Attack of the Pica Pica

I survived the second weekend in Belize! Friday after school we had a meeting with all the interns at Pedro’s inn to talk about how our first week went. A lot of us seemed overwhelmed but we are all adjusting nicely and slowly taking little by little. While we are all seeing many differences between the schools in America and the schools here, we are also finding some similarities as well which is always nice. A few of us were feeling adventurous so we decided to try a new random restaurant on the middle street. We stopped at a place called “Mickey’s” and I don’t mean the mouse from Disney World. It was a quaint little restaurant and I had an awesome fish sandwich but some of the other girls were not so fortunate in the dinner selections and we decided we would not be going back anytime soon! We will stick with the cheap stands at the square. The rest of the night we hung out at a little shack on the beach called “B.C’s” J

Saturday I woke up and walked another dog! That is always an interesting time taking those yuppies out for a stroll on the beach. When I got back from my dog walk I was all hot and sweaty but luckily it was time to go to the Palapa Bar & Grill for the day! A palapa is a thatched roof covered “building” over a pier. There are only about 4 on the island and they don’t give out permits to build them anymore. It was a very interesting time. They had inner tubes tied of up in the water for us to lie in. Unfortunately where the tubes were tied up there was a swarm of “pica pica”. Let me tell you about the pica pica! They are thimble jellyfish and they emit microscopic juvenile jellyfish. The name “pica pica” means “itchy itchy”. To read more about these little things you can click here: http://ambergriscaye.com/reefbriefs/briefs62.html. So with those threatening little creatures everywhere, we had to find another place to move our tubes so that we would not get pica pica bites all over our body. We all laid out in the tubes all day long; it was the perfect day for being out on the water. They gave us an amazing lunch and there was music and games. There was a coconut toss and we had to throw a coconut to see if we could get it in an inner tube! I got it in once but in the throw off I missed it – sad day! Kyle ended up winning, of course one of the two guys on the trip! That night was another laid back night consisting of the stands for dinner and hanging out at B.C’s again.

Sunday was breakfast as a group at Sara’s Kitchen again. It was a good hearty breakfast, eggs with sausage, hash browns, a biscuit and a breakfast burrito. It was delicious but I’ve really been craving a waffle or pancake lately! Hope I can find one soon. Weekends are the only time I really get to sit down and eat a big breakfast. It was a lazy Sunday and everyone else came back from breakfast and fell asleep or was working on lesson plans for the upcoming week. Britney, Lauren and I wanted to go on our own little adventure so we walked up and down the beach until we found one! We went sailing on the “Rum Punch II” which is an old fashioned sail boat! The three of us had a blast learning how to sail. We laid out, had girl talk, troll fished and didn’t catch anything! It was such a wonderful day spent out on the Caribbean Sea!

Now it’s another week back at school. Monday I observed for most of the day again but on Tuesday I taught for the entire morning part of the day. I did spelling with them, grammar and math. It felt good to be teaching again. I missed being up in front of a class and writing on the board. My kids are responding to me a lot better now and my teacher is being amazing with classroom management. It is better with the two of us because while I am teaching he can help keep eyes on the classroom and make sure everyone is paying attention and doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Wednesday was a bit more interesting. I came into school and walked into the classroom and was immediately bombarded by my kids screaming “TEACHER BURNEL ISN’T HERE”! I was actually kind of excited to hear this. On Tuesday I had taught the entire morning while my teacher was handling behavior management for me. It was a very smooth morning and I left school feeling very confident. So Wednesday morning when my teacher was absent I felt confident in myself to substitute. Ms. Kate was there to help me also so I figured it would be a breeze. I had already planned all the morning lessons and in the afternoon I would do Religion with them and then we would sing songs and read a book since they haven’t had many opportunities to do that since I’ve been here and they really enjoy both those activities.

Well let’s just say that teaching 30 kids by yourself who have no behavior management what-so-ever besides the presence of an authority figure is impossible and they do NOT see me as an authority figure yet. Doing spelling with them was alright. They were very talkative so I wrote the word “Songs” on the board. I told them that if they continued to talk I was going to erase a letter. If the word “Songs” was gone before lunch then we wouldn’t get to sing songs after lunch. Well that didn’t work … the word was gone in like 10 minutes. So I tried the “If you hear my voice clap once, if you hear my voice clap twice, if you hear my voice you should be quiet” … that was a flop. Only like two kids actually clapped and I can only say that so many times. So then I tried punishing them by making them pick up trash outside. That didn’t work. I wrote their names on the board so that they would have to stay in during break. That didn’t work. I tried yelling at them and making them feel bad and that worked for two minutes before they all started talking again. Even Ms. Kate tried to read them a story for them to be quiet and that didn’t even work. Their mouths were continually emitting noise and they were never in their seats or doing what they were supposed to be doing. They are always picking on each other constantly and tattle tailing, it’s awful! It was about halfway through Grammar that I lost control completely. Math was a waste. I felt defeated and exhausted by the time lunch came and I was dreading coming back in the afternoon.

