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.
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