Well, like clock work, here's another 3 month update! It's strange really; I mean, it's not like I've been sitting on my hands for the three months since my last excruciatingly long mass email, but quite naturally, I have found myself with enough reflection material every three months or so to share with you fine people. It's kind of like my body's "wake-up-two-minutes-before
So, what's been happening in Belize? Since I last wrote, a lot! There have been democratic elections that gave the People's United Party, office mongrels for the past ten years, a swift kick to the street (their campaign plug was a "one laptop per child" program—come on!) and replaced them with the United Democratic Party who boasted the catchier: "PUP FIRE, UDP HIRE" which you can still find emblazoned on just about every billboard, telephone pole, and vehicle in town (one of the drawbacks of using spray paint on your campaign trail). The PUP's promise to "supply each primary school student nation-wide with a laptop" actually seems more feasible after the fact as apparently, the Belizean Government had received $20 million US in grants from Taiwan and another $20 million from Venezuela over the course of the last five years. Those funds, however, seem to have mysteriously disappeared from off-shore bank accounts just as former Prime Minister Musa packed up his office on February 8, one day after the election. Weird.
As I am employed—kind of—by the Catholic Church, the last three months have kept me busy with such things as palm blessings, cultish fire-pit worships, walking the streets behind a crucifix singing songs of trembling hearts and fearful adoration, candlelit vigil-ing, and ritualistic water blessing, pouring, and submerging. Yep, Holy Week was a busy time here at St. Martins, and I am truly thankful that a) I was present to witness it and b) it will be a whole ¾ of a year until we have to do it all over again.
The spring, liturgically speaking, also holds the celebrations of First Communion and Confirmation—Sacraments that are a little nearer and dearer to my heart due to the fact that I have been helping the students to prepare for such occasions for the majority of the school year. Last Friday, I had 30 Standard V students (roughly 7th grade—yep, 30 of them, one of me) on a retreat as a last reflection before Confirmation. I had to spend most of the day trying to stop them from writing on each other with the complimentary pens I distributed all too early in the morning's activities. By the time we left, most of them were covered in blue lines and scribbles and complaining that they couldn't do the evaluation form because their pen had run out of ink. The few who had usable pens for the evaluation forms however, thoughtfully answered my "Suggestions for next year?" question with: "Good luck!" I'm not sure if this was a cultural misunderstanding or a reflection of my frenzied attempt and failure to control the pre-pubescent Bic warriors.
Hmm, what else? In early March, two of my fellow Jesuit Volunteers and I accomplished the great feat of La Ruta Maya, a four day canoe race snaking its way from Belize's most western border to the Caribbean Sea. That's 170 miles, folks. I have learned that while kicking things seems to have come relatively easy to me over the years, upper body strength is not really my thing. Plus, I'm not really keen on doing things I'm "not good at," like, say, steering and paddling an overweight bathtub of a canoe. (It was quite a ride, and if you're interested in more details, I suggest you check out my blog posting below.) Let's just say that besides the t-shirt and medal I earned in the experience, I have since blocked our 5th-from-last finish from my memory.These days Belize City is hotter than Hades, but the mangoes are a-blooming which provides pleasure in the face of humidity and general sweat stains (especially when said mangoes are mutilated into smoothie form). I, myself, am doing well—not yet riding life's rollercoaster with my arms outstretched, but definitely loosening my grip on the over-the-shoulder harness and maybe I'll even be pulling off a smile for the camera flashes at the end of the scary tunnel. I'll send you a copy.
Recently, a few Jesuits visited from the St. Louis province to give a presentation on a recent conference they attended in Rome for the election of a new Father General. During the discussion of the Jesuit mission and its manifestation in various ministries, Fr. Tom, the Provincial, said something (that shows how much I was paying attention) about "our broken but lovable world." I have adopted this, or perhaps plagiarized it, as the overarching title of my experience in Belize. It is not what I expected: Belize, for me, is filled with disorientation, with acute disappointment and loneliness, observations of abuse and pollution, experiences of heartache and confusion. But it is also filled with beauty—a kind I've never taken the time to appreciate; it is filled with cute kids in school uniforms asking for help with their project on simple machines, with vibrant and dynamic scenery and people and landscapes, with families who attend church together every Sunday (all seventeen of them in matching Garifuna attire), with relationships from home that have somehow grown stronger despite such limited contact, and with community mates who accept me for all that I'm not. My experience so far is certainly broken—that's not debatable—but I guess, in more ways than I'm willing to admit on a daily basis, it is also lovable.
Well, that's all that's fit to print for this quarterly report. I hope this finds you enjoying the rebirth, renewal, and refreshments of spring time wherever you are. Know that here on the crust of the Carib Sea, we're sweating our faces off!
Much love and peace to you and your families,
Molly
P.S. If you are interested in catching a few shots of our Belize City Photo Scavenger Hunt, my pictures are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15964583@N04/. Don't be alarmed that in practically all of my pictures, I am wearing the same three or four items of clothing. Hand-washing has inspired me to maintain a pretty tight rotation. Enjoy!
