M-Powered

SPRING 2012

M-Powered

University of Mississippi students learn through service in Belize

Spring 2012 M-Powered

1

UNITED STATES

KEY

Oxford Map Area

Maya Site

N

M E X I C O

0

300 miles

Corozal District

Belize District

MEXICO

Ambergris Caye San Pedro

San Mateo

r

v R

i

Belize City Hattieville

R e e

e

z

B

e

l i

Turneffe Islands

f

G U A T E M A L A

Orange Walk District e

Half Moon Caye

E S

z

O

E

e

l

A

i

M

B

M

A AY

N

e

Hopkins

B

Dangriga

a

S

N T A I N

Stann Creek District

U

Cayo District

A

i e r r r

Belmopan

B E L I Z E

I

B

B

Placencia

R

Nim Li Punit

Toledo District

C

Punta Gorda 0

A

20 miles

2

Area of Detail

M-Powered Spring 2012

H O N D U R A S

The Maya civilization flourished in the Belize region until about 1200. In the 1800s, the country became a British colony. In 1973, it changed its name from British Honduras to Belize, and became an independent country in 1981.

Belize is the only Central American country with English as its official language. But many residents speak Creole, Spanish, Garifuna or Mayan.

2010 Belize population: 313,000.

Belize is the most sparsely populated country in Central America, and is slightly larger in size geographically than the state of Massachusetts.

Capital: Belmopan. Until 1970, it was Belize City.

Official fixed rate of exchange: A U.S. dollar is worth $2 in Belize money.

2010 per capita income: $4,153 (Belize dollars) Minimum wage: $2 an hour (Belize dollars) The government of Belize is a parliamentary democracy. Queen Elizabeth II is head of state, represented by a governor general. The prime minister is head of government. The National Assembly has a House of Representatives and a Senate.

About 1 million tourists visit Belize each year (including cruise-ship tourists).

Popular attractions include beaches, diving, Maya sites, rainforests, fishing, snorkeling.

In 2011, Belize was placed on the U.S. list of countries considered to be major producers or transit routes for illegal drugs.

Ambergris Caye (pronounced AM-ber-grees Key) is 25 miles long and just over a mile wide; it is the largest of Belize’s 200 offshore islands. The second largest barrier reef in the world is less than a half mile away.

San Pedro Town is named for Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishing. Bicycles and golf carts are popular modes of transportation on the island.

Ethnic/racial groups in Belize: Maya, Creole (African-European), Mestizo (Spanish- Mayan), Garifuna (AfricanIndian), Hispanic, Middle Eastern, East Indian, Chinese and Taiwanese, Anglo-European and Mennonite.

SPRING 2012

M-Powered

Content PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

University of Mississippi students learn through service in Belize

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

A boy walks along wooden planks that extend beyond the end of the road in San Mateo, a community built in the 1990s in mangrove swamps.

EDITORIAL STAFF Aubry Killion Cain Madden Jajuan McNeil

Page 2 Page 16 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22

The Road to Belize Building Trust and Hope Connecting With the Community Classrooms Provide Haven for Children Women on a Mission A Helping Hand

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Miley Medina, 3, leads University of Mississippi students on the “London bridges” that wind through San Mateo.

PART 2: THE CHILDREN OF SAN MATEO Page 24 Kaysha, Husaan and Princess Page 28 Winter Camp

PART 3: PUNTA GORDA • SECOND CUP OF TEA Page 30 Broadening Their Horizons

Margaret Ann Morgan Katie Williamson •

EDITOR/FACULTY LEADER

PART 4: IN THEIR VOICES Page 36 In Their Voices Page 41 Amazing Experience

Patricia Thompson •

PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEO EDITOR Mikki Harris •

DESIGN EDITOR

PART 5: MISSISSIPPI/BELIZE CONNECTIONS Page 42 Why Belize?

Photo by Katie Williamson

Houita Baki has fun coloring during class at San Felipe Government School in a Maya village.

PART 6: THE OTHER BELIZE Page 46 Belize wasn’t all work and no play

Darren Sanefski •

PRODUCTION EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Kristen Stephens • Students and faculty in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media traveled to Belize in January 2012 to produce this multimedia project, including a print depth report, online content and a TV series.

For videos and TV news and feature segments go to olemisslife.com

University of Mississippi faculty and students enrolled in Study Abroad health, education, child welfare and journalism courses visit the Belize Zoo.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

1

EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNIT Y

The

Road to Belize

By empowering a community to rise out of poverty, a Study Abroad project transforms students’ lives.

By

2

M-Powered Spring 2012

Cain Madden

Photo by Margaret Ann Morgan

Tito Escalante walks barefoot along the narrow bridges that serve as walkways where there are no roads in San Mateo. Residents risk serious injury when they fall off the bridges into the contaminated water.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

3

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

University of Mississippi students travel on San Mateo’s road as they head to the work site. Remnants of the dangerous footbridges are seen at left. They are being replaced with a road built from limestone and sand.

O

4

M-Powered Spring 2012

help my brothers and sisters. It is difficult to walk on the bridges. It is difficult to get home at night.”

Since 2010, roughly a thousand feet of road has been built. More than 85 University of Mississippi students have helped build the road, and they have raised $40,000

IBBEA

N SEA

off one of the planks, cutting her leg and risking an infection.

“I want to live better,” said Rodriguez, who hopes to attend college in the United States and major in business law. “It (the road) would help bring in water. We have no running water, no electricity. It would

CAR

GUATEMALA

AN SE A

IBBE

CAR

GUATEMALA

n a warm weekend in January, residents of a small community in Belize and more than two dozen University of Mississippi students gathered to build a road.

San Mateo needs many San Mateo Puntathings.

Gorda But most of all, MEXICO MEXICO the community Corozal Corozal needs Orange roads.

Orange Walk WithoutWalk roads, Belize Belize utility companies BELIZE BELIZE can’t drive their Cayo Stann trucks Cayo into the Stann Creek neighborhoodCreek to set up systems for Toledo Toledo electricity, water and sewers. Without HONDURAS HONDURAS roads, residents must walk to their homes, rain or shine, across narrow planks dubbed “London bridges,” because they fall down. Some have suffered serious injuries when they’ve fallen into the filthy, contaminated water.

Miriam Rodriguez, 18, walks on the makeshift wooden bridges to high school in San Pedro each day. Recently, Miriam fell

Dangriga Hopkins San Mateo San Pedro Dangria Belize City Belmopan Punta Gorda Maya Mtns.

Photo by Cain Madden

Precariously built bridges are sometimes the only path residents can take to get to their homes.

to support the San Mateo Empowerment Project.

Kyla Giles, an exercise science major at the University of Mississippi, said the service-learning work has changed her life.

“This is my first time ever traveling outside the country,” Giles said. “It opened my eyes to a lot that makes me want to change, to do more to help people. I picked up rocks, shoveled sand, helped with pushing wheelbarrows. The people here are strong and they want those roads.”

Ironically, San Mateo is a subdivision in San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye -- the wealthiest region in Belize. San Mateo is less than a mile from white sandy beaches and businesses offering world-class diving and snorkeling. Most tourists don’t know it exists.

San Mateo residents — young and old — worked on the roads on that January weekend. Nine-year-old Jair Bannar pushed wheelbarrows full of sand from the lagoon, where the sand and limestone were dropped off, and the construction site about ¼ mile away. Alfredo Rubio cleared away the small rickety bridges and replaced them with limestone.

Rubio helped, even though his house is not on the main road under construction.

“I helped out because there is the need in the village,” Rubio said. “I see the use of just joining in and helping out and making it better. …I will still get a benefit of what everybody is helping out for.”

The road is 14 feet wide and 3 feet deep.

With the help of the Ole Miss students, the length of the road was extended about another 20 feet just in one day.

“We had quite a lot of people today,” said Justo Medeina, a San Mateo resident on the empowerment project’s executive board, as he surveyed the progress. Nearby, other workers enjoyed a lunch of chicken, beef, rice and beans prepared by women in the community.

Twenty feet may not seem like a lot.

But building the road is hard and timeconsuming. Workers must clear away the mangroves and debris, including the “London bridges,” and then stack limestone rocks — each the size of a human head or larger — on top of one another to a high enough height to clear the tide, and then level sand on top of that.

Kim Shackelford, the University of

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

Trash and sewage cover large areas of San Mateo.

Photo by Aubry Killion

A brightly colored two-story home is surrounded by dry ground and debris.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

5

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

Mississippi associate professor of social work who first started bringing Ole Miss students to San Mateo, said one of the best things about that weekend was seeing the impact of the empowerment project. Residents had persuaded the town council to send a truck and driver to help haul the rocks and sand.

Shackelford asked them how they got the truck. “Mr. Justo (Medeina) said, ‘I just went to the town council and told them we had a lot of volunteers, and we needed help. We need a truck and driver,’” Shackelford said.

“That would have never occurred two years ago. Two years ago, they would have said, ‘Oh, we will always be this way; it is never going to change. The town cares nothing for us; we are just forgotten.’”

Shackelford was amazed to hear that Medeina had marched into the town council, demanded a truck, and got it.

“I said, ‘You are totally empowered!’”

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

University of Mississippi students and other visitors join San Mateo residents in transferring rocks and sand, hauled from the middle of the lagoon, to extend the road. About 1,000 feet of road has been built since the project started in 2010.

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Everette Palacio Jr., left, loads rocks onto a wheeled cart.

The rocks serve as the foundation for the new road.

6

M-Powered Spring 2012

Getting Started

An article published in the San Pedro Sun in 2008 reported that a 3-year-old

girl fell into the lagoon that surrounded her house in San Mateo. A previous wound on her foot became infected, and after seeking emergency care at a hospital in Belize, the child died while returning to San Pedro. Community residents say other children have suffered serious injuries or died from bacterial infections after falling off the makeshift bridges into the water underneath.

In January 2010, during a Wintersession course in Belize designed to teach students macro and micro social work, a group of Ole Miss students persuaded Shackelford to start the San Mateo Empowerment Project.

Shackelford and her students had been invited by Miriam Palacio, now 17, to celebrate the New Year holiday with her family.

“I thought maybe, just maybe I have made it to the second cup of tea,” Shackelford said, referencing Greg Mortenson’s book ‘Three Cups of Tea.” Students in Study Abroad courses often read the book as part of their class work.

The title is credited to a Balti proverb: The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you share tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family.

The Ole Miss group learned a little about the community’s needs, and spent the first part of the week surveying the area.

They agreed that roads were the key to the future.

“I said, ‘If you were going to make a mock community development plan then what would you do first to work on the road situation?’”

