Dear God...Please Let the Fan Work Until Morning.

Things are getting better and better here. I love how there are always 2-6 extra kids in our house. On Wednesday night there were two neighbor kids Kevin and Evlen and we were taking 'cool' pictures with all our sunglasses. Kevin was so cute he would pose really cool and say “Yeahhhh booooyyy!” In a thick kriol accent. My sister wrote me asking some things she could send my host brothers and sister and I asked them what something small is they want they can't find here. The boys immediately said “cars...the nice METAL toy cars!” Alyssa wants the 'wicky sticks' she explained them as the bendy straws but they are the wax sticks that you can bend and stick to each other and peel off again. She was excited when I told her they really exist. They see these things on the American television. We also gave them peanut butter and jelly for the first time (they said they saw it all the time on TV but have never seen it here...let alone tasted it). Needless to say they (including Miss Alberta) loved it. Alyssa said, “That butter nuts and jell is so nice!”

Me and Kevin being silly.

Since we were in the office on Wednesday we were able to skype and see little Hunter on his 3 week birthday. He is getting so big and handsome. I have one cute nephew! I really only get homesick when I see him. I hate missing out on holding him and seeing all his cute little expressions. He made one little face and he was a little Justin (his dad) for a split second!

Hunter, I have more recent pictures but they're on the other computer.

We got our package of candy and stickers we sent to ourselves before we left. So it took about 2 weeks to get to us. Not too bad for the ground rate. The Reeses cups were slightly smushed but delicious...I shared them with the other volunteers. The Peanut M&Ms were completely unharmed (hint hint you can send these!) and I am rationing out one to each of us (my host brothers and sisters) each afternoon. Bryan keeps trying to sneak more so we had to put them under lock and key in Greg's ukulele case!

We made a mess making homemade teacher resources.

So books. There are almost no books to be found here in Belize. There are no bookstores and the ones you can find are ridiculously expensive! The last Harry Potter book that came out was $95 BZE which is like $47 USD! I cannot wait to talk to some of the other volunteers that started libraries and start sending down my 2,000 books to start my own!

Who's cool?

The Great Fan Crisis

Wednesday night it was pretty muggy. I woke up gasping for air in the middle of the night. Our fan stopped working. In the dark, I silp out just my arm from the protection of the mosquito net and mess with the cord... it is finicy and has to be looped over the top of the fan to take the pressure off the connection or it won't work. Well now I can only get it to stay on if I push it into the fan. So all I hear (since my eyes are closed) is “WHIRRRRRLLLLrrrrrrrrrr ...WHIRRRRRLLLLrrrrrrrrrr ...WHIRRRRRLLLLrrrrrrrrrr ...” as it comes on then goes back out when I let go. Now I start to accept this is not going to be an easy fix so I stick my head out too and now I have to give myself a break and just hold the cord in so I can cool off to work on it again. Right about this time I actually open my eyes and see that the curtains came undone and that the window is rendered useless and we have just been in a little oven of our body heat. Okay, I have to get up. I open the curtains, and work on the fan. I end up rigging it with two bobby pins and a hair tie and it worked! While laying in bed trying to fall back to sleep I realize I have been praying. I was thanking God that the fan was able to work again and praying....okay begging that it might stay on through the night. Only in Belize would I pray to God about a fan (but hey, it stayed on).

So this next part is sad for dog lovers:

One morning we walked to the resource center and were standing by Amy's house and Greg noticed a dead dog by our training center. I started to get that familiar feeling in my stomach that I get seeing a lot of the animals in my village/belize. Greg consoled me by saying' “At least he's dead and not dying.” This did console me, so many animals are starving or infected or limp around....not to say there aren't some very happy well taken care of dogs. Greg was right. He was out of his misery. The worst part was when the man came to dispose of him. A guy with a truck came, put on garden gloves...picked up the dog by his stiff back legs and tossed him in the truck with a thud that forced me to reflect on how little of the dirty details of life we are exposed to in America. I don't know if I will be sensitized...thinking of how to deal with things like this is challenging; injustices happened before me, happen all over the world, and will happen after me...but what do I do? What can I do? Feed all the dogs? Beat up people left and right? I guess we will just lead by example and try to bring up conversations when possible. I know we will adopt probably two dogs near the end of service (it is easy to get them into the US). But, so what? What about my favorite horse I look forward to seeing each morning with the silly face? I will be contemplating this for life I guess...

Not my favorite horse but an albino one so that's cool too...it is our neighbor's!

Guess what I did all by myself while my host parents were working....I MADE TORTILLAS BY MYSELF! My host mom was very very impressed and said they were really soft...I even cooked them (which I had not practiced independently) I will put up the video soon...if not today. Ooops sorry the first part plays twice...quick editing here in Belize.

We interviewed the principal at the local school. She has been teaching since she was 15. It is interesting because when they made the school they had a lot of kids coming to enroll that have never been in school. The neighboring town was overcrowded and turned them away so they are 10, 11,12, even 13 without ever having been to school. The principal is personally tutoring a 13 year old since she didn't want to put him in Infant I (kindergarten) with a bunch of 5 year olds.

Some kids picking flowers for their teachers on our street after lunch break.

Please keep the comments coming!! Mummy I am sad you cried...I miss you too but just know I am very happy here. I also got both your packages today...thankyou! Okay I will post again at the latest next Friday...Stay happy and healthy America!

The white kid on the bus.

UB University of Belize