Pre-service training

Pre-service Training (PST) essentially had three parts consisting of a week and a half of Core Issues training, eight weeks of Community Based Training (CBT), and a week and a half of Bridge to Service Training leading to the swearing in ceremony.

The Core Issues Training applied to all the trainees from the Education, Health and Business and Organization (Biz/Org) sectors. This part of the training took place in the Peace Corps (PC) office in Belmopan. It started with a cultural field trip to Dangriga. Dangriga is the center of Grifuna culture. A museum, operated by the National Garifuna Council, displays historic artifacts, pictures and documents of the Garifuna people.

Symbolizing the suffering
of Garifuna people

Memorial

                                                                                   










Unity Dance

Traditional Dance

Pen Cayetano

Garifunas are the descendants of shipwrecked African slaves and native Caribs. They adopted the Carib language but maintained their African musical and religious heritage. The trip was complemented by a special presentation of Punta dance in traditional costumes and a visit to renowned Garifuna artist Pen Cayetano’s studio. After a delicious traditional Garifuna lunch we also witnessed making of Garifuna drums by the  Rodriguez family. These drums are carved out of pieces of mahogany, cedar and mayflower trees with chain saws, quite a spectacular sight. The trip ended with a very educational demonstration of the traditional casaba baking process from the point of getting the cassava roots to baking of the cassava bread. Other highlights during this phase of the training were visits by the Ambassador of the United States of America and Senator Hulse, an outspoken Belizean. US Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, a native of India from Hyderabad and a Presidential appointee, who spoke about his commitment to promote the Peace Corps in Belize. Senator Hulsey gave us a very engaging and frank discussion on the history and politics of Belize.

With Ambassador Thummalapally

With Senator Hulse

Community Based Training (CBT) lasted eight weeks during which time stayed with a host family and attended Technical and Language classes. Six Business/Organizational trainees and myself were sent to Salvapan, a Spanish speaking suburb of Belmopan, for training. Typically our day consisted of language classes in the morning in our Salvapan Training Center and technical sessions in the afternoon jointly with the Maya Mopan group at the neighboring Maya Mopan Training Center. The Mopan group had four Business/Organizational trainees who were being trained in the Q’eqchi (Ketchi) language. On the weekends we also worked with Village Council leaders to teach them some basic things such as how to write a professional letter, how to take proper minutes at a village council meeting, and how to facilitate a community mapping session etc. Most interesting parts of this phase of the training were the guest lecturers and the occasional field trips. We went to Belize City to work with the Belize Youth Business Trust, an NGO that teaches young entrepreneurs how to start business of their own. There are two Peace Corps volunteers working with the group to develop an Entrepreneurial Trainer’s Guide and to train the local staff. In a country with such high unemployment especially among the youth, it was very hopeful to see young people wanting to learn how to set up their own businesses. Once they successfully complete the course they are also loaned some start-up capital and provided mentoring along the way. We were fortunate to take a trip to the  Community Baboon Sanctuary, a 20 square mile area along the Belize River extending through several Creole villages, where a Peace Corps volunteer is helping with organizational capacity building and developing strategies for promoting the sanctuary as a visitor destination, a very educational and an wonderful way to spend a morning. There are no Baboons in Belize, but Belizeans refer to the black howler monkeys that live only in Belize, northern Guatemala and southern Mexico as Baboons. They are considered endangered and are protected by the Government of Belize. They have a distinctive deep howl that reverberates through the villages. Due to the effort of this truly community based grass roots conservation organization the black howler monkey population has made an amazing comeback in Belize.