Luckily when I came back Teacher Burnel was there! I was never so happy to see him! He could tell I looked exhausted but told me “thank you” and that he really appreciated me taking over for the morning. I told him what I attempted to do with them and he picked right up where I left off. The kids had dressed up that day as community workers and so Mr. Burnel made them all sit down and then one at a time the kids who dressed up were going to come to the front to tell about their community worker. He was going to ask them questions and I was going to grade them. In the back of my mind I was thinking “this is never going to work, they are not going to sit quiet for that long”. Boy was I wrong. Just the presence of my teacher in the classroom made them all sit in their seats like perfect quiet angels. The few that did misbehave had to go stand and face the wall. It was incredible. I gained a whole new respect for my teacher after that. I was blown away. My new goal is for them to respect me like that before I leave.

Alright Codington kids – I am going to answer some more of your questions!

Eli, Ruby, Hayden, Garrett, Kaylee, Leah, Jackson and Ryan – you asked “what kind of food do you eat”? Well let me tell you, there is lots of interesting and yummy food here! There is a nice little bakery in town that I love to go to for breakfast. They have the best cinnamon rolls ever! Also for breakfast people eat Johnny cakes which are like biscuits with egg and sausage or ham or bacon in it. They also have something called a Fry Jack which is like a funnel cake without powdered sugar on it. I like to eat it plain but the kids here like to put chicken and beans on it. For lunch I love to have fruit smoothies. They also have so much fresh fruit here. I can buy a whole pineapple for $1.50! Burritos are also very popular here with beans and cheese and chicken. There are also places you can buy hamburgers and pizza too. They have lots of big restaurants where you can get expensive dinner but Ms. Vollman likes to eat cheap here. So for dinner I made macaroni and cheese in my room or I buy dinner at side stands on the street. There is something here called a “pupusa”. It is like a pancake with things baked inside of it. I had one with lobster, shrimp, fish and cheese in it. It was very good! This is the only place we’ve never seen a McDonalds!

Garrett – you asked “do they have a Petsmart”? LoL no they do not have a Petsmart here! I have not even seen a pet shop! But right by my hotel there is a place that keeps stray dogs and I walk them sometimes on the weekends! A lot of people have pet dogs. I have not seen very many cats but I have seen a few children that have pet raccoons!

Madison – you asked “do they drink from the well”? No they drink water from the tap or the sink here but most people drink water out of bottles. I have been drinking all of my water from bottles, just to be safe!

Malia – you said “can you tell me some of their language”? Well Malia most everyone here speaks English just like us! A lot of people speak Spanish too though. The students learn Spanish in school starting in Infant I. A lot of the immigrants on this island from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala speak Spanish as their first language though. Then also they have their own special language called “Creole”. It is best described as broken English with some of their own made up words. Sometimes I can understand people when they speak it slowly but when they speak very quickly I cannot understand them. 

Teacher Teacher, Miss Miss!!

Since I am most comfortable with the math curriculum I decided that I would take that over first. Tuesday I arrived to the school, after dropping off my laundry at the laundry mat for the first time, and was yet again bombarded by several of my children at once giving me hugs and trying to give me things. They continuously ask me if I am “coming back” at the end of the day and at lunch, I think they are afraid that I am just going to disappear! They don’t quite understand that I will be here for 4 weeks! They are so cute. Here they call me Miss Michelle while back at Codington I was called Ms. Vollman. I am pretty sure all the teachers are called by their first name. However, the students rarely ever call their teachers by their formal name, they say “teacher teacher”. Oh if I had a Belizean dollar for every time they said “teacher teacher”, oh I would have a lot of Belizean dollars! I observed again during language and grammar and helped check their work for Mr. Burnel. Then they had their break during which time I got my picture taken with the rest of the interns at RC by the Ambergris Today newspaper reporter.

After break I began to teach my first math lesson which were word problems dealing with the subtraction of money. About five minutes into the lesson my teacher’s friend from Kansas and his girlfriend showed up. They were visiting in Belize and brought a whole bunch of school supplies to give to his students. They brought pencils that looked like it had money wrapped around it (because the guy was a banker), pencil grips and mechanical pencils. They were taking pictures and talking to the kids and of course the kids were all out of their seats hugging and switching pencils and colored grippers. Do you think that they paid even one once of attention to their math lesson after they just had Christmas morning in March? Nope, not a chance. I was a little frustrated by the whole situation. It was my first lesson and it was completely interrupted. I should be used to it though, people are all the time dropping by the school and in the classroom wanting to just “take a look” or give stuff to the class. A woman from Canada came yesterday and read them a story about snowmen for 30 minutes. It’s very much whatever goes here. My teacher later in the day said that I did a good job teaching the lesson but I wasn’t really sure what I did a good job doing … He seems very confident in me and is letting me “call the shots” which I am kind of glad that he is letting me do what I feel most comfortable doing.

