taught Leadership on Wednesday. We did Resumes and Interviews. I had a volunteer from my group help with Resumes because she knows tons about them. Then I taught about how to get ready for an interview, how you should act in one, and expectations for after the interview. Then I split everyone up and we did mock interviews as if they were applying for the position of Manager at the grocery store Brodies. They went very well and I had tons of fun interviewing. We gave feedback of how each student did and any other tips we had from real life situations.
That is what I have been up to for the past week! I only have about a week and a half left- YEAH!!!!
Love you all.

What a week

Well, the reason I haven't written anything this week is because I have been at home in bed for the past four days. :( I have some sort of flu that takes all strength from your body and it is hard to breathe. I'm doing loads better but still not well enough to work. My teammates have been covering for me for the Leadership Seminars, Conflict Resolution, and Literacy. They are so great!!! Last weekend was awesome though! I traveled up to Orange Walk, which is the Northern section of Belize. We did a jungle tour- on this motorboat. We rode up a river for a while and then went to some Mayan ruins called Lamanai. It was awesome. Other than that nothing new except that I will be home in exactly 3 weeks!!! YAY!!

Great News!

I have had some personal accomplishments!! Are you ready for this?? I ate a quesadilla that had both green peppers and onions on! Actually there was a tiny bit of cheese and a small piece of chicken on each section of quesadilla- so mostly those gross green peppers and onions…except that it wasn’t horrible! Not GOOD, but not horrible. I’ve also been trying to eat the coleslaw, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, and a few other veggies that I do NOT like at all! I’m getting better…I might be able to eat a few more veggies once I get home!  haha…anyways This past weekend I hung out with Raymon, Whitney, and Kory. It was a lot of fun! Everyone else went to Dangregia. We started out Friday night with some intense games of Killer Uno (can’t wait to teach you how to play) then we watched “The Rescuers” that movie is really funny! I haven’t watched in forever! After the movie-Raymon started poking me so Whitney and I attacked him. We ended up tickling him and running all over the house! It was so much fun-he was jumping over banisters to try to get away from us- oh my gosh! SO much fun!! On Saturday, we went to Xunantunich. It is a Mayan site, that I have already been too, but the other hadn’t- so I went again. They asked me to lead them-so I pretended to be a tour guide. It was hilarious; some of the things I told them really were true, but I made most of it up. We were laughing so hard. Then we went to this resort and went swimming for a few hours; we played extreme volleyball, haha! After swimming, we went to dinner at Sister Kay’s. Since there were only a few of us, she made yummy tortilla’s, beef, and delicious potatoes! Then she had rice pudding-it was the best I have ever tasted, I need to get the recipe from her. All of us were pretty tired but we wanted to do something fun. The boys were just hanging out and I decided that I wanted ice cream. I asked Whitney if we could go to Cayo Twist. She came up witht the most brilliant plan. We blindfolded the boys and led them to Cayo Twist and bought ice cream for them. Trying to get them to come with us and trust us was crazy- and I was leading Kory- he is about 6’ 7” so VERY tall…and I was trying to control him- hilarious!!! After ice cream we played some more killer uno and then I really wanted to do Karaoke! Raymon came out and he asked me to sing “Hakuna Matata” with him. Then Whitney and I sang “I won’t say(I’m in love)” from Hercules and “I’ll make a man out of you” from Mulan. Raymon ended up filming us-it was so funny, we stood on a banaster-Raymon and Kory were laughing so hard! After these, Raymon and I sang “A Whole New World” together- haha..good times!
Yesterday, we had our first Leadership Seminar. We talked about healthy perceptions and important leadership characteristics. It went so well. It was exciting to see them actively participate in each discussion and feed off other’s input. We had sixteen students! Twelve ended up traveling from Belize City to come. We brought one from San Ignacio and the rest are from there in Belmopan. It is exhilarating that everything is working out and the students are so engaged! The class that we are teaching here in San Ignacio is full of significantly younger students (ages 14-16) and I don’t think that they have the same interest level or motivation. They are more here to have fun and don’t want to be learning or in deep conversation. We will see how the classes this week go. If they aren’t interested then we may try to do a different program that meets their needs and will keep them out of the street at night- just not focusing on our Leadership stuff.
Well that’s me the past few days!! Love you all….I would love to hear from more of you! Thanks to those of you who have written me letters or emails.

