Born to Die

With my regular pupusa stops at the local restaurant, Mama's restaurant,  I became a member of their "crew." They would drink beer after beer and I would share my stories. We would talk about culture, relationships, and all sorts of things. They didn't have a need to visit the US because they were happy with their simple life there. One had lived in the Cayman Islands and another one went to Boston and the Caribbean.  Most of them spoke perfect English except for the owner who spoke an angry Spanish-it was quite funny. The owner had two children and her husband worked in West Bay as an Executive chef for a restaurant.  He was never with us because he was always working his 60 hours per week. They had a business to take care of as well, which had a part of it "accidentally" knocked down by construction trucks.  The other chef who worked in "Mama's Restaurant" had three kids.  There was one guy who worked for some mail service and my cool buddy Stan who did construction. From my experience, the locals are almost always as fun as the tourists. We just laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh(yes necessary to put all those laughs

One day, the energy was completely different. The table had a dark cloud over it.  As she was speaking, I asked Stan what was going on and he said she got some bad news at the doctor.  She told me in Spanish that the doctor found something that could be cancerous and she is going to die.  Immediately, I felt a wave of sadness and outrage. She was crying intensely and talking about her death. Everyone sat their in disbelief that someone would make a prediction for your death when they did not even run any proper tests. She was speaking very fast so I got about 70 percent of what she was saying.  It did not matter because I was able to decipher the most important parts. The scriptures, the way she loved God, the way she loved her husband and children, and how happy she was with her life. She said that she lived a good life and God wants to take her then she will be ready at that time. She cried and I cried reassuring her that God will take care of her and she will be fine.  Someone with such life is going to have her own life taken? Is that because these people live their life to the fullest and they have experienced so much that it's their time to go? The ones who do not live or change or explore-they get a longer chance to see what life is really about?  

It was so emotional and heartbreaking for her to sit and plan her death at 31 years old all because a doctor's ignorance and/or malpractice. She reminded me of my Mom's friend who was from Spain. She had such energy and zest for life, but she was diagnosed with tongue cancer.  She lost her voice and she went through a series of chemo.  She had such amazing life, but her life was almost taken. 

For my friend, she will get a second opinion and third opinion to make sure this doctor knows what he is seeing. She is loved by her community and is.a ray of sunshine in this world. 

God send angels to take care of this wonderful woman, her business, and her family.

Youth, Gangs, Shots Fired

As for the youth age 14-20, I had individual sessions with them about their life struggles, environmental pressure, handling anger, family situations, social supports, making short term and long term goals, jobs, and independent living skills.  It was difficult to meet with the youth because of the time frame I had allotted for youth. With my  curfew at Monkey Bay, I could only run the youth groups from 2 to 5 and this was not the time the youth were available.  Youth came out after 6 or 6:30 and for my Director, this was past dark and past my curfew.  I did the best that I could with the youth I did meet. I also personally went to the homes to stop by and meet them.  Many times they were not home, but at least I tried. 

As for my youth I did meet, they were all boys with the exception of a few girls.  The one young girl was completely house bound.  She was home schooled and only let out of the house with adult supervision.   She was sixteen and one could imagine how tough this must me for a young girl.  Her mother wanted to protect her from all the trouble going on outside, which there was trouble. Drug use, burglary/theft, and promiscuous behaviors i.e. girls pregnant at 12 years old. We discussed some ways to find her freedom and enjoy herself. I requested to speak with her mother, but her mother was working during the day. 

 One young boy was applying to work at a computer store and we practiced interviewing. Another was just turning his life around from gangs and fighting. He found himself in the same struggle most do-trying to stay away. This was very common territory and it flash backed right to Compton when I worked with those caught in gang wars.  It's truly such an awful thing when you want out of a gang, but you are stuck living right in the middle of it.  

The thing with gangs in Belize is that there is red vs. blue and there is the power of association.  This is present in all gangs, but in Belize it seems like more of a chain effect.  When you are a part of the gang, everyone around you is involved.  Just 2 boys were killed that day at the local store. Shot. Point blank. They had no gang association, but their cousin did so they shot them.  It was so sad what was happening just when I was there. There was one death after the next with gang violence. 

 One of our mentors, Mama Jones, did not show up for her jewelry lesson because her grandson was shot and killed. It was all connected with this person knowing that person and a whole community left completely saddened. How could something like this happen all in just one week? It was complete tragedy hearing one story after the next all due to gang violence.

 Of course nothing is being done by the government to prevent this rather it continues to be problematic in the community.   Even Mama Jones said, there is nothing that we can do rather we just have to pray. And that is what we did. We prayed for those young souls lost due to gang violence.