A quick note - another reason to dislike doing laundry here; if you're naturally an unobservant person, it's quite possible you will step in fire ants while hanging your clothes on the line. TWICE, if you're me! :)~
Thursday there was no school, as it was Garifuna Settlement Day. I tried to catch a bus into town for the festivities, but after standing by the side of the road in front of our house for an hour and a half, I gave up and stalked angrily into my room. My funk from the previous days caught up to me, and I allowed myself to pout for the majority of the day, with it only worsening when I found out I no longer had someone to go to Mexico with this weekend to see New Moon, therefore, no trip. I thought of going alone, but my host family was not in favor of the idea, so I decided not to. I've been sooo looking forward to this and have been waiting for this movie since I found out they were going to make it over a year ago! I WILL go see it, I'll just have to wait, something I've never been particularly great at... Ugh, patience...
Yesterday I awoke at 4:30 to be ready and standing by the street for 5:30. I was picked up, then we got the rest of the kids along the way and were on the road by 6, ready for a fun filled and action packed day! It was mostly the older students going, along w/ all the teachers, but there were several younger kids as well, and some parents too. One of my special ed kids came, as a reward from Tr. Terry for behaving better in class lately. My seat mates became Courtney, one of our preschoolers, and her mother. She is sweet and adorable and chubby! The only chubby kid I've seen here; after watching her put away the candy and treats throughout the day I know why! :) We drove for over an hour, then stopped at a shrimp farm, where we toured the whole place and learned a lot - like that shrimp are attracked to light, and when there's a storm the shrimp will jump out of the water in the direction of the lightening and often beach themselves on the bank. Huh, who knew!?
When we first arrived we were greeted by 4 dogs running alongside the bus, wagging vehemently, and barking hellos. When we stopped, one stood at the bottom of the bus steps for a minute wagging as hard as possible, then thought maybe he should come get us since we weren't rushing off to greet him! Poor thing looked sad when they closed the bus door shooing him back off the first step. Once someone came to tell us where to go, we followed them and parked by the office. It was 3 stories, and we went up a swirly staircase the kids thought was awesome, and stood on the roof to gaze around us. The mountains in the distance were gorgeous, and you could see for miles up there. When we came back down the welcoming party had caught up and were waiting for some love. When I get the pictures posted you'll notice my right pant leg is wet from hip to knee - there was a huge fresh-from-the-pond rottweiler who hurtled himself at me in an enthusiastic greeting. My knee to his chest hurt his feelings though, and he didn't let me pet him after that. The others quickly learned to keep "all 4 on the floor" and were well loved on. I had Leonel take my camera so he could get a shot of me w/ them and I didn't get my camera back for the next 20 minutes. He had a great time showing off all the pictures in my camera to the group of kids who clustered around him to see if they were in any pictures. One of our teachers had worked on a shrimp farm for 7 years before becoming a teacher, so he was our unofficial tour guide, teaching everyone what everything was and how it worked. He used a cast net to catch 2 ice chests full of shrimp for us to take home. I wanted so bad to have a hand at the cast net - I haven't thrown one since I was 15, and wanted to see if my hands automatically remembered the technique from years of throwing it into the Gulf at our fishing camp growing up...
Back on the bus, we rode for several more hours, made a stop for bathroom breaks and snack purchasing, then made it to the Mennonite village of Spanish Lookout in the Cayo District around noon. We ate at the only restaurant big enough for all of us, then went to the chicken plant, where I was glad to drop the kids off to watch how the poor animals were slaughtered, while the teachers went to shop. Soon I stepped into a huge warehouse w/ rows and rows of things to buy! It was like being transported into a US store! Well, sort of. I thought of buying stuff I'll need when I get my own place, like a mac and cheese pot, and a toaster, but the teachers said the prices were higher than in Belize, and I should wait to buy stuff up there. I did spot brownie mix and bought that, though! I also got some Bubbalicious gum (the kids saw it and were like, "that gum looks weird!"), and a book of Sudoku puzzles (my birthday package from Summer and Holly had a puzzles and mind games book in it and it got me re-hooked on Sudoku!).
