Reading Week: Soaking the Sponge

Belize-

After Stream Ecology, it was great to mix up the schedule a bit. During Reading Week/Environmental Literature pt. 1, students could chip away at the reading list at will in preparation for Environmental Literature pt. 2, Forest Ecology and Marine Ecology. Just a book, a hammock, the chatter of the Kiskadee birds, and a cup of tea and we were set for the day! And how satisfying it was, after our brains were sponges all day, to gaze over the golden lighted fields and forests in the evening in reflection. Many students found this week a good time to catch up with their host families where they spent last weekend in the local village of Succotz, for dinner, enjoying Succotz home cooking and baking cookies with their Belizean friends. The Student Life Coordinators here at CCSP had plans of their own, and were excited to offer a variety of life skill hobbies throughout the week. With plenty of new material to chew on, and a full week of recharge, we now haste the coming of God and Nature pt. I.

Valentine's Day at Nabitunich

Belize-

Valentines day here at Nabitunich was nothing short of a heartthrob!
The 2011 calendar was on our side as it plopped this special day right in the beginning of the week. Love was in the air, from bright shining smiles to Valentines being hid here and there to the first sight of a cashew fruit on our cashew tree. And what can CCSP dish out day or night rain or shine? Oh yes, celebrations! We started the night with a very insightful love language test, which taught us about ourselves as well as the community. Who loves hugs? Who loves gifts? Quality time? Seems like a must for any community! Following the test, Impersonation Speed Dating (ISD) was underway. With characters such as Donald Duck, Darth Vader, Scooby Doo, Gollum, Hermione, and Patrice (a local farm dog), many speed daters found their “impersonation”-match. This match tragically reached the end of the love tale after we enjoyed ice cream and brownies to close the night. The lingering conversations basked in memories of our own favorite Valentine’s days in years past.

At times, composure was hard to come by

Flowing Streams, macroinvertebrates and more!

Belize-

Stream Ecology encouraged us to learn about the importance of fresh water! Especially, to discuss our responsibility towards streams, given the fact that streams are so important for supporting life and yet make up a small percentage of the total amount of fresh water on earth!

Stream flow measurements at Privassion Creek

With this in mind, we headed out to the field to discover for ourselves what the water quality is like in Belize’s flowing streams.

Testing the pH of a stream

Our first day in the field involved learning how to assess the habitat quality of the streams, as well as collecting organisms for a biological survey and testing for chemical variables. A highlight of the day was visiting an impressive cave with a stream flowing through it. Our professor, Mike Guebert from Taylor University, made sure we appreciated the cave for more than it’s beauty, but also for a rare geological feature found inside! The cave is a limestone ceiling which sits directly on the granite bedrock of the stream basin; it is unusual to see two types of rocks, formed over a 100 million years apart, sitting right on top of each other!

Searching for macroinvertebrates and other organisms

Thanks to Ashley Rosenberger of CCSP, we all learned to find and identify intriguing macroinvertebrates that live in streams. The most commonly found macroinvertebrates are insect larva which are so important to the health of streams and can tell us a lot about the water quality of the stream!

Megaloptera- a macroinvertebrate!

On our final fieldtrip we discovered more amazing streams- clear, rushing streams with fast riffles and deeper pools where we could watch cichlid fish swimming, and where we swam too! We enjoyed the bubbling water as we took our water quality data. To end the day we headed to Five Blues, a national park which has a beautiful blue lake, surrounded by a limestone landscape called Karst. After hiking through the thick forest surrounding the lake, the water was refreshing!

More stream studies!

At the end of the week students analyzed the stream quality data and presented their findings. While learning all week that the health of a stream is determined by the health of all the land that drains into that stream (the watershed), we began to wonder how healthy the streams and rivers back home are, and what we can do once we return home to ensure a healthy watershed!