Walk along one of the villages

Black Howler monkey AKA Baboon

Another interesting trip was a visit to the Flowers Bank Community Group that makes organic Cohune Oil for cooking, and several by-products such as soap and massage oil. Cohune, a palm tree protected in Belize and requires a permit to cut down. Every part of the tree is used for something: leaves are used for building roofs, another part of the tree is used for making fly swatters, the core of the tree, called Cohune cabbage for cooking a delicious meal and the nuts used for making oil. The nuts have a distinctive nutty taste with bit of a coconut flavor. The traditional laborious methods of husking and crushing the nuts have been replaced by locally made simple machines that have made life so much easier and the product more accessible to a wider market. A couple of the Peace Corps trainees worked with this group to help with pricing and marketing their products.

Traditional Cohune husker

Modern husker

Sifting after hasking

Grinding

                                     

                                                     A neighbor stopped by to see what was going on

A visit to the Toledo Cacao Growers Association and a trip to a Cacao farm were an eye opening experiences for me. Another Peace Corps volunteer has been helping the Association to improve their data base, set up websites and develop outreach materials. Most people I know would love a bar of good chocolate but I am not sure how many of us know “where chocolates come from?” Well it all starts with the Cacao fruit. These fruits have multiple seeds inside and each seed has a covering of slightly sweet and tangy white flesh. Once the seeds are taken out of the fruits, they are allowed to ferment and then dry for several weeks. Farmers bring their seeds to the Growers Association who in turn sells them to the chocolate makers. The seeds will then be dried in a commercial drier, ground to a fine powder and mixed with milk and other ingredients. This mixing can take as long as three days of constant whipping at a certain temperature in a special mixer to create that creamy consistency. The delicious creamy paste is then poured into molds and put in a special freezer. It is then wrapped and sealed in foil which keeps it air tight and slipped into the manufacturer’s wrappers.

Cacao fruits

Dried cacao seeds 

Inside the fruit

Cacao testing

                                     

                                          A small chocolate factory

The CBT ended with a bang with a visit to Xunantanich, a Mayan ruin (see images on http://www.subratabasu.com/) and then moving back to Belmopan for the big day when we were given our site assignments. I must say that in spite of all the anxieties about the final site assignments and endless worries about who is going to get placed where and with whom, most everyone was pleased with their assignments. I was happy to have been assigned to the Town of Benque Viejo to work the Mayor and the Town Council on revitalizing the town’s historic core and developing a master plan to promote tourism.

And finally the Pre- Service Training ended with the Bridge to Service, which consisted of a number of logistic and policy types of sessions and most importantly with completing the Reflection Wall, a drawing of a huge tree. As each of us reflected on ten of the Peace Corps core expectations, we wrote our reflections on paper leaves and added them to the leaves.

Reflection Tree

Then came the day where we were sworn in as Volunteers…….coming up next.           

The training begins….

Welcome to the Peace Corps and to the world of acronyms. From the very first day when we arrived at the PC office for our PST, TM took charge of all PCT’s. We were all introduced to CD, DPT (previously known as PTO), PCMO, AO, APCD (also known as PM), SSC, TTs, LCFs, LTCs and rest of the staff who didn’t yet have any acronyms. PST started with going over the COTE, which laid out a detailed time line for the next three months of all the CBT sessions, a calendar for all TT and LCF classes, the dates for the PACA assignment, core TAP, sector TAP were due and when the initial and final TAP interviews would be conducted. TT at the CBT was all about learning how to use PACA tools, doing FREEHOP and SWOT matrices through NFE techniques with a clear understanding of RVID, always keeping GAD in mind and looking forward to SDLs. The SSC talked to us about how to scan your surroundings to look for potential trouble, helped familiarize ourselves with EAP, EP, NEMO and the roles of RSO and RSSO and required us to memorize the telephone number of the DO. The SSC also told us why the SLFs and PSPs are so important. PAC based on PDM goals worked with HCA/HCN and found suitable matching sites for the PCTs. The CD went over the policies and explained what would get us an ET, MS, AS before our scheduled COS. The volunteers were given opportunities to get involved in VAC, VAD, WID, GLOW and may soon be able to join BLOW. During your service every PCV is afforded several ISTs to make sure they are on track. If all goes well you would COS at the end of the twenty seventh month. If you are in the PC’s good graces and have the power of persuasion, you may even become a PCVL and linger for another year before you become a RPCV.  You get the idea about what I mean about acronyms, but as I do my blogs I will try to tell you what most of them mean.

