What I wear to work in Belize

Life is different in the tropics – right down to what people wear to work in Belize. While some have uniforms, many of us are lucky enough to get away with dressing casual. Even though you may be on an island, it’s still important to not be too casual depending on what you do. Remember, not only are you representing the company you work for, but you are also representing yourself, and believe me people do notice. A few days after a meeting, I was once told that sometimes covering up my tattoos was a smart choice. I am glad the person told me and I respect the person that said it, so I now use my discretion in that area. Thankfully, I work a lot from home and my dress code is wide open. I consider myself very lucky that most days I get to wear my bikini to work. Loving the new pink ruffled one I bought at Old Navy and wishing I had bought more suits there when we were in Canada. Much like our trip, today was an action packed and involved a few work wardrobe changes. In Canada it was putting more clothes on, yesterday in Belize when I could get away with it less was better 🙂

Unfortunately it was time to lose the bikini, put on my “Red Cross Hat” (as Shirlee says) and look professional for 3 different meetings. First off, I had to pull together a short notice Media Session at the Poly clinic for our helping hands program. By short notice I mean I had 2 hours to photograph and wrap the stuff, get the local news papers notified, and find any volunteers that could come out to do the help hand over, meet the mom and see the new baby. I managed to divert Mike and Tina from our 11:00 AM meeting at El Divino so Mike could help hand over the donation. Thanks to both Ambergris Today and San Pedro Sun for being so available on short notice, the San Pedro Branch appreciates your ongoing support.

Thanks also goes to the following people for their team effort: Dr.Javier for putting us in touch with Dinora, a single mom of 2 and overdue on her 3rd birth. After learning of Dinora’s story, I started putting the word out that we had someone who needed help. Someone suggested join the “Mom’s of Ambergris Caye” group on Facebook, and ask there so I did. On behalf of SPBRC, I put a call for help post. The island moms were immediately willing to lend a helping hand and are still making contact to donate. So far we received several bags of much needed diapers, clothing, baby care products including baby safety, hygiene, medical, feeding and more. Banana Beach Resort volunteered to handle donation collection and is still doing so if anyone wants to help Dinora and her new baby. Please drop your donation at their front desk and they will get it to Cowboy Doug’s office for me to pick up.

Dinora had the baby at 12:30 Wednesday morning, and she weighed 6 lbs (9 oz). The staff on hand at the poly clinic to deliver the baby were nurse Beverly Tucker and Dr.Nyana Harrison. See the San Pedro Sun – San Pedro Red Cross comes to the aid of mother and newborn. Please note: The Poly Clinic is not properly equipped to do birthing, this particular case was a middle of the night emergency procedure. All mothers should have solid plans in place to give birth at a properly outfitted facility.

Onto our next meeting at Banana Beach, a very important one with Ms. Tina from Belize Red Cross headquarters. She came out to help Mike and I with the budget for our upcoming Street Beat training and activity. The date is set for Friday June 20th at El Divino restaurant& from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM and the activity the next day will be at San Pedro Lobster Festival block party. Street Beat is an activity that is initially being funded by the Norwegian Red Cross. SPBRC will soon be training San Pedro volunteers how to talk to the public about HIV and the importance of using protection. Following the training volunteers will go out in groups of 3 and talk to the public. Three Street Beat objectives:

• Increase the awareness of HIV & AIDS and sexual and reproductive health countrywide
• To develop and build on an active relationship with community members and specifically young people
• To help the raise awareness of the youth service agencies in all Belize communities.

To find out more please go to Street Beat Training for San Pedro post. If you would like to get trained and be a part of this initiative please contact Shirlee Arnould at shirlee.spbrc@gmail.com or Laurie Norton at tacogirlbelize@gmail.com . ASAP, as we are looking for volunteers. Please note meals have been arranged for volunteers during training and the afternoon of the event.

After leaving our local air conditioned haven I headed home to to catch a short break before the Red Cross Board meeting in town that evening. I was glad for a temporary break from my Red Cross uniform. It was so hot, I was almost wishing for a good heavy rain to cool off. Earlier that morning, I had caught a Belize travel forum post on Trip Advisor from someone who was worried about rain and wanted to know the Current San Pedro weather from a local point of view. As far as rain goes in spite of what the weather sites are saying, we have not as much as we could have considering the looks of the sky over the reef in my Sunday picture below.