Placencia

This weekend, we went to the beach town of Placencia. It was like a post card. Most of our time was spent lounging in the sun with a book during the day, and enjoying live music at the nearby bar in the evening.

There are five in our group with SCUBA certification, and we were all hoping to get to go diving at least one day this weekend. After the full moon, the schools of snapper come closer in to shore, and following the snapper are enormous whale sharks. This would have been an excellent time to go, not to mention that they collect around Glover's Reef, one of the prime places to see healthy corals, spotted rays, sea turtles, etc. Much to our disappointment, the weekend was incredibly windy, the sea too rough to go out, and the visibility likely to be poor. You win some; you lose some. It meant we got to spend more time relaxing on the sandy beach. 

One of the local girls caught a squirrel and let us hold it. . . I was thinking about my rabies vaccine the whole time.

Barranco

This week, our nutrition group had the opportunity to help with one of the mobile clinics in the seaside town of Barranco. This primarily a Garifuna town, the primarily black, Caribbean group of people that is one of the many cultural groups of Belize. This was a busy clinic, and we had a great time with the friendly patient population. I saw mostly older women with chronic problems like hypertension and diabetes who needed check-ups and medication refills. I thought their knowledge of appropriate diet, foot care, and lifestyle changes necessary for those conditions was incredible. These women knew how to take care of themselves. I only wish our patient population in the US was more like them.

Barranco is also the original home of Andy Palacio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Palacio), a Belizean Punta musician who had achieved recognition throughout Belize prior to his unfortunate death at age 48, likely from a stroke. His family continues to come to the Hillside mobile clinics in Barranco.

This is Sara, the pharmacy student, counseling a relative of Andy Palacio.

Actun Tunichil Muknal

On Sunday, our group went on the "ATM" tour. ATM stands for Actun Tunichil Muknal, meaning Cave of the Stone Sepulchre. This tour was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

We had an hour long hike through the jungle, including crossing the river a few times with all our stuff on our backs. Once we reached the cave, our guide outfitted the group with helmets and headlamps, and in we went. In order to reach the main chamber, we had to hike through various dark passages and swim through collected pools of water. At one point our guide had us all turn out our lights, place our hands on each others shoulders and walk through the pitch blackness. It felt strange for their to be no difference with my eyes open or closed.

When we reached the main chamber, we all took off our shoes and walked around in only socks. This was to prevent damage to the numerous Mayan artifacts scattered every few feet around the cave. We were walking around inches from ancient pottery and both adult and infant human skeletal remains.

Our guide took us further into the cave into a chamber of cathedral-like living stalactites and stalagmites. He had us close our eyes once more and we began hearing ethereal, melodic drumming. When we opened our eyes, he showed us that the stalactites each make a tone when tapped, singing like a drum.

We finally reached a rickety-looking ladder and climbed up into the final room, the Chamber of the Crystal Maiden. In this chamber is the skeleton of a young female, positioned as though she is dancing. Her spine is severed, and lying near her is the blade with which she was sacrificed.

Her skeleton lies to the left, just above where water would reach when the caves fill in the rainy season, and you can see the curtain-like glittering cave formations in the background.

Before we left on this tour, it was described to us as the "quintessential" activity to do in Belize, and I would have to agree. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to tour this cave like we did. With the number of tourists traveling through every day, damage has been noted to the artifacts and condition of the cave itself. The tour guide association is currently working on restricting the number of people and the regions of the cave to which tourists may be taken. While it was amazing to hear the stalactite song and see these artifacts up close, I can imagine how this kind of daily exposure is causing deterioration. Case in point, in the picture of the skull above, you can see that the front teeth are missing. This occurred a few years ago when a tourist dropped her camera and broke them off. While I am thankful for this experience, I definitely think restrictions will be necessary to preserve this amazing combination of natural and ancient human works.

Tikal

Our internet hasn't been functional for the last few days, so I'm going to try to catch up on my entries since last weekend.

Last Saturday, we  booked a tour to Tikal, the largest of the Mayan ruins in this region, just across the Guatemala border. 

Tikal has 5 large temples, the Mayan palace, the market, and other parts of the city still under excavation. The enormity of the temples was mind-boggling, especially when I learned that ancient Mayans did not use the wheel. They did fashion large round stones, but these were used as sacrificial altars, not for transportation.

In this picture, you can see one of the large temples, there is a second mirroring temple across the courtyard. In front of the temple are two round stones with upright stones behind- these are both sacrificial altars. We learned from our guide, that unlike the scenes depicted in the movie Apocalypto, the Mayans did not perform sacrifices at the tops of their temples. There were different altars assigned for each of the different animal and human sacrifices.

This is one of the Mayan ball courts. Originally, there would have been two metal rings in the center of each court wall. To score points, the players would pass the ball through these rings. The fate of the defeated team was decided by the Mayan rulers, and the winning team had the honor of wearing the losers skulls on their belt. This is a fairly small court and may have been used for one-on-one or two-on-two play.

After our tour of Tikal, Katie, Ryan, Kelly, and I went zip-lining through the Guatemalan jungle.

San Ignacio

Belize is a traditionally Catholic country, and the Easter holiday is widely celebrated. The clinic was therefore closed on the Friday before and the Monday after the weekend. This left us a nice long four day weekend to do some traveling. Our group of 8 students left right after clinic on Thursday afternoon for a town in the Cayo district to the north near the Guatemala border called San Ignacio (see the map included in my first entry). We hopped on the James Busline that runs from Punta Gorda to the capital city of Belmopan. It was a surprisingly pleasant 4 hour bus ride. All of the buses here are All American school buses repainted in bright colors, a different combination for each bus company. We each had our own seat, and with all the windows down, it was breezy and a fun adventure. From Belmopan, we caught another busline west to San Ignacio for another 45 minute ride or so.

