Aside from being a wonderful opportunity to do some amazing work volunteering can be very expensive. Not only will I give up the opportunity to be in paid employment I will have to incur significant costs just to make it out of the country. I have estimated these costs to be in the region of £3500. This figure includes insurance, flights, food and accommodation for six months and general living expenses. A full budget and breakdown can be found on the Placement Costs page of the Belize 05 section.

In order to meet my costs I shall have to obviously work harder, spend less and save more but that alone would not get me to Belize at least until around 2010. So I have decided to launch a fundraising and awareness drive; The Belize Challenge 2005.

The idea behind my first fundraising activity came from Mental Acrobatics, who suggested I design and sell Begins At Home merchandise. After a few days tinkering with PhotoShop I am proud to launch the Belize Challenge 2005 online store (hosted by Café Press). For the duration of this challenge there shall be a permanent link to the shop on this blog (that animated GIF thing in the sidebar).

On sale are mugs, t-shirts, mouse pads, bags and pin badges amongst other things all bearing the Begins At Home logo. Café Press have set base prices for all their products and I have set the mark up price for most items at $5. This means for every item (apart from the pin badges and magnets) someone buys they contribute $5 dollars towards the Belize Challenge 2005.

For those who do not want to buy but still want to donate there is a PayPal button on the sidebar (and the Home Page, and in the Belize 05 section). This can be used to donate an amount of your choice.

The Belize Challenge 2005 is not just about the money. One thing that made my placement last year a lot easier was the support and encouragement I received from friends, family and strangers. I can not place a price on how good it felt to receive emails of encouragement. So for those who wish to show their support in a way that doesn’t cost a thing I have created an “I Support Belize 05� web site button. This idea came from Mshairi, and like other web buttons the idea is that anyone who so wishes can copy the HTML code found here and paste it on their site. Anyone clicking on the button will be directed to my site.

I will be more than happy to help place the code for anyone who is stuck. Alternately simple old-fashioned linking works just fine.

Lastly, if I could ask for just one thing, it would be please spread the word – The Belize Challenge 2005 is now officially launched.

Last year I spent three months working as a volunteer in Belize. I had initially planned to go for six months but sadly it proved to be too expensive and I was forced to return to the UK in December. The plan was always to go back and continue my volunteer placement. After having spoken with my former placement leader, Ms Lindy Jeffery, most of my family and my Belizean host family it has been agreed that if all goes to plan I should re-commence my placement around the end of October.

To summarise my last three months in Belize; I was working for a quasi-government body called the National Council on Ageing. My main role was to draft an Act for Older Persons. This was not possible to achieve in three months. I did make some progress including amending the Constitution of Belize so as to make discrimination on the grounds of age unlawful. There is a more detailed account of my placement over at the Belize 04 segment in this site. When I do return I shall be continuing with the work I had started as well as helping out with day-to-day NCA activities.

Two of the main reasons why I am keen to return are that firstly the whole idea of being an overseas volunteer is to ensure that everything you do is sustainable. At present the Government department responsible for drafting new laws (Attorney General’s Ministry) has a huge backlog. Any work that I begun, if passed on to the AG’s office is not likely to be completed in the foreseeable future. I feel that if I were to leave the work at the stage it is at now, it would almost seem a waste having started it as there is no realistic possibility of it being completed in a timely fashion.

Secondly, though the NCA is a national organisation it has only one paid member of staff. Owing the financial crisis that the Belizean Government is experiencing and the staff cuts that have hit all Government departments, the NCA are unlikely to receive funding to employ someone else. Ms Jeffery has a lot of work to carry out and I feel that not only does she work hard enough as it is, there is just too much work for one person to do. I feel that returning to Belize I shall be able to assist with the general day-to-day running of the office.

I have a host of other reasons but these are explained in full in the Belize 05 section of this site.

Over the next few days I shall be blogging about how I plan to make my return to Belize a reality and why the work I shall be doing is important and necessary.

She arrived as a volunteer about a month after me and her first few weeks were fairly hard. Not only did she have to deal with the usual settling in stuff but she also had a rather uncomfortable home situation.

