Reflection, by Erik Eisele

It’s been two months since I left Belize.

Two months. Two full moons. Two cell phone bills. It seems like a decade ago.

Erik, embracing the "Go Slow" lifestyle

Here in New England the leaves are changing. There is a bite in the air each morning. The ocean looks grey, no longer warm and inviting.

In Belize, however, it’s still summer, or at least some version of it. It is that season where shoes and shirts are optional. The salt air along the coast hangs thick and fans are mandatory for sleeping. It’s always that season in Belize, a perpetual Caribbean waltz where “Go slow” is more than a suggestion. It’s a way of life.

In the Cayo District 100 students are cracking their books. They have names like Chris and Karen and Joshua. They are wearing uniforms, pouring over worksheets, sitting at attention while the teacher talks and then goofing behind her back each time she turns. They are laughing, smiling, passing notes, switching from English to Spanish to Creol as comfortable as dancers, a veritable language cacophony.

And if you listen close each time they switch to English you might notice something: their mastery has grown stronger. They use the language with a slice more confidence than last year, something over the summer made it build, thicken. They are learning to wield it rather than being driven by it. They don’t just know English, they are becoming English speakers.

What happened?

Us. We happened. Me and 30 other volunteers ages 14 to 40 spent two weeks sweating through the Belizean summer to get these 100 Belizean students talking that way. For that time they were sitting at attention for us, and then of course goofing behind our backs. They learned our language and our names, played our games and sang our songs. They made us laugh, and when we left made us cry.

That was two months ago. Today sitting with my cup of hot apple cider in my kitchen watching the autumn wind pull leaves across the lawn it seems much further away than that. It seems like another lifetime, another world, a distant past.

But.

But there is always next summer. There is always another classroom, another 100 students. There is always a roomful of kids excited to sing songs and play.

But next time they won’t be strangers. They won't be students or kids. Next time I get to call them friends.

Erik joined us as a Mentor in 2016. He is a professional writer, sponsored athlete, and rope swing expert (obviously). He embodies global citizenship at its finest. Thank you Erik! 

You can read more of Erik's writing at erikeisele.com.

Open Enrollment Season for 2017

Almost daily I receive emails from various companies notifying me that it is "open enrollment" time for health insurance. (Well, almost.) 

More importantly, it's GSP Belize program enrollment season! 

We make open enrollment much less complicated than health care, but much like the insurance open enrollment season, GSP also mirrors the opportunity for enrolling and preparing for the adventures in the year ahead. We have a number of options available for our 2017 voyagers. We have custom trips planned for different school groups and professionals from Boise, Iowa, Arizona and more. We also have trips scheduled for March 24-April 1, June 2-10 and August 4-12 that are open enrollment. If you or someone you know would be interested in joining one of our leadership voyages in 2017, contact us now!

Click this link to see our program options.

Kelli & Emily enjoying a day of Mayan history 1st hand!

Kelli and I are eager to share the beauty of the people, cultures and geographical beauty of Belize with as many people as possible, so let's make it happen!

Character Development

We are feeling pretty great about the impact and empowerment we were able to foster in June and July, with the hard work of our amazing high school participants. This morning we reflected on just a handful of Belizean kids that we know made great strides personally and academically. One jr high aged student recently re-enrolled in school after dropping out last year because he said attending our summer camp made him realize he wanted to back to school! It doesn't get any better than that!

We were excited to get back to Boise and give credit where it is due. Kelli and I (Emily) had a great meeting this week with Jennifer Sengelmann, author of Meanings in Motion - character building Life Skills Cards.

These simple cards served as the foundation for our summer curriculum and we were able to implement character development into our program like never before. 

Character development is an interesting aspect of the human experience. Different than our natural abilities, personality types and strengths, good character is something that is available to everyone. In an age of color coded personality and DISC testing, it's refreshing to consider that each one of us are able to hone in on character traits that improve ourselves, our communities and the world as a whole - one person at a time. It's not something like being athletic, or musical, or artistic. It's something that doesn't require talent. Good character can be built through effort and self awareness, and that's what we are in business to do. 

Can you join us in 2017? Become a GSP Voyager! 

Wrapping Up a Literal Whirlwind

Our August GLA volunteers got more than they signed up for with Hurricane Earl roaring through Belize in the wee hours of the night on August 4, 2016. Our service at St. Joseph's School had been going great that week, and we got news of "tropical storm Earl" on August 2. Knowing the storm would impact the village, we cancelled our programming for the 4th and prepared for the storm. We relocated our group to San Ignacio to ride out the storm, allowing the Tropical Education Center, (TEC) where we were staying, to focus on the animals at the Belize Zoo while we safely sheltered at The Log Cab-Inn. The students were all in good spirits, and were completely flexible with fantastic attitudes about all the unknown.

The storm came through in the middle of the night so most students slept through it. The impact within our building was minimal. If you were awake, you could hear the wind but nothing could be seen since it was so dark outside.