Wednesday I decided to continue teaching math to the students but I also decided with Mr. Burnel that I would take on some of the morning Language arts and work with their spelling words with them. Tuesday I created sentences in which they had to fill in the blanks with their spelling words. The kids had fun with it and they were MUCH better behaved for me than the day before. I think it was just a lot of excitement with a new teacher in the classroom but now they are settling back down and I feel like this is much more manageable. I talked with my teacher and he has given me ways to keep them in line. Those who misbehave have to stay after class and sweep the classroom or go outside and pick up ten pieces of trash. Stickers are a huge reward. Sometimes we do “boys vs. girls” to see who can finish their work first and they get points. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the day gets to leave to go home first. Mr. Burnel and I team taught the math lesson because they were beginning to learn about subtraction with regrouping and that is a very hard concept for most students to learn. Surprisingly, all my students caught on fairly quickly and it was a fantastic lesson. For the first time I allowed students to come to the board to work out problems, they were beyond excited! I don’t think that they get that opportunity very often so when they did they were all very eager to be the one to get it right so they could come up. I think I will use that to my advantage during the next few weeks.

I have a little boy name Issac who has some sort of learning disability. He is has speech problems and he doesn’t form complete sentences and speaks very quietly. He does not get along with very well socially with other students either. He is not included in group of boys that plays during break and lunch. He gets picked on a lot however I have noticed that he often times instigates it. During class however he does absolutely nothing. He either wanders around the classroom or goes outside. He does not to any of the work and is not really required to. He cannot write or form letters or identify letters or numbers. It is hard because there is not a special education teacher to work with kids like Issac. Ms. Kate who is a woman who helps out in the mornings in Mr. Burnel’s class bought Issac an alphabet puzzle for him to learn his letters. Unfortunately he cannot just sit there on his own and learn them, he needs someone constantly sitting there repeating the letters over and over and over. I want to help him and try to make a difference but I don’t know how much difference I can do in 4 weeks. My goal for the end of my time here is for him to at least know the entire alphabet.

Also, there are no P.E. teachers at the school. Whatever the kids do for P.E. is up to the discretion of the individual teacher. P.E. takes place in the middle courtyard of the school. Some teachers have the students to calisthenics such as jumping jacks and other little exercises. Some teachers have the kids play games such as tag or kickball. Other teachers take the kids to the “sports arena” that is in the back of the school courtyard. It is a cement court that looks like a basketball court except there are built in soccer goals at each end. Many teachers take their kids there and let boys play on teams vs. each other and then girls have teams that vs. each other. The rest of the kids just watch from the bleachers or rather just run around.

Also, I went to the "school library" for the first time today. It is pretty much the size of my living room in the Seahawk Landing and has 4 book shelves. There is not even enough room for my whole class to sit down at tables in the room, some of them have to sit on the floor to read. It is kind of upsetting too because many of them do not know how to read the books they pick out. They simply just look at the pictures and then move onto another book. I sat with one little boy today as he struggled through a book. I helped him sound out all the words, he was determined to read them all. There were so many other students who wanted me to sit with them and read with them also but I'm only one person. So many children here crave the one-on-one attention that they all need and deserve. 

So now I am going to begin answering my questions that my kids from Codington wrote for me before I left for Belize J

Jaz, Hayden, Brody, Eli – you asked “what grade are you teaching”? I am teaching Infant II which is the same as Second grade in America! They are learning many of the same things that I taught you. Remember when we learned about regrouping in math? I just taught my students here how to do that on Wednesday!

Jaz, Madison, Ben – you asked “how many students are in one class”? In the classroom I am teaching in there a lot of students. I have 30 students in my class. MATH PROBLEM: How many more kids do I have in my class in Belize than you have in your class at Codington? J But some schools have smaller class sizes. Six of my friends that are teaching at another school have an average of 13 students in their class, a much smaller class size!

Jackson, Ben and Ryan – you asked “how long do they stay in school”? School starts here at 8:30, a little later than at Codington. It is a little different though because at 2:30 Infant I and Infant II classes get out at 2:30, just like Codington, but all the other classes have to stay in school until 3:30! MATH PROBLEM: If they go to school from 8:30 until 2:30, how many hours are they at school? We have one break during the day, kind of like “snack time” that you have in the morning and for lunch we have an hour and a half! That is because a lot of students go home to eat lunch; students do not bring their lunch to school. Can you imagine if your parents came and picked you up every day for lunch?

Jimmy and Cooper – you asked “what do the floors in your classroom look like”? We do not have carpet floors or even tiled floors, our floors are made of cement, like the sidewalks outside. They are very hard and it is very dirty and covered in dirt and pencil shavings all the time. We do not have someone that comes in everyday to vacuum our classroom; students have to stay after school to sweep!

