Who needs an oven

One day I came home from school to Miss Louisa kneading bread, yes bread. For all of you who know me well, you know how much I love bread and if you think of how many tortillas I've been eating lately and how long it has been since I've had fresh baked bread you can almost understand how excited I was. One thing that had me confused though was knowing we had no gas for our oven, so how on earth were we going to bake bread. As usual, I kept the question to myself and instead offered to help. We went through a few rounds of taking turns kneading, Miss Louisa, Martha, and I and the bread was then soft enough. I decided to give in and asked, "Did you get gas for the oven," thinking she must have without me realizing. The response was no, I'll cook it in the fire hearth. What? You can do that? I was intrigued, but sadly had a meeting to go to and missed out on the baking process. I came home to beautifully baked rolls, still warm, and very delicious.
Luckily, I was home the next time baking was on the daily agenda. It was Edwardo's 18th birthday and I had bought a cake mix in town so we could bake him a birthday cake. I wasn't sure what kind to get, but for some reason I am always craving chocolate so went for Devil's food. This became a joke in the Mas household, them making fun of me for bringing home the devil's cake (I did find out it was Miss Louisa's favorite though, so we'll be having it again in March). Over my lunch break we mixed up the batter and I was still trying to wrap my mind around baking in the fire hearth. I thought rolls were probably a little easier, but a cake?!? I put all trust in Louisa as she told me to put the batter in a large pot which she then put in an even larger one. Since I'm not very good at describing things, I'm glad I took pictures.
Now I know how to bake on a fire hearth and that anything is possible!

All I Want for Christmas...

So, we have a library, with many books, but one thing we are lacking are some magazines. Newsweek was suggested by my Standard 5 and 6 teacher and I think Highlights, or some other children's magazine would be great, not only for content, but also pictures. Even old magazines would be appreciated. We also could use some educational games, like Brainquest (oh, how I remember playing Brainquest) for learning centers and early finishers. And some letter tiles, you know, from old Scrabble games. -- This is for you Mom, I know we have an old game of Upwords that hasn't been played for maybe ten years. Throw those tiles in an envelope and send them my way!-- I love you all! Thanks for all the support. Hugs, Kisses, and Noseys!

Meet (some of) the Mas Family

Louisa Mas (37yrs old, maiden name Ishim ~corn in K'ekchi) Not only does she look young for her age, she acts that way, too. She's always wanting to play Pass the Pigs or cards as we're sitting on the floor under the solar light. She was even trying to make fish faces after I showed the girls how ridiculous I looked while biting my cheeks and puckering my lips. Miss Louisa has taught me how to bake tortillas and laughs as I try to pull them off the comal. She always separates my food before adding the pepper, making me feel quite special and a little like a young child. She claims she doesn't know English very well, but I love our after dinner conversations, ocassionally about God. She also has a beautiful voice. I had seen a Bichlebal Sa' Ke'kchi (Songs in Ke'kchi) book held by people at church and I asked if she had one. Yep! She was surprised to hear me sing in Ke'kchi, but really I was just doing my best to pronounce the words if I knew the tune. Really, I just wanted to listen to her though. (Side note: knowing the tune does not help as singing in Belize you follow the person with the loudest voice, not the music)

Hillaria Mas (10yrs old, aka Darlene) At first I thought they were calling her "darling," and I liked that so much I still pretend they do. I constantly find her in the pata (guava) tree and she makes me laugh more than anything, which is good because she likes when I laugh. Lately she's been obsessed with wanting to fight me, of course I play along. She kept telling me she was going to give me a black eye to take to Belmopan as she raised her fist and squinted her eyes. She also tells me all the time she'll only speak to me in K'ekchi, from now on. Then she talk talk talks only to stop with a "don't you understand me?" look.

Ionie Mas (3yrs old) Now this girl knows how to stretch. Every morning after my stroll I take some time to stretch my limbs and every morning Ionie is right their beside me, mimicking my every move. She's the sweetest sweetheart and most of the time only talks to me to repeat what someone has told her to tell me. "Amy, go eat. Amy, pass the pigs. Amy, etc."