Look Two Posts!!! :)

The beginning of this week has been really great! On Monday, I was able to go to Succotz and help with Square foot Gardening. We are building them at a school and they will use the food grown to improve their feeding program. The guy who was suppose to bring shovels and tools wasn’t on time and we couldn’t get a hold of him on the phone, so Whitney and I went around to different houses asking for shovels to borrow. We didn’t think we would find one because people just kept saying no. Then we stopped at one house that I didn’t really think would have one, but I was hopeful; and they ended up having two- so we started to turn the dirt. The man in charge, at the school, made the frames. We dug some holes to mix the dirt with germinating soil and then poured that mixture into the frames. It was kind of sprinkling the entire time so it felt really nice. We couldn’t really do a lot more because we didn’t have chicken wire to wrap around the gardens to protect the plants..we started to clean up and we tried to hurry because we saw that a storm was coming in really fast. We didn’t make it though. Luckily, the school had a covered area. The Dixon’s (a member of the HELP Board of Directors and his wife) were here visiting, they were afraid to get wet so they wanted to sit and wait the storm out. We told them that is wasn’t going to stop any time soon- but they insisted; so all of us volunteers went out to play in the rain. It was a lot of fun. It was raining so hard. Within about five minutes, the streets were rivers, the grass field was a swamp, and an unfinished house had a floor of water. We jumped in puddles in the house, raced sticks down the street rivers, and then ran to the swamp field. We were doing softball slides, and sliding on our stomachs when a few locals came out to play some soccer. We joined them. It was full contact soccer- anytime you would try to switch directions you would slip, really fun!! It was also really hard because when you try to kick the ball it doesn’t really move because the water stops it. Definitely the most challenging game of soccer, but the most fun also!!! On Tuesday, I stayed home and worked on Leadership camp stuff. Everyone on the team, who got food poisoning, also came down with some sort of cold. Since being sick I have had a very sore throat, on Tuesday it turned into more of a cold. I had really bad headaches for most of the day. By night time I was feeling better or so I thought...it came back really bad on Wednesday. This was the last night that the second wave of people would be here. Sister Kay made dinner and brought it to our house because we couldn’t fit 27 people in her small home. We had a small talent show and took pictures with everybody. It was a really good night!! On Wednesday, we got up early to see off all of our friends.  It was sad!! But our house is so much quieter and less cluttered. Whitney, Calvin, Kory, and I went to Belmopan to give our first Orientation Meeting to the participants of the Leadership camp. It went so well! I was in charge of talking the students about expectations. I told them our expectations for them and then I asked them to tell me their strengths. I then asked them about what they want to get out of the seminars. Their expectations met exactly with what we were planning on teaching! I am so excited that there is actually a need here and I am helping to work on it! After leaving that meeting, I felt so keyed up for the actual seminars to start. I officially took over the finances on Wednesday because Melissa left that morning. I went through with Raymon and combined everything and found out exactly how much we were spending on each project. I am very excited to do the finances. I really enjoyed doing it. Today I stayed home because I was really sick still from yesterday-I couldn’t breathe and my head was killing. My entire body was just aching. Anyways, I had a great night’s sleep and was feeling a bit better. I worked on a bunch of logistics for the team, team secretary stuff, and finished up all the finances that I could! I love it!!!

Dear Blog Readers,
This past week was crazy! We were all ready for our Business classes and we traveled to Belmopan to teach but none of our students showed up :) We’ve been thinking about different ways to advertise and keep in touch with our participants more frequently up until the classes. So we are trying again and will hold the classes the second week of August. On Wednesday, I went to Belize City to pick up our last four volunteers. It was a long day the airport because the first girl came in around 10:00 am and the other three didn’t come until almost three o’clock! But we (Calvin, Krysta, and I) just talked, read, and slept, while we waited. When we got home everyone in our house was really sick with stomach cramps and diarrhea. Thursday morning when I woke up, I was feeling great one second and then all of a sudden, I was really really sick! I had to cancel my plans for the day- I went and told Raymon that I was sick and he decided that it was food poisoning since everyone got sick within a two day period. We figured it was from the potato salad that Sis. Kay made for us on Tuesday night. So I was sick from that for a few days- along with the rest of our group. I just worked on stuff around the house and slept. For the weekend a lot of people went to Mountain Pine Ridge. I haven’t been feeling very adventurous lately- I just want to chill and relax from a long hard week. So Raymon, Whitney, and I stayed in San Ignacio. We went to the market, I bought a bunch of movies and some more shorts. Then the rest of the day we worked on stuff for the team, watched a movie, and took naps. 