Garden City Hotel in Belmopan

The Pre-service training (PST) started the day after we arrived in Belize. The first week and a half of the training happened in Belmopan at the Peace Corps (PC) office. As a note of interest, Belmopan, I am told, is the smallest national capital in the world. While in Belmopan, we stayed in the “Garden City Hotel”, a relatively new, but very cheaply built hotel owned by some local Chinese people, who seem to have taken over most of the businesses all over the country. There is no registration desk, you pick up a key from the hardware store across the street. You only get one key, even if you are sharing a room with another volunteer. If you lock yourself out after the store closes, well good luck!!! In this newly built hotel, everything from the brand names on the toilet bowls to all the electrical controls are in Chinese. This really didn’t seem to matter much, though, because most of the controls didn’t work anyways. When taking a shower you had either only hot water or only cold water; it was impossible to get a right blend of hot and cold water. If you did take a cold or a hot shower you would, without fail, flood the floor of the bathroom, which sometimes smelled strange. You also needed to be careful while in the bathroom, since people in all the adjacent bathrooms could hear every word you said. On the bright side, the hotel did have air-conditioning, which worked most of the time, as well as access to WIFI if you sat directly under the router in the hallway.     

My host family Caseres had two sons, five daughters and seventeen grandchildren. Four of the seventeen grandchildren lived in the same house that I was staying, while the other eight or so lived close enough for very frequent visits. Although the number of children running around at any given time was sometimes an issue for me, the most enjoyable part of my host family experience was my relationship with the children. When I went back later to visit, the kids were the first ones to notice my arrival and came running with great enthusiasm to give me a hug and say they missed was very touching.

My host "Padre y Madre"

Casa de Caseres

My Bedroom

And here are some of the kids....

Brandon, the terrible 

Dianne

Patti with Brittney and Dion 

Imari, my favorite

Jorge



Jeffery

It took some adjusting to get used to the lifestyle and the food, especially the food. Speaking of food, let’s just say that this is not a country where cooking has become an art-form by any stretch of the imagination. At the risk of stereotyping, I would say rice, beans, and chicken with some potato salad is probably considered the national meal. Cooked beans or refried beans with either flour or corn tortillas can be for breakfast or dinner or both. If can embellish it with scramble egg and some “queso blanco” on your beans. Variety is not the word that comes to mind when you think of food. I am in the lookout for couple of "caldo de pollo" (soup) or pork stew receipes. A dish called "chimole" ( chicken stuffed with ground beef and "recado negro") is a delicacy, but I don't really care for it. If you are really desperate for variety, then you go out for Chinese. In some areas that is the only alternative available to you.

Most people in Salvapan and the surrounding area are working class people and families spend most of their leisure time and the weekends going to farms or to the nearby “rio” for a swim to cool down, a picnic and and opportunity to do  the weekly laundry. The river is an essential part of life here.

Swimming in the river

River is not just for people

Oscar, my other favorite, lives with his grandparents

Make shift barbecue grill

Highlights of the Community Based Training (CBT) next……..