Angel – you asked “is there a bunch of fish”? YES there are SO many fish. I jumped off a pier to go snorkeling and when I jumped in I saw hundreds of fish!! I have also been snorkeling out on a boat and I’ve never seen so many fish before. There are colorful ones, plain ones, big ones, small ones … I have an underwater camera and I will take some pictures of them and bring them back to show you J

That’s all the questions I will answer for now – I will answer more in my next blog, I promise! Miss you all at Codington. Greetings from Belize J

First day in San Pedro Roman Catholic School

Sunday, another beautiful morning in Belize! Katie Profita and I went to church with two British marines that are also staying at the inn with us. The church was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be but then again, most of the population here is Catholic and they speak English. A majority of the people there were tourists though. One of the things I love most about the Catholic faith is that it is pretty much the same everywhere you go. Same motions, same prayers, same routine … and even the readings are the same. It’s so cool to know that everyone back home was hearing the same readings as I was on Sunday. Some things were a little different though. Instead of saying “and also with you” they said “and go with your spirit” … or something like that. The priest was a little hard to understand during the homily, he had a thick accent and he was a little ADD with his topics but the service all in all was very nice and I look forward to going there every Sunday. Katie and I made friends with a little girl that was sitting in front of us. She wrote her name on a piece of paper and wrote “I love you” with a heart and gave it to each of us.

We walked back just in time to join the rest of the group as all of us were going to Sara’s Kitchen. We were invited by Sara herself and she made us a buffet of scrambled eggs, hash browns, pancakes, yogurt, fresh fruit and bagels with cream cheese. It was AMAZING and only for $10.00 Belize dollars ($5.00 American). Many places on the island are closed on Sundays, a day of rest for all. We all part-took in the restfulness and moseyed on down the beach. This time many of us lay under the shade of the palm trees since we were very crispy from the day before. With the heat of the day, the shade of the trees and the cool breeze I quickly fell asleep for a wonderful Sunday siesta. After a while a group of us walked down the beach to see if there was any fun kind of water sport we could do. We finally found a place that would take you out tubing! We were very excited however when the first group when to go out, they discovered that there was a hole in the tube. The other tube that the company owned was already in the shop being repaired so we had to have our money returned to us and we couldn’t go out. We were all very much bummed but we decided to go back to the group and just play around in the water ourselves.

I came back and showered after a while and my friend Lauren and I went to Hurricanes and got dinner. I had the best shrimp nachos, they were amazing! Sunday night was not very exciting at all. Since we all had to teach the next day we stayed indoors blogging about our weekend and trying to prepare what little we could for what we anticipated we might have to do the next day. Early to bed early to rise!

Monday morning did come early but getting up early here is not quite the same as getting up early at home in Wilmington. I think that my body is still on Eastern Time that’s why. I woke up at 7:00 which would really be 9:00 in Wilmington. The sun rises very early here so it had already been light for quite some time. I ate a cinnamon roll that I had bought from the bakery over the weekend and a banana for breakfast. The students at San Pedro Roman Catholic had to leave a little earlier today because we had to go meet our teachers for the first time. We got there at 7:45 and had to wait outside the school gates until 8:00 then we were let in. We waited in the courtyard until our individual teachers arrived. Mine was the first to arrive.

Mr. Burnel Jones is the teacher of my Infant II class. He is a very personable, laid back guy and very easy to get along with. I was slightly nervous being placed with a male teacher but now I am very glad that I get this experience. About half the teachers at the school are male which is very out of the ordinary and not something you would typically see in America. My classroom has two doors, one that leads out into the center courtyard and one that leads out into the front of the school. It is an extremely small classroom. I have anywhere from 24 – 34 kids, depending on the day. Attendance is taken every day but there are not really any consequences for not showing up. Sometimes when teachers do not show up and they do not have a substitute they split the class up among the other classrooms which is why I could have up to 34 students in my class at a time. As soon as the kids saw me in their classroom they all start running up and hugging me and trying to give me things and writing me notes, I received 10 notes the first day. They are super affectionate and I received more ten times more hugs in my first day there than I ever did at Codington! It is defiantly a difference in culture, there is not really any “personal space” and the “no hands” policy doesn’t exist either.

