To Get Fat Miss

The last puppy...he's doing better but is still thin :(

School Happenings:

So all the kids in our school have snotty noses and colds; just like winter time in the states only, minus the whole winter thing. Greg met a couple that works with healthcare students from the States. The health workers came into Greg’s school and did lessons in Infant I and Infant II (kindergarten and 1^st grade) and did hand washing. They then came to my school in the afternoon and did hand washing with my Standard I&II class, then jeopardy (which the kids had never heard of) with Std. III &IV and Std. V &VI. It went very well overall, the health workers were a little confused when they were talking about nutrition and armadillo and iguana were given as meats (both are eaten regularly here). When they asked Std. V&VI students why they should eat breakfast one boy said, “to get fat miss.” Fat is a good thing here, a compliment as in, “oh miss you’ve gotten fat!” These health workers are students in the US and this was an elective class in international medicine. They come for one month and work mostly in clinics and go to schools twice a month.

Handwashing

Passing out germs

A germ!

Kevina's School:

The main building Infant II-Standard VI

So things at my school have been pretty busy. I taught a workshop on comprehension strategies my 2^nd week of officially being a volunteer. I learned a lot from it, and I have seen some of the ideas in the classrooms so I am happy. The good thing is that the workshop kind of let the teachers see that I am interested in teaching model lessons and helping however I can. I have taught 5 model lessons and teachers are requesting times for me to observe. Yay! I got a bouquet of flowers from Adelma in Standard I after I taught a writing lesson and a love letter from a boy in Standard II. I also got ‘stewed pumpkin’ from one of my teachers! It tasted like fall and I slowly savored a few morsels before carefully wrapping it back up to take home to Greg.

The love note, and my Good Readers poster for my workshop (doesn't my kid look mayan!)

I had a couple of super stress days where I started to freak out about assimilating and having so much to do and so little time. Greg is always there to calm me down and help me see the big picture (he has to remind me a lot that we’ll be here for two years). I am trying to be like Greg and relax. The kids are helping. Every break they come in and speak ketchi to me. They like to ask me my name, where I stay, if I have a husband, and if I have a little brother/sister (it’zin is both little brother and sister). I can answer all these questions now in ketchi and they have started giving me vocabulary lessons (I write them in a little ketchi pocket guide I made). I learned; Belom (husband), sak eb (white person), ill a quaran (look at this), nane’ (baby), and atz’oom (flower). So ketchi is back, watch out!

Houses behind the school

“It has zink!” those were the first words out of my mouth as I saw our future library today. They started putting on the zink roof! Mike, a RPCV from Hatie, came to check out the progress. He is going to report back to Cross International (who donated the money for the library) http://www.crossinternational.org/ . I am just so happy that there will be a place to start organizing our books…we don’t have too many but I hope to change that soon. I have 6 boxes in NC ready to go. Also, we are trying to become a community library under BNLS (Belize National Library Service) which would allow us to get funding and training for a community member to be our librarian and even get help organizing books!

The day before the zink went up!

My sweet new uniform!

Greg's School:

Greg has been learning how to do lots of IT stuff. He has almost brought our little computer back to life! He went to a neighboring village and got their internet up and running again. He will be going to try to fix the internet lab in Grace’s village next. There is a training for internet cafes with the EU people that Greg is going to that should help boost his skills even more.

Greg was substituting the other day for an upper division class. I nervously asked him how it went, and much to my delight he started laughing and told me about the joke he played on the kids. A teacher called him outside to announce the four little girls up for ‘queen.’ When he came back in he told them, “Class I have a really important announcement. Probably the most important announcement I have ever had to give a class…(all the kids were quiet and looking eagerly at him. “ Aliens have invaded the earth.” The kids all looked shocked and some even scared. Greg was laughing so hard he could barely get out, “just kidding.” It took five minutes for him to get himself back together enough to actually teach.

He is also working really hard with the school on their huge Bazaar that is in two weeks. This is a serious event….they usually raise around $30,000!! They went into town today to hand posters all over. They had to hand number 1300 tickets, and cut out a ton of raffle slips. There is an all day football marathon also with teams from all over Toledo! There is a bar, games of ‘chances’ and a whole lot of food!

