by Greta Kohl, 6-month Caribbean Immersion team member
Hola from Belize!
Life in Belize has been very full—in all the right ways.
It started with a day full of surprises when we landed in Belize City and drove to Belmopan, a town about an hour outside of the airport, and grabbed some lunch. Unfortunately, the following events of the day included a girl on our team getting food poisoning and waiting at the hospital for hours, a bag getting stolen from our bus, dehydration, the bus not being able to make it up to the village, severe jet-lag, and finally sitting down to eat dinner at our host home in Siete Millas at about 11:30pm. However, that was not any sort of foreshadow of the absolute pleasure our month here in Belize has been so far.
Lindsey and I are living with the Alvarado family, who live at the top of the road. We live with our parents, Ramon and Alva, and our 5 host siblings: Neri age 8, Dileni age 9, Ederson age 11, Jeylin age 13, and Jairo age 17. But there are 10 siblings in total! Sometimes our 23-year-old host brother Jerison and his wife Anesia and their baby Josmanny live in the house as well, while they work on building their house next door. We usually have a full house when the kids are not at school.
The village of Siete Millas is a 7-mile-long dirt road that stems off of a main road that leads into town. It has no electricity, but it does have running water. People travel along the bumpy road by motorcycle, truck, bus, some cars, and the occasional Mennonite horse-drawn carriage. (Siete Millas has a large Mennonite population who settled here and make a living off of the good land.)
It's one of those places where everybody pretty much knows everybody... or they're somehow related. Most of the time, the oldest children inherit their parents' land once they settle down and make a family.
It is so lovely and beautiful here with acres upon acres of farmland, and lush greenery dotted with fluorescent-colored flower bushes. It's clearly gorgeous... but it is hot. One day we hit a heat index of 123 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing any activity other than sitting and breathing felt like a chore in that heat. But we get relief in the cool early mornings when the sun hasn't fully risen.
Our host father has a farm on our property where we grow zucchini, whiskill, cilantro, and squash to sell. We also have mango, banana, lime, and guanabana trees. We own eight cows and use their milk to make and sell cheese in the village. Our host father works in construction and works from about 6AM to 6PM. Our host mother stays home and takes care of the house and cooks and cleans.
There are lots of animals at our house! Two dogs, 1 cat and her 4 kittens (which we named after the Spice Girls), and about 50 or so roosters, chickens, and chicks.
Sisters and Daughters
Lindsey and I share a bed in what used to be the parents' bedroom, and the rest of the family sleeps in another bedroom or on the dining room floor, so we lent them our sleeping mats. Apparently we also share a bed with frogs, cockroaches, and sometimes chickens. We decided that the best way to not be bothered by these various creatures is just to go to sleep and pretend they're not there! Out of sight, out of mind. The house has an outdoor kitchen, sink, shower, and outhouse. We are definitely enjoying living this simplified life, and pouring a lot of focus into building strong relationships with our host family.
The welcoming and hospitable nature of our family makes us feel like we truly belong. Our parents call us their "hijas americanas" (American daughters). Our little sister Jeylin, although she's only 13, acts and talks like she's years older than us and it's awesome. She does a lot of the work around the house, being the oldest daughter in the house. She's always showing us how to cook, clean, and water the plants with a huge smile on her face and an attitude for excitement. We joke around with her that the only thing she's not good at is RESTING. Her school day starts at 5:45am when the bus comes, and ends when she gets back around 4:45pm. She does really well in school and plans to graduate high school in 2 years and go on to university if she can get a scholarship. I just really admire her dedication and determination at such a young age when I definitely didn't have my priorities straight.
Our host parents speak only Spanish, but all of our sibling speak English as well because they learn it in school. So Lindsey and I get to test our Spanish speaking skills quite a bit, but if we ever need a translator, we have five!
Life in Siete Millas
Here is a run-through of the typical Belizean day!
- We wake up between 7 and 8 to the sound of a bustling family!
- Eat breakfast, usually consisting of either rice and beans or homemade tortillas and beans
- Walk our youngest host siblings to school (about a mile and a half walk)
- Come home and do the MASSIVE piles of dishes that are naturally the result of living with a big family
- Help Alva make lunch or make our own! Usually it's tortillas and beans and sautéed veggies or fresh cucumber. If Alva needs help with hanging up the clothes, we will do that too. Alva called us her "hijas trabajadoras" (hard-working daughters), and she told Jeylin that she has a really nice time cooking and cleaning with us :)
- Then we take a blissful siesta in the hammock under a tree and listen to podcasts or just have a chat!
- When the younger kids come home we hang out and talk to them for a while and play soccer or a card game. The younger children will sometimes go house to house selling the homemade cheese, so we will sometimes tag along and meet some new people! We have been called "buenas vendedoras" (good saleswomen)
- When Jeylin comes home, we start on dinner! Yep, you guessed it, tortillas with beans!
- Then we have some time to sit and be with the family and maybe even make some tea.
- Our family goes to a church very close to our house, and there are services every night besides Mondays and Fridays. Our family usually goes one or two nights a week. The services are all in Spanish and go from 7-9pm.
- If we don't go to church, we usually end up in bed around 7:30... the heat really tires us out, I guess!
And that's about it. As always, this is what a typical day is like, but we have also had a bunch of other activities in the mix.
Lindsey and I made really good friends with a vibrant, friendly, elderly American woman named Miss Sue who lives in a bright green house next door to us. She has been a missionary since she was in college and decided to move to Belize 18 years ago and start incorporating some of her work here in Siete Millas. She home-schools children at her house (including our host siblings, who consider Miss Sue to be an adopted grandmother), and she helps them to develop better English language skills. She also built a 2-room schoolhouse where she runs vacation Bible schools in the summer. She asked us to help her run a Bible school on a 3-day weekend, and we loved the idea of it! So after some preparation and planning, we got it together! About 30 children attended to listen to the Bible stories, do some crafts, sing some songs, and most importantly, learn some more about God! I even had the opportunity to teach a health lesson and run a discussion about nutrition and cleanliness on the three days. It was an AMAZING experience and such a success.
Some other exciting moments from these first 4 weeks include one of the host families in the village offered to take us to two different close-by tourist attractions with waterfalls and climbing rocks and cliff jumps! Super gorgeous. Another day, Miss Sue took our siblings and us to a little creek in Siete Millas where there is plenty of shade and room to swim.
My host mom Alva fell and sprained her ankle before we came to Belize, so I told her I could give her massages to make the swelling go down. Every night we would sit and chat while I massaged her ankle, and in one conversation she said that ever since Lindsey and I showed up she hasn't been sad! It was the sweetest thing ever. We also made fried dumplings one night with our host sisters under the light of our head lamps! It was a big success and a "crazy girls' night" to remember!
It's easy to say I am living a dream life in Belize. Every day brings a smile to my face and warms my heart. I can also easily say that I would LOVE to be home, and I miss it like crazy, but I can definitely wait 4 more weeks. And I know that while I'm missing home now, when I'm home I'll be missing Belize. I'm just doing my best to cherish these sweet moments I know I will hold close to my heart for the rest of my life.
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