Last Two Weeks in the Vill

Let the Goodbyes Begin!!!

Greg being a boy with the boys...

Visiting: A Whole New Level

Our last few weeks visiting was our full time job. Every night our house was packed with people coming to visit and say their goodbyes. Women who usually don't walk in the village came over! We were showered with so much food we couldn't even begin to eat it all. People were walking to our house as soon as our door opened to bring us tamales, ducanu, bread, doughnuts, tortillas, and my favorite from Mrs. Cus a fried fish dinner!! Our earliest visitor was 5:00am and our latest 10:00pm. Our last two weeks we only cooked 2 or 3 meals for ourselves.

We didn't have enough seats or hammocks!

Mrs. Cus on the right who brought us a whole fried fish

dinner, there are 3 more ladies standing outside the door!

8:30PM Bedtimes were thrown out the window our last week!

Amy came after Megan left. Amy and I love each other's

villages so everyone was delighted to hang out with both of us!

Greg chasing Margarita around IN OUR RAFTERS!!!!

Lynette and I were watching and laughing below.

Not only were villagers visiting us like mad, but we were visiting them too. Greg and I decided to split up to maximize our visiting (and his guy friends are mostly single or work late and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to go visit too). So Meredith and I set off each day from sun up to sundown (past sundown some nights) to try to visit as manny families as possible, me to say goodbye, her to say hello. We developed quite a little routine together. Switching off on jokes and talking about the three big topics, the earthquake (a small one) that we felt, the first Prime Minister's death, and my leaving. We managed to walk to around 50 households but unfortunately I didn't make it to the last 16. Many of those ones came to us the last night though to say goodbye and they said it was no problem and they understood.

Late night visiting with Ms. Choj who speaks no English

Me: "Ma ta wa picturic?" Do you want a picture?

Ms. Choj: "Nenow ta...marray?" I don't know...maybe?

Me: "Us us, kim sa'in, tao! Bar ta wa?" Good good come here, lets go! Where do you want?

Much combing and greasing of hair was done before each picture. Often times there was a wardrobe change too. Everyone wanted pictures. I chose a few of my favorites. I must thank Meredith for taking them for me (her camera is very nice) and also I would not have done this visiting by myself! Thanks xMere!!

The little Pop girls who LOVE Greg!!! Every time we walked by their house, "Hi Mr. Greg!!" or sometimes, "Bye Mrs. Greg!!! Bye BYE BYE MRS GREG!!!" from the young ones.

Myself and Meredith!! So glad she's my replacement!

Two of my best friends, Consuela and Fransisca!

Last dollar for ice cream...

Double scoop with a dollop on top, no extra charge for his #1 customer!

Last transaction with Greg's favorite person, the village ice cream man. Every day two buckets of ice cream, always different flavors, always 1 dollar a scoop. He used to stop and wait if our door was open, I had to go outside and tell him Greg wasn't home! When Greg told him we were leaving he put an extra scoop and a half on his cone and gave him a handshake. He said he was sad to see us go and that he will miss Greg.

Baby holding...my favorite!

The newest baby in the vill!! A little girl 8 pounds!

Antonio and Ludrick's family...they gave me flowers that smelled soo sweet!

And now a look at 'man-visiting'

Greg could barely leave the front step because all his best friends (who also happened to be most of the village leaders) were always coming by wanting to give greg a final Beliken. Most houses I visited the men were at the farm or work, but two houses the men specifically requested Greg come back and say bye. Mr. Saki said that Greg "was one cool guy. I just want to shake his hand before he leaves us." Another one treated him to a free coke at his shop and thanked him for all his hard work.

One house I was visiting had two other visitors from the neighboring village of Hicattee. We were all chatting about the earth quake and how I'm leaving and have been here for two years when I hear one of the visitors ask, "Ani Belom? Ma Computer Man?" (Who's her husband? Is it the computer man?) I piped up and said yes that was my husband. Greg had fixed their son's computer and always pointed greg out to them when he wrote his bike to school. They never met him but knew him as the, "Computer Man"

Chatting with Jessica and her little sister!

