Mainland travels & adventures begin!

I woke up very excited Saturday morning to go on our inland trip as a cohort. I had a little “taste” of what the mainland was like when I went to the zoo with my students and I was excited to be able to explore some more of it on this trip. A few of us who were already packed and ready to go went to breakfast on the beach at Estelle’s. I had the most amazing banana pancakes and bacon EVER! It tasted like a homemade breakfast from home. We went back to Pedro’s to pick up our backpacks since we would essentially be “backpacking” or living out of our backpacks for the next five days. Luckily we got a ride to the water taxi on a golf cart so that we didn’t have to trounce through town with them on. When I went with my students we had went on a smaller boat that had an open top. This time we all took the water taxi which is bigger than a small open motor boat but and it’s completely enclosed with the captain steering on the top (much like the boat I took to Mexico). The water taxi was extremely crowded and hot. There wasn’t much room to do anything except for try to sleep. The water was so choppy though which made the boat jolt up and down and there was not much of a breeze coming through the windows making it a little more than slightly uncomfortable. An hour and a half later we pulled into the dock and I was yet again in Belize City just as I had been 3 days earlier.

We got off, quickly grabbed a bite to eat at the market area and then boarded a private bus that would be taking us to the zoo. De-ja-vu! We ended up at the zoo just under an hour later. I have to say that this was a more organized trip for sure. We showed up to the zoo and broke off into groups and started wondering around. This experience at the zoo was so much different; I got to see so many more animals. I think it was because I was with people my age who like to actually look at the animals, read about them and take their pictures rather than the little kids who just run around and could care less about which animals they see. My favorite animals this time were the puma and the scarlet macaws. The puma was enormous and it was so close to us! We even got to see one of the zoo keepers feeding it. It is a smaller cat than the jaguar but it still is very powerful. Its front paws were huge and even though he is more than ten times the size of a regular cat, I couldn’t help but to think of Brody J

My other favorite animal was the scarlet macaws! A few of us were watching them and talking about them, one of us said “they are such pretty birds”. All of a sudden they both started repeating over and over “pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird”. We could not believe it. Then Katie started to whistle and they were mimicking her whistles. Then we tried other phrases for them to repeat. All during our English lesson they were picking on each other constantly. I made the comment how they seemed like two brothers who were really close with each other. They would pick at each other and make each other mad and fly away from each other. Then one would come over to the other one after a while and groom him and make soft noises. Then they would play and be silly, hang upside down and play “footsies” with each other. A zoo keeper came by and explained to us that they were indeed brother macaws. They had been born at the same time and were essentially twins. Scarlet macaws are birds that have to be in a pair, they don’t do well on their own, whether it is a partner, sibling or another macaw of the same sex. Very fascinating birds!

After several hours in the zoo I had seen every animal at least twice and headed back to the bus. We were spending the night in the zoo’s educational center which was across the street. It was set up with little stone houses that had a few rooms. Each room had several sets of bunk beds in them and could sleep anywhere from 6 – 9 people in a room. It reminded a lot of people who had been to camp when they were younger of “camp days”. The showers and outhouses were separate from the sleeping barracks and even the sink was separate from the outhouses. So you had to shower in one place, go to the bathroom in another place and wash your hands and brush your teeth in yet ANOTHER place! Screens covered the open windows in our rooms and while that was supposed to give us peace of mind about the place being “bug free” we all felt the sensation of being bitten all night long. Dinner was served in the “mess hall”; it really was like being at a camp. After dinner a few brave people ventured to the showers. I was one of them. I was hot and sweaty and even though we were only going to get hot, sweaty and dirty tomorrow, I couldn’t have slept in the filth that was on my body. Using a flashlight I bathed and brushed my teeth and made it safely back to the sleeping barracks. We all stayed up playing cards in the 9 person room, reading magazines by flashlight and listening to music off of people’s I-pods. It was a fun night excluding the bugs and it made us all really excited for what was yet to come on our trip.

Last day at San Pedro Roman Catholic School

I woke up to my alarm going off at what I thought was 7:30 am yet it was unusually quiet. I am one of the last people to get up in the morning and the hallway is buzzing with everyone else getting ready, some people even leaving. I looked harder at the clock and noticed that it said Jan 1^st! That meant the power had gone off in the middle of the night, the clock had reset itself and that was NOT the real time. I jumped out of bed in a panic thinking that it was PAST the time I was supposed to be up. While I was frantically trying to open my computer to figure out the real time I thought to myself “surely someone would have knocked on my door to get me to go to school if it was past time”. Thankfully when my computer finally woke up it showed me the time of 6:00 am. At first I was relieved and then I was pissed – I had woken up an hour and a half earlier than I needed to! I reset the clock for the right time and reset my alarm and went back to sleep. I enjoyed that extra hour and a half, it was totally worth it.

The next time I woke up it was really time for me to wake up. I went through my brief morning routine and left with Lauren to go to school. Since it was our last day we decided that we were going to walk on the beach. We reached school and as we are everyday, we were greeted by a flock of kids running towards us, screaming our names and giving us  so many hugs that we can’t move from the spot we are in for several minutes. Yesterday there was a little over half my class at school and today there was less than half. Just like in the states, once exams are over and break grows closer, parents take their kids out of school early to go on vacations or just don’t even bother sending them to school.