The poster on our host mom's shop door and Greg's school from the computer lab

Greg's library

Greg told me about the interesting method used for punishment at his school. When a kid gets sent to the principal’s office, the principal just points to the machete and says, ‘go chop.’ They just chop the field (which can always use chopping) until the principal tells them to stop. Greg also told me about two cows that love to hang out in the field at the school. He was teaching one day, and the class was all looking out the window. He was about to tell the all to pay attention, that is until he saw what they were looking at. Running past the windows were the two cows, followed closely behind by the principal… wielding a large stick wildly at them. He couldn’t think about reprimanding the students because he was left staring, open mouthed too.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

Obviously they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here. However we do have In-Service-Training (IST if you will) so that we will all be together for Thanksgiving…we will even have a Thanksgiving feast! This being my second favorite holiday (Halloween being the first) so I am glad there will be festivities. Also, for the last couple of days it has been down right cold. It's been cloudy and drizzly and it is such great weather to curl up under both the sheets and read. I have to wear pants and a jacket in the evenings!

Now Christmas is a whole other ballgame here. I have loved the absolute lack of advertisements and materialism here. We wrote stories and many of the kids chose to write about Christmas. Most wrote about having family over and eating good food (caldo and rice &beans). Only a few mentioned a gift (and it was one dress, or a piece of clothing usually). But, I see so many happy kids and I just wish I could show all the kids back home that you don’t need a play station, or a playroom of toys , or even two outfits to be happy. Which brings me to one last point while I’m on my soap box…I have not heard one kid say “I’m board.” The 3 months I’ve been here and never has it even been muttered! I love it! They’re always playing…good old fashion playing, and it makes me very happy deep down in my heart.

Chess

Greg and I and 4 other volunteers went to a chess training for coaches in town. It was insanely great! We learned all sorts of stuff, like did you know that on a pawn promotion you can get any piece you want EVEN if it hasn’t been captured. That’s right; you could have nine queens on the board! AND you can castle on either side! Changed my life. So we learned how to play using the clocks, which was extremely nerve wracking! We got free lunch and juice, yup a pretty fantastic time. After the training we got to hang out with a lot of volunteers who were in town for one reason or another. My friend even brought us huge slices of chocolate cake from the cake lady next to the park! Real chocolate cake (which I greedily scarfed down)!

We have been playing chess with Angel and the kids that stop by the shop on the board Greg’s mom sent us (Thanks mom!!!) and I think we’re getting better. Update: I lost to both the students I played today…guess I need a lot more practice.

Chess Coach Training!

My Standard V and VI kids at a chess tournament in town

Church:

Church in Belize, well Catholic Church, is very unique. It is of course the same catholic mass and we say the same prayers but there are differences. For instance kneeling. The only experiences I have had were at plush Catholic Churches where they have padded kneeling things… that fold up and down usually with the aid of some fancy metal hinge. Okay well here there are wooden benches for sitting and nailed to the bottom are two boards from both ends with another board nailed on top, ta-da, a kneeling bench for the row behind you! So when we went to a rosary service I became quite aquatinted with these platforms and I tried to hide my extreme discomfort. I shifted from knee to shin, to one knee than the other, while everyone remained calm and recited prayer after prayer. Greg said it was because I didn’t grow up catholic…I don’t know, I think he was pretending that his knees weren’t breaking.

We also went to a Friday mass at an unfinished house. We had it there and then because that was the time the priest could come, and that was an area without a church. All the people piled in, sat on small benches (remnants of the old school that once stood there), and we began. The priest recognized me from our school mass and gave Greg and I both parts in the reading. I really like the priest, he is very old, content, and brings the holy water in an old salad dressing bottle.

Other happenings:

1. Big Falls Warriors (the woman’s football team our host sister plays on) won their last game and will be going to the semi finals!

2. Healing The Children

-There are US doctors and surgeons in town and they are repairing cleft pallet/lips, putting tubes in ears, and doing general diagnostics and treatments.

-A volunteer in town told me about it, what a great organization!

-They took one boy from my village and I was sent to go check on him and make sure he is taking his medicine. He’s doing well.

-I am meeting with one of the ladies on Saturday to discuss ways to get the word out to the villages.