Expressive Arts Camp

This past week I traveled to Belmopan everyday and worked at an Expressive Arts Camp. There were five groups: Singing, Drumming, Dance, Drama, and Recorder. I was in charge of singing. I had one of the other volunteers (Whitney) assist me in teaching. She helped me A LOT..couldn't have done it without her! Anyways...so we taught five groups of about ten students so between 40-50 kids between the ages of 5-10. We worked really hard all day! I don't think I could ever be a teacher- at least not elementary school. The kids are super cute but totally crazy :) I didn't really have a voice at the end of the week. On the last day we had a performance where all the parents came and watched what the kids had learned. I taught the kids Popcorn Popping and we also learned I just can't wait to be king, from the Lion King. They did SOOOO good! I was a proud teacher-I felt like the kids were my own. I was kind of sad to see them leave. But it was fun!!!

Vacation update

My vacations for the past few weeks have been awesome! Three weekends ago we were able to have our three day weekend for working six weeks. Our team chose to go to Caye Caulker. We rode the bus to Belize City and stayed with the Dunfords for a night and then rode a water taxi out to the Island. It was amazing!! I can’t even explain how beautiful and peaceful it was. We stayed in a resort called Tropical Paradise and it was right on the beach. We had a private dock (for the resort) and our room was loaded with AC! We had it blasting and we slept with blankets! I loved it  So much fun. For the first day we kinda just hung out on the beach looked at some shops, laid out got burned and tan. We enjoyed every minute of it. The next day we went snorkeling all day. This was my favorite. I almost got run over by a sea turtle. I was about an inch away from it. I was surrounded by and I touched a sting ray and an eagle ray. The ocean is amazing. After that stop- we went to a new location and saw so many different types of fish and coral. I practiced diving down under while still trying to breath- it was hard at first and my tube would fill with water and I couldn’t breathe but I soon got the hang of it again. Then we rode over to another Island called San Pedro. It is very similar to Caye Caulker but much more touristy and busy. We went there for lunch. We were looking at the menu and noticed that there was a pool. So we went swimming-they waiter came over and took our order from the pool- it was so cool! We kept playing until our food was ready. We hopped out and ate; so relaxing. I had this tropical bbq or teriyaki type burger. There was pineapple and marinated chicken-yummy! After lunch we went back out to the reef. We went to Shark and Ray Alley. We swam with tons of sharks. Our tour guide tossed food to the sharks to have them all come right by the boat, then we all jumped in, I was about a foot away from a bunch of sharks- I dove down under the water and it was one of the most remarkable experiences underwater for me! After swimming with sharks he took us to some coral gardens. We went a little out of our way and found two manatees. This was one of Raymon’s life goals: to swim with Manatees…so he was super excited. We got to just snorkel around and look at all the coral and fish while our tour guide cut up fresh fruit for us. We ate it on the boat and then we headed back to Caye Caulker. We were exhausted! We went to dinner later that night and I had some amazing sea food. The rest of the time we pretty much just hung out- it was Jake’s birthday that Thursday: Melissa and I planned him a birthday party. We did party hats, those blower things, and we had Sis. Kay make a cake that we snuck to the island without Jake knowing. It was a lot of fun also.
The weekend after a few of us worked at a health fair. Chris, Jacob, Melissa, Dominique, and I went to Punta Gorda. It is in the southern part of Belize. We were able to do some house visits in different villages and take vitals; after we had their results we would tell them how they could improve their health whether it be by eating more fruits and veggies or exercising more. So that was pretty cool. I always love helping Collet at his health fairs.
Since we worked at the health fair that Saturday, we got to take a three day weekend. On the next Friday night, Jake, Melissa, Chris, and I went to some Mayan sites. The first one we went to was about a seven minute drive from San Ignacio towards the Guatemalan border; it is called Xunantinich. There were amazing temples that we climbed all the way to the top and took some awesome pictures. I loved exploring them and trying to picture people there so many years ago. Xunantinich seemed more of the “downtown” area. It was where the temples were and the markets or plaza’s. I couldn’t really see how anybody would actually live in these places. I’m sure that they would have just lived around them in areas that had not yet been excavated. We then went to another Mayan site called Cahal Pech. This is just up the street from our house- about a five minute walk up the hill and we are there. It was incredible. There was a lot more to explore and I could actually picture people living there. I could imagine them living in one section and then walking over to the market. The four of us were discussing what would have happened to have them all just leave their home. It is very interesting!
The next day most of our team went to Tikal. This is an astounding area. It is located in Guatemala and we had to get special permission from the HELP Office to travel outside of Belize. The temples were huge. We hiked through the jungle to get to many different sites. We were able to see the temple that is shown in Star Wars. There have actually been a lot of movies with parts filmed in Tikal. You should look on the internet to find pictures of Tikal- soooo mind blowing!
This past weekend we were suppose to go to Mt. Pine Ridge. This place is full of pools, waterfalls, and rocks to jump off. Part of my team has already been but we were all going to go again except we go hit by a tropical depression. It rained for two days straight and everything shut down for the storm. So we played a bit in the rain, watched the world cup, played games, and watched movies. It was a super chill day and nice not be traveling or working- we got to just hang out with everyone. I enjoyed it a lot.