My kids took their spelling test (even though they weren’t supposed to take tests on this particular Friday). It would have been better off if they hadn’t taken it, most of them did horrible. You can tell that most of them did not care about studying or tests or what I thought their real potential was. Oh well. They were much more excited about the cupcakes that came after the test. Then Tr. Burnel had them copy down some Science and Religion notes even though all he did was write them down on the board and didn’t even read them to the class! Those kids had no idea what they were writing down. They went to break and it was weird to see only a handful of kids by the gate getting candies from the “sugar shops” or running around. There had to be less than 50% of the kids at school.

When they came back from break I had them FINALLY write letters back to my kids at Codington. I had spoken to my teacher a few weeks ago about the letters and how I wanted them to write back to my kids. I handed out the letters and was going to have them reply in class but Tr. Burnel thought it would be a better idea to assign it as homework. What I was not informed was that homework is kind of an optional thing here and if you don’t do it there is really no consequence. Only about 7 kids brought in letters throughout the next 2 weeks, even with constant reminders and treats to bring them in. So finally I put my foot down and had them all write identical letters on identical sheets of paper. It wasn’t how I preferred it but I was literally running out of time. Plus it was a little harder for my kids here because they are a year younger than my kids back at Codington and academically some are two years behind.

After lunch the kids turned in their letters and made bracelets with me and then we went outside to watch the student soccer games. Academically, Friday was a half day for us. After lunch soccer games started and the other classes were encouraged to come out and support the kids playing. Usually soccer games start after school but since it is the day before Easter break they decided that to push them up so that if parents or teachers were leaving to go somewhere, the games wouldn’t get out too late. Let me tell you it was MASS CHAOS! Emerita’s dad quoted my exact thoughts – “only in Belize”. Kids were running around, teachers were MIA, the tiny bleachers were crowded with hundreds of kids seeking shade and trying to support their classmates as game after game was played consecutively. Some kids who hadn’t been at school all day showed up to play their soccer games!

Tr. Burnel coached his team at 1:30 and after his team was done playing I did the best to round our class back up to go to the classroom to pass out candy into the kids Easter baskets that they had brought in after lunch. It was random candy and sweets that parents had brought in and Tr. Burnel and I passed them out to each kid. It was more like “trick or treat” than “Happy Easter” but either way the kids enjoyed it.

The whole “goodbye” part was very brief though and it made me kind of sad. Half my kids weren’t even there to say “goodbye” to, especially my favorite little boy L The kids were so distracted by their candy and the soccer games that when they were released they ran out of the classroom without even realizing that I wasn’t going to be here when they got back. I had to holler at some of them to come back and give me a hug. I had talked to them about it a little at point in the day. Still, they are young and I don’t think they really understood.

Plus, they’ve had other girls come into their class to teach for a few weeks and then leave. Tr. Burnel said that all of them have promised that they will “keep in touch” and “come back and visit” and they haven’t heard from any of them since they left. So part of it was that they knew I was leaving but didn’t believe me when I said that I WOULD be back and that I WOULD keep in touch. Ninel was so cute, she told me “Miss Michelle, you go back and see your family for one day then you come back here”. I told her I needed more than one day with my family and she said “okay, you get 100 days and then you come back”. I truly honestly know that this will not be my last time in Belize, in San Pedro or in that school. It may take me a year or so but I will be back. I want to share this place that is so special to me and has touched my heart with people that I love. I want them to be impacted by this place as I have been. I could even see myself living here in the future possibly. If God leads me back here I would not be surprised. We will see.

Okay Codington kids, I am almost done with my time here and I still have a few more of your questions to answer. I will answer some now and I will finish answering them when I come back from the mainland next week!

Malia - you asked "Is it cool there or is it just like any other school?" Well, it defiantly is different from Codington but there are similarities as well. They have a teacher here, each student has their own desk, they have books that they learn out of, they copy notes just like you do. The kids are similar to you all too in that they love to talk and always sharpen their pencils! There are lots of differences though too. They have chalk boards, not white boards. There is not technology which means there are no computers, smartboards, tvs or even overhead projectors! I think that I can show you better the differences when I come back to Codington and show you pictures!

Sam - you asked "Are the children good or naughty?" Well Sam I think that they all are wonderful children, just like I thought you all were wonderful. However some of them did misbehave from time to time, just like some of you did back at home. They love to talk, just like you all do and that is what got them in trouble a lot of the time. Here in Belize, the kids are disciplined in different ways than you are. You have the "paw chart" and "pink slips" in your classroom. Here there is no paw chart or pink slips. Their punishments were sweeping the classroom, facing the wall or kneeling on the ground to write their notes. Here in Belize what we would consider "misbehaving" or "being naughty" is considered acceptable.

Aleena and Ruby - you asked "What clothing do they wear?" At all of the schools here on the island (and I think all throughout Belize as well) they wear a uniform to school. That means all the students wear the same thing. At the school I was teaching at, girls wore a white shirt under a long navy blue dress. Boys wore long navy blue pants and a white button up shirt. They all have a little patch that goes on their shirt that says their schools name on it. However, on Fridays they have "rag days" and the kids can wear whatever clothes they want as long as they pay a dollar to the school. The school uses it as a fundraiser. When the kids are out of school and on weekends they wear regular clothes, just like you wear! 

Leah, Kaylee and Ruby - you asked "What kind of food do they eat?" They eat a lot of Spanish or Mexican style food here. There is a lot of Mexican influence on the island because Mexico is North of Belize and Guatemala is to the West of it. Many people immigrate from those countries into Belize and bring with them their native food dishes. Some popular food dishes here are panades, papusas, rice and beans, tacos, burritos, fry jacks, johnny cakes of course course the kids all love pizza! At break all the kids eat popsicles called "Ideals" and they come in many different flavors! 

