What years and where did you serve in the Peace Corps in Belize? What was your role/project?
In 2000 my husband Bob and I joined the Peace Corps as Information Technology Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). We spent two years in Belmopan, Belize, where I taught computer literacy to public school teachers and English to Spanish-speaking refugees from other Central American countries.
Tell us about a special memory of your time in the Peace Corps
Hurricanes often visit Belize, and our first experience with one came just a few months after we arrived in country with the arrival of Hurricane Keith. Our country director happened to be out of the country at the time, so the US Ambassador ordered all 50-plus Belize PCVs to travel to Belize City with the idea that we would fly out and thereby miss the storm. However, by the time we all arrived in the city, the airport was closed and the storm was bearing down fast. We huddled together in the Peace Corps office – fortunately located in a strong brick building – for several days. We slept on the floor, collected rainwater to manually flush the toilets, and played endless games of Scrabble. I believe that our group really bonded by being thrown into this predicament early in our service. Most of us are still friends, and many of those same folks are supporters of Full Basket Belize (FBB) and are on our current or past FBB Board of Directors (BOD).
When did you join FBB? What roles have you served on the board? Why do you continue to give your time and energy?
It was because of this special relationship with my fellow Belize PCVs that I was invited to join the newly founded FBB BOD back in 2009. Since then I have filled many roles: communications director, newsletter editor, elections chair, grant writer, president, and my favorite – scholarships director. In this position, I get to work with dedicated Belizean educators, just like those I taught as a PCV. These professionals earn little but give so much to their students. And the students! Oh my, what amazing young people our scholars are. They have had some major roadblocks placed in their paths — extreme poverty, constant hunger, illness, being orphaned or refugees — but the perseverance, the tenancity, that these teens demonstrate never fails to amaze me. I feel that if these students can work hard to overcome their hardships, then I can work equally hard to help them as much as possible.
What is your “favorite” community project that FBB has recently supported and why?
As a retired educator, schools, teachers, and students are ever present in my mind. When I first read about the Book Lending Project sponsored by Eden High School in San Ignacio, Cayo, I was very intrigued. Then I visited the high school and got to meet Mrs. Sherilyn Flowers, the woman who had begun the project, and I was very impressed. As you may know, high school is not free in Belize, so in addition to tuition, uniforms, transportation, and fees, students are required to buy their own textbooks. These texts are extremely expensive, and many students simply cannot afford to buy them. Thus, the idea of a lending library of texts available to those most in need struck me as such an intelligent solution to this problem. It has been a tremendous success at Eden High School, and it is one that I would like to see implemented at other high schools, as the need is certainly there.
last updated 3/4/2021