Well, I wrote that last week and so this past weekend we got our three day weekend again..yay! We went to Caye Caulker again and we just chilled- I didn't spend very much money and it was just very nice!

Dear Bloggers,
Rainy season was supposed to start on June 1st. Instead, we got some rain for a couple weeks before that and then it has been scorching hot since then. We haven’t had rain or anything. All of a sudden we have hurricane warnings, flood watches, and we are in the middle of a tropical depression. It rained for two days straight. The river is completely flooded and the lower bridge is underwater. You seriously can’t see it at all. We were driving over the big bridge and the water was so high…pretty cool to see but scary to think how much flooding is happening. Luckily we live at the top of a hill and we probably won’t get any flooding in our house but downtown could be washed away at any point with rains like these. I find this all very exciting.
Church has been awesome here. Today they confirmed four more people who got baptized last Sunday and tonight there are two more baptisms. Getting the baptisms here isn’t what is hard, it is keeping them coming and actually being converted to the ways of God. The missionaries are doing their part, but not all the members are putting in the effort to fellowship their new members.
Life has been kinda crazy with all eighteen of us in one house! Almost everyone is getting a long, and we are learning from each other every day.
I’ve been working really hard with Calvin to create this Leadership Camp or seminar series. We have ten classes planned out that we will hopefully be starting the end of July and go until we leave. We have awesome topics to be teaching and hope to be able to get a few locals to be guest speakers at a few of these. We hope that this will be something to give these students the confidence they need to make change in their community as well as a catch on their resumes; something to stand out and say I ‘m a good leader, I learned a lot at these seminars and I can show you-so hire me! It has been exciting to put together. I have also been working with Ben and Marissa to get some money management classes started. Everything has been approved and the lesson plans are in progress.
Hope everyone is well!!

Life is sooo GOOD!!!

Dear Blog Readers…
So sorry that I am not on top of this blog- there is just so much going on I never know what to write so I’m going to just try to write a short blog any time that I am able to get on the internet!

**So these past few weeks we have had much happen. Last week we had our new wavers come in. There are currently seventeen of us living in our house!! There are four single men, a married couple and the rest are girls! I’m not the youngest anymore- there is a girl who is 18 (she just graduated high school, which seems so weird) Everyone is so shocked when they learn that I am only 19. I take that as a compliment. They all guess between 21-24 years old. Not just looks, but because of my maturity :) I have implemented a new chore chart that seems to be working…ishly! But it has only been a week so I can’t judge it yet. I’m gaining much patience and am not so picky about things being completely organized- at least if it isn’t my stuff..my stuff is all very organized and I’m doing organization sessions with my fellow team members if they want them. I helped Calvin and then we check up on each other every night…A few others have expressed interest but we’ve been pretty busy.