The classroom has desks and they are arranged in roughly in rows and they children don’t have assigned seats, the really kind of just sit wherever they want. They have a chalk board, not a white board and no technology anywhere in the classroom. The walls are pretty well decorated with days of the week, numbers, the alphabet, Belizean symbols and other school related things. They start the day off with morning prayers, the national Belize anthem and their pledge to their flag. This takes about 10 minutes, the anthem is very long but they sing it every day! Then my students have Language and Grammar in the morning. Next is 20 minute break that the whole school gets in which the kids all run around unsupervised but they are locked inside the school walls. When they come back inside they have Mathematics and then a “special” or “excel”, depending on the day, that is taught in the classroom. Then they have an hour and a half for lunch. Lunch is very long because many of the students go home to eat. This is yet another unsupervised break in which the kids run around; in the school yard, on the streets, on the beach … there are kids EVERYWHERE! When my kids come back they only have an hour and half left of school. They have more “specials” and “excels” during this time such as Spanish, Social Studies, Heath and Family Life Experience, Penmanship or Expressive Arts. Infant I and Infant II get out at 2:30 while all of the Standard classes get out at 3:30. 

The biggest similarity that I see is the curriculum. Infant II is the equivalent to Second grade and they are learning many of the same exact things that I taught my second graders at Codington. In math they are learning subtraction of money and they will begin subtraction with re-grouping this week. In social studies they are learning about how to be good citizens and community workers. In science they are learning about friction. Their language arts are the same as ours; they have spelling words that they do something different with everyday. I think I will feel very comfortable teaching the curriculum as I have had a lot of experience with it so far.

The biggest difference I see is classroom/behavior management. Like my lovely second graders at Codington, these little kids love to talk. There is always a constant buzz of talking in the classroom. I think the hardest thing here though is that there is no discipline or consequences for talking or any kind of misbehavior except for having to stay after school and sweep the classroom. In many school systems and classrooms in America there are charts or sticks or money that is monitored and kept up with depending on how you behave. In my Codington classroom we had the lovely “paw chart” in which students would start on a red paw (bad conduct) and work their way up to a purple paw (best conduct) throughout the day. Here there is NOTHING! Mr. Burnel gives reminders for them to be quite and do their work. They are never all sitting down at once. I thought I hated the automatic pencil sharpener in my Codington classroom but now I wish I had one here. Not every student has their own pencil sharpener so they are constantly getting up to use a friend’s. They don’t keep their books at school, they bring them back and forth from home and they don’t all bring their books to class every day. Distractions are numerous and I feel like I never have all of their attention. I am either going to have to come up with a system of punishment or reward but I will have to do something because just watching the classroom the first day stressed me out!!

As this was only my first day I am sure all of us were a little out of our element and that things will become smoother and more organized the more that I am in the classroom and the more we interact with each other and learn from each other. 

Lion fish, Squirrel fish, Angel Fish - OH MY!

I am getting to know my way around! It’s really simple actually, there are three paved streets here on the island; front, middle and last (they all have official names but for right now that’s what I know them as). Front is obviously by the ocean and that is the road that my school is on. Middle street goes right through the middle of town and the last street is the street that our hotel is off of.

Friday we all were able to go to the schools to meet with the principals and get an “orientation” of what we would be doing there. I am at San Pedro Roman Catholic Primary school which has Infant I through Standard VI. Infant I is the equivalent to Kindergarten/1^st grade, Infant II is the equivalent to 2^nd grade, Standard I is the equivalent of 3^rd grade, Standard II is the equivalent of 4^th grade, Standard III is the equivalent of 5^th grade, Standard IV is the equivalent of 6^th grade, Standard V is the equivalent of 7^th grade and Standard VI is the equivalent of 8^th grade. I have requested to be in Infant II since I taught 2^nd grade at Codington, I think it will be interesting to see the difference between the curriculum here and in America.

Our school is very deceiving from the outside; it doesn’t look like its more than one two-story building with about 10 classrooms on each floor. However, when you go inside the gate to the compound or school courtyard, there are several more school “houses”, each several classrooms inside. Almost 900 students go to “RC” as it is affectionately called. It is the largest school on the island and the only public primary school. Not only does the school itself look different but the classrooms are much different as well. They are extremely small and some classes seemed to hold as many as 40 students in them. There is no air conditioning, only fans. One teacher was sitting outside on the sidewalk in the breezeway watching her class because there was hardly any room and it so much cooler outside. None of the teachers seemed to be lecturing when we toured, all the students were either sitting at their desk doing independent work or up and moving around. It is a huge change from Codington and I am very nervous about Monday!

After we went to the school we stopped at the ice cream shop in town. It’s the best place (only place we’ve tried actually but it has to be the best). It is famous for its coconut ice cream and Belizean fudge. Belizean fudge is amazing however I have not tried the coconut yet. We of course took advantage of yet another beautiful day and went to the beach. After we laid out for a bit we all went back and freshened up and went to our group dinner. I had the fish plate, it was a delicious snapper with famous rice and beans J which I surprisingly really enjoyed and won’t mind eating from time to time between all the other amazing food that is here that I feel like no one told us about! We walked around the town a bit more, got more ice cream and headed back to spend the rest of the evening by the pool.

