Greg's 26 and Our Last Week of School

Greg...the 26 Year Old:

So as almost everyone knows we both got stomach worms for Greg's birthday. The good news was we got put up in a hotel for medical. This means a real bed, AC, TV, and internet! It was a great mini vacation. We played at Erica's with Tracy and had some very giddy games of bananagrams. Greg got his cool helmet sent to him, a hanging 6 shelf organizer (which he loves) and a Belizean style bag with Ferrari on it. When we came home our neighbors gave us po'ot with young beans which we put candles in and Greg played happy birthday on the ukulele while i attempted to sing it.

Bananagrams and Tracy in her bucket.

Now who's cool?

The Last Week of School

The Ministry of Education held a party for the underprivileged children of Toledo and our school hosted. It was both good and bad. It was great because 24 kids from 6 different schools were given a great Christmas, tons of presents, food, dancing and entertainment, and they got to see Santa. The bad part was it was held at our community center during the school day and all the other kids were not allowed to go over there. Many of the kids back at the school had never seen Santa and many don’t get Christmas presents and it was hard trying to explain why they weren’t allowed to go. Greg was the chaperone for the kids from his school. He said they were really well behaved and that after they unwrapped their presents they just stared at their gifts without opening them further. During the party I was subbing for Std. 3 &4 AND std 5 & 6 (because the principal was asked to host and the std 3 &4 teacher is the only one who can work the DJ system. It was a very hectic day but is what any teaching administrator experiences when a staff member is absent. It didn’t help that when Santa came he arrived with Mrs. Clause in a Ministry of Ed truck blasting his horn. You try explaining to two classes of kids who’ve never seen Santa why Santa isn’t coming to their class. I am very glad that those children who went were able to experience a nice Christmas… their faces were so elated as they walked home.

Greg and I were both amazed at the Christmas parties for the kids. This is when each kid pays money to have a class party ($3.00-8.00) the teachers buy the rice and beans and chicken and then one of the parents cooks for the whole class. At Greg’s school the kitchen cooks for them all and they are prepackaged in Styrofoam to-go containers. At my school each child was told to bring a dish, spoon and cup. I liked seeing the assortment of dishes and cups! Before they ate at 12 all the classes had what could be explained no other way, than a dance party. Each room had its own borrowed sound system and the kids danced their hearts out for hours straight. Children were allowed to wander from class to class and dance. Each kid was given one apple too. Apples are very expensive here and are usually only eaten at Christmas. Watching these kids eat and then stuff a half eaten apple in their book bag to go share with their little brother’s and sister’s is amazing. One day after school I was riding my bike to Greg’s school and I passed a group of boys. The youngest one asked for a ride. I said sure and he clamored right up into my basket. We passed an older man who looked shocked then let out a little chuckle as we passed. We quietly rode to his house where he said, “Here miss, tanks miss” and I continued on my way.

12 kids on 5 computers...oh Belize.

The following day was the Christmas entertainment that the children had been practicing for the last two weeks. It had been a rainy week and we were not allowed to use the church this year (deemed sacrilegious) so we had to use the school veranda. We dismissed the kids early after they helped set up all the benches and chairs in the school. I had fun hanging out with my teachers. I brought over my little Christmas tree to get the festive spirit going. The show started at 5:30 and went until 7 even with the torrential rain and cold….the community stayed and it made me so happy to see everyone sharing umbrellas, holding chairs upside down, or huddled in large groups under neighbors’ houses. It was a very good show as you can see from the video.

'Good mornin' Miss Lady'

The horrible rain!

The kids I watched the show with. Serapio is the one in front and he always looks at me like that.

Traditional harp dance

Our disgusting feet and Mr. Grinch

We had our own staff parties too which were very fun. My staff did ‘kris kringle’ which is just secret Santa. Greg’s staff rented out a bar called ‘The Embassy’ where we played old school video games and listened to a lot of awesome karaoke. Greg sang piano man, and much to my surprise he sounded really good I though.

Piano Man

Luis and I got each other for 'Kris Kringle'

My Staff

A cat that jumped in through our window...she spent the next 45 minutes walking around our beams. Margarita and Sheldon pulled up some tems to just watch our Christmas tree.

Four Months in Country by the Numbers (December 20, 2009)

2 snakebites in our village

17 packages

12 letters

18 malaria pills taken

2 chess tournaments

4 bars

4 neighborhood watch meetings

4 places we’ve lived

2 broken flashlights

3-12.6 oz cans of Klim powdered milk

2- number of times eaten gibnut

1 person left from our group (still 40 strong)

Kevina

1 dead body

15 haircuts given

12 books (whole harry potter series)

1 kid ridden in my bike basket home

7 different medicines

2 times making corn tortillas on my own

Greg

5 computers fixed

1 internet lab fixed (twice)

2- number of times offered money for fixing computers

6 books

3 different medicines

1 broken 5 gallon water bottle