**My computer classes are going fantastic!! It is so exciting for me to see the improvement of these two ladies. One could barely even control the mouse on the first day and now she is typing without looking at her fingers. On Tuesday’s I teach typing and on Thursday we do specific skills such as: business cards, business letters, powerpoint, specific programs, etc. Pretty much whatever the ladies want to learn.
I haven’t been doing very much with the woman’s group because I’ve been actively working with the Soilet. But the woman are working with a cook and will be learning how to cook something next week and then selling stuff at the market.
**The Soilet is going great! We have all the walls up and the lids were put on today. We’ve been digging and drilling and such and it is so fun. .. I guess I need to clarify! First, I don’t think that I have actually explained what the Soilet is. The soilet is an eco-friendly toilet. We make a box out of cement and the waste drains into this box. The solids stay in the box and are eaten by worms and microbes while the liquid drains through to a gravel pit where it gets filtered through the gravel and goes into the soil. It doesn’t smell and the worms reach equilibrium with the amount of waste that is going through the soilet so it is never full or smelly. We’ve been doing construction but I work more with the business side of things. I attended many meeting in the beginning and will now be doing a lot more work like that as well. Marissa and Ben are the married couple and they were brought here partially to help with the Soilet. Ben does microbiology and will be getting his MBA in the next couple of years. Marissa just graduated with her MBA and I’m super excited to work with her.

** Piano lessons are kinda not working out. I’m not entirely surprised; but a little bit sad it isn’t working out. I think next week things will pick up though because kids are out of school and they won’t have some of the conflicts that they currently have. If it isn’t working out in the next two weeks then I will not be teaching anymore. I have other projects that I can be putting a lot more time into and I’m much more interested in these other ones…So we’ll just see.

** My eye is so much better! I finally put my contacts back in for the first time since the incident. It is great to actually see (I haven’t been wearing my glasses either)
But I have been trying so hard not to be hurt or sick-but I fail! This last week was “WEEK 6” and injury #6 :) I will explain: The week after my eye injury I pulled a tendon in the bottom of my foot. It hurt so bad…I tried to push through and just work, but I couldn’t!! That lasted for about four days…but by day two and a half I just started hopping around everywhere because I can’t just sit around! Then this past week…I was lightly shoveling and I stopped so I wouldn’t hurt my back..but it still hurt a lot the next day- So I am now the official supervisor!! NO physical labor- but then I later in the week I wanted to do some drilling…one of the screws wasn’t going in- we had to try a few times, once I got it in, I touched it to make sure it was flush with the wood-but it was EXTREMELY hot!!! In short- I branded my thumb! It instantly blistered and there was a super cool design (the star type shape from the end of the screw). It hurt soo bad. Now it doesn’t look that bad but there is probably going to be a scar. Everyone calls me Cap’n Cyd because of my eye..but now since I’ve hurt my foot-I qualify for my wooden leg- and I hurt my had so I can have the hook…I have completed my injuries for my pirate status. I just need to get a parrot.

**Those are the basic-I will write another blog post that will update you on the other projects I’m starting.
Thanks for reading!! Please comment….I love hearing from people! Also check out the team blog at www.help-belize.blogspot.com there are pictures and other posts about what we are doing.

Update on my Eye and the past week!

