From December 4-10, students from Archbishop Molloy High School journeyed to Belize for a mission trip focused on Ecology in partnership with Bold Hope, a nonprofit organization that connects and empowers people to transform lives worldwide.
The trip was organized by Richard Costa, Campus Minister from Molloy, and chaperoned along with Matthew Corrado, fellow Campus Minister from Molloy, as well as Joanne Cavera, a retired Science chair from St. Joseph Regional, and Sam King, Ecology Coordinator for the Marist Brothers USA.
The group stayed at the Umaya Resort on a hundred-yard wide peninsula along the Placencia lagoon, an intertidal estuary bordered by mangroves – an important storm buffer and habitat for crabs, anemones, sea sponges, and manatees, along with iguanas and herons.
With the help of Bold Hope, the group partnered with a local Mayan community, Maya Mopan, to help build the foundation for a new wall around a church and assist in construction at the village school. They also toured three local farms to learn about traditional agroforestry and the unique challenges facing farmers in a changing climate.
In one visit, a woman named Lupita welcomed the group into her intergenerational Mayan home with a thatched roof surrounded by a rich variety of fruit trees. When students first stepped onto the land, they noticed a small Chinese plum tree blooming with little fruits.
“She didn't have a lot, and the fruits weren't even ripe yet, but she was so generous,” a senior shared. “As soon as she saw that we were looking at the tree, she was ready to offer up whatever she could find.”
After welcoming the group into her home, Lupita’s husband, Max, led a tour around more than 30 acres of regenerative farmland with a rich variety of crops – including papaya, pineapple, oregano, banana, cassava, and guava – pausing to cut open a stalk of yellow coconuts to share with the group. He then showed the group a fish pond he had dredged from a swampland to create a habitat for shrimp and tilapia, a nutritious food and reliable source of income, and whose excrement he used as fertilizer for plants.
“He had about 3,000 fish in this pond,” a senior recalled. “We got to watch a feeding where the fish were jumping in and out of the water. It put in perspective how these fish are raised in a more natural way than in America, where they use a lot of steroids and hormones in our foods.”
Max shared that his community had traditionally planted on May 10 and 15 in accordance with the Mayan calendar, coordinating efforts with neighbors so that birds could feed evenly across the surrounding lands. And yet, because of changing weather patterns, he and his community are now struggling with crop yields and planting later in the season.
“The weather is much different than it was in the ‘80s,” he said.
The group visited another farm around Maya Mopan stewarded by Triff, whose land borders a commercial grapefruit farm. He shared that intensified rainfall had resulted in declining corn yields and prompted him to begin using fertilizers to bolster the crops. He also led the group through his towering bamboo forest, sold for building materials, and low-hanging cacao trees, with many of the beans blackened and dried out due to a blight. Despite the declining yield, and the rising threat of wildfires, he offered the group fresh cacao beans to enjoy and explained the process of roasting them to make chocolate.
“My favorite new fruit I tried was definitely cacao,” a senior shared. “They're low hanging fruits on trees with little green pods and seeds in them covered in a sweet fruit. We watched [Triff] cut one open with a machete and give us these little seeds covered in fruit.”
Visiting the farms gave students a first-hand glimpse into the close relationships Mayan communities have maintained with lands and waters for thousands of years.
“We saw how they're very in touch with the environment,” a fellow senior reflected. “They do all their practices in an eco-friendly way. There's not a lot of waste on the farm.”
A junior reflected on the visible impacts of changing weather patterns on these farmers’ lives and livelihoods.
“They have owned their farms for a long time, at least since the 80s and 90s,” she said. “Since then they've been experiencing the environmental impacts of climate change. It was interesting to see the impacts of climate change and how it actually affects people.”
One senior was struck by the prevalence of organic farming practices.
“A lot of the farmers said they don’t use fertilizer because they already have rich soil. Instead, they use other parts of fruits to restore nutrients in the soil.”
The group also partnered with the Southern Environmental Association (SEA) of Belize for a beach clean up and waste audit led by Education and Outreach Coordinator, Andrea Cowo, by the Placencia Municipal Pier. She began with an ecological overview of the coastal region, highlighting the importance of mangroves and coastal biodiversity, and described how climate change is causing ocean acidification leading to the bleaching of coral reefs.
At what looked like a pristine beach, students were surprised to find an abundance of plastic bottles, styrofoam packaging, and fishing line – among various other forms of pollution known to harm sea turtles and whale sharks. Cowo explained the process of sorting trash and how SEA reports quantities of waste to companies to inform them of their products’ afterlives.
“We picked up so much trash, even though [Andrea] said they had another cleanup about two weeks ago,” a senior recalled. “It was inspiring to see how many people were grateful that we were picking up trash; they were smiling and taking pictures of us.”
A junior reflected on the pervasiveness of plastics at the beach and the need for alternatives to single-use plastics.
“A lot of what we found were things that could not be picked up easily, like microplastics mixed into the sand. You would have to sit there for hours to pick the microplastics out. It just shows you how it's probably better to prevent the plastics from getting there in the first place.”
On a rainy morning, students ventured out for a bird walk in a wooded area around the hotel led by science teacher and veteran birder Joanne Cavera, who founded St. Joseph Regional’s Environmental Classroom and is active with the Bergen County Audubon Society. Cavera described various characteristics to look for – including size, color, and wing shape – and how to identify bird calls using Merlin Bird ID, an app created by the Cornell University Ornithology Lab.
“We learned about so many types of birds and how to identify them,” a junior said. “It was really cool because it’s an activity we can do back in New York.”
Cavera saw 60 new life birds and over 100 bird species during her time in Belize.
“It’s been absolutely awesome,” she said.
On their final night, students reflected on their experience in a memorable Zoom call with the Marist Green Team, a community of students, faculty, campus ministers, and Brothers committed to living out integral ecology and the principles of Laudato Si’. After sharing insights from various encounters – from swimming in a waterfall to snorkeling a coral reef to enjoying a home-cooked meal in a village church – students spoke to how their time in Belize enriched their spiritual lives.
“My God moment was when we visited this waterfall,” a junior said. “It had an area where you swim in a circular body of water underneath the waterfall. We were all swimming in there, and when you looked up, you could see this circular view of all these trees and vines in this rainforest environment. It was really beautiful.”
Another junior recalled the transformative experience of visiting a Mayan farm for the first time.
“My God moment was at the first farm we visited. We stepped into a bamboo forest that was so mind-blowingly beautiful when you allow it to grow to such heights. It reminded me of God's beautiful creation.”
