"You Need A Steetch!"

For any that may already know about my little adventure at the Belizian hospital... never fear. Despite the fact that my war wound is cool, I'm not going to post pictures of it to the blog. I believe the story is better if you just use your imagination. And I'll be honest, I told Benj that I didn't want to take pictures of it... mainly because every time I get a glimpse of it my stomach starts to turn and the thought of documenting that for history's sake makes me cringe a little. I'm a pansy when it comes to injuries like this! :)

But the story goes like this.

Benj and I were planning to go to the Cornerstone Foundation with one of our teammates Cydnee. It was a great plan we had for that day. We all got up and got dressed in business casual. Which doesn't really seem like that big of a deal, but with how hot and humid it is here, looking put together and wearing business casual is almost more effort than it's worth. We were going to teach a typing class at Cornerstone and then catch a bus to Belmopan for a meeting about our business class.

Cornerstone is literally about a block away from where we live here in Belize. It's just down a hill and right around the corner. So off we went, down the rocky path, talking about our plans for the day and remarking about the weather or something of the sort. I wasn't being a crazy walker, I wasn't trying to multi-task, I honestly was just walking down the road. But my foot hit a loose rock, I slid and ended up going down on my knee along a pretty rocky part of the road. Benj had my hand and pulled me back up in seconds, but the damage was done. When I looked down at my leg I knew it wasn't going to be a good day anymore.

The graphic details of my injury are as follows (skip this if you get woosey like I do). It's a puncture wound, about a little bit bigger than a dime, and just about an inch away from my knee cap. By the time we walked the 3 houses back to our apartment I had blood running down my leg and onto my Chacos.

Benj was a total hero. He grabbed me a chair, then took one look at my face and agreed that I should probably lay down on the floor. Within seconds he'd looked at the wound, cleaned up the blood, and flushed the wound out the best he could. But he couldn't avoid breaking the news that we were going to have to go to the hospital for some stitches. I hate hospitals... funny I know, seeing that I used to work at Utah Valley Regional.

But we caught a cab, I tried to maintain the shock I was in over the amount of blood and the looming hospital visit that lay ahead. We made it to Loma Lus, a Seventh Day Adventist hospital in the neighboring town of Santa Elena. There was no wait, and I was eeen by a doctor within just a few minutes. And here's where the story gets really good.


I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but I dislike being sick or hurt and don't like doctors or hospitals. Additionally, when I get in that intense state that comes with a little bit of shock and a minor to major injury... I unlike other people, get a little sassy and end up cracking jokes about whatever is going on. Other people break into a sweat and clam up, and I... well, I jump up on stage ready for a performance.

The doctor was this incredibly cute Guatemalan lady. She spoke some English but had a nurse who also acted as a translator. Her hair was all done in ringlets and she looked like a  little doll in her 2 shades of pink scrubs. We went through the consultation and in broken English she asked me the usual doctor stuff. What had happened, how bad it hurt and so on. I was enjoying the air conditioned room. The procedure room however didn't have any AC. And of course we all piled in and shut the door. The whole thought of stitches makes me a little light headed, so cutting off the air circulation didn't help any. I was trying to keep the crazy comments going on in my head to a minimum and Benj was great to make sure there was no passing out and that the doctor was doing a good job. But 2 comments did make me laugh out loud.

The shots of local anesthetic were the worst and Benj knew I was close to losing it so he grabbed my hand and said "Talk to me Goose..." to which I had to just laugh and reply "What do you want me to say? Ouch?"

But our favorite was from our cute little Guatemalan doctor while looking at the wound.... "Oh Mareesa... you need a steetch." I wanted to sit up and say... "I think I need more than one steetch lady..." but I just looked at Benj and then said, "okay" instead.

Anyway... 4 stitches. That's all I got. I go back on Friday to get them out, but I'll say this for Belize and Loma Lus... "steetches" have definitely made our trip a lot more exciting thus far!

Update--Belize!

We've been super busy, but here's a short update. We're trying to finish the Soilet, find some corporate sponsors, and start up a business class teaching basic money management skills.

So first of all the most exciting...

So the site where we are building the Soilet is a little resort along the river. For those of you planning to visit the Cayo this would be a fun place to stay. It's called the Parrot's Nest, and in addition to it's namesake, a pet parrot, there are a ton of these running around and climbing in the trees.




We're in the final stages of finishing the Soilet. We are the hardcore Soileteers!


In this picture are Marissa, me, Mary, and Wendy(in the front --standing in the drain hole!) We spent our Saturday out filling in putting the final touches on the drainfield (lots of picking and digging), placing the pipe, and filling it in with gravel.


I say we're hardcore because the rest of our group were either off at Key Caulker or in Guatemala visiting Tikal! of course, we would have been in the Tikal group, but as many of you know Marissa hurt her knee, and it's no fun to climb ancient Mayan temples with four stitches and a swollen knee. (More on that later!)