Okay the story of my eye: I woke up multiple times through the night (last Wednesday night) with my eye watering and stinging. My nose was super runny and I had a pretty bad headache. When I got up Thursday morning, my head was killing and I couldn't open my eye. It was very sensitive to light and quite painful. Jacob (a pre-med student that we have dubbed Team Doctor) and Raymon (a Country Director) did what they could for my eye. They gave me a blessing as well! I love the priesthood! I ended up staying home for most of Thursday since I couldn't see. I wore an eye patch and everyone called my Captain Cyd and said that I needed to get a parrot.It seemed to be getting worse. All through the night I was groaning and holding my head as if that would stop the severe pain I was feeling. Multiple times I almost woke up the boys to take me to the hospital. Around 5:30 am I was so exhausted I finally fell asleep but ended up waking two more times before 7:00. I finally went out to see if the boys were up yet. They had just gotten up and I expressed the extreme pain I was feeling. They looked at my eye and took me straight to the hospital. We went to the public hospital in San Ignacio- we had to wait for hours but the visit, ointment, and my antibiotic were all free. We had to go to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription pain killer, but the costs were low. The nurse put ointment in my eye and I was in so much pain! I just started crying- Raymon did his best to comfort me :) The boys got me home quickly and I pretty mush slept for the next two days. I wandered blindly around the house. We did get to go out for ice cream- but Jake held my arm and had his other arm on my back to lead me because it was too painful to keep my other eye open. I also missed the Saturday vacation day- everyone went on this cool hike and swimming in a cool river. I was sad I missed it...Jake has just been putting ointment in my eye every eight hours and I'm at about 90% now!!! I'm so happy!! I can open my eye and kind of see- everyone keeps complimenting me on how pretty my eyes are and that I'm smiling. I told them that I smiled while my eye hurt but they said it was a sad smile...they can see that i am actually happy. :) SO...you got the basic overview of what I had been working on. Now for this week: Monday was a national holiday (Queen Elizabeth's Birthday) we went tubing down a river with this guy named Marcus. He is from the states but moved down here with his wife and started a small resort. It isn't luxurious- it is the back woods or we would say jungles..very chill and fun place. On the river there were spots to rope swing and cliff jump. Everyone in the group did it- except me- I didn't want anything to get in my eye or set me back anymore so I took some sweet photos instead. After tubing everyone except Wendy danced in our living room. I taught Calvin the cha cha and then we did the salsa and one other dance- we switched partners and just partied it up!! :) On Tuesday I taught my first computer class. There were two ladies who showed up ad we did the basic overview of the computer parts, practiced using the mouse, and started an intro to "Word". I had them type up what they want to learn/ get out of the class so I can implement that to my lesson plans. Later on Tuesday night I taught my first piano lesson in Belize. I was suppose to have 8 students. Only the branch president showed up. He told me he was learning though so I did a lesson with him and I'm now teaching him privately before the other students come. I'm excited. It is so much easier to teach one-on-one and he learns fast so this is going to be great. Tuesday was a big day for firsts for our team...Jake and Raymon are teaching an institute class. Jake will teach on Tuesday's and Raymon on Thursdays. Jake taught and it was amazing..I learned so much and can't wait to learn more from him. I'm going to take advantage of living with him and try to study scriptures or something to learn as much as possible- he is so smart. Later that night Jake, Melissa, Dominique and I went on a walk. They wanted to wander around some Myan ruins but I thought that would be illegal because during the day you have to pay- they argued that there are no signs or fences, but I still didn't feel comfortable breaking in- I convinced them to just hang outside and we played 20 questions for about 45 minutes instead..Believe me I wanted to go exploring but I'd rather not get kicked out of Belize! After we got home Calvin chilled on my bed and we talked with Wendy until about 12:45am...I love my team! Wednesday was very interesting. I was going and going through the entire day but didn't feel like I accomplished anything. We were suppose to be meeting with some villages to assess for the Soilet but the guy who was taking us (Alfonso) thought that we had a car and that turned into a mess so we cancelled. We went out to Bullet Tree to meet with another man about the soilet and it ended up pouring and slightly flooding so we were stuck there for a couple of hours. We ended up hitchhiking back home. Then we were trying to find a car rental place that was decently cheap but there is no such thing...each car was about BL$170 per day plus you had to pay for gas which is BL$10 per gallon!!! We just couldn't afford it- so we had to cancel our appointments for Thursday also. It was pouring rain when we woke up on Thursday and Raymon came to my bed and we talked with Wendy also (Wendy is my roommate as of right now...)we talked for quite a while trying to figure out Plan B for the day. Collet (the guy from Belize City that we helped at the Health Fairs with) came up for thursday to show Jake and Calvin around to all the hospitals and clinics. We decided to just go with them and hang out with Collet because he is the coolest. We rode around in his truck all day- super fun!!! We got to hang out at the Guatemalan border because Collet had to run an errand. We just played games in the gravel for about an hour while we waited. We had institute again later that night (oh I had to cancel my piano lessons and computer class for thursday- so we could be introduced to hospitals) Raymon taught and it was just as good as Jake's lesson. I love this gospel~!!! This morning I taught the computer class. I did an intro to word, we went through all the menus and she practiced changing the font and making lists. Then I had Aleida start on some typing exercises. We are planning our weekend- We found a hook up and might go stay at a beach house down in Placencia. I will let you know what is going on when we find out. Hope everyone is doing well. Send me emails! I want to hear from everyone.. cydnee_1@juno.com
Love you all!!

