Working on our horn of plenty...
This year Standard 2-5 are participating in the garden initiative. I take standard 5 so Mr. Baltazar can do extra PSE prep with Standard 6. The kids are teaching me, and work really hard. The group of six stayed till 4:40 because they wanted to make sure they made the bed beautiful. "It's too nice Miss, I want to sleep here." (get it?? on the 'BED')
Sandra, my friend who lives across the road (hers was the first wedding we went to in the village) asked me to come over to learn how to do crafts and hair. We made bracelets and she showed me how to 'style' my hair all with her mother in law commenting and watching. I finished my first bracelet that first night (on my wrist) and another in the morning. We made another date to learn how to do the 'w' and very difficult 'x' style of bracelet from her mother-in-law (sandra hasn't learned those yet either).
Christina the librarian doing a read aloud to some Infants (meaning Infant I and II).
Tide Freshwater Cup
For teams to compete in this years Freshwater Cup Football Tournament (which is allowing girls teams for the first time ever this year) they must complete a project by the end of March that focusus on 'Freshwater, Healthy Life'. Our project title is: Keeping our Creek Clean and it began with a creek clean up. All team members were required to participate, starting at 8:00 they were given a shilling bag (small black plastic bag) as a glove and we headed off to start behind the school. Students immediately found a bike and an umbrella which foreshadowed what was to come:
36 pounds of glass, 3 buckets of plastic and 1 and a half buckets of clothing. Students were amazed, as they dragged the corn sacks full of glass, batteries and hand corn mills at the amount and variety of trash in our creek. It was very beneficial too since we passed 6 groups of women washing and they saw the waste we'd picked. Towards the end we had two kids cut on their legs from the glass bag, and 6 that had chosen to bathe and swim. The kids asked the Tiul's if they could pull some oranges as we walked through their yard, and seeing the trash, were encouraged to pull as many as they could carry for their hard work.
Weighing the trash...Metal works table. Those are 26 DD batteries at the left.
Clothing scraps
Glass
Plastic
The teams with their treasures. All items were disposed of in the most environmental way we could (no trash service comes to the village). Plastic and metal was buried, glass was thrown down the old school latrines, and the clothing was dried and burned.
It was also children's day so afterwards they went off to play.
Since it was children's day...AND cultural day Mrs. Delphine made hudut in my house for the teachers' lunch. She needed help so Consuela brought the whole preschool over so she could help.
Hudut is a Garifuna fish dish made with coconut milk (that was made from 3 real coconuts) and boiled and mashed plantains. All the women teachers helped prepare and then called the men to come eat. It was fun having everyone in my house. Afterwards the ladies went out to 'wash cups' and Consuela and I gave our own cultural lesson to Delphine and Susana on how the maya wash cups. They were amazed we squat the whole time at the pipe and how there was no frugality with the water (water in town is metered and EXPENSIVE). We were all teasing and joking while the guys hung out inside. Mr. Baltazar later commented on how it was really nice hearing us all laughing from outside, how we are really a family.
Toledo Thanksgiving 2010
The gang that celebrated thanksgiving in Toledo
Some of the guys
Deserts 8 deserts for forty people...due to no pumpkin being imported to Belize this year we had one pumpkin pie that was Thanksgiving miracle number 3, we each got a very small cube and relished it together. Other districts were not so lucky.
Our favorite holiday!
Two volunteers in town, Cali and Mallory really pulled together when we found out there would be no national gathering of Peace Corps this year for this most special holiday. They set out planning and reserved a parish hall, assigned food groups, and planned an itinerary of events including American football, Maci's parade viewing, and even a pre-feast dance performance. We, everyone except Erica, agreed the food was much better this year. There was a focus on the American staples with copious amounts of stuffing, turkey (thanks to our interim CD Matthew Cain), sweet potato, and green bean casserole. We had many Belizeans, JICA volunteers, and interns from the high school in attendance and it made us thankful to be around so many friends when we couldn't be around family.
Serving line!
Cake Room at the Big Falls Bazaar
House before the Christmas elves.
Sheldon enjoying the messy sparkly mayhem.
Morpheus and Margarita...she kept a count down until decoration day!
My little helper elves...Seaford loved the ornaments!
Here is greg doing an impromptu workshop on computer repair that was excellent at IST (in-service-training). We both presented this year so it was fun seeing how Greg teaches, which is AWESOMELY! Only a few short weeks until school is out and baby sister is here!
Speaking of baby sister, I must brag a bit now:
My sister was hand picked by her poems to attend a graduate level workshop/course with the North Carolina Poet Laureate, Cathy Smith Bowers! If you (like me) don't know what a poet laureate is you can learn more here:
Only 4 were accepted from her entire university I am so proud of her!
Here is just a little poem Kaylyssa did for a class:
My Mother Was a Fish
By: Kaylyssa Hughes
I was red.
In my small, Japanese heart
I harbored
what I could.
My castle was a sign
that said Dios Te Ama,
like an old “No Fishing” post
designating the boundaries
of my bowl.
She called me Mark
after an actor
in many famous films
such as Fear, Boogie Nights,
and The Departed.
I lived high up on a shelf,
watching her and waiting
for her to tap the glass
and say “Mark, I’m sorry
about your water:
the level and color of it.
I’ll clean it soon.”
Her thin pink hands
went by like little clouds.
Yesterday she tapped the glass
and I didn’t flit
like a windsock,
alive in a sudden breeze:
I was still.
She stared at me for a long time,
remembering the day
three years ago
when she thought buying a fish
would keep her mind off things,
when she brought me home
in a little cup.
I was red.
In my small, Japanese heart
I harbored
what I could.
My castle was a sign
that said Dios Te Ama,
like an old “No Fishing” post
designating the boundaries
of my bowl.
She called me Mark
after an actor
in many famous films
such as Fear, Boogie Nights,
and The Departed.
I lived high up on a shelf,
watching her and waiting
for her to tap the glass
and say “Mark, I’m sorry
about your water:
the level and color of it.
I’ll clean it soon.”
Her thin pink hands
went by like little clouds.
Yesterday she tapped the glass
and I didn’t flit
like a windsock,
alive in a sudden breeze:
I was still.
She stared at me for a long time,
remembering the day
three years ago
when she thought buying a fish
would keep her mind off things,
when she brought me home
in a little cup.
I just love how fresh and well scrubbed all the PCV's look at the Thanksgiving feast! Thankyou for taking all those pics so we can have a glimpse into your lives. Daddy and I live for your blogs and we tell everyone when you put a new one up.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there was so much debris about at the creek! It all looked pristine to me. But I'm so glad I kept my flip flops on when we 'washed' in the creek. xo