I've come to find out

Somethings I've learned this past week...
How jade is formed - When you see a falling star, a special falling star you watch it watch it watch it as it falls to the ground, never taking your eyes off the glow. If you can keep your gaze without blinking until the star is within reach you then grab it and it will become jade. Don't look away for one second or it will disappear. (The story is told much better by Florentina.)

Why my villagers want my parents to visit - to inform them I will never be leaving.

Why it's fun knowing even basic K'ekchi - a stranger in town passed me on the road smiling big and saying "xic cue" I think as a joke, but when I responded, "tawil awib" he laughed and said, "us"

How Santa Teresa came to be - I updated our community profile and Mr. Chub suggested I add a little history and since I know you're all curious as well I thought I would share it with you, too. In 1933, three men from Delores settled in a place known as Hinchosonnes, others followed. Ten years later, in 1943, the last hurricane of the season hit southern Belize and destroyed many trees and houses in the village. The Catholic church had a statue of Santa Teresa that was destroyed. They decided to reestablish the village and name it Santa Teresa after the statue. The local name of the village is Se Pan, which means bread. The reason behind this name comes from when villagers would take a dory down the creek to the Moho River then paddling three days to reach town to sell. A man by the name of Mr. Wilikim was taking pigs to town and along with him was a woman and her child selling bread. While crossing Trayal fall the dory overturned, killing the woman and her child, since all the bread was lost, too, the village was then known as Se Pan. Other interesting facts: The road came to the village in 1983. Santa Teresa didn't have water pumps until 1996, then just four years later installed a water system. Communication was an issue, and they didn't have a community phone until 2005. Then just two years ago there were only a handful of individuals with cell phones or house phones - at this time the community phone was not working because it was struck by lightning and six houses had solar panels. Now ten houses have power through solar panels or generators, three families have house phones, the health clinic has a phone, and at least 20 individuals have cell phones with Digicell service. Business initiatives include a rice huller and logging company that provide services to surrounding villages. And not to forget our health clinic. Wow! I wonder what will happen in the next five years.

School Happenings

This year the Santa Teresa RC boys did well in the Primary School volleyball competition. The zone elimination took place in Santa Teresa and our boys won! They then went on to district finals in Punta Gorda Town where they played the winners of the other seven zones in Toledo. They won the first game against San Vicente and pulled through for a second win against Indian Creek which meant we made it to the final match in the district. We played our best against Toledo Christian, but were unable to take the title. Maybe next year we'll make it to Nationals.

I gave my first professional development workshop of the year on alternative assessment in reading and writing. I think it went okay. Of course I started it with an icebreaker, bringing Word Jumbles to the staff at Santa Teresa. We had good discussions about surveys, checklists, response journals, scoring writing with the 6 traits, and portfolios. And speaking of workshops, I've been able to attend a couple as well. The first was an expressive arts workshop put on by the Ministry of Education. It was a two day workshop, but I found out about it on the first day so I could only make the second. I figured it would be talking about ways to implement expressive arts in the classroom, but no, it was more like dance camp. When I realized we would be learning a routine I couldn't keep from laughing. I had the biggest smile on my face during the entire warm-up and I'm sure the other 30 teachers were wondering what was wrong with me. And to make things better, the routine was to a Christmas song. Oh, how I love Belize. The second workshop was one on classroom management. Mr. Chub had asked me to go along with him so we could present the information to the rest of the staff together.


The garden is coming along, too. Not only are the students tending to it during their scheduled time in the garden but also they have took it upon themselves to do extra watering and care throughout the week.

Our library now has a librarian! Mr. Teul has attended the training in Belize City and now comes to work in the library 8 hours a week. Right now his focus is on organizing the books so I try to get in there as much as I can to help out. It's so exciting to me that there's interest to use and take care of all the books we already have and of course to expand the library as much as we can, making it accessible to our community and eventually surrounding ones. Santa Teresa will be the place to come visit!

Note: For some reason I can't get the computer to read my other memory card to share more pictures. Next time. Loves and Hugs!

Happy Washing of Hands

October 15th was Global Hand Washing Day and to celebrate, Santa Teresa R.C. School dedicated a whole week to the cause and even had a parade! Throughout the week the teachers added hand-washing activities to their instruction and let their students get creative by making posters and singing songs. My favorite was the Infants, to the tune of Happy Birthday, "Happy washing of hands, happy washing of hands, cleaning all my little fingers, happy washing of hands."

PSE Writing Class

This year instead of helping Florentina with the math evening classes I will be leading my own session on writing. I wasn't sure how much I liked doing a class on my own because I really liked the set-up last year of co-teaching with Florentina, but I decided just to go with it and I've really enjoyed it so far. I was reminded that if I ever was to teach it would be the middle grades and I realized that I like teaching writing more than math because there really are no wrong answers. We talked about class expectations right away and they came up with their own, "communication and cooperation." I was really impressed with this and have found those two words to be quite inclusive when I refer back to them. The first week I had them write a letter to themselves and this really threw them off. "You want me to do what?" They thought I was crazy, but still did it anyway. My favorite was one who introduced himself, "My name is.... I am .... I live in....." But really, that's how they start their friendly letters so I understood where he was coming from. The second week I gave them a quote to journal about which was also a foreign concept but they gave it their best shot and my favorite from that was the following.
"This quote means to me that may be this "let the beauty we love be what we do" is telling us to love the beauty in what we do and the beauty will love us in what we do too. I find beutifull is by loving one another. and it would be one loving each other."
What we could all learn from 12 year old boys! I'm finding myself excited to plan the lessons and looking forward to class. What a pleasant surprise. If you have any fun writing games, send them my way. They really liked paper trail.
Loves and hugs!

Happy One Year as Volunteers!

I can't believe I've been in Belize over a year now, and this got me thinking...

You might have been in Belize too long
~when it's 75 and you're wanting a blanket for your afternoon nap.
~when you go to visit a neighbor and as soon as you walk in the house, start dancing to the marimba music playing on the radio without thinking twice.
~when you get excited about the Apple for Amy facebook group because you think you'll be sent real apples to TASTE test.
~when you can whistle by squeezing your bottom lip together and call that an accomplishment.
~when you state the obvious as a question.
~when you wonder what it feels like to not be itchy all the time.
~when you can drink a cup of powdered milk.
~when the latest news you have to share is the huge snake you saw while walking down the road and you feel the need to tell everyone in your village.
~when you fi.nally know the bus schedule. (well, I'm still working on this one :P)
~when you're wanting to learn how to make more and more so you can buy less and less.
~when you have a suitcase full of letters from home.
~when someone asks you to sing the national anthem and you start with, "O Land of the Free..."
~when you automatically look for a shilling bag hanging to throw your trash away. Agh! When you call a plastic bag a shilling bag.
~when you're making a list of favorite Belizean songs and have to take one off the list because you realize it's by Akon.

Whatever will I do when I come back to the States?

Loves and hugs!

More of Life

~While walking down the road I saw my neighbor walking from the corn mill with a container full of masa and since the thing to do here is ask obvious questions, I've picked up on it quickly, (so please excuse me if I bring this back with me to the States) I asked, "Are you going to bake?" She replied, "Are you willing?" We'll just say I've baked on a many banquet. And to clarify, baking is what they call flattening tortillas and a banquet is a low round table we sit around. I really like my neighbors to the west. The three girls are in their late 20s, only one is married with a baby and they all take care of him, what a lucky little boy. I always love to go visit them and see all their interactions with each other. The baby was born when I first arrived in Santa Teresa, now a year old. He's getting so big!
~Of the books I've read this past year, here are a few of my favorites: A Million Miles in A Thousand Years by Donald Miller, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, LAMB by Christopher Moore, Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, Belize, A Novel by Carlos Ledson Miller, and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Currently I'm reading: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins, Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, and The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw by Bruce Barcott. Plus I found a book of 365 prayers, blessings, and meditations from around the world so of course I'm enjoying that. My favorite so far, "Let the beauty we love be what we do."
~Along with the TFABB visits in October, January, and March, my mom and Jerry are also visiting in January, then Joanna and Beth in March, and maybe Justine in May. When are you coming to visit? :P I'm quite excited!
~While out visiting and tasting a golden plum for the first time a little boy told me, "You can try everything in Belize, not like in the States." A couple days later, Carlos, the same boy came to my house at lunch time, inviting me over, "We have something nice for you, Miss Amy." And indeed they did. Carlos and his father had went hunting the night before, getting a large gibnut. I think he thought I hadn't tried that yet either because he really wanted me to come. I guess while he was eating his own he remembered he wanted to invite me so left his bowl of caldo to come by my house and get me. And I'm so glad he did, how I love halau.
~Louisa knows everything like a good mother should. For example, I couldn't find my flashlight which made me sad because I was just without it for a week or so after taking it to town and having a mix up. She asked if I had taken it visiting but all I could think was no, because I hadn't been able to find it. In the middle of the night though I woke up thinking, "maybe I forgot to take it out of the bag I had been taking to visit" and Tada! There it was! So even though you didn't know I was without a flashlight yo can worry no longer. And if you're wondering how I got by, just know I'm well taken care of in my village. If ever I was visiting too late I was always escorted home, usually by nine year-olds.