Had some accidents

Hey everyone!
I am so sorry...I have had a few troubles over here and have not been able to keep up on anything. Last week I was out because of my back..and this week I became the first person from Team Belize to go the hospital. I can't see out of my left eye and it has been swollen and hurting for a few days..I probably shouldn't be on the computer now but I had to give an update. I am typing with my eyes closed and not really looking at this after so I hope there aren't too many mistakes. :) The first weekend I was here we helped with some Health Fairs all around Belize. It was a lot of fun and we got to do some traveling. Last week I helped with two main projects. We helped the Red Cross do a lot of sorting through old clothes so they can do a clothing sale- It was just like my job at Somebody's ATtic. I took charge of that and now their trailer looks like the basement of SA. We also helped the Red Cross go out to some villages and we worked on taking the safety census. I've been practicing my Spanish and am also learning sign language. Last week I was also able to start getting the Soilet project in to action. I met with some Colleges and Universities and other partner organizations to find contacts and get the soilet in motion. I will give more details about that later. This week I met with a few organizations about teaching business and computer classes. I will be working with a Woman's Group from the Cornerstone Foundation doing weekly activities with them as well as teaching two computer classes twice per week and supervising a third one that a CS volunteer will be teaching. It is going to be so much fun. I start teaching piano next week as well. I have 8-10 students and I will be teaching them all at the same time in the San Ignasio chapel. I've never taught that many kids at once- usually I do one-on-one, so we'll see what I can come up with! That's really all i can think of right now..plus my eye and head are killing :( I will catch ya later!!

Day 1

I'm in Belize. We are staying tonight in Belize City with the mission president and his wife. It is sooo green here. And all the buildings are very colorful- but the entire country is extremely poverty-striken, even more than I thought. I had my first meal of chicken, rice and beans. I also had part of a fried banana but I kinda gagged- I'll try it again another time. We have a training tonight with the local hospital. We are going to be teaching at a health fair tomorrow so we will learn what to teach. We are just getting right to work. It is so humid and hot. I haven't stopped sweating since our plane landed. Pretty much disgusting! Well..I have to go. I will catch you up more later!

I leave in 3 hours!!

Holy Cow! I am leaving for the airport at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning~that makes it 3 1/2 hours! I have now packed and repacked my suitcase about three times to get everything to fit. It is crazy. I've been saying goodbye to everyone and it is pretty sad but I'm ecstatic to be leaving. Thanks to EVERYBODY who has helped in anyway. I love you all. The last movie that I watched with Steph before I left my "White House" was Wedding Planer and Hitch. And I currently have "How to Lose a Guy in 10 days" playing...so I have my fill of Matthew McConaughey before I leave! My family took me out to Texas Roadhouse so I could have a really yummy steak! For lunch I was able to have Old Grist Mill :) Well I need to finish my last minute things. My next post will be from BELIZE!!! I hope you all keep in touch! Goodbye!!

6 Days...and Counting!!

Hi Everyone!
I leave in 6 days! I can't believe it is coming so quick. I've taken two of my finals and have three more to go. I have about half of my house packed up and still trying to figure out what I need to actually pack. My two country directors (Calvin and Raymon)went down to Belize on Monday. They've been staying at the mission presidents home while they search for our house. I was talking to Calvin last night and he said it is SOOOO hot and at night the mesquitos are ridiculous! So I'll be packing a lot of bug spray. I am exstatic about this trip. There are two branches (one english and one spanish)that we will be able to attend. The members there are so excited for us to come- some of them have washing machines and have offered to do our laundry! That is great news. Originally we were going to be living in Belize City. That is still a possibility but we may be living in a small town about an hour inland- the name is escaping me at the moment but if that is where we end up living, you will know for sure! Well I gotta run! Let me know if you guys have any tips and such! Love you all.

Last Training

I had my last training this past Saturday. It was great- we learned how to play the BEST game. This is a technique to teach the students(entrepreneurs)how to balance a business. As facilitators we have the ability to manipulate the game and emphasize different aspects of a business. For example if a person has a hard time keeping records we can give more "money" to those who keep the best records through the game. Or if someone has a hard time budgeting we can implement different costs such as family life, material costs, or savings. They have to figure out the best balance so that their family and business are both healthy as well as saving in case of emergencies. We have a lot of power as the facilitator to teach important concepts. We had the opportunity to play the game twice and create different products and market them to different stores. I learned a lot and we had a fun time as a team.