Shackelford recalled. “Jake (McGraw), he was the leader of the group, said, ‘We’ve been talking, and we don’t understand why we have to do a mock plan. Why can’t we do a real one?’”

Shackelford said she told them that if you promise people roads, you are going to have to help them build roads. She said it would be a five- to 10-year project.

“It kind of just took me for a loop,” Shackelford said, adding that “they convinced me, and they have been here the whole time.”

“We were in over our heads,” said Oxford native Jake McGraw, who returned to San Mateo for the third time in January, this time independently of a class. McGraw graduated from Ole Miss in 2010 and is

Photo by Jaujan McNeil

Rocks are loaded onto a truck that was brought in to help with the building of the road for the day. Justo Medeina, a community leader in San Mateo, secured the truck from the town council.

Photo by Katie Williamson

Chris Kirkland loads his cart with rocks.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

7

Photo by Cain Madden

Youbany Calderon works up a sweat as he hauls rocks in a wheelbarrow.

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

Luis Hernandez, 7, and UM students Khaleah Evans and Kyla Giles work as a team to get a wheelbarrow full of rocks to the new road site.

8

M-Powered Spring 2012

working on a master’s of economic and social history at the University of Oxford in England.

At the first meeting two years ago, there were more students than community members, McGraw said. About 30 people attended the second meeting. The third meeting attracted more than 100 community members and politicians from San Pedro.

“That is the meeting where we formally made the pledge that we would do everything we could to support them in whatever project that they wanted to do,” McGraw said. “They wanted to build roads, and they knew they had the manpower and the resources to do it here — what they really lacked was the financial assistance.”

The group of students returned to Oxford, estimating that they needed $265,000 to build 1.5 miles of road, and started with baby steps — asking family members and friends for small donations. That snowballed into a groundbreaking in March 2010.

“The next Sunday (after the groundbreaking) they sent me a picture through email of the first 15 feet of road that they had built,” Shackelford said, tears welling in her eyes. “I can’t even tell you how I felt — that was just a joyful moment.”

To attract significant donations, the project needed tax exemption status.

McGraw looked up the IRS documentation, and Shackelford and he worked on the initial application.

Now, “all our donations are tax exempt, and it has also given us some credibility and legitimacy,” McGraw said.

Fundraising efforts on campus have included a yard sale in 2010, and a 5-K run in October co-sponsored by Kappa Alpha Order.

In addition to helping support the building of the road, the project has brought the community closer together.

“Miss Joy, the high school teacher who is on the (San Mateo Empowerment Project) board, said, ‘Kim, the roads are doing so much more than giving us a place to walk safely, they are giving us a place to gather as a community. Before we would just come down the bridge, go in the house, and we hardly knew our neighbors. Now we can come out and talk — we can come out in the middle of the road and we can stand there and talk,’” Shackelford said.

A lack of roads is not San Mateo’s only problem.

Recent tests found potentially dangerous

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Rocks are piled on top of each other high enough to clear the water level for the road. Sand is spread on top of the rocks to create the surface of the road.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

9

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY Justo Medeina, an executive board member of the San Mateo Empoerment Project, shovels sand that was removed from the lagoon into the boat.

Photo by Aubry Killion

bacterial contamination in the water San Mateo residents use for drinking and cooking. Mothers say they stay up nights with flashlights to keep rats off their sleeping children. Water pressure is often low, or nonexistent, for weeks at a time.

Water bills can be as high as $300 a month because San Mateo residents pay 55 cents a gallon for water, while others in San Pedro pay 5 cents.

About 40 people attended a community meeting in January. There were complaints about how the number of road-building volunteers has dwindled since last summer.

Shackelford spoke about the need for the community to renew its spirit — to come together and recommit to the project.

When asked what the community most needs, the list included land for a park and playground, an emergency health center, activities to get children off the streets, a bigger sewing cooperative. But there was general agreement with Rachael Bradley’s answer: “More roads!”

Photo by Cain Madden

Moh Leandro, a member of the San Mateo Empowerment Project executive board, works to extend the road.

Justo Medeina and Moh have led the community in road-building efforts on Sunday mornings. They and their wives also make sure workers are fed a good meal when they finish for the day.

10

M-Powered Spring 2012

Built on mangroves, wetlands

The San Mateo subdivision in north San

Photo by Katie Williamson

Fernand Ponce has fun as he shovels sand. Workers chant “Mateos, Mateos” as they build the road. Community members are encouraged to help even if the road doesn’t yet extend to their homes. The goal is for everyone in the community to eventually have access.

Pedro was created in the 1990s. Anyone traveling by car, bicycle or golf cart must pay a toll to cross a small bridge into San Mateo. An estimated 1,500 people live there.

“San Mateo is an unfortunate story, in a neighborhood and area that should have never been built in the first place,” said Tamara Sniffin, editor of The San Pedro Sun, a weekly newspaper on Ambergris Caye.

“There is certainly a need for affordable land and housing on the island, but filling in mangroves and expecting people to live in that environment is not the answer.”

Sniffin said the empowerment project “has put a little pressure on our local government” to help San Mateo.

She added that she likes the way the project has worked. “It’s been, ‘Let’s roll up our sleeves and get in there and together get this done.’ Sometimes you get wellmeaning organizations that come in and say, ‘This is how you’re gonna do it. Stand back

and I’ll show you how it’s done.’ I don’t care where you are in the world, most people don’t take very kindly to that approach. I like how Kim and the students have gone about it, assimilating into the community.”

Melanie Paz has lived on Ambergris Caye for 27 years and was an independent candidate for mayor of San Pedro. She brought her campaign workers to help at the road-building site in January.

“I don’t believe they should have ever given out the lots without having a proper infrastructure like roads, electricity and water,” Paz said. “This is pretty much a disgrace, you know, just allowing people to build without any kind of structure around them.”

San Pedro Deputy Mayor Severo Guerrero Sr., of the United Democratic Party (UDP), said that in the 1990s the UDP was in power, and leased lots in the San Mateo area because people were asking for land.

Photo by Aubry Killion

A sign at an intersection in San Mateo includes the empowerment logo, and says that the road is a “joint project of the community members of San Mateo, University of Mississippi students and faculty, and many other persons who love Belize.”

Spring 2012 M-Powered

11

12

M-Powered Spring 2012

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

From left, Evelyn Mencia, Jose Mencia Jr. and Jose Mencia Sr. walk home on the road at dusk in San Mateo.

Guerrero said they had a plan, but then the UDP lost elections to the People’s United Party.

“We had it in a way that was surveyed, that had some good lots over there, with good roads, we’d have built it good,” Guerrero said. “We lost the election, they came in, they resurveyed, and they made a mess. Where there was one property, they made two, where there was a road, they cut it out and put in a house.”

Guerrero said it saddened him to see San Mateo built so poorly, and that it was a side effect of rents getting too high in San Pedro.

“We told them it is not adequate to live there, none of the utilities are there,” Guerrero said. “It is not done properly. It is not filled with sand there to lift it up.”

The San Mateo Empowerment Project is good for the community, Guerrero said. He hopes to see the area developed properly.

“My land was a wetland, but eventually I got it fixed up,” Guerrero said. “It cost a bit, but I found a way. I think some of them are waiting for the government to do it, and I don’t think that is going to happen.”

Guerrero said town officials began building a road in San Mateo before the empowerment project started, and now the town road and the empowerment project road are connected in the middle.

Many San Mateo residents complain, however, that the government road is uneven, full of potholes and built out of garbage that is the source of much of the litter in the area. They worry that the town road will wash away during a major storm or hurricane.

Guerrero, who is in charge of the town council road, said it is cheaper to use trees or biodegradable trash in place of limestone.

He said the town is not using household garbage to build its road, and that this is just the first phase for the town road. “We’ll put another on top, and gradually, we will have better roads over there. It is coming slowly.”

There are no plans to fix San Mateo’s sewage problems, which could cost upwards of $2 million, Guerrero said.

The town council has major problems with unpaid water bills. Guerrero said San Pedro spends about $100,000 a year to subsidize water bills in San Mateo. “The water authority needs to put in better pipes to keep people from stealing water,” he said.

Ambergris Caye is Belize’s “golden goose that sustains the whole country,” Guerrero

Spring 2012 M-Powered

13

Photo by Margaret Ann Morgan

Small bridges in San Mateo were built from whatever materials residents could find.

The planks sit over water contaminated with sewage.

said. “We are giving them about 35 to 40 percent of their revenue, just from this island.”

San Pedro Sun reporter Jorge Aldana, who served on the 2010 census team as a supervisor, estimated that San Pedro produces about $100 million annually in sales and hotel taxes, and said that some of that money could be used to help San Mateo, the poorest community in Belize.

“There should be no excuse for a lack of a 24/7 hospital, proper classrooms, enough classrooms, and there should be no excuse for dilapidated streets,” Aldana said. “This is a prime tourist destination island.”

‘Power to the People’

It was Everette Robert Palacio’s daughter Miriam who first took Ole Miss students to San Mateo, to her family’s home. Palacio attends a Bible institute and has built a church behind his house. He makes seaweed juice and sells it from a cart in downtown

14

M-Powered Spring 2012

San Pedro.

Palacio’s son once fell off the “London bridges.” A nail sticking out of one of the

planks tore his flesh and he needed nine stitches. Palacio is grateful for the road and the university’s help.

Photo by Cain Madden

The Mencia family must leave the newly built road extension, carefully maneuever onto “London bridges” and walk through mangroves to get to their house.

“I don’t think the project would have been this far without the Mississippi support,” Palacio said. “My hope would be to see the road get done so utility companies can come in and make life better.

Everyone can hook up electricity and the cost of living can go down.”

And he is proud of his neighbors, too.

“It is power to the people. We did it, woohoo! We should each pat ourselves on the back. We did that - we built a road that leads to any school, to work. Now, from my house, I can watch taxis go back and forth on the road. If people are sick, they can use a car. It’s awesome to see that happening.”

Shackelford said a reporter in Belize once asked her why she thought people from Mississippi could make a difference in San Mateo.

Her answer: “People from Ole Miss know that people and communities can change.

You just have to believe and be willing to work hard.”

Photo by Cain Madden

Reef Village condominiums and villas sit across the lagoon from San Mateo. Properties are listed for sale on the Reef Village website from $130,000 to $340,000. Furnished homes, appliances, tiled floors, security and poolside restaurant and bar are listed as some of the features.

Drinking water contaminated Potentially dangerous bacterial contamination has been found in the water San Mateo residents use for drinking, cooking, bathing and washing dishes.

The Engineers Without Borders chapter at Texas A&M University sent a team of students to San Mateo in January to conduct spot tests of water quality.

The contamination was found not only in tap water, but also in the rain water collected in cisterns and tanks, according to preliminary findings from the assessment trip.

