Kev-o-lution!!

Well I have been saying for quite some time that Kevin and I need to unite our powers! Kevin is the other Kev serving in Belize. He is a youth development volunteer in the Cayo district and you can see a whole other side of Belize on his blog. I really like his post on monopolies in Belize! So all you out there check it out!

http://frasure7.blogspot.com

"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.

"Two Dolla a Chance"

The little 'Teachers' Library' I made with the leveled readers from TFABB

Our shower...I love taking showers at sunrise, the sun is so pretty through the palm.

Sometimes Greg dries off on our veranda.

The path to our latrine...and the pigs that live near it.

Our side is on the right...here is our stall. We just bought a seat today!

Early morning sun through our thatch!

Greg and I both like to lay in his huge hammock together and this is what happens when he gets out :(

Our shrine from home and Greg filtering water next to his homemade sink!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Bazaar-a-rama:

Greg's school has been preparing for their huge bazaar for the last couple of weeks, numerous PTA meetings, selling of raffle tickets, and begging for merchandise. So finally it was the weekend of the Bazaar. I had to spend the second night in our thatch house alone because all the men had to sleep at the school to protect all the prizes..and also to get ice at midnight, and then start cooking BBQ at 3 AM.

Greg's 'bed' in the library

Our first night in our thatch house was great, no rooster problem (there is a large dog population that likes to bark but it was preferable to screaming roosters). We woke up and took our first bucket baths and then rode our bikes to help set up for the huge event. Our job: drinks. Now in the states all that setting up for drinks would entail would be getting the cups and soft drinks and some ice. So I came along, how hard could drinks be....well, hard. When we get there we receive our assignment and we don't have the option to not accept; oranges, peeling and squeezing 9 bags of oranges. Greg uses his leatherman and I get a large knife that a boy ran to borrow from his grandmother and we begin. Withing the first five oranges my hand is cramping. We pushed through the pain and peeled straight until 12:30 when we got food from the school kitchen (for free). We did about 3 bags at that point and had about one 5 gallon bucket of juice. The juicers (the metal kind with a handle that you pull down to squeeze out the juice) weren't working so we were using two plastic juicers (the ones that looks like cones with ridges) and our hands. After lunch we lost most of the kids who were helping (yes kids of all ages wielding large knives peeling oranges) and we were left to peel and juice. It was a long day and finally at 3:30 we were done. A lot of the oranges were dry and we only ended up with 3 bags of oranges...we swore off oranges for life.

When we got there we immediately pick up brooms and start helping Teacher Brian who is frantically sweeping water out of the classroom. You see the coolers are old and the plastic has come off the corners so the foam just leaks. We were then told that we must do this all day so that no one slips like last year. Greg and I look at each other..."can't we just get four buckets to put under the leaks?" suggests Greg. Silence. Mumbles of support are given and quickly buckets are procured and the problem is solved.

Now those are speakers!

Erica, Grace, myself and Corina in the classroom that was converted to the food room.

My favorite room! I got pumpkin pudding and bread pudding!

Lunch time!

These paddles were '2 dolla a chance' and I WON that fan!!!!

The other side of the highway looked the same...it is kind of a big deal!

Greg working the drinks (not pictured: Greg's sweet jorts)

One of the many games of 'chances'

"I'm no expert...but I think we have a forest fire going on back here"

The day after the Bazaar they did not have school so the teachers could clean up. They were burning a large pile of trash (the main form of disposal) and Greg looked out to see huge flames lapping into the forest. He turned to Teacher P and said, "Um...I'm no expert....but I think we have a forest fire going on back here." He then responded with, "oh yes...that needs to be controlled." At which point kids were told to go fill buckets at the tap and for the next 15 minutes Greg played fireman ushering kids and buckets to the right spots and finally, yet again, saved the day.

"I stepped on his foot, his only foot!"

When I came back from the Bazaar (alone since Greg had to work until it was over) I ran into the teacher that lives in our village. He was standing with several relatives that he introduced to me and I noticed several church benches in his mother's lawn. He then explained that his 88 year old father is not doing well and that they are holding a prayer service tonight and that I should come. I agreed and went home to wait until the time. Greg would not make it so I wrote out a note and told our landlords to tell Greg where I was and to join me when he got home. So this experience was the most 'okay I'm really in the Peace Corps' moment I've had so far. I walked over and saw a large group of people (about 30)standing in a cloud of smoke from the burning sage. I heard my name from a few of my older students who were there and slowly smushed into the crowd trying to blend in. There was a prayer being said from somewhere in the house, everyone did the sign of the cross and then we started our procession. Slowly, with some singing, we filled into the thatch house of his mother's. It was slow going as people tried to find seats and it filled up when I was outside the door. There were about 15 of us standing outside and I sat on a bench right out front of the door. Then I heard a small commotion and heard 'okan, okan' which means enter and everyone was staring at me waving me in. I squished inside and squeezed in between a younger lady and a man.

I tried to hide my shock as I saw the dying man lying in a hammock in the middle of the room. His wife and eldest son sat on the bed next to him and then in a huge circle around him were all of his friends and family on benches. The old man was awake and looking around, fidgeting with his Guatemalan blanket every now and then. There were 3 guitars by me and an electronic keyboard. After we all got in, I noticed the green ketchi songbook in every ones hand and someone called out a page number and we began. We sang song after song in Ketchi. I just swayed around to the tune and tried not to stair at the man. I couldn't help wonder what he was thinking. What it must be like to be in your death hammock and be surrounded by everyone you knew singing hymns in the one room house you built. The house was packed with about 100 people sitting and standing. The room was lit by one florescent light and a candle and plumes of smoke would waft through the room ever so often as the breeze caught the incense burning. The old man's wife sat, looking at her hands, mouthing the words to the songs. Every now and then the old man would cough, she would pick up a bowl (ones made from dried gourds) and he would spit in it. Even sitting I was about a foot taller than most everyone in that room and I could not resist the temptation to just gaze around the room at this unique prayer service and these people. After about the first hour a man, who looked like a maya Willem Dafoe, began to speak. He had been leaning against a post in the house, with tight jeans, a big belt buckle, and a button up shirt with one hand in his pocket, straight out of a Western. He gave a long speech and all I could understand was that he was very happy. That everyone something... and that something was no good. I need to work on my ketchi. He nodded and sat down and we continued to sing. Guitars were passed around as people got tired and we sang song after song with different people just calling out a new page number after the song finished.

Greg came about 7:30. He sat with the ever growing crowd outside. After quite a while he caught my eye and motioned for us to go home. I did not want to leave and tried to tell him in sign language that it was too hard to get out and I want to stay. After some more feverish signing the lady next to me tapped me and smiled waving to the path she'd created for me to exit. It was tricky work squeezing past the guitars and the sleeping boy and the big step out of the house. There were people packed all around the entrance way and I stepped over the first bench onto something and heard a man say "ouch, you stepped on my foot!" I looked up and sure enough there was an old man looking accusatorily at me. I immediately jumped off his foot, nearly falling onto the person to his left and whispered many apologies. I put my head down and sulked over to where Greg was and sat down ignoring his smirk. I knew he was tired and he said that we should just go home, these things might last all night. As we were discussing how not to be rude while exiting the man who's foot I stepped on got up. He picked up his crutch and much to my horror he had only one leg...one foot, which I managed to step on. I looked at Greg, who was poorly attempting to hide his delight in my awkwarness, and nodded towards the house. I was glad it was almost 9 because no one could see my bright red face. We appologized to my teacher for having to leave and he understood and I quickly walked home to sulk in my awkwarness and reflect on the strange events of the night.