Belize trip
Over spring break I had the excellent opportunity to supervise a trip to Belize by Iowa State's "Engineers without Borders" group. The group included 2 graduate students and 5 undergraduates. A great time was had by all and everyone returned home safe and sound.
The official purpose of the trip was to construct solar fruit dryers for two communities in Belize. The previous summer, a few members of the group had visited Trinidad village with the hopes of finding some common interests/needs for projects. One of the needs was a lack of nutritious snacks at the elementary school. Fresh fruit abounds in bursts, but there are no long-term storage options and thus some fruit goes to waste and there are times that fruit is not available. Given that sunshine is plentiful in Belize, our ISU group proposed the idea of constructing solar fruit dehydrators, and worked on the project in Ames during the fall, even building and testing a few prototype units. The dehydrator design focused on using materials that would be available in Belize, with simple construction plans and safe and simple operating procedures.
With the plans in hand and the necessary approval from EWB and ISU, we set out for a week in Belize. In addition to constructing and testing the dehydrator, we planned to help a boarding school improve their menu and fresh produce options, to build a town sign for our partner village and assess the opportunities for future projects. We had a few small grants to cover supplies and a portion of the travel expenses, but all participants covered the majority of the travel costs out of their own pockets.
Getting there was incredibly easy - we boarded an early morning flight in Chicago and were in Belize City in time for lunch. We had a driver who met us at the airport and spent the whole week with us - he was a great guy and an invaluable resource. I had never been to central america (outside of a brief drive to Tijuana from LA, where we never even got out of the car) and was not sure what to expect. This country is unbelievably under-developed - there is only one movie theatre in the whole country and not even one McDonald's. I kept joking that central america is known for producing sugar, coffee and chocolate and I had a very hard time getting any of those! But, it's not incredibly poor either. Most people are able to meet their basic needs and everyone was very friendly. You couldn't walk down the street without people greeting you and exchanging pleasantries. No one was too busy to stop and talk - in Belize that was wonderful, in Iowa it would drive me nuts.
Our base of operations was Orange Walk Town. It's near the western boarder of Belize and is within driving distance of our partner village of Trinidad. There is a great hotel there - Hotel de la Fuenta, and that is where we stayed. The majority of our group stayed in Orange Walk, in order to build a dehydrator for the elementary school in Trinidad and discuss future projects with the town council there. Myself and two other students headed to a boarding high school (Kings College) in a more isolated part of the country. Students of the school arrive on Monday morning and stay in the dorm all week, then return home on Friday. Teachers live on campus with their families. Due to the long travel time to this school, the three of us stayed overnight at Kings College for several days. One dehydrator was built there, but our major purpose in visiting the school was to help with their menu planning. Since the school is so remote, it is difficult for them to acquire fresh produce. For that reason, the principal was hoping to build a school garden. One of our group members is an agronomy student, so we used her expertise to advise on this project. I was particularly interested in talking with the science teachers, as they need some help developing lab experiments that can be performed with their limited resources; both of these are excellent opportunities for future projects.
Finally, we had a bit of fun on our last day. We took a boat cruise down the river from Orange Walk Town to the Mayan ruins of Lamanai. At the ruins we learned about Mayan culture and even climbed a pyramid or two. We also saw lots of wildlife, both at the site and on the river. We even stopped at one point along the river to visit with a pair of spider monkeys - one boarded the boat and helped herself to some fruit.
Overall it was a great trip. The weather there was wonderful and an excellent contrast to the snow and mess that we left behind in Iowa. The people we met were so friendly and had a lot to offer - I look forward to future interactions on future trips. We are hoping to go back over fall break of this year. There are more pictures here.
The official purpose of the trip was to construct solar fruit dryers for two communities in Belize. The previous summer, a few members of the group had visited Trinidad village with the hopes of finding some common interests/needs for projects. One of the needs was a lack of nutritious snacks at the elementary school. Fresh fruit abounds in bursts, but there are no long-term storage options and thus some fruit goes to waste and there are times that fruit is not available. Given that sunshine is plentiful in Belize, our ISU group proposed the idea of constructing solar fruit dehydrators, and worked on the project in Ames during the fall, even building and testing a few prototype units. The dehydrator design focused on using materials that would be available in Belize, with simple construction plans and safe and simple operating procedures.
With the plans in hand and the necessary approval from EWB and ISU, we set out for a week in Belize. In addition to constructing and testing the dehydrator, we planned to help a boarding school improve their menu and fresh produce options, to build a town sign for our partner village and assess the opportunities for future projects. We had a few small grants to cover supplies and a portion of the travel expenses, but all participants covered the majority of the travel costs out of their own pockets.
Getting there was incredibly easy - we boarded an early morning flight in Chicago and were in Belize City in time for lunch. We had a driver who met us at the airport and spent the whole week with us - he was a great guy and an invaluable resource. I had never been to central america (outside of a brief drive to Tijuana from LA, where we never even got out of the car) and was not sure what to expect. This country is unbelievably under-developed - there is only one movie theatre in the whole country and not even one McDonald's. I kept joking that central america is known for producing sugar, coffee and chocolate and I had a very hard time getting any of those! But, it's not incredibly poor either. Most people are able to meet their basic needs and everyone was very friendly. You couldn't walk down the street without people greeting you and exchanging pleasantries. No one was too busy to stop and talk - in Belize that was wonderful, in Iowa it would drive me nuts.
Our base of operations was Orange Walk Town. It's near the western boarder of Belize and is within driving distance of our partner village of Trinidad. There is a great hotel there - Hotel de la Fuenta, and that is where we stayed. The majority of our group stayed in Orange Walk, in order to build a dehydrator for the elementary school in Trinidad and discuss future projects with the town council there. Myself and two other students headed to a boarding high school (Kings College) in a more isolated part of the country. Students of the school arrive on Monday morning and stay in the dorm all week, then return home on Friday. Teachers live on campus with their families. Due to the long travel time to this school, the three of us stayed overnight at Kings College for several days. One dehydrator was built there, but our major purpose in visiting the school was to help with their menu planning. Since the school is so remote, it is difficult for them to acquire fresh produce. For that reason, the principal was hoping to build a school garden. One of our group members is an agronomy student, so we used her expertise to advise on this project. I was particularly interested in talking with the science teachers, as they need some help developing lab experiments that can be performed with their limited resources; both of these are excellent opportunities for future projects.
Finally, we had a bit of fun on our last day. We took a boat cruise down the river from Orange Walk Town to the Mayan ruins of Lamanai. At the ruins we learned about Mayan culture and even climbed a pyramid or two. We also saw lots of wildlife, both at the site and on the river. We even stopped at one point along the river to visit with a pair of spider monkeys - one boarded the boat and helped herself to some fruit.
Overall it was a great trip. The weather there was wonderful and an excellent contrast to the snow and mess that we left behind in Iowa. The people we met were so friendly and had a lot to offer - I look forward to future interactions on future trips. We are hoping to go back over fall break of this year. There are more pictures here.
posted by Laura at 9:48 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for sharing your experiences and to show the information about belize
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