On Wednesday, I got back from a five-night trip, visiting some volunteers in the south of the country and attending a meeting in the capital, Belmopan. PCV’s cherish time they get to spend together, whether it’s for the three personal days we get per month or business meetings at the PC office (read: climate-controlled wi-fi zone). All of the volunteers in my cohort (PC term for those that go through training together) became close friends as we endured the grueling schedule of PST. Although site assignment is exciting, there was a hint of sadness as we knew we were going to be fairly geographically isolated from that point.
Well, fast-forward five months, and Emily and I finally braved the ten hour bus ride south to the region of Toledo. “Ten hours?,” you ask, “But, Belize is so small. It’s only about the size of New Hampshire.” “Yes, it is small,” I agree, “But, Belizean buses stop every twenty feet or so when they pass through a village so it takes exponentially longer to get from one end of the country to the other.” The long ride was so totally worth it, though. It was a mini-vacation from the daily grind at site, and it was absolutely amazing to catch up from the volunteers that are so far away.
Needless to say, when I got back to site, I was tired, but I wanted to get back to activities scheduled as usual. So, on Thursday, I was back to PE classes at the Presbyterian school. (General evaluation: the younger kids are so much more entertained by me than the older ones…God bless the parents of 13 year olds, and I’m sorry, Mom, if I ever behaved like that.) Anyways, on the way back, my host cousin stopped me on the road, inviting me to barbecue on Saturday. I agreed and went on my merry way. As I got home, my host dad was in the hammock, so I asked him if there was a party at Tia Rosa’s this weekend. As it turns out, no, it’s not a party, but a barbecue sale…and a political fundraiser. Most ironically, it’s for the party opposite the one my host family supports.
Goshdarnit. PC gave me one simple task—stay out of politics, and I couldn’t even do it. I hadn't even been back for 24 hours, and I was already getting myself into awkward situations. A little background here, Belizean politics are intense. There are two main parties, like in the US, and they're even represented by red and blue! The red party is the United Democratic Party, and the blue party is the People’s United Party. They are really ideologically similar, but whatever one party does is sure to have the other up in arms the next day. They always pick opposite sides of polarizing issues: the delay to start the cane season, for example. Since Belize has a parliamentary system, there are always great video clips on the news of members of parliament hurling strongly-worded opinions at each other. Politics unfortunately trickle down to the village level and create conflicts between neighbors. I try to avoid touching the topic whenever it comes up.
Long story short, today, I ate the barbecue with a slight sense of guilt, but Belizean barbecue is delicious, so I wasn’t sad for long.
Love always,
Jess
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