As an animal enthusiast, a trip to Belize not only offers the incredible opportunity to experience a new culture and learn about indigenous knowledge and agriculture, but also the exciting chance to be in a country with a wide variety of wildlife and biodiversity. I can’t think of anything better!
My favorite thing to do is explore outside with my animals... I’m looking forward to exploring Belize!
As our group continues to prepare for the trip, we are all reading class books and experiencing the same eye-opening exercises, but we then take our learning and preparation a bit further by researching a topic of interest to us to learn more about it in Belize. Mine was wildlife conservation and biodiversity.
Learning about all of the work that Sharon Matola, the founder of the Belize Zoo, has done to protect the animals of Belize and educate community members on the challenges these animals face and benefits of having them is truly inspiring. Her hard work, while sometimes controversial within development projects, has raised awareness of the importance of conservation and the need for education in order to do so. For example, in The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, there is an example of an older man visiting the zoo who was native to Belize and had never even seen the animals native to his country. Education on wildlife is absolutely necessary to conservation since steps to protection can not be made if there is no understanding of the dangers the animals face or the importance of protection. Learning about the impact that Sharon has had on her community and the animals’ lives has excited me to visit the Zoo and learn more about wildlife in addition to working hard back home to protect our wildlife.
Our trip is coming up which is exciting and overwhelming all at once! I am looking forward to the experience and hope to maintain my sincere, authentic curiosity, as explained in a lecture on indigenous knowledge with Dr. Abder Ouarghidi, to show my respect and eagerness to learn about and understand a new culture. I will use my knowledge from what we have researched to ask questions and continue to open my mind to new knowledge.
I believe our class activity with the Alphans and the Betans showed the importance of an open mind, patience, and willingness to push out of your comfort zones to connect with new people. When our two (made up) cultures interacted, the two groups had different norms and customs, leading to unintentional disrespect of each other. While this originally made me worried that I would make a mistake when in a new culture in Belize, I then learned about the Action-Reflection-Response Strategy that will help me recognize, reconstruct, learn about, and make new interpretations of any critical events that may happen.
With my new knowledge of Belize and my additional knowledge on conservation issues, I am looking forward to our trip so I can continue to gain valuable information about Belize and interacting with new cultures and environments.
As our group continues to prepare for the trip, we are all reading class books and experiencing the same eye-opening exercises, but we then take our learning and preparation a bit further by researching a topic of interest to us to learn more about it in Belize. Mine was wildlife conservation and biodiversity.
Learning about all of the work that Sharon Matola, the founder of the Belize Zoo, has done to protect the animals of Belize and educate community members on the challenges these animals face and benefits of having them is truly inspiring. Her hard work, while sometimes controversial within development projects, has raised awareness of the importance of conservation and the need for education in order to do so. For example, in The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, there is an example of an older man visiting the zoo who was native to Belize and had never even seen the animals native to his country. Education on wildlife is absolutely necessary to conservation since steps to protection can not be made if there is no understanding of the dangers the animals face or the importance of protection. Learning about the impact that Sharon has had on her community and the animals’ lives has excited me to visit the Zoo and learn more about wildlife in addition to working hard back home to protect our wildlife.
Our trip is coming up which is exciting and overwhelming all at once! I am looking forward to the experience and hope to maintain my sincere, authentic curiosity, as explained in a lecture on indigenous knowledge with Dr. Abder Ouarghidi, to show my respect and eagerness to learn about and understand a new culture. I will use my knowledge from what we have researched to ask questions and continue to open my mind to new knowledge.
I believe our class activity with the Alphans and the Betans showed the importance of an open mind, patience, and willingness to push out of your comfort zones to connect with new people. When our two (made up) cultures interacted, the two groups had different norms and customs, leading to unintentional disrespect of each other. While this originally made me worried that I would make a mistake when in a new culture in Belize, I then learned about the Action-Reflection-Response Strategy that will help me recognize, reconstruct, learn about, and make new interpretations of any critical events that may happen.
With my new knowledge of Belize and my additional knowledge on conservation issues, I am looking forward to our trip so I can continue to gain valuable information about Belize and interacting with new cultures and environments.
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