Post Trip Blog: The Full Experience (Kurtis)

First off, this post definitely won't actually cover the full experience. There were too many highs and lows, early mornings and late nights, and good food and non-vegetarian options (oops) to explain the whole trip in detail.

This was my first international trip in which I felt immersed in the country's culture. In high school, I traveled to Haiti for a missions trip, but we were very sheltered from the rest of the country, and did not leave the orphanage we stayed at very often. That being said, I understand that a week-long experience only allows for so much cultural education. From staying in San Ignacio and walking around downtown, to staying in the Toledo district surrounded by Mayan culture, the experience was both amazing and challenging.

A huge challenge I had was when we stayed in the Toledo district. We stayed at a lodging of the Toledo Ecotourism Association (TEA) in a Mayan community. The lodging was basic, but safe and comfortable. It was refreshing to hear nature so clearly at night, and be able to look up and see the stars so beautifully. After all of these positive aspects, you may be wondering what was challenging. To be honest, the interpersonal reactions we had with the families who hosted us were collectively the most challenging experience. The language barrier and cultural differences made conversation difficult at times.

Two specific interactions which I learned so much from happened our last night and last morning staying at the TEA lodging. The last night, myself and other classmates were sitting on hammocks and playing cards, having some fun before we went to bed. A mother and her daughter, who live in the house behind our lodging, came up and started talking to us and watching us play. After a while, I was confused why they were still with us. It made me think to our cultural education, and how Mayan communities live as a community, rather than as people living together. So, while I viewed our lodging somewhat like a hotel that I was staying in, she saw it as a communal house in which her and the rest of the community invited me to stay in. The second happened the last morning. We were told "breakfast at 7". OK, no big deal. Well, luckily, I was awake at 5:45 and ready by 6, because our hosts came at 6:15 ready to feed us. I was stressed because I had to wake up some of my classmates. Not tell them to get ready faster, I had to actually wake them up. After that, while I was waiting for them to come down so we could leave for breakfast, I realized how I stress unnecessarily about time. (This meal was also where the three vegetarians accidentally ate meat, yikes.)

One final thought, which is very minor compared to all of the things I learned in cultural comparisons, is between the different types of farming in Belize. The first farm we visited, a traditional diversified farm, had bananas. The leaves had brown spots growing from the edges of the leaves. I thought it had something to do with the sun when I first noticed it, but after touring an industrial banana farm on the last day of our trip, I found the real reason. The real problem was revealed by our tour guide; it was a fungus, which the plants on her farm did not suffer from regularly because of fungicide sprays. A very minor observation, but something I thought was interesting.

Being that I want to work internationally after graduation, the cultural and travel experiences I was afforded for this class were invaluable.

Thanks for reading! Come to our final presentation on Monday, March 26th at 4pm in 214 Ferguson Building.

Kurtis Miller is a senior studying Animal Science.

Day 6: Dwayne's a cool dude (Kurtis)

A good bit of this post won't be about anything from the itinerary, which I think is a beautiful aspect of travelling. You see, this morning before breakfast, Lex and I were waiting for the girls to come down so we could all walk to breakfast together. The owner of the hotel we were staying at, Dwayne, invited us into his office for some coffee. I started a conversation with him about something intriguing about his office - how he has a picture of the Obama family and a picture of Trump hanging in his office. I asked him about it and we started a conversation about politics (the day before was Belize's election day). He shared that he thinks Trump was a good idea for America; he thinks we needed a change because we continue having "establishment politicians" as he shared. I found this intriguing and controversial as, in my opinion, Trump is very American-focused and could threaten developing countries by not providing as much support.

Another very interesting piece of information Dwayne shared was about agricultural development in Belize. Dwayne used to be a rice farmer, farming approximately 200 acres. He shared with us that, while the US does not provide subsidies or support to Belize for its agriculture, European countries directly subsidize farmers in Belize. He did tell me a concern, however, which was that those subsidies will be ending soon. Belize has tried to support its farmers for when this day comes by improving infrastructure in Belize's "Banana Belt", by building more and better roads, and increasing access to electricity in the area.