Once we got the kids back, we went to the dairy processing plant, where I thoroughly enjoyed a double scoop of ice cream that actually tasted like ice cream, and learnd all about the dairy products they make and ship to the rest of Belize (I'm talking about the country this time, not Belize City - I know, it gets confusing). Then we headed to Cayo (I'm talking about the city this time, not Cayo District). By now it's already 3:45, and I'm starting to wonder just how late we'll be arriving home tonight - it's usually a 5-6 hour bus ride back down to PG... The teachers were dropped off at an area w/ lots of shops and the kids went to play in the nearby park.
I knew Cayo from when I lived in Georgeville (between Spanish Lookout and Cayo, which is also called San Ignacio, if you remember me referring to it as that), so I was fine w/ breaking away from the pack and going where I really wanted to go. Back to that restaurant w/ the stone carvings I took a picture of before, you remember? They had sold the one I wanted, but I found another one I really loved, maybe even more than the original - it's a map of Belize, w/ the districts marked, as well as the different popular Mayan ruins noted. It was expensive, but I decided it was my Christmas present to myself and it's something I'll cherish for the rest of my life, so it seemed worth it. Plus it was $60 and I had $60.75 in my wallet - it seemed meant to be! (No tax here - awesome!) We recollected, gathered up the kids, and were heading out of San Ignacio at 5 p.m. I texted Melanie letting her know that "Wi jus di leave San Ig. Ai gwain reach bak layt!" Then we got to the next town over, which is really just another part of San Ignacio, called Santa Elena, and then we stopped for the kids to get to do a little shopping at A&R, a nice big (and air conditioned!) store w/ tons of arts and crafts and practical shopping needs. Principal Florence told the kids they had 10 minutes. An hour and 15 minutes later we were back on the road, after swarming a street vendor who made burritos, tacos, and garnaches (my favorite!) for us. By now, I'm realizing that I will, in fact, be starving by the time we get home and I should've save some money for dinner! I only had 75 cents left, but the beauty of street vendors is you get good, hot food, and a small serving is usually only a dollar. I bummed a shilling off another teacher and had a delicious (but tiny) burrito for dinner. That and the bubbalicious I'd bought earlier. :)
The best part of this stop, however, was not the food - it was the 4 legged best friend I made! It seemed perfect that this day of fun should begin and end w/ dogs... While the kids were whiling away the time in A&R, I (having no money and therefore no intention of going in a store where I'd inevitably see s/thg I would want) hung out by the bus. I turned around to find this incredibly happy huge brown and white dog gazing longingly at me. I of course went right up and stuck my hand through the gate, once I was sure he was friendly, and made that dog's week, maybe made his month! We spent the next 1/2 hour w/ his front paws on my chest, arm, or perched on part of the gate, w/ his mouth latched onto my arm or hand. He loved to mouth me, but he never put so much as an ounce of pressure on my skin... My entire arm, from shirt sleeve, to my fingernails were covered in slobber! I even took my ring off my thumb for fear w/ the saliva and him mouthing my hand it would slip off and go "down the hatch", never to be seen again. Anyway, we both just had the best old time loving on each other! One by one the kids would wander out from the store and catch site of him on my chest w/ my arm or hand in his mouth and freak out that I was being attacked. The pervasive fear of dogs here is disheartening - only one or two would even touch him, for fear of being bitten, even though they could see if he was going to bite, my arm would've gotten it by now. I also learned during this experience that Tr. Terry is afraid of dogs. This should make me trying to use a pet as a therapy dog in the classroom interesting...