Saturday was our “free” day but it was the busiest day since we’ve been here. Friday evening we got our bikes so we were very excited to try them out. About 10 of us decided that we would ride to the bakery in the morning and what an adventure that was! We thought we stood out whenever we walked somewhere together; we made even more of a scene biking somewhere together! Some of us needed a refresher on how to ride a bike and struggled on the unpaved streets a little. Ridding down the road one guy shouted “you should tie them all together on a rope and then ride” which wasn’t such a bad idea but we all finally made it to the bakery together, each of us still in one piece. When we returned back to the hotel we went to the SAGA Humane Society which is literally right across from our hotel and we volunteered there for the morning to walk dogs. There were SO many dogs here, almost thirty of them not including the cage of ten adorable month old puppies. We all got to choose a dog to take on a walk. Walking dogs is part of the service hours that we complete during our time here.  I chose a dog that had perky ears and barked whenever I pointed at it. I was given a leash and went to go put it on the dog it but noticed it did not have a collar. I slowly opened the gate to his cage open a crack and he dashed out. Not only did he dash out of his cage but escaped outside of the fenced in area where all their cages were kept in. So this stray dog without a collar is running around and I am freaking out! Come to find out, it took them over a year to catch that dog and I just let him go again. Great, this would happen to me. Thankfully a few people cornered him and we got a leash on him. Once he was on a leash he was a very nice dog. I think he just went by “A” or at least that is what I called him the whole time. It is so sad the amount of dogs that were at those shelters and the amount of dogs that just run around town without a collar on. We’ve been told that many of the dogs have owners but they just let them run around. Monday they are having a vet come from the mainland come and do a spay and neuter clinic there and they already have over 60 dogs registered for the clinic. They are hoping it will cut down on the amount of strays. We had fun walking the dogs up and down the beach, yet again another sight to see for the whole town of San Pedro. I was surprised that the dogs didn’t like to go in the water, I was tried to get mine to go in so many times but he refused.

I bet you will never guess what we did after dog walking … yup, that’s it; went to the beach!! We laid out for a bit but then decided that since it was our “free day” that we should go on an adventure of some kind. About half of the group had gone out that day to go scuba diving, one certified group and one group that was getting trained in diving. So the few of us that stayed behind walked down the beach trying to find deals for some water adventure. We were “SeaDuced” (the name of the company that took us out) and seven of us took a boat out with Tito to the Mexico Rocks to go snorkeling. It was an incredible time; we saw so many different species of fish and stingrays that were as big as 5 feet in diameter. The coral and the reef in and of itself were spectacular to look at. The first place we went was about 10 – 12 feet deep so none of us dove to the bottom. A few of us had these orange floats around our waists and we looked ridiculous floating around on the top. The second place that we went was actually on the strip of barrier reef that parallels the island. When we jumped out of the boat we were surprised to find that we could stand! The water was only 5 feet deep in most places. It was much different from the first place and it was a different experience being so close to the fish and the coral. I actually got attacked by some coral on my wrist. I went to stroke and stroked right into a piece of coral and got a nice scratch on my wrist to prove it. Don’t worry, I think the coral damaged me more than I damaged it.

Saturday night we went back to the stands for dinner – good ol’ chicken burritos! Then we all went to the Miss Isla Bonita pageant in the high school auditorium. To give you an idea of how things work in Belize, the pageant was supposed to start at 7:00 … we got there at 8:30 and it hadn’t even started yet! So yeah, things are pretty laid back. It eventually started and there were 5 contestants in the pageant.  They all did a little dance together at the beginning in matching outfits and then came out individually and introduced themselves. It seems like the popular hobbies among young girls on the island is swimming and dancing. Since it is kind of hard to show off the hobby of swimming on stage, all the little girls did dance routines. Holy smack can these little girls dance. These girls were moving their bodies in ways I don’t think I can ever get mine to move! They were very cute though and all of their costumes that they wore were very extravagant and had to be handmade. The one little girl was adorable though, she was representing Infant II and her talent was teaching the audience how to dance. The announcer asked if everyone would please stand up and wouldn’t you know that the 18 of us UNCW students were the ONLY people in the entire place to stand up. Needless to say, the entire place got a good laugh out of us as she taught us this cute little dance to Shakeria’s “Waka Waka” song. My abs hurt from laughing so much at the end. We left halfway through the pageant, it was almost 10:00 and it wasn’t even halfway over. The rest of the evening was again spent by the pool with music, cards and spending time with other guests at the hotel.

It was an amazing first few days here in Belize. It truly was the best “Spring Break” I’ve ever had. Tomorrow is Sunday and everything will begin to calm down as we all prepare mentally to be in the schools again. The nerves are building but I’m sure that it’s nothing I can’t handle J

A Whole World Away

My first blog post in Belize! Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief; I made it here safe J Wednesday March 16^th felt like the longest day ever. I can’t remember why or when the last time I got up at 4:00am was but I hope I don’t have to get up that early again for a while. Luckily everything was already packed except for my carry-on bags. I sleepily packed them, fitting last minute items into side pockets of my suitcases. I gave my dad many hugs and kisses, kissed my sleeping brother and sister goodbye and stole a few snuggles with Brody.