The first thing we all noticed stepping off the bus was how much more lively San Ignacio is than Punta Gorda. There were people out about on the streets, restaurants with outside tables and patios, a line of waiting taxis, and music projected from every store, restaurant, and vehicle. We had traveled from a sleepy coast town to a popular travel destination, and, I have to admit, it was a very welcome change. 

We booked our lodging thinking that we'd do our bus traveling on Friday, so arrived in town praying that our hotel would have enough room for 8 a night early. The owner of the Tropicool Hotel, Wally, was a great guy who squeezed us in. We felt so lucky that it worked out that I did not mind having to share a twin bed with the pharmacy student, Sara, for the night.

The next morning, we wandered over to talk with the tour company through which we pre-booked our tour to the mayan ruin of Tikal in Guatemala. After a discussion with the employees about what to bring, how to pay, etc, we asked what we should do for the rest of the day. The tour company did not offer any afternoon only tours, and there was nothing going on in town because of the holiday. The two employees we were talking with were a couple of younger guys named Andrew and Courage (what a great name). Andrew informed us that he was going to his favorite spot in all of Belize to go swimming for the afternoon. He then says, "I'd take you all with me, but I don't think you'd fit in my truck." Definitely a courtesy invite. But then Katie pipes up with "Oh, of course we'll all fit." And before Andrew could change his mind, Courage and the rest of our group were all piled into Andrew's Ford Explorer with a cooler of beer. We went swimming at a gorgeous spot in the river with turquoise water, small rapids, and lots of little fish. It was great and totally unexpected- which made it even better.

We got back to San Ignacio in time to watch the Good Friday processional. Four men carried a glass casket lined with flowers, a truck drove behind playing dirges, and the rest of the churchgoers and anyone else who wished to follow paraded through the streets. This was more of a celebration of Good Friday than I have had in my entire life.

Mobile Clinics

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to ride with the clinical group of students on one of their "mobiles." We drove two hours down the same dusty, winding roads I described earlier to the village of Jalacte. Our vehicle was another Toyota Landcruiser; this time with bench seats lining the sides in the back so we could fit up to 12 people- with 4 medical students, a pharmacy student, a pharmacist, 2 physicians, a local nurse to check in patients and translate, the driver, the clinic director, and a large box of charts and medications, it was pretty much full. The clinic is a fairly nice building, but small. I conducted my patient interview next to the pharmacy table. The other room had a history-taking station in each corner, but there are no curtains or means for privacy making a detailed exam more difficult.

Since the Easter holiday began on Wednesday, our clinic was very light, only about 5 patients and nothing particularly unusual. However, I truly enjoyed the morning observing the village. The church was across the street, and you could hear their band practicing for the Easter service. We went over to check it out, and they had a pretty sweet set-up. Two electric guitars, a keyboard, and enough speakers to be heard in Texas if they so desired- not exactly traditional instruments, but a fun site to see.

As a member of the nutrition group, I was particularly interested in the beans spread out to dry down the road from the clinic. There was a yellow school bus parked on the side of the road with a tarp tied to the side and spread out onto the ground. The men were scooping the beans out of large bags and throwing them in handfulls across the road. The beans would land on the tarp while the chaff was blown away by the breeze, collecting on the road. I thought it was a fairly efficient method of separating out the beans while lying them out to dry.

Dr. Dick, a retired family medicine physician and our nutrition group mentor for the first two weeks headed home the next day. We were sad to see him go. He had incredible insight regarding the health care system, the day-to-day community activities, and was a strong advocate for our group and our project. In addition, he is an amazing person, and we had lots of laughs and a fantastic time hanging out with him! We miss you already, Dick!

This is Belize

Yesterday, our nutrition team of 4 set off excited for our first meetings with the villages. We were to present the data collected by the team last month and get the input of village leaders regarding their perspective on their nutritional needs and interventions they might like to see. 

We clamored into one of the Hillside vehicles, an old Toyota Landcruiser with insufficient air-conditioning and the boys sitting on lawn chairs in the back, and then traveled to the end of the road. The highway was paved for about 10 minutes, then degenerated into a dusty, bumpy, winding gravel route. The clinic driver, a local guy named Andy, asked us if we enjoyed the "roller coaster," an apt description. 

Along the way, we could see the many areas where the forests had been slashed and replanted with rows and rows of corn.

Cherrymae, our resource at the Punta Gorda hospital as well as our key communicator with the villages, traveled with us. She had sent letters with Mr. Chen, the bus driver whose route includes the outer villages. He was to deliver these letters to the Alcalde (mayor), Chairman, and Community Health Worker in each village, letting them know that we wished to meet with them. She had arranged the meetings in Jalacte and Pueblo Viejo on Monday, and in Santa Elena and Santa Cruz on Tuesday.

So, we have our presentations prepared for the first two villages on Monday. And after a nauseating 2 hour drive, Katie, Ryan, Jimmy, and I are dying to meet the people and finally get some real work done. However. . .

The bus driver did not deliver a single letter. No one knew we were coming. We traveled to each village, finding that they had nothing set up and all the village leaders were gone working for the day and would not return until evening. Another lesson learned- things here just plain do not go as planned. The good that came of our trip was our ability to speak face to face with at least one prominent person in each village. We were able to re-schedule our meetings reliably. 

Ah well. That's how things are here. This is Belize.