The bacteria found in the water coliform - can be linked to feces, and therefore is believed to be caused by inadequate handling of sewage in the San Mateo area. Drinking either source of water carries the “possibility of risk of serious waterborne illness,” particularly for infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly and anyone with a weakened immune system, according to Jon Fripp, the professional mentor for the Texas A&M chapter.

The team noted that not all tap water tested was contaminated. But “our preliminary analysis indicates that the

current San Mateo water distribution system is inadequate and cannot be easily fixed,” the report said.

The team recommended that the community stop using rain and tap water for drinking and for making infant cereal and formula. Residents are being told to purchase purified drinking water.

If they can’t afford to buy water, they should treat their water by bringing it to a boil, or treating it with household chlorine.

Ole Miss students and faculty returning to Belize this year will distribute fliers in English and Spanish throughout the community, and meet with residents to explain how to make sure they don’t over-chlorinate their water.

Kim Shackelford said the contaminated water may explain why she noticed more open boils and sores on children in her most recent visit to San Mateo.

In the short term, San Mateo residents are being warned about the potential dangers of the bacterial contamination and ways to make the water safer for use. The Engineers Without Borders group will issue a final assessment report later this year.

Long-term plans to deal with the water and sewage problems include: Seeking help from town leaders to fix the water pipes

Getting help from engineers to develop buckets that filter bacteria and fecal matter, and to develop drum systems for toilets Building strategically placed culverts in the road Educating the community about garbage disposal Decreasing the size of new roads from 14-feet wide to 8-feet wide (this will allow roads to be built more quickly for parts of San Mateo that aren’t currently accessible other than on the dangerous bridges)

Spring 2012 M-Powered

15

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

Building Trust and Hope A University of Mississippi professor spearheaded the focus on San Mateo. Now, she leads student service learning in Belize three times a year.

T

By Margaret Ann Morgan here are some people who offer a calming presence to all they encounter. It often accompanies humility and passion for service to others. We sometimes call them angels on earth.

In San Mateo, that person is known as “Miss Kim.” “Kim is awesome, an angel sent to the people of San Pedro and San Mateo,” says Melanie Paz, former San Pedro Lions Club president.

Shackelford, associate professor of social work at Ole Miss, started her career in math education and then took a year off to work for the church. After going back to school and assessing her skill set, she decided that social work was the closest thing to youth ministry that she could pursue.

Shackelford’s history in social work sparked her interest in the people of the San Mateo community.

“My brother and sister-in-law love going to the islands… so they always tried to get me to go on vacation with them,” she says of her first trip to Belize. “It just got to the point in my life where I was really busy, running and going… I just called them and said, ‘I’ll go with you.’”

That was in 1999. Shackelford has been to Belize every year since then. And this could very well be credited to the first family she met in San Pedro. It was inevitable through her caring nature that Shackelford would meet “Miss Maggie” Cornejo Cobo Chi and her family.

16

M-Powered Spring 2012

Photo by Cain Madden

Kim Shackelford comforts a girl during a winter camp led by University of Mississippi students. Shackelford says it’s important “to get rid of the ‘we’re doing this great thing for you’ stuff,” and instead work with local residents. The best community developers are not on center stage; they are facilitators who make things happen, she says.

Miss Maggie was one of the first residents of San Mateo. Shackelford met Miss Maggie’s children when they came to her hotel to sell the island’s popular shell jewelry.

“I bought something, but I had to go in my room to get the money,” Shackelford recalls. One of the children followed her into her hotel room.

“It was 8:30 at night… She said her mother was at home… I said, ‘You know, maybe I should just meet your mother.’”

And from there the relationship grew with the families of San Mateo. Shackelford went to San Mateo the next day, not

knowing what to expect. A hand-pulled raft took her across the water into the community made up of several shacks and plank bridges. She met with Miss Maggie that day, simply out of concern for the children’s safety, and from there her love for Belize began.

Shackelford loves to tell the story of how the San Mateo Empowerment Project came to be, but with her humble spirit, she will not take credit for her work in the community.

The people who have been helped by the woman known as “Miss Kim” are quick to express their appreciation, however.

Daisy Howe, secretary-treasurer for the empowerment board, and her husband named their newborn son Akim, in honor of Shackelford. Rachael Bradley, a goalie on the women’s soccer team, described Shackelford as a “good friend” of the community.

Another says Shackelford “uplifts the life” of San Mateo children.

“They get to feel what it’s like to be normal kids with places to play,” Charlene Estrada says of Shackelford’s work in San Mateo.

Leticia Chimilio, whose husband is a hauler for the road project, says, “Kim is doing a very great job for every single soul in San Mateo, from kid to old.”

Learning through service

Photo by Cain Madden

Kim Shackelford talks with Tonya McAnally, a social worker and Ole Miss alumnus, during a meeting in San Mateo. McAnnally distributed Bibles to each family in attendance. The Bibles were a gift to the community from her home church, New Lebanon Free Will Baptist Church of Tishomingo.

Shackelford went on sabbatical from the university in spring 2009. She spent five months in San Pedro, and that not only drew her closer to the people of San Pedro and the community of San Mateo, but it also opened doors for the University of

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Kim Shackelford talks with San Mateo residents Mirna Payuada, 8, and Miriam Roadriguez, 18, about future roads for the area. “There’s an enourmous amount of trust between people that live in Mississippi and people in San Mateo, Belize,” Shackelford says.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

17

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Maggie Cornejo Cobo Chi, one of the first residents of San Mateo, spends time in front of her house with Adrian Cobo, 8, and Cameron Zetina, 9. Kim Shackelford first visited San Mateo after buying jewelry from the daughter of “Miss Maggie” during her first visit to Belize in 1999.

Mississippi to join her in this relationship with the people of Belize.

Students have traveled to Belize three times a year since her 2009 sabbatical; once in the spring, once in the summer and once during the winter. The trips started as a social work course, which Kim led through her role with the Holy Cross Anglican School in San Mateo. From there the trips turned into a combination of service and academic credit, known as service learning.

“Working in my sabbatical,” Shackelford says, “I realized I didn’t know what the community needs.”

That is why she sent her students to figure out how to help the people of San Mateo.

They knew there had to be a solution to getting families out of such dangerous living conditions.

The students took charge, completing community assessments and holding meetings in San Mateo churches. The final decision? Roads.

“Everyone said they needed roads,” Shackelford recalls. “They convinced me

‘‘

that the community was serious about solving their own problems, not waiting on somebody else to solve them for them.”

And that is where the San Mateo Empowerment Project began. One thousand feet of hope have been built in two years’ time, and a countless number of lives have been changed for the better. Shackelford says the key to this progress has been time, patience and the ability to handle disappointment.

“There’s an enormous amount of trust between people that live in Mississippi and people in San Mateo, Belize,” she says. “Where does that come from? I don’t know.”

The bond of trust was formed inside Miss Maggie’s pink and — Leticia Chimilio blue plywood home.

It was formed through conversations, brainstorming and an undying optimism that brought the two strikingly different communities together.

Shackelford exudes a sense of peace, all the way down to her laugh. Her demeanor is relaxed, and it is obvious that her heart is warm.

She says this is her dream: “Sometimes

Kim is doing a very great job for every single soul in San Mateo, from kid to old.

18

M-Powered Spring 2012

when I look at San Mateo, I just see this community that every bit of that’s filled in. The kids all have yards to play in, and there’s clean water. There’s a septic system of some sort, and there’s power to every house.”

The people of San Mateo are honest, hard-working and resilient, Shackelford says.

“I always tell them they give me a lot more than I give them. A lot more.”

Photo by Cain Madden

Kim Shackelford smiles as she is welcomed to Punta Gorda by local, regional and national leaders in Belize.

Connecting With the Community Oxford in England.

On his most recent trip to Belize in January, McGraw stood at the far end of the community where it meets the lagoon, shoveling sand into wheelbarrows to add to the road, and recalled what San Mateo was like three years ago.

“It took us at least 20 minutes to get back here on the ‘London bridges’ and every step you were worried about falling and breaking your leg,” McGraw said. “And now, to see one of the best roads on the island that runs right through this community, that you can walk to the main road back to San Pedro. It is just I don’t know how to describe it other than it is kind of surreal.”

Shackelford said McGraw persuaded her to start the empowerment project.

“He helped get the non-profit status, and he has continued to raise money,” Shackelford said. “Jake is constantly calling Photo by Katie Williamson Jake McGraw lifts limestone to help build the road. McGraw played a major role starting the San Mateo Emback and checking on the progress.” powerment Project. He and his brother Taylor McGraw produced a documentary used to raise funds to support Taylor McGraw, a public policy leadership the empowerment project. senior who is Associated Student Body president and Jake’s younger brother, got involved in the project because of his brother.

“What he is passionate about is helping people,” Taylor McGraw said. “I think he deserves credit for this. I don’t think he is going to take as much as he deserves, but I feel a connection to the community now —

By Cain Madden am definitely proud of the guy.” there are a lot of people who I know, people Jake McGraw said what is important is n 2009, Jake McGraw enrolled in a who I care about here.” that the community and its leaders stepped Study Abroad class in Belize. He was McGraw graduated from the University of up to make the road a reality. “We support looking to spend time on some beaches, Mississippi in 2010 with degrees in public and applaud them and do what we can, and the Belize trip had been talked up policy leadership and economics, and is but all of the tangible products have been to him by Kim Shackelford, a colleague working on a master’s degree of economic because of the labor and effort here.” of his mother in the social work department and social history at the University of The empowerment project at Ole Miss. has had a dramatic impact on “I kind of pulled the trigger not really McGraw. knowing what I was getting into — I did “Positive change can take not have any interest in social work, per place, if you have a committed se. I had just never been to Belize, and it group of individuals behind a sounded fun,” McGraw said. common vision,” McGraw said.

“If you had told me that this would be “It is pretty easy to get jaded. the product of that, I probably would have Then you come down here, and laughed in your face.” you see what has taken place By “this,” he means his instrumental role in a relatively short period of in starting the San Mateo Empowerment time and how transformative Project, which led to building a road in the it has been. It gives me the community and has tied McGraw to San inspiration to try and carry the Mateo for at least the next five years. He Photo by Mikki K. Harris spirit that is here into other has returned to the island twice already on From left, Everette Robert Palacio Sr. and Jake McGraw talk after a projects and not be deterred by his own, not for a class.

San Mateo community meeting. “I don’t think the project would the challenges.”

“It is another home,” McGraw said. “I have been this far without the Mississippi support,” Palacio says.