After breakfast, we drove to our accommodations in Toledo district - a cabin maintained by a Mayan village. It was a challenging experience for me and most of the other students because we had had wifi at all of the other lodging places, and now we would be without any technology for 2-3 days. As soon as we had unloaded our bags, we went straight to our farm tour for the day with Manuel. Manuel is a Mayan farmer who has learned all of his practices through experience and knowledge passed down by his family. He produces cacao, nutmeg, corn, beans, squash, sugar cane, pineapples, and many edible palms. Something I found intriguing is how little the corn and beans he grows have changed in the past 100 years or so. This is a stark contrast to American varieties of these crops, which have changed so much in just the past 20 years. Manuel held differing opinions about education and agriculture than me, which challenged me. He strongly supports education, but still wants Mayan children to come back to the farm after they have finished their higher education. This seems counter intuitive, as education is frequently used as a tool to lift people out of subsistence farming.

The last thing I'd like to share about is our tour of the Marie Sharp's hot sauce factory. By this time on the trip, I had already fallen in love with their hot sauce and was putting it on every meal available. It was a fairly typical facilities tour, but two important take-aways I had were how Marie Sharp refuses to overly-automate her factory because it would put people out of their jobs, and she wants to provide jobs for as many people as possible. The second nugget of information is a comparison. During my internship last summer, the company required employees doing strenuous jobs with their hands to perform light physical therapy at least once a shift. Marie Sharp's requires the same of their employees when they are doing repetitive and stressful hand motions. I saw this as a great comparison between working environments in America and Belize, and as a way to break stereotypes. Before this trip, knowing Belize was considered a developing country, I had an expectation that working environments would be different than in the US. I'm very glad I had my ignorance of Belize challenged, and had this opportunity to learn from its people.

Kurt is a senior in Animal Science major at Penn State.

Day 2: 24 Hours in and Loving it!!! (Kurt)

It's hard to BELIZE that we've already been here for an entire day already. (I'm so happy to be the first student to use this pun in-country.) The first day (of travel) was rough - having to meet on campus to leave at 2am Saturday morning, with two flights and a two hour drive from Belize City to San Ignacio. But I have a lot of thoughts to unpack from just the short time we've been in this country.
One of my first thoughts on the drive to San Ignacio was the sub-tropical plants. Obviously there are palm trees. I've seen palm trees before. But on the highway, there were palm trees growing in such a way that reminded me distantly of LA. Driving through Belize gave me an appreciation of the different terrains and topography of this country.

Earlier today, we had the opportunity to listen to two experts in Belize agriculture and agricultural education speak on their experiences. One of these people was Andrew Harrison, the Chief Agriculture Officer of Belize. He spoke on the history of agriculture in Belize - which I found incredibly interesting - the current structure of the industry, and how the government is working to develop rural communities, among other things. After Mr. Harrison was done, we were able to ask questions. I was curious about Belize's papaya industry and if they use GM papaya. This led him into a conversation about how Belize doesn't use any GM crops in an effort to err on the side of caution. I found this very interesting, because most research I have read has supported GMOs in all aspects of production - safety, environmental, and efficiency. To me, it is very interesting that a developing country wouldn't want to utilize GM technology to increase yields. Then, I thought deeper and realized that because there is an assurance that their crops are "GMO free" this could open up markets in countries which severely oppose GM technology. Belize, being a former colony of England, likely has a steady market to that country. I'm not sure if this is a reason they still refuse to cultivate GM crops, but I think it could be part of the reason.

As we walked around San Ignacio today, I realized how there were aspects of the town that reminded me of my time in Port au Prince, Haiti. Something that I noticed as a parallel was the irregularity in the cities' designs. Another similarity I noticed was the pervasiveness of street vendors selling various types of foods. The biggest difference I noted, which I'm thankful for, was that the traffic was both reduced and more orderly in Belize compared to Haiti.