Sustainable Community Development pt 1

Belize-

With the leadership of Dr. Sara Alexander (Anthropology, Baylor University) we launched the academic semester with the first week of Sustainable Community Development. With a range of backgrounds from our student body, this course offered both something familiar and something new for everyone. It was a week of questioning in what seemed like circles, of scraping the surfaces of complex issues, of throwing a softball at our carefully selected target and then realizing that we’ve thrown a boomerang. With Sara’s guidance we found that mistaking boomerangs for softballs is a common obstacle in the world of sustainable development.
Surely the week wasn’t an exhaust of doom and gloom. The hope is that while social, environmental, and economic realms may seem at times more like entirely different galaxies, that there is a quest for the interpretive zone, the triple bottom line, the realm of sustainability. It is post WWII that the concept of “Development” first came to be. At this time the pursuit was largely profit-based. However, it was the Brundtland Commission, considering future generations, that began to steer development into a strategy of using what we need now but also striving to preserve for future generations.

In the Mayan village of San Antonio we saw development creativity in action, in the form of pig manure. From which methane (natural gas) is collected to cook the beans at a women’s co-op. The women’s group, by working together, has been able to provide training, alternative income generation, and the support of a close community for its members, and a wonderful lunch for us at their small restaurant!

The bollos for lunch in San Antonio were made almost entirely from the co-op

We also saw how Central Farm, a cooperation between the University of Belize and the Belize government, work together to find new agricultural methods for Belize. Here new techniques are tested (many for the very first time) and selected by farmers in hopes of improving their crops. Because this is a new project in Belize, many crops are still being finely tuned to the local climate and seasonal patterns. This was an important concept in thinking about development in an agricultural setting. What's good for farmers, and whats good for the market?

The class gathers at Central Farm to hear about organic compost composition

From agriculture experiments to weighing the pros and cons of cruise ship tourism, there was always more to add to the picture from our travels this week. A highlight for many was the real-life example of development experienced at the Community Baboon Sanctuary. Approximately 3,500 Black Howler Monkeys roam the region around the community of Bermuda Landing due largely to an innovative conservation and development strategy undertaken by several local villages. The project serves as a conservation measure, tourist destination, and has received support from World Wildlife Foundation and National Geographic among others.

Students and SLC's in front of the Community Baboon Sanctuary; where "Baboons" are the local name for Black Howler Monkeys


Stephanie (Messiah College) and Hannah (Westmont College) found a Howler Monkey up above!

As Friday seemed to jump onto our breakfast plates unannounced, it was hard to believe a whole week had gone by. As we finished up our projects and bid farewell to Dr. Alexander, we are excited for more lessons learned in the second section of this course. But first, we flow onward into stream ecology!

The class adorned with "development concept costume" attire

Orientation week continues!

BELIZE--

The second half of orientation week was packed with activity as there was so much to experience in this new place! We got our hands dirty in the garden, both planting and harvesting and tearing up a chunk of our lawn so we can grow more food. Planting pineapple from the tops of the fruit we had eaten earlier that day was definitely a new experience!

Walking on ancient stones at Xuantunich (Shou-naan-tune-itch), an ancient Maya city, and learning about the history of the people who used to fill this region with their cities, temples, roads, and fields got us thinking about what it would have been like to live in the heart of the Mayan world 1500 years ago.

Music and dancing is an important part of Belizean culture, so we listened to, danced, and learned how to play the Marimba!

Becoming acquainted with the natural history and ecology of Belize took us to volunteer at Belize Botanic Gardens. Picking star fruit from trees and eating it, getting lost under giant Heliconia leaves, and observing many rare species of native orchids gave us a picture of the abundance and beauty of plant life that we will be living alongside for the rest of the semester!

The amazing Belize Zoo was our last stop of orientation week. Everyone got out of their comfort zone and made some new friends with a variety of creatures that also call Belize home!

The end of orientation week brought independent traveling! Now that the students have seen other parts of Belize and are back on campus, they can begin to appreciate Nabitunich. From with the amazing food prepared for us everyday by Miss Flora and Miss Shelley, to the simple pleasure of resting in a hammock while watching the sun go down over the pastures of the farm and the hills that fill the horizon, the Nab has so much joy to offer.