Cahal Pech

So Saturday we went to a Mayan ruin that's just about half a mile from where we live. It's called Cahal Pech, which means "Place of Ticks". Archaeologists have dated the site from around 1000 B.C. - 1100 A.D. It sits at the crest of a large hill, and although not very fun to hike up to the top, it offers a great view of the valley. In fact, that's why archeologists believe it served for some time as a military guard post (around 600 A.D.)

It consists of seven plazas and a large temple-like structure at the center. It was fun to walk around and see the impressive construction. Blocks/cut stones cemented into place. rooms with ventilation shafts, and cut channels in the stone to divert and collect rainfall.

One of the smaller plazas was the royal residence. This was our favorite part--with lots of rooms to explore and evidence of smart engineering.

Although one of the smaller sites in Belize/Guatemala, it was still impressive. There was even a ball court. In which they played a game where you had to get a ball through a hoop. contrary to popular belief, the ball was made of rubber (an Olmec discovery) not cement. And you didn't want to be the loosing team, as it is believed that the team captain would be killed--talk about sudden death!

So it was a fun experience. Although we don't know where the Nephite civilization was, it is good to have a better mental picture of what it was like in Book of Mormon times. These people may not have been Nephites or Lamanites, but they most likely lived like them. An interesting thing to consider--on a time line posted at the vistor's center there was something that caught my attention. Between 600 B.C. - 400 B.C. several cultures merged and the first temple structures started to appear. Now although it doesn't prove anything, I doubt that it was a mere coincidence.

The Royal Plaza - the royal family residence was in this area

A rain gutter

A main spillway off the back of the structure

Steep set of stairways leading between 2 different plazas

Stairway leading up to the Main Plaza

San Ignacio

Just a little more about the town that we live in - San Ignacio. San Ignacio is a bout 2 hours from the airport in Belize City. The city/town is set on a hillside full of fairly dense foliage. Our beautiful coral-colored house is uptown and literally sits at the midpoint of a fairly steep hill, just up from the bust stop and city market place.

There are 2 major bridges that lead into San Ignacio - the Lower & Upper. Sometimes the natives refer to it merely as "Cayo", which is actually the name of the region San Ignacio is in. "Cayo" means "island", and San Ignacio is essentially just that, situated between two of Belize's major rivers the Macal and the Mopan. So the two bridges connect San Ignacio to the areas across both of these rivers. The Lower bridge is basic - no fancy structure here and sits at the bottom of town. It rises only several feet above the current water level and is quickly covered during flooding season. The Upper bridge has a pedestrian passageway (we walk along it to go to the English Branch in Santa Elena for Church), large pillars and large metal cables suspending the bridge at least 90 feet above the water. The pedestrian footpath is small metal grate - just large enough to catch a great view of the water moving below. Raymon, one of the country directors, told us that the last time it flooded in San Ignacio (something that's fairly common here during the rainy season) the river rose up to the bottom of the Upper bridge.

Like any small town, San Ignacio has a Saturday market, held downtown where local farmers come to sell produce, handmade items, and other products. We went yesterday, purchased a tupperware to put our beans/salsa in so we could have it for lunches with tortilla chips. The market provided plenty of options for produce - the most interesting we found yesterday was smoked sea weed... not sure I'll ever be up for trying that one!

Architecture is varied around the city. There's not really a distinction in standard of living between neighborhoods. Our home is one of the nicer ones for the natives (excluding some of the ex-pats homes) but are all inter-mixed with those homes that are much more humble. For example, our next door neighbor's live in a cement box of sorts. No stucco or paint and only lace curtains for the windows and doors. Our house has a nice wrought-iron fence surrounding it and a few dogs, where as our neighbors have none of these added securities. It makes us both grateful for the types of homes we grew up and currently live in and for all the blessings we have.

That said, our neighbors and many of the people here are extremely friendly and grateful despite their circumstances. The little girl that lives next door often plays outside with her little puppy - they're both tiny and she watches for us and waves as we come and go.

The foliage is fairly dense - as you can see in the picture above. In fact, men wander around with weed wackers trimming along the sides of roads to keep the green down. We've also seen several people out in their yards with lawn mowers - attempting to cut grass/foliage that is closer in height to their knees than their ankles. I have to laugh, because I think I'd give up at that point and just accept that my front yard was a jungle, which in this case it actually is.

Some of the people are incredibly hardworking, while others hardly work at all. The branch members tells us this is a problem among members and new converts as well, causing issues with church attendance and activity, but at church today we were so impressed with the number of faithful members and their passion and love for the gospel.

Regardless of the culture differences though, we're loving our time here and our interaction with the Belizians we've met so far. Some of our favorites include our cook, Sister Kay. She's a Creole, a lot of fun, and one of the best cooks ever. There's much more to say about her and her family, but we'll save that as well as a glimpse of her best dishes for a later post!

The Soilet

As some of you know, one of the projects that we're working on in Belize it the Soilet. What is the Soilet? I'm glad you asked.

The Soilet is a hybrid of a pit latrine, a septic tank, and a composting toilet. It is made of inexpensive materials, and requires minimal technical skills to construct.

The Soilet was designed by a man in Ghana, where sanitation is questionable. The Soilet is eco-friendly and allows sewage to be treated and not dumped into the ocean.