Student leader inspired by residents’ commitment to improve their lives

I

Spring 2012 M-Powered

19

PART 1: EMPOWERING A COMMUNITY

Classrooms Provide Haven for Children San Pedro school gives ‘a little ease from the life they are living’ Grace Williams had retired as a principal in Belize City when Holy Cross Anglican School came calling five years ago. Holy Cross is now in its sixth year, serving more than 400 students from ages 5-14 — many from atrisk neighborhoods — and has a breakfast and lunch program, a computer lab, a dental clinic and a library. It ranks in the top third of schools in Belize on primary exams.

The government pays teacher salaries; all other school funding must come from donations and fundraising. University of Mississippi students enroll in interdisciplinary courses to help at Holy Cross during Intersessions and Spring Break.

This is an edited transcript of an interview with Williams, conducted by Jajuan McNeil and Aubry Killion, that took place in January in San Pedro.

Q

When you became principal at Holy Cross, what did you find that your students needed?

The most help they needed was with nutrition. The children have a lot of family issues. When I was first coming to the island, people told me, “You are going to turn a drunkard out there.” Now I know why. We have a lot of abuse out here. The children

A

need a lot of comforting; the parents need a lot of comforting. I think that most of our children need some place like Holy Cross because it’s the only place, I guess, they can find a little ease from the life they are living. When we find the ones who are really, really in this situation, we try to counsel them every day. We try to hug them, make sure they have what they need. We worry about them when the holidays come. Sometimes when I get back to school and see them, I see they are thin and I know they haven’t been eating.

Q A

Do many of the children in San Mateo work?

The children have to work, because that’s the only way they can survive. If the older ones don’t help by going to work, the family won’t eat.

A lot of our children were not in school. They were on the beach.

Q A

How do Ole Miss students and faculty help you?

We asked the government to give us counselors but they say they can’t afford to. I am always glad when Miss Kim (Shackelford) and the students come. They have done a lot for us, for the students and teachers. Miss Kim helps me with special cases. She gives

me advice, and counsels kids who really, really need it. I remember I had a class...I was at the end of my rope. They were terrible, and there was a ringleader, a child I could name; now he is going to high school, president of his class. He is doing very, very well.

Before the road was built, you would not have wanted to go back there, on those “London bridges.” The roads made it safer. It’s almost 100 percent better now.

Q A

How many other U.S. colleges send volunteers to Holy Cross?

About five different groups come from the United States each year. They help us in the classrooms, teaching, helping our teachers. Our teachers have learned a lot from them, and they have learned a lot from our teachers. We were brought up in the British system, a rigid system. We always have an orientation time for these groups coming in, about the school and how to be with the children.

Q A

Is it hard to recruit teachers to the island?

Holy Cross has 18 teachers and a vice principal. It’s not easy to get teachers here. Rent takes up half their pay. To rent a little room here, the least they would pay is $100 a week. Many of our teachers have to send money to help out their families back home, where they come from.

Q A Photo by Margaret Ann Morgan

The Holy Cross Anglican Primary School sits close to front of the San Mateo subdivision. Students from the University of Mississippi take interdisciplinary courses to help at Holy Cross during Intersessions and Spring Break.

20

M-Powered Spring 2012

Is truancy a problem?

Three-quarters of our students are from other Central American countries - Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. Sometimes they will say that a grandmother is ill or a grandfather died, and their

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Grace Williams, principal of Holy Cross Anglican Primary School.

parents will return to Honduras and take the children with them, for a month, two months.

The Mestizo (Spanish-Indian) children are all for their Moms.

They will do anything to help their mom. For a couple of days a child didn’t come to school. I saw him at a shop one evening.

He said, “Miss, do you know why I’m not coming to school?

My stepfather is hitting my mom and I can’t leave her there alone. I have to stay at home with my mom.”

Q A

What most surprised you when you first came to Holy Cross?

In the Anglican schools, we were taught it is the children who matter. Children here tell me that in the schools where they came from, the teachers told them they were only there to teach, and not to help them any other way. As time went by, they have begun to realize they can ask for help if they don’t understand something. I don’t know what would happen if Holy Cross closed.

To donate to Holy Cross Anglican School, go to www.holycrossbselize.org.

WOMEN ON A MISSION

By Katie Williamson

Nurse fixes more than bruises A newly built home sits high above the sewage that lines the streets of San Mateo. The clean wooden walls and new white trim stand out from the more typical faded and weatherworn shacks whose array of bright paints has Photo by Katie Williamson been muddied Glenda Rancharan sits by time. The in front of her house in sounds of San Mateo. Rancharan returned to Belize from children yelling California. and laughing during their games outside Glenda Rancharan’s door serve as a reminder of what she brings to the community.

At the far end of the island, away from the expensive condos and sunburned tourists, rests the poorest community in Belize: San Mateo.

Children run across rickety bridges that are precariously perched above sewage sweltering beneath their homes. Rancharan was one of the few tourists who took the second glance at San Mateo.

“People come in and they don’t really know what’s going on.

They only see the outside of the community,” Rancharan said. “When I came to San Mateo, it wasn’t the place I fell in love with, it was the people.”

Rancharan is originally from Belize but left to pursue a career as a school nurse in California. She returned to Belize for vacations on the sunny beaches of San Pedro. On her visit in 2006, she met a woman who was determined to start a school across the bridge in San Mateo.

“We take so many things for granted over the years, especially in The States. I said, ‘Oh my God! If I am going to retire from The States, I am going to live in San Pedro. It doesn’t

matter how I live, I am going to live amongst them.’”

Rancharan watched over the community as the school nurse for three years. She has grown attached to every little boy and girl who comes knocking on her door.

“They always say, ‘Mrs. Glenda, why do you live there?’ because after a while you get attached and you cannot let go. It is hard to let go especially when you know everybody in the neighborhood. So, as a school nurse I will continue doing my service and I continue to serve my community.”

A small pile of sand lies in front of Rancharan’s home. It sits like an island in the middle of the sewage surrounding the houses.

“Some of the children helped me put the sand right there,” she said as she motioned toward it. “They said that is where they want the clinic to be...I want to be able to help these children, not the adults so much because they can help themselves. It’s the kids that really need the help.”

Rancharan rattles off the names of children who have been hurt or sick, or in some cases died, because of conditions in San Mateo. She tends to boils and bacterial infections that constantly plague the children.

“I used to call it ‘forgotten San Mateo.’ I used to say San Mateo will never be helped. People will never come back here. People just forgot about these people. How dare they forget about these people,” she said.

“Then I realized, they didn’t forget, the government forgot.”

Rancharan is dependent on volunteers for supplies and equipment.

“Things are really rough on the island,” she said. “We really need to do something back here quickly. It is just getting too bad.”

She added: “What I like about this community is when there is death or sickness they really pull together, and that is something, no matter how much money you have, that you cannot buy.”

Chef shelters the needy in memory of mother There is little help for women and children in abusive homes in San Pedro, but there is hope.

A white home with a yard full of children’s toys rests near the center of the town. Inside lives Maricela “Shelley” Huber, a woman who hopes to change lives.

Huber is president of a committee planning to build Mama Vilma’s Family Home, a halfway house for battered Shelley Huber works to provide home for batwomen and children. tered families.

“If they don’t have a home or if they feel too embarrassed to go to a friend’s home, they have to go back to their house or be sitting at the police station in a room until the services get to them,” Huber said about the need for Family Home.

“We are servicing them out of our own house. If they have a need we bring them in our home. One of the greatest and most precious things about my island is that when there is some emergency, nobody asks who, where, how or what color. We would take anybody in our home.”

The group’s goal is to have a refuge complete with medical and social-work services, afterschool programs and 24-hour child care.

Huber is a private chef and caterer. The shelter will be named after her mother, Vilma Arceo, a battered woman who overcame many hardships. Arceo had 11 children and adopted many others. She was active in Catholic church functions on Ambergris Caye, and organized cultural and fund-raising events for the San Pedro Roman Catholic School.

A recent fashion show raised more than $10,000 to support the Family Home.

Huber said that since the plan for Mama Vilma’s Family Home was proposed, “We have had so many doctors that have come to us and asked, ‘How can we help? If there is an emergency, we are here with you.’ It makes us feel very optimistic in getting ready to open this home, to provide these services to the entire community.”

Spring 2012 M-Powered

21

A Helping Hand UM students assist with medical care for the poor

By Cain Madden LaKesha Griffin started her day at 7 a.m. at the San Pedro PolyClinic, and at 5 p.m., she was still working.

First, she helped with triage, which is where nurses determine the priority of the patients’ treatments. Through the afternoon and evening, she prepared babies for vaccinations.

A nurse at the clinic “does like three different jobs,” said Griffin, a social work major at the University of Mississippi DeSoto campus. “She is doing the job of a medical assistant, running the lab, triage and just all over.”

The clinic in San Pedro has three doctors and seven nurses, including two midwives.

The clinic serves the 11,000 residents of the town, plus tourists and people from all over Ambergris Caye.

Owen Vellos, the clinic’s administrator, said San Pedro has the only free public health clinic in Belize. As the population increases, he is worried that

‘‘

Photo by Cain Madden

LaKesha Griffin volunteers at the San Pedro polyclinic, a free public health clinic in Belize. Griffin is a social work major at the University of Mississippi DeSoto campus.

the clinic will have to treat more patients than it can handle.

Vellos said volunteers, like the Ole Miss students, are a huge asset. “Being that we are short of staff, it is an advantage that they can provide a service while helping the nurses or doctors for a free charge. People come here with a good idea, and when leaving, tend to help us with donations,” he said.

Brunilda Hilton has worked at the clinic as a registered nurse since 2003.

“It is very sad for us when we don’t have the medication that they really need,” Hilton said. “They just have to go buy it and bring it, and we give it to the patient here.”

Griffin has changed careers several times.

She’s a Licensed Practical Nurse and a former flight attendant, and now she’s a student worker in the main office at the Southaven — LaKesha Griffin campus. Griffin, who is president of the campus social work organization and a DeSoto campus ambassador, plans to be a social

I watched them poke a baby with one of those big needles, and I almost cried.

22

M-Powered Spring 2012

Photo by Cain Madden

A nurse sticks a needle into a baby’s leg.

worker specializing in child welfare when she graduates.

Griffin said the Belize trip taught her to be more dedicated when she saw how some people in San Pedro and San Mateo stood together in tough circumstances and got things done, and it taught her to be more open to other cultures.

She wants to return to the island

The waiting area of the San Pedro polyclinic is filled with families. The clinic provides services to residents and tourists throughout Ambergris Caye.

someday with her 15-year-old daughter, Kemarra.

“I did not show many pictures while I was there,” Griffin said. “I wanted to sit down and be able to explain to her what was going on because I did not want her to get the wrong idea. I wanted to explain to her that that was how they lived, how they have so little and how we take those little things for granted like every day.”

