Roads in San Mateo?!

Before I came to Belize, I'd heard about how the people had built their town and then their school over a mangrove lagoon, but I could not fathom how it was done or what the before and after was like.  Here is the story with pictures.

Enter Kim Shackleford (on the right), a social work professor from University of Mississippi.  As part of a 3 hour class, she brought her students down to do a community assessment.  The person on the left is Katy Gominger, a former student who still visits regularly with Kim.  The students went door to door in San Mateo asking what people felt that they needed and what sorts of troubles they dealt with on a daily basis.  Kim felt sure that they would need a medical clinic because there was so much illness, but when all of the information was gathered and examined, what they really seemed to need, and have the energy and desire to build for themselves, was dry land and roads.  The whole town was built on stilts connected by narrow board planks.  They even already knew how to build the roads, they just needed financial support and the encouragement to organize.

The students went home to the States and started a series of fundraisers, raising enough money (book drives, karaoke nights, 5k runs, yard sales, and soliciting large donations through social media) to pay for supplies and some labor (digging up the rock and sand - the people of the community provided the labor to build the roads once they had the materials).  People in the community of San Mateo began to organize and appointed a board.  Below is a picture of Maggie.  All 7 of her children helped to build the road, including baby Miley who toddled around with a little shovel and lifted everyone's spirits.  Maggie cooked for the workers and helped with keeping communication going between everyone.

Once the money and organizational structure was in place, they went out to the edge of town and started breaking up limestone from the bottom of the lagoon and shoveling up sand.  Here you can see the area where all of the limestone and sand came from.

For an excellent video of how the road was built, narrated by Morgan Freeman, check out this link.

Here is the first road once it was finished.

Once the road was finished and people had dry land under their houses, it was possible to install electricity and septic tanks.  Coconut trees and other plants were planted.  People no longer fell off of the plank bridges into the sewage contaminated water.  Illness and injury rates dropped.  Life improved.

While there were a few squatters in the houses on stilts, most of the plots of "land" where the houses were built had been divided up and sold by the city.  People had paid money and were paying property taxes for the right to live over the water with no sewage, water or electricity.  Once the community got mobilized and built the first few roads, the politicians were shamed into building more.  To save money, they decided to use trash as fill instead of limestone.  The trash as fill leads to some odd contrasts (see previous post "Contrasts" from Feb. 6).  Below you can see another dump pile waiting to be packed down and covered with sand (just beyond the wooden fence in front).

And here is one of my favorite contrasts.  "No Dumping"?!!  Dumping happens everywhere to add to the roads!

The resulting roads are not as high quality as the original.  The organic matter breaks down and the plastics get compacted over time resulting in enormous potholes, but at least there is dry land to walk and drive on.

Visiting Maggie

Our first stop in San Mateo was at the home of Maggie.  We sat on her porch and got the local scoop.  Maggie was one of the key organizers when the people of San Mateo decided to start building themselves some roads.  More on the roads in the next post.

Left to right, Jim, Maggie, Katy, and Kim.

While we visited, we were kept company by a chicken and a small dog (under the chair in the picture above).

From the porch we could see evidence of one of the ways that Maggie earns a living.  She collects coconuts,

grinds out the pulp, and sells it to local bakeries and restaurants to use in their recipes.

She also bakes bread and sells it.  She is a very resourceful woman, a community organizer, sole breadwinner in her household and generally someone to be admired!

A Trip Into San Mateo

Yesterday we went out into the community to visit people who couldn't come to us; community leaders and old friends.  It was hot.  The sun beat down.  We sweated.  The sun beat down.  We sweated some more.  Those of us who were over 25 began to develop swollen ankles.  The sun beat down some more.  Did I mention it was hot?  There isn't much shade because the land, terra firma, has been there less than 8 years.  Shade trees are still babies.  Nevertheless, it was a good trip.  There was a strong breeze that made the temperature livable.  Overall the trip was well worth a little discomfort.

We set out immediately after breakfast.  The school is fenced in with a security guard at the entrance.  This is us making our escape.

Here is Francis, the security guard, in his office.  His job is to keep out folks who don't belong and keep in the younger folks who do belong!  He is a gymnast in his spare time and a pleasure to talk to, only big and scary when he needs to be.

Just outside the school we stopped to have a look at a puddle, leftover from when everything was on stilts.  I'm told the puddle is 30 feet deep and there are crocodiles.

