Blog 4

Belize was not what I expected, but it was SO MUCH BETTER. Looking back on the trip, I am so glad that I got to experience what I did and if I could go back and replay that week I would without thinking twice. I had a lot of fun getting to know the rest of the team and experiencing the culture of Belize, and although I felt 100% prepared for the trip, there were many things that caught me off guard. I could have never predicted some of the things I saw and I wouldn't have been able to guess how I would react to them. Seeing many people living in such poor conditions, but truly being happy, made me think about how our society is so far away from what is really important in life. During our de-briefing, Jessica mentioned that many people probably don't realize that they are 'poor' and they have a less-than-desirable way of life until people come in and tell them that they need help making their life better. One of my favorite pictures of this trip was the little boy that was the son of the wood carver that applied for a loan. He was so happy playing with his pet quash in his yard, and despite the fact that his dad was applying for a microloan and his family was 'poor', he was so happy just to be able to play in his yard with his animal. So often so many kids are always demanding the latest and greatest and I think in the US we have lost sight of what is really important in life. Seeing people in Belize that were genuinely happy despite the fact that they didn't have a lot of money made me realize that in the grand scheme of things, the things that matter are nothing that money can buy.

As an economics major, there are many connections between my studies and the Belize trip. I have studied the works of Yunus in my International Trade and Finance class, and I was interested in the microfinance programs then. Seeing the process and the results of microfinance programs first-hand was so awesome. I love helping others, and being able to combine that with an area of economics that I'm interested in was such a great experience. I've been considering Microfinance or working with developing economies as my specialty, and the trip really furthered my interests in these areas. It was also really interesting to think about the concepts and theory that I had learned in my economics class and look at how they applied to things we were involved with in Belize. For example, when we went to the client's houses with Michelle and Ursuline, the qualities of a good loan candidate that Michelle and Ursuline had defined aligned with those that I had learned in my classes. Also, I thought about the relationship between Gross Domestic Product and the standard of living for the Belizeans, and I found it very interesting to compare Belmopan to San Pedro, and look at the effect that tourism has had on the country. It was so neat for me to be able to connect the things I learned in my classes back in Louisville to things I was experiencing first-hand in Belize. I'm hoping that I will have more opportunities to experience this in the future (a repeat Belizer...?) and I would love to pursue this as a potential career.

No words will ever be able to describe how I felt about this experience!! I'm very glad that I took the advice from past team members and brought a journal with me to write down what we did.