Donations are important for the San Mateo project, Griffin said. “I see they need so much, there is so much we take for granted in the United States, our hospitals, there is so much we have. I’m thankful we pay taxes now, but they need our help here.”

Her first suggestion is for an item readily available in the United States: butterfly needles to draw blood from babies. A butterfly needle has a finer tip and uses a flexible tube, which makes it less likely to cause damage if the patient moves.

Photo by Cain Madden

“I watched them poke a baby with one of those big needles, and I almost cried,” Griffin said.

Kim Shackelford, who is Griffin’s professor, said with a laugh that she had trouble getting Griffin away from the clinic.

“She was invaluable at the polyclinic — I think that they wanted to keep her, not let her go,” Shackelford said. “Anywhere we go in Belize and there is any kind of health situation, she has helped with sick students, sick kids, and telling us how to deal with different situations that have come up with the kids, so she has been valuable to our trip.”

Photo by Cain Madden

The PolyClinic is named in honor of the late Dr. Otto Rodriguez, a community leader active in the San Pedro Lions Club.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

23

PART 2: THE CHILDREN OF SAN MATEO

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SAN MATEO TEENAGER Kaysha Martin works hard to accomplish a simple goal: She wants to go to school.

A

By Jajuan McNeil s the morning sun peeks over the Caribbean Sea, the streets of San Pedro start to fill with workers on this January morning. Tourists in the resorts along the beach scatter to their favorite restaurants.

Kaysha Martin, 14, wakes and starts her morning routine.

She cleans the small house in San Mateo where she lives with her mom and stepfather and little brother. Her home is about the size of a U.S. studio apartment, with three bedrooms and a kitchen/living room area.

Like other homes in San Mateo, the house has no electricity or running water.

Most residents walk the mile to the San Pedro business area for the things that they need on a daily basis, like a five-gallon jug of water or fresh fruit.

To support their families, some create jewelry or work as maids. Kaysha and her family bake.

At 7 a.m., Kaysha starts to neatly fold flour and yeast to create dough. Each time she adds more coconut oil and ground coconut and “secret ingredients,” she monitors the thickness and the color.

“I make a lot of things,” Kaysha says.

24

M-Powered Spring 2012

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

Kaysha Martin begins to prepare dough, mixing flour, coconut oil, yeast and other ingredients for about two hours.

“I’m all about the cooking - I want to be a chef when I grow up.”

She mixes the ingredients together for about two hours to create small brown rolls that she calls buns. She grabs a knife and neatly cuts off pieces of the dough, and lines them up on a baking sheet. Then, she starts the gas-powered oven and puts the buns inside.

Around lunchtime, she heads to the streets and beaches of San Pedro, by herself, to sell the buns, $2 (Belize) for each one.

Usually, she spends six to eight hours a day selling the baked goods. Sometimes, she enjoys the work. But some men have said things to her that scare her. She said one guy told her that he didn’t want the buns in her pan “but the ones that are on my body.”

Kaysha says that “the only days I don’t have to sell are the days when Miss Kim (Shackelford) comes and there are things that kids can do.”

More than anything, Kaysha wants to go to school. “I’m hoping that one day someone will help me by getting me into school and helping the family financially so I don’t have to sell,” she says.

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

Kaysha Martin’s house faces the lagoon. There is no road that leads to Kaysha’s home.

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

Photo by Cain Madden

Shirley Lilo Martinez, Kaysha’s mother, stands with her daughter near their home in San Mateo.

Kaysha uses a big knife to cut pieces of the dough. Her mother helps her grind coconut for the buns.

Family history

Kaysha used to live with her grandmother in Dangriga, a small city on mainland Belize. In Dangriga, Kaysha attended school. She finished Standard 6, the equivalent of the seventh grade in the United States.

In December, her grandmother died and she moved to San Mateo. Her family couldn’t afford to send her to school in San Pedro.

“I feel a lot of shame in how my life has gone,” says Shirley Lilo Martinez, Kaysha’s mother. “I didn’t intend for it to be this way.”

Martinez said that when the family lived on the Belize mainland, they had gardens and grew their own food, and they lived together. Then their house burned down, and most of the family moved to San Mateo.

In 2007, Hurricane Dean blew down their home on the lagoon.

“It was hard and I lost a lot of things with that house,” Martinez said. “It was the second loss that I experienced, and I’m kind of used to it.”

The burnt orange sun sets over the sea and fishermen lining the dock begin to leave. Kaysha Martin and other San Mateo children hurry to sell their last few items to tourists, and prepare for the next day’s work.

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

The freshly baked buns are wrapped in cloth to keep them warm. They each cost the equivalent of a dollar in U.S. money.

Issues facing children in Belize The majority of rural homes lack adequate sanitation.

Stunting due to malnutrition affects about one child in five. In some Maya communities, the figure among boys is more than twice that high.

Belize has the highest prevalence of HIV/ AIDS in Central America.

Birth registration is not a standard practice.

Primary school enrollment is above 95 percent, but drop-out rates are high. Only a quarter of poor children continue on to secondary school.

Source: UNICEF

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Kaysha carries her rolls for sale along a sidewalk in San Pedro’s tourist area.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

25

‘People Unite

Because of the Roads’

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

The view from Husaan’s room to outside. Rainwater that makes it past cracks in the roof above Husaan’s bed is collected in barrels outside the home.

By Aubry Killion

A

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

Husaan Martin, 11, wears a cape as he talks about his favorite books, the Harry Potter series.

He has paperback British editions of the first five books.

26

M-Powered Spring 2012

l Husaan Martin, 11, travels the narrow planks of San Mateo daily. He has fallen into the water twice, and it is his worst memory.

“I took care of myself. Blood, but not a lot,” Husaan said. His mother bandaged and cleaned his wounds.

His favorite foods are fried chicken and soda. Some days, he has nothing at all to eat, so he climbs the tall trees of San Pedro for coconuts. “I climb the tree and twist the coconut down.”

Husaan is a student at Holy Cross Anglican School.

Math is his favorite subject “because you get to change money,” he said.

He loves the Harry Potter book series, and cherishes paperback copies of the British editions of the first five books. He waits for someone to donate the final two books in the series so he can read them.

Along with reading, Husaan enjoys playing marbles, soccer and drums. Now, because of the new road, he has a place to hang out with other children.

“I met a lot of new people,” he said. “People unite because of the roads.”

Husaan wants to find a sponsor to support his enrollment in the ninth grade. Sometimes, he hears his sister Kaysha crying at home because she wasn’t able to attend school when she first moved to San Mateo.

Without a scholarship so he can enroll in ninth grade, “I would be just like Kaysha,” he said.

Husaan’s dream is to become a doctor “because it’s like helping them and you’re helping yourself, too.”

‘The Road is Good to Us’

By Margaret Ann Morgan

E

leven-year-old Princess Bailey has never taken a bubble bath. To get home, she must walk down a potholefilled road and wobbly, rotted wooden planks. Crocodiles nest in her front yard.

But Princess has a jubilant spirit. She loves living in San Mateo. “I have lots of friends. It is beautiful.”

Her smile never fades as she bounces from Zumba dancing to jump rope to makeovers at the Winter Camp run by University of Mississippi students at the Lions Den. Princess says Ole Miss students bring happiness and help to her community.

“I love you all that came to build this San Mateo road because it’s going to be great for us,” she says. “Instead of us falling off those bridges, we could walk on the road. The road is good to us.”

Princess runs barefoot down the footwide bridges of San Mateo. Her muddy feet sweep past those lagging behind.

“You walk too slow,” she says to a visitor, who is following far behind and looking down carefully at every step. Princess is used to these bridges because the new road does not yet reach her house. The section of the San Mateo community that Princess lives in is surrounded by murky water about

three feet deep. It seems like another world compared to the parts of the community with road access.

Princess welcomes visitors to her plywood home the same way she welcomes them into her life: with open arms. The entrance is a sheet that leads to her bedroom. Other sheets separate the parents’ room, and the combined living room, dining room and kitchen. The bathroom is on the back porch; an opening leads to the side porch, where water is collected and laundry hung to dry.

Each of these are two footsteps apart.

“It is probably a small house,” she says as she sits in the bedroom she shares with her older brother. “But sometimes you are happy to have your house.”

Princess is aware, however, that things could be better. She does not yet have money for her school books. She needs six books, which cost $2.50 each (a total of $7.50 in U.S. money).

“I have to have my books to go to school,” she says with a discouraged look.

She’s not asking for help when she shares this information. She appreciates the value of the education she is getting.

But she wants more, especially more school materials.

She says simply about her life:

Photo by Margaret Ann Morgan

Princess Bailey, 11, sits at a villa on a beach in the tourist section of San Pedro. Princess welcomes Ole Miss students to her community. “The roads help children so they don’t hurt themselves and fall in the water,” Princess says.

“Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad.”

Despite the sweltering island heat, Princess locks arms with friends and walks down the road that she hopes will one day lead to her own home.

“Do not say maybe,” she tells Ole Miss students. “You will be back.”

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

Prinecss Bailey, right, and her friend Tatyana Estrada walk along the footbridge near Princess’ home.

The water that surrounds the house is three feet deep.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

27

PART 2: THE CHILDREN OF SAN MATEO

Learning, Teaching, Helping and Having Fun

Photo by Aubry Killion

UM student Maeghan Coker engages Husaan Martin in a winter camp activity.

Photo by Mikki K. Harris

UM students and children play kickball at the San Pedro High School gymnasium during winter camp.

28

M-Powered Spring 2012

Photo by Cain Madden

UM student Krista Davis teaches Zumba fitness dancing during winter camp at the Lions Den in San Pedro. The camp was held for San Mateo children who were out of school for the winter break.

U

niversity of Mississippi students led a winter camp for San Mateo children the first week in January, when schools were closed.

Between 75 and 100 children showed up each day for the camp, held at the Lions Den - a Lions Club building in San Pedro and the San Pedro High School gym.

Under the guidance of Ole Miss students enrolled in health, education and child welfare courses, children performed science experiments, improved their reading skills and comprehension, learned dance routines and the importance of physical fitness, and took part in creative arts and crafts projects.

Daisy Howe, secretary-treasurer on the San Mateo Empowerment board, said the community was grateful for the activities for the children and parents. Students devoted one day to makeovers for San Mateo mothers. They applied makeup, cut and curled the women’s hair, polished their nails and gave them pedicures.

Howe said she rushed doing laundry that Friday morning, and hurried to the Lions Den for her makeover. “They’re making all of us ladies beautiful for one day,” she said.

“It’s a great day.”