Little ones

Here are the 4 year olds that have pre-school in the mornings. (Three year olds come in the afternoon). Miss Max, is their teacher and she is just out of high school, not even 18 yet. This is the first year for a preschool at Santa Teresa and about 40% of the children ages three and four come. Ms Max is impressed with how much her four year olds have learned already this year. After my first visit in the classroom, I thought I would be helping with creating learning centers, but to my surprise the room was transformed already. One thing we can work on is story time. I hope we can get some big books or maybe even make some!

Here are the Infant 1 and 2 children. Mr. Coh is their teacher and has been teaching for six years. I loved how they started their day when I was in their classroom, with a song, of course. "Hello _____, Hello ______. It's so nice to see you again. With a 1 and a 2 and a how do you do? It's so nice to see you again." What a great way to feel you belong. I think we need to remind each other more often how it really is nice to see them. I was surprised by how they all wanted me to check their work and was glad they weren't as scared of me as the preschoolers were. We'll just say I have a few new best friends that like to draw me pictures and walk me home.
And here are the Standard 1 students. Mr. Perez is my most experienced teacher besides the principal, I believe and I can tell. He uses many great strategies and wasn't about to have me simply observe. He kept asking what I was going to do while in his classroom and wondered if I knew any phonics games we could play. The only thing I could think of off the top of my head was to sing the I like to eat apples and bananas song. This was a hit! Before we sang it though, I asked the class for the vowels and vowel sounds. When I asked what word made the long a sound, they all said, "Miss Amy!" I also started some diagnostic reading assesments with this group and will continue with the rest when I get back from Belmopan. Most of the students were reading at a pre-primer level and even the ones who read better could only comprehend the primer passage. I look forward to seeing improvements as I spend more time here.

Little Bits of Life

I love these delicious tuts (K'ekchi word for nuts). They fall of the tree and you crush them between two rocks. Hillaria loves to crack them for me. Probably because she saw how much trouble I was having on my own.

I have come to love shilling bags of water. 12 oz for 25 cents. Quite economical! (You can also get two bananas for a shilling.)


Funny how I live in Belize and still bank at Scotia.

Nephtali: "Miss Amy Miss Amy" as he comes and grabs my hands
Me: "Good morning, Nephtali! How are you?"
Nephtali: "Five years old!" everytime
Oh! My heart has been captured.


This is the puppy I have unofficially claimed as my own. His name you ask? Marshall. Given to him by Martha and Hillaria. I'm not sure why since the other puppies were named Steven Seagal, Rambo, Jackie Chan, and Van Damme. I guess that's appropriate, especially since raising dogs in a village is a survival of the fittest. I'm glad Jerry has outlasted the weaklings and is still in good company. Marshall and Steven sure do like to fight though. Oh! And the dogs don't really lift their legs to pee. Strange I would notice this, more strange I would post it, but it's so odd. They just squat down a little and go.

How do you wash your car in Belize? You drive down into the river a bit so you don't have to carry your bucket so far. I had to look twice out the window of the bus when I saw this.

I absolutely love that they make their own brooms here in Santa Teresa. It's the coolest thing ever.

One afternoon during break I was reading in the office when a swarm of girls came in. After they awkwardly looked at me for awhile I got out my pen and drew up a game of Hangman. They loved to play and I threw in a K'ekchi word (chabil, which means pretty, beautiful) to catch them off guard. That was quite some time ago now, but they still bring it up. They also like to hear me sing "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly..." And sometimes when I'm walking around the village they'll start singing as they pass me, "she swallowed a spider..."


My first Maya dress, made in school uniform colors so I can wear it to work and everyone loves when I do. "You are K'ekchi!" The PCV in another village has even been asked when she's going to get a dress like mine. I'm so excited my aunt is a seamstress. I may ask to watch her next time so I can learn and make my own.

One of the morning songs the students sing at school is "Thank you God for giving us..." Every once in awhile I'll here a student break out into song and insert "Peace Corps" when I'm around.

All these things make me smile, and then that smile bursts and I start laughing.

Loves and Hugs!