Our Work With the Youth Business Trust Belize

Pat and I both have been working on a new project. We have been working with an NGO called the Youth Business Trust of Belize. It is a really neat project because YBTB promotes entrepreneurship to Belizean youth between the ages of 18 to 35. Research has shown that promoting small business development and entrepreneurship in developing countries leads to economic progress. The YBTB program recruits young entrepreneurs with a viable business idea and assists them in developing that idea in to a small business through training, mentorship, and offering micro loans to assist with start up capital. Pat and I are working with our counterpart to strengthen the organization and assisting with the implementation of services such as recruitment and training of mentors and entrepreneurs. We have also been fortunate enough to assist with some of YBTB’s outreach and awareness activities. We assisted with the Youth Ambassador program which was funded by the US State Department. Youth from all over the country were asked to enter an essay contest that focused on entrepreneurship. The winners of the contest had the opportunity to spend 3 weeks in the states going to Georgetown University, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Alabama to learn about business development and entrepreneurship. This is an amazing program! These students had a life changing experience while in the US. Pat and I had the opportunity to participate in their debriefing once they returned and we can not say enough about the obvious changes this trip made in their perceptions of business and entrepreneurship.



The next really neat event for YBTB that Pat and I assisted with was Global Entrepreneur Week 2010. Pat organized a really interesting Symposium at the University of Belize to promote entrepreneurship. He organized some leading Belizean Entrepreneurs including our personal favorite product and entrepreneur, Marie Sharp of Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce! Pat also had one of our YBTB entrepreneur’s, Ms. Kaila of Belize Puzzles present her experience.
YBTB assisted Ms. Kaila with getting her puzzle cutting machine and she is now a thriving entrepreneur. Also presenting was representatives from the Social Security office, the General Sale Tax office, and other government organizations to provide information on how to start a business. It was a well attended event and it is planned to be an annual event.















Pat and I also assisted with YBTB’s Innovative Entrepreneur Contest. We invited all of the high schools in Belize city to participate in the event. The schools were asked to have 4 teams and they were given a flashlight, potato peeler, fold up hamper, and a rain coat. The teams were asked to improve the product or change it completely. They were judged on innovation, development of marketing material, identifying their target market, and pricing. We had the best time judging this contest. The students came up with such innovative ideas and did such an excellent job marketing their product. Check out some of the products. The winning team out of all the teams was the FLAMP. They converted the flashlight into a lamp, alarm clock, and fan. As you can see it was very creative but all the students did such a wonderful job with their products. The judges were very impressed with all the teams and their products. We look forward to conducting the competition again next year but hopefully country wide.

Keri's Secondary Project: NaRCIE

I don’t believe we have written much about my secondary project, but in honor of International Disabilities Week I thought it would be a great time to show case the work that NaRCIE does. NaRCIE stands for the National Resource Center for Inclusive Education. They are under Belize’s Ministry of Education and is responsible for identifying all the special needs or children with disabilities through out the country. They have about 18 to 20 IRO’s or Inclusive Resource Officers that are responsible for assessing every referral in the country. This includes hearing impaired, visually impaired, physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, emotional, psychological, behavioral problems, speech, and any/or all other learning disabilities. As you can tell this is a daunting task with limited resources. It is amazing the work that these officers accomplish. I have been out in the field with some of the IRO’s and just getting to some of the remote villages to assess the children is very challenging and they only have one vehicle for 20 officers to travel the entire country. They are required to visit every school in their area monthly which is a huge undertaking and unfortunately the have to rely on bus transportation. Some remote villages only have one bus in or out a day so they must stay the night or find transportation. The other heartbreaking issue is once they identify students with special needs or with a disability they have little or almost no services to put in place. The IRO’s try to assist the teachers in providing as much services as possible. So the IRO’s not only assess the students, create an educational plan but most of the time they provide the services or try to teach the school personnel to provide the services. The IRO’s are very committed to their jobs and are able to do amazing work with very little resources or assistance. I have been fortunate enough to work with the IRO’s in assessment of behavior by using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. I have assisted them with children who have demonstrated behavior problems in the classroom. I also conducted 20 hours of ABA training to the IRO’s and it was a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed teaching the IRO’s and working with them in the field. I have been able to go with them to the classrooms and work with some of the teachers and parents. I have gone to remote villages to work with children who can’t attend school due to the severity of the behavior problems or disability. This is especially sad. Some of the pictures are of children and families I visited that unable to attend school. The schools are not required to take all students. This is very different from the states where children have the “right” to an education regardless of their disabilities but here in Belize school is a privilege. The parents must pay for their children to attend and they are responsible for paying for all their materials and uniforms. It is supposed to be free but it ends up being very expensive for the parents. The Government of Belize does not have the money or resources to fully support the education system. NaRCIE is doing a wonderful job at making changes to the curriculum and pushing national policy to improve standards for children with disabilities. It is amazing what they have been able to accomplish with such limited resources. They conduct awareness campaigns such as promoting awareness during International Disabilities week which I was invited to participate. NaRCIE partnered with several other NGO/CBO’s and schools to celebrate this week. I have included some of the pictures from the parade. If you would like to learn more about the work that NaRCIE does go to their website NaRCIE

