Flat Stanley visits with Rachel & Shauna, my roommates at the Peacework Guest House in Dangriga, just before we head to the "Jungle Hut" to have dinner with the UA Fayetteville group also in Dangriga working on afterschool programs and other projects. Shauna & Rachel oversee projects for Peacework in Dangriga.
I finally made it! As I traveled today from LR to Houston to Belize International and finally resting in Dangriga, I must admit I am anxious. Anxious to get started working on my project, anxious to meet the people who live in this small community, anxious to learn more about the culture and now anxious to understand why. Why?.....yes, Why!
As I walk through the streets of Belize briefly to go have dinner with my roommates and the UA Fayetteville students, I couldn't help but to secretly ask myself ....Why? Yet I don't want to make assumptions or be judgmental. I want to respect this amazing place and its people. Still, the ever present Why? kept cropping up. Houses that would appear dilapidated to most Arkansans are cherished homes to Dangrigans. In my mind, I asked...Why so impoverished? My mind kept inquiring...Why bicycles? Why are so many people just hanging out on the side streets and yards. While my mind quiz me over stuff I don't have the answers to right now, everyone I meet smiles and curiously greets me with a hello. While I am still wondering, they are just living their every day lives in a place they call HOME.....Dangriga, Belize. I sleep tonite with the smiles of a family sitting along the side of the road under their shadetree...friendly, yet just as curious of me as I am of them.
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