Hello all!
Thanks for reading this! I've been in Belize for just over a month now, and I am finally getting settled in after our orientation to the country. The second year volunteers took two weeks to introduce us to Belize, which flew by in a blur of waterfalls, bumpy jungle roads, and City sights and sounds, all to a soundtrack of Rhianna's biggest hits (she is really popular here!). Now, I've started working and living in the community that will be my home for two years.
I live in a big, white, concrete house out back of St. Martin's Catholic Parish in Belize City, and we have a coconut palm AND a mango tree out front. In my community are four new volunteers like me (Monique, Matt, Jaret, and Gina), and two who are in their second year (Christin and Jon). We spend intentional time as a community several times a week, and also share life as it comes.
One of my favorite parts of orientation was staying overnight with a family in one of the rural areas of Belize (We live in the city but got to travel during orientation). A woman named Mikayla invited us to her home in the Mayan village of San Antonio, a small cluster of houses and farms in the jungle around the town of Punta Gorda. We cooked in an outdoor kitchen, making tortillas and grinding cacao to the sound of the rain falling in the forest around us. Mikayla also shared some of her thoughts and opinions as a witness to decades of cultural change and life experience in the village. Hearing her, watching the mist rise off the trees, and listening to the rythm of life in the village was one of the first moments I've felt truly peaceful since being here.
One thing that is hard for me here is being exposed to violence. I've been privileged to grow up safe, and most of my neighbors in the city haven't. People in the US buy a lot of drugs, and that leads to a lot of violence in Central America, because the drug trade supports the gangs that fill neighborhoods like Martin's. Many young people, men in particular, have limited options for employment, and even fewer role models and spaces to be other than the streets. They are often entangled in the gangs at a young age, and it is really hard to get out. As my community and I sit to share a meal, play guitar, or prepare lesson plans for the next day, we hear gunfire and know that someone has been hurt or killed. If you have available prayers, please send them for peace here and for the people here. And, please don't worry reading this - no JV's have been hurt here!
Young women also struggle here, my work is with girls who face challenges from abuse to teenage pregnancy to poverty. Although I'm just beginning to know them, I'm already amazed at their resilience.YES (the NGO I'm working for) tries to fill in educational and vocational gaps they have, and provide counseling and support, but the organization has almost no money. For instance, it is myself and one other woman doing almost all the teaching for a school of 32 girls who deserve/need much more one on one attention that we can give, not to mention a teacher with a lot more experience than I have! There is no money, however, to hire anyone else, so this is what they get. And at the same time - the staff remind me that just having a safe space can be life changing for the girls, and just keeping the doors open is sometimes enough.
One thing that is hard for me personally is managing a classroom! Staff here (who are older and wiser than me!) keep reminding me that the girls need their teachers to be women that set firm boundaries and push them to reach their potential. Many of them act out a lot because of issues at home, which means I have to set out limits - like telling people to be quiet and send them to the office if they don't, and making them take their Math assessments even when it's hot and we are all tired and cranky! (Oh yes - I'm a MATH teacher here, along with series of other subjects! God has a sense of humor for sure!) So, it's been hard to know how to be a friend/support and an authority figure - honestly I have no idea how yet. But, I guess that's the good thing about having two years here to learn!
Verses that came up in prayer were from Isaiah 58:
"They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations."
These verses are powerful for me in the context of this place. The girls I learn/work with are marginalized in a lot of ways, as is the community in my neighborhood. And, God says that it is the marginalized who will make these verses true. Please be praying as/that these verses become reality in Belize, and send prayers that I become increasingly open to meeting Jesus in people here.
If you are interested in snail mailing, let me know and I'll send you my address. My email is leighanngreenfield@gmail.com. I love and miss you all! Very much.
Peace,
Leigh Ann
