Belize

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New books by Peace Corps writers | July–August 2023
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New books by Peace Corps writers | May — June 2023
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2022 Award for Best Book for Young Adults — ADVENTURES OF MAYANA: FALLING OFF THE EDGE OF THE EARTH
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Peace Corps celebrates 60 Years in Belize
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“Hurricane Greta” by Alan Jackson (Belize)
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Peace Corps Writers imprint publishes WOVEN by Nancy Heil Knor (Belize)
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Review — WHEN BRITISH HONDURAS BECAME BELIZE 1971–73 by Ted Cox
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Review — MAYA 2012 by Joshua Berman (Nicaragua)

New books by Peace Corps writers | July–August 2023

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and/or  to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.  See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our Third . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers | May — June 2023

  To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and/or  to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.  See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our . . .

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2022 Award for Best Book for Young Adults — ADVENTURES OF MAYANA: FALLING OFF THE EDGE OF THE EARTH

by David Perry Belize, 1985-87     The Adventures of Mayana: Falling Off the Edge of the Earth is the story of a 17-year Belizean girl named Mayana who finds herself on an adventure in a fantasyland of magic, monsters, and intrigue. She crosses over from her homeland of Belize to an alternate reality where the laws of nature and science are very different from what she learned. While she attempts to find her way back to Belize, she befriends a young man named Shifu who mysteriously appears, and speaks only in parables. He helps Mayana use her new-found magic powers to fight monsters and witches and to attempt to find her way home. Shifu also helps her to discover the meaning of life, how to understand why people are the way they are, and most of all how to understand herself. All during her journey, she relies on the recollections of . . .

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Peace Corps celebrates 60 Years in Belize

Today, (July 29, 2022) the US Embassy swore in nine new Peace Corps Volunteers who will be serving in Belize. The Peace Corps project has been in Belize for the past 60 years and the group is a part of the first cohort of two-year Peace Corps Volunteers. The group is the first to be inducted since the  COVID-19 pandemic, which compelled the prior group of volunteers to depart. The volunteers will collaborate with primary school principals and teachers under the Youth Health and Well-Being Project to co-plan and co-teach health and physical education. Since arriving in Belize in May 2022, the nine U.S. citizens have received comprehensive intercultural, language, and technical training to foster greater cross-cultural understanding and effective integration in the communities they will serve. U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires, Leyla Moses-Ones stated at this morning’s ceremony that “The swearing-in of volunteers this year reaffirms the enduring U.S. commitment to . . .

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“Hurricane Greta” by Alan Jackson (Belize)

    I was a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the Fisheries Unit Laboratory in Belize City from August 1976 to October 1978. Initially I stayed in a small boarding house on Prince Street during a four-week Peace Corps orientation. After that I was expected to find my own housing. My monthly stipend was BZ$300 (US$150) a month, which would have to cover all my living expenses. Most Peace Corps Volunteers in Belize City doubled or tripled up and shared flats wherever they could find reasonable rent. I had heard good things about a family that had just hosted two Volunteers during our orientation. One of those Volunteers decided to continue boarding with that family while the other was moving to his jobsite in San Antonio, Toledo District. I asked the family if I could board with them, and they welcomed me into their home. They were a young and . . .

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Peace Corps Writers imprint publishes WOVEN by Nancy Heil Knor (Belize)

    About WOVEN: A Peace Corps Adventure Spun with Faith, Laughter, and Love by Nancy Heil Knor (Belize 1989-1991) • The idea for Woven started back in 1989 when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the K’ekchi Mayan village of San Pedro Columbia in Belize, Central America. As a new teacher-volunteer, I noticed the distinct absence of books in the village. The few picture books that I had brought with me were read and reread by men, women, and children until their bindings cracked; in the schools, classes were taught in English, but had no books for the students to read; and there was always a waiting list of men wanting to borrow my Peace Corps issued Newsweek Magazine.   Within a few months, my Peace Corps project became clear: I would work alongside the villagers to create the first-ever San Pedro Columbia Library! The San Pedro Library . . .

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Review — WHEN BRITISH HONDURAS BECAME BELIZE 1971–73 by Ted Cox

When British Honduras Became Belize 1971–73: A Peace Corps Memoir by Ted W. Cox (Sierra Leone 1969–71); Belize (1971–73) Old World Deli, Publications Dept. $16.95 456 pages 2014 Reviewed by Barbara E. Joe (Honduras 2000-03) Years ago, my curiosity about Belize was aroused during a brief stopover at the primitive tree-canopied Belize City airport. So I picked up When British Honduras Became Belize with considerable anticipation. I was surprised by the book’s heft (456 pages) and puzzled when first thumbing through its vast collection of photos, memos, letters, deeds, certificates, and tables dating from the author’s service. Interspersed were reconstructed conversations and present-day commentary in such large type that I didn’t need my glasses to read it. What was this all about? At first glance, this unconventional book looks much like a scrapbook or collage. It contains five maps, including one of Sierra Leone, author Ted Cox’s first Peace Corps . . .

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Review — MAYA 2012 by Joshua Berman (Nicaragua)

Maya 2012: A Guide to Celebrations in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras by Joshua Berman (Nicaragua 1998–2000) Moon Travel Guides 128 pages $7.99 (paperback) October 2011 Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975–77) TRAVELERS WHO PLAN TO EXPLORE the Mayan world this coming year need this book! Even the seasoned trekker with a worn and patched backpack, creased boots, frayed hat and a passport bulging with extra pages will want to buy Maya 2012 before it’s sold out. It has it all: great maps, background information, descriptions of tours, transportation and discount hotels. It also contains conversion tables, an index, Mayan words and phrases, interesting interviews with important Mayan scholars and even a suggested reading list. This ain’t no guide to overpriced hotels and do-dads, but a book written for us serious wayfarers. For those with only a whiff of Mayan history, this book will convince you that the place . . .

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