Back on the bus, we left Santa Elena after 6, got to Belmopan half an hour later and instead of passing through, turned towards town, much to everyone's dismay. We were already going to be getting home sooo late! A gas stop, more junk food for the kids, and we were back on the road at 7:30. With a 4 hour drive ahead of us... I asked one of the teachers what time the parents had been expecting their children to arrive back at home. She shrugged, said there was no set time (of course - so Belizean!), and that she assumed they were probably expecting them at 7:30 or 8. Alarmed, I asked if we should try to get in touch w/ them so they wouldn't worry, to which I received weird looks and a no. Things like this are not a worry here.
Somehow the bus arrived in under 3 hours. I have no idea how fast we were going, but I probably don't want to know. I jammed along happily to Avril (haven't listened to that girl belt it out in a long time - forgot how catchy the tunes are!) and Augustana, pausing the tunes only twice. The first was when the lights blinded me by flipping on unexpectedly, and I took out my earphones to find at least 5 teachers on their feet, yelling towards the back of the bus. Turns out several boys were caught teefing the shrimp, and they'd also spilled some on the floor and it was apparently already stinking. I was glad to be towards the front of the bus! The other time I took off my music was to hear what people were saying about why we might've stopped. As we crept forward, we passed by the flashing police light and the people standing in the dark staring at the side of the road and I caught a glimpse of something sticking up at a weird angle from the grass. I was about to really freak out (internally, so as not to scare the children), thinking it was a foot, when I realized it was actually part of a mangled handlebar. Not much better. I stifled a gasp, said a prayer for the biker and his family, and tried to not wonder if he'd survived the accident or not. Just last week I'd stayed a bit too late at the internet cafe in town and ended up riding my bike home in the dark. With no lights on the highway it's terrifyingly pitch black - there was no moonlight to help or anything. The edge of the road can drop off very suddenly, so to avoid falling off it and popping a tire or falling off my bike (which I managed to do anyway, but when I was almost at a standstill), I rode closer to the center of the road. I could hear cars coming and see headlights from far away, so I wasn't worried about one surprising me and hitting me, but still. It's so dangerous being on the road at night, and I hope to not do that again...
We dropped each kid off at their house so no one was walking in the dark, and I finally made it home at 10:30. I dropped everything, changed into pj's, took out my contacts, and collapsed into bed. My teeth were coated w/ sugar and in dire need of a good brushing but I just couldn't make myself care enough. I woke up today and got laundry done (there was a lot - I'd been putting it off), and headed into town, ready for some picture uploading and IM'ing w/ Brandon (if I post something on his facebook page it sends a text to his phone so he knows to get online to chat w/ me). I arrived at the cafe and got all settled, only to remember I had not a dime on me! I loaded back up, rode to the bank, and finally got back here so I can actually pay the guys when I leave today. Good news, I'm uploading the LAST of my pictures as we speak, up through the field trip yesterday! It'll take me a while to get them all arranged and captioned, and I'm sure I'll have taken more by the time I get that done and sent out to you, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel, at least! Wahoo!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
A seed of doubt
Harvest Celebration on Sunday went well, although fewer than half the kids showed up. My special ed kids that did show up did fine, and Shanique did her signing "dance" by herself b/c the other two girls didn't come. I was so proud of her for doing it on her own - she came up to me afterwards asking for a high five. If you want to see videos of Harvest go to youtube.com and find eherrod's videos. There's a lot of videos I've uploaded from my arrival up til today, but they're each only a minute or less long, so it won't take time to see them all.