     

Belize: Here we come

Thirty eight potential volunteers, class of 2011, came together in Dallas, Texas to start their journey to Peace Corps. The volunteers came from all corners of the country from Washington to Florida, from Main to California. Their backgrounds were as diverse as were their ages. They were fresh out of college to a tax attorney to a retired medical surgeon to several retired teachers. The ages ranged from 22 to 66 and I have the distinct honor of being the oldest in our group. I am told that there another person who is older than I am in Belize. Our group included four married couples; two older, above 55 and two younger in their late 20’s. There are four others including myself who are over 55 with the rest mostly in their twenties and thirties. After a day of “Staging Workshop” and several get-to-know-each-other “ice breakers” in Dallas, Texas, we were on our way to Belize. We arrived at the Phillip S. W. Goldson International Airport in Belize City, the largest City in Belize, on March 24, 2011. After going through the usual annoyance of immigration and customs process we were warmly welcomed by the entire Belize Peace Corps staff at the airport. For some of us the process of cultural adaptation had already started. There was an immediate shift in our paradigm about the weather, the people, the amenities and conveniences, the luxuries of daily life and just about everything that we were used to.

On the way to Belize

Disembarking at the Belize Airport

Volunteer Trainees of 2011

Peace Corps Belize staff welcoming 2011 Volunteer Trainees

For those of you who are not intimately familiar with Belize, here is a quick geography lesson. Belize, a stone’s throw away from Miami, is a small Central American country tucked away between Mexico and Guatemala on the Caribbean Sea and is the size of Massachusetts with less than one twentieth of its population. It is the youngest country in the entire American Continent with a land area of little less than nine thousand square miles and according to the latest census has about 312,000 people. Belize, formerly known as British Honduras established self-governance with British presence in 1964 and ultimately gaining full independence in 1981. As part of the Commonwealth countries, the Governor General represents the queen as the ceremonial Head of State while the Prime Minister, head of the majority party, is the executive Head of State. Belize government is a parliamentary democracy and has three branches of government: an Executive Branch, a Legislative Branch and A Judicial Branch. The Legislative Branch has thirteen Senators who are appointed and thirty one House of Representatives who are directly elected by the people. There are six districts in Belize: Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize, Cayo, Stan Creek and Toledo. Within these districts there are Cities, Towns and Villages. Presently there are two cities in all of Belize: Belize City in Belize District and Belmopan, the Capital is in Cayo District. There are seven towns and about 200 villages. Each of the villages is governed by a Village Council Chair or an Alcalde. A number of past and present Peace Corps volunteers worked with and are working with a number of Village Councils primarily helping with organizational capacity building and developing transparency in government. I am working with the Mayor and the Town Council of Benque Viejo del Carmen in Cayo District. 

Belize is considered as a “melting pot” of races with Mestizo, Creoles, Mayan, Garifuna, East Indians, Chinese, Mennonites and some Middle eastern primarily Lebanese. Mestizo, mixture of Spanish and indigenous Mayan people now form the majority of the population with about 51% of the population while Creoles, a blending of the descendants of African slaves and the slave owners make up about 25% of the population. Mestizos live mostly in the northern and western part of the country while Creoles, once a dominant population, are spread throughout with a concentration around Belize City and the surrounding areas. Mayan people live mostly in the south western part of the country in Toledo District while Garifuna, direct descendants of African slaves and some blending of Caribe Indians settled in the Dangriga area, which is in the south eastern part of the country along the Caribbean Sea. East Indian and Chinese are predominantly in the retail and other businesses with Indians mostly around Corozal, Belize City and Stan Creek area and with Chinese pretty much throughout the country. There is even a small area called Calcutta near Corozal where some of the East Indians settled. Mennonites, a small distinctive community, has an arrangement with the Belize government of self-governance and is hard working farming people.  

Garifuna Children 

Creole Person

Mayan Child

Mestizo Person

Belize provides a wide variety of eco-system creating a rich and diverse habitat for a variety of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and for a great number of resident and migratory birds. Central Belize consisting of Belize and Cayo districts brings an impressive number of Maya sites, forest preserves, majestic rives, caves and waterfalls. Belize has the second largest barrier reef system in the world including several World Heritage sites. 

Maya archaeological site, Xunantunich

Maya archaeological site, Xunantunich

There is a lot to see, a lot to do and a lot to learn. It’s going to be busy twenty seven months………..        