More Little Bits

~If anyone wonders where I get my positive outlook on life, they need to meet my mother.
~I finished testing each student's reading level in record time, and not only do I already have pull-out reading groups set up but there are two teachers interested in learning how to administer the test! All I did was share the results and they were curious so I promised to show them the day I am in each one's class. Woot woot! Goal number one: Transfer of Skills! I had planned to do a tutorial workshop last year but it never happened. To me this is way better because the interest is there. I thought that would be the hardest part, even chatted with Kevina a bit on how we could get the teachers to see the results of the test were important enough to motivate them to learn how to then use the MICO DRA. I figured I had a year to work on this so when Mr. Pop asked aoubt the test I saw my in and thought, "yeah." Then when Mr. Ical wondered too, I thought, "oh yeah!" And back to reading groups. I'm downsizing the number of students to work with, and after Kevina's workshop have a better idea of what I'm doing. The reading will take place during gardening, allowing me to then help there when we finish. "Nab'al nab'al lix q'atz'ol." (we read a lot) from the song Mr. Chub wrote.
~I'm helping with the Peace Corps 2010 Annual Report we will distribute to stakeholders, counterparts, potential counterparts, Washington, current volunteers, etc. Peace Corps Belize used to make a year book which was more for the volunteers but that was a few years back so this is a first and I'm pretty excited about it. Our theme for the booklet is, "Because we work together," so we're collecting success stories plus trying to get volunteers to inform the committee of upcoming events to come take pictures, videos, and interviews. Our goal is to show the importance of building relationships in country and not only are we making a difference in the lives of Belizeans, but being here has a huge impact on our own lives, which is what I'm experiencing and am remided of everyday.
~Anne Marshall, a TFABB Volunteer working with the preschool came back to Belize a month before the workshop to spend July sharing the beautiful country with her family. I didn't think I would get to see her when they first came in, but because of Tropical Storm Alex, we were not able to stay in Placencia for Lobsterfest so instead I was in town and got to spend a whole Sunday with Anne and her two children. I just have to say I enjoyed it so much, maybe because it was unexpected, but it was so nice. What great kids she has! I feel very lucky to be working with TFABB, not only because it's great for the school, but also the wonderful TFABBers I've been able to get to know.
~I have a problem leaving umbrellas. If I would buy one everytime I lose one and carry it with me in case it would rain, who knows how much money I would waste. Instead I'll wait until it is raining, if there's noone around to share nor a shop to buy one quick, I'll either get wet or stay where it's dry. So I guess umbrellas aren't as important as I thought they would be here.

San Lucas Visit

One night I asked Petrona, my host mom's sister if she would like to walk with me in the morning since it was her week off - she works at the Health clinic every other week. She was happy to walk with me then remembered she wanted to visit her aunt in San Lucas so invited me to go along. Of course! We planned to leave at 9:00 am which ended up being... 9:10, very good. It seems to me that people in Santa Teresa usually show up when they say they will. We decided to take our bikes which I was very happy we did because our travel time was cut in half at least. It ended up taking about an hour to bike the 4 miles or so to San Lucas. When we reached Petrona's aunt's house we rested and had our coffee. We then walked down to the creek to see the raxiru ha' (clear blue water). It was so beautiful and peaceful to put our feet in to cool off. While sitting beside the creek Petrona mentioned wanting to imporve her English and asked if I would help her. She wanted to be able to understand "big words" and felt even just talking with me would be beneficial as it has been a long time since she was in school and she doesn't have the chance to practice while at home because they always speak Ke'kchi. I told her I would want to learn more Ke'kchi. We both like to hear the other speak their home language and hope spending time together we'll improve our secondary ones by exchanging what we know and simply having conversation. Petrona thought we should start son and she would come over every evening she can around 7:00. I'll teach her English one night and she'll teach me Ke'kchi the next. What a great idea! I hope it works out as well as I think it should. Yippee! After our rest by the creek we went back to her aunt's house where I got to see someone using the grinding stone for the first time. The masa was so easy to flatten after being passed through the stone and I was happy to bake in San Lucas. We ate our chya (like kalaloo)(like spinach) with corn tortilla, rested again in the hammocks this time, then were on our way back to Santa Teresa. I wasn't sure how long the visit would be when I agreed to go along, but the timing was perfect, a total of four hours, including the two hours to get there and back. Petrona told me she would ask me again when she goes to visit. We both agree it's better to ride alongside someone else. Loves and Hugs!

Little Bits of Life

~I absolutely love, love, love that I still have at least one letter waiting for me when I go to the post office. Thank you all so much for your support, encouragement, and prayers. I could not be doing what I'm doing if I felt I was doing it alone. I have a few very loyal penpals and enjoy random notes like from my new friend from the Philippines and even Nebraska's very own US Senator, Mike Johanns.
~I tried out my new pumice stone I picked up in Barranco awhile ago. I did an experiment, only scrubbing one foot and wow, there was quite a difference. After I did my own I asked Hillaria if I could wash her feet. I couldn't believe all the scars and roughness and she's only eleven. I actually was surprised she let me was her feet and how much I enjoyed doing it. I hope some of the ladies will let me, too. I'll just have to take along my stone when I go to visit. After I finished Hillaria's scrub, I put some lotion on her feet. "sununk" - smells nice. While leaving my house she was cute saying, "Thanks Amy" and " I won't dirty my feet now, I will wear my slippers." Which was what she did after carefully walking to find them. That girl makes me smile more than anything.
~Both Alejandro and Martha will be attending high school. I was a little nervous at first because comments were made that there might not be enough money to send them both but Martha will try her best at Corazon Creek Technical High School and Alejandro will finish his last year at Julian Cho. He finished first in the construction department last year. Way to go! So happy I'll be here to see him graduate.
~I always say "Bless you," when someone sneezes although in Belize it is believed that someone is asking for you. I forgot how to say this correctly in K'ekchi so I asked the young girl I was with what to say when someone sneezes. Her response, "Tyok'at chi atisimak." Which confused me more as I must have been way off. I asked her to translate since it sounded different than the little I remembered. She said, "You are sneezing." Of course that is what you would say!
~I've been visiting families I hadn't had a chance to yet and it's been so great! I'm always reminded Santa Teresa is full of sweet people and I'm lucky to live here. It helped me get over my year slump that's for sure.

LIBRARY!!!

That was quick! After the consolidation I was excited to get back and ask Mr. Chub if he heard from the Library Service. Better than that - they came to Santa Teresa for a meeting and luckily the community members were already assembled by the Alcalde. Everyone is on board and they have high hopes of a large library and someday computer lab that would even serve surrounding communities as Santa Teresa is a very central location. I couldn't keep from smiling while Mr. Chub was telling me this, with chills up and down my spine and goosebumps covering my arms and legs. I was just SO happy! Woot woot! All of these are future plans, of course, but the steps to be taken now are underway. A few men from the village were interested in being librarians and after looking at qualifications and stability one was chosen. Mr. Teul was a teacher in Jordan but is no longer. The Library Service liked how he had the educational experience and is established in the community. He's already taking part in librarian training in Belize City. Wow! Wow! Wow! Next, we will box up our books and send them to be labeled and cataloged. Mr. Chub has asked me if I could be in charge of email connections with the Library Service and a group who is wanting to build a library. I guess they had told him before but at the time he had his focus elsewhere. I'll find this group from Tennessee, if not, look for another interested party. Yay! I think the best part of all this was that I had a very small role. 1) Believing it would happen,, 2) Connecting people, and now 3) Encouraging the follow through. Three Things I LOVE to do! And again, here I am, things falling in my lap, leaving me to just celebrate all the good that's happening in Santa Teresa. Loves and Hugs!

I never travel alone...

...I always meet a friend.