Happy Birthday April the Tapir

Wednesday I had the privilege to go on a field trip with my class and another Infant II class to the Belize Zoo right outside of Belize City on the mainland. We had to meet out in front of the school at 6:00 am which was pretty early for me, one of the earliest times I had to be up on this trip. One thing that I did enjoy about waking up that early was that the sun was just rising and it made for a beautiful walk on the beach. Here everyone jokes about “Belize time” which means that no one or nothing ever starts on time. So being there at 6:00 didn’t mean that was the time we were going to leave. Surprisingly though, we did leave no too long after, about 6:30 we boarded the boats. They were just small motor boats. When we got on them I thought that they were going to take us to a bigger boat so that we could all ride together but after about ten minutes of zipping through the water, I realized that this WAS the boat that we were taking all the way to Belize City.

It took us about 45 minutes to reach Belize City, it isn’t too far down the coastline on the mainland. We passed three HUGE cruise ships coming in. All of the students were very excited, some of them had never seen boats that big. After we all got off the boats, parents escorted children to the bathroom at the hotel in which we docked at. There was a charter bus waiting for us at the dock as well and after all bladders were relieved we boarded the bus and headed through the narrow streets of Belize City. I found it funny how excited all the children got when they saw street lights! They were shouting when they saw one and counting all the ones they saw until we got out of the city. Something they don’t have in San Pedro and I guess if this was some of their first times being inland it would also be their first time seeing street lights too. We only stopped once at a gas station so that the parents could all buy water and snacks for their children. I would say that healthy eating habits are not taught very well here, not to children or parents. Not just the kids, but the adults too were snacking on either chips, cookies, candies or other sweets throughout the entire trip.

We reached Belize Zoo in about an hour. It was a long straight road through very barren land. The only thing you saw were trees, mountains in the background, abandoned houses or businesses and random schools along the roadside. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t been in a moving vehicle in about 4 weeks but the bus driver seemed to be driving extremely fast and recklessly for having so many little lives on the bus. We were going so fast that we were passing other activity busses and regular cars too! I was slightly nervous. However, we did make it to the zoo safely and in good time and I was happy that we were finally at our first destination! We got out and mulled around in the parking lot allowing people time to use the bathroom and things and such like that. Then we ventured to the entrance of the zoo. We were able to go in for free because the Zoo had invited San Pedro Roman Catholic School to the zoo to celebrate April the Tapir’s 28^th birthday. We were there around 9:30 am and the party didn’t start until 10:00 so everyone took a map and roamed the zoo on their own. I tagged along with one of my students, Emerita, and her family. Her mom was pretty much the one who was running the whole trip and knew what was going on and I didn’t want to get left behind or miss out on anything so I stuck close to her.

I saw some very interesting animals that I have never seen before – the tapir, the jaguar and a harpy eagle! I was very excited! At 10:00 our group along with a preschool group that was there was herded outside to watch “pre-birthday” festivities. There was a group of young boys who were doing flips in the parking lot! Everyone was cheering and clapping for them. Finally they were ready for us to go BACK into the zoo. My head was spinning with how much we were running around. Everyone gathered around the tapir cage. There was another tapir living with April that they had to lead away with a bucket of fruits and vegetables so that April could have her celebration by herself. They made this tapir a legit cake out of horse feed, fruits, vegetables and flowers. It was a pretty extravagant cake for a tapir. We all sang happy birthday to her, took pictures and cheered as she devoured her cake. Then we quickly retreated to the parking lot as to beat the huge group of preschoolers out. Before we boarded the bus we were each given a cupcake in commemoration of April’s birthday along with a cup of watermelon juice and the kids all got a coloring book and crayons.

The ride to Banana Bank was relatively short, besides getting pulled over by the Belizean police for 10 minutes! I’m not sure what was wrong, either we were going too fast (surprise surprise) or we had too many people on the bus or the license was expired, I’m not really sure. All I know is we had to pay a $50 dollar ticket and we were literally only 100 yards away from the entrance from Banana Bank. We took a wrong turn somewhere in the park though and got a point in which the bus could go no further. So we all got off the bus and walked to this little river where there was this small motor boat that would take us 20 feet across to the other side where the lodging and pool was. It may have been the shortest boat ride of my life but it was also the scariest. This boat was literally just boards nailed together with a motor slapped on the back of it and they were piling in groups of 20+ people into it. I almost had a panic attack going across … so glad when we reached the other side.

Oh and what was on the other side – PARADISE! It was the cutest little place I’ve ever seen! There were small little chateaus, cabanas and chalets across the beautiful green lawn that had gorgeous landscaping EVERYWHERE! Trees, flowers, shrubs … it was beautiful. The pool was between one of the chateaus and another building that was currently being renovated. There was a small snack bar and restaurant below that. On the grounds were horses, a resident jaguar, various birds and SPIDER MONKEYS! We were fed rice and beans, chicken and potato salad upon arrival and then all the kids made a mad dash to the pool. It was hot but I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to get into a pool full of children with their parents watching so I signed myself up for a 30 minute horseback ride through the jungle.

My guides name was William. When I asked him if he went by “Bill” he looked at me like I was crazy. I proceeded to explain to him that sometimes in America boys named William went by “Bill”. He asked me why they did that and I didn’t really have an answer for him, haha! He was very nice and very informative though. He was in high school and worked here at the lodge doing horseback riding tours. He had been riding since he was 6 years old and he did rodeos for fun. They had over 100 horses at Banana Bank and he took care of them and helped train them. He pointed out many things to me in the jungle and we talked about culture differences. I was informed that Banana Bank is has over 4,000 acres! It was a lovely ride.