Goodbye lunch with our Commad and

Compad, our Godson and Seynida!

Vera, Cecilia and myself...my favorite washing companions!

I think I posted this picture before but this was a main topic while visiting the women. Common sayings while visiting, "Oh but Keveen, you will miss the creek!" or "But how the river Keveen, you will miss it?" Yes yes I will!!! The last week I barely had time to wash so Lynette was sent to help me wash. She obliged happily and we swam and played while scrubbing and chatting. I will miss her stories each night about high school and the rude boys.

I made a little photo board for the library (above)

and the school (didn't think to take a pic).

Goodbye lunch party from the Silver Creek R.C. staff. My favorite meal (I got to choose it like my last supper or something) of cahoon cabbage and stewed chicken with fresh lime juice and CAKE! They also got me a second pair of gold ear rings, the smaller size that I always wanted!! Mrs. Delphine put them in my second hold and EVERYONE was beside themselves with how 'beautiful' I was. I did not expect such a lovely gift! They also presented a certificate and a picture of the winning football team that took first place in the nation!

Greg's school planned a surprise going away party for him, however, since they didn't tell him (and we weren't going to school our last weeks) he missed it!!! They had another one and presented him with a beautiful cuxtal and food and many exchanges of emails! His best friend George, who also works at the school, wanted to have another goodbye party at his house but the time wasn't there...so he came to our going away party.

PUNCH BOARD!!!

We wanted to only take a small bag each home so we had a lot of little stuff to get rid of. Giving it away, as a past vollunteer warned me, can cause striffe with the villagers because obviously we don't have one thing for everyone in the village. Soooo...we decided to have a punch board, a belizean fair game where you write an item or a try again saying ("have a nice day" or "try again") on slips of paper, roll them up and shove them into peg board. Since none of the 4 villages around us had a punch board we made one from bristol board. My good friend Megan, from a neighboring village, came to help. Megan and Meredith were like our daughters for two days, cooking and cleaning for us while we packed and organized. Megan also helped tremendously once the punch board got underway, which was a crazy mad house!

The kids giving tips and critiquing my work!

Here are the children watching from the windows while we set up. We sold 90 items at 50 cents a chance (with about the same amount of 'try agains') making 97 dollars for the school which was used to buy two inks for our school printer! We did all of this in 47 minutes! It was madness inside and megan and I were moving non-stop the entire time. We ended up having to make a line for the children and a line for the women and took turns. Ofelia (my host brother's wife) at one point was yelling at me, "don't forget about your SISTER!!" trying to get her chance, while all my commadres were yelling, "don't forget your Comad!!" There were some funny moments, like when an 11 year old boy got nail polish and when little Morpheus won my rain boots and he could barely hold them up! As I visited the days after the punch board every home I went to had my item, freshly scrubbed, and displayed in a prominent place. Our Godson Devon won a picture frame and when we went there for lunch he had the picture from his baptism in it and took it with him as he played and to the table when he ate. He would look at it and point, "hehehe Greg!" *another bite of food* "Heehehehe Kevina, hehehe me!" It was very very cute. AND we got enough ink to last through report card printing and some of exam printint!

Which one will it be?

All of our 'big items' our bikes, stove and tank, fan, crock pot, toaster oven, big drum greg won, a camera, flip video camera, watch, etc we donated to the school to provide items to do raffles for several years. They plan on raffling 3 items per raffle and that should help get some money going into the school. Since I've been there we've had one fundraiser and my principal pays for the electricity and water out of pocket most of the time. I had a bunch of standard 3, 4, 5, and 6 boys come help me bring stuff to the school for storage and it turned into a little parade. The boy carrying the drum led the way (banging the drum the whole way) followed by a boy riding my huge bike, then one after the other caring assorted items as villagers came out to stare or peer from their windows at the goods soon to be for grabs. Belize loves raffles so I hope it brings in some good money!