One thing I love about traveling by bus throughout Belize is all the people I have met, and it seems like I meet more people when I'm making a trip by myself for one reason or another. I'm not sure you'll enjoy reading this entry as much as I'll enjoy writing it, but if anything you'll realize, if you didn't know already, how much I enjoy meeting new people and finding connections. Once while waiting for the bus in Independence I met a couple volunteering in Antigua. Within minutes not only were we chatting about our nice stay in Placencia but were already sharing for sure, snacks we had just bought at the shop. One was from London and the other Argentina. I loved hearing about their organization which focused on training Guatemalans in business development. Awhile later a man from Montana joined us answering questions about his own life story and was curious to hear each of ours. He was a researcher, spending much time out in the wild. One thing we all had in common was our daily breakfast of oatmeal which brought a few laughs and suggestions one what to add to spice it up a little. The best part, none of us knew what time the bus would reach, nor were we too stressed about it. We ended up waiting quite a while. I feel like this wouldn't happen in the States, first of all, you wouldn't wait at a "bus stop" (the sidewalk in front of a store) for an hour and a half and maybe that's the biggest difference. I did enjoy, too, seeing another volunteer through a different organization I had met once in Punta Gorda on her way north to Belize City while waiting for the bus south. She opened her window to talk to me and I was reminded of Belize's smallness and how much I love being here for that reason. Then once I finally got on the bus I ended up sitting next to another white girl. I was curious to ask about her stay in Belize, feeling talkative after such a fun wait and found out she lived with her family outside PG. They run an outreach center, putting on a camp each summer. They also own a coffee house next to the University, which I have yet to go to. I guess they put Bible verses on their take-out boxes as they use the place for their ministry. The Antigua couple were wondering about the water taxi and I did all I could to help and make sure to point them in the right direction once we got to town, which reminds me of another time being on the bus with some volunteers from Germany traveling a bit during their stay in Guatemala. We talked about the wonderfulness of home-stay families and I just loved how before we made it to Punta Gorda, they knew all they needed to know about the Toledo District, luckily a PCV who lived in town was there to give them the whole scoop. I do have to say Peace Corps appeals to a certain group of individuals that are more willing to go out of their way to help others, but being in Belize encourages this even more. Everyone here is amazingly helpful. Helpful and inviting.
I'll never forget sitting next to a girl on the last bus from Belmopan to PG. I always seem to start the conversation with, "You coming from Belize (City)? / Going all the way to PG?" And from there the responses are limitless, usually finding out more information than I would have asked for. This girl was heading home for her sister's wedding after a week of work at the hospital in Belize City. She told me about her about her year studying nursing in the States, how nice the family was that she stayed with and how it would be great to visit again, but there was no place like home. I was curious which hospital she worked at, feeling I knew Belize Heath Care Partners facility quite well having been there my fair share of times and that's exactly where she worked! Before I knew it I was invited to her sister's wedding. Ha ha! Now that's Belize!
Another waiting for the bus conversation was with a guy from Guatemala now living in Red Bank. He talked up the beauty of the village and all the scarlet macaws and went on to share his education hardships. I must have a sign on me that says, "Talk to me. I'm listening." And I hope that never goes away because I love it! Like another time riding the express from Belmopan to PG I sat next to Calvin Choco from San Miguel and couldn't believe how talkative he was, then saw him in town a few days later. I won't see him much because he works at a resort in Cayo which I heard all about. I was able to throw in some K'ekchi and he was surprised to find out I knew how to make kuxtals.
And now for a couple marked bus experiences. One morning a young girl from Blue Creek sat next to me, telling me all about her visit to Silver Creek, her family, her friends, school, anything and everything. I think she tested my K'ekchi vocabulary and if only I always traveled with cards, we would have played cards, too. It's amazing all you can do during a bus ride. She was the sweetest little girl that Vivianna Ack and before getting off at Dump she said, "I will always remember you," which she actually might. I was getting off the bus another time and while walking past her window she opened it to say hello and once while in Blue Creek I went to the shop and found out it is her family that owns it. She again asked if I knew her, of course I did. The other was on the way back to Santa Teresa on the Poite bus. One of the high school girls from Poite was in the seat across from me and asked if I was the Peace Corps in Santa Teresa. We talked about the Mas boys, my host brothers she went to high school with and Miss Lilly, her best friend. And apparently this five minute conversation made us best friends as well because the next time I saw Lilly she had a message for me from her. "May God bless all your friends as you are traveling to Belmopan for your meeting and especially may God bless Miss Amy in Santa Teresa." Are you feeling the love that I am? I need to write a whole post about how wonderful it is to visit other villages and know the people there, namely Poite and Silver Creek and soon Barranco, I'm sure.
With all these fun experiences one can only expect I was looking for conversations when traveling for my visit home. I was sure to talk to those sitting next to me on each plane ride, the first flight sat next to Belizeans living in New York with high thoughts of Peace Corps. Once in Houston on my way back to Belize not only was I wishing for conversation, scoping out the passengers wondering who I would sit next to, I was also looking for people I knew which seemed crazy, but I did end up seeing a preschool teacher from Toledo. I never got the chance to talk to her but did enjoy seeing a familiar face. I did however guess who I would be sitting by. I noticed a 20 something guy with long curly hair and a guitar and thought to myself, "that's who I want to sit by," and sure enough! Ha ha! Miguel was from California and doing a work exchange somewhere in Cayo. I got a little nervous for him while he was explaining the situation and latest contact with the place, but felt much better before getting off the bus in Belmopan, leaving him to keep going on to San Ignacio. So anyways... there are more stories for sure, but I think you've had enough for now.
Loves and Hugs!

How I love a parade.

Happy 29th Birthday BELIZE!!! Belize's Independence Day is September 21st. My favorite question someone asked me was, "Do people in the states parade for the 21st?" I explained to them that our Independence Day is in July, and yes, some do parade, but mostly we watch fireworks and have barbecue.
To celebrate the school voted for a queen then had a parade where we started with an assembly then marched through the village.

Time for School!

School has started and one of my first tasks was setting up the classroom libraries with each teacher and ended up doing a little activity with the kids to help with keeping the books nice and library organized. I absolutely love walking by the classrooms and always seeing students getting new books to read. In one classroom the teacher has set up a nice area with the marley and other homemade resources making his very own "integrated learning center." I have yet to take a picture of this, but soon, soon.
After the libraries I started testing reading levels, again using the MICO Diagnostic Reading Assessment. Compared to last year I must say the comprehension levels have improved. I have some Standard I students I'll be working with for sure but other than that, maybe only a few other students. My goal is to show the teachers the importance of the results of testing so they will be interested in learning how to give the tests themselves by the end of the year, then they can help when we need to retest, even though it didn't take me near as long this time.
Other library news, the National Library Service is still interested in helping to convert our school library into a community library, just communication is an issue but that problem may have been solved by giving out Mr. Chub's number. Another issue is trying to set up meetings during rainy season which can be difficult. I just keep telling myself, "It will happen."
Yes, that will happen, and electricity coming to the village!! Crazy, I know! There's a high school further down the road and the government has just approved sending current out that way starting the work in November. The first village to get electricity would be Santa Teresa and the last place that has it is only 2 miles away, so who knows if/when it will come about, but crazy to think it's a possibility.
Back to school, after the reading tests I will start spending time in the classrooms. I hope to set up a schedule and just plan to be with each teacher once every two weeks. I have six teachers so I could alternate weeks using Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings. This way I could help with Language Arts and Mathematics. I feel like this would allow me to really co-teach at times and hopefully get in on some of the lesson planning. And speaking of co-teaching, the Education Project through Peace Corps has been advised and the first of the three goals is co-teaching. The second is youth activities as in school clubs, and the third is formal teacher training through university, sending those volunteers with more experience to work with studying teachers. It was nice meeting with the Ministry of Education and seeing how we can work smarter if we work together. Mr. Reyes never made it up to the meeting in Belmopan, but we did have a meeting with him last week and his quote this time was, "Peace Corps Volunteers tend to give and contribute selflessly." What a great thing to hear!
Other future school project ideas include a gardening club with help from a community volunteer, Paulina, a music club, using those music recorders from Bernard, and a math club which would just be extra math help after school one day. Oh! And I'm wanting to start a book buddy reading club, matching upper division students with the younger ones. We'll see how it all comes together. Wish me luck! Loves and hugs!

Oh.... water fountains.

