Welcome!

 Hello and welcome to Seeds to Trees! This blog is all about the promotion of environmental education, and will be following my journey towards building my own environmental education center in Belize Central America. This dream began to take form in January 2012 when I left for Galen University located just outside of San Ignacio Belize. To be fair I originally had my heart set on traveling across the ocean on a "Seamester", which would take me to several different countries across the world. Sounds tempting does it not? Well through a strange twist of fate my professor (Dr.Patrick Hossay) convinced me otherwise. The problem with programs like the Seamester are that you do not truly get to experience the countries you visit, because just like any cruise liner you end up only spending two or three days at most in each port. For some people this would be sufficient, but for me I wanted to know these people from inside and out and only spending a few days in the most popular harbors was not going to cut it. So, the short of it is that my professor convinced me to travel to Belize instead. Quite honestly I had no idea where Belize was or even heard of it for that matter until he utter the words himself. Soon, I was intrigued by his stories of working with Galen university and developing the howler monkey reserve. Needless to say it took very little convincing, I was ready to explore, blend in, and learn from this strange new country.

 It did not take me long to convince my boyfriend (and soon to be fiance) to change his plan of sailing the ocean and travel to this strange country as well. It wasn't very long until we both had all our things packed and ready to go, that is our two hiking packs and a small book bag. I remember getting on the plane at the Philadelphia airport just feeling light as anything ready to tackle the next seven months. Suddenly, after about 7 hours of flight time the ocean turned to land, there were mountains and grass lands all waiting right there for us. It felt like a dream as we landed and waited to get off the plane. Once the door opened the sun hit our faces and all I could feel was the warm welcoming that felt like home. It was strange I had never been to this place before in my life and yet it felt as though I was always meant to be there, and this is coming from someone who had traveled before. From that point on it only got better, we hitched a ride with some Mennonites who dropped us off at a bus stop right outside of San Ignacio better referred to as Cayo. Once we got on the bus, which was essentially a renovated school bus, we were taken into the town center of Cayo where we met a guy named Martin. Martin took us to our new house where we would be staying for the next seven months, and let me tell you the view was amazing! We could see the mountains, farms, and even some parts of town; it was our new home and it felt as though we had always been there. It is strange how you can go somewhere that you had never been too or even heard of for that matter and feel as though this was the place you have always belonged, it was love at first site. This is where the dream began, my goal became to know all who lived there and to be one with the culture.

 Our time spent in Belize is the most memorable part of my life, I love the people, the food, the culture, the rum, and of course the environment. The wildlife and jungles of Belize are among some of the most beautiful you will ever see. Which is why I want to protect it so badly. Belize has an amazing culture and so many of them strive to make something of themselves; which is why I want to open an environmental education center. If the children of Belize want to go to school their parents are looking at paying at least $1,000 Belize dollars ($500 US), which is out of reach for a lot of families. By building an environmental education center I am not only trying to teach children about their environment, but teach them about the basic skills they need for life. My center would be a non-profit based on allowing kids who cannot afford to school to attend for very little or no coast. Their days would be spent learning valuable lessons and also how to eventually educate their own communities. Unlike many other organizations out there I want the outdoor center in Belize to be mainly run by Belizeans. I am not out to create something for myself, I love Belize and I want to see it thrive and that means allowing them to have the freedom to dedicate their time and creativity to helping build this organization for a better tomorrow.

 This blog has been created in order to spread the word about the increase in environmental education in Central American countries and what it has accomplished. This September (2014) I will be traveling to Costa Rica where there is already a very well established eco tourism, organic farming, and environmental education centers. While traveling there my fiance will be completing his marine biology degree, and in the mean time I will be conducting research across the country in order to gather information as to how to start an environmental center in Central America. I will be posting my research discoveries here both before and as I am traveling in Costa Rica. The blog will mainly be used prior to September to post stories and research that I come across leading up to my journey. Once in Costa Rica I will be blogging weekly to bi weekly on the different places that I travel and the people that I interview. In the mean time before then I will be trying to raise money through GoFundMe.com which will help raise funds towards my travel expenses and a video camera. I would like to document my time there and the people that I meet. The time I spend in Costa Rica will help me develop an understanding of what it takes to create an environmental education center. I hope that those of you who decide to follow this blog enjoy the journey.

If you are on board and able to support this project I am currently raising money through GoFundMe.com , this is currently for my research in Costa Rica: