Belize trip makes for unique experience

David Collins, from left, Nicole Grande, Christie Abramovic and Jean Edwards helped to paint a school.

By Tom Cain
Staff Writer

If anyone asks a student in Dr. Paula Horvath-Neimeyer’s Cross Cultural Communication class, “What did you do over spring break?” they could get the following response: Well, let’s see. I shared an outhouse with a chicken, listened to rats foraging for food on the roof of a thatched hut, bathed in a mountain stream, ate termites and iguana, and took more than a half-ton of supplies to three schools in a small Central American country.

All of the above were experienced by Horvath-Neimeyer and her 15 students on a study abroad trip to Belize during spring break. Part of the time, three days and two nights, the group stayed in a Mayan village called San Jose, the site for one of the schools.

“It was an amazing experience for myself and the students,” said Horvath-Neimeyer, an instructor in the Department of Communications and Visual Arts. “I think everyone was in some measure transformed by the experience. The students were confronted with situations they’d never encountered.”

Sophomore Sheri Jensen can vouch for that. Jensen was the person who came across a chicken when she went to use the outdoor facility.

“It (the trip) was just an awesome experience. I’d love to do it again,” she said. “It was very enlightening. Everyone we met was so respectful.”

Horvath-Neimeyer and the students collected more than 1,000 pounds of school supplies prior to going to Belize. From a previous trip, Horvath-Neimeyer was aware that the elementary school in San Jose needed things such as books, binders, pens, pencils, paper, folders, rulers and notebooks.

To obtain the supplies, Horvath-Neimeyer and the students placed collection boxes on the UNF campus, solicited contributions from churches and civic organizations, and received donations of supplies from area schools.

Originally, the plan called for supplies to go only to the school in San Jose, but they collected so many supplies they were able to add two schools. At one school, the Belizean students got together and sang the country’s national anthem to show their appreciation.

In her office, Horvath-Neimeyer has an embroidered cloth with a pair of toucans stitched on it. The piece was given to her by the staff at the San Jose school. The toucan is Belize’s national bird.

Horvath-Neimeyer and the students slept on hammocks in the homes of the Mayans living in San Jose, which has a population of 741 and is near the border of Belize and Guatemala.

The homes, which Horvath-Neimeyer described as consisting of one room with a thatched roof, had no water or electricity. There was one telephone in San Jose. The noisy rats were a concern for some students, and Horvath-Neimeyer said everyone checked for scorpions before putting on their shoes.

Horvath-Neimeyer said she and the students ate a lot of chicken, rice, beans and eggs. The termites and iguana, although sampled, weren’t diet staples for the students. No iguana sandwich with a side order of termites.

“It was like ‘Fear Factor’ and ‘Survivor’ combined,” Horvath-Neimeyer said with a smile, referring to the popular reality television programs.

Student Tracy Collins added, “At night it was freezing cold.”

Despite the occasional physical discomfort, Collins wouldn’t trade her Belizean experience.

“You left the country feeling you had learned something about those people and about yourself,” she said.

Horvath-Neimeyer said the many distinct cultural groups in Belize made it an ideal country to visit for a class devoted to cross-cultural communication.

She went to Belize for the first time 20 years ago as a reporter for The Gainesville Sun. Ironically, she went to cover a story about the Gainesville Rotary Club collecting clothing for children in Belize. Twenty years later, she is the one doing the collecting.

“I fell in love with the people in Belize,” Horvath-Neimeyer said of her initial visit. She and her husband have been back to Belize many times over the years.

Horvath-Neimeyer and the students, who also painted a school, took a circuitous route to the country. They met at the Miami airport and boarded a plane that first went to Houston and then on to Belize.

Each student and Neimeyer carried 70 pounds of the school supplies as a second piece of luggage. They knew they had more than 1,000 pounds total because all of the supplies were weighed at Horvath-Neimeyer’s house during a trip planning session.

Looking back on the experience, Collins perhaps expressed the feelings of other students when she said, “I felt like instead of going to some Caribbean island, it made my spring break worthwhile.”

Horvath-Neimeyer added, “Some of the changes I saw in students were phenomenal, almost breathtaking.”

What was the first thing the group did when they got back to the good old United States?

“We got into Miami at midnight and just crashed,” Horvath-Neimeyer said.