Clarification: Tropical Depression is NOT a mental state

While the majority of you up in the States have been experiencing the crisp cool weather of fall, I have been enjoying a bit of a cold front down in here in Belize as well. However, this cold front comes with a price – a tropical depression. Before a week ago I had never heard of such an expression. Tropical depression? – sounds like an oxymoron to me. I quickly discovered the meaning of this term when the rain began to fall from the sky as if buckets upon buckets of water were being thrown down on me as I rode my bike home from work. Clearly the Belizeans were used to this rain and took cover, staring at me as I rode by making a fool of myself in thinking that the umbrella I was attempting to carry while riding would keep me dry. The only good the umbrella really did was to shield my face in hopes that those who saw me would not recognize which one of the few white people in town I was. I’m beginning to realize just how many humiliating experiences such as these I will continue to experience over the next two years. But hey, it’s all part of the experience…right?

As the rain continued, the flash flooding began and I started to realize the severity of the storm. Schools began to close and businesses started to cancel work – almost all districts of Belize took cover from the storm. For the next two days news was brought to us by radio, declaring the evacuation of many villages in the Toledo district. Villages continued to flood and bridges began to wash away. Most notably, the bridge that connects the Toledo district to the rest of the country was completely destroyed from the flooding, essentially cutting off our part of the country from the rest.

After three or four days of being locked up in the house with numerous peanut butter sandwiches & plain pasta dishes for meals, an endless game of Rummy “500”, many cups of tea, and hearing the same songs on our iPod playlists a million times, we all began to experience a bit of cabin fever. Thankfully, I was able to go back to work the following week, but unfortunately for my communitymate Emily, high school remained closed due to many students living in the villages and being unable to make it to town for class.

Even now after the rain has stopped, a good part of the country continues to be affected by the storm. The water levels remain high and the flooding continues as the water tries to make its way down to lower land. Four individuals have died since the beginning of the floods while being transported across the rivers by boat, including two Nigerian volunteers and a mother with her baby. Many families still remain out of their homes or have since returned to their villages to find destroyed homes and crops from the flood waters. It is going to take a great deal of time for the water levels to go back to their normal levels and for the remaining families to be able to return to their villages in a safe manner. I ask that you please keep the people of Belize in your thoughts and prayers as the struggles and hardships experienced due to the tropical depression continue.