Almost a week since Bee and I arrived to Dorman’s homeland and since arriving to our very own home, I feel so at peace. The last few weeks have been more exhausting, both physically and mentally, than I was prepared for, which at times, I feel the emotions bubbling up. But here in this place, surrounded by God’s natural beauties, the jungle and the Caribbean sea, I can’t help but come back to the clarity that is so easy to connect with here.
Driving through Belize City was heart aching – seeing kids living in poverty, as we know it in our ‘modern lives’ in North America. Yet most of these kids do not know any different than this life. I had no idea the conditions Dorman was living in these past 2 months, or even more, the conditions he lived in growing up. I had already felt blessed by the home Dorman found for us, but even more after seeing the possible alternative, which makes the rats and cobwebs and other creatures a little more welcome.
I feel so at peace here in Sittee River and I couldn’t choose a better place to bring Bee into this world. Although the midwife I was hoping would be right, turns out not to be a midwife at all, after a few moments of fear set in, I came back to trusting everything would be ok. As the loving nurse said yesterday ‘things may not happen as you are used to, but they will happen’.
Even though I felt it was so right to start our family near my own, in a place where I was familiar with the medical and midwifery care and surrounded by people I am close to, I already feel the peace that is created in this place. So many of the connections Dorman has made are with people who have moved here from North America and are so excited for our baby to be born here. They have been welcoming us as though we are family.
The ‘native’ communities that surround us need some advancement, but I also feel blessed to experience a totally different culture, and even more, to experience the culture that Dorman (and ½ of Bee) come from. Part of me feels sad for the kids who are growing up in poverty, in homes that are holding together by a rusty nail, cement floors and a couple walls if they are lucky. Most of the homes are on stilts, the dirt floor under the house providing shade, where they hang out in hammocks. I feel sad that many of these kids are settling for what their parents have. Selling fruit, cleaning yards, or other laborous jobs, most which bring in a few dollars a day, and many fathers who spend most of these few dollars on their drinking habits to only leave a enough to buy a few loaves of bread for their children to eat.
I see the boys who are turning into men, many who have opted out of a full education, some of which truly enjoy the hard work they do – and I respect the simple lives they choose to live, I respect those who choose to work and live a respectable life.
I feel so blessed that Bee will be born in a part of the world that is still so untouched, surrounded by trees full of fruit and just a short jaunt from the ocean. But even more blessed that she will have the opportunity to experience growing up in more than one society, supported and empowered not only by her parents but by the communities that surround her. I feel blessed that she will be surrounded by more than just the love of her families but by people all over the world and that she will see the power of love working through her to create anything she wants to create in this world.
I pray that our time here will impact the children of this community – to empower them to live to their full potential – to appreciate the simplicities of life but not to interpret these simplicities as the opportunity to slack off but to create more.
