The engineering trip to San Ignacio, Belize, was a very rewarding and educational one. I have traveled to many places, but when I do I stay in hotels, or only stop by for a short time as part of a cruise. This experience was completely different than those in a better way. When staying in a hotel and visiting the tourist parts of countries, you do not get a true sense of the culture and lifestyle. On this trip we stayed in a house with a local family and were truly immersed in the Belizean lifestyle. Everyone was very friendly to us and made us feel at home. We did some tough manual labor throughout the week while we were there, but we knew it was for a good purpose.

The project itself included building homes at an orphanage from an earth bag foundation and then covering the exterior with a clay like substance. The earth bags we made were chicken feed bags filled with a mix of dirt and lime. After these are wet and then dried, it turns into a very hard, solid material similar to concrete. Although this method is an old technique, it is still used because of its reliability and its low cost.  Nancy, our hostess, had inherited the land for the farm from her grandfather, and decided to turn it into an orphanage named Barzakh Fallah.

After arriving in Belize City, we traveled west by bus across the country to a small town called San Ignacio. That is where we stayed in a guest house with a local family. The parents of this family, Nancy and Jaime, were in charge of the orphanage project. We worked from about 8:00 am until 3:00 pm during the week so we had a lot of free time in the afternoons/evenings. We used this time to go into town and explore the area. The locals were very friendly to us and we found a few places we liked to eat and relax.

The orphanages in Belize are overcrowded, which is forcing them to release kids before they are ready to make it on their own. It is truly inspiring to see how much impact a single family can have. Nancy provided the land and helped raise awareness for this issue, while Jaime, a licensed architect, designed the whole orphanage. It was so impressive to see how much work Jaime had put into this project and to see how much one person can do. He has designed several homes for the people working at the orphanage and is planning to have one large home to house most of the children. The entire theme of the orphanage is self-sustainment. The houses are designed so that the air flow will keep the houses cool throughout the summer months. There are several farm animals, including chickens and goats, to provide food for the residents. There are also plenty of fruit trees and vegetables planted so that the children can learn the skills needed to farm and provide for themselves.

I got to talk to many people from the area and some other students visiting to help. There were two medical students from Great Britain that stayed at the guest house as well that were helping at the local hospital. Dinner was provided by the family we were staying with and it was always fresh foods that were healthy and delicious. The nights after dinner we would stay up in the courtyard area and talk with Nancy and Jaime and others about our day and Belizean culture. This is when I learned the most about Belize because we got the perspective of the locals instead of just reading something online. Everyone was very personable and friendly and definitely appreciative of us coming to volunteer.

I don’t believe I can truly describe this trip in a blog, but I hope I can encourage even one other person to make a similar trip. This was truly an eye-opening experience to see some of the issues in another country that we don’t even educate ourselves about. It is always one thing to read about something and then to see it yourself. I haven’t been on a trip where I got to be as involved as this and I am very glad I got to help such a great group of people. Too often you hear about all the problems going on in other places and it is very nice to see people come together and come up with a solution. You can see how passionate the people there are about this project and how much effort is going into it. I am very proud to have been a part of it.