My week since then has been hard... Each day Teacher Terry has left the classroom for a while and each time, within minutes of her leaving it's complete chaos. They know I won't hit them so they're not scared of me and know if I say to sit back down and do their work and they don't, the only consequence they listen to won't follow the refusal to do as told. So within minutes only the older kids are seated, the rest are running around, often out the classroom, screaming, and one has taken up a new game of hitting me or poking my butt then running squealing with laughter. He's very sly about it so I don't see it coming and he runs off so fast I can't grab him if I try. And there's no way I'm going to play into exactly what he wants and chase him down. During training, Peace Corps drilled into us classroom management and how to deal w/ everything, but they're ALL geared towards traditional children. You simply can't threaten a special education child with copying the rules as punishment. They can't write. I have no clue how to handle this. When it's me and one kid, even one like Max who is our most severe and who has become wholly my charge when he's in class, I can handle myself. I just have no experience being in charge of 12 children who can't stay still or quiet if their very lives depended on it. One day I sent Keron, one of the older boys to find Tr. Terry, and if he couldn't figure out where she'd gone, to get Principal Florence out of her classroom and get her in there NOW. Tr. Terry reappeared very shortly thereafter and took care of that situation immediately, but it's right back to chaos as soon as she leaves again. I'm going to have to talk to her and explain what happens every time she leaves and ask for help, b/c this can't continue. I've been very near tears every day this week, and by the time I get home I'm completely DONE, useless for anything other than hiding in my room and listening to my Ipod. Since today was the 3rd day in a row that my "today will be better!" optimism has been shattered, a seed of doubt has nestled its way into my brain. Do I really think I can handle this? For 2 years?! Will I really learn what I need to do differently and get a handle on the situation? Am I patient enough for this?? Like I said, one on one, no matter how difficult, I can figure out what to do; many on one, I'm not so sure. Have I gotten in over my head here? What if it gets so I don't think I CAN handle it - what then? I'm sure not leaving - what would I do instead??
I'm not at this point yet, and I don't want any of you to freak out reading this, I just want to be honest about how it's going. There are highs and lows, of course, and big victories and huge pitfalls, and I'm praying that this is just a rough patch... It didn't help that homesickness hit me for the first time Tuesday morning. I think it's because I was listening to cds that made me think of certain people the night before. I woke up w/ a sadness it took me several hours to pinpoint as homesickness. Oddly enough, it was picturing myself driving my car through Metairie that made me realize what was going on. I was like, "Woah, I miss that. THAT'S what this is, I'm homesick."
Three months in - here's what I miss (in no particular order): showing up at Matt's work and making him ignore his work to hang out w/ me for 1/2 an hour; showing up at John Scott's and spending hours watching movies or choosing music for a new "John Scott cd" (I have 19 cds from him - my favorite music I own by far); Mr. Gatti's pizza; Jordan's kisses and hearing him say, "Emmy!!!!" when I walk in the door; Brandon, of course, everything about Brandon, and all that having your special someone nearby entails; raiding Mom's fridge only to discover the only things edible in there are ice cream and a jar of mustard; eating dinner with Mama; taking Grant driving and generally hanging out with my "baby" brother (who I can't BELIEVE is in high school now... and w/ a 3.85 GPA!); driving in the middle of the night, going nowhere; being able to call Holly and Summer for an hour long talk whenever I feel like it; my comfy bed - I haven't slept on a non-awful mattress since I got here); the ease of shopping or picking up ready to eat food; going to the movies several times a month; Brandon; Target!; internet access whenever I want, without riding a bike for 4 miles to get to it; lounging on Matt's couch w/ Cali on my stomach; my church - both my Orlando one and my B.R. one - the sermons here are an hour long, and the most monotonous and boring things ever, there's no way I'm going to be able to force myself to go to church while I'm here, reading my Bible nightly will be it for me, I'm afraid; juicy, meaty hamburgers; Brandon, did I mention him yet?; washing machines and dryers; and lastly, the ease of mailing something or receiving mail.
The list of things I DON'T miss to come next time.... like Christmas ad bombardment, I don't miss tv at all....