There are so many sights and sounds and smells.  The houses range from ramshackle buildings with additions tacked on to newer, well built homes.  The sounds are of people laughing and talking, vehicles bumping along the rutted roads, heavy equipment moving junk and sand, dogs barking, chickens squawking and wind in the low trees.  The smells are an odd mix of fresh salt breeze, stagnant water, sewage, and cooking food.  If only a blog could be a scratch and sniff.  If only my internet connection and recording device on my cheap phone were good enough to share a good sound recording!  A few pictures will have to suffice...

It turns out that this house with the purple curtains belongs to Maggie, the first person we stopped to see.  More on our visit in the next post.

Elizabeth and Sarah look on and assist as needed while Dr. Jim checks out someone with a health issue.

Next we stopped at Abuela's house.  Abuela is a licensed midwife and delivers between 50 and 100 babies every year in San Mateo and the surrounding area.  She worked in Belize city for two years to get certified at a time when only men were being certified, then she returned to San Mateo.  When she first set up practice, she did not have access to any obstetric tools.  With some help from Dr. Jim, now she does.  

We made several stops.  At one house a child had pressure urticaria, caused by an immune sensitivity.  You could literally write on her leg using gentle pressure and it would produce a raised red line wherever you wrote.  As a result of her allergies, someone had prescribed and provided an excessive amount of steroids for an ongoing allergic reaction.  She needs to be weaned off of steroids (don't stop cold turkey - it could result in death!) and start taking an over the counter allergy med instead.

At another house we met a mother, her two daughters and 8 grandchildren.  None of her grandchildren who were old enough were in school because of documentation problems and/or lack of money and/or lack of space.  The mothers asked if there was any way we could help to at least get the oldest girl into school.  She is smart and has been teaching herself how to read in Spanish.  It was hard to leave without being able to give a definite "yes" answer.  

All good things must come to an end and so does the island.  After only a few blocks, we came to the end of the land.  On the left side of this picture you can see a remnant of what living used to be like in San Mateo.

 Close up of the house on water, note the very narrow board "bridges" for getting around.

Lunchtime!  We all pile into a golf cart and head for home.  Golf carts are a primary mode of transportation on the island.

Left to right, Elizabeth, Kim, Mary Beth (who is blinded by the sun and trying to see whether the camera is even pointed in the right direction), Katy and Sarah.  You can see Dr. Jim's shoulder between MB and Sarah.  Yes, that's 6 people in a golf cart.

Mexico Rocks Trip

Since Mary Beth and Sarah arrived on Friday, there was time for an outing on Saturday.  Bob Moore, who had to stay in NC this year because of a family medical situation, set up a trip for us to Mexico Rocks.  

We gathered after breakfast and boarded a Catamaran run by Catamaran Belize.  The Saint Luke's Team has been using this company for years and they are great!  Left to right you can see Sarah, Marlene (a tourist from Canada who was a delight to talk to), Mary Beth and Nancy.

After a very long ride over beautiful blue water under a sky full of puffy white clouds, we arrived at a spot that looked pretty much like the whole rest of the trip had looked:  turquoise water, puffy clouds, blue sky.  We had a quick lesson in how to use snorkeling equipment, then jumped in to discover what all the fuss was about.  Above Nancy hops in and tests the water.  It was very choppy and hard to negotiate getting used to fins and snorkels for the first time ever.  The picture does not do justice to how the water was pushing us around and finding its way up our noses and out our ears.  Nevertheless we persevered and perseverance paid off.  No one had an underwater camera, but you can go to the gallery at Catamaran Belize to get some idea of what we saw.  There are a few of pictures of what was under the water at the very beginning of their gallery.  We swam over sting rays, beautiful corals, sea urchins, huge lobsters, schools of colorful fish and sharks.  We decided that the sharks had to be nurse sharks since they were pretty big and our guides weren't panicking.  Mary Beth was bitten by a remora just after seeing her first shark.  You may have heard her scream in NC.  Once she realized that she wasn't being eaten (at least not by anything significantly large), she calmed down and chased the thing off, but it did leave a mark.  

Mary Beth, Sarah and Marlene after the first swim.  We moved to another spot and swam briefly while waiting for lunch.  

Lunchtime!  Beans and rice, slaw, fresh home made tortillas, foil roasted fish with veggies, chicken and home made salsa.  Exactly the sort of meal one needs after a good, long swim.  We moved on for a brief swim at one more spot and then headed for home.  Our eyes were begging for more time to take it all in, but our bodies were exhausted.  We slept like logs on Saturday night.  