When we returned my tour wasn’t quite over, we walked me to the back of the grounds, behind the chateaus to where two spider monkeys lived!! They had lived at Banana Bank since they were young. They used to be able to run around free and interact with all the guests there but they began to become interested in things that the guests had i.e. cameras, jewelry and other random items and would bite people to get these items from them! So they caged the two monkeys on the grounds. They both went into depression from being locked up, they never had been before so they decided to make a small area for them in the back of the grounds. They both have collars and are on extremely long leashes but for the most part can go where they want. The one was very friendly and jumped right up into William’s arms when he saw him. When William offered for me to hold him, he jumped right into my arms too, wrapping his arms around my neck and his tail was wrapped around my arm! I had never held a monkey before but he seemed so comfortable with me holding him. He held up my hand and put his tiny little monkey hand with no thumbs and extremely long fingers up to mine! It was precious. He was so curious just like a little kid. When I put him down he grabbed my hand and let me around, pointing at things and showing me. I could have spent hours with him. I never was too fond of monkeys before but this one was just adorable.

I left the monkeys and thanked William for a great tour around Banana Bank. I went to the pool where several of my little girls flocked towards me, hugging me with their wet bathing suits, begging me to get in. I just couldn’t resist. Emerita’s mom had rented a room in one of the chateaus for a few hours while we were there and let me go up and change. The pool wasn’t all that cool but being wet by something other than sweat did feel good and kind of refreshing. Many of my students couldn’t swim so I took turns taking them out into the deep end playing with them. I was only in for about half an hour before parents started pulling out kids to get them dried off and head back to the bus.

We took the scary boat ride across the river again and hiked back to the bus. On the bus I sat with two of my boys, both whom fell asleep on each other and in a domino effect ended up sleeping on my shoulder. Their sleepiness must have rubbed off on me because I took a short nap as well. Of course there was video taken of me snoozing on the bus ride. Emerita’s dad was very proud of his footage. At least my mouth wasn’t open! We made it back to the dock where our boats were waiting with bells and whistles. We got back on and in no time were zipping northeast back towards San Pedro. I was used as a pillow yet again by one of my little girls. She came on the trip with her aunt but her aunt brought her daughter with her that was less than one year old and I felt bad because she paid more attention to her baby than she did to her niece. So she ended up snuggling up to me for a little nap on the way back. The wind from the boat made for quite a chilly ride and most of the kids were exhausted and getting a little cranky. It had been a long day for all of us. I was worn out myself and had a slight headache once we docked back in San Pedro.

I am very glad I got the opportunity to go on the field trip with my students. There were a few differences than a field trip that would be taken in America. Not even half the students came, I think there were only about 12 kids from my class and the majority was from Teacher Helen’s class, the other Infant II class that came with us. Secondly, almost every student had an adult come on the trip with us. I think all the students except for 3 were chaperoned by at least one adult. There were several families in which the mom and the dad came and even brought along older and younger siblings. I was told that families here don’t take many vacations so when the students have field trips and they take advantage of using it as a “day trip” for the whole family. Several students had other extended family members come with them. One girl had her cousin come, another boy had his grandparents come, another girl had her aunt. Over all the trip was ran completely by Emerita’s mom. She called ahead to all the places to make sure that they were ready for us, organized the bus and got us the boats to take us to and from the mainland. Teacher Burnel was so funny, he was like a big kid on the trip. He wore his headphones the whole time and wondered around with the kids having to be told several times what to do and what he should be doing! I think he viewed it as a vacation too! While it seemed “unorganized” to me, everyone there seemed to be very calm and go with the flow. I guess it just isn’t as rigid as field trips in America where we are constantly counting heads and making sure the students are even two feet away from us. I think because parents were on the trip more of the responsibility was put on them rather than the teachers but it still stressed me out a bit trying to make sure everyone was together. Fun day over all J  

Ola Mexico!

On Sunday Lauren, Katie, Britney and I had an excursion of our own! Having yet ANOTHER free weekend, we decided that Sunday we would go have an adventure of our own. So we woke up early at 7:00 (which is earlier than we get up for school so it’s early) and got ready to catch a water taxi to MEXICO for the day! We left Pedro’s at 7:15 and by 7:45 we had all purchased tickets, filled out custom forms and had our passports stamped to head north to Mexico. The water taxi went a lot faster than I thought it would. It was a fairly small boat and all the passengers sat below. The windows were open which allowed for a nice breeze to come in and an occasional ocean spray. Most passengers fell asleep but the 4 of us made friends with a guy who actually lived in Wrightsville beach for a few years (small world right?) and played card games for a majority of the ride.

It couldn’t have been a more perfect day. It was sunny and warm as it has been every day here but there was an exceptional breeze that kept us cool. We got off the boat at Chetumal, Mexico which was our final destination. We went through customs again, had our passport officially stamped for Mexico and exchanged our Belize money for pesos. I had brought $60 Belize with me which is $30 American and in return I got $333 pesos. We headed off to the “old market” to check out what they had to offer. I was so excited, we walked the streets and I couldn’t help but to smile the entire time. I was in Mexico and it felt like Mexico should feel. There were actually paved streets here (something we haven’t seen in a while) with stoplights and actual cars like Nissan Sentras and Volkswagens. Spanish was everywhere (and was a little overwhelming). We definitely turned heads, as we were the ONLY Caucasian people on the streets, we didn’t see any others the entire time we were there.  The sun was shining, it was warm and beautiful and palm trees lined the streets.

