Leave only footprints, take only pictures

Reflecting on our last week in Hopkins

During our last week in Belize, we finished off strong! Here's what the week entailed: 

An important goal of this week was to interview community members about high-risk flooding areas and human-made/natural debris hotspots. Using surveys and perception maps, some initial patterns we found were differences in perceptions of flooding areas depending on whether they reside on the North or South side of the village and whether they lived back near the marshlands or the front by the beach. From a sociological perspective, we noticed how social inequalities play into who is most susceptible to flooding and who has to deal with trash.

Here is a flooding team member collecting flood perception data from local residents

Many community members during our interviews reported feeling grateful for the work we were doing at the library and for involving the students in the debris and flooding studies we are working on. 

Unfortunately, we were thrown a curveball, originally planning to take the students to Carrie Bow Caye.

However, due to bad weather, it was canceled. After some quick thinking by the Education Team, the students had an incredible, impromptu field day at the library!

The students participated in a relay race, competing boys against girls, using sponges to see who could fill their water buckets first - resulting in lots of cheers and excitement! It was followed by a field trip to Nice Cream, the local ice cream parlor!

Some of our team members visited the Hamanasi sustainability facility. Hamanasi is one of the largest resorts in Hopkins and also actively works to be a positive force in ecological sustainability. There were many takeaways from this experience. 

We noticed that it is entirely possible for a large company to be sustainable and eco friendly. The Head of Sustainability at Hamanasi explained that they build their own furniture so they can prevent the excess plastic and waste that comes with shipping items. 

The most impressive thing was that they collect, re-use, and re-purpose almost everything. They use leftover glass bottles and recyclables as usable products throughout their resort. Their compost yard breaks down their used cooking oil, rubbers, and produce remains -- most of which comes from their own garden.

As we sit reflecting on this blog post, we are feeling restimulated academically and socially, like we left some sort of impact here in the village. Our final community event was bittersweet, as we said goodbye to the connections we made here.

However, we leave knowing that the village of Hopkins will continue to thrive in the face of ecological challenges and economic hardship due to the pandemic. We are sad to leave but grateful that we were so warmly welcomed! Thank you Hopkins. 

Community members and the 2022 REU/RET team during closing ceremony event

Written by: Micah Ortiz, Halley Spencer, and Elise Lorenzo.