Freedom?

Here's some food for thought: for those of you reading this from the comfort of your home in Somewheresville U.S., how many of you have thought about what it means to live in a free country? I mean what it really means. Sure you can vote, speak your mind, read which ever books you choose, but what about the little things? I'm talking about all of those minor freedoms which often occur on a daily basis and which all too often get taken for granted.

Established 30 years ago as an independent free nation, Belize has many of the freedoms that are common among democratic societies. However, just this week, it has become apparent to me that not all things are free--at least not in the same sense as to which we view our liberties in the U.S. Take for instance, the concept of parental authority & consent. Our 3 daughters, all in primary school, came home last Monday to report that they had been given doses of medication & vitamins by nurses. Apparently hookworms are such a problem in this area that the children, all children, are medicated biannually for them. Alongside this, the kids were administered doses of vitamin A (to which I've still yet to know fully the need). There was no parental consent, no real notification that this would occur on Monday (they mentioned something at Mass about "deworming" but my husband & I had no idea that this would include mandatory medication of our children). To make matters even more uneasy for us, the medication was administered by a nurse who, while wearing the same pair of glove, placed a pill inside the mouth of every student (it's no wonder two of our girls were ill with a fever & a cough by the end of the week). Our second grader said that one boy in her class cried about swallowing the pill and the teacher then literally put her hand into his mouth and shoved the pill down his throat. I'm still surprised by this, as I cannot imagine my children getting as much as a cough drop at their school in the states without prior consent, let alone actual medication.
About half a week prior, our 12 year old daughter came home stating "the boys got blood drawn in the morning so I think the girls are getting blood drawn in the afternoon." In utter shock, I asked if she knew what this was for to which she replied, "I have no idea but all the boys left and came back some time later saying that they had blood taken." In a country whose HIV population is recorded at about 1 in 50 (though some experts believe it may be even as high as 1 in 10), and does not likely adhere to the same sanitation practices as to which we've known in the states, I was downright nervous. I told my daughter that under no circumstances may she have anyone poke a needle into her unless one of her parents is present. Fortunately, no blood was drawn from any more students that afternoon, or in the days following. Though I still have no idea why any students were subjected to a blood draw, I've made sure several times since that our children understand "no needles unless mom or dad is present." I cannot even fathom something like this happening in the U.S. without parents being first notified yet this is something that obviously occurs in other countries that are considered to be "free".

Just thinking in terms of communication, and I can quickly see that U.S. residents have certain liberties that are not present here. Take for instance free reign over the Internet. BTL (Belize Telemedia Limited), is the main Internet/phone service provider in the country and it just so happens to be owned by the government. In an attempt to keep residents paying for phone service, applications such as Skype & Google voice have been blocked on the Internet. In other words, we cannot use all Internet functions here that we wish and our ability to video communicate with family at home is blocked by the goverment--though in the realm of the world wide web, there's always a way around it.

Even the cell service here has taken a few of it's own "liberties." The government of Belize subscribes to an "eavesdropping service." In other words, they have the ability to record any text messages, voice mail, and phone calls made within the country. Now I certainly do not have any phone calls that would be considered 'worth listening to' but it still bothers me a bit to know that I do not have a choice in the matter.

So the next time you hug your kids, make a phone call, or use the Internet from inside the U.S., be very glad that you live in a country that allows you to do so freely, with few strings attached.

Halloween in PG

     Well we've officially survived our first US holiday in PG--Halloween. Granted, it's not Christmas or Thanksgiving as far as holidays go but we've always celebrated it pretty big at home in the States. Knowing that Halloween is not nearly so widely popular in the rest of the world, we had few expectations for the day. Still, we'd decided that we would celebrate it as best as we could regardless of where we live. Much to our surprise, we learned that Belize actually does celebrate Halloween, all be it somewhat new to them. I would speculate that with so many Belizeans having family or friends relocated in the US, and with such a strong influence from up north, the holiday inevitably has made it's way down here.

The first step was figuring out costumes. We have the advantage of having warm weather and not being so limited in clothing (i.e. long sleeves, pants). However, we are very limited on resources here. There are a few costumes available (think maybe 10 or so total available for sale) and a few masks as well but that's pretty much it in the way of store bought costumes. For one son, we put together a robot costume from items available here and our 10 year old wore a "Wonder Woman" type costume that I roughly cut and hand stitched together. And for our youngest daughter, we scoured the internet until we found an idea that she liked--Cleopatra. I printed out a couple of pictures from online, purchased some fabric and ribbon, and took my idea to a seamstress in town. The best part is that for just $7.50 US she was able to sew an entire costume, with no pattern from just a few basic measurements and a picture. I don't believe any seamstress in town has ever worked from a pattern, yet for a few dollars, they can put together some amazing pieces of clothing. It just goes to show you how resourceful they can be.

Halloween is celebrated here but as mentioned before, because it is so new, it isn't to the extent or quite in the same manner as it is celebrated in the U.S. The night before, they handed out bags of candy to children in Central Park--most of the candy here consists of lollipops and other hard candy, almost no chocolate :-(. Halloween day proved to be very fun for our kids in school. Our son's preschool class all came dressed up--those that did not have a costume were able to rent one from the teacher for a small fee. Then they, nearly 40 kids, all loaded up into the back of a trailer that was decorated like a float for Halloween. Parents, myself included, loaded up into the back of the truck pulling the trailer, and we proceeded to drive around town, honking the horn, stopping at businesses and trick or treating along the way. We did this for over 2 hours (imagine 40 preschoolers gone for 2 hours and not a single child needing to use the restroom). It was so much fun, if only our son had a more 'sit down friendly' costume. Our daughters' school celebrated as well. They had a bike raffle, haunted house, special barbecue lunch, and costume contest. While not nearly as many kids dressed up as they do in the States, we were pleasantly surprised at all the children who did. Our daughter even won 'Prettiest Costume' with her Cleopatra costume.

Preschool class trick or treating at local business

Decorated trailer for trick or treating

As the evening arrived, we really didn't know what to expect since so many neighbors seemed to give us a different idea. Of course since I am a foodie at heart and I believe every celebration should be accompanied fun meal, I spent the evening preparing food--jack o lantern quesadillas, mummy cupcakes, witch finger cookies, bloody zombie punch, snake shaped calzone, and some good dips. If it weren't for the fact that our small propane tank ran out of gas just as I was starting to cook the tortillas and calzone (thus leading Andy on a frantic search to fill a propane tank after business hours), the meal prep went great. After he returned with gas, I finished cooking the meal, while he took our 4 youngest kids and the two neighbor girls out to enjoy the evening. There was even a house down the street who put together a haunted house, complete with frights and screams, for just 50 cents admission. We got some trick or treaters (though not a lot), some of whom were in costume and others who were not. Since Belize lacks the safety paranoia that is often present in the States, I was able to have homemade witch finger cookies bagged up and give them out as treats, without any troubles. The kids all really seemed to like those.

Over all, Halloween here exceeded our expectations but certainly didn't live up to the hype it is in the U.S. Still, we had fun and certainly made the best of it. Now if only they celebrated Dia de los Muertos down here like their border neighbor, Mexico does....