For the past eight weeks I’ve been seeing a 33 year old, Italian-Guatemalan, cheese farmer (“How does one farm cheese?” asks my always overprotective, Wisconsin-based father). While my usual type is the tight-pants-wearing, Arrested Development-watching, Scrabble kind of a kid, I d[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Bridget Barry’
Partners in Poverty
Conversely, Guatemalans will ask how much your left shoe cost you without a second of hesitation. Living in such a money-obsessed, impoverished community has been difficult and bitter, and at the increased exposure to the question "How much?", I find myself fretting for my personal financial future.[...]
Culture Shock in Central America
After six-months in Belize as a volunteer, I was able to acquire a position in Guatemala with an actual paycheck. Aside from the obvious benefits of this upgrade (no more paying for Belikin beer with my savings!), I am slowly making the transition to life with a refrigerator, toaster oven, functioni[...]
April 8th, 2010 - 6:09 pm § in Belize, Culture, Day in the Life, Good Ideas, Tips & Resources, Volunteer
Cooking in the Jungle: Meals Without an Oven or Refrigerator
Beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the…less money you have to spend. Before coming to Belize, my cooking repertoire included peanut-butter and banana sandwiches, burritos, and a mean tostada. In a particularly gutsy endeavor to make hard-boiled eggs last summer, my roommate and I[...]
When Doing Good Makes You the Bad Guy
Our organization, the Ya’axché Conservation Trust, has been struggling recently with how best to externally communicate what we do. Are we a conservation group? Are we a humanitarian group? With a mission statement defining us as a community-oriented organization, our position as the manager[...]
“Don’t get your reading material from the dump.”
This morning while heading into work, we dumped our garbage. Driven by our protected areas manager, Nat, two other volunteers and I assisted in the process by tossing bags and crates of rubbish on top of one of many exposed piles of trash along a road off the highway. Nat, jaded by his time in [...][...]