Photo by Cain Madden

UM alum Joanna Grissom applies makeup to Daisy Howe, secretary-treasurer of the San Mateo Empowerment Project executive board. Howe provided Spanish translations during the community meeting.

Photo by Cain Madden

UM student Madison Mitchell reads to Mirna Payuada, 8.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

29

PART 3: PUNTA GORDA • SECOND CUP OF TEA Photo by Katie Williamson

Maya children at San Felipe Government School gather to greet visitors and sing songs in their native Kek’chi.

30

M-Powered Spring 2012

University of Mississippi students and faculty expand service in Belize to new regions of the country

Broadening Their

Horizons By

Jajuan McNeil and Aubry Killion

Spring 2012 M-Powered

31

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

UM student Olivia Purvis walks with students at St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic School, located on the main street in Punta Gorda. Three buildings at the school contain asbestos.

S

CAR

URAS

32

N SEA

IBBEA

CAR

GUATEMALA

IBBE

A

N SEA PART 3: PUNTA GORDA • SECOND CUP OF TEA

o

tudents left the beaches of San Pedro in mid-January to travel to Punta Gorda in the southern tip of Belize, near the Maya Mountains and the rainforest.

“Punta Gorda was a real slap in the face,” said Khaleah Evans, an education Punta Gorda major. “More rural; MEXICO religious schools.

Corozal Punta Gorda was Orange Walk definitely Belize Belize when you think of BELIZE Belize.”

Service learning Cayo Stann in southern Belize is Creek a new focus for Ole Toledo Miss students and faculty. For the first HONDURAS time, Intersession courses included work in three schools in the Toledo District: San Felipe Government School, located in a Maya village; Forrest Home School; and St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic School.

“The kids were so attentive,” said education major Kyla Giles. “They were so excited.”

The Toledo District has 49 schools, mostly public schools that are run by M-Powered Spring 2012

the government in partnership with four religious groups: Methodists, Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists.

Schools are part of the church/state system in which the government provides money to churches to provide for planning and managing schools. The government picks up about 70 percent of the financial burden.

The Toledo District has the lowest percentage of trained teachers and the highest number of rural schools in the country.

Debby Chessin, associate professor of curriculum and instruction and coordinator ofDangriga Study Abroad and service learning in Hopkins education at the University of Mississippi, San Mateo said the expansion to Punta Gorda is an San Pedro Dangriastep. important Belize Cityin Punta Gorda suffer from “Schools Belmopan a lack of resources such as books and Punta Gorda equipment, Maya Mtns.and teacher training is a serious issue - many teachers have only a high school education,” Chessin said.

“Even though parents and the community people care about their children’s education and sports teams, there is no volunteer infrastructure to serve the needs of the children.

“For example, the district youth athletic director told us that he had organized sports camps for that summer but expected funding fell through and hundreds of children showed up for sports camp every day - many children riding buses for over an hour from the Maya villages - and there were no balls or counselors. This is an area where we can use the community empowerment model similar to that in San Mateo - sports camps, academic holiday camps and the like.”

Telesforo Paquiul, acting principal at St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic School, said assisting teaches is one area where the University of Mississippi can help.

“It (teacher training and observation) makes some teachers nervous, but it works,” Paquiul said.

St. Peter, located on the main street in Punta Gorda, has 840 students, from kindergarten through eighth grade, and a preschool program. The library is housed in a structure that was formerly a water tank.

One of the biggest problems the school faces is lack of space. Three buildings can no longer be used because they contain asbestos. The students in those grades are now in remote classrooms in trailers; one

Photo by Katie Williamson

San Felipe Government School is located in a rural area surrounded by lush vegatation. There are more than 35 Maya villages in southern Belize, connected by gravel roads and trails through the forest.

group is using space in the high school.

San Felipe Government School is nine miles outside Punta Gorda, and to get there, you have to travel over rocky, unpaved roads full of potholes. The school is in a serene

setting surrounded by lush, tropical plants and trees. The students are of Maya descent, and their parents are farmers.

Glenford Parham, information technology coordinator and textbook program manager

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Children in a Punta Gorda classroom watch as University of Mississippi students visit with their teachers and administrators.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

33

for Toledo District, said the government faces major challenges in managing rural schools. The schools are long distances apart and on poorly maintained roads; some are multi-grade schools in which one teacher may have to teach two or three different class levels in one session; and most children speak Kek’chi, a Mayan language, so English has to be taught as a second language.

Parham said that working together will be “an eye opener” for Ole Miss students as well as teachers and children in the rural schools.

Ann Coleman, principal at San Felipe, said the schools need supplies, maps and other teaching materials, and money to increase food programs. The school has one cook who is paid a stipend of $5 to prepare meals.

Coleman looks forward to collaborating with the University of Mississippi.

“We’re very happy to have help with teaching strategies,” Coleman said. “We share with them and they share with us.”

University of Mississippi students also worked at Forrest Hill, a Methodist school in Punta Gorda. Social work major Krista Davis has a memory from the school that she will never forget. She was teaching a child at the school who asked her to read to him. She

told him he could read it himself or they would read it together. “Just sound out the words,” she told him. “It was like ‘plaastick.” We sounded out the word and several others after that and then I left.”

When she returned after lunch, she saw the same child. He’d written his name on a piece of paper, and she asked him what it said. He told her: “You can read that. Just sound it out. Jay-son.”

“I could not stop laughing when he said that,” Davis said. “He wasn’t being sarcastic or rude, he was just repeating back what he had learned that morning.”

Second Cup of Tea

Students and faculty met with Belize officials to learn about child welfare issues in Toledo District villages. There are mentoring programs for young mothers that help provide immunizations for their children, well-baby checkups, food supplements and parenting advice.

Kim Shackelford, associate professor of social work, said that while Ole Miss is committed to supporting the San Mateo Empowerment Project, the Toledo District also has needs that would be of interest for future Study Abroad projects.

Photo by Katie Williamson

UM student Lindsey Rychlak plays an educational game with students at San Felipe school. Rychlak says her experience in Belize was “very humbling,” and that she learned ways to improve programs in Belize as well as in the United States.

34

M-Powered Spring 2012

The University of Mississippi group was welcomed to southern Belize at a dinner hosted by Punta Gorda Mayor Floyd G. Lino, Town Councilman Leroy Supaul and Peter Eden Martinez, who is Belize’s minister of human development and social transformation. Martinez is an area representative for Toledo District ( the equivalent of a congressman in the United

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Boys head toward the library at St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic School. The library is housed in a former water tank. School librarian Jeremy Shea was sent to Punta Gorda through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.

States) and a member of the national cabinet, responsible for family and children policies for the entire country.

Martinez said that priorities for the Belizean government are to invest more money in early childhood education, establish a teaching services commission to make sure the best qualified teachers are hired, and place schools in strategic

locations. He noted that at some schools, students have to get up at 3 a.m. in order to take a bus to school. Incentives for parents to send their children to school are also provided, such as a $300 subsidy for students in primary school.

“I am very much pleased that you are able to be here in my country and I’m hoping that once we have established with

the University of Belize or any other entity here that we can reciprocate this type of exchange so that you learn from us and we learn from you,” Martinez said.

As one Ole Miss student said: If you follow the Three Cups of Tea model (first cup strangers, second cup honored guests, third trip family), then this trip to Punta Gorda evolved from first cup to second cup.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

35

PART 4: IN THEIR VOICES

UNFORGETTABLE

RAWSOME raw and awesome

REFRESHING

Belize was: A SLAP BEAUTIFUL

IN THE

DIVERSE FACE A LOT OF THINGS

HUMBLING

A CULTURE MY NEW

SHOCK HOME

YOU BETTER

BELIZE IT

WONDERFUL

Responses of University of Mississippi students enrolled in Wintersession Study Abroad courses 36

M-Powered Spring 2012

Photo by Cain Madden

Hollie Jeffery helps push rocks in a wagon to the road site in San Mateo.

Hollie Jeffery Hollie Jeffery has worked for the Mississippi Department of Human Services for 10 years, and is enrolled in the master’s program in social work at Ole Miss.

“Going into impoverished areas is not something new to me. I wasn’t as shocked as some of the younger students,” said Jeffery, who is Division Director of Resource Development for the state human resources department. But still, she said, San Mateo’s “overwhelming poverty hits you.”

Jeffery said she was surprised at how welcoming the community was. “The hospitality was very overwhelming,” she said. In poor communities in the United States, strangers aren’t trusted. In San Mateo, “I found that to be different.”

Her best San Pedro memory? One day, she and University of Mississippi classmates had finished lunch and returned to the high school basketball court where Winter Camp was being held.

“There was a group of boys - I call them

the Lost Boys, from Peter Pan - under the bleachers. They all had two coconuts each.

And they had not had lunch.” The boys offered her their coconuts to eat; they cracked them all open and offered to share them with her.

“I had already eaten. They had had nothing. And they were giving me what little they had.”

Her worst experience occurred in Punta Gorda. “I was talking to a little boy who was telling me how he gets beat by his father and how his father is an alcoholic,” Jeffrey said. “And just having to leave knowing that I have to trust the authorities here to take care of it. I’m not sure that I trust them to take care of it. I work in child welfare.

Had that been in Mississippi I would have immediately done something. For 10 years I’ve worked in an agency where I’ve had authority where I could protect children.

Here, it’s different... So that’s going to probably linger with me for a long time.”

— Edited excerpts from an interview with Aubry Killion and Margaret Ann Morgan

Photo by Cain Madden

At right, Hollie Jeffery attends a community meeting in San Mateo to discuss the progress of the empowerment efforts.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

37

PART 4: IN THEIR VOICES

Krista Davis In Belize, Krista Davis found out why social work is the career for her.

While working on the road in San Mateo, Davis saw Dickson Paguada fighting with other kids. She’d seen him fighting earlier in the week at the Winter Camp.

Davis took the angry boy aside and calmed him down. “It was a chance to intervene and do social work for a second,” Davis said. “He was getting into trouble because he was not helping with the road, and I would just say, ‘Would you please help with the road, please help, or don’t play in the strip where they are working? ‘ It was one of the most special moments of the entire trip because later on in the day he grabbed a wheelbarrow and continued building the road. It was a unique experience for me to be able to give him advice and he took it.”

Davis almost missed the service-learning trip. A senior social work major at the University of Mississippi’s Tupelo campus, she was planning to spend time over the break at home in Baldwyn with her father, who was due to return from his work in Saudi Arabia. But her father’s plans changed, and she jumped at the chance to join the Study Abroad group.

“I was hoping to learn how to do something like this in my own future, maybe start this in another community somewhere, or maybe even bring it back to America,” Davis said. “I’ve been to the Delta, as well, and I’d like to go back and help with connecting the two in what’s being done in both places.”

