Mail and Packages

Once more thing...if you want to send mail to me the address is:
Peace Corps
Terra Linzner
P.O Box 492
Belmopan, Belize
Central America

Here is the thing with packages. For the first 6 months I am in country, so until Feb 18th I can receive all packages duty free. Once that 6 month period is over I have to pay taxes on all items sent to me. They actually open up your packages at the post office and go through the entire box. One way to get around this is to package thing in tampon boxes. Also, write Jesus love you on the package so it is less likely to get tampered with. But you don't have to do the tampon box thing until after the first 6 months. So...everyone write me letters!

Terra

First Week in Belize

Gud Maanin!

Well it has officially been over a week since I left. I miss everyone terribly. But things have been going very well here. I have been in Belize for 6 days and have been extremely busy the entire time. We (the group of volunteers, 43 in total) arrived in Belize City at 11am where we were greeted by all the current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers). Here is a picture of all 43 volunteers. I am kind of hidden by other people but at least you get a look at my fellow volunteers.

After going through customs, we all loaded onto a school bus, which are used for public transportation throughout Belize, and headed to a restaurant by the ocean. We had stewed chicken with rice and beans, because everything here comes with rice and beans.

Once we arrived in Belize we had a couple hours of training and then settled into our new home for the next week. It is a hotel located in Belmopan called Garden City Inn. The hotel is nice but doesn’t have much compared to the States. Our room consists of 2 bed and on night stand…but it does have air conditioning. We are so spoiled! It also claims to have hot water but only a few of us has figured that out. I have been taking cold showers the entire week and actually prefer it. It gets really hot in Belize and a cold shower at the end of the day feels great. Every day we have to walk to the PC Headquarters, here are some pics of my daily walk.

We are in training all day from around 8am to 5pm. Afterwards everyone goes out to dinner, and hangs out. I have been going to bed around 10pm because I am so exhausted at the end of the night. It gets dark around here at 6:30pm, which makes 10pm feel like 1am. On Friday night we had the opportunity to attend a Garifuna traditional dance, performed by students ranging from ages 5-30. It was absolutely amazing!! I hope to be placed in a Garifuna community. I was planning on adding more pictures but the internet is too slow, but I promise to add them later.

So that’s basically it guys. The next big thing to happen is moving to my training site. Youth volunteers have two opportunities, a Garifuna or Kriol site. Depending on where we go, depends on where we are placed. Unfortunately we don’t have a choice in where we are placed. I want the Garifuna site but I guess I will have to wait until Tuesday to find out. I will let you guys know what happens. When I move to my community training site I will have to find a local internet café to access the internet. So…until then!!

P.S I just found out that I will be learning Kriol as a language and be in southern Belize for the next 8 weeks!!! Yay me!!

Tomorrow,Belize!!

Hi everyone!!

So this is the first entry in my blog. Let's see how this goes. Right now I am sitting on my bed in a Miami hotel, trying to utilize the free Wi-Fi as much as possible. Tomorrow we pack up and head off the airport at 6am...ugh! The only reason I am against the 6am time is because our flight doesn't leave until 11am.

Orientation has been informative, a little long, but good. The other volunteers are super nice and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this group. I am also starting to get excited about Belize. I will try to post more later on but I don't know when I will have access to the internet again. I still have to figure out how to setup this blog. Love and miss all of you guys!!!!!!! Oh and I uploaded some pics from staging. Enjoy!

Terra