SCD 2: We discuss, we tour, we eat cheese.

The week of Sustainable Community Development part 2 brought us more field trips, and more fun extracurricular activities.  Joined for the week by professor & CCSP Belize alumnus Brandon Hoover (Ursinus College), who brought his wife Meg and young son Paxton, we had quite an enjoyable time inviting them into our community. 

Academically, we grappled with topics such as food security, tourism, community-based initiatives, social capital, and agriculture (to name but a few).  This can be weighty and complex stuff, but Brandon did a fantastic job keeping the students engaged, thinking and discussing.

To inform some of our discussions we visited the cruise ship terminal in Belize City (providing a healthy dose of reverse-culture-shock for our students), Chaa Creek (a locally-staffed resort that specializes in eco-tourism), and Central Farm (a government-funded center for agricultural research and development).  Everyone asked plenty of questions, we had to excellent tour guides, and were given much to think about.

Paxton taking mental notes while strapped to his dad during the Chaa Creek tour

Resource redemption at Chaa Creek: a waste receptacle made of used
plastic bottles

Taking a break for coconut water during our tour of Central Farm

Also during the week we threw in two events that are brand new to CCSP Belize this semester: the Cheese Festival, and New Zealand Day.

We sampled copious amounts of "artisan" cheeses (fancy cheese is difficult to find in Belize), tried our taste buds at guessing what types they were, and even got a ricotta-making lesson from our neighbor Avril whose family runs a dairy farm (and from whom we regularly purchase yogurt, milk, and of course cheese).

Part of the spread.  Photo by Meg Hoover

Guess the cheeses!  Photo by Meg Hoover

Avril instructs Dorothy (Dordt College) on how to stir
the ricotta.  Photo by Meg Hoover

For our first ever New Zealand Day, we coordinated with our sister campus on the other side of the world (CCSP New Zealand, who celebrated a Belize Day around the same time).  Over there they were eating rice & beans and dressing as toucans, while here we spoke in kiwi accents, played the NZ national anthem (one of them), learned some NZ lingo, and ate stewed lamb.  Our lamb came in a slightly less convenient form, and our sweet potatoes are not orange (like NZ's kumara), but at least the stewed carrots were authentic, and our homemade mint sauce was amazing!

Brandon & Alex try to surmise the best way to serve the lamb

Joshua tries to figure out how to eat the lamb

We were even able to arrange a short Skype date with our comrades down under, who were impressively dressed up for their Belize Day!

A low-quality screenshot of our lovely kiwi counterparts

Power problems, Pottery & Pumpkins

Joshua, our awesome and much relied-upon Property Manager (and TA for this past class), writes:

"Last week, Jonathan Warner (Quest University) came to teach Sustainable Community Development (part 1) from the view of an economist.  The class revolved around deep questions of healthy sustainable communities and how to accurately measure a community's health.  We learned about indicators of such health, and started to understand God's hopes for community through scripture.  Class included some great field trips (in spite of 8 straight days of rain and flooding, which caused us to scramble to replace a couple of them at the last minute).

First we visited the Mollejon dam in western Belize.  During the tour we learned about the history of the Mollejon power plant and one way that Belize is attempting to develop solutions to their power & electrical needs.  In class we discussed the pros and cons, as well as the environmental trade-offs, of this solution to the problem of power.

They really loved the green helmets in the power plant, but were not allowed to
keep them

We also visited the local San Antonio Women's Group.  The women of this mostly Mayan village formed a cooperative for the betterment of their village.  They sell pottery, embroidery, crafts, and chickens for extra money, which they use to help send their children to school.

Everyone watching as Anna (Gordon College) tries her hand at pottery

Michaela (Messiah College) gets help from pottery expert Rafael on the
finishing touches of her pot

For another field trip, Santiago, a 4th generation farmer, gave us a tour of his cattle farm.  He is innovative in trying to grow new crops and raise animals in different ways.  He has deep roots in his village with a unique perspective of community, development and politics.

Jacque (Messiah), Michaela (Messiah), Lindsay (Redeemer), Becca (George
Fox), Santiago, and professor Jonathan

The week wasn't all work and no play.  While thinking of fall and some of our favorite activities, we were able to create a Belizean hayride through the neighborhood on cohune leaves and dum cane.  Our search for a pumpkin patch eventually led us to "Terra's Pumpkin Patch" (Terra is our dog) with just enough pumpkins for everyone.  In addition to pumpkins, the girls also found personalized invitations to a Friday night costume party!

Lindsay (Redeemer), Becca (George Fox), Anna (Gordon), Dorothy (Dordt),
Jacque (Messiah), Michaela (Messiah), Alex (Messiah), Gellie (Student Life
Coordinator)

After a hayride, you must of course go to a pumpkin patch and find pumpkins

The halloween party was a great way to unwind after a long week, and everyone was extremely creative in coming up with costumes for the party.  The guests were: Loki, Ulysses Everett McGill (from the film, "O Brother Where Art Thou?"), Carmen Sandiego, the Three Blind Mice, Mark & Gellie, Moses, two turtles, Terra the dog, and even an American Tourist.  We played games, ate good food, had an intense citrus bobbing competition, and carved our pumpkins."

Everyone dressed up for halloween

Thanks to professor Jonathan for leading a great class, TA Joshua for working around the weather to still get us great field trips, and to everyone for really getting into the halloween festivities!