She wasn’t disappointed. “I gained a lot of knowledge about the real-life facts to community development in general. We all know that we want to build a road, but how do we get that done? How do we put the pieces to make the whole During their second week in Belize, students were in charge of a winter camp.

Davis teaches Zumba dancing in Tupelo, and decided the children would enjoy it.

“I love to dance,” said Bertha Espina, 10.

“She taught me how to dance hip hop. We danced to Shakira.”

While all of the students were special, one stood out for Davis, and that was 18-year-old San Pedro High School student Miriam Rodriguez.

“I met a very unique young lady there, who just seems to take care of everything,”

38

M-Powered Spring 2012

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Krista Davis, right, leads Lindsey Rychlak, left, and Haley Henderson in dance exercises during winter camp.

Davis says nothing can compare to experiencing another culture first hand. “I feel like you can’t get all of that in a textbook no matter how hard you try,” she says.

Davis said. “In San Mateo, she takes care of her whole family.”

Davis said Rodriguez was shy at first, but then Davis gave her a chance to lead her own dance group.

“For me that was really rewarding to give her some time to not have to be responsible for everything in the world,” Davis said.

Rodriguez has taken Davis’ advice about dancing, and is teaching girls at Holy Cross Anglican School.

“She is the best person I have met in my life,” Rodriguez said in a Facebook message in February.

Associate professor Kim Shackelford was impressed when she heard that Davis had gone to a refugee camp in Indonesia for a missionary trip on her own.

“I am sitting there listening to her, and trying to look at her age, and I’m like, ‘You got on a plane, you went to Indonesia to a refugee camp and worked with kids and you didn’t even know anybody?’” Shackelford said. “She is going to be a good social worker because she’s got a lot of courage, and she is very tenacious. When she wants something, she goes after it and she keeps after it until she achieves it.”

Davis is looking forward to returning to Belize.

“I have been trying to encourage everybody that I have seen since I have come back that they should go,” Davis said.

“I’m planning on ways to save up money to go back next year and the next.”

— By Cain Madden

Kyla Giles Exercise science major

“I’ve gotten to know an entirely new culture. This is my first time ever traveling outside the country.

I spent a day with Princess and Kaysha. They don’t have much. But what they do have, they appreciate it so much. They never complain.

They always keep a smile on their face. I want to be like that. I’m glad I got this opportunity. It’s opened my eyes to a lot. It made me appreciate what I have more and made me want to help other people.”

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Olivia Purvis gazes down a street in San Pedro. The town is full of small businesses and beachfront resorts, restaurants and bars.

Olivia Purvis Exercise science major

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Kyla Giles reads with students at St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic School in Punta Gorda.

“It’s been so memorable. My first time on an airplane.

My first time snorkeling.

The first time I saw San Mateo, I said: Is this real?

The planks were so weak. I kept thinking we were going to fall into this nasty stuff underneath. It’s so dangerous. It’s been great to help them help themselves.

I made a connection with two sisters and their friends.

They were little roses in cement. I remember crying when we were leaving. I want to bring back a better, more appreciative and thankful me, for Oxford and my family. I have a lot of stuff I could give away.”

J.J. Eftink

Caroline Hon

“When I landed in San Pedro, I was kind of surprised at how nice and touristy it was.

Then, when I walked over to San Mateo, it was really kind of like a culture shock.

Hardly any roads, no electricity, no water system, sewage, all this trash. I was shocked to see that. They’re all nice people. When I was working on the roads, I made friends.

Everybody was welcoming.”

“I’ve learned to not take anything for granted. Being grateful for everything that we have at school. We’re lucky to be able to go to college, when they don’t even get to go to high school unless they have the money. Just value your education and the stuff that you have.

Hopefully I’ll be back next year and be able to bring more than I brought this year.”

Park and recreation major; business minor

Social work major

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

J.J. Eftink spends time in San Pedro’s beach area with Adrian and Michael, sons of Maggie Cornejo Cobo Chi.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

39

Khaleah Evans Education major

PART 4: IN THEIR VOICES

“I’ve learned more about how to relate to students from low socio-economic status. After this experience, I better understand their needs. I can translate that back into the classroom.”

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Alesia Smith cuts Elsa Whitzil’s hair during a “spa day” held for the women of San Mateo during winter camp.

Alesia Smith Social work major Khaleah Evans works with students in Punta Gorda.

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Valencia Hoard Social work major, DeSoto campus

“San Mateo was a cultural shock, but also a great experience. I felt like I made a difference in somebody’s life, some of those kids in the San Mateo community. At the Lions Den, we helped the moms with makeup, haircuts, nails, pedicures. This is like a luxury to them. It puts a smile on my face as well as theirs. My greatest experience is the impact we’ve had on the children and helping them. This will give me an idea on how to go back home and serve others. It’s given me ideas of how to reach out more to other people that are impoverished and need help. I really want to come back to Belize one day. I love it.

I’m learning to serve more. And I’m serving to learn.”

Kate Davis Exercise science major

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Valencia Hoard carries a limestone rock to help build the San Mateo road.

40

M-Powered Spring 2012

“It’s been wonderful. It’s been enlightening.

San Mateo living conditions were worse than I expected. That’s why we’re here, to empower the people to improve their lives. I was sad to leave.

I made an instant connection with Kaysha.

We’re Facebook friends. Leaving left a broken spot in my heart. But as a social worker, I know you need boundaries.

I gained cultural competency. I’m going to be more appreciative of my situation. You look at life in a different way.”

“My first day in San Mateo, I was surprised by the amount of people I saw. There were so many, working with no pay. This was amazing to me. I talked to one man, and he told me he was doing this to give his children a different life - a better one so their children would not have to live like this. I have never heard anything so true being said. It broke my heart, but it showed how proud they were for what they had.”

— Journal excerpt

AMAZING EXPERIENCE

Service and educational projects in Belize were life-changing adventures for faculty, too.

Martha Bass

Photo by Cain Madden

Martha Bass reads the Bible with Princess Bailey during a community meeting in San Mateo.

Debby Chessin Debby Chessin has taught at the University of Mississippi since 1998. A few years ago, a Study Abroad adviser introduced her to Kim Shackelford. Chessin and Shackelford met for lunch, and decided they could lead an integrated university-wide approach to the San Mateo Empowerment Project.

Chessin, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, had led professional development trips in Costa Rica for science teachers seven years ago, through an academic travel organization. The teachers in the group were earning graduate credit through a university associated with the travel company.

She decided she was going to figure out a way for students to earn Ole Miss credit instead.

Now, Chessin is coordinator of Study Abroad and service learning in education. She took her first group of education students to San Mateo in January, and a second group during Spring Break to work at Holy Cross Anglican School.

For their course work in January, Chessin’s students read articles and books about intercultural competence and understanding poverty. They also led and participated in the winter camp in San Pedro, and worked with teachers and students in Punta Gorda.

“I would like my students to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions of teachers who can effectively teach a diverse group of students,” Chessin said.

Martha Bass is no stranger to Belize. Bass, associate professor of health, exercise science and recreation management, has led Study Abroad courses in Belize three times.

She said the trip in January, with undergraduate students, has been the “biggest eye-opener.”

“Young girls weren’t playing in a physical way. They’re not getting any exercise,” Bass said. “The children themselves don’t know about exercise.

The boys play, they play rough, but they don’t know about sit-ups, pushups and why you would do them. The women are overweight. They’re not getting the physical activity, and that’s one thing my students witnessed.”

In May 2011, Bass and a team of graduate students surveyed food programs in Belize and their influence on school attendance and growth. They collected data at a school in Belize City that does not have a food program and at Holy Cross in San Pedro, which has a nutrition program.

On this year’s trip, Bass and her students led activities for San Mateo children at the winter camp, conducted fitness assessments and worked in a public health clinic in San Pedro.

This was Bass’ first trip to Punta

Gorda, where her students helped in the schools. “We worked with children who live in poverty, but not at the level of poverty that San Mateo has.

These children go home to a house with electricity, running water and proper sewage disposal.”

She added, however, that the Punta Gorda schools did not have the level of donations and volunteerism that she saw at schools in San Pedro. “There were no computers for the students to use and the library was poorly stocked,” she said.

Bass said the large size of the Maya community in Punta Gorda “gave my students the opportunity to learn more about the Mayan culture.”

Bass’ daughter, Madison Mitchell, 23, was part of the Ole Miss group in Belize in January, and also took a Winter Intersession course in Belize last year. “It’s been amazing watching her interaction with the children and seeing the growth she has experienced with each trip,” Bass said. “Her experiences in San Mateo have greatly influenced her focus on communication disorders.”

The people of Belize live simply, and that has influenced Bass.

“It makes you want to go home and get rid of everything you own. It’s an amazing, life-changing experience.”

— By Aubry Killion

Photo by Jajuan McNeil

At left, Esmeralda Gomez, 12, hangs out with her brother Jovanni Gomez, 4, as Debby Chessin surveys San Mateo children about their needs.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

41

PART 5: MISSISSIPPI/BELIZE CONNECTIONS

M E X ICO KEY

Maya Site

Corozal District

San Pedro

e

Belize City

i

R

f

Hattieville

N

E

S IN

TA

a

Dangriga

B

UN

Hopkins

e

A

B

E

e

l

A

i

z

N

MO YA

B

Placencia

I 0

20 miles

42 M-Powered Spring 2012 Punta Gorda

Belize is a place that most people can’t locate on a map.

Yet Southerners seem drawn to this Central American country. What is it about Belize that seems to attract Mississippians for study and service projects?

B

Toledo District

R

M

Stann Creek District

S

BELI ZE

A

i e r r r

Belmopan

Cayo District

Half Moon Caye

R e

Belize District

B

e

Turneffe Islands

e

e

z

l i

San Mateo

r

v

Orange Walk District

Why Belize?

Ambergris Caye

C

A

By Katie Williamson

Deborah Gochfeld and Julie Olson explore a reef in Belize for their scientific research.

The Coral Reef The coral reef in Belize is not just a spectacular tourist attraction; it is a wondrous field of exploration for scientists. Plant and animal life offer a living laboratory for medical research and ecological observations. This has made Belize one of the most scientifically significant countries in the world.

Scuba diving underneath the surface of the picturesque blue waters, Deborah Gochfeld, a biology professor at the University of Mississippi, is able to examine the diverse and intricate reefs of Belize. This tropical habitat under the sea contains a plethora of chemical information that Gochfeld collects and interprets for the scientific community.

“For marine biology, Belize is an awesome place to

work. It’s got the longest barrier reef in the Atlantic, the second longest in the world,” Gochfeld said. “It has got a huge amount of biodiversity, a lot of different habitats, and a lot of area to do research.”