So, I've known for awhile that it's been way too long since I've posted anything but once I get too far behind I always have a hard time knowing where to start. And if I wasn't still stuck in town I would have let it go even longer, but since I have internet and time there's no excuse, but the question remains. Where do I start? (I also want to let you know I have a notebook full of updates I promise myself I'll still post, but now those are getting way too outdated as well.) A good place as any is my trip home! Yay! I made it to Nebraska (or what will now be called Nebra thanks to my friend Erica - she would absolutely love if all us Nebraskans started saying that because she was almost certain we already did.) Two weeks before my visit I talked to my mom and it was so weird saying, "I'll see you in two weeks" that I couldn't call her again until the day I was leaving. That was strange, too, to still be in Belize at 3pm and make it home before the following day, yes it was almost midnight, but still. My welcoming party was fabulous - Mom, Jerry, JaNette, Cora, Conner, and even Uncle Denny and my cousin Kelli. Cora wouldn't let me put her down and Conner was scared of me but that's nothing new, I'm used scaring small children. I was surprised to hear that the secret of me coming was kept from Cora because eariler my sister had said she was sleeping with a picture of the two of us. I figured it was because she knew I was coming home, but no. That little girl tugs on my heart more than she'll ever know. We celebrated her birthday the next day by going to the Omaha Zoo even though it was raining all day. Actually the rain was a blessing because there were still too many people, I couldn't imagine how packed it would have been on a nice day. My friend Joanna met us there to make the day even better.
Once I made it to North Loup, I was off again out visiting everyone I could. I had many babies to meet (luckily Halle loved me right away and Lettie was too young to know what was going on.) Seeing everyone was so great! And I have to say I was reminded again how much Belize and Nebraska are alike, especially in August when it's hot and there's so much corn. I even about made dukunu. I would go visit, people would come visit, and one of the best visits was while at Kelli's new apartment. One of the mothers of two of her swim students wanted to make lunch for her as a house warming gift. I loved how she brought all the ingredients and made it there. What a beautiful show of community, why I love Nebraska and why I love Belize. Everywhere I visited people took care of me and like here I was always fed. Once while in North Loup I went to my neighbor's house, sat on her porch to chat, soon her sister brought out pizza and before I left Jessie had to get me some tea. My goodness! I'll smile about that forever.
I was able to visit Cora's school and she looked adorable in her little po'ot uuq. I also visited the class that was penpals with the kids here and one boy sent down a book with me to give to his one.
I had a slight obsession with ice cream and must say my two favorite kinds were Edy's s'mores and Kemp's black raspberry. And a slight obsession means I had ice cream at least twice a day. One day it was past noon and when I realized I hadn't eaten my delicious treat I freaked. I must say, too, I wasn't picky about this obsession, any ice cream would do (I would even share when my nephew looked at me with his big blue eyes), but of course my friend Emily would not have any of that, buying me two kinds when we went to the store, like I said, everyone took care of me very well.
Popcorn Days was wonderful. Between popcorn and ice cream, I didn't eat much else. I ran my 2 mile race with JaNette, only being 10 seconds behind her finishing in less than 20 minutes which was an accomplishment for me. We were the only participants in our age division so I got 2nd place meaning my prize was... a bag of popcorn! (unpopped of course, the popped popcorn is free all weekend. If you haven't been, when are you coming?) We played in the sand-volleyball tournament, watched the team penning, tractor pull, turtle races, talent show, enjoyed the carnival, etc. We even did the vehicle scavenger hunt this year as a family which was a first, driving around North Loup, riding in the back of a pick-up (another point for Belize), scouting out each block looking for answers to questions. What fun! I marched in the parade, and what else? It was a full weekend for sure.
Halfway through my visit I must have dreamt of being in Belize, wanting to see a friend and as I was waking up thought to myself, "Oh, they can come meet me here... Where am I?... in Belmopan?... Belize City?... WAIT! I'M IN LINCOLN, NEBRASKA!" Then closer to the end I started getting used to being home so I knew it was soon time to go. Of course the day before I left I had the hardest time, just wanting to sleep all day and avoid the good-byes, but then the next morning I woke up ready to be back in Belize.
Of course there were people I didn't get to see that I thought I would, but I now just look forward to seeing them next time. I also loved how I got to see some people I wasn't expecting to, running into them while living life, you know at the grocery store or realizing I could meet up with someone I was chatting with on Facebook- Emily Todhunter. Plus I found out my friend Sammi is engaged in person which really meant a lot to me, it's always the little things. I got SO many hugs and now wish I would have took a tally. Someone once told me it's good to get 11 hugs a day and I'm not reaching my quota here in Belize. I'm pretty sure I caught up quite a bit while I was home. So... thanks for all the hugs!!!
I know I'm forgetting a lot, but it's time for me to catch my bus. I would cry cry cry if I didn't make it back to my village today. Lucky for me I was able to stay in Silver Creek last night otherwise I would be in much worse shape than I am. Thanks Greg and Kevina!
Wait! My title about the water fountains! I forgot these things existed, but everytime I saw one, especially at the airport, I had to take a drink of the nice and refreshing, cool water, even if I wasn't thirsty. I would walk by and it would call out to me, almost at every corner, is that a water fountain I see?
Loves and hugs!

TFABB: Once Again! :)

Last week I spent the entire week in town. I think this was the longest time I spent in Punta Gorda straight and I have to say it went a lot better than I had expected, thanks to Laura and the TFABB crew, plus there were Canadian Rotary folk giving a workshop to teaching coaches that would go on to lead the workshop for all the Toledo teachers this week. They are all always much fun to hang out with and everytime they come I learn a little bit more about them. Mica and Anne led a workshop with the preschool teachers and from Day One I realized those girls do more work than I ever could. Luckily, they only needed my help one of their long planning nights otherwise I wouldn't have lasted. The workshop covered development and classroom management for the most part and each day the teachers were able to make and take some kind of project from file folder games to a calendar. One of the days Mica and Anne even set up a preschool classroom and went through a morning to give the teachers ideas of things they could use in their own classrooms. I loved seeing the teachers walk through the classroom, taking notes, and also how they played their part and acted like four-year olds. The preschool teacher in Silver Creek is my favorite. At one point I suggested she talk only in K'ekchi for the rest of the morning and she made me laugh so much, telling Mica she was afraid of the other girl. It's fun understanding the little bit of K'ekchi I do. I've come to find out those Mayans can be quite funny when they want to be. I've always known they like to laugh, but now I can see why.
Another highlight was having dinner with the Ministry. This is always a favorite when TFABB comes to town. I remembered back to our first dinner, I think in January. This time we ate out at the farm of one of the ladies that works in the office. It was a really nice place and she made delicious East Indian food. One of the Canadians had a friend visiting from Dangriga. This was his first time in Punta Gorda and was amazed Laura and I knew what was being served and he didn't. Kahune cabbage? Kalalu? Dal Roti? After dinner there was dancing and visiting and Mr. Reyes the District Manager was talking about their new focus of zoning schools and teacher coaches. He then turned to me, placed his hand on my shoulder and thanked me for what Peace Corps is doing in the school, knowing we are making a difference. I still get goosebumps remembering it, and will never ever forget it.
So yes, now I am back in the village for another week before my visit home, well I guess right right now I am in San Benito Poite visiting Lilly. I rode my bike this morning the 10 or so miles and it's crazy to be all the way out here in the jungle and updating my blog. Loves and Hugs!

Come to Silver Creek As Soon As Possible

I went to visit Kevina in Silver Creek to meet her mom a couple weeks ago. I thought it was perfect especially since I wanted to go to town for the 4th of July Celebration, but didn't want to spend 2 days in town and can only get out of my village on market days. Luckily, I saw Greg the Wednesday before just showing up at their house to ask if they had anything planned and if I could come for a visit. "Yeah, sure," is what I went off of, so while walking the mile from the junction to Silver Creek I was hoping plans hadn't changed and me visiting was okay. I had joked that the person I really wanted to see was Brendan, the little boy who gave me the nickname, "crying vampire." I feel like only in Belize would I travel 2 hours without real confirmation and the whole time being totally fine with the possibility they weren't home. Of course they were there though and as soon as the Coh family saw me walking up the road they called Kevina and she came out of her house jumping and clapping. I love that girl! The first thing she asked was, "Did you get my text? I sent it when Greg told me you were coming. I wanted you to come to Silver Creek as soon as possible, thinking you might be able to come on Friday. Fermin sent you one, too. We were worried you wouldn't make it. Yay! You're here! Come meet my mommy!" (possibly all in one breath :)) And here I was worried about intruding on their limited time together. Oh! And as a side note, my Infant I and II teacher last year was from Silver Creek, Mr. Fermin Coh. What a fun connection! He won't be returning to Santa Teresa RC which makes me sad but I understand him wanting to work closer to his family in Silver Creek. Greg and Kevina rent from his parents, living in their family compound.
It was so neat to meet Kevina's mom, Kathie, she's very sweet and I loved hearing how the village embraced her, treating her to tasty meals and giving her gifts. I even got in on some of that as Mr. Fermin decided to make BBQ for lunch Saturday for his brother-in-law visiting, Ms Kathie, and even me. He wanted to invite me to his house since I had never seen it and Kevina informed me he spent 3 days chopping the yard and mentioned how much he appreciated all I did at the school and never had the chance to thank me, so he would take this opportunity to do just that. Wow!
I enjoyed washing at the creek, visiting a few families, watching a football game, and drinking COLD soft drinks. Oh, and Kathie gave me her shoes, people must like giving me things, which I'm never opposed to. And my goodness! I can't believe how much their shops sell. I would never have to go to town! I loved how little Sheldon would climb up in the hammock with me and how he didn't oppose to me taking him back to Santa Teresa with me. So the only thing about visiting Silver Creek is I never stay long enough! I love how welcoming everyone is and how some remember me from times before. I want to say that's not a typical Peace Corps experience, being able to visit a friend's village every once in awhile and getting to know their community a little, too. It's great! Loves and Hugs!