I know from past experience how being unhappy with your accommodation situation can really affect your time as a volunteer. Lyndsey handled the situation really well and was able to virtually singlehandedly find herself a new place to live. Finding accomodation is hard enough when you are familiar with your settings; trying to find a new place to live in a country that is new to you can be tough. The fact that Lyndsey was able to sort this out within less than a month of her being in Belize is proof of how strong a person she is.

Once her home life was settled her work situation became a problem. She stuck it out for as long as she could but it was evident that the situation was wearing her down. Not be deterred she set about finding herself another placement. 3 months into her 6 month placement Lyndsey, and almost a week after I had left, Lyndsey began a whole new placement at The National Council on Ageing (where I had done my placement).

While there she has done some fantastic work – and I wish she had a blog so she could let all know what she has been upto. I know for sure she completed a booklet on Older Persons and Health. The booklet and her work was well received; she even featured on Belize National News!

During my time in Belize; Lyndsey became one of my good friends. She was always there for me. She was one of the best partying buddies. We shared the same fear of dogs and the same views on short men.

We didn’t just get together to party though. We worked together on other extra volunteer activities inlcuding the Aids Week. We also began steps towards helping Ms Emily with her homework club. When I left they were just about to re-launch it and from what I have heard Lyndsey played a big part in getting the club restarted in the New Year.

She is sad to be leaving Belize. After 6 months there I can only imagine how she must be feeling. I am sure the friends she has made are also sad to see her go. I know she will be missed by all who have had the pleasure of meeting her. She will leave behind some good work though and I must admit I am kinda happy that she is coming back to the UK.

Slimsey…you have done yourself and all of us proud. Being a volunteer is not easy yet you have carried yourself through this with such courage and confidence. I am glad I got to meet you. You have been an inspiration and a great friend.

A. Wahu asked:

What has been the most exciting and enjoyable time spent in Belize. Not the work which l have read that you have enjoyed if it is x-rated then we can go the funkytown.

Attending both the Dangriga and Hopkins Punta Fest was the most exciting and enjoyable experience. The Dangriga Punta Fest qualifies as enjoyable because it lasted all night. I don’t think I have ever danced while watching the sunrise. Two words made the Hopkins Punta Fest exciting – Aurelio Martinez. What’s so exciting about Aurelio? That definitely counts as X-rated.

Kaki asked

Have your locs grown faster ama slower?

It is hard to tell for two reasons. When I first started locking my hair, I bleached and dyed it. Over the years the dyed section of my locks began to weaken and the ends started to break and unlock. I have been scared of putting a pair of scissors to my locks but I realised I had no choice. I think it was about October time when I got the courage to cut about an inch and a half off the ends. This has made it difficult to assess rate of growth. Secondly, one of the main ways I can tell how quickly my hair grows is by measuring the length of time between each re-twist; that is when the new unlocked growth gets messy. In England I would re-twist every 3-4 weeks. While in Belize the humidty meant that my hair needed re-twisting every week!

Kaki asked:

Any new or different fragrances there?

I am not sure if you meant new fragrances in Belize or in general. Either way…I have no idea. All I know is that I had planned to buy D&G’s Light Blue (my new favourite) on the way to Belize but managed to convince myself that the full bottle of CK Contradiction, the half bottle of Cabotine (Kaki – I took that picture just for you ) and the near empty Kenzo Flowers would be enough!!

Big mistake.

Cabotine is a perfume I have used since I was 13. It was my first ever perfume and I don’t use it anymore – I just carry it around for sentimental reasons. Contradiction is a perfume that I used to like but still receive as birthday and christmas present from a few people. I only packed it out of guilt; and it came back just as full and has now joined the other 3 full bottles!. Kenzo was the only perfume I like and use on a regular basis – it didn’t last a month! So for the first time in my life I was stuck without perfume. Thankfully the need to wear repellent meant that I could get by without perfume.

That’s it for now. I shall answer the other questions soon. If anyone else has any other questions…now is the time to ask. I will answer anything and everything.