3. Mustaches for Kids Belize: Greg and several other volunteers have started a Belize chapter with proceeds going to Belize charities and non profits! Check out the link on the right for more info. The stash bash will be at the Thanksgiving IST.

4. New house: So we are switching our future house… if Peace Corps approves it, we will be moving into our very own THATCH HOUSE on November 22 in my little village! I cannot wait! It has a cement floor, one room, 3 doors, a latrine out back and it is on an orange plantation! They are even going to build us our own shower house! Luxury. I am very excited and our new landlord doesn’t speak much English so we really get to work on our Ketchi!

5. Happy First Birthday Aiden!! We love you!

The state seal on the plates at the Ambassador's

The parrot that lives outside our door.


Greg off to save the internet of the villages

At miss Carmelina's parent's house

Me on my sweet ride...oh and a horse

The market in town that we go to every Saturday

Hunter Gregory Calcaterra

Peace Corps Baby?

We miss you Kristen, Justin, and Sweet Baby Hunter!!!!

Hugs and kisses from Belize!

Halloween and More

Leatherman to the Rescue

If you know my husband at all you know of his addiction. He is addicted to his Leatherman. I was not surprised to see that there were about 5 other guys in our group with a similar affliction; proudly parading around with their multi tools shining from their cases on their belts. But, I think Greg’s case is most dire; taking out his leather man for the slightest of needs (a stray strand on a shirt, plucking eyebrows, or to pick up bugs). However, after the events two nights ago I can no longer sigh or roll my eyes when he is quick to his hip for the Leatherman…for with it, he saved a life.

I slept through the whole thing due to the Benadryl I took for my insistently itching bug bites. So I will tell you what Greg told me. Here is his account…

I was sitting out in our living room (because I couldn’t sleep) when I heard the dogs making all sorts of noise (we have 3 big dogs and two puppies that are always at our house). When I stuck my head out the door I caught all of the dogs attacking Happy (the sweet big black lab who is quite obviously the omega). As soon as they heard me the two other adults rushed up to me and all of the dogs stopped making noise. Since there seemed to be nothing the matter I gave them a pet and went back inside. Almost immediately it started up again with horrible whimpering and whining from Happy. I grabbed the crank flashlight (which of course I pre-cranked earlier) this time and went outside to check things out more thoroughly. I shined the light in the garage and saw the brown puppy just lying under the hammock not moving. All the others immediately got quiet again as I got closer and I could then hear the faint whimpering and wheezing of the puppy. I rushed over and knelt by the puppy. I quickly saw that he had entangled himself in the hammock. I tried to shove my fingers between the strings and its neck but it was too tight. Grabbing my Leatherman I held the puppy down and swiftly cut him free. The puppy was a little dazed and I started to pet and soothe him. As soon as the puppy regained his strength and started to walk away all three adults came over and began eagerly licking my face in silence.

(Dictated but not read)

Greg

From this we learned three things:

1. The omega in truly the scapegoat

2. Hammocks can be deadly

3. ALWAYS carry your Leatherman

The lucky pup and the Omega...happy

So You’re a Teacher Trainer

Early on in the application process for Peace Corps I stumbled upon the Peace Corps Journals website and began to eagerly search for ‘teacher trainer’ to try to get an idea of what my life might be like. Sure, I had the one page summary from Peace Corps saying that really my job could be anything and everything within a school. But, needless to say, I was still left without a real clue as to what I might be doing. This is for you; all those out there who want to know what life might be like as a teacher trainer. I have only been one officially for one week but I will tell you what I’ve done so far and try to regularly post what life is like in the school and not only all the wildly crazy happenings of life in a village. So here goes…

The first two weeks I was in my school it was technically still my ‘training.’ I was to observe and, well, observe some more. I met with the faculty my second morning to let them know why I was doing this. I explaining that Peace Corps provides human resources and I will be observing to learn how they teach here in Belize. I will be watching the different ways they instruct their students, the physical space of the classroom and how it’s used, how students are responding and keeping in mind things I could start to expand or enhance through workshops, model teaching, team teaching and the like. So after I gave my little spiel each teacher had their own responses to my being in their room. Some wanted an immediate break down of what they did wrong, others wanted to tell me what supplies they needed (I would just have to reiterate that Peace Corps doesn’t bring any money only human resources) and some had me take half the class out to read to me. All the teachers were very respectful to me and my principal is so motivated to make our school the best it can be.

