We have been in Belize a couple days now. We have some more general training at PC headquarters for the next few days, and then Thursday we are leaving for our community based training sites! I will be staying with a host family there for 5 weeks while having language (K'ekchi) and technical training. I am really excited for this part! I am sure it will be hard, and definitely a bit different than where we are now (in the air conditioning).



Saturday was cultural day! We spent the morning driving to a little village by the border with Guatemala. We went to the Maya Mestizo cultural center and then had an awesome lunch while listening to Marimba and flute music, and watching traditional dances.




After the cultural events we stopped by Xunantunich, which was absolutely gorgeous! In order to get to the ruins you have to cross a river on this little ferry. It could take one car at a time with a lot of people standing around the car. It was a hand crank wooden ferry! The ruins were on the top of the mountain surrounded by rain forest. First Maya ruins trip, and it was definitely worth it. Saw my first howler monkey, and made it to the top of each of the ruins. We were close enough to the border, and could see so far from the top that you could see into Guatemala. Definitely worth a visit if you find yourself here :)




Swimming in the river was also amazing!!! It was really nice to have a break from the heat and humidity. Families, pets, random horses and all were swimming and everything.

It was a very good first weekend :)

We leave for community based training on Thursday  I will be staying in a little village with a host family and all of the other healthy communities volunteers. Time to learn K’ekchi