Setting Up the Doctor's Office

 Monday morning Dr. Jim started by collecting the baby scale and other necessaries.  A few babies come in with their parents and get weighed.  It also works great for the smaller children if they sit on it and lift up their legs.

Once all is gathered, the medical team sets up shop in a corner of the cafeteria with supplies Jim brought from the States.

Sarah and Elizabeth receive lists of children to see.  A child can request to be on the list or his or her parents or teacher can also request that they be seen.  Sometimes the requestor will fill out the "reason" slot on the form with a description of what's wrong.  Sometimes they will just say "general".  When that happens, the challenge is to figure out why the child is on the list!

The other challenge is figuring out where the children are.  The grading system is different here - Infant I and Infant II are first and second grades, Standard I up to Standard VI are 3rd through 8th grades.  The children are in whichever grade makes sense for their current level of knowledge, so there is a much wider age range in each classroom, thus you can't guess which grade by looking at the children.  The teachers sometimes step out for a minute or two, trusting that the children will behave while they run to the restroom or do some other errand.  There are several classrooms for most of the grade levels and the rooms are not necessarily marked.  In short, finding the correct classroom for each child is not easy!  Fortunately everyone is willing to help you find your way and all children are found eventually.  Below Elizabeth and Sarah attempt to collect students from Infant I and discover they are in the preschool.  No worries they got their directions and moved on.

Next Sarah and Elizabeth interview the children one, two or three at a time. They ask them to describe their complaint, how long they've had it and what their symptoms are.  If there is time, they also ask them about their families and home life.  Sometimes knowing a little more about home helps in making a diagnosis.

At last, the students being to see Dr. Jim.  He looks them over, checks their general health and their complaint(s) and makes a diagnosis.  If they need medication, he asks them to bring a parent after school so he can get permission to administer and explain how to properly take the medicine and for how long.

Sometimes the diagnosis is hunger or abuse.  In the background, you can see a visiting social worker from the States and one of her students meeting with another student.  More on them in a future blog.

Week Two Introductions

As promised, here are photos of this week's team.

Don and Jeanine Leckron.  From Ohio, Don is a retired Presbyterian priest and Jeanine is a retired nurse.  Both are lifelong travelers and learners and keep our conversations going with all sorts of lively stories.  We are really enjoying getting to know them!

Jim and Elizabeth Short.  Jim is our doctor on this trip.  Elizabeth, his daughter, is a recent graduate from undergrad and has been working in her father's office for a year, taking a break before she sets off for medical school.  Both are excellent care providers, patiently explaining the causes of ailments and how to remedy them to students, their parents, and anyone else who wants to learn.

Mary Beth Berkley and her daughter, Sarah Mueller.  Mary Beth is acting as our blog reporter while Sarah is here to get some first hand experience in the medical field as she is interested in a nursing career.  She definitely falls into the "anyone else who wants to learn" category and is soaking up everything that Jim shares, while learning from Elizabeth how to interview the children to best understand what ails them and how to keep track of all the gathered information in an organized fashion.

Last, but certainly not least, our fearless leader, treasurer, restaurant reservation maker, and question answerer, Nancy Usher Williams.  Nancy is the glue that holds us all together.  When she has a minute, she also has been tracking down the last of the children who need their heights and weights taken and helping out in the classroom.  She has an entire week's worth of reading T-shirts which are deeply appreciated by the avid readers in our group.  They also fit right in with the signs full of advice and wisdom we see everywhere here. (See Feb. 6 - "It's a Sign" post).

Contrasts

If you've been reading the blog, or already know much about Holy Cross, you'll know that it's built over a wetland.  The original buildings were built on stilts sunk into the mud and everyone got around on pathways of wooden planks.  Slowly, with refuse and piles of sargasso grass raked up along the beaches, the areas underneath the school are being filled in.  A final layer of packed sand finishes off the fill.  It makes for some interesting contrasts.  

If you stand facing one direction, you see a messy pile of junk.

If you turn, not quite 180 degrees, you see a well kept playground.

If you stick close to the back of the building, you can find a stagnant pool of water.

Even though it looks unpleasant, critters still live in the pool.  The black things are snails crawling along the edges of the water. 

Turn 180 degrees and you see a lovely mangrove wetland.  

Walk a few steps forward and you see clear water with anemones...

And hermit crabs thriving on the edges.  There were also lots of fish, but they were hard to photograph!