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!