A beautiful sunny sunday afternoon in Punta Gorda. I am listening to Lenoard Cohen, sitting on our balcony looking out to the sea, which is calm today. The birds are singing, bees buzzing, geckos sun bathing, mangos ripening and frigit birds surfing the breeze. i am trying to soak it all in. Life continues to be remarkable, exciting, refreshing, cleansing, tiring and calm all at the same time somehow down here.

I took this shot yeterday in a park just outside Sarstun Guatemala- across the river from the National Park SATIIM co-manages

I had quite the week at work, our lawyers took the Government and the Oil Company to the Supreme Court for allowing oil exploration in a National Park- and we won! One of the headlines in the paper said "SATIIM has the first laugh". Because this was the first case to see if the Court would go into a full judicial review- and they are, and in the meantime they have issued an injunciton so the oil company can't go into the park for two weeks, when the case will go to full trial. So that meant, we went to Belize City twice this week and the second time, i actually got to go into the Supreme Court and hear the judge's ruling. the judge still wears the wig here, legacy from British colonial times. So that was really exciting. A small but important first victory for protected area managers in Belize. But the controversy and political mud slugging continues...and the learning on my part continues as well. The next step is an urgent appeal to donors for funding. we're not quite sure how we are going to pay for this court case which is all of a sudden getting quite expensive, since we happen to have one of the best lawyers in the country (which is tiny remember!) on our case (who also happens to be the leader of the opposition).

Besides that, yesterday Jim and I took a boat ride down to the National park with some SATIIM staff who were heading to a workshop on the Guatemalan side of the park, we went along for the ride and went for an awesome hike and swim outside of the little town of Sarstun. Hiking in the jungle here is so cleansing- you just sweat so much! We saw three blue morphos (beautiful blue butterflies), i got attacked by fire ants (I HATE fire ants!!), and lots of birds and insects. And then I went for a swim in the most refreshing swimming hole, there was actually a cold spring which made the water actually refreshing (a hard find around here!). so that was lovely. a great day. Today we are just enjoying a quiet making brunch, journal writing, cbc listening (on our new wireless!), book reading day. Tonight we are going out to dinner to a fancy spot for a friend's birthday, that should be nice.





















Here i am in front of an amazing tree...sweating!

Other recent adventures and highlights around town have involved

- Jim buying a 1989 Trooper (even smells like his old GMC Jimmy truck) so we can now get around a lot easier (esp good for Jim's research in the villages)

- I bought a blender and have been having daily smoothies with local fresh bananas, mangos, pinapples, oranges, yum!

- My bike got stolen last weekend- bummer! but luckily one of my peace corps friends has leant me her extra bike, so that's great

-Went on a great bike ride last weekend on a dirt road for 5 miles or so, past beautiful forest, illegal (?) logging roads, mayan villages, savanna, and finally landed on the shores of the Mojo river for a great swim.

-Last Wednesday (the one day i didn't go into the office b/c jim and i went to a community meeting at Rio Blanco National Park) our office was the site of a protest of local mayan and garifuna community members who want jobs with the oil company, so they aren't too happy about us. so that was exciting -but mostly disturbing and upsetting. Not often do you imagine seeing indigenous people protesting for oil development?? (or maybe that doesn't get covered as much?) They of course were coerced by the oil company who told them they wouldn't get a job with them if they didn't go...but it shows pretty clearly how desperate people here are for work and development...and how hard it is for protected area managers to fight for parks when people are so desperate for dollars...

-Playing serious scrabble with my friend Emily (i am quickly becoming addicted!)

-Picking up a little Creole, including such sayings as- "mi no know!", "these ants are vexing me gial!", "we hailed you bwy", really fun language to learn! I especially like how "lawyers" translates into "liars" it always makes me giggle.

-Meeting this awesome woman, Christina Coc, who has started an NGO called the Julian Cho Society (named after a local Mayan man who mysteriously died a few years ago when he was fighting for land rights...) this woman is Mayan, from Toledo, and is totally inspiring, totally committed to human rights- especially mayan land rights- a strong young leaders and voice, looking forward to getting to know her more.

I guess that is it for now. Wishing everyone all the best. I just checked out the website for the Ottawa Bluesfest - and damn am i jealous!! that looks unbelievable! check it out!

till next time. hugs and love

meg

ps. the mangos are literally falling from the trees right now!