We are bringing the Soilet to Belize. We are helping with the construction and marketing of the project. Mostly, it's a proof of concept project. We're seeing if the Soilet will work in a different climate. In addition a film crew from BYU broadcasting is coming to Belize to do a documentary on the Soilet (and to scuba dive.)

We're building the Soilet at a riverside resort in Bullet Tree...a small village outside of San Ignacio. The manager of the place is really excited about having a Soilet because it will be a big selling point for all of his eco-tourist clientele.

The main comoponet of the Soilet is a concrete box made of porous cement and filled with layers of dirt and other things. We are putting this box mostly below ground and so there had to be a hole to put it in...




So then we had to dig a drain field.




Yes, that's me that's with the pick ax.

On Monday we're going to pour concrete for the floor of the box. Let's just hope it doesn't rain...

Housemates

So after 4 absolutely crazy days in Belize we've had the chance to learn a ton about our housemates. All together there are 17 people (we've got quite a group of varied personalities which leads to a lot of great laughing moments) in a 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house. It's quite a stylish place. Stucco walls inside, dark wood panel doors, and linoleum floors that have just been rolled out and tacked down with duct tape seams. The houses in Belize are fairly colorful, for example:

We live on the bottom floor and we have some neighbors that live above us, but they're currently visiting the US. However, they left 3 glorious dogs at home with us, who tend to bark the majority of the night. Added security though is a definite bonus.

In addition to the dogs, we've got geckos and my personal favorite:

 Tarantulas! We've seen 3 so far, but this one was by far the biggest. Now I'm ok with these because they keep the bugs down (which goes for the geckos as well). However, we were moving things around in our room and we found one of these beauties by our stuff. Squishing it wasn't an option. So Benj went to get a cup and I stayed on the lookout until he got back.

Our little friend kept heading towards a pile of clothes near the bed, so I decided to stomp my foot on the floor in front of the clothes. Bad idea! Tarantulas love confrontation and he charged! I ended up on the bed telling Benj that he better hurry.

We've been down to the market, bought a laundry basket for our constantly growing pile of dirty clothes, eaten an entire pineapple between the 2 of us in just one sitting, and walked up and down a lot of hills. The streets here in Belize are either pavement (well the larger, busier streets) or white dirt and rocky. The latter, is almost blinding when the sun is out.

We'll post more later, but are headed off to catch the end of the USA/England soccer game!

On the ground in Belize

Well, this is my inaugural blog post! Hopefully I can be at least half as entertaining as Marissa.

We got into Belize about 5:00 local time (although it's central time--the Belizians, like the Arizonans, don't believe in daylight savings--so it's the same time zone as in Provo).

The airport is not very large..in fact we had to flip a u-turn at the end of the runway because there is only one taxiway in the center of the one runway. One way in. One way out.

Now for those of you that travel a lot this may not seem unusual, but we climbed out of the plane onto the tarmac. Not something I've ever done--deplane from a 737 onto the tarmac.

First impression. Humid. Very, very humid. And warm. Very, very warm.

We went through customs and met up with Raymon, our county director and about 10 other volunteers that arrived today. We piled our bags into a trailer, and then climbed into a 15 passenger van and headed west towards San Ignacio.

The roads here are bumpy, to say the least. Mostly two lane affairs winding through the country side. Our Belizian driver whistled and hummed most of the way the there, and he honked and gave shout outs to almost everyone we encountered at the side of the roads along the way. He would say...that's my cousin, or nephew, etc. Quite fun!

We had dinner at Sister Kay's. She a member in the English branch. She cooks for us every night. She's a Creole who speaks heavily accented English. She made us a traditional Creole chicken dish, that was delish! She kind of taken on the role of our Belezian mom while we're here.

We luckily get our own room in our rented house. However it's hot. We managed to make it through the night by stripping down 'til we're barely decent and have a fan blowing on us. Not to mention our guard dogs ( a beautiful german shepherd and a doberman) who keep up a constant cacophony of barking throughout the night. So we feel safe, but are going to have to adjust a little so we can get some good sleep!

No hot water this morning for the showers, but we were okay with that...it felt really good.

So we didn't see a lot of mosquito's--we have screened windows, but I saw a fist-size tarantula up in the corner of the hallway ceiling (which I didn't point out to Maris). And then this morning we had a fist sized cockroach in our kitchen which Calvin (another country director) took off after with a sandal.

So yeah, we're getting exposed to the wonders of Belize!

We'll post more soon with pictures, but for now we're headed off for a team meeting and to work this afternoon!

On To Our Next Adventure

Jury duty and our trip down to AZ was a blast. And we returned to UT just in time to visit with Benj's family, take a trip down to Manti for a family wedding, celebrate the arrival of a brand new nephew, & spend what seems like a lifetime packing.

That said, I think we're ready to go. So it's off to our next adventure.

Just in case you wonder what exactly we're doing there...

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Yep... we made the 6 'o clock news. Thank heaven it was for something like this!

The next time you hear from us... it'll be live... from Belize!