I want to first give a shout to all those who have been helping me get ready for this great adventure!! Thanks to all the donations so far, every little bit is helping out A LOT! I leave in two weeks and two days!! AHHH. ..I'm not ready but I am soooo excited. I leave in the middle of finals week so I'm trying to get ahead in classes so that I can take them early. I just got my vaccines today. My arms are so sore and I kinda feel like I'm going to pass out- a good night sleep tonight will help. I'm working on packing all of my belongings to put into storage and start packing the things that I need. If any of you have traveled internationally let me know some things that I might forget. Any suggestions will be useful-things that are common sense to you, may slip my mind. You should also become a follower also- this way you can comment on these blogs, ask questions, and I can respond and keep in touch with you all! Let me know if you have any questions.

About Belize

I have been researching Belize a little! This is a bit of what I have learned: The primary language spoken is English. There is a large Caribbean influence. The currency that they use is the Belizean Dollar (BE$), the exchange rate right now (and has been for years and years) is about $1=2 BE$. One thing that I am very excited about is that Belize is located on the Caribbean Coast. Along that coast is the second-longest barrier reef in the world(after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia). There are over 450 cayes (keys) or small islands located off the coast of Belize. I will be living in Belize City. It is located on a little peninsula in the middle-northern section of Belize. This is the nation's principal port and its financial and industrial hub. Belize City features a tropical monsoon climate, with warm and humid conditions throughout the course of the year. Their wet season runs from May to January. The average temperature while I will be there is a high of 88 degrees and the low of 75 degrees. Belize is about the size of Massachusetts, so you have a comparison within the United States.

Great Training!!

Last Saturday I went down to Provo for a business training. We learned different techniques of how to teach what can be complex concepts, very simply. We watched part of a movie that gave us a better idea of what we will actually be doing. These people just need a little money to feed their families. We are going to be helping save lives. We had different topics and got into groups and practiced actually teaching. We received feedback from the group so that we can improve before we go in-country. This has made me even more excited!! Next Saturday, I have my last training. It is another Business Training and we are learning about the BEST Game. I will tell you about it after. I also met my other country director, Calvin. There are only going to be 4-5 of us that are there the entire summer, so we are going to become great friends! During each wave we will have between 7-12 people coming and going. I can't explain how excited I am!!!

Easy ways to Donate

There are a few ways that you can donate:

1. Copy and paste the address below and pay through PayPal. Please put "Cydnee Haws-Belize" in the comment section so that the money will go towards my program and projects.

http://help-international.org/donors.html

2. Send a check to me: send me an email at cydnee_1@juno.com and I will get you the address to send it. Please make checks to Cydnee Haws and put HELP- Belize on the subject line

3. If I see you often just drop it by sometime or shoot me an email and I can meet you somewhere; or if you know my parents go a head and drop it off to them

Thank you so much for the help you are providing for me to go help the people of Belize!!!!

A Little Background

I'm leaving on May 5th with the HELP International Belize Team. We will go down and find the needs of the citizens. We will talk to the people, city leaders, and local businesses to create the most beneficial, productive, and sustainable projects possible. We will teach these people how to utilize the resources that they have close, in order to create a better life for them and their families. We will help small businesses create business plans and marketing ventures; teach families how to build gardens and different ways to cook that food; help in hospitals and orphanages; and teach how to build adobe stoves to improve health and efficiency for the women. This is just a few of the possible projects we will be working on. I will be keeping this blog up-to-date with details of the projects, the people, and the great experiences we are having. At the end we will create a country report with details of all of our projects and head home on August 25th.

MissionNotImpossible: "Operation Belize" now in Progress

Hi Everyone!!

I only have 29 1/2 days until I leave for Belize! I am so excited to help these poverty-stricken people. I am still looking for some sponsors or donations. Every dollar helps. If you would like to donate even $5 please email me cydnee_1@juno.com and I can get you contact information or a way for you to pay online through PayPal. This is a great way for you to do service and help the people of Belize without actually going there. I am excited for this opportunity. We have added a MoneyMeter to monitor my funds for this MissionNotImpossible: "Operation Belize" so we can keep track of how much more I need to raise. Let everyone know of this great opportunity to help!