For the past 12 years, Gochfeld has taken students and researchers to the reef for scientific projects, ranging from looking for new chemical compounds for drug discovery to examining the health of the reef through the study of sponge disease.

“We bring back surveys of the reefs that tells us a lot about biodiversity and it tells us a lot about the health of the reef,” Gochfeld said.

Belize’s reef is further from the shore than most other reefs, so it is not as affected by human pollution.

This makes it an ideal place for the scientific community

Spring 2012 M-Powered

43

to study.

Gochfeld’s last trip was in 2009 when she studied diseases that are affecting sea sponges. She recently submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation to return to Belize this summer.

“It is beautiful. It has some incredible diversity, nice clear water. There has been a long history of marine research going on in Belize, so there is a long history of data to build on,” Gochfeld said. “It is a really nice place to dive and a really nice place to work.”

justice course. They examined the similarities and differences between U.S. and Belizean criminal justice systems.

Meetings with local officials, police officers and state agents, and visits to the prison, consumed the students’ days.

“My students that have gone down there have a totally different perspective on life after they have seen such abject poverty. You see the need,” Keena said. “It is a beautiful place in places and it’s not so beautiful in others. The dichotomy of seeing the haves and the have-nots and being able to put together the needs and see all the things that we can do is the lure.”

Mission Work

PART 5: MISSISSIPPI/BELIZE CONNECTIONS

When their daughters grew up and left home, Lyle Rainey and his wife quit their jobs, packed up their Tupelo house and moved to the Caribbean.

After participating for several years on short-term mission trips, they decided that helping children abroad was their calling.

“We have always had a love for missions and we prayed to the Lord that someday we would be able to go for good,” Lyle Rainey said. “We really felt that God opened a door for us when we joined Global Outreach and Linda Keena with her students at the prison in Hattieville (Keena is seated, third from left) quit our jobs.”

Global Outreach International is Criminal Justice Studies a Christian missionary organization based out of Tupelo.

When Ole Miss students strolled through the only They are responsible for dozens of volunteers around prison in Belize in May 2011, they were surrounded by the world. Rainey has been the director of a vocational criminals walking throughout the facility with minimal school for underprivileged teenage boys outside security. Linda Keena, an assistant professor of criminal Belmopan, the capital of Belize, for 11 years. justice at the University of Mississippi, took her students “We have felt the whole time that this is where He to experience the Third World prison. needs us to be and He has confirmed that several times The prison was hot and frightening, but worth the throughout the years,” Rainey said. “It has been a really visit, Keena said. “I found it engaging and my students good place to work and of course we love working with would agree that they found it to be a phenomenal the kids. We just love the people in Belize and we have experience of getting to be in the institution and been blessed to be ABLE to do this.” hearing the voices of the people,” Keena said.

A few miles outside of the capital, across the Belize Keena’s Belize experience began when she was asked River, the school sits on 77 acres of farmland in the to present her research on utilization focused evaluations middle of the country. The Vocational Boarding School is at a conference sponsored by the Consortium for Belize home to 31 boys who spend their days working the farm, Educational Cooperation, an organization promoting learning trades, going to classes and reading scripture. collaboration among universities in the United States Every year several groups of volunteers join the Rainey and Belize. After her presentation, local officials began family in working and taking care of the school. working with her to put together the Study Abroad trip.

“We are big on teams. We have at least 12 teams a She took 12 University of Mississippi students to the year that come, sometimes more. They work with the prison in , near Belize City, for a comparative criminal boys and generally if they come once, they will end up

44

M-Powered Spring 2012

coming back,” Rainey said. “We depend on people from the states to drive the financial support for the school.

We can’t charge these kids tuition because their families simply don’t have the means to pay.”

Even though Rainey is not relaxing with a rum punch on the beaches or staying in a picturesque jungle resort, Belize has been a great adventure for him and his wife.

He has created an experience that continues to reward the couple.

“When I was growing up, my dad always said, ‘I’m not here to be your friend, I’m here to be your father,’ but after I became an adult he really was my best friend,” Rainey said. “It has been a great feeling to have that kind of father-son relationship with these guys. It is great to be able to have something like that with them even after they have gone through school and they are out on their own.”

Children in the Hopkins area of Belize attend a “pupply class” to learn more about animals. Dog food, leashes and collars are given away.

Helping Animals After being in Belize for a few days, tourists seem to notice that this little country that has so much beautiful wildlife and scenic views is also a very poor country with many unmet needs. Clara Lee Arnold of Oxford was one of those tourists. She was struck by helpless animals wandering around the islands of Belize, and her vacation to the tropical beaches turned into a life-long project to help the animals that roamed the streets of Hopkins, Belize.

“It is a beautiful country and the people are very friendly,” Arnold said. “There is a certain warmth about it. As I am going around doing all these tours I noticed all these emaciated animals. So I asked the resort where I was staying, ‘Is anyone doing anything about the animals?’ They hooked me up with an American couple who at the time were trying to get a humane society started. Then we just ran with it.”

Arnold jumped into the project with both feet. Since 2008, she has helped run a free animal clinic in Hopkins, a Garifuna village on the central eastern coast.

She recruits veterinarians to pack up all their equipment and pay their own way to travel to Belize to work at the free clinic on their vacations.

“It is easy to recruit people to have a working vacation,” Arnold said. “I have yet to have a vet team come that didn’t say, ‘When do I get to come back?’ ” The Hopkins Belize Humane Society offers a clinic twice a week that provides de-worming treatments, wound care, flee products, and spaying/neutering. A community that previously had no animal care now has a free clinic, and the overall health of the pets has dramatically increased.

Once a week the vets hold a “puppy class” for children to bring their pets and participate in an educational program where they receive free dog food.

“We all recognized right away that we would not be popular if we were offering medical care to dogs but not trying to assist the human population,” Arnold said. “While we don’t treat humans, we are helping the children feed their dogs. It helps them mentally and it helps the family emotionally and financially.

“You and I call a stray dog a mutt, they call them potlickers because after the family is done eating, whatever is left in the pot, that’s what the dog gets. Frequently, that’s not too much. Now there is dog food given to them once a week that they can supplement that.”

In 2010, the clinic received a $25,000 grant from Humane Society International for a clinic addition with kennels, an SUV for animal pickups and new equipment.

This year, the grant was for $35,000, enough to double clinic space, buy a trailer for more animal pickups and provide more equipment. The number of volunteers has increased every year.

“Mississippi is Belize-lite,” Arnold said.

“Mississippians get down to Belize and feel at home. It has the same climate, same make-up of people, same bugs. There is something about the friendliness and the casualness of it that probably speaks to southerners. We are in a different culture but there is a little bit of home as well.

“There is something special about Belize. Belize always calls me back home. This is my eighth visit, and when I get off the Clara Lee Burton, right, works with Joseph plane they all say, Morgan and Nancy Collier to treat a filly ‘Welcome home, with a ripped leg.

Clara Lee,’ and that’s pretty cool.”

To donate to the Belize Economic and Ecological Development Fund, go to www.beedfund.com, and specify the donation is for the Hopkins Belize Humane Society.

Spring 2012 M-Powered

45

Belize wasn’t all work and no play KEY

Map Area

Stann Creek District

Area of Detail

MEXICO

Ambergris Caye San Mateo San Pedro

Turneffe Islands

Photo by Olivia Purvis

Half Moon Caye

Ole Miss student Caitlin Adams watches a weaving demonstration in a Maya village.

Photo by Aubry Killion

Merlon Usher prepares his wooden sculpture for sale in San Pedro.

Dangriga

r

N

TA

IN

r r

Y

N

i

MO U

Hopkins

B

B

E

a

Placencia

B E L I Z E

A

Cayo District

miles

Photo by Aubry Killion

A beach scene in San Pedro.

E

f R e e

S

Maya Site

300

e

KEY

Belize District

0

S

Belmopan

A

Oxford

A

students snorkeled near a M University E X I Cof Mississippi O barrier reef. Visited the Belize Zoo, where they saw a jaguar, a puma, howler monkeys, crocodiles, toucans and tapirs. They swam in the Caribbean Sea and sun-bathed on the beaches of Placencia Peninsula. Traveled by Corozal water taxi and glass-bottom kayaks. Met artists carving District zericote wood.

Students sampled the local cuisine. Among the favorites: fry jack (deep-fried dough), hot dogs wrapped in bacon, ice cream cones with chocolate piped into the middle, juices made from just-picked fruit, and plates of rice and beans flavored with coconut milk.

They also marveled at Nim Li Punit (The Big Hat), an Orange Walk ancient Maya site uncovered in 1976 in the foothills of District the Maya Mountains; watched Maya villagers use sticks to weave yarn; practiced grinding cacao beans into chocolate; and zip lined through treetops in theBelize jungle.

City in “Full-throttled exhilaration,” Olivia Purvis wrote her journal about zip lining. “MyHattieville jaws hurt from smiling so big in the wind. It was at this moment I felt free and unstoppable.”

M

UNITED STATES

Maya Site

A

B

46

M-Powered Spring 2012

e

l

I

i

N

0

R

Nim Li Punit Punta Gorda

B

e

Toledo District

z

G U A T E M A L A

PART 6: THE OTHER BELIZE

20 miles

C

A Photo by Jajuan McNeil

Ballcourt at Nim Li Punit, a Maya archaeological site. Nim Li Punit (The Big Hat) refers to the elabroate headdress worn by a figure carved on a monument at the site.

Photo by Katie Williamson

Photo by Aubry Killion

Making Chocolate the Maya Way

Photo by Aubry Killion

University of Mississippi students toured Cyrila’s Plantation, in the Village of San Felipe in southern Belize. They listened as Victor Cho, standing under a canopy of cacao flowers and red and yellow pods on the family farm, explained how the pods are harvested by hand using eco-friendly methods. Inside the pod, a slimy, fruity-tasting outer layer protects the precious bean inside. The juice is fermented to make cacao wine. The beans are dried, shelled and cleaned. Students helped Abelino Cho, Victor’s sister-in-law, grind the beans on a tablet made from volcanic rock to create chocolate. The farm sells spicy, orange, light milk and dark chocolate bars.

Photo by Katie Williamson

Photo by Aubry Killion

Photo by Katie Williamson

Spring 2012 M-Powered

47

48

M-Powered Spring 2012

A PROJEC T BY THE UNIVERSIT Y OF MISSISSIPPI’S MEEK SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA

Journalism students and faculty traveled to Belize to produce this multimedia project. Seated, left to right: Margaret Ann Morgan, Patricia Thompson. Standing, left to right: Katie Williamson, Jajuan McNeil, Cain Madden, Mikki Harris, Aubry Killion.