We were quite hungry by the time we reached old market, which was about 7 blocks from the port, so we searched for food. There were many fruit stands and lots of open meat stands which was something we are definitely not accustomed to! There was raw meat, mostly beef, hanging from hooks and laying out in piles on tables. There was also an open fish market as well that had fish that had be brought right out of the ocean and they were skinning it and filleting it right in front of us! We finally found some food that was already cooked. Not sure what it was called because the woman spoke NO English and we communicated via hand signals, pointing, repeating things each other said and head nods. I got two of the tasty morsels, which were like fry jacks. One had just cheese in the middle and the other had chicken, rice and spices. They were very tasty and hit the spot – we had our first taste of Mexico J

We walked around the old market a little longer, observing and taking pictures. Then we tried to go to the Mayan museum however they wanted almost $60 pesos for admission and wouldn’t let us in at the student price of $11 pesos because we didn’t have identification. Even though that is really only about $6 American to get in, we didn’t want to spend that much money so early in the day so we decided if we had time we would come back. Needless to say we didn’t have time but it is something I would like to go back and visit in the future. We then ventured to take a bus to new market in which we thought would be more modern per say. However, this was not the case. The new market was simply bigger! It was lined with fruit stands galore, so much fruit it was over flowing into the streets. Here there was not only raw beef but whole dead, raw chickens sprawled out on tables. Some of the stands had the chickens cut up into their different parts, buckets of chicken feet, buckets of chicken hearts, buckets of chicken heads … There were very few stands that did not sell either fruit or raw meat. On the other side of the street they sold more already cooked food and very random items but nothing that I would consider buying as a souvenir. Much of it was clothing at a cheaper price than you would find in the mall.

We ventured around new market for quite a while until we started getting hungry again. Upon coming to Chetumal we were informed that there was a McDonalds here! Having not had “American food” in about 4 weeks, we were craving a good American hamburger and some fries. We caught a taxi, which isn’t hard to do because they are all slowing down staring when they pass us anyways. Catching the taxi was the easy part, communicating to the taxi driver where we wanted to go, not so much. Katie was our chief translator, she knew the most Spanish out of all of us which isn’t say much! With what little Spanish words she knew, she tried to describe to the man where we wanted to go. Then she resorted to drawing words on her hands such as “shop”, “mall” and “buy. Then we started drawing pictures on her hands, a shopping bag! All the mean while Lauren is running around trying to find someone to translate for us and Britney and I are in the background repeating “tell him we want to go to McDonalds, he’ll understand that”. We were quite a site. We must have struggled with this poor man for over 5 minutes before we came to the word that described the place we wanted to go – “PLAZA”! We wanted to go to the plaza!

We piled into the taxi and he began driving us, speaking over his radio to another taxi driver. They were laughing back and forth and Katie was able to catch a little bit of what they were saying – they were making fun of the four of us and how we take pictures of EVERYTHING! Haha, which is true but we couldn’t help ourselves. He finally let us out at the mall, the taxi ride was only $25 pesos, the equivalent to $2.50 American! We walked once around the mall, enough time to consume the ice cream we all bought upon entering the front door. Deciding that it wasn’t anything we couldn’t buy in America and we didn’t’ want to waste our money we headed out and across the street to the big, golden arches. Being as though I don’t like hamburgers from McDonalds much in the first place, I was quite satisfied with a small thing of friends. Katie, Lauren and Britney all got happy meals and let me tell you, I think they were more excited about them than any kid in there that got a happy meal. We savored our little piece of America and then seeing that we still had almost an hour and a half left until we had to be back at the port, we decided that we would check out the zoo that we passed on the way to the mall. Getting to the zoo by taxi was much easier, zoo is a pretty common word and it’s easy to act out a monkey or jaguar.

We got to the zoo and found it was more set up of like a jungle. There were not really specific places in which each animal lived like zoos in America have; they were all kind of nestled into an actual jungle that had mazes of paths going through it. We walked through the paths, nonchalantly at first. We saw birds, lots of birds, even a flamingo! Then we discovered that there was a floating walk away above the trees that we could walk on and see the jungle from above. That was really exciting and gave us a whole new view of the zoo. We still hadn’t seen many animals but it was 30 minutes until we had to be back at the port. When we were coming down from the floating walk way, we ran into a boy who worked at the park and asked us if we had seen the jaguar or the monkeys, the two main attractions. When we said “no” he told us he would take us there. We figured it wouldn’t take too long so we allowed him to show us where these animals were. I’m glad that we got to see them. The monkey was a bit gross, I don’t like monkeys much in the first place. The jaguars though were so elegant! They were the only animals that were behind a glass wall, and for good reason, but they got right up to the wall and were looking at us. They are such magnificent animals, they truly are! Made me miss Brody a little J Well we got so caught up looking at the monkey and jaguars that when we looked at our watch we realized we had 11 minutes to get back to the port. Immediately we started running through the maze of paths, trying to find our way out. We were dodging in and out of pathways, going off the path, trying despertatly to find our way out. Finally we did and we were on the right path. I was leading the way and we were walking with a bit of a pep in our step as you would say. We were passing over a bride which had a water fountain to either side of it which made the bridge slightly slippery. I had just gotten over the bridge and was about to turn around the corner when suddenly my feet came out from underneath me and I came crashing down on my right side. I didn’t catch myself quick enough and my butt thudded when it hit the ground. As quick as I could I popped back up and continued walking, hoping that no one saw me. Unfortunately Lauren, Katie and Britney did and they were all doubled over, peeing their pants and crying with laughter. Luckily nothing was hurt but my pride so I could laugh along with them however I am sure that I will never know exactly how funny I looked.