1. I am writing this at 2.20 am
2. Whitney Houston is on the TV
3. I often tell people that she is my aunt
4. Most people don’t believe me
5. A few gullible people do
6. I take advantage of their gullibilty
7. I tell them that our family disapprove of Bobby Brown
8. That since they got married we’ve distanced ourselves from her
9. Actually I haven’t told this to anyone since University
10. That’s where Mich and I met.
11. Yesterday was our 7 year anniversary
12. We only remembered towards the end of the day
13. Before Mich, I briefly dated a man with a gold tooth
14. He also used to roll up one trouser leg
15. And he had a ‘street’ name
16. He met my sister and best friend
17. By accident
18. I tried to hide him from everyone
19. He also smoked weed 3 times a day
20. Which reminds me of the Musical Youth song Pass The Ducthie
21. I was about five when I first heard the song
22. I had no idea what the dutchie was
23. My aunt told me it was a sauce-pan
24. She said they were passing it ‘paan de lef haan side’ so the food wouldn’t burn.
25. I believed her
26. I also believed Wombles were real animals
27. Until I suggested a trip to Wimbledon Common
28. I was 18 years old at the time
29. And at 6th Form School
30. There were only 5 girls at my 6th Form School
31. We formed a music group
32. It was the first time I had ever really sung
33. It was also the first time I mentioned ‘Aunty Whitney’ to anyone.

Swim
Not in a pool, river, sea, lake or bath tub. The only time I came into contact with water was when I showered, when it rained and when I drank it.

Sleep in a hammock
I wish I had been brave enough to sleep out all night in a hammock; I didn’t even sit in one!

Drink Dark Rum
On two separate occasions I tried a glass of rum and coke but I just did not like it.

Travel North
Considering that out of the 12 weekends I had in Belize, 6 of them were spent in Cayo…I just ran out of time.

Sing Karaoke
Bearing in mind that I sing (and quite well if I may say so myself ) and considering the many Karaoke nights I went to, I never once got up to sing.

Take Malaria Tablets
When I read all the side effects (from depression to suicide) I figured it just was not worth it. Plus I have never taken them for Kenya.

Run Off With a Belizean Man
Though no-one actually said it to me, I know some of you (Mama Junior!) thought it…well..it didn’t happen.

Stay Forever
I came close…the lack of Tia Maria brought me back.

Since I have every intention of going back to Belize I plan to do some of the things on the list but I am not telling you which ones.

The problem with this next stage of my Belize experiences, is that I am moving away from the narrative and focusing mainly on my opinions and feelings. I want to write honestly and openly about what I have learnt, what I liked/disliked, what my views were on certain things and so on. It sounded so easy at first; until I tried.

The good things will always be easier to write about; it’s the not-so good things that are going to be a problem. How do I write honestly about what I can only term as the instutionalised sexism I came across in Belize and the sexist attitude of most of the men that I interacted with, without sounding like an uppity Western neo-colonialist who is insensitive to people’s culture or worse offending the Belizean men who treated me with respect? What of the challenges I faced of being the sole black and African volunteer amongst a group of white volunteers in a predominantly black country without offending those volunteers I consider my friends?

I haven’t even began to deal with all the self analysis that I shall have to go through; I had planned to share all and I do intend to but Lord! it takes a lot to lay yourself bare and for someone as proud as I am, it will take even more to admit how little I knew or how wrong I was.

The whole volunteer experience has been a journey for me and it would be pointless to simply talk about the end of the journey without being honest about how I got there.

Well I guess, this in some way acts as my disclaimer, I have already hinted at some of the things I plan to blog about and this is my way of saying, I do intend to be blunt and brutally honest about myself, my experiences and the impact they had on me. I apologise in advance if anything I say offends or upsets; this is not my intention.

I shall end by saying that every single person I interacted with and every single encounter I had no matter how good or how bad has in some way shaped my Belize experience and in turn shaped me. I feel I have come back from a Belize a stronger, and more focused African woman. I have grown emotionally, professionally, intellectually and so I am grateful to God for every moment and every person.

1. Dances with Lions.

After having embarassed myself by running away from a bee that decided to invade my chill time in a friend’s back yard, someone said to me,

“How can you be scared of a small bee when you live in a country that has lions, rhinos and other wild animals”

I politely informed him that in all the time I have been in Kenya not once has a lion or a rhino or any other form of wild life turned up in our garden, and in the unlikely this event that this were to happen….I would still embarass myself by running away.

