For our last day, we enjoyed a nice morning at the Belize Zoo. Seeing the animals in their natural habitat was so cool! Of course my favorite part was being in the jaguar cage, but all of the animals were amazing! As we made our way through the zoo we took several photos and were able to bond as a group. I enjoyed getting to spend the morning with everyone. Four of us went into the jaguar cage, Belle, Kathleen, Lindie and myself. We were so scared at first because the jaguars had been growling all morning! We could hear them from across the zoo. Once we started walking into the cage, I began to feel more comfortable. The jaguar began to do some tricks and prance around. The zookeeper then instructed him to jump up on the cage. YIKES! He was huge!! His paws were as big, if not bigger, than the palms of my hands! We were able to touch him and pet his belly and tail. Next, we were able to feed him! I was terrified at first. The pieces of raw chicken were so tiny that you really had to put the meat in his mouth. I thought that he was going to take my fingers with him! The jaguar was very gentle though and no harm was done to any of us. He was such a majestic creature and just watching him walk around was so cool. I was so proud of myself that I was able to do it! It was a once in a lifetime experience and totally worth the extra cash!
Next we went to the Inspiration Center where we met a very knowledgeable and informative physical therapist. The Inspiration Center is a community based rehabilitation facility. She gave us a tour of the facility and some background information on how it was started. We even got to sit in on her presentation that informed us on what she has learned and gone through in the past 12 years that she has been treating in Belize. I was amazed to learn about how few allied health professionals there are in Belize. I knew there were only 3 speech therapists in the country, but I never thought about how few physical therapists and occupational therapists were there also! There are 4 physical therapists and 0 occupational therapists.
Seeing all of the equipment and space the center has for treatment was very promising. I know that the center is going to make a huge difference in the country of Belize. I was also surprised to learn that insurance does not get involved with this center. I guess I just assumed that families would want insurance if their child needed services, but in Belize insurance isn’t a necessity. It must be nice to work with other professionals and not have to deal with billing and insurance claims. We also were able to meet the speech therapist on staff. She seemed like a wonderful woman who has great experience. I would love to see her in action with some of the children. It would have been such an amazing experience to come intern with her. I hope that maybe one of the other girls can come in the summer and experience it for me! This center was absolutely wonderful and I feel much better leaving the children of Stella Maris knowing that there is a center for them to go and receive services. I hope that one day more centers like the Inspiration Center open up to serve all of the children on the waiting list. After seeing the need for allied health professionals, it has opened my eyes to the thought of maybe traveling for a few years to work somewhere like Belize that is in need of speech therapists. Maybe once I start working in the US and get my feet off the ground, I’ll be able to come back! Stay tuned!
-Courtney Yancy
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