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/1st grade, Infant II is the equivalent to 2nd grade, Standard I is the equivalent of 3rd grade, Standard II is the equivalent of 4th grade, Standard III is the equivalent of 5th grade, Standard IV is the equivalent of 6th grade, Standard V is the equivalent of 7th grade and Standard VI is the equivalent of 8th grade. I have requested to be in Infant II since I taught 2nd 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
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