6 July, 201410 July, 2014 Caroline Bach2 Comments

The Lopascinski Adventure

Lopascinski famlily visit

The Lopascinskis were looking for places to stay during their one year trip around the world when they appeared on my page on Couchsurfing. They are a family of four, with two children aged 10 and 12, and two awesome Polish parents who decided to quit their jobs and embark on this adventure. I invited them to stay at my place, and they brought their curiosity and excitement along. We had a very nice time together on a walk around town, and I made the kids banana and blueberry ice cream and orange popsicles, while the dad cooked lobster tails from the market for us. It was very nice to get to speak Polish again for a while and getting a bit of a family environment in my empty apartment. Also, we realized that the parents actually know my father and live in the same city – so I’m sure we will meet again!

To read about the adventures of the Lopascinski family in Polish, visit their blog. And I wish them all the best on their journey!

Lopascinski famlily visit

5 July, 201410 July, 2014 Caroline Bach2 Comments

Cross Regional meeting on Violence Against Children, cool art, and a glimpse of Kingston

Kingston, Jamaica

We arrived in Kingston on Monday morning and headed straight to the first day of the cross regional conference on violence against children, chaired by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children along with Lisa Hanna, the Jamaican Minster of Youth and Culture and also Miss World in 1993 – still beautiful.

After the conference we went to the Red Bones restaurant in New Kingston, where we came across amazing Richard Nadoo and his exhibition “Reverbation of the Silent Echo”.. I was enchanted by the details and colours in his art, and the very complex story connecting the pieces. My favourite piece was already sold which made me really sad but I might get the opportunity to buy something from him at some other point. The food was nice and the atmosphere very cozy in Red Bones, despite the lack of promised live music.

On the second day of the conference participants from different organisations and regions continued sharing their experiences and challenges related to child protection, and the sessions ended with a presentation by Jamaican youth on the issues that they feel affect them the most.

After the conference we went to Bob Marley’s house, which has been transformed into a museum. Photography was unfortunately not allowed, but looking into Bob Marley’s recording studio, kitchen and bedroom, with all of their cool details and cool carpets and beautiful instruments was very interesting, and I actually never knew Bob Marley’s father was an Englishman who died when Bob Marley was 10 years old.

On our last evening I stayed in, relaxing for a bit before the 3am wake up call and airport pick up, and then we did the long trip through Miami airport – back to Belize, back to the breeze, back home. :)

Kingston, Jamaica

Richard Nattoo art

Kingston, Jamaica

4 July, 20144 July, 2014 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Shoot the DJ, mon – you’re in Jamaica.

Montego Bay, Jamaica

A car swooshes by. “Y’all wanna buy sum Bob Marley?!” the driver shouts at us, while uniformed police hang out just a block away. Welcome to Jamaica.

Knowing that we had a conference to attend in Kingston on Monday, we decided to fly to Jamaica already on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend there and get a feel of the country. We flew over to Montego Bay on the northern coast of the island early Saturday morning – and got two days in the beach town. The water was clear as glass and people were generally utterly friendly. We had heard so many bad stories about how rude people are in Jamaica, how racist and insulting they can be and how dangerous it is to walk around as a tourist – but we got none of that. People were curious to chat, kids were confident and eager to play, strangers were smiling, and everybody wanted to share their Mary Jane. We kindly declined the offers and only stayed within the safe areas after dark – at most times we were the only foreigners around – and it was completely fine.

We spent our days playing on the beach and in the water, and the evenings having nice dinners. On Saturday night we danced, which was an experience in itself. Little did I know that many of the Dancehall songs have specific steps to them that the entire club does together, and at first I didn’t understand why the people would get all ecstatic, jump in the air and then pretend to “shoot the DJ” when a new song came on. I later got the explanation that “pra pra prra!” with a pistol-formed hand in the air is an expression of joy rather than aggression. “We show the DJ that we like the song, that we appreciate his work!” That’s how normalized the relationship to fire arms is in Jamaica. It’s sad and it’s scary – but nobody seems to mind.

I bought Red-Yellow-Green rasta juggling balls in Montego Bay. Six years ago a beautiful clown taught me how to juggle but I lost the skill as I fell out of love. I decided to learn again, thanks to Jamaica. A bit cheesy, a bit symbolic, it will be a practice in juggling and combining pleasure with responsibilities. Celebrating life and professionalism at the same time. Finding time to disconnect, but continue loving my job and giving it the time it requires.