Building Bookshelves

When TFABB was here in June, they purchased materials to make 10 bookshelves for the school and asked the PTA Chairman during our lunch with the village leaders if men from the community would volunteer to make the shelves. I was just as excited as Anne was when they went to the school to measure straight away after the lunch meeting, but honestly hoping the enthusiasm would last long enough to finish the project. This may or may not come from my own inability to follow through and finish things or it could have been from hearing stories of other volunteers not feeling supported by their community. Anyways, I was happy when the lumber made it on the market bus and to the school and surprised Mr. Chub by picking up a board to move it to the library to store. He even started the conversation, "You know what I think, Miss Amy?" "What do you think, Mr. Chub?" "I've come to find our that Americans are hard workers." I laughed a little and went on to tell him that's how we're raised in Nebraska, which made him laugh. So all the boards, nails, paint, etc. was ready to use, just waiting to be put together and I started to wonder if I would have to remind Mr. Max how nice it would be to get those shelves made while they were still not as busy at the farm, because that would be typical and I've heard it before. People in other places have a hard time finding parental support and community involvement with the school. But I was forgetting where I am and shouldn't have worried at all because before I knew it I was waking up to the noise of a power saw coming from the school. I then noticed a few men checking out the preschool windows so I figured this was the day they would fix the windows because taht was on the agenda, too. I decided to walk over and find out what was going on for sure and since Lilly (the volunteer in the next village, missed her bus but could catch one to Santa Teresa so she stayed a night with me. How fun!) was here so she went with. I found Mr. Chub right away and saw the beautiful shelves being made. Yay! Yay! Yay!


I took a few pictures which the men had fun hiding from and posing for and asked if I could help paint. "Yes, Miss Amy." I went back to my house with Lilly to help her figure out the phone situation, calling her community phone to make sure the bridge was passable because of the rain the night before and saw her off, borrowing my bike, then told Elisha (my planned PC visitor) I was going to paint and she was more than welcome to help, but if she wanted some time to rest and read that was fine, too. She was such a great sport, coming along! That girl better get a vacation day back because I worked her hard! We painted four shelves by noon then went to Mr. Chub's for lunch. Elisha was able to catch a ride with the doctors to San Antonio to visit more of us Toledo folk and I headed back to the school. I started painting again and told one of the guys watching that there was another paint brush... hint hint. He seemed nervous to help and said, "I'll give it a try, Miss Amy." I was surprised to find out he had never painted before. I didn't even think of that. Of course they would like me to help with the painting. I mean, some of them had painted before and it's not a hard thing to figur out, but still I was trying to think back to the first time I painted. Geez. It made me smile to hear "chabil" (pretty) when I helped finish a shelf, but I didn't like when they said "tybiru" (ugly) to describe their own painting because it wasn't true so I would try to correct them saying "chabil" myself which only made them laugh more. My Ke'kchi pronounciation hasn't improved much. Another thing that made everyone laugh was when the village chairman found a standard VI girl's exercise book with love poems inside. Here I was painting with most of the men in my community all listening to, "When you go fishing take your line, when you go kissing take your time," of course it was a hoot. So yes, not only was I surprised that they started making the shelves already but even more so that they finished in one day! AND they fixed all the windows, too! It probably helped that 20 or so men came to help. Elisha even made the comment while talking to the PTA Chairman of being impressed by all those willing to work. Oh! And it gets better, if you can believe that! We ran out of nails so luckily some were found and used, but we also ran out of lumber. A few of the boards were bad and Mr. Chub had taken them back to the lumber yard but wasn't given replacement boards yet. So instead of calling it a day, the men were able to use boards that had been donated to the school by the Santa Teresa logging group. Ta da! The group had donated lumber to the school to fix the windows and there was still enough to make two shelves, so two of our classroom library shelves are made with very local materials-beautiful mahogany. Now I'm so excited to get the books! Loves and Hugs!

Graduation!

The Preschool and Standard VI had graduation yesterday! I was so happy I had my camera to take pictures. We started with the preschool in the morning. Wait! The day started with all the kids blowing up balloons in the community center, helping to decorate. It was so fun and I loved how all the kids were working together! Those four year-olds were so cute marching down the aisle to Pomp and Circumstance, then sitting in those big plastic chairs while the program went on. They did a couple skits and sang "I love you." This was the first year for a preschool in Santa Teresa so it was our first ever graduation. I was a little sad Miss Florentina had to miss it as she is in Belize City still finishing up her Early Childhood Education Certificate. She'll be more than ready to take on the preschool next year and Miss Regina did a great job in her place the whole month of June. We then took a break for lunch and everyone came back at 1:00 for the next round.
First of all I would like to take some time to note how wonderful the villagers of Santa Teresa are. I already knew this, but it seems they always outdo themselves and make me happier still to be a part of their community. The Village Council decided this year that they would like to have graduation gowns for the commencement exercise this year but instead of renting, they wanted the school to have their own set, so they purchased the fabric to donate to the school. Then they asked a few women to sew the gowns, some offered to sew the gowns for free and a few only charged $10. So now Santa Teresa RC School will have beautiful gowns for graduation the next 10 years or so. How wonderful! The students looked so sharp as you can see in the pictures (Yay! I can take pictures! Thanks again John and Mica!) The valedictorian and salutatorian are in the dark blue, each giving speeches during the ceremony. Steven, the valedictorian had the highest ever PSE (Primary School Exam) score from the village with a 70.75. Woot woot! Our guest speaker read "The Giving Tree," and I have to admit I had goosebumps more than once. I feel like I appreciate higher education more since being here. I know some of the students won't go onto high school, but most of them will at least try one year, which makes me happy.


After the ceremony everyone was invited to the PTA Chairman's house for caldo poch. The PTA purchased chickens and each family was responsible for bringing a bowl of poch (corn masa wrapped in a leaf then put in a pot and steamed pretty much) and some fire wood. Another example of the strong sense of community in Santa Teresa. We all support and take care of each other. As soon as I had finished my lunch I had a visitor. Taylor had come to tell me we were having our practice consolidation, she wanted to let me know before going down the road to Poite so I would be ready when they came back through. I asked if she wanted some caldo (spicy soup) knowing there would be plenty and of course after she left Mr. Max, the PTA Chairman, came up to me to ask if my friend wanted to eat. How sweet!
So yes, now I'll just be hanging out in Belmopan for a couple days, then Placencia Lobsterfest, then Ke'kchi language training! This summer is going to go by so fast! Loves and hugs!

