A very brief report...

Yesterday began our last week in Belize and we are so excited to have added a new member to the travels. Scott Cowart arrived on Saturday and we miraculously met up at a roadside gas station before continuing on to Orange Walk Town. We stayed in a fantastic "resort" on the banks of the New River equipped with "air-co" and cable TV! It was definitely a treat for the two of us since we have been sweating through economy rooms for a month. We took an amazing wildlife boat ride down the New River which included crocodiles, iguanas, and on board spider monkey entertainment! The Mayan ruins of Lamani were quite impressive although totally overrun by my favorite blood-sucking companions (not even deet could deter them). Prior to Scott's arrival, we chicken bussed across the border in to Guatemala, staying in the gorgeous island town of Flores and visiting the mighty Mayan ruins of Tikal. Then a week of snorkeling in Placencia, Belize was the perfect way to relax and rejuvenate after traveling back across the country. We will fill you in on both the best and worst day of the past two weeks when we have better internet acess (probably back in the states). A preview: swimming with manatees, squid, a school of 4 foot long Taurpin, dolphin watching and a meal of freshly snagged lobster cooked on our own private island. The worst day was made complete when we discovered we were not alone in our room... tarantulas like to come in to get out of the rain too!

Today we will be traveling by bus and water taxi to Caye Caulker where our adventures will continue until we board our States-bound plane on Sunday. Thanks to everyone who has been thinking of us and sending us support along this journey! We are looking forward to adding more photos to the blog and sharing stories when we see you all soon.

-Miriam and Sydney

Moving on...

The rainy season feels like it is finally here. Most afternoons, the heat is temporarily diminished with a powerful downpour that sometimes leaves parts of the town "without current". Today, on our last afternoon in San Ignacio, we took a leisurely stroll through Santa Familia Village with Westby and her two lovely daughters. After our walk, we returned to her childhood home for dinner - interestingly this is where we enjoyed our first meal in Belize after arriving over 2 weeks ago. Saying goodbye was emotional but we leave feeling fulfilled by the relationships we have made and looking forward to our upcoming adventures.





After our last night shift in the ER, we decided that we deserved a celebratory beverage :) On our first evening in San Ignacio, George (Westby's husband) bounded out of a shop handing us two beers for the road complete with straws. Since that night, it has seemed inappropriate to enjoy an adult beverage with out the requisite popote!

This is just a quick post to inform everyone that we are leaving Belize tomorrow morning to enter Guatemala where we will stay in the island town of Flores and venture to the Mayan ruins of Tikal. Our plan is to stay there through Thursday when we will return to Belize and head to the Caribbean coast. Although we are excited about our trip, it is hard to leave all the great people we have met here. So, it is with a spirit of adventure that we depart and set off on this next journey.
- Miriam and Sydney

One sweltering week down

We are sorry about the delay in posting - I know that each of you are as excited to hear about our first week at the hospital as we are to share it. The San Ignacio hospital sits on a small hill just above the central part of the town. It is a pretty rickety wooden structure that houses the outpatient clinic where Sydney and I have spent most of our time so far. The hospital has a male, female, and children's ward each of them having about 4 beds as well as an ER (three beds) that is the only room in the building with any kind of air-conditioning. There is also a dental clinic as well as a maternity area.

The place we are staying is in a nearby town, so every morning Nurse Westby arrives at 7 to pick us up and take us into the hospital. We have each had the opportunity to visit the wards and work with nurses in the ER but the majority of the time we are assisting Nurse Westby in the outpatient clinic. They see an average of 75 patients each day in the clinic so as you can imagine, it is quite a busy place. We are getting PLENTY of practice taking manual blood pressure and collecting vital signs :). Once the patient has seen the doctor, they return to the clinic and Nurse Westby administers injections and does a ton of wound care. The most excitement I have experienced was during my first day at the hospital when I was working in the ER and a man came in with a badly mangled/severed finger. He was a furniture maker and had gotten his finger stuck in the saw (mom, I hope you are remembering to be careful with your table saw!). To my surprise, the nurse I was working with, Nurse Lopez, was not fluent in Spanish so my limited Spanish was extremely helpful in this situation since the patient didn't speak English or Kriol. Nurse Lopez let me clean the wound and while I applied pressure, she ran for the doctor. Although the doctor was entertaining 2 American medical students, he allowed me to assist with the suturing!