It will remind me of all the emails sent and the one-hour work related Skype call I had just a moment before taking the photo above. And how I enjoyed it all.

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Montego Bay

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Montego Bay

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Montego Bay

Montego Bay, Jamaica

24 June, 201423 June, 2014 Caroline BachLeave a comment

A Belize City Drive

Fun radio music, people biking, and a little view of what Belize City looks like. Hey – you even get to see one of the City’s two traffic lights! So – what do you think?

23 June, 201423 June, 2014 Caroline BachLeave a comment

A beautiful day on Caye Caulker

Finally – I took my camera out and took some photos on a lovely one-day trip we did to Caye Caulker on Saturday. A day with good friends, snorkeling, sun hang out, and delicious lobster.

Caye Caulker

22 June, 2014 Caroline Bach1 Comment

The Revelation Bootcamp in Belize City!

Here are the photos from last weekend’s Bootcamp in the BTL park here in Belize. Cricel – the same girl who runs the Danza Revelation classes – was pushing us to jump, run, push, carry and pull – and it was a fantastic day packed with energy and great team spirit.

We were followed by Knight and Day photography – so I managed to get hold of some of the shots.. great stuff!

The Revelation Bootcamp

Can’t wait for the next time. I had Cricel promise it won’t be when I’m out of town. ;)

18 June, 201419 June, 2014 Caroline Bach1 Comment

Shaking it in the Dark!

Danza!!

Today we had the Danza Revelation class with the lights turned off, disco lights on and DJ Khris spinning our tracks. It was like kicking all of our Danza moves in a real nightclub with a big group of friends, huge amounts of energy, and loud “awoooogah!” shouts – I’m so happy to have found this amazing group!

Took a little time-out to film one of the Brazilian songs we were doing – just as the sun was setting. Cricel Castillo in the front line, showing the way to shake it.

18 June, 201418 June, 2014 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Majestic summer

The room next to me in the office is a conference room, today occupied by UNFPA people in training and loud conference calls.

I just remembered I can block my ears out with some summer. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?! On a roll now – Thanks Majestic.

Back to work.

17 June, 201417 June, 2014 Caroline BachLeave a comment

A taste of the Belize City nightlife

Saturday night was fun by the way.

We went to Club Elite at the Princess hotel where DJ Private Ryan from Trinidad was playing Soca music and commercial house tunes. The crowd was very young, the place was filled way over its capacity, and the dj was changing the beats a bit too often – but I had a really great night with my new friends from the Danza and Saturday’s bootcamp. We danced and danced and danced. Fun and happy girls!

The selection of nightclubs here in Belize City isn’t the greatest. Apart from the two clubs that are next to each other (Elite and Thirsty Thursdays) and both play the same type of music and host the same young crowd that doesn’t start to dance before it has had enough alcohol by 2am – I haven’t yet found many options.

Apparently there are other places, and I have driven past them a couple of times, but they are referred to as the “ghetto clubs” where somebody gets hurt every weekend and nobody wants to go there. Actually, every single person I have asked says: “We don’t party in Belize City. To have real fun you need to get out – jump over to the islands or take a trip to Chetumal in Mexico!”

That’s not really what I had in mind.. I really like the part of the night when you come home, exhausted and happy, kick the shoes off, take a nice shower, and open the fridge to have some dark chocolate. And a proper breakfast the next day. No checkouts.

I have still not given up, and in the bootcamp I met a Nicaraguan friend who promised that there is a Latino club somewhere. Where people dance bachata. A safe ghetto club.

17 June, 201417 June, 2014 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Das Working Environment

I was listening in on a presentation about exciting UNICEF C4D initiatives earlier, such as the “Take Poo to the Loo” campaign in India – you need to see that Youtube video! The Word-made calendar behind me is inspired by the huge calendar Camila set up in our office in Nicaragua where we planned each month in detail – it’s really nice to have an overview of all the awesomeness that is coming up, and I’m reminded about meetings and deadlines I maybe subconsciously am trying to ignore.

I feel like I can breathe in my office now that I took the time to go through and sort all of the papers, folders and publications in had in my bookshelf. The communication officer office is usually where at least one copy of all printed material is dumped and stored.. and it was a complete mess that I couldn’t get my head around. Now I know what I have, it’s beautifully organised by theme and programme area, and it’s all marked with cute little tags! Oh, happy day! Efficiency!

Maybe I should create a category here in the blog for all the times I am being German.