TFABB: Take Three

TFABB now has three focus schools. Welcome to the family Barranco! Not only a new school, but a new Peace Corps Volunteer. Yay Laura! This visit was two weeks long, visiting each school so I’ll start where they started…
@ Santa Teresa
Marie, Kathie, Mica, and Kevina all came to my school on Tuesday. Half the school was on its way to Punta Gorda for the District Finals Football Competition. I was sad to miss the game, but we had a very successful day of touching base and planning for the week. Mica stayed with me Tuesday night and we were able to visit both Jenny and Xena (two girls she knew from the school she worked at during her Peace Corps service. Funny how they both are now in Santa Teresa.) This was after taking the girls to where they would be staying- the adventurous Blue Creek Lodge. We’ll just say everything does not go as planned and just around the corner is not always just around the corner and sometimes there’s a reason the doors are shut at 4pm and the kids are outside and not willing to go get their father. Ha ha! I’m still curious as to whether or not the couple Kathie was telling us about is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. Oh brother!
Wednesday-Friday Kathie and Marie did some model lessons for each teacher and Marie also led a Professional Development Workshop on where writers get their ideas Thursday evening. I once again was reminded how awesome the staff is here at Santa Teresa and tried not to think about the possibility of half of them leaving. Friday afternoon we had lunch with the teachers and village leaders. Anne explained again the TFABB focus for the next few years and asked for help with our most recent project, getting shelves for each classroom to set up a small library. The books will soon come, but once they do, they’ll need a home. The PTA Chairman along with another PTA member, the village chairman, and the alcalde all went to the school after lunch to measure for an idea of what lumber would need to be purchased. How exciting! I love how on top of it they were, even saying now is a good time for them to build since they’ve just finished planting. I’ll be happy to give you an update. When they start building, maybe I’ll get to help and put my handy skills to work. Oh how proud Rick and Dan from Sack Lumber would be. I spent the weekend home, resting up for the week to come.
@ Barranco
Since Barranco is a new pilot school and Laura is especially new to her site, the visit there was only one day and very informal. I was happy to tag along. Kathie and Marie ended up doing some model lessons after our wonderful meal with the teachers and village leaders. We ate a traditional Garifuna meal, hudut which included mashed plantains, snapper, and a white sauce made with coconut milk. Very delicious. While the girls were modeling their lessons I went to the classroom that needed watching over and listened to Anne’s amazing bilingual read aloud. The Barranco school is quite small with an enrollment of 41, 9 of those students just came in January after their parents decided they wanted them to learn English. Although from Belize, they had been going to school in Guatemala, now they take a boat to Barranco for their education. Could you imagine? I always love to see the children on the water taxi when leaving Placencia early in the morning on a weekday, dressed in uniform. How fun. So yes, if you haven’t figured it out, Barranco is a Garifuna community right on the coast with an abundance of pumice stones. I brought back one the size of a cantelope and since I don’t have a comal I can use it for my feet. Pedicure anyone?
@ Silver Creek
We spent Tuesday –Thursday at Silver Creek and I have to say I really enjoyed going back to Kevina’s school especially since I had already met the teachers there. One even greeted me by name when we first arrived. Even some of the kids remembered me. Kathie and Marie left on the morning plane and Miss Kim was here ready to train. Kim had also already been to Silver Creek during the January visit. I loved how she was able to check back on some things, then say she would come again to follow-up. She encouraged the students to write during the summer and I wouldn't be surprised if they actually did. A couple promised to write their stories and send them to me through Kevina. I agreed to write back some of my own, and if I listen to their requests I'll be writing some scary stories which might be a challenge. I don't write a lot other than journaling which is sad. How can we expect students to be creative and think up stories when we ourselves never do? I know I used to write pretend stories in elementary school, my favorite being about the Gold Rush and my journey West. You'd think with more life experience I'd be able to make up better stories. I'll give it a try.
I was able to observe Kim's lessons in a few classrooms and also some teachers doing their traditional read alouds and a language arts lesson. I must say, Kevina has some great teachers at her school and I'm sure they're all the better after having her work with them this past year.
My favorite part of the visit by far was the Standard III and IV students coming up to me after I had observed a lesson in their class, commenting on my po'ot uuq and asking if I could dance. I told them I would like to learn wondering if they had their own blouse and skirt and if they would teach me. (The traditional wear is important when dancing the marimba.) Their response, "Yes, Miss! Yes, Miss!" They even asked their teacher to bring his CD player and CD after lunch. I was surprised to see how many girls showed up after lunch with a po'ot uuq of their own, well, some had borrowed from their mothers I'm sure. They wanted to dance right away but we waited until afternoon break. It was so beautiful! Kevina had been telling me most of the women have the traditional Ke'kchi attire but are ashamed to wear it for some reason, then to see all these girls excited to share their culture, teaching a white girl to dance... this is something I'll never forget as it overfills my heart with joy every time I think about it.
Laura and I stayed one night in Silver Creek. We had a fun time at the creek washing and bathing after school for two hours. I loved how everyone goes to the same spot whereas in Santa Teresa we all have our own, except me, I spot hop. After we got back from the creek we had a mango party outside the back door. I couldn't believe all the mangoes. And since I told Kevina's host family there were no mango trees in Santa Teresa I was sent home with a bag of 20! Yum Yum! I also went home with a beautiful drawing a a princess (me) on the beach from the cutest Infant II student. She even gave me a blank piece of paper so I could draw one for her. My nickname from my overnight stay a few weeks before had stuck and was shared by the giver to his classmates, but that's okay because he also said, "I love the vampire." Oh how I look forward to my next visit to Silver Creek. My goal is to ride my bike there someday which would be quite the trek, but I think I could do it and it would be well worth the effort, but I can always take the bus, too. Loves and Hugs!

GLOW

Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) is a Peace Corps initiative and Peace Corps Belize picked this up by doing a summer camp for girls ages 10-12. This year will be our 3rd Camp GLOW and I’m super excited to be a part. One goal of the camp is to then train the girls to start their own club, something Santa Teresa has recently shown interest in. Florentina and I made a trip to Poite for a quick presentation by Lilly, explaining GLOW through power point. Our next step was to get the girls together to see what they were interested in. I had mentioned an Earth Day Trash Clean-up during a staff meeting, which wasn’t received well, but Florentina thought it was a great idea for a first GLOW activity. The girls at the introductory meeting were on board and excited, even made beautiful signs inviting the Standard IV – VI girls. “Come and keep our village beautiful. It’s interesting.” I also asked a few girls who had went to camp to share a little about their experience and we brainstormed ideas for future meetings… play games, bake cakes, help elderly people in the village. What sweethearts, already knowing the importance of giving back. So, we did our trash clean-up, filling six or so buckets before covering half the village. We hope to finish the rest and continue to pick up on a regular basis. Of course I was telling them they could pick up trash everyday if they would like, but we should try as a group once a month.
Our next activity was baking cakes, which we did over the fire hearth at Florentina’s house. The girls collected fire wood and mixed the batter creating three different cakes, coconut, chocolate, and a cinnamon one. All three were delicious. They then took the slices to sell, telling their customers about GLOW and asking between a shilling and a dollar for each piece depending on the size. It was so much fun and we even made a little money. I’m excited for our next bake sale.
I was out of town the following Saturday but some girls did go to elderly people’s houses in the village, asking what they could do to help. This will be a repeated activity as well and I can’t wait to be part of it. Since then I’ve been either gone, or a few girls have just come by my house Saturday afternoons to play games or paint their nails. We’re waiting for Florentina to get back from her month long training in Belize City (I miss that girl!) to do another fundraiser. Soon though, I’ll have to hand out the applications for Camp GLOW which will be in Belmopan the middle of July. Wow! Time is really flying by. Loves and Hugs!

Cacao Fest!

A couple weeks ago I was able to help at an annual even here in Toledo- Cacao Fest! (http://www.toledochocolate.com/) There are many cacao growers in the area, so each year they celebrate the bean for an entire weekend. The first night was a cocktail-like party serving wine and, you guessed it, chocolate. The night was spent on the rooftop of one of the University of Belize buildings. There were brownies, fudge, truffles, candies, covered nuts and coffee beans, even a chocolate fountain with fresh mango and mango and pineapple. Delicious. I felt pretty spoiled volunteering at such an even as I, too, was enjoying the chocolate and wine, but I did "work" too. There was an area for food, so naturally I was drawn to help there. Help was needed setting up and keeping full the salads, chips and dips, and shrimp with chocolate sauces. I was in my element and felt so much at home being reminded of serving at the cafe' and all my other food service jobs. I was so happy and couldn't keep from smiling. Maybe Mr. Chub is right by predicting I'll open up a restaurant when I move back home, of course specializing in Belizean dishes. If was also fun because a girl from another village who works in PG was helping, too, and we became fast friends. Oh! And a major highlight, the beautiful, beautiful, beautiful firework display at the end of the night. Quite impressive.
The next morning was the fair by the sea front where vendors had set up tents, selling their goods while music played on the loud speakers. I helped with the Cacao for Kids, which was different art activities including rock painting, puppet shows, and sidewalk chalk on the pier. I spent a few hours trading a box of chalk for cacao beans. As the children signed up for the event, they were given a bag of beans that they used as currency to participate in each activity. Someone had painted a mural on the pier of trees and flowers and animals for the kids to color in with chalk. Most of the kids just wanted to get their box of chalk and leave so it was my job to encourage them to stay and color. Some beautiful creations were made, including a huge, multi-colored whale in a tree. I recognized some of the little boys from the Earth Day trash clean-up back in Indianville, but could only place them after they left. I think it was even a couple days after when I finally realized why they looked familiar. Plus, I met a next new friend. This girl was from London but volunteering in Dangriga, her year of service about to be done. We chatted quite a bit and she even brought me water a little later knowing I would be thristy, what a sweetheart. I love how kind people have been to me here.
The last day of the festival was celebrated at an archeological site, Lubaantun. I had a short tour given by the those excavating the site and spent the day enjoying the cultural Monkey dance and the performance of the Three Kings. I loved how I kept running into some of the same people all weekend reminding me what a small place I live in. Loves and Hugs!