Mommy and I left for the airport shortly after 4:30 and arrived at 5:30, just as planned. She helped me check my bags in (what a good mommy she is) and walked me to the security line. It was hard saying goodbye. I know I normally go weeks and months without seeing my parents but this goodbye was different than just saying goodbye for going back to Wilmington. She watched me until I safely got through security then I was on my own.

I met up with Kathleen and we took the flight from Charlotte to Atlanta together. In Atlanta we met up with several other girls and our two professors. All together we took the flight from Atlanta to Belize City. Luckily I had a window seat so when the pilot announced that we were flying over into Belize I could look out the window. Even from above I could tell that we weren’t in the United States anymore. Everything was covered in vegetation, so many trees! And not pine trees like we are used to seeing in American – PALM TREES! Flying in I only saw two paved roads and a tiny group of houses. The airport that we landed in was shocking as well. This airport was in the middle of the jungle, seriously. There was nothing around but trees. There was one runway. If there weren’t planes around the building, from the outside you would not even be able to tell that it was an airport. We did not pull up to a gate, they rolled a set of stairs up to our plane and that is how we de-boarded.

The heat and humidity hit me as soon as I stepped out of that plane, it was amazing! It still didn’t seem real that I was doing this. Thankfully everyone’s bags arrived and we weaseled our way through customs. Our first true Belizean adventure was taking a Tropic Airplane from the mainland airport out to the Island of San Pedro. Let me tell you, this is the smallest plane I have EVER been on. It was a tiny charter plane and we were flying only a few hundred feet above the Caribbean Sea. Although for some reason I was more nervous flying on the big planes than I was on the tiny charter plane. The view was incredible; you could look down and see right to the bottom of the sea. It didn’t look like it was more than a few feet deep of crystal clear water.

We finally landed on the island, right smack in the middle of the city of San Pedro. Our hotel was literally only a few hundred yards away. We took a taxi to our hotel only because we had so many luggages but it is a simple 5 minute walk by foot. Most everyone else had arrived about an hour earlier and was unpacking. It didn’t take long to get settled in considering the rooms are small and there wasn’t much to unpack. We attempted to go to the beach but it awfully windy and a few of us ended up by the pool instead. We were supposed to have dinner at the hotel, a pizza party catered by the owner’s pizza parlor that was in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, I did not make it to the party. I had a huge migraine and felt nauseous. I had to go to bed. I think it was a combination of it being a long day and the heat had taken a lot out of me.

In the middle of the night both my roommate and I sat straight up in bed at the same time. Outside it sounded like a fleet of airplanes was flying around. We looked at each other wondering what it was. We figured it was just wind but when I crawled out of bed to check out what it was, I could barely see out the window it was raining so hard. It was a monsoon outside! I think the only reason it was so loud is because we are on the top floor of the hotel and it has a tin roof. Still, it sounded like we were in the middle of a war and it was very difficult to go back to sleep. Finally it quieted down and I was almost back asleep when it started up again! Not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had. Plus I only had one blanket that was paper thin and one pillow … good thing I brought a blanket and a sweatshirt to use as a makeshift pillow

Thursday was our first full day on the island with everyone. The last two girls of the cohort finally joined us. We all had breakfast at George’s; pancakes and bacon with fresh fruit J I needed a hearty meal since it would be another long day and I essentially had not eaten yet since I had been on the island. After that we toured the entire city of San Pedro. With only 22, 000 residents it wouldn’t be long before they all knew of us. We were quite a site walking around all together today. We really do stick out. There are tourists everywhere; tourism is their main source of income for the island. However, we were told that we are different form typical tourists because people will begin to notice that we are here longer and will want to get to know us. It was so hot while we were walking around, the sun beating down on us the entire time. YAY for sweating!

A little after noon we got back to the hotel and had a few hours of free time before we had to meet up for a “Welcoming Seminar” from Lara. Of course we all hit up the beach. But wouldn’t you know that as soon as we go out there, the gray clouds come out and it starts to rain. It wasn’t at all like a monsoon like it was at night but it was enough to scare half of us back to the hotel. The rest of us waited it out at the beach. We snorkeled for a while because the water was warmer than the air. There is this little dock where you can go and jump right off into the water. They have placed a lot of cement blocks in the water around the pier so fish love to congregate there and hang out in schools. I didn’t expect it but when I jumped in there were HUNDREDS of fish!! It was incredible. We saw some puffer fish, a few parrot fish, a whole bunch of yellow and tan ones (I don’t know what they are called) and even a lion fish!! My roommate pointed it out to us. Finally the sun came back out and we got a good hour of sun before our seminar. After the seminar our night was free and we dined at local “kiosks” in the city square and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at the festival at our hotel. A live band was there and it was a relaxing atmosphere.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here so far, even though it’s only been 2 days. It hasn’t hit me yet that I am going to be here for 5 weeks though. I still feel like I’m just here for a “vacation” and I’ll be leaving soon to go back to Wilmington to teach at Codington on Monday. I’m sure this feeling will wear off on Monday when we go to our schools but for now it’s more of “spring break”. Two things I do already miss: water pressure & ice. The water pressure in the shower here is worse than the showers in the Seahawk Crossing and anyone in the Crossing can tell you how AWFUL it is there. I feel like I drink my weight in water but none of it has been ice cold … it all comes in bottles mostly.

