"No Firewater on School Grounds"

Dinner Party:
We had Tracy (another PCV in the neighboring village) and Candice (the Humana volunteer in our village) over for dinner. Candice came with a gift of soursop fruit and huge okra. Soursop looks like a large green unopened pine cone. The meat is white and tastes like mango and sour patch kids. We greedily scarfed it down on our veranda...Dobby (our dog) didn't like it though. We taught Tracy and Candice bananagrams, on the floor since we had one table that we made which we were using as the stove table at the time. I had prepped the tortillas and Candice and I patted them out and baked them. Dinner was yummy...eggs with onions, beans with onions, fried plantains, flour tortillas and ginger tea. Greg said it reminded him of our little dinner parties we used to have in our tiny apartment in downtown Wilmington...it really made our house feel like a home.

Bush Doctor:
I found out last week that a girl in Std. IV got bit by a snake, all I was told was that she was bitten and was recovering. I didn't think too much of it. Until that Monday when I overheard the teacher who lives in my village asking one of the girls friends how she was doing. She said her whole leg was black and that she had been vomiting blood! I went over there to check on her after calling a doctor I knew and was quite relieved to see she was doing better. I knew she was being treated by a bush doctor (but was told that they must know what kind of snake bit you to treat you properly...and they didn't) I was going to suggest we go into town, that I would take her. As I got to her I could still see the dark bruise like discoloring around the ankle (where the bite was) and by her hip. Her mother was very thankful I came and relayed to me all the instructions the bush doctor had given her (all good advice) and I told her to let me know if she needed anything. There was only one fang mark so I guess she only got a half dose? She was going down to the river to bathe and she got bit, they couldn't find the snake and she didn't see what it looked like. She could have died. People die from snake bites here...when I talked to the doctor he told me there is NO anti-venom in Belize! It is too expensive. They only give supportive care and either your body can overcome it, or it can't.

I Just Da Hail You:
I have been making really good friends with two of our teachers. We have been meeting early before school working on their Christmas entertainment and talking about all sorts of things. The end of the world, schools in America, jewelry and cultural beliefs. One night I got a text (in kriol) from the youngest one (she's just 19 or 20):
Teacher: Hey miss Kevina you done di feel cold in da thatch house?
Me: Aye gyal you know I da freeze.
Teacher: I no think so because Greg di rite de. Yea I just di hail you gyal.
Me: I just da eat, make me call you rite now.

Our Landlords:
The family we're renting from is so nice. They continually bring us food and we hear ketchi all the time. I bought masa from them to make my own corn tortillas. Well they wanted to just give it to me but I insisted since I want to make this a common occurrence and so I was charged 50 cents for my pound of masa. Saturnina mixed it with water for me and showed me how it should feel when it's ready. With corn tortillas it's just masa and water...that's it. A while ago I baked corn tortillas with them and it is an interesting process. First of all you have to lay them on the cumal like you would lay pie crust on top of a pie...your hand is very close to the cumal. Then to flip them you have to use your thumb to flick the side of the tortilla until it comes up enough where you can grab it and flip it. After you've cooked both sides you push it to the middle where you press down hard 'with all your fingers' and it magically puffs up like a balloon. This part was the hardest for me. I only did it right once. When I made our own I only got one to kind of puff up.

We also found out they have piglets too! They're at the second pin which I thought was empty! They're so cute and Greg found out they will suck on your fingers. Their snouts feel really weird wet and squishy. There is a little brown runt to that is my favorite.

One night one of the older sons was at the house (there are always relatives visiting). It was a cold and rainy night and they were going spear fishing in the river later! The next morning we got delicious cooked river fish! River fish is my favorite, not as many bones and a great flavor...not to mention everything our landlords make is packed with pepper!

The Wrights:
My sister got to babysit the Wrights (the kids I nannied all through college) in Charlotte. She called me and I got to talk to all three of them! I miss them so much and it was so wonderful! Lauren wanted to know what my cell number was, Josh told me that he missed me and loved me, and Grainger and I had a long conversation about Harry Potter and a new quidditch video game. They were staying in some sort of magical hotel that had a wolf den in the kids rooms with a flat screen TV inside it. The whole hotel was 'enchanted' also because kids were given wands and when they waved them at different things throughout the hotel they would activate!

New Favorite Christmas Song:
So all the classes are doing Christmas entertainment and Infant II is doing this song 'my hat is too big.' They were shocked I didn't know this Christmas song, and it has fast become my new favorite! Here's some of the words I remember:

The hat I got for Christmas is too big.
Oh it's nice, but my sombrero is to big.
Is it raining is it snowing,
but for me I'm never known,
cuz the hat I got for Christmas is to big.

Chorus: I ring the bell (ding, ding ding)
and bang the drum (dum, dum, dum)
*repeat*

You think it's hot in Siam,
you should be in here where I am.
Cuz the hat I got for Christmas is too big.
I can't tell one thing from another,
I got married to my brother!
Oh the hat I got for Christmas is to big!

There have been a lot of meetings about the Christmas entertainment, and the staff party. We are doing 'Kris Kringle' which is what they call secret Santa here. When we were discussing where to have the staff party my principal said, "we can't have any firewater on school grounds."

The kids playing marbles...their favorite past time.

Billy Joel in the Middle of the Jungle:
We set off for the neighboring village one afternoon. As we were leaving our village I saw one of my students pumping water, eagerly waving at us smiling. When I looked back to the road I saw a cat prancing down the side of the dirt road with a big dead fat rat in his mouth. Belize. Tracy's host mom invited us in for dinner and we left at dark to go back. There are no street lights between the villages and luckily the dirt roads are white here and we could kind of see the puddles (hence where the biggest holes were) by the dark water. It was very nice riding in the dark, it felt like I could reach out and touch the glittering stars. I also saw the milky way for the first time in my life. We stopped at one point just to look at the stars...I found out what I have been calling the little dipper is not at all the little dipper...I named it the tinniest dipper and we continued on. Greg singing billy Joel and I whistling with the bugs chirping in the background. The lightning bugs flying above the street would illuminate little sections of the road like little lanterns. I also discovered that the average cruising height for lightning bugs is about 2 to 3 feet. I did see one daredevil soaring at 7 feet though!

Our Amazing Parents!
I had to come into town to go to the hospital (bad bout of vomiting and diarrhea) and much to our surprise we had 5 packages waiting! We are not opening all of them until Christmas but I just want to say thank you to all of you; mom and dad Casaletto and mom and dad Hughes!!! We LOVE our presents! We wish we could be with you to celebrate, but we'll be there in spirit! We love and miss you! Merry Christmas!

Washing clothes.