Side note on my school:

My counterpart (the principal) comes into school singing everyday and I often hear his class laughing throughout the day as he often uses humor to teach his lessons. My school was much more than I expected since there had never been a Peace Corps volunteer there prior to my arrival. In much of Belize corporal punishment, or ‘lashings,’ are very much a reality. It’s not uncommon to hear ‘I’m a lash you boy!’ And I was very nervous about what if anything I could do to change it, should it be the case in my new site. However, my school does not lash; and there are very, very few behavior problems. I immediately recognized that I have a very talented bunch of teachers who are eagerly integrating the researched based techniques TFABB has taught them thus far. My first week I observed a perfect interactive read aloud! But I digress…back to what life is like as a teacher trainer:

By the middle of my first week I put up a computer class signup sheet for teachers next to the sign in book. Much to my delight two names were on it the next morning. One person, under previous experience, put ‘never on-ed a computer’ so I was really excited to begin. I started computer class for the infant I and II teachers after their kids are dismissed at 2:30 until school is out at 3:30. I work with my counterpart during lunch and when I move to my village I will work with the two teachers who live there afterschool. The only teacher who did not sign up is already very computer literate and therefore it is not a need.

I also began to feel quite overwhelmed quite quickly. Where do I begin when there is so much to do?! As I was walking around I began to notice a huge range of ability within the classes. I decided to show my principal the diagnostic reading test and see if it was alright if I began testing some of the low students identified by the teachers. He thought this was a great idea and loved the fact that there were comprehension questions too. The diagnostic reading test I used is a Caribbean one and the stories are all relevant to experiences these children are familiar with. After I tested the low students my principal wanted me to test his whole class. This then lead to me asking to test the whole school. My thought being I could then use that information to see the greatest need and let that guide me towards workshops. After doing this it became extremely apparent that these children (for the most part) can read on or above grade level, but their deficit is unquestionably in their comprehension. Next week I am doing a workshop on comprehension strategies which I am very excited about.

I also work with a special needs student 15 minutes each day. I have taught standard 5 and 6 when my principal went to a workshop and the response was great. The students had never used any sort of graphic organizer for writing so with that we all wrote a scary story. I was impressed by the word choice and creativity and responded to each paper with a post-it they got to keep. So sometimes teacher training… is just teaching. The training then comes in when I show my principal how to use that graphic organizer so it can continue.

Lastly, if you are lucky enough to be a TFABB school you will be opened up to a whole new world of opportunity. TFABB is an organization of teachers in the states that fundraise all year to donate books and supplies to schools in the ‘forgotten district’ of Toledo and to be able to fly here a few times a year for workshops. I am in one of two ‘model schools’ where they will be holding workshops for administrators, teachers, and also for me (the teacher trainers)! I met with two members and I am very excited about working with them. They came with a videographer who interviewed several students, the principal, and myself...for future reference I am not very good at giving interviews; I may, or may not, have ended by saying ‘my village is the greatest’ with a fist pump and a meek ‘wooo.’

Our Standard VI boys mowing the school yard.

So those potential teacher trainers out there…you won’t just be thrown to the wolves. If you are at a total loss of what to do Peace Corps also has this packet of ‘outcome indexes’ which are measurable, observable traits to asses in your teachers. There are 72 specific outcomes and you can just simply start by working with the teachers on the areas that scored the lowest. This outcome index is also what you use when you do your reporting back to Peace Corps. I had no idea you had to file reports with Peace Corps at set intervals, but you do and they’re all on the computer and very easy to fill out. You report the number and types or workshops, the total number of people you’ve worked with, and tell your ‘story’ of what your work has entailed in the previous months. To those of you not looking at this as a potential teacher trainer….sorry it was probably pretty boring…NEXT!

They're working on the library!!