Everyone is very friendly here though and so eager to talk to you, especially the kids. While eating in the square two little boys came up and started talking to us. The one little boy had a pet raccoon – it was adorable! It was only two months old and this little thing was better trained than most puppies are at 2 months. He also had 4 brothers and 3 sisters! We’ve had several other children approach us throughout the day. Some trying to sell things to us (we’ve been told many of them do this as “after school jobs”), others just want to know who we are and what we are doing here. I can’t wait to be in the school with them. There are only three elementary schools on the island and only one high school. Over 50% of the population in Belize is under the age of 18. It is still a developing country and the people here have lots to learn. It’s considered a “machismo” society which means it’s dominated by males. AIDS is a huge problem here also. There is great hope and even expectation of our group to change lives here, not only in schools but in the community as well. I hope that we can meet and exceed these expectations that have been set for us. We will see J

T-minus 12 hours until I depart for Belize!

I can't Belize (no, I won't ever get tired of those jokes) - I'm actually leaving tomorrow! So many things have been happening the past few days. The "senior ball" has definitely started rolling and there is no stopping it.

Friday was my last day of student teaching. It was quite an emotional day. It started off just like every other day had and it didn't feel very different. The kids took their spelling test and then got to go watch the 5th graders shoot off the rockets they had been making at "Star Base" all week. After specials the kids threw a "party" for me. My teacher bought me a personalized cookie cake and a few of the kids made me personalized cards as well. The most shocking gift was when they gave me a card with a $100.00 Visa Gift Card. The students had brought in the money over the past few weeks along with donations from my teacher, teacher assistant and foster grandparent. It is for me to use in Belize because I can only bring a limited amount of luggage down there, so with the gift card I could buy essentials I need that might not fit. I was speechless and almost brought to tears. One at a time I got to hug all of my students, it was precious. After lunch and recess we had our A.R. (accelerated reader) party. As a class we were watching the movie "The Secret of NIMH" based off of the book "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" that Mrs. Willis and I read aloud to them. The students who made their points and 85% accuracy or above were allowed to have popcorn and caprisun during the movie. Towards the end of the day, Mrs. Willis started getting ready for Monday, doing all the duties that I would normally do. I guess this was my "phase out" period but it felt so weird and I couldn't help but to feel very sad that the class was no longer "mine". I would not have had such a successful internship if it was not for my incredible partnership teacher, Laura Willis. I learned more than I ever thought I could and she gave me confidence that when I one day have my own classroom that I will be an amazing teacher as well. I aspire to be like her and I will never forget my first "children".

So thats it - I am officially signed off and licensed as a teacher! Over the weekend I spent several stressful hours completing assignments for the WSE and finishing up stuff in the RHA office preparing for my departure. Everyone had left for spring break so there were not many distractions but I was able to see some very close friends of mine before I left; Ryan, Veronica, Mark, Brittney, Alex, John, Ra'Nelle, Rachel and Sarah. Even though I am only leaving for 5 weeks and its "not that long" I will still miss those people so much!! Monday finally came and I attended my last oh-so-helpful Belize meeting and hurried back to my apartment as soon as it was done to pack and clean. Yes, I waited until the last minute to pack, can you imagine?! That doesn't sound like me at all ... Then I went to the Career Center Job Fair for Education Majors, handed out a few resumes and PICKED UP MY CAP AND GOWN!! "Is this real life"?

Now I am home and spent the day with Mommy attending appointments, getting last minute things for Belize, getting a pedicure, packing, errands with the siblings and a lovely family dinner! I am proud to say that both of me suitcases are less than 50 pounds and I should safely make it through security no problem. Brody kept trying to get in my suitcase while I was packing and I kept having to take him out :( One day was not enough to spend with my handsome little man, wish I could bring him with me.

I am excited but nervous too, only because I have NO idea what to expect. I know that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and that I will have the time of my life, so no worries right? Ha, if only I was a girl who never worried. This trip is a blessing and it is also a service. I plan to treat it as just that. I want to change those students' lives just as I know they will change mine ... I know that I have so many people out there who are thinking of me and praying for me and I thank you now for everyone of those prayers, it means more than you know!

My next blog will be in BELIZE :D AHHHHH!!!