Since our last post, we had a fantastic jungle adventure (the photos will have to be saved until we return but rest assured we won't forget to show you - here is a sample) that included a phenomenal 5 hours of spelunking/caving to a depth of over 375 feet. This cave is not one of the more well know in the area, in fact, we were they only two there with our guide! Like many caves in this part of Belize, it was filled with Mayan artifacts - pottery as well as human remains/bones. Words can not describe the feeling of being so close to over 1000 years of history encapsulated in the sparkling (this cave was called the crystal cave since it was composed almost entirely of quarts crystals), dripping, eerie darkness so deep under ground. Outside of the cave in the jungle, the mosquitoes were as intense and oppressive as the heat. However, at the end of our hike we bathed in a turquoise cenote (limestone sink hole) and just before sunset our guide spotted a keel billed toucan (the national bird)!

On Sunday Westby and her family took us to Xunantunich a nearby ruin that was home to the tallest "tower" structure in Belize. From there we were able to see into Guatemala and all the way back to San Ignacio.


We are being extremely well cared for by the family we are staying with and look forward to sharing stories of our day with them each evening. One update we have from our last post is that another record has been set for the internal temperature of our room - on Wednesday it was 94 degrees! Not being accustomed to this heat, we both were extremely over heated - so much that we actually had a fever (yup, we are nursing students who packed our own thermometer). So, using our "critical thinking skills", we applied cooling blankets (did I mention that we are dorky nursing students), and rechecked our temperature only to discover that it had decreased to 99. Despite it all though, we are still making each other laugh and really could not hope for a richer experience.



quote of the week: " I almost burst into flames - really!"

This weekend we will venture into another cave and hopefully spend a bit of time relaxing and catching up on some much needed rest. We will post again soon and hope that everyone in the States has a good time watching the fireworks tomorrow!

-Miriam and Sydney

the benevolence of the universe

We have landed in San Ignacio! As one might expect, it was quite a trip: car, plane, taxi, chicken bus, then car again. We are safe, a bit ragged, and wide-eyed and open to this great adventure! We wanted to share some details of yesterday's voyage--it's a longer post, a given since the VIRGO is writing, but also because these are our first impressions. We already have some great photos, but we're having trouble uploading them. We'll try to put in the pics at another Internet cafe.

Scott drove us to Charlotte Wednesday night and we stayed the night with my cousin Katie. Thursday started out with a 6am wake up Many thanks to Katie for an amazing breakfast, which kept us well fueled for the long descent to San Ignacio. Air travel was easy and without hassle; by about 3pm (1pm in Belize) we were stepping off our plane and smelling some hot and steamy Belizean air.

Our bags arrived without problem, which as most of us know, is a blessing within itself. Oh, and did we mention just how many bags we had? I think we did, but let me give you weights, because that really paints a picture for this epic trip. Each of us were carrying a backpack--Miriam's was about 30 pounds, mine a nice 40. Then we each had a duffel bag of medical supplies each and I carried the keyboard. I was a bit nervous going through customs with the medical supplies and keyboard--but after some light badgering regarding the value of these goods, we paid a fee & we were out the door.

All we knew was that we had to get to the bus station because Nurse Westby had emailed stating that she would wait for us in San Ignacio at 3:30p--her calculation given that our flight would arrive at 1p, and it was a 2 to 2 1/2 hr bus ride to San Ignacio. Hmmm... tight schedule for sure! And we didn't really have a way to reach her to say if we'd be late, so already we just had to let go of the American mentality of punctuality and easy communication and trusted that we'd get there. We quickly took the first taxi and paid a steep fee for a 15 min ride to Belize City. Luckily they honor the US dollar here--we weren't able to exchange $ at the airport. ($1US is $2Bz)

We called our cab driver "Mr. Personality". The man didn't say a word the whole ride to the city. I tried to make conversation--With a nice smile, and excitement in my voice, "This is our 1st time in your country and we are really excited to be here--what would you recommend for us to see?" long pause. "Umm... I don't know." awkward pause. Oh well! We admired the tropical scenery and listened to old 80s American tunes as we spun down the highway.

