Last days in Belize

These last few days have been bittersweet. We had our final group dinner tonight. We all had pizza at Pedro's Pub to celebrate our time here in Belize. A guy from the local newspaper came to interview us about our time here and what we have accomplished and learned. It is so crazy to me that this is coming to an end. I leave Saturday morning early. Some of our kids came by Pedro's tonight to see us and say hi and we were so excited! Our students are all so sweet! I am really going to miss them when I go back home and I hope to keep in touch with them all. I got all of Ms. Mandy's information today and she also got mine. I really feel like I have made a lot of strong bonds while here in Belize and on this trip. Ms. Mandy is a great teacher and a wonderful person and I will definitely keep in contact with her. I am sad that will miss not being able to run across the hall and see if the girls want to go get dinner in town but I know that I have made some great friendships and will be seeing a lot of the girls when we get back home. I have truly had a life changing experience. I have learned here in Belize what it is like to be a minority, what it is like to make do, how to relax and go with the flow, to appreciate what I have, and to enjoy the simple life. I will take with me a new perspective on teaching and building relationships with students. I can't even explain how much I have grown through this opportunity and how amazing this program is. I feel more confident in my abilities to teach and I have enjoyed my time in the schools here.I can't wait to get back and share all of my adventures with those at home.

Ambergris Caye Elementary

I'm glad to be back in the schools and back to work. I love being around the kids. They are all so sweet and affectionate. The students here like to call me teacher, miss, or miss Jessi. They go by first names here, which I like. Last week I did some observing in my classroom and in some others and was able to see how a normal day went. I learned the students schedule and how things work around the school. This week I have been doing a lot of teaching in the class. Ms. Mandy has been out for a couple of days with a family emergency so I have been full time teaching. I have enjoyed being able to take charge again because I feel like once you have all the control it is hard to get back into that "assistant" role again. We have been working on fractions in math, which is shocking to me because the majority of my students are six. They are doing really well with them and are so smart. Yesterday and today we worked on making a class poem for Mother's Day. The students came up with such great ideas. One student suggested we end the poem saying "Happy Mother's Day, I will keep you in my heart." I thought it was so sweet. Our poem turned out awesome and I am hoping that they can work on making their own for a Mother's Day card. We incorporated using adjectives and suffixes in the poem also. I have also been teaching religion and Spanish while Ms. Mandy is gone and that has been interesting but I did my best! I did a matching game with prefixes, suffixes, and base words that they really enjoyed. I have also been trying to get their energy out by having them shake all the wiggles out and do jumping jacks. They always have so much energy but the exercises seem to get them more excited so today I tried breathing in and out heavily and that seemed to relax them a little. I don't know how they are always going, going, going in this heat. The kids here all have so much charisma and personality and I love spending time with them. I will miss them terribly when I leave! I hope to keep in touch with them after we get home.

My internship experiences

I have been fortunate enough to experience teaching in Wilmington back in the states and also here in San Pedro, Belize. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of my time teaching. I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to come to Belize and try something new. I have learned a lot about the culture and a lot about myself during my time here. One thing I have noticed in the schools of Belize is that things are much more laid back and less structured. The schools here have standards rather than grades. There is infant I which is like kindergarten/first grade, Infant II which is like second grade, standard I which is like third grade, standard II which is like fourth grade, standard III which is like fifth and sixth. One big difference from the school I was in back home and the school I am working in here is the size. This school is very small with very little children and only 5 teachers. Ambergris Caye Elementary has very little resources and money available. That has been the hardest thing for me is planning good activities and lessons with minimal resources available. The school has done a couple of things to raise some funds while we have been here. One thing they do is have rags day. This is when the students can pay to wear their normal clothes. They also had a festival of the arts here in San Pedro for the schools and Ambergris Caye sold stew chicken and rice and beans to raise some money. Another big difference is that the parents are very involved and many of them walk or drive their children to school on golf carts. Parents also come and drop off lunch or stay and eat with their children. There is a lot of note taking here in the schools even in infant II. The students have a lot more free time during the day. My partnership teacher Ms. Mandy likes to keep the parents in the loop on what is going on at school which is really good. She does something similar to my partnership teacher back home which is a homework/take home folder. In this there is a schedule with the test days and other important events. Ms. Mandy also has to the students write down their homework everyday and then she signs it. One thing that is similar to back home is that you have some parents that are really involved and work with their children and then there are those parents who don't even pick up their children. Ms. Mandy often has to drive one of the students home. Ms. Mandy really cares about her students and that is very apparent. She stays after and does tutoring and works with those who need help.