Quick Shout Out to Larka and Mikah!

Two close friends from college came to visit me for a week. My first visitors from Nebraska! I had such a great time seeing faces from home, and everyone was excited to meet my friends. Yes, they are still asking about them. I absolutely love that we were able to stay in my village most of the visit and that the girls were able to get a taste of my everyday life. We made tortillas, washed in the creek, spent some time with the kids at school (it was so great, Thursday morning the students had all prepared skits for education week and since there was no school on Friday, we did an art lesson with them), and rested much in the hammocks. Of course we ended with a trip to the beach, and even saw Nim Li Punit on the way. What a wonderful, wonderful week. And instead of me telling about it, I would love to hear how Larka and Mikah would explain the visit, so I'm hoping they'll both find time to comment on this post with a few words (or more) describing their experience, especially since I know they've already written about it in their journals. Loves and Hugs!

Baking with Sarah Ack

Just about every Sunday, I take myself over to my friend Sarah's house. I met Sarah when I first came to Santa Teresa while on a morning walk. She called me over, asking if I knew how to bake cakes because she wanted to learn. I told her I had a recipe book and if she was willing to try new things, I would love to experiment with her. For those of you who don't already know, I like to use recipes as mere guidelines and since there are no measuring cups or spoons to be found, I enjoy baking with Sarah all the more. And another factor to throw in the "mix," neither of us have an oven so all creations are made over the fire. Our first attempt was to make no-bake cookies. Tricky, I know, but honestly I was a little nervous to make anything too crazy and wanted our first treats to turn out. I wanted her to invite me back, you know. I had just discovered I could make these delicious snacks in no time on my table stove so knew it would work out fine.
Next, we found a recipe for honey wheat bread. Sarah already knew how to bake bread, but wanted to try a variation. It turned out tasty, only honey is a little pricey when you could just use sugar, but I did like the wheat flour. After that was brownies- good, then two tries at biscuits. I must add, too, sometimes we don't have all the ingredients needed but that doesn't stop us. I like being able to buy from the shops in the village that way whatever we make could be easily made again later, or in the case of the brownies, right away. (I learned quickly that we should at least double every recipe.) Back to the biscuits, the recipe called for cream, so I thought the closest substitute would be sweetened condensed milk. We'll just say we intended to make rock hard, dense, but sweet biscuits. I was all about trying again, using the recipe on the back of the baking powder tin, which turned out a little fluffier, but as soon as we finished, Sarah was giving her brother money to go buy a can of sweetened condensed milk and asking what else we put in those last biscuits. Ha ha! Who knew?
Just in time for my birthday, we made a yummy chocolate cake, which has been made now in a few other houses. We even made cakes for GLOW Club, which is another post I need to write... next time. Anyways, I'm getting pretty good at throwing things together to make a cake and love not having to buy a box of cake mix. Woot woot! I really like using fresh coconut water in place of milk. After the cake was cinnamon rolls which I mentioned in the PCT visit post. Then, we decided to take a shot at sugar cookies. We knew the sugar might cause some problems, but didn't anticipate how hard it would be to get the cookies out of the pan/pot. Hold up! I think I forgot to explain our cooking situation in more detail. We put a large pot over the fire, then make one on a piece of zinc to place on top, using firewood and corncobs as a heat source. When baking bread, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and in this last case, sugar cookies, we place the dough on a banana leaf and cut out around each individual one, leaving us to grab the hot baked goods with our bare hands once they are done or need to be turned. The bread and biscuits weren't too bad, but maybe it's the sugar that made the cinnamon rolls hard to grab and the sugar cookies the worst. The sugar cookies liked to fall apart as well, and only after we were done did I remember usually you keep cookies in the pan awhile to let them finish cooking. Since I know there is a less painful way to make cookies I'm not sure I want to try over the fire hearth again, but Sarah may think it's worth it to make such a sweet treat.
Our most recent attempt, stress on attempt was to make fudge. Now, I'm not sure why I let Sarah mark pineapple fudge when looking for recipes to try, as I am well aware fudge can be tricky to make. She asked about it more than once though and when Mikah and Larka were here to visit, we had bought a pineapple to make pineapple salsa, so I thought we would give it a try. We made one batch with and one without cocoa, and oh brother, how different they came out, from each other, and from what fudge should be. The white fudge was too soft and the chocolate was too hard, rock hard. Here's a better explanation of how hard it was. First of all the nuts we sprinkled on top moved around even though we put them on right away. I was excited about the nuts, too. Magdalena had pulled some kahune nuts- can I break a second and tell you the wonders of the kahune? This tree is beautiful to look at, you can roof your house with its leaves, feed your family with the center of the trunk (kahune cabbage, one of my favorite meals), plus it produces nuts galore which are a favorite as well. I'm sure there are more uses I have yet to find out about- busting them even, a skill I have yet to master, and we chopped them up to put on top. They sunk right in the liquidy blond fudge. I'm curious as to why there was such a difference. You needed a spoon to eat one and the other I was scared the little kids were going to break their teeth as they stuck their heads in the pot to lick, I mean scrape with their teeth the bottom and sides. And then, I'll never forget Mikah's reaction when opening the container we had brought back to try, one on top othe the other, making a bigger mess. I felt a little better when trying some fudge at the Cacao Festival that was a little hard and grainy, too, plus Sarah said the boys liked what we had made, they're teenagers and will eat anything. I told her though, next time, we'll just make pancakes. Loves and Hugs!

Paulina, Paulina where does your garden grow?

It took awhile, but Paulina can now say she has her own garden. And this is without the assistance from organizations in town. When Paulina first told me she wanted help with a personal garden we went straight to town in search of a small grant to get started, needing help with materials such as fencing and tools, even a scale so she could possibly sell the vegetables. This girl's a thinker, let me tell you. Neither organization was able to help which was a bummer, but the hardest part was having to tell Paulina the bad news. The men we talked to spoke too much and too fast for her to get the message so I was the one who had to say, "No," when she asked, "Are they going to help us?" There was a training offered which we decided to wait for but neither of us ended up going so I instead got a Peace Corps gardening manual to look through and we already had some seeds, just needed time to start. So one Saturday morning we decided to go for it. We planted some seeds in plastic bottles at first thinking that would give us time to dig up a spot since her father's fenced in garden was now full of cabbage. But while collecting soil for our seedlings we decided the spot we got it from was a perfect place for a garden. It's back in the bush a ways but Paulina walks past there everyday when going to bathe. Maybe it's too shady as well but she was willing to try it out and I'm no gardening expert. I'm learning right along with her and I feel like she asked me to help, not because she needed it, but because she wanted me there. Notice all the we's and us's which make me so very happy. Helping with a personal garden can be seen as a Peace Corps secondary project and I feel like all I'm doing is spending time with a friend. I couldn't think of a better "job" to have. How I love my life! Another example of this is baking with Sarah Ack, which I'll write about next time... Loves and Hugs!

DRA Retesting

Since it's already the end of the school year I decided I should retest those students who were in reading groups to mark any improvements and get a better idea who I should try working with during the summer. I also tested the Infant I students to get a heads up for next year. I started with the young ones and honestly was a little discouraged. Of eleven, two could actually read, a few knew their letters and sounds but couldn't yet for words and some barely even knew their letters. I'm hoping to work with the three that are the furthest behind in the afternoons, taking them out of class. Oh! And I have to mention how advanced one student was. What a difference pre-school makes; he transferred here from town and really had a head start. Makes me hopeful for years to come at Santa Teresa.
Now, the Standard I students, that was a different story. All 15 identified as struggling readers showed improvement!! One boy went from a pre-primer level to Grade 2b! Woot! He, along with three other girls will no longer read with me in the afternoons. I'm so impressed with Mr. Perez, knowing he's doing such a great job with them in the classroom. I even made little comparison graphs to hang in the office. When I told him the results he talked about how he's letting the students read to each other at the front of the class and how he's now trying to get them to work on expressions. What a boost! How I love to celebrate success! And it's motivation to retest the rest. Loves and hugs!