My First Halloween

Halloween at a Roman Catholic school in a small village in Belize was a unique experience to say the least. I was told only that we would have a half day and there would be some sort of celebration. So after lunch I was eagerly watching for the masks that everyone was telling me about. I saw the first two when the group of kids near me rushed over to the side of the building and started yelling and speaking quickly in Ketchi. I thought this must be it! I saw across the field two kids dressed in black from head to toe and what looked to be a werewolf face…YESSSS YESSSS! It only got better from there. The kids were running around and the teachers began to set up a sound system and microphone on desks the kids brought out on the veranda. The students were then instructed to bring all the benches to the field in front of the main veranda and the reggae music began. One More Night played on loop a few times (please look up this song so you can get an idea of what plays all day everyday from every house from every background in Belize). My principal starts singing on the mic and the awesomenesss begins. All the children in costumes (20somthing) come up to the veranda and proceed to dance to Punta, reggae, and Spanish music for almost two hours strait. They danced first for the top three best dancers. Then they danced as we selected the top three most original. Next, they danced while we chose the three ugliest, then the three prettiest. Then they all just danced some more. We had to stop after the first hour for a water break. The Chess guru and his Peace Corps volunteer, Kristen were there for the whole thing (along with TFABB and their videographer for the first part). This had to be on the top 5 list for best Halloweens.

Neighborhood Watch

I was kind of nervous about reading my monotonously typed minutes from the previous meeting. However, only 15 people came, we rescheduled. They had two parts to the meeting, one for business owners and one for the villagers. I came for the village session and they didn’t make me read the minutes. I gave them to the chairman afterwards and he seemed pretty impressed with the four typed pages of notes and now I may or may not have to go to all the different village zone meetings to take the minutes because, “this is what we need!” Also, the entire meeting was in Kriol.

The Simple Pleasures

-Seeing a dog running across the yard carrying half a coconut

-Watching a horse being walked through the village with bags of corn on its flanks

-Kids with their ‘slippers’ on their arms so they can run and play without losing their shoes

-Women with their babies in a sheet (picture how a stork would carry one) at their back with the loop around their forehead

-Men walking with machetes (I just always love seeing this)

-Barefoot kids running to school (yes running…and not because they’re late either)

-Boys playing marbles

-Dogs on the verandas

-People lying in hammocks (all the time and everywhere)

-Women washing in every creek and river

-Hearing Ketchi during every break…and often in the classroom

Oh and of course that Carib Sea

Sweet Sweet Beach Cruisers

We are no longer prisoners to our yard and our immediate surroundings. No longer forced to submit to the whims of flat tires of old bikes…for we are, at long last, BIKE OWNERS! We ordered our sweet bikes from our host mom’s shop and they came in just three days straight from Belize city in their beautiful boxes. Greg went out that night to put together his bike, I was excited but not THAT excited so I went into finish my book Stiff which is about cadavers. As I was reading I could hear Greg fending off babies right and left, “no baby don’t touch that,” “okay, give me the wrench,” “NO NO NO baby don’t hit the bike!” After an hour and a half of chuckling to myself, he came in and announced that not only his bike, but mine…thanks to Angel (pronounced An-hell) were set up! Since then we’ve been an unstoppable cycling team and we see lots of people through our rides. Greg even rides his to school in the morning.

Our bike boxes in the shop...everyone was excited. Greg and Angel riding to school.

Internet ‘Connection’

I was having a little panic attack about not being able to contact TFABB so we walked to Greg’s school one night for internet. We introduced ourselves to the manager he immediately told us that he’d heard of Greg and that Greg was the one who brought three of their computers back to life. They quickly went off talking about IT stuff and flitting from one computer to the next while I eagerly typed. As this is going on who should walk in…the Chairman, Greg’s Principal, and three partners from the European Union. They are here with an internet program where they have set up 23 different internet labs throughout the country. They are visiting all the sites because they need to make sure the labs are all up and running before the initiative ends in 2010. Greg was introduced as the man who got internet working in the neighboring village. The EU people had heard of him…or course. So they began to talk and ended up giving Greg their card and getting our number. They want Greg to go to Grace’s village next and see if he can get their computers working and then hopefully get the internet working. They also said they wanted their IT guy to train greg so that when they leave he can check in on the villages perhaps training others in each village in IT! Greg is enthusiastic about this new development as am I!!!