We eventually made it out of the zoo, our sides still in stitches from my tumble. We caught a taxi, showed him a picture of where we wanted to go (the easiest method we've tried yet) and got to the port. Luckily they knew we were supposed to be on the boat back so they were looking for us. We were only a few minutes late and they took our passports and handed us papers to get back into Belize. Then they asked us if we paid the “exit fee”. We had paid a small exit fee of $7.50 Belize when we left that morning so we assumed that’s what they were talking about. It wasn’t, apparently there is an exit fee to leave Mexico as well. When we inquired how much it was they replied 262. In our minds we thought $2.62 pesos. NOPE – it was $262 pesos! We were shocked!! Even though that was only a little over $26 American dollars, it was the most that any of us had spent all day. Thank goodness we hadn’t found anything nice to buy or we would all still be in Mexico because we wouldn’t have had any money. It was a slight buzz kill to our day, especially since we didn’t want to leave yet. There was still so much to do but we had such a short time there.

On our way back we were allowed to sit on top of the boat with the driver. It was extremely windy up there but it was such a different view than the one we had below on the way there. The driver was really nice and pointed out landmarks along the coast here and there. He pointed out the different parts of Belize, some Mayan ruins that dotted the coast line and even Leonardo DiCaprio’s own private island that he bought. Apparently he has only been there once since he purchased it. It was a decent sized island, about 2 miles long, uninhabited. I’m going to have to call him up and ask about him building me a house there! Across from his island is an island that is owned by the man who brought Coca-Cola to Belize and is now a billionaire. Leo’s island was bigger.

The ride back took a little over 2 hours, the driver said it’s the longest it’s ever taken him to get from Mexico to Belize but I think it was because he got caught up playing tour guide! Over all it was an AMAZING day and it only gave me the urge to travel more and more! The four of us who went today are hoping that we will get the chance to travel to Guatemala when we go inland. Stay tuned to find out if we do J As for tomorrow, it’s my last Monday teaching in the schools – BITTER SWEET! 

Turning into a true Belizean

Another has gone by! It was a fairly smooth and uneventful week. I’ve been teaching lessons on my own, team teaching with Mr. Burnel and grading lots of papers – I’m a grading machine! I feel as though I am making a difference here though. I teach the spelling lessons every morning. The kids have 10 spelling words each week and every day we do something different with those words to prepare them for a spelling test on Friday. This week all of their words ended in “-op” so I had them make little spelling booklets on Tuesday. Wednesday I scrambled 5 of the words and they had to unscramble them and we learned the definition of the words and talked about how we could use them in sentences. We did the same thing on Thursday for the other 5 words and each Thursday they take a “pre-test”. The students who make a 100 on the pre-test don’t have to take a test on Friday. Last week I only had 5 make a 100. This week I had 11 students make a 100 on their pre-test! I was so excited. Most of the other students only missed one or two words. So for homework I had them write the words that they missed 3 times each. On Friday I gave the test again and 7 more students made a 100! Mr. Burnel said that was the best that they have ever done on a spelling test. Most of the rest of them made 90 or 80 and only 4 students failed! My goal for next week is for not a single student to fail and have over 20 of them make a 100 J I am also making a “word wall” in their classroom with all the spelling words they have had so far so that they don’t forget the words they learned.

Friday was an exciting day after school. It was Mailyn’s birthday and she had sent out invitations earlier that week inviting all the kids to her party. Little did I know that her party was actually AT school RIGHT after class! It was a whole big thing! Her mom brought in a buffet of food. Other student’s parents came and brought the other student’s siblings to the party as well. Mr. Burnel and I played waiter and waitress to all the kids. They started off getting chips and queso. Then little sandwiches were passed out with drinks. Then all the kids got a cupcake. Then we went outside to hit the piñata. Then the kids came back inside and got favor bags. Then they were given an entire meal of rice and beans, mashed potatoes and chicken!! I was blown away! Even the assistant principal came to the party! I asked her if this was common for kids to have their birthday parties in school like this. She said it was becoming more popular because it was cheaper and all the kid’s friends were there at once. She said that this was a larger party and that most parents just bring a cake with some drinks for the kids. It was crazy though, it lasted over an hour and after all the kids left it was a mess to clean up. Luckily some adults stayed behind and Mr. Burnel recruited some older kids to come in and sweep the classroom. Quite an experience though! I was very full by the end of that party, to say the least!

That evening a small group of us helped out at the library to put on a movie for the kids. We helped the librarian set up an inflatable movie screen outside the library and set up a projector. We played Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild. A good amount of kids showed up plus some families with smaller ones and I even think some tourists walking by even stopped to watch for a bit. For the first part of the movie however I went to go watch some of my students play soccer or “football” as they call it here. They are so cute in their little uniforms and watching them run up and down the concrete field attempting to kick the ball and block it from the goal is very entertaining. They get so excited about it though and you can’t help but be excited too!