In the morning we ventured out and were able to assess the damage around us. We could see trees uprooted and as we were able to travel back to the TEC, we could see the rivers were flooded, some roads blocked by debris and a number of roofs had ripped off of homes in the rural villages. Power was out and the country as a whole was catching its breath and not quite up and running. Our thoughts immediately went to our friends in the villages where we serve. We stopped by St. Joseph's school to find the roof ripped from one of our classroom buildings. Other buildings had additional roof damage and a classroom packed with extra desks had a gallon of paint that had opened and the wind splattered blue paint all over the entire classroom. There was a power line that had fallen but none of the power had been restored throughout the area.

We were lucky that the direction of the wind fell in our favor.

On Friday we returned to the school to resume our service day camp. Unsurprisingly, the attendance was low, so half of our student leaders taught the Belizean kids hoping to restore a sense of stability and normalcy to the day, while the other half worked on cleaning up and helping with minor repairs. A couple of our classrooms were still occupied as hurricane shelter rooms, so we consolidated into fewer classrooms which worked out fine considering our lower numbers at day camp.

It took a while to get Belize back up and running. Many programmatic changes needed to occur as the country slowly recovered from the storm. Belize is so rich in culture and interesting places to visit that we still were able to wrap up the final week of GLA service and excursions with all sorts of adventures. We stopped in for a personal encounter with the wildlife at the Iguana Conservation Project, enjoyed nature hikes and outdoor scavenger hunts. We visited citrus fields and the Mayan ruin site of Cahal Pech, and wrapped up the last weekend in Belize on the gorgeous island of Caye Caulker. There we enjoyed a full day snorkeling and were relieved to find the island in good shape after the storm.

Loving the Iguana Project!

Did you know that oranges are green?

The GLA session is wrapping up today. It's been a whirlwind of a summer in every way - both literally and figuratively. Stay tuned for more updates as we move into the fall season and get back to the flow of our school year programs. There is a lot on the horizon!

Cate and her reef buddy 

Here's to New Partnerships

In 2012 Global Service Partnerships was born. Since then we have established partnerships throughout Belize for enhancing education and cultural experiences for our participants internationally. This is our favorite part of the work we do! Today marks an important new partnership with St. Joseph's R.C. School in Cotton Tree Village. Our first day of summer camp was a total success!

This summer has been full of new partnerships - GLA and now Cotton Tree. These relationships sound so formal in a blog, but it's the people within the organizations that make everything so meaningful. Our volunteers, our local partners, and of course the children that attend the schools where we serve.

"Partnerships" is not just a word in our business name, these are the faces of our partners.

Ms Coleman, Principal of St. Joseph's RC School in Cotton Tree Village

Taylor, our underage cutie at camp

GLA volunteers Isa & Nicos leading their team on Day 1

Shy Smiles on the First Day of Cotton Tree Camp

RECESS!

August leadership team - Korissa, Kelli, Emily & Lauren at Cotton Tree

 

Donations for Mahogany Heights Village

In central Belize there are a number of worthy villages with locals working to make their communities stronger. That said, I've yet to meet a force as powerful and hardworking as Raquel, the community health worker and village leader in Mahogany Heights. Mahogany Heights Village has a long and complex story which would require much more than a blog post to summarize. The short of it is that the village is in what Raquel calls "an era of violence" right now. Unemployment + lack of education = lack of hope. Raquel and others in the village are working hard to redirect those that are struggling and she is doing her best to provide youth leadership programs and camps to keep kids and teens active.

Prepping our donations to drop off in Mahogany Heights Village

Raquel and the Mahogany Heights Health Clinic

Today we dropped of a load of donations for Raquel to distribute throughout the village - soap, hygiene products, games and really cool shoes.

The Shoe That Grows donated a bag full of shoes that we were lucky enough to give out today. Raquel's son was all smiles with the idea that he too could get a pair of these shoes that his mom will be giving out at her children's camp this week.

The Shoe That Grows!

Our GLA Belize August session participants arrive today, so the first couple of girls, along with our GSP staff were able to join us for the donation run and there were smiles all around for the donation stop. What a great way to start our August program! 

ZOOM! That flew by!

It's 9:00pm. The first GLA Belize group is packing up and we are headed to the airport to check them in tomorrow morning at 8:00am. 26 students, 21 days and countless memories.

Tonight we had our final round of an activity we call "Highs, Lows & Heroes". Each night we reflect on the day, but tonight it was a look back at the past three weeks as a whole. We heard about lows from the trip such as "the bug bites", "sunburns" and most often "leaving the kids at St. Matthew's". Our heroes were each other. This group has unified and is seamless. They support each other, celebrate each other, and dance endlessly. Their hearts have been ALL IN!

We enjoyed an afternoon at the Belize Zoo

Afternoon cooking class

Jahad and his little amigos. He got the "Most Fun at Recess" award.

We didn't stop with service in the classroom! Inside AND out!

Keeping with GSP tradition, we ended our service trip with a weekend to relax and explore on Caye Caulker. Everything was so, so good.