Closing out 3 Years at Hillside

It’s hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our 3 years at Hillside. Our staff has grown along with our services. We started out with 3-6 students per month and we will soon be up to 13 with the advent of the arrival of PT students our next rotation. That’s a lot of activity going on all over the Toledo district by the Hillside team.

In June, Angela Thomas and Bill Brown will be arriving with their 3 children to take our places. They are both Family Practice MDs with OB/GYN experience and will be here for 2-3 years. We will spend 4-5 weeks working with them so that there is a good transition. Our Belizean staff can pretty well take care of the organizational details (which are many!). The family visited Hillside last September so are very familiar with what they will be taking on.

We are leaving behind the Student Loan Program and are still raising funds for that. We are hoping that when we return for a visit these students will then be helping to manage Hillside.

Dan and Maria at our former clinic.

Alfia, Jenny - loan students and Alva.Hillside Staff

Christmas Family Adventure and Wedding

This past Christmas time was quite extraordinary for our family. It marks the first time we have been together in Belize since 1994. This time we extended that family to include 2 grandchildren, 2 daughters in law, and a soon to be son in law. We had some real togetherness (13) when we all piled into our Land cruiser used for our mobile clinic and toured Belize for a few days before the big wedding. For the wedding in San Pedro we had a nice mix of all our families, plus U.S. and Belizean friends. We had music provided by our Jesuit International Volunteers who live just down the road from us in PG (plus Niki on the guitar). Fr. Smalls, our old time family friend from Belize City performed the ceremonies. The weather cooperated and was sunny but not too hot. Adam has passed the Thibault initiation test and now is officially a member of the clan.

Meet the Staff

Hillside has a fairly large group of Belizean staff and foreign volunteers. Since most of our mobile clinics go to Mayan villages where most adults only speak either Ketchi or Mopan Maya, we need to have 2 interpreters on each trip. Also we need one to stay behind in the Eldridge Clinic. These interpreters also double as our pharmacy, lab, and intake technicians/trainees. Because we have 9-13 tuition paying students each month, maintenance and housekeeping are daily jobs. There is a lot of laundry and traffic with that many new people around each rotation. It is also a big administrative job to keep up with the amount of e-mails and paper work for all these students and short term volunteers.

The Belizean staff is all paid at or above the going local rate for similar positions. The minimum hourly wage in Belize is B$3.50 (divide by 2 for US dollars) and that is what we pay for trainees in any position. Every 3 months we do an evaluation and often increase their pay accordingly. Our two student loan awardees come from this group of trainees. We hope to send a new student when Jennie finishes her studies and is able to come back to work at Hillside and start paying off her loan.

The foreign staff is all professionals who volunteer for 6 months to several years. The shorter stay volunteers find their own funding, while the longer term volunteers may get a small stipend. In general, the lack of funding for professional staff makes it difficult for long term salaried positions.

At present we have a very good staff that makes the many services and programs of Hillside run smoothly and efficiently. It is still a challenge to keep up with the “curveballs” that are thrown at us daily.

Alva Cucul, Trainee

Alan Mangar, Night WatchmanEvert Mangar, Maintenance ManagerAncenciona Miss, TraineeJennie Ical, RN Student on Loan ProgramSuzanne Miller, RNJames Badhadur, groundskeeper helperLeslie Williams, TraineeJoyce Lopez, AdministratorSofia Coc, Intake and InterpretorRudy Jacobs, DriverVirginio Chee, TraineeRandy Parham, SecurityLiz Bleacher, RNDelroy Lizama, SecurityApolinario Cowo, Administrative AssistantAlfia Pau, Pharmacy Tech and Student Loan RecipientAmelia Ramclam, HousekeepingSarah Kichler, PNPMonica Roe, PT

Hillside and Belize - 3rd Year

Our blog entries have fallen by the wayside over the last year. We have been here over two years now and there are fewer events that are new. It’s not exactly routine, since few things at Hillside are routine. Something unexpected happens every day. Yesterday one of the students cut his finger in one of the dorm fans and we needed to put in 6 sutures. What next?

Niki has graduated and moved in with Maria’s folks in Norwalk, Ca. where she is attending a community college. So our house in Punta Gorda is very quiet these days, with 2 empty rooms. Want to come and visit?

Our added program for this year is a full time physical therapist, Monica Roe. We have had short term PTs over the past two years, but this will hopefully develop into a sustainable program, similar to what we do for the pharmacy and medical students.

We have always wanted to do a hike in one of the National Parks along the Hummingbird Highway in the Maya Mountains north of here. So over the Pan American Day National Holiday last week, we hiked 4 ½ miles back into the Billy Baquedier Park. We had a great time. And not bad for an old man!

Monica Roe, new PT Director for Hillside.

Our campsite at Billy Baquedier Park - Dan, Rudy, and Liz.

Waterfall at Park.

Belize Graduation 2011

This month we celebrated Niki's graduation from Toledo Community College on the fourth of June. It was truly a memorable moment for us all as she once made her way from being a transfer junior to a senior to a honor student graduate which has made us proud. The graduation was similar to any other high school graduation with the only exception of the graduates who had to wear their school uniform under their gown. Being said we took many pictures of the special event and chose a couple to share with you all.

Unique Cuisine in Belize

One of the exciting experiences of being in Belize is tasting the FOOD. Anywhere you go you will find rice and beans or beans and rice, BBQ chicken, stewed chicken, panades, garnaches, tamales, salbutes, caldo, hudut, fried jacks and beans, escabeche….YUM! I am getting hungry already. I wonder why I gained all this weight!!!!

Actually I love all of the above, but I want to talk about unique FOODS that I thought I would never want to taste , let alone eat…..I am talking about stewed iguana (bamboo chicken) with its eggs.. or a BBQ gibnut (the Royal rat which was served to the Queen when she came and visited Belize) or stewed armadillo….. Mr. Len, Dr. Sue’s husband went hunting with Mr Rudy and caught an armadillo and we feasted on this with the students. It was a palate savoring experience for me eating a stewed armadillo. Probably more exciting for Mr. Len as that it was the first time he ever went armadillo hunting (or even hunting period).

So, don’t judge a game meat by what you see…it does taste good.

Soooo, when you are offered to eat a cow foot soup, or stewed beans with pigtail or chicken foot tamales….remember what I told you….Taste it first and ENJOY!!!! Maria making mashed cassava. Len and Rudy after pulling the armadillo out of its burrow.

Armadillo fruit salad creation by Mr. Len.Examples of Gibnuts. Examples of green iguanas.

Garifuna Settlement Day / Culture Day

November 19 was Garifuna Settlement Day. This is a special day for the school because the entire student body parades out to the dock for the renachment of the first boat that brought the Garifuna who came from St. Vincent island. At the base of the dock some of the Garifuna students await for the arrival of the boat accompanied with Garifuna drummers. On the boat are students and adults also accompanied by Garifuna drummers. The 19th of November is also T.C.C's culture day. Students are encourage to wear their cultural atire which makes up a very diverse student body. There are Mopan Mayans, Ketchi Mayans, Garifuna, Mestizo, Mennonite, Creole, and East Indian that were all represented that day. The school also had some open booths of some of the different cultures that were open to students to explore and learn. The third picture is of my homeroom teacher she is wearing her Garifuna atire, and her daughter also Garifuna but representing Mopan Maya.