Our Anniversary Trip to Tikal & Flores Guatemala

So we need to back up just a little. We are posting a little out of order, but we wanted to tell you all about our 15th wedding anniversary. Yes, pat and I have been married 15 wonderful years and we have been together for 17 wonderful years. Our life together has been fun and exciting and it seems like a new adventure awaits for us each new day. Our anniversary was no exception. This adventure started with Gibnut in Belize city and ended with a lovely steak dinner in Flores Guatemala. On the actual day (June 1st) of our anniversary we enjoyed lunch downtown Belize city where I had my first delicious taste of the royal dish (It was the Queens favorite meal while in Belize). For those of you unaware, Gibnut is a small game animal which is basically a large rodent.... imagine a guinea pig on steroids. Unfortunately, for the Gibnut, it is slow, dumb, & tastes very good! We
went to a little place called Neri’s and dined on the delicious meat. They have all kinds of Belize’s finest dishes. We then went shopping for a soccer ball so I can practice for the team. Oh! I don’t know if we told you but Pat and I are on the Peace Corps Soccer team. The girl’s are called the “Black Orchids” and the guy’s team is naturally the “Gibnuts”. In our last game I played, I actually scored the first goal. Anyway, after our shopping spree we had a lovely dinner at a very nice restaurant called “Celebrations”. We had our first bottle of wine in a really long time and it was delicious. Right before our lovely dinner I gave Pat his anniversary gift.... a machete! He had wanted one for a long time so he could whack coconuts open. We have used it quite a few times.

Anniversary part 2

Okay later in the week we caught a bus down at the water taxi station and began our 5 hour journey to Guatemala. Our bus was to take us to Tikal, but unfortunately, it dropped us off at El Remate which is about 45 minutes from Tikal. Luckily, another couple got off at the same time and they spoke Spanish and could discuss a price for the cab ride. We arrived at Tikal around 3pm and checked into our room. Pat booked us a lovely room right on the edge of the park. The hotel was absolutely beautiful, and had a little restaurant where you sit outside and dine. We had enough time to go to the park before it closed and we walked around the main plaza where we were able to catch some nice pictures at sun set. If you go in after 3pm your ticket is good for the next day so we got up early the next morning and began our days adventure in the park. We did not realize how large the park really was until we began to visit all the sites. It is 6 square miles of restored temples, ball fields, Stelae’s, and reliefs from 300 BC through approximately 900AD. The entire city is actually over 23 square miles waiting to be excavated. It is massive with over 400 structures that have been excavated or in the process of being excavated. I am not kidding it is a Maya Metro-plex. It is theorized that the city housed between 50K to 100K people. We went to temple IV first thing in the morning just after sun rise. It is one of the tallest temples and was used as the rebel base camp in Star Wars. It was absolutely breath taking. The fog covered the lush jungle and packs of howler monkeys were calling from various parts of the jungle. We saw so much wildlife at the park; Howlers, Toucans, Spider Monkeys, and some little fox/squirrel looking thing. As you can tell from the pictures we walked the entire park from the time it opened at 6AM until closing time at 6pm. We were exhausted when we got back to the hotel and ate a lovely dinner and went to bed. We got up next day and took a collectivo to Santa Elena and then a tuk-tuk to Flores. Flores is a beautiful little village on a small island in the middle of a lake. It is gorgeous and the people are so friendly. Pat again had picked a lovely hotel with a pool & AC. It was only 50 US a night and it included breakfast. We walked around the whole island up and down the quaint little streets. Everyday for lunch we went to the center square of town and ate at the food stall. They had the best taco's, burritos, & beer. We would eat lunch and watch whatever World Cup game was on. One afternoon it began to rain and the nice man tending the food stall invited us inside and we discovered that the stall was actually his home. He was so kind and we really enjoyed talking with him in our limited Spanish. We also went on a little boat ride one afternoon over to an island that housed a zoo. The zoo had many animals but the cats were most impressive; a Jaguar, Pumas, and Ocelots. It was a wonderful day and that evening we found a restaurant on the water that had delicious steaks and potatoes. The meal came with a real green salad (for you who live outside of Belize, the Belizean version of salad is potato salad or coleslaw but never lettuce). It was wonderful. Also one night walking by the water, we met a young man and his wife. His wife made fresh, delicious tamales & we liked them so much we ate three each. We complimented the wife on the tamales and she was so nice that she wrote down the recipe for us. The people were so friendly and pleasant in Guatemala. Everywhere we went, they made us feel at home even with our very limited Spanish. We had a wonderful time on our anniversary adventure, but the best part was just being together. Check out the videos and extra pics below!