Caye Caulker

Yesterday we spent the day snorkeling and traveling to Caye Caulker on a catamaran. We went to two different snorkeling spots. First we went to Ho Chan and split up with two different guides. We were able to see angel fish, barracuda, grouper, and lots of other little fish. We also got to see the coral reef and a cave below the water. After the first snorkeling site we got back on the boat for a few minutes and made our way to the next Shark and Ray alley. If you can't tell by the title already this area is known for having a lot of sharks sting rays. We got our snorkel gear on and got in the water while one of the guides threw fish in to attract all of the sharks and fish over. It was such a cool experience. I didn't think I would be able to get in but I worked up my courage and did it with the rest of the group. I got to pet a sting ray! One of the guides kept picking up the sting rays so that we could pet them. It was a really great time. After all of the snorkeling adventures we got back on the catamaran and sailed to the island of Caye Caulker. Caye Caulker was absolutely beautiful and I loved it. I wish we would have been able to stay on the island for longer because getting our lunch took quite a while. We ate at the Pedro's there and saw Walter who also works in San Pedro. We were able to get some beautiful jewelry in town. We saw the split at Caye Caulker at the end of the island that occured from a hurricane Hattie in 1961. After a couple of hours we made our way back to the boat and then had a relaxing ride back to to San Pedro.

Back in San Pedro

Yesterday we made our way back to San Pedro. Our first day at Caves Branch we were able to get some lunch and then go and see the blue hole. The blue hole is just a small water hole that gets really deep in a certain area. The water was super refreshing and looks very blue and clear. It was really awesome to swim in and explore. We swam across and hung onto the cliff area and got some really neat pictures. The rest of the day we just hung out and relaxed at the resort. The food at the resort was really great. They gave us a ton of food and we all ate until we were sick. Unfortunately a lot of us got sick while at the resort because there was a stomach virus going around. I caught a cold and ended up spending the next day relaxing with a few of the other girls who weren't feeling well. The others in the group spent the day doing a waterfall cave tour, repelling in a cave, and doing cave tubing. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to do the waterfall tour that I wanted to do but I didn't want to be miserable all day and bring everyone else down. Everyone had a great time and some of the girls that stayed even got massages. It was pretty scary in the jungle at night and even though I had a good time I was definitely ready to get back to the Island. I really enjoyed our time inland but I would prefer to teach here on the island. San Ignacio seemed kind of dead. Here on the island people are always out and about to talk to. I really love being at Ambergris Caye Elementary but I do wish we could have visited some of the schools inland.

Inland

Traveling inland was quite an adventure. We woke up at around 5:45 Monday morning to get ready and get to the ferry. We rode on the ferry for about 90 minutes with all of our luggage to get to Belize City. From Belize City we split into three groups to take taxis to the bus station. We caught the bus from Belize City to the Zoo which also took about 90 minutes. We had a good time walking around the zoo and seeing all of the Belizean animals. We saw jaguars, howler monkeys, and tapirs the national animal of Belize. We went in groups so that some of us could sit with all of the bags so we didn't have to carry them around the whole day. After the zoo we waited for a good hour for our bus and then we rode for another 90 minutes to get to San Ignacio. Once we got into San Ignacio we stopped to get some lunch before we made it to the hotel. Our hotel was amazing! It was beautiful and we had running clean water, power, air conditioning, and a t.v. in our rooms. There was an awesome pool and a bar and restaurant. It was a nice little getaway and we felt like royalty for a few days. In San Ignacio we went to Tikal the Mayan Ruins and we also went spelunking in the cave. The cave tour was my favorite and it was absolutely amazing!! I was a little afraid but so proud of myself for getting through it and enjoying it so much. It has been an amazing experience and I am so glad that I was able to do this. I feel lucky to be here and be a part of this group.

Priveledge

Since being here in Belize I think that all of us on the trip have realized how priveledged we are. I have realized many things that I take for granted everyday. Things are so different here in Belize. People live much differently. Things are much more simple here and I don't think the people of Belize mind that. I think that for a lot of people that is what brings them to Belize and for others it is a hassle and an annoyance to not have what we are used to. We at Pedro's didn't have regular running water for a good 4 or 5 days. The city couldn't get enough water filtered for everyone so they were rationing the water out. We would get some water in the evenings but it was like chlorine or sulfur water not the clean filtered water that we are used to. There are also regular power outings in the city of San Pedro. A lot of people here just walk everywhere as well. Many drive golf carts but some don't have the priveledge of owning one and pretty much get from place to place on foot. It has been a big struggle dealing with having no water. My biggest hassle has been having no place to use the bathroom because of the water outting the toilets wouldn't flush. It is humbling to see how simply the people here are living and they don't seem to mind it at all. I don't know if it is because they don't know it any other way or if it is just that they enjoy the simplicity and appreciate what they do have.