You Betta Belize It – International Service Trips at W&M

To say that international service trips at William and Mary are plentiful is like saying that there are one or two tricornered hats in Colonial Williamsburg.  It’s a bit of an understatement.  Students from William and Mary travel to Honduras, to the Dominican Republic, to Tanzania, to Kenya, and beyond.  Service trips take place over spring break, throughout winter break, and during the summer, and each one has been founded, carefully prepped, and run by passionate William and Mary students.

My sophomore year I was fortunate enough to get involved with a group called W&M Students for Belize Education.  We began our service with a trip during the winter break of 2009 and worked with a primary school in Flowers Bank, a small town in rural Belize.  St. Stephen’s Anglican is a school with 40 students ranging from age 4 to 14.  All the students speak English and the local dialect of Kriol, and are given lessons in a long, low cinderblock building, painted bright aqua and yellow.  Each of three classrooms is run in a one-room schoolhouse style, with at least three grade levels learning simultaneously in each class.

The poverty that dominates the children’s lives is obvious, in the scant resources at the school, in the one or two uniforms that the children wear every day, in the shoes that they take off during recess to make them last longer.  Some children weren’t able to bring lunch to school, because their families can only afford two meals a day.  However, their teachers are passionate and creative, and do everything they can to ensure a better future for these children.  We decided to do all we could to help them.  Last year, we built relationships with the teachers and students at the school, constructed a bathroom and septic system, painted colorful murals on the outside walls, helped out in the classrooms, and did a lot of playing – piggyback rides, football (soccer) games, you name it.

This year, the first day that we returned to the school we were all excited to get started with work and to be reunited with the kids and friends we had made the year before – though we kept reminding ourselves that the kids might not remember us, they might have been too young.  We greeted the teachers while a few kids peeked shyly out from behind the veranda of the school.  As I looked around, I found a familiar face – that of 6-year-old Nathania, who had attached herself to my hip for a good portion of my visit the year before.  She looked a little different, and I realized that she had grown up, that her two front teeth, previously missing, had grown in.  I bent down to say hi, and said, “do you remember me?”  As she looked back, I saw that same bright smile – just a bit toothier – as her face lit up with recognition and she threw herself into my arms for a hug.

This scene was repeated all over the school yard, as little reunions occurred and new friends were made on the spot.  Again, we got a chance to see Iris – who wants to grow up to be a judge, Norvel – who wants to be a photographer, Constance and Raneisha – who want to be teachers when they grow up.  Throughout the week, we played, we talked, we told them about the snow in far-off Virginia, and we listened to their dreams about going to college and doing great things with their futures.

When designing our projects for this year, we were careful to use feedback we received last year from teachers and community members to make sure that our efforts were well aimed.  This year, we enclosed the front porch of the school to prevent stray dogs and chickens from wandering into the classrooms, brought filters to provide a purified water supply on site at the school, repaired cracks in their rain water cistern, gave a short lesson on HIV/AIDS education, and did a photography project with each of the classes, among other activities.  Most importantly we were able to work closely with the community to make improvements on the school, as almost all of the laborers who helped us with construction had children or grandchildren who attended the school.  We also did interviews throughout the community to get ideas for projects in the future.

Despite the fact that we were able to accomplish a great deal while we were on site, leaving the school on the last day was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do since coming to William and Mary.  The fact remains that these children lead incredibly difficult lives, and as hard as a team of 12 college students may work, we cannot ensure that they will make it to high school, go to college, and that they will lead their families and communities to better futures.  However, when the principal of the school bade us goodbye, she said, “We will miss you, we look forward to seeing you in the future, and know that you will never be strangers here ever again.”  When I left, as much as I already missed the students, the teachers, the hubbub of the classrooms, it was a comfort to know that we left real relationships in our wake.  These children know that a group of college students from William and Mary in far-off Virginia care about them a great deal.  Furthermore, we’ve made it clear that we will come back, and we will do whatever is in our power to ensure that they have what they need to learn, and that we will encourage them to keep dreaming.

Colleen Kennedy

Class of 2010