We arrived in front of the station; it was a dusty, well populated area with a market, and lots of taxis and a few tiendas. Admittedly, there was a moment of concern as we saw that 1) we were absolutely the only fair-skinned folk within sight, sorely looking like the typical American travels with WAY WAY WAY too much luggage, and 2) the buses were all "chicken buses"-- retired American school buses. With a deep breath we armed ourselves with our bags and pushed our way to the only bus in the station. As luck would have it, this bus was traveling down the Western Highway to San Ignacio. We unloaded our bags in the back of the old school bus and boarded. I was a bit nervous about our luggage, but Miriam reminded me that we just had to "trust in the benevolence of the universe". She was right. The people were very friendly and I felt it quite an honor to ride with them, in lieu of more comfortable, faster transportation.

It was about a 3 hour trip in that hot hot bus, at times super cramped, and very sweaty. We had our Nalgene bottles so we stayed adequately hydrated (thanks Laura/Joe/Evie for the electrolyte packets!).

I had one Belizean dollar coin, change from having bought a newspaper from a local. At one point I pulled it out of my pocket to admire it and I dropped it between the seats. Nearby passengers looked around for it but we never found it. The woman sitting across the isle offered a dollar to replace it--we of course declined graciously. Later when she descended, she handed me a folded up piece of paper.

We were touched by her generosity. The benevolence of the universe, right. Yes. You know, I just need to say that I think we naturally put our guards up in this kind of situation--even when we are trying to be open. It's a protective feature, that can serve us well. But those barriers can prevent a rich exchange, creating anxiety and fear. Trusting allowed us to be present and to engage with the Belizean locals openly. And it all worked out!

Nurse Westby found us at the bus station and she and her husband drove us to our lodging. We are staying in a local motel in a neighboring town (Santa Elena) , which is a 20 minute walk to downtown San Ignacio. The room is clean, simple, sparsely furnished and includes a chorus of dogs, birds, and geckos throughout the night. Ah!

Westby took us to her family's home a few miles away and introduced us to her mother, sisters, sister-in-laws, her children, and nieces and nephews. Quite a crew! Their home was quite humble (by our American standards), clean and filled with family. She fried us up some platanos and served them with rice and beans, stewed chicken ("it was really good" says M), and a tall glass of Sprite with ice! (hopefully made from filtered water). Delicious! Afterwards Angelita and her husband, George, drove us around San Ignacio city, pointed out various sites, restaurants, and the hospital.

So it was a FULL day and we were exhausted. In order to treat her "hot, swollen sausage toes", Miriam created an air conditioned tent of her own with a few wet towels and a fan.

Yes, our travel clock reported a sweltering 88 degrees F in the room. Thank you George for the cold beer to help us sleep. It was a rough night of sleep--like I said, the 4:45am serenade was... well... I guess we'll get used to it.

Details on the city to come later. Today is a chill day (oh maybe I should find another word!); we're planning on taking advantage of one of the local tour companies to see a nearby archaeological site (there are many). Monday we'll start volunteering at San Ignacio Hospital; after talking to Nurse Westby, M and I are really looking forward to the upcoming experiences. We'll let you know.

--Sydney & Miriam

Packing up and flying South

Hello friends and family,
This is hopefully the first of many posts and updates from Sydney and Miriam during our Belizean adventure!

This afternoon we finished packing up two large duffle bags, stuffed to the brim with medical supplies. As you also might notice from the photo, we are transporting a full-sized keyboard (yikes!) for our host/coordinator Nurse Westby. We sent this picture to her so that she would recognize us on Thursday afternoon when she meets us at the bus station.

So, thoughts about this trip....
We agree that there is a huge amount of excitement coupled with some nerves. Some of our anxiety was asuaged when we finally did hear back from our host Westby this afternoon. Phew!
For those who don't know, UNC's School of Nursing is granting us 3 whole credits for going abroad, working a minimum of 84 hours as nursing assistants and completing nominal course work. All this with the hopes that we will broaden our skill set, cultural competence, and global perspective. Through a friend of Sydney's we contacted Nurse Westby who works at San Ignacio Hospital in the Cayo district of Western Belize. We have made arrangements to stay with a local family that has experience hosting hospital volunteers. This is a true adventure! Since there is no such thing as an "NA" South of the Border we will most likely be creating our own job description based on the needs we see. After completion of our required hours we are excited to spend a week or two (Sydney's boyfriend Scott is joining us!) traveling around the country and exploring Mayan ruins, paddling up jungle rivers and snorkeling in the second largest barrier reef system in the world. We will do our best to update this blog with reports and reflections. Thanks to everyone who contributed to make this trip possible. We appreciate all of your support and look forward to sharing our stories.

-Miriam and Sydney