Training Teachers Already

Lost picture of when we first arrived at our host family's house!

Miss Alberta was telling her neighbor about me teaching Alyssa her nine times table really quick. She asked me if I could come over the next night and tutor her son. I agreed of course. I went over the next night with a notebook a blue and purple crayon and one sticker. I taught him the two tricks I knew, showed his mom the triangle mult and division flash cards and some great websites for him to practice because THEY HAVE INTERNET! So she was very impressed and we were sitting on the couch talking while her son and Alyssa were playing the multiplication games and she asked what I would be doing in the Peace Corps exactly. I explained and she said that she herself was a teacher and wanted to know if I could help her with strategies. She teaches infant I (like kindergarten) so I ended up giving her the same hour lesson on classroom management that I gave Miss Alberta. She was very excited and even asked to take the scratch paper I doodled some examples on! I told her I would stop by next week and see how they were working (because she said she would start them on Monday)! I left and as I was leaving she came running out and invited Greg and I over for dinner the following Saturday to thank us for my help. I am very excited about this new development and I look forward to seeing how the strategies work out in her class.

While I was gone tutoring the little neighbor girl Evelin came over to Miss Alberta's house saying' “Miss Kevina?” She is my newest little friend and asks for me to play a lot. She mainly sits quietly beside me when I work on our projects for Tech Training. I give her and her brother M&Ms when I give them out in the evenings.

So Greg started to get a little homesick, mainly for foods. He bought some pasta and made spaghetti. The kids were very interested and kept asking, “spaghetti like on TV?!” They'd never had it before. Bryan asked if Greg was going to make the 'potato sauce' for it. When it was finished Greg dished it out and we passed out the spoons...they don't have forks because it is either soup with a spoon or any other food with tortillas. Silence. Bryan was just slurping away and everyone kept saying how 'nice' it was and delicious. They all had seconds and they all complained about being too full for the first time since we'd been there. Miss Alberta is going to make it while we are on our field trip she liked it so much.

Miss Alberta and I are having so much fun together. We hung our for several hours making ginger tea and editing the food video together. My sides hurt from laughing so much. She also said that she has a traditional day planed for me...perhaps the 10th which is a holiday. We are going to roast cacao and grind it the old stile on a stone. Then make a traditional dish with that and also perhaps make corn tortillas (which are much harder). THEN she just throws in...”and I was thinking you could kill the chicken?” My mouth fell open...all the conversations with my guy friends back home about me killing goats flashed through my mind and I stuttered out..”ummmm I might cry.” At that is when she told me the Maya beliefe in the Animal Father:

They maya people believe that there is an animal father that protects and looks over all animals. The maya believe that in ancient days the people made a pact with the animal father to only hunt what they needed to survive. During this pact it was forbidden to hunt excess animals or for profit or business. She said that down south they still believe that if you hunt for profit...one day when you're hunting the animal father will lure you deep into the forest by a bird call or chase you with a snake until you come to the base of a tree. At that point you will go into the tree down to a room where the hunter will be surrounded by all the animals in the forest. The animal father will come before him and tell him of his wrong ways. Then the animal father will bring before him all the animals that were injured and mutilated in his unsuccessful hunts. The animal father will give the hunter a chance to change his ways...if he admits he was doing wrong. At which point he will release you and she has heard stories of hunters returning after being lost for days half crazy and mumbling about the animals and a bird. If you do not repent then he kills you and the hunter is never seen again. So with this in mind perhaps I will feed the chicken a great last meal....love it....and kill it? We'll see.

So I have been trying to think of what would have been different back home...it is hard not to just do things the new way without thinking about it. So here are some things unique to life in Belize:

-First off, all the doorknob locks on bathroom and bedroom doors lock when the lock is horizontal, the opposite of the US.

-We brush our teeth outdoors. No matter if you have a sink like us, or a bucket...everyone brushes their teeth outdoors.

-Powdered milk is used all the time...and I LOVE it!

-Nothing is processed...when they are tired or had to work late at worst they will send a kid to BUY fresh tortillas instead of making them. We eat very little junk food.

-There are no mirrors. You don't realize how much you look at yourself in America until you go to Belize and you don't see yourself for a week at a time. Besides my little hand mirror, of course.

-People wash all their clothes every saturday.

-Everyone also washes their tennis shoes and hangs them on the line by the tongue!

-everyone rides beach cruisers...and I mean at once. I saw a husband and wife with the wife holding her infant child and another one of about 2 just sitting calmly on the handle bars. I have also seen a man with a dog on a bike...the dog had his back legs on the bar between the seat and handlebars and his front paws on the handlebars...very talented.

-Chickens, roosters, or turkeys can be seen running across the road at any given moment. I also know the answer to why the chicken crossed the road...to get away from the chasing kid/dog/bike ect.

So here is a picture of my much beloved horse...who I named Opey.

I think our training group is wonderful and it really makes the experience great. It is Amy, Grace, Greg and I and we have so much fun together. Several times we have had to stop the lesson for a giggle fit, but we're still getting a ton done. Everyone in our group has really positive attitudes and that makes it a million times better too...we think we have the best site:) And Amy, she is so tough. Apparently she got a hole in her ear drum jumping off a cliff into the water two weeks ago and just hasn't been complaining at all. She went into Belize city to get it checked and the doctor said she is going to be okay. Amy said Belize city wasn't too bad so that's great news also.

Laundry set up.