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Jules Vasquez reporting
"Imagine A Belize Without Women" and "Twenty Thousand Strong" - the slogans and t shirts were in superabundance today - and at eight this morning the Belize City crowd started gathering at Memorial Park. The atmosphere was cordial and like a reunion of sorts - and why not, for most it was a day off from work even for women in uniform.

There were dozens of busses -we counted a total of 48. It got moving at about 9:00 am a torrent of orange rolling toward Princess Margaret Drive on Marine Parade. On Princess Margaret Drive, the shape and size of the march started to become apparent, a motley mix if umbrellas in a widely spread out march.

It the kind of swell and size, we usually see only in political rallies - but this orange tide was no rent a crowd.

Organizer Kim Barrow, her daughter and the staff from the National Women's Commission cheered and frolicked at their success. It wasn't densely packed - but then the crowd didn't yet have all the out district crowd either. And taken in the long view it was impressive, well over a thousand - but not more than two thousand.

Three quarter mile later at the Marion Jones Stadium, even in the unforgiving sun no one had fainted, and the special envoy still had the life. Another large crowd was waiting at Marion Jones - all those who didn't want to suffer through the walk in the sun, were sheltered under tents.

And more kept coming in on buses from the districts. The current UDP and former PUP ministers of the environment, fisheries and forestry shared a laugh, and we saw other UDP politicians, as well as aspiring politicians. Kim Barrow was well positioned; she sat between Catholic nun Carolee Chanona and John Briceno's wife, special educator Rosanna Briceno.

Sister Carolee gave the opening address and after that, Lauren Burgess kept the crowd entertained. Despite the excessive heat on this very still day, the crowd was in good spirits for most of the event they were entertained, and just to keep the estrogen levels flowing, inspired:

Marie Sharp, presenter
"Event such as this can serve the useful purpose of galvanizing our collective strength."

Faith Babb, presenter
"Ladies it is now time for women to make a bigger contribution to the decision making at the political and the public level."

Sandra Bedran, presenter
"If I could look each one of you in the eye I would tell you who you are, I would say, you are a woman I respect and admire because of the manner you have chosen to live your life."

Rosanna Briceno, presenter
"If I have to I can do anything. I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman."

And the cheerleading caught on:

Kay Menzies, President - Belize Chamber of Commerce
"I love to see the women today feeling their power. I think that when you look at the numbers, you don't realize what we are capable of. We need to be reminded of what we can do and today is a perfect day for that and I am really excited to see everybody out today Jules."

Rev'd David Gough, Belize Methodist Church
"I am in full support - 110% support for this effort today. I am here for every woman that I have even known; my mother, grandmother, my wife, my siblings, the women I work with in the church - I am surrounded by women in the church and I just give God thanks for womanhood."

Participant
"We are just thankful that that so many women are out here. My hope was that the men would be standing side by side. Thank you for being here Jules."

Lorna Wade, Participant
"I am out here supporting because I as a woman I went through a lot and for being out here I have the courage and to me this is something powerful."

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"Being one of the only two women in cabinet has its challenges and it's good to know that I don't stand-alone that in many ways I am representing woman at cabinet. I am having the voice of women represented in there."

Participant
"Me personally being here, I am so motivated to do so many things, it's just motivating and so it gives you the courage to continue working hard at what you do."

Anne-Marie Williams, Chair - NWC
"It's an overwhelming success from where I sit and I am sure from where a lot of Belizean men, women and children sat."

Jules Vasquez
"Success, failure, in between?"

Kim Barrow, Special Envoy For Women And Children
"Success, like I said before, if it was only I walking today - it would have been a success."

Jules Vasquez
"You never had 20,000. I don't mean to be unkind; you had a nice crowd but..."

Kim Barrow, Special Envoy For Women And Children
"I told you that yesterday, the 20,000 is symbolic, it would have been lovely and as you know of course a number of the schools that had committed to come they cancelled at the last minute, so that really put a damper on things but we are here and I think we had a good crowd."

Jules Vasquez
"You think the Catholic blockade had an effect?"

Kim Barrow, Special Envoy For Women And Children
"Definitely, yes, I did, it certainly did because we got cancellations - teachers felt intimated, teachers were told that if they come they will be punish and they felt threaten."

Anne-Marie Williams, Chair - NWC
"The church was not a deterrent. I think woman came out to stand and if you look at is the superintendent of the Methodist church was actually marching, so the Catholic church is the Catholic church, but you see a lot of Catholic women out here; Sister Carolee Chanona was the person who gave the invocation and so while one somebody is signing a letter and somebody is pushing an agenda - people are saying we are not with you."

Rev'd David Gough, Belize Methodist Church
"I know that a certain branch of the church has taken a particular stand, and well you know; to each his own and I am here as member of the clergy too to say that that voice does not speak for all of the church."

And while the good vibes lasted long, going into the afternoon, at around 1:00 pm - 5 hours since they assembled to march, the crowd started to visibly wilt:

Kim Barrow, Special Envoy For Women And Children
"And you know what, it happen today. There had to start, I am happy that it has started."

Janelle Chanona, Co-Organizer
"This event is only one catalyst for the change we want to see. The Office of the Special Envoy for Woman and Children in collaboration with its partners is commencing a yearlong campaign which features series of events and opportunities to build more awareness about the need to have women's participation and leadership at every level of society."

So then this mammoth, singular event was just a start - meaning, they stood up, but staying up is usually the hard part - and while we wait and see how that goes, we'll know they'll always have March 6, 2014 - the biggest non-political crowd in memory:

Kay Menzies, President - Belize Chamber of Commerce
"I think when you see any crowd in the thousands in Belize, you use to it being a renta crowd of some kind. This crowd came out today and I think it is a wonderful turnout all in all."

So, if it wasn't twenty thousand, how much did they have? Well, we can't produce our usual precise, head-counted estimate, because when the crowd swelled to its largest, they were scattered under tents at the Marion Jones stadium - which is impossible to count. We saw about 1,750 in the march - and would say that another two thousand awaited them at the Marion Jones. But that is far off from the organizers estimate. They have confirmed that they had 88 buses which is instantly five thousand persons. They say the crowd was close to ten thousand.