After all of this reflection, I want to say that I'm looking forward to the rest of the trip sooooo much!

Kurt Miller is Senior in  Animal Science Major at Penn State. 

Preparing for Belize: Kurt

I'm so excited for our trip, but a friend just tonight told me spring break is next week, which freaked me out. (Their math was wrong about the time before spring break, thankfully.) I don't feel prepared at all. Packing is giving me anxiety.

One of the biggest things that I think is preparing me for this trip is reading The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw. The author and commentaries are giving me the true perceptions of people (from different walks of life) in Belize. Whether native people, immigrants, or politicians, it shows Belize's culture in a way that reading about the country's laws, climate, or agriculture (as examples) operate from a factual, objective perspective. One thing that was almost shocking but very interesting to learn was how Belizeans perceive their government. I remember towards the beginning of The Last Flight... the author explained how Belizeans won't call their government "the government" but rather just "government" in an endearing, personal way. This is something that I think will be important to understand the culture of Belize while in the country.

Another thing that has been helpful for me has been all of the DIY presentations. Learning about endangered species and how they benefit Belize’s economy was a contextual educational experience for me, as it’s one of the things I most look forward to experiencing in Belize (seeing wild animals and at the zoo). Aside from my own contribution to the DIY projects, learning about all of the various topics other students chose is beneficial and also interesting. It’s neat to see what my fellow classmates chose to study, because we will be spending a week together in Belize and I want to learn about my classmates as well. The diverse range of topics, from economic to environmental, are giving me beneficial information on Belize.

The final thing that is helping me prepare is having a friend who spent an entire summer in Belize. She’s telling me all of her experiences and giving me helpful expectations to have about the country and what we will be doing. (She was with Cela Belize also, so she did some of the things we will be doing.)

Introduction: Kurt Miller

I'm Kurt! Animal Science major with minors in Poultry & Avian Sciences and International Agriculture. My picture is one of my favorite pictures from my Philadelphia Zoo internship. I serve at Gigi's Southern Table on the weekends and recently was hired in a research lab on campus. I'm hoping to study methods of improving food security in graduate school. After this study, I want to continue researching methods of improving food security at a land grant university as a professor. Ideally, this would be through poultry models as a way to improve protein nutrition in children.

Well, first and foremost, my interest in this course is to travel. I've only been out of the country once - to Haiti - but I loved the experience. The time I spent in Haiti was with a missions trip for my church's youth group. Before the trip, we raised funds to help rebuild a school that was demolished the the earthquake the previous year. Until a few months ago, actually, I wanted to go to grad school in Spain. I also thoroughly enjoy traveling in the USA as well. My recent travel experiences in the USA include California, Georgia, and an internship in Arkansas last summer.

Secondarily, I need this trip to satisfy the INTAG minor requirement to travel. That being said, this course's content works well with my career aspirations. I hope to work in international aid, increasing food security. Learning about education in a developing country will give me context of how to learn about educational strategies (formal and non-formal) in other countries if I see potential in using such avenues. I'm very excited to learn agricultural structure in Belize as well.

My friend in Animal Science traveled to Belize this previous summer with CELA Belize. Her experience was framed around veterinary medicine, as she will be applying to vet schools starting this summer. While she was in Belize and when she came back, she spoke so highly of the experience and the country. So when I saw that the College was offering an embedded course travelling to Belize, I jumped on the opportunity because of how much my friend enjoyed the experience.

One thing that I personally hope to gain from this course and experience is a better understanding of Central American agriculture. I have an idea in my head of how farming is done in developing countries (I do understand it differs between region and climate), but because I only have experience in one other country, my ideas can't be all that close to the truth. I hope to challenge my preconceived ideas with a truthful experience in-country.

Finally I have to say: After reading The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw (I'm almost done!) I'm so incredibly excited to visit the Belize Zoo.