My journey to Peace Corps

The first phase of my Peace Corps journey is just about over. I will officially be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) on June 10, 2011 to start my service for the next two years. The swearing in ceremony will take place at the Belize Governor General’s residence in Belmopan at 10 am followed by a reception at the US Ambassador’s residence that evening. June 11^th we report to our respective assignments. I will talk about my assignment later, but now a little bit about why Peace Corps?

I can honestly say that, like many others, joining Peace Corps was not my lifelong vision. I had known about Peace Corps while going to college at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. A number of PCVs, not sure what they were doing there, visited our campus in the mid-sixties while I was there. Since then I really haven’t paid much attention to the workings of the organization except to know that Lillian Carter served as a volunteer in India at a late stage in her life. In the last couple of years as I have been thinking about winding down my professional career and thinking of a game plan for my life after retirement, I started exploring ways to stay active and continue to somehow use my skills in ways other than what I was doing. I wanted to continue doing public service to improve the lives of the others but also wanted a chance to travel, learn about other cultures and understand people. As I researched for volunteer opportunities around the world, Peace Corps stood out to be the best fit for what I was looking for.

After filling out a whole bunch of forms and a year plus application process, which included writing numerous essays on why I aspire to be a volunteer, explaining how I would cope with stress and loneliness, describing strategies that I will use to adapt to a unfamiliar culture, medical screening that would make anyone cringe and then finally convincing the Peace Corps that I wasn’t trying to leave the country because I defaulted on my mortgage or I wasn’t running away from child payments or escaping a bad marriage or getting as far as possible from a screwed up girlfriend and so on. With all the clearances in hand I was given a green light and was told to make necessary arrangements to leave for Belize as a Business and Organizational Development Sector volunteer trainee. The two year commitment of service is preceded by a three month in–country training making the total commitment to 27 months.

As much as the application process was challenging, the real challenge was ahead of me. It is always difficult to give up your comfort zone for a totally unknown world. Ending a professional career of over forty years and starting a new life, getting the house ready to rent for two years, dealing with Social Security and Medicare, taking care of all the credit cards so they don’t block my accounts when I am trying to use it in Belize and making sure they get paid on time, preparing a living will, naming a Power of Attorney and hundreds of other details just was a bit overwhelming to get done in about three months. If it wasn’t for Nan, Trina and Sheila (mostly Nan) I would still be packing and figuring out what to do with all my stuff. And speaking of stuff this process taught me a good lesson: I bought “stuff” that I didn’t need or bought way more than I ever needed. Don’t we all do that without realizing?

As I started letting people know of my plans I got reactions ranging from “this guy has totally lost his marbles” to “what a wonderful thing to do”.   Breaking the news at work was hard. For most everyone it was unexpected and came as a total surprise. I was deeply touched by the outpouring of support and friendship from everyone during the last two months. My life at the County ended with a retirement party that was full of emotions, excitement and plenty of good wishes from everyone. I was honored to receive a proclamation from the Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners declaring Jan 28^th 2011 as the “Subrata Basu Day”, a special recognition from the Miami Chapter of American Institute of Architects and a very loving, touching and totally unanticipated message from my daughters.

The last two months were not only hectic and stressful but I began to question my sanity and wondered if I am really trying to escape reality and family responsibilities. With encouragement and assurances from my family and several friends at the South Florida Association of Retuned PCVs I was on my way to the staging area in Dallas, Texas where all the volunteer trainees were to meet before leaving for Belize. So the journey started…… 

Some of the images from the retirement party luncheon

Marc starting it off....

Presenting the proclamation

Mayor Slesnick presenting a City of Coral Gables pin

Mayor Mary Scott Russell

Asian American Board Executive Director

    



Nati on behalf of AIA Miami presenting  



Oliver reading an Irish prayer

County Commissioner Katy Sorenson

Lovell reading a message from Trina and Sheila

Commissioner Sorenson and Mayor Ferre

and then everyone else