July 4th 2010 Sarteneja

July 4th, 2010!!!!! Well again just trying to catch up on the blog. We have been so busy and involved in so many activities we have not had a chance to write about them. So I bet you all are wondering how we spent our July 4th this year. Those of you who know us know we are very patriotic and usually host a July 4th party every year. We were worried that we would not have an opportunity to celebrate this year being so far from our homeland, but we had an awesome 4th! One of our fellow volunteers hosted a weekend of fun and celebration Belizean style! We went to the village of Sarteneja located in Corozal district. It is a small fishing village located in the north. It is so far north you can see the border of Mexico just across the bay. It is absolutely beautiful there. Our fellow PCV there is assisting the Sarteneja Alliance for conservation and Development Group in developing the Sarteneja tourism industry as an alternative to fishing. The village has grown to a size that the fishing industry is unable to support the village and to conserve their natural resources they are looking at alternatives. The local tour guide association is trying to develop their tours of the reserve and so several of the PCV’s came up to assist in piloting their tours. It was awesome! We took a bus up to the village the night before. This can be kind of tricky because there are only one or two buses a day into and out of the village. If you visit plan on staying the night. We arrived the night before and hung out with our fellow PCV’s. We went out to a little restaurant in the village, and called it an early night so we could be up early for our tour. The next morning we went down to the dock and took an hour boat ride to our first stop. We went to a small island that is part of the reserve. They have a museum on the island that explains the history and formation of the park. The guide also discussed the damage to the reef caused by the cruise ships. Evidently, they dump large amounts of waste into the bay right off from the reserve. There are a large number of cruise ships crossing daily and this is damaging the reef and effecting other wildlife. Next we were off for another hour boat ride to snorkel the reef. The tour guides did a great job explaining the different types of mangroves and discussing the reef. They did a great job touring us around the reef and pointing out various species of fish, conch, and lobster. It was amazing the amount of fish and wildlife we saw on the reef. The boat ride through the mangroves was also really cool. We then took a break for lunch. We had a good old American cook out of hotdogs, potato chips, and potato salad. It would not be a cook out in Belize without the famous Belizean rum punch made with fruit squash. After lunch a conservation group on the island doing research and counting species gave us a presentation. We then went out for another snorkel to a different location. It was amazing. We then headed back to the village. When we arrived at the village the women’s group who manage the home stay program had arranged a 4th of July feast for us. They decorated the yard and had all kinds of food including Ceviche, chips, beans & rice, stewed chicken, and a wonderful pineapple upside down cake. The ladies also made a wonderful American flag cake as seen pictured. The children came and set of fireworks. It was a wonderful time had by all. Our fellow PCV is doing an amazing job in the village and you can tell she is loved dearly by the villagers. If you would like to read more about Sarteneja Village go to here. Look out for our next adventure coming to our blog soon!