Saturday was “service Saturday” for most of us! The other elementary school that 1/3 of us are at, Isla Bonita, was having a fundraiser for art supplies. They were also painting a mural on the outside wall that surrounded the front of the school. I got there around 10:30 and the mural was over halfway painted! Little kids were running around everywhere with paint brushes and paint on themselves! Our entire group showed up to paint as well as many people from the community. It was such a huge success. There is a girl name Natalie who is teaching the students at Isla Bonita creative arts. She is the new “art” teacher. She is doing an internship much like we are except she is here longer, two months I think. This project was part of a class called “Be the Change” and she had to make a change at the school she was at. The wall started off a bland pale yellow and it ended in various color shades that the students mixed themselves. “Brighten our Future” was written on it as well. It makes a huge difference and it makes the school very inviting and welcoming.

The rest of the day I was a beach bum. It was hot and I was in and out of the water between trying to even out my tan between my peeling burn. The few of us laying out caught word that more lionfish had been sighted and that some of the boys working at the snorkel shop on the dock were going out to spear them. We congregated on the dock to watch, I had left my snorkel bag behind for the day so I observed from above while some went in the water with the boys to spot the lionfish. They are not loved or wanted at all here. They eat all the other fish and destroy the reef and anyone who sees a lionfish is encouraged to kill them. The boys speared two. They were only a few inches long, but they said that it’s better to spear them when they are little, before they can do too much damage. It was quite an interesting thing to watch.

Saturday night I went to church at night and treated myself to ice cream and window shopping down front street. I met up with the rest of the group at RC where there was to be the “teacher vs. parents” game at 8:30. What was so special about this game was that many of the girls from our group were playing on the teacher’s team! They had been practicing for two hours every day after school the entire week training hard for this game. It was such an exciting and intense game. It was only female teachers vs. female parents tonight, the males teachers played the male parents on Friday night. The girls played so well, the parents were so aggressive!! Many of them bigger women but still in incredible shape, they were running up and down the concrete field, one lady even played without shoes on! The teachers ended up losing 2 -3 but they are doing a rematch next Friday before we go inland. Lauren’s teacher, who is on the team, told me that I have to play with them next Friday even if it’s only for 5 minutes! We will see how that goes, I’ve never been much of a soccer player!

Time flies on the weekends and the week of course goes by slow, I feel like that is the same in any country you go to. I can’t believe this is my second to last weekend here. I feel like I have been gone forever, yet when I look back on my pictures and my blogs I feel like all of this happened just a few days ago! On a personal level, it has been such a humbling experience and honestly the best Lenten journey I have ever been on. It has really made me realize what and who is important to me and what I want out of life. I have realized that I am so truly blessed and that many things that I don’t normally think of as being a privilege I might take for granted i.e. education. I realized that no matter where I go, I will always have my religion and my faith. No matter how far I travel from my family, they will always love me and support me. No matter where I go, my heart stays true to those I love and if anything this trip has solidified what it is that I want from my life and who I want in it.

As a teacher I have learned that I need to be more patient. This does not surprise me because I feel that in my everyday life I still struggle with patience. Here in Belize, I came into the classroom with expectations that these students would be on the same level as my second graders back in America. However, I found that this is not the case and I easily get frustrated with my students when they don’t understand something that I feel they should already know or catch onto very easily so that we can move on. I believe that teaching should be engaging and honestly, I think that is a huge difference between teaching in America and teaching here in Belize. My teaching style and part of my teaching philosophy is that learning should be interactive, hands on and engaging. Students should be involved in their learning through various activities. Here many times the teacher writes notes on the board and never once read them to their students. If this is the only type of teaching they are exposed to, then of course they are not going to understand what they are being “taught”. Also, students learn at different speeds and different ways. My patience with my kids here will help me be more patient and understanding of my future students. 

Half way through the trip!

TGIF had a whole new meaning for me on this particular Friday. My teacher yet again did not come in on Thursday and my kids gave me quite a challenge to say the least. Luckily he was back on Friday and I let him take back over his classroom and regain management and organization. I did get to introduce Flat Stanley to the kids and they loved him. They all got to color their own Flat Stanley and we read a book about him as well. After school Lauren and I went to the soccer, or better known here as “football”, games at our school. For the past few weekends since we have been here there are football tournaments going on every Friday and Saturday. Many of the students are on teams that are lead by teachers of that grade. The younger kids play on Friday nights and Saturday during the day the older kids play.  They all have jerseys donated to the teams and they are legit jerseys! Their names are named after professional soccer teams i.e. Brazil, Germany, England, Spain, etc and the jerseys match the real ones that the real players wear. Lauren’s Infant I students played at 5:00 on Friday night so we went to watch them play and work the “concession stands” at the fields. It was so cute watching them all play. It reminded me of the summer when we used to go to McAllister park and play softball and baseball games. It was very similar to that atmosphere. After the games we went to play BINGO at the San Pedro Lions Club! Unfortunately I did not get BINGO but it was a very enjoyable evening.