2. Afro’s.

Same person as above; this time the conversation turned to my hair and all the hairstyles I have ever had in the past. (Everything but a Jheri-Curl!). I mentioned I used to have an afro before I locked my hair. His response was,

“Afro? Oh my…that is just so Starsky and Hutch”

Now maybe its just me, but I know when I think of Afros, Starsky and Hutch is NOT the first thing that springs to mind.

3. Dancing Gene.

This happened in Belize. I was dancing away to some amazing African/Garifuna drumming when one volunteer remarked that I could Punta well. Another then said,

“Well that’s probably because she has been doing it all her life”

I quickly pointed out that Punta is not a dance that we have in Kenya and before I came to Belize I hade never seen it or heard of it. To which the person then said;

“I know that, but what I meant is that you probably were brought up to dance from a very young age”

Er..then I must clearly have had a deprived childhood because my parents never taught me to dance, play basketball or sing like Whitney!

5a. President of Africa

I was travelling on the bus with a Belizean workmate of a friend and he was really interested in the fact that I come from Africa. Halfway through the conversation he asked me who the President of Africa was. I told him that there was no such thing as a President of Africa. With a look of sheer horror he exclaimed;

“You guys don’t have a President?”

I informed him that Africa was a continent made up of over 50 countries, all with their own leaders and system of government.

5b. President of South Africa.

Following on from the above conversation, the same guy then asked me about Nelson Mandela and I told him he was the former President of South Africa. This was his response;

“Oh…I get it now; so who is the President of East Africa and West Africa and North Africa?”

I really hope Santa got him an atlas for Christmas

“Haiya, yaani Kui you’ve lived in Brito all this time and you’re not twenging for us?

Had it not been for my time in Belize I would still be wondering how on earth to deal with these comments.

In Belize, most if not all Belizeans, when conversing amongst themselves, speak in Creole however when they speak to non-Belizeans they speak English. The very nature of Creole means that you can not speak it with what Kenyan’s would call a Jungu tweng. It just would not work. While Creole does have non-English words quite a few Creole words are actually English words and what makes those words cease to be English words is how they are pronounced.

Belizeans, from what I saw, didn’t seem to be obsessed with who was ‘dropping’ their accents for whom, certainly they weren’t as obsessed as my fellow wananchi( men/women). They seem to have grasped what some of our people are yet to understand; that firstly, in order to communicate effectively, especially with people you are not too familiar with, you have to speak in a way that can be understood and secondly you have to feel comfortable with the way you choose to express yourself.

The same logic should apply to our situation in Kenya. Most of us mix English, Kiswahili and sheng (Kenyan Creole?) when we speak with fellow Kenyans. No matter how perfect our English is, the minute we are in a group with the rest of our people, words and phrases like akina nani andati automatically become part of the conversation. Some of us can utter these words while speaking English like the Queen but I challenge any Kenyan to try and say sindio, alaa, ehee and woiye with a Jungu tweng.

So finally I have a response to the “twenging for us” question.

When I am in England, doing official work stuff, or speaking with my non-Kenyan friends, I do speak in what would be called a Jungu tweng. When I am in Kenya or speaking with Kenyans I speak what in Kenya would be described as kawa English.

Personally, I would regard both as my normal accents. It has nothing to do with me being a wanna-be, or wanting to dumb down my English for Kenyans. It just has to do with being comfortable in how I choose to express myself and being aware of the people I am conversing with.

Accents do not have a sell by date. Accents need not be static.

It doesn’t matter if I spent 2 months in India and then returned to Kenya speaking like George W Bush; if that is how I want to express myself…so be it.

I know that there is a deeper issue linked to our fixation with accents; the whole white is better belief that some Kenyans hold etc etc and I do intend to blog on this issue very soon but for now I just wanted it to be known that in most cases it just has to do with effective communication and feeling comfortable…

The site shall undergo some major changes. I hope to add a picture gallery and do all sorts of other funky geeky stuff.

This is not to say that between now and the New Year I shall not blog; I shall blog but on random issues..so do keep checking.

I want to thank everyone who has made Stage 1 and 2 possible..it has been good fun and a great success.

If anyone has any specific questions/issues that they would like me to address please visit the Q & A post and leave your questions there….or here too if you wish. You can also email them to me.