Christine's Internship

Christine Prins

Internship at the Belize Botanic Gardens

            In my two weeks as the Gardens I had an opportunity to work on many different areas of gardening and horticulture and with many different people.  Every morning I would work in the nursery and help with weeding, turning, re-potting, mulching, etc.  I also helped make labels to become familiar with the plants in the gardens.  In the late morning I worked up-keep related work.  I wood-chipped paths, pulled some weeds, and sifted and turned compost.  I also helped augment some of the Visitor’s Center displays.  This included creating a logwood dye display with a spectrum of colors, finding info on the plants in display, collecting specimens and making picture frames. 

            I got to do some special work with the orchids in the house and the nursery.  In some afternoons I was researching information on CO2 uptake and finding photo links for the gardens website.  I would pick some fruit throughout the day as well.  The experience was complete with a trip to Mountain Pine Ridge to collect some bark, then a nice refreshing swim at the local waterfall, Big Rock Falls.  Throughout the week I got to learn some Spanish and Mayan, and learned to recognize some Creole.

            During the two weeks at my internship, I did not return home to the Nab.  Instead, I got to spend each weeknight with the Can family in Corozalito.  They are a family of 11 that primarily speak Spanish, although the oldest girls were quite fluent in English (whew!).  There was limited electricity and no running water and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Never before have I laughed so much about something I didn’t understand.  I learned how to make so many different foods, and it was so much fun living around children again.  I am very sad these two weeks are over as they were incredible.  One of the highlights of Belize so far for sure!