Myself, Mary Beth, Jenna (who was visiting) and Audrey all dressed up for parent's night, where grads and their parents have a nice dinner together at school.

After 5 months of fundraising, what did my wonderful girls want to do with the money?  Go to the pool, of course!! We took the $250 bz dollars and went to a local resort, where the girls swam, danced, sang karioke and ran around with water guns.  They had a great time,  and so didn't their teachers!

After cleanup day, the girls got to make themselves bracelets with the leftover fundraising supplies.

Bring your own frog....

We dissected a frog (that the kids caught) in my advanced biology class.  I chickened out and couldn't kill it, but fortunately another bio teacher had no such qualms :)

Update on our student...

Well, it looks like we have a miracle here in Belize. Bernard, the student who attempted suicide about three weeks ago, who wasn't expected to survive the day, is still alive and doing fine. The doctors are quite floored, because the one or two cases of people who actually survive swallowing the poison he swallowed usually have extensive internal damage. He does not. He was given dialysis a few days after being admitted into the hospital, and his blood tests came back clean, which has never happened before in a case like this. The doctors thought that maybe he had lucked out and swallowed an inactive form of the poison, so they tested the bottle he drank from. They found no dilution, and that the amount he drank should have killed him. Then the doctors thought maybe the poison was taking a while to be broken down by his body, so they expected him to crash after 3 weeks. Instead, they released him from the hospital with a clean bill of health. He is now at home, and has been accepted back into school for the fall. Please continue to keep him in your prayers, as unfortunately he is going back into the family situation that caused him to become so depressed before. He knows now, though, how much people care for him, and that being alive right now is a miracle. Thanks to everyone who kept him in your prayers!

Why no one in Belize has a library card

Today I stopped by the public library to get a card, as I have exhausted all the schools/teachers' reading materials. I was given this form to get signed and returned...

"In my opinion, the above applicant is a fit and proper person to be a member of the Library"
(space for signature)
"The above signature must be that of a member of the Library Board, or a member of the Cabinet, or a member of the House of Representatives, or of the Senate, or a member of the Belize City Council, a Justice of the Peace, a Minister of Religion or Head of Department."

The Sardine Saga

My advanced biology class has been learning about scientific method, and I thought actually performing experiments would be more fun then just reading about them. I found a couple ideas for experiments using guppies (or sardines, as they call them here), and proposed them to my class. They assured me I would have no trouble catching these fish. The preferred method is to put a little but of bait in a champagne bottle, and let the fish swim in. Then they get confused, and can't get out. So, brimming with confidence and in the possession of several stale tortillas and a bucket, I headed of to the river with another teacher for an assistant. Well, let's just say we have made the discovery that sardines are the smartest animals on earth. These creatures swarm around your feet when you get in the river, and devour bait. But the second you attempt to catch them, gone. We tried a net, a bottle, and finally had minimal success by using a bucket to scoop water onto the shore. Grand total- 5 fish in 40 minutes. An then 2 went and died last night. So today I told my class we would have to postpone the experiments until we had enough fish. " Let's go down to the river right now and catch fish, miss!" I didn't think that was possible without permission slips, etc, but when I asked the principal he said it was fine as long as no one got wet (Belizians don't like getting wet). So with a bucket once again we made our way to the river. This time we had more success with the scoop method, which seems to be the only way to catch these things. So tomorrow these unfortunate fish will be exposed to nicotine, alcohol, and energy pills. fun!

Update:
Our student who made the suicide attempt is still alive, but failing fast. He still needs prayers. Everyone knows it would be a miracle if he recovered, because there have been no known cases of survival in cases like his. The priests and some of his teachers are spending a lot of time with him, which is good because his family situation seems kind of messy.

We've now entered the 3rd and final term- report cards are being handed out today. I've become quite the pro at parent-teacher conferences, which is never a skill I ever thought I'd aquire... The weather here has started to heat up, so everything is slowing down a little, including school. I have some pictures from the Ruta Maya, a cross-country canoe race which I was support crew for, which I will put up soon.