Trainee Visit

One of my favorite things during training was visiting a current volunteer so I was more than willing to host a trainee from the new group and I'm so glad that I did. I wasn't sure what to really plan for, just thought my visitor would enjoy a taste of village life, so I didn't change my weekend routine much. I met my house guest Friday night in town and right away we realized why we were matched together. Besides KC being the sweetest lady, she was able to explain my stomach issues a little more. (By the way, my stomach lining is no longer peeling, but healing. Woot woot!) We did the usual Saturday morning routine, breakfast at Snack Shack, market time, and grocery shopping. KC even bought me a new shirt. What's with these newbies buying me gifts? First my penpal and then my visitor- I luck out with the matching. Once we made it to Santa Teresa we went to the school for a GLOW meeting. The girls group is just starting and we wanted to hear from those who had gone to camp and plan our first service project, a village trash clean-up in honor of Earth Day. After the meeting we had a late lunch and much needed hammock time, which we were sure to fit in our busy schedule whenever we could. We then went to visit Paulina, taking some thread so she could show us how to make kuxtals. What a neat process. I even got to help! One thing I love about Paulina, she always knows when I want to try- plus she's a good teacher. So yes, I'm making my very own shoulder bag, it's a small one, but maybe next time, there will definitely be a next time, I'll attempt a larger one. After our craft lesson we borrowed a bike and took a ride to kawaiy ha' (horse's drink) I love how different water spots have different names. This one is a nice fresh spring bathing hole I had yet to use and it couldn't have been more perfect after a long, hot day. When we made it back home, the Mas family invited us in for tasty chicken caldo with corn tortillas even though neither of us were very hungry. I'm finding it too hot to eat, the other day it was 6pm and still 90 degrees in my house, luckily there was a nice breeze.
On Sunday I told KC of our church options and she was excited to go to mass even though it was in Ke'kchi. On our way back from church we stopped at the community center to check out the village chairman and council nominations. I'm so happy we went inside to experience the once every three years event. I was surprised to see one man decline running for chairman and the multiple men refusing to be on the village council. After Luisa's younger brother declined a nomination I caught his eye and he almost made a nomination of his own... Miss Amy for village council... hahaha. After the floor was closed, only a chairman election was needed. Since we couldn't vote we went back to my house and KC made delicious potato salad. I never really thought to make potato salad at home, because there's no refrigerator, but I need to remember leftovers are easy to get rid of. The officer that watching the election stopped by to visit and I was glad to have food to offer, not only potato salad but kalalu with eggs, another favorite and tortillas, both corn and wheat flour. Wheat flour tortillas are a treat for me and I guess they taste like adding ground green banana to the corn masa before making tortillas. Interesting. Having someone, "just stop by," reminded me how much I love Belize. The officer was from Punta Gorda and knew the volunteers in town, but even if we wouldn't have had mutual friends the visit still would have been nice. We had more hammock time then went to bake cinnamon rolls with Sarah, which turned out beautifully. Again, it was so hot I was sweating twice as much as Sarah just standing there holding the piece of plastic as she was kneading away. I love my Sunday afternoons with Sarah and that I was able to share the experience with a next Peace Corps. I didn't plan much for the visit, just wanted her to see the joys of typical village life, and believe it was a success. Honestly, we didn't do as much as I would have liked, there were other people I wished she had time to meet, but you can only do so much in a day and a half. Having KC was such an encouragement to me. She kept voicing how great I have it here, which I can't disagree with, and how great of a job I'm doing, which is always nice to hear. This makes me even more excited for my next visitors! Loves and Hugs!

Easter Holiday

Even though Easter came and went without JELLO eggs, I'd have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit... a mean, a lot! I started my break on Thursday, March 25th with a trip to Belmopan to meet the new trainees. I missed the early bus, unable to make it to the airport, so instead I finished my bi-annual report and saw them at dinner but really didn't meet them until later that night. Honestly, I was super happy just to see current volunteers I hadn't seen in awhile (ahem.. Kevina). It was so fun to meet my pen pal, Jenna and she made me feel super special bringing me a gift, wrapped and all! I now have sparkly pens, new hairties, (I'm not sure why this is something I had forgotten to pack or how the three I did bring lasted so long) and two beautiful pairs of earrings. The pink ones perfectly matching my Ke'kechi dress. Thanks again, Jenna!
I made it back to PG Friday night, ready to be home on Saturday, but instead decided to spend Palm Sunday in Poite. Since neither Grace nor I had clean clothes and were feeling ambitious, we decided to get off the bus at my house, grab my dresses, leave bags we didn't need, and try our luck a next vehicle would be heading that way. I'm pretty sure I had a few concerned villagers worrying about two crazy white girls thinking they could walk the however many miles to the only village down that road. I have yet to figure out how far it really is, I think Mr. Chub said 13.5 miles... but we did end up walking the whole way for a total of four hours. Although it would have been nice to have caught a ride I'm glad we walked just to say we did and I would even do it again, or course trying to cut back the time it takes. The highlights of the visit included fresh chips with salsa and swimming in the beautiful river, there was a little water fall and everything. All the kids were adorable and it was nice to meet some of the people in Poite especially since I see them on the bus. Some already knew my name so I was glad to learn theirs. yeah, even when Grace and I first reached Poite while walking through the village some called out, "Miss Lilly," which is understandable, they would most likely think a white girl walking through their village was their own PCV, but a few girls greeted me with, "Hello, Miss Amy!" How neat!
As much as I enjoyed my walk to Poite, I was happy for a bus ride back to Santa Teresa early Monday morning. I had two days at home to prepare for my visitors coming to see the Deer Dance. Cali, Grace, and Megan all came to Santa Teresa for the cultural even and were stuck until Saturday morning because the buses didn't run on Good Friday. Belizeans are quite superstitious about Good Friday, some of them refuse to do anything that day, even bathe afraid they would turn into a mermaid. They believe you must by extra careful during Easter time as that is when many accidents happen. Not too long ago a young girl chopped her finger while cutting open a coconut with a machete. (I have yet to find out if she actually cut the whole thing off or only made a large gash, the story changes each time I ask and she keeps it wrapped up.) This was blamed on it being close to Easter. Anyways, back to the girls' visit. We came in on Wednesday, rested a little, then went to play games with Paulina's family. We had so much fun! I had wanted us all to bake there, but had trouble arranging the chicken situation so we just went back to my house to make kalalu with eggs and flour tortillas for dinner. While preparing meals during their stay I was reminded how different it was cooking for more than one person. I also have to say my guests were the best! They helped out so much cooking meals, washing dishes, cleaning up to leave, they even helped with making popcorn for the school's fundraising during the dance. And about the dance, we watched practice for a bit Wednesday night and made our way to the church a few times during the next couple days. The costumes were beautiful, but I'm still not exactly sure why they do the dance. The most common answer was simply to teach the younger men the culture, but I want to say there was more meaning. There were men dressed as dear, night walkers (monkeys), tigers (jaguars), and Spanish men, plus there was one old man, an old woman, and a dog and the dance seemed to tell a story. I want to say they'll do it a couple more rounds, so maybe I'll hear more later. I was surprised that they danced all day and quit before dark. I was so used to them practicing all night long. We stayed pretty busy in the evenings though. Thursday night the Max boys came to find us. Mariano (he's nine) wanted his new friends to come over for dinner so he killed his chicken. Maybe I'm over thinking the gesture, but to me that's incredibly sweet. Chickens are usually saved for special occasions, like birthdays, but to him, having those three girls come back over was reason enough. Then we were asked to eat with the Mas family on Friday night. I was surprised by Mr. Mas's dinner invitation and Hillaria was so cute reminding us of our meal at the "Mas residence." I'm trying to think what else was important about having friends visit Santa Teresa except how everyone was super kind and wanted to meet them. They also loved to see us in cultural wear and I think my new favorite outfit is the po'ot uuq (blouse and skirt). While wearing it a lady from my village took off the beaded necklace she was wearing to give to me since I didn't have one of my own and needed one to make me a true Ke'kchi. How incredibly sweet!
Alright, I've already written a lot and haven't even mentioned our trip to Sarteneja and lovely stop in Orange Walk Town on the way back. Sarteneja is beautiful! I can't believe Manissa lives so close to the water in basically a touristy spot. She's doing good work there, helping a tourist agency, hoping for an animal clinic, and just finished her World Map Project. My favorite part was wading in the water then kayaking for the first time in the sea, soaking up the Caribbean sun... glorious. I can still easily close my eyes and take myself back there. I randomly met a guy from Denver who had grown up in Hastings. What a small world! I probably could have stayed longer, but we decided to spend a day in Orange Walk Town with a next volunteer. My time in OWT would best be described as relaxing which was much needed. We were given a nice tour on Monday although everything was closed as it was still holiday. I was glad we stayed until noon the next day to experience the delicious bakery and fabulous thrift stores. I had a wonderful break that's for sure, and just wanted to share it with you all. Sadly, my camera decided to quit working- luckily this was after Picture Day at the school and I traveled with friends. Feel free to check out their pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/cali.zimmerman/SantaTheresa# Loves and Hugs!