Developing Lenses for Development

What a great week we had with professor Robert Pelant (Pacific Rim Institute) for our Sustainable Community Development course!  This was the first part of SCD, and Robert wasted no time in stretching the students' minds.  He challenged them to think about what development really means, how to critically analyze development projects, what the natural world can teach us about crafting sustainable systems, and more.  Teaching from his many cross-cultural development experiences, Robert not only had a wealth of knowledge, but an abundance of great stories as well!

We traveled to a few places around Belize to learn some of their stories of development, get us out of the classroom, and give us a chance to test out our new analytical lenses.  One place we visited was the Mollejon hydroelectric dam, where there are many costs and benefits to think about in solving Belize's increasing need for energy.

For a completely different type of development, we also visited the San Antonio Women's Co-op.  This women's group is in the mountain village of San Antonio and was started by our friend Timotea.  They raise chickens and pigs, grow vegetables, and practice traditional Mayan embroidery, pottery, and cooking.  A few of the women showed us how to grind corn the old fashioned way, make our own tortillas, and try our hand at some pottery.

Miss Josepha approves of Ren's corn grinding form

Mara & Eric race to shape their tortillas in record time

Taylor, Jeremy and Derek learn about molds from Timotea

At the end of the week we even found time to check out another local Maya archaeological site, Cahal Pech, just for fun:

Ren, Rachel, Marissa and Taylor in (and on) some of the royal residences

Thanks again to Robert for a great first class!!

Cahal Pech group photo by Robert Pelant