Day: July 11, 2022

On my second day at Crooked Tree, I decided to go biking to see what this village looked like outside of our hotel. The sky was pouring, but I had gotten used to being under the rain during my time in Antigua, so I rented a bike and went out. 

First, I went out with the intention to go see the Baptist church myself. It is the oldest building in the village, built in 1835, three years before the abolition of slavery in Belize. The church still serves as a center of the community today, and the number of graves by the church seemed to tell the stories of people who had lived here for more than 300 years. 

I kept biking north, people were playing music, picking mangoes, and going about their daily lives. After biking for half an hour, I had countless mosquito bites so I decided to go back.

Mizuki Kurata _ Final Blog Post | JICA sign at Crooked Tree … | Flickr

On the bike back, I found a sign that said “flood shelter” with a logo of JICA – the Japanese International Corporation Agency. I thought to myself, how odd that is. Being from Japan, I have always heard of JICA, because it is a famous international aid organization funded by the national government in which many young people in their 20’s and 30’s volunteer for. After a  quick google search, it appears that JICA had done a three-year (2008-2010) flood risk management project in Central America – and that Crooked Tree was the location selected for Belize. In that time period, I was 8 to 10 years old in Japan, and I never really knew of the country Belize, and I definitely had not even imagined the people living there. But to know that a Japanese organization was establishing a flood shelter in Crooked Tree, and that I am seeing the record of it felt like an odd reminder of the interconnectedness of the world. Despite globalization through trade and digitalization, I feel like we still very much live in a society where we are disconnected from each other. We believe that our actions don’t have consequences and that we live on our own terms. But here there is evidence that we are connected. Perhaps the small amount of sales tax that I paid for the Japanese Government was used to aid this little sign in Crooked Tree, and perhaps the way I vote in Japan today determines how much money goes to Crooked Tree. 

Overall, this study abroad taught me the value of interconnectedness. As carelessly we want to exist – our actions do have consequences and implications to various communities across the globe. While it would be nice to believe that the way we purchase coffee has no effect on a person, the way we purchase coffee very much does affect the person working on a coffee farm in Antigua, as we have seen at the Azotea Coffee Farm. With this awareness that we are connected, I strive to be aware of how I exploit and benefit other communities and to take that into action.

As someone who has never left the country, studying abroad was initially daunting. However, even though my time in the program was cut short, I truly believe that this experience was extremely enriching and I am thankful for the opportunity.

One motif I noticed during my time in the Guatemala and Belize Maymester is how old customs, structures, and practices can mix with modernity. In my area of Texas I have almost no exposure to things or activities with origins that span over 100 years. However, from the colonial cobble stone streets in Antigua to the customary handmade textiles that many Maya people wear throughout Guatemala, the past and the present are more united in the region than I have ever experienced before.

One perfect example of this was Tikal. Tikal was once a thriving ancient city and is now both a symbol of antiquity and a keystone of culture in Guatemala. There are no longer people that live in Tikal, however, its cultural significance has been repurposed to be powerful and spiritual in an alternative way. People still go to Tikal to pray and people still see Tikal as important; Temple IV is even on the Guatemalan currency. The past is still relevant and has become intertwined with the present.

My language barrier in Guatemala also added another dimension to the program. I have a rudimentary understanding of Spanish, and there were times where I was unable to fully understand what people were saying to me. However, instead of being a burden or daunting, these instances were motivation to me. I will always be an outsider in Guatemala, but language understanding is something that people can control with study and practice. After being in these situations I was able to reaffirm my desires to share this language with the people that speak it.

Photo taken at Tikal on June 14, 2022.