Internet???

Well, barring an act of God, it looks like the
internet at school will be down for some time. So
weekly trips to the Green Dragon, a nice little coffee
shop/internet place in Cayo, have become something of
a necessity--too bad :). They make really good
chocolate banana milkshakes. Tomorrow we are off to
Belize city to compete in the national nutrition
competition. It should be quite the experience. This
is an interesting tidbit of Belizian culture- there
are three girls on the nutrition team, but the
corporation who sponsors the competition chartered a
bus for the school, and told us we could take thirty
kids and three teachers to cheer for our team.
Belizians LOVE to cheer. The have festivals where
school kids compete by making up cheer routines (not
like cheer leading, just a lot of screaming). So
tomorrow we will be off! We will be joining teams
from across the country. Anyways, the rainy season
has finally started here (supposedly it has been the
rainy season all along, but it hasn't really been
raining). This adds a whole new dimension to
teaching-- try to teach a lesson when rain is POURING
down on the tin roof of your classroom. It just
doesn't work. Mostly, I have been lucky enough to
have a worksheet in reserve, so I just hand that out.
I am really enjoying my students- they are really
funny. My boys have a fascination with animal sounds.
2 weeks ago it was elephant noises, this week it is
turkey noises. They call themselves the turkey boys,
and the whole class makes turkey noises in unison when
the class ends. None of the teachers have figured out
why, but I find it funny, as long as they don't make
them when I'm teaching. They know better in my class,
but I think some of the other teachers have been
interrupted by a random turkey noise form time to
time. A couple of my students keep me constantly
amused by trying out pickup lines on me. They are
both about 4 feet tall, and look about 6 years old,
but they have plenty of self confidence. The problem
with the pickup lines is they translate horribly from
Spanish, so they say random things like " A
beautifully embroidered handkerchief fell down from
heaven, but you are even more beautiful." Apparently
this rhymes in Spanish. I laughed the first time one
of my boys said something like that to me, so now they
try to come up with creative new pick up lines (which
they call pick lines) to read to me, and then giggle
hysterically. Having an all boys class really brings
out the silly side of boys, because they don't have to
worry about impressing girls. Anyways, I've about hit
my time limit (at ten cents a minute), so that's it
for now!

Internet is spotty again at school, but I'm at an internet cafe in Cayo, and I'm going to try and upload some pictures.

The top picture is a view of Benque from the hills surrounding it. The road in the picture is one of Belize's 4 main highways. We live about 2 blocks over on the right, but you can't see our house from the hill because of trees. The mountains you see in the background are Guatemala. The bottom picture was the view from my hotel room in Caye Caulker. Beautiful, huh? You can see how low the whole island is- that is the shore, 5 feet or so from the hotel. The rest of my pictures won't load for some reason, so I guess I'll have to try again later. Back to grading tests-- this class isn't doing so well, most of them have failed rather miserably so far :( oh well!

Another week...

Well, we have Internet again at school, so I plan on
putting up some pictures tomorrow. This week just
flew by! I had a great day today. I have been
helping out with a group of students who were
preparing to compete in a nutrition competition, just
answering any questions they had and trying to guide
them towards important topics. The competition was
against 5 other schools from Cayo district, and to be
honest, I didn't think we had a chance, because the
other schools offer classes on nutrition. Mount
Carmel doesn't, the girls had just been studying on
their own over summer break. Well, we won first
place! The girls each got 100 dollars, which is huge
for them, and in two weeks we will travel to Belize
city to compete against schools from the rest of the
country. The winner of that competition will compete
by teleconference with other Caribbean countries, like
Jamaica! I'm really excited for the girls, they really
worked hard. They have a long way to go still, but
they are really smart. So we will be doing extra
classes after school for the next two weeks! The
teachers also had a fun time after school today- we
took on the students for a volleyball game. The girl
teachers beat the girl students by 1 point, but the
guy teachers were pounded on by the boys. It was
great to just let loose and have fun around the
students. They love it when we act like normal 20
year olds instead of strict adults! The kids were all
cheering for us, and laughing a lot too when we were
particularly clumsy (which happened a lot with me! )
Anyways, I'm getting chewed up by mosquitoes, so
that's it for now! Buenos Noches!

Hey Everyone! Sorry for the long gap in posts. The internet has been down for almost 2 weeks now, and it's not looking good for the future. I'm typing this at an AIRCONDITIONED cafe in Cayo, which is a bigger town 15 minutes from Benque. Airconditioning is such a treat; we actually come more for the airconditioning then anything else. Grading 100's of papers is much more pleasant when sweat isn't dripping off the tip of your nose. This last weekend was a 3 day weekend, so all the teachers took a trip to the keys. This was my first time to the Caribbean sea, and I was floored at how beautiful it is. Palm trees, white sands, turquoise waters. Ah, the missionary life... The break was so helpful, though- just to get back to amenities (like hot water) helped me refocus and regain sanity. It was cheap, too- we stayed at this really nice hotel for only 15 Belize a night- that's 7.50 American! One of the guys in our group told the owners we were missionaries, and they gave us a huge discount- it normally is 80 american a night. We did see some effects of hurricane Ivan. The Caye is probably only about a foot above sea level at the highest point, but it is surrounded by a coral reef which protects it. The last day we were there, we could see humongous waves breaking on the reef. Normally there are no waves on the beaches, but they were getting some, much to the excitement of the locals. All the streets were flooding, though, because of the waves! Anyways, I hope to post pictures soon. It's contingent on whether or not the school's internet is fixed, though. Ok, that's all for now!

TGIF

This was definitely one of the longest, most challenging weeks of my life. There were so many times during the week that if someone had given me a chance to go home, I would have taken it in a second. Immersion learning definitely works, though! I have learned so much about myself. I have also discovered I am becoming one of those tough teachers I hated (and respected) so much in school! It is such an interesting transition, to go from student to teacher in such a short time. When I walk onto this campus, I suddenly become an adult. The kids call me Miss, and will actually listen when I tell them to do something! The funny thing is that many of these students are only a year or two younger then me; a few are older then me. Discipline is very important here, because the kids do not get it at home. Most of these kids are being raised by their grandparents or aunts and uncles because their parents are working in the states; they say there are more Belizians in the US then there are in Belize. I have quickly gotten a reputation as being very strict, which is great- I teach 100 students every day, and if I did not keep a tight reign on my kids, it would be a zoo. The secretaries in the office laugh when they see me coming, because I usually have a handful of things I have confiscated. The dress code is very strict, because lot of types of jewelry or colored clothing is associated with gangs. Also, in Belize there are several disrespectful noises, such as sucking your teeth or clucking your tongue--and boys will hiss at girls. I have mastered the glare, which I use a lot when I hear a noise but can't tell who made it. I send boys to the office on a regular basis, and today I assigned lines (writing "I will not be late" 50 times) to some of my homeroom boys who were late to the school Mass. Some days it is very frustrating, but once order is established I will be able to loosen up a little. You really have to be on your toes, because these kids are smart and wily! I am really enjoying watching personalities emerge, though. Already, the precocious kids have made themselves known. They are a lot of fun to teach, because they have so much energy, and so many questions! Some of my kids are super smart, so it will be a challenge to gear material towards everyone. I really appreciate the staff at this school. They are very supportive, and will back up any of your decisions, which is so important. The other teachers are a lot of fun, too. There is so much more I could write, but it looks like it is going to pour any second, so I will have to make a dash for home!