Saturday we all got up bright and early to bike 5 MILES to see an ancient Mayan dig site at the very south end of the island. Wish I could say it was an easy and relaxing ride but at 8:30 in the morning it was already sweltering hot and most of the bike ride was on a dusty dirt road with lots of bumps and I have a legit bruise on my tailbone. I was sweating so much that by the time I got there I looked like I had jumped in a pool – disgusting. However, very cool fun fact: the Mayan dig site that we went to visit was just deemed a National Park the day before and we were the very first official visitors to the park J Cool right? It was a very interesting tour of the dig site. The Mayan dig site is thought to be where the Mayans lived their everyday lives while the Temples were more of places that they went to worship and do large rituals. I think it was good that we got to see this type of dig site so that we can compare it to the temple when we go inland. The artifacts that they found there dated as far back as 1,200 AD and some as early as 600 B.C. The Mayans inhabited much Central America and Belize especially. The only bad part of the tour was that while it was interesting, many of us were very distracted by the massive amounts of mosquitoes that were having a smorgasbord on us all! Not a single one of us came out of there without at least 5 bites on each body part! Everyone was spraying so much bug spray, we were about it a cloud of it at all times but these were like super bugs and even bit us through our clothes! It did not make the 5 mile bike ride back any more enjoyable. It was blistering hot by the time we biked back which was around noon. 5 miles seemed like 25 and all anyone could think about doing when we returned as immediately putting on our bathing suits and heading to the cool clear water of the Caribbean Sea and to bask on the white sand like lizards for the rest of the day.

Those of us who went to the beach swam and slept and after we were crusty with sand and sea salt we went back to Pedro’s to shower and get ready for the evening. We were in for quite a surprise when we got back though. I was in the shower (as were many other people at this point) and suddenly the power went out! I finished bathing in the dark which wasn’t too difficult as there was still some natural light shining throw the crack of the door for me to see. Of course when the power goes out, so does the air-conditioning and it did not take long for our rooms to become hot. With all of our complaining going on, no one thought to go downstairs and tell someone, we thought the power was out in the entire Inn. However, come to find out that it was only on our floor that it was out and we had been complaining for quite a while without letting anyone know! A few hours passed and they were still working on getting our power fixed. It gets dark quite early here so around 6:00 our deck filled with girls getting ready, a few of them even went down to the pool to use the electrical outlets down there to dry their hair. It was a fiasco and when we left for the evening we hoped that upon our return our power would be back on again.

I went to church Saturday night with Kyle and Katie because we would be leaving early the next day for snorkeling. Afterwards we ate at the stands in the center plaza of town and got ice cream. We ate ice cream on the beach and Katie got her first kiss from a Belizean – a dog named Dustin!  He came right up from behind her and licked her entire face. I think he was going for the ice cream but it was very funny.  While the rest of the group went to the High School Pageant, Kyle, Katie and I opted to go to the electric air guitar contest at Fido’s that evening. There was an amazing live band, fun spirited tourists and a nice island breeze. It was a lovely evening.

 Sunday was the big day – our first excursion as a group! We again met early in the morning and headed to the yacht club where our tour group, SeaRious tours, would be taking us out. We were taken out on a large catamaran. The floor of the boat was woven trampoline material with mats that covered it. So while we were out on the ocean, it came up through the bottom and continually sprayed us with cool water. Our first stop was Hol Chan which is a channel that is dug between the barrier reef. The channel itself was over 30 feet deep but where there was coral were only about 6 or 7 feet deep. There were an incredible amount of fish there – huge fish! We saw barracudas, sting rays, enormous amounts of reef fish and even a sea turtle! He was feeding on some seaweed and when we all gathered around him he just looked at us all and continued eating. I got so close to him, I could have touched him. Best part of that dive.

Next we went to Shark Ray Alley. Supposedly there are many nurse sharks that swim there and boats throw out sardines to make them congregate in larger numbers. However, we got the site a bit late and there were not that many sharks left. We saw one relatively large shark, he was about the length of me, and we saw so many stingrays. One of the stingrays had to be almost 8 feet in diameter, he was massive! I was slightly disappointed, I wished to see more sharks and interact with them. Call me crazy, but I was really looking forward to it. Maybe before I leave I will get another chance …

The rest of the trip consisted of going to Caye Caulker, a smaller island south of San Pedro. We docked there and ate lunch and were given a few hours to walk around. Honestly, I enjoyed this island much more than San Pedro. It was so much more laid back, less touristy and had more of a “paradise” atmosphere to it. They say that Caye Caulker is much like what San Pedro was 30 years ago. I enjoyed the time there; I wish it could have been longer. On our boat ride back we were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins. We spotted another boat that was watching them and we sailed up behind them. The dolphins were so close to us. I was sitting at the very front part of the boat and I literally could have reached out and touched them in the water they were so close. They swam with our boat for about 10 minutes, jumping and swimming all around us. Another highlight of a most splendid day!

Something that I have learned from my teacher that helps me understand teaching here in a positive way is that respect is a huge part of being a teacher. In America we concentrate so much on “behavior management” and have so many great systems implemented into many different classrooms in America, and it works. Here I have noticed that there is not any system of behavior management, yet the teacher somehow still maintains control over the classroom. One the days that I taught by myself, I struggled greatly to maintain control over the classroom. I tried all of my “behavior management” strategies that would work for me back home but here they did not work. My kids say that they “love” me and they are constantly giving me hugs and showing me signs of affection which I have no doubt in my mind that they don’t in some way admire me. However, they do not yet respect me and there is a huge difference between the two. I have only been in their classroom for 3 weeks now and they know that I am not going to be their teacher for much longer. I am not sure if this has something to do with the fact that they do not respect me and feel the need to listen to me as they would their teacher but it is something that I have noticed. My teacher talked to me about how it took him a good part of the beginning of the year for them to respect him but now his relationship with his students is incredible. Just his presence in the classroom changes them from rowdy circus animals to quite studious children. I know that if I had more time here I too could earn respect from the children. I’m not saying that children in America don’t respect their teachers, but it is much more evident in a whole different kind of way.

 

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.