My week since then has been hard... Each day Teacher Terry has left the classroom for a while and each time, within minutes of her leaving it's complete chaos. They know I won't hit them so they're not scared of me and know if I say to sit back down and do their work and they don't, the only consequence they listen to won't follow the refusal to do as told. So within minutes only the older kids are seated, the rest are running around, often out the classroom, screaming, and one has taken up a new game of hitting me or poking my butt then running squealing with laughter. He's very sly about it so I don't see it coming and he runs off so fast I can't grab him if I try. And there's no way I'm going to play into exactly what he wants and chase him down. During training, Peace Corps drilled into us classroom management and how to deal w/ everything, but they're ALL geared towards traditional children. You simply can't threaten a special education child with copying the rules as punishment. They can't write. I have no clue how to handle this. When it's me and one kid, even one like Max who is our most severe and who has become wholly my charge when he's in class, I can handle myself. I just have no experience being in charge of 12 children who can't stay still or quiet if their very lives depended on it. One day I sent Keron, one of the older boys to find Tr. Terry, and if he couldn't figure out where she'd gone, to get Principal Florence out of her classroom and get her in there NOW. Tr. Terry reappeared very shortly thereafter and took care of that situation immediately, but it's right back to chaos as soon as she leaves again. I'm going to have to talk to her and explain what happens every time she leaves and ask for help, b/c this can't continue. I've been very near tears every day this week, and by the time I get home I'm completely DONE, useless for anything other than hiding in my room and listening to my Ipod. Since today was the 3rd day in a row that my "today will be better!" optimism has been shattered, a seed of doubt has nestled its way into my brain. Do I really think I can handle this? For 2 years?! Will I really learn what I need to do differently and get a handle on the situation? Am I patient enough for this?? Like I said, one on one, no matter how difficult, I can figure out what to do; many on one, I'm not so sure. Have I gotten in over my head here? What if it gets so I don't think I CAN handle it - what then? I'm sure not leaving - what would I do instead??
I'm not at this point yet, and I don't want any of you to freak out reading this, I just want to be honest about how it's going. There are highs and lows, of course, and big victories and huge pitfalls, and I'm praying that this is just a rough patch... It didn't help that homesickness hit me for the first time Tuesday morning. I think it's because I was listening to cds that made me think of certain people the night before. I woke up w/ a sadness it took me several hours to pinpoint as homesickness. Oddly enough, it was picturing myself driving my car through Metairie that made me realize what was going on. I was like, "Woah, I miss that. THAT'S what this is, I'm homesick."
Three months in - here's what I miss (in no particular order): showing up at Matt's work and making him ignore his work to hang out w/ me for 1/2 an hour; showing up at John Scott's and spending hours watching movies or choosing music for a new "John Scott cd" (I have 19 cds from him - my favorite music I own by far); Mr. Gatti's pizza; Jordan's kisses and hearing him say, "Emmy!!!!" when I walk in the door; Brandon, of course, everything about Brandon, and all that having your special someone nearby entails; raiding Mom's fridge only to discover the only things edible in there are ice cream and a jar of mustard; eating dinner with Mama; taking Grant driving and generally hanging out with my "baby" brother (who I can't BELIEVE is in high school now... and w/ a 3.85 GPA!); driving in the middle of the night, going nowhere; being able to call Holly and Summer for an hour long talk whenever I feel like it; my comfy bed - I haven't slept on a non-awful mattress since I got here); the ease of shopping or picking up ready to eat food; going to the movies several times a month; Brandon; Target!; internet access whenever I want, without riding a bike for 4 miles to get to it; lounging on Matt's couch w/ Cali on my stomach; my church - both my Orlando one and my B.R. one - the sermons here are an hour long, and the most monotonous and boring things ever, there's no way I'm going to be able to force myself to go to church while I'm here, reading my Bible nightly will be it for me, I'm afraid; juicy, meaty hamburgers; Brandon, did I mention him yet?; washing machines and dryers; and lastly, the ease of mailing something or receiving mail.
The list of things I DON'T miss to come next time.... like Christmas ad bombardment, I don't miss tv at all....
Saturday, November 14, 2009
School and bike riding adventures!
Hello again! Let's see, what happened this week... Sunday night I was bitten by a botfly in 5 places on my ankles and feet. It itched, but everything itches here so I didn't think anything of it. Monday morning I woke up and both feet were red, swollen, itchy, and painful, I guess just b/c there were so many bites so close together or something, I don't know. I went to school, but sat all morning w/ my feet elevated b/c it hurt to stand or walk, so I didn't go back after lunch. I took 2 Benadryl, slept for 3 hours, and awoke to them no different. The next morning it was more of the same so I didn't go to school. I literally got out of bed 2 times that whole day, at 1:30 and at 6:30, to eat something and use the bathroom. Staying off my feet worked, b/c I was back to normal Wednesday morning.
This weekend is our school's Harvest Celebration, so we spent 2 hours every morning in the chapel, each class going through their presentations, and can I TELL you how utterly impossible it is to keep 12 special education children still and quiet for 2 hours??? Who's grand idea was this??? They were, in no particular order: standing on the pews, sitting up on the backs of the pews, crawling under the pews, climbing over the pews, playing w/ the light switch on the back wall, kicking/pinching/pulling hair/poking and otherwise torturing each other, biting me, spinning in circles in the aisle, yelling randomly, talking loudly, singing random songs at the top of their voice in the middle of presentations, eating oranges they'd hidden in their pockets and throwing the peel on the floor, thwacking a smuggled in ruler against the pew seat, along w/ poking others with it, and numerous other mischievous things to pass the time... And I didn't blame them one bit - even I was going stir crazy! And those benches are hard as rock and ramrod straight, none too comfy... Whew! I was pooped before we even got to lunch! And Friday was skewed b/c over half the teachers happened to be out for various reasons, and there was an induction of new Brownie girls into the local chapter. I chased around and entertained Max, our 7 year old w/ Down's and severe Autistic tendencies while Teacher Terry did the Brownie stuff - the rest of our kids were unsupervised, but I guess they did fine! I didn't hear any screaming, at least, so that's a good sign. :) We had lots of brownies and chocolate cake after the ceremony, which was a special treat for me - there's no brownie mix down here, so no brownies (my FAVORITE sweet) unless I get a homemade recipe from someone and attempt to make it myself... After that we went to the chapel again, but I pleaded to keep Max out, and kept him in the room alone w/ me until his mom came to get him at 11:30. He had a GREAT day, and was in a good mood, and for the first time ever didn't bite me or throw anything at me the whole day - yay! Little victories! I thanked him as he was leaving and said, "I NEEDED a good day from you, thank you, Max!" Then I went to the chapel and was given the Standard II kids to watch over - every teacher that was present was watching at least 2 classes all day Friday. The girls in Standard II (almost equivalent to 3rd grade) especially have taken a liking to me, and there were 3 girls that clung to my side in the pews. They like to pet my hair b/c it's so soft, and they rubbed their little fingers up and down my light skinned arms, it was so cute. It also feels good to have physical contact! Their little hugs light up my day b/c otherwise it's a no touching atmosphere for me here, all Belizeans so careful to not upset me or send the wrong message so there's no touching, not even a casual arm touch or pat on the back. After lunch I was in my special ed classroom w/ Tr. Terry when the prinicipal came and asked if I'd watch Infant I for the afternoon, which thankfully was only until 2:30 for them b/c they're like kindergarteners in the States. I read them a story, squeezed as many enthusiastic comprehension questions out of it as I could think of, then we sang the alphabet song, then I sang the alphabet song backwards, impressing them all - kudos to Elizabeth for teaching me this neat kid-entrancing trick! I wrote A,B,and C on the board, then we thought up things that started w/ those letters and drew pictures of them in their little books. Well, those that have books and pencils did, anyway. It's always sad to see those children who can't afford the little writing pads or a pencil (or just forgot it that day) sitting there while others do their assignment. It happens in all grade levels and in all schools, and although we try to provide books for them or pencils, we run out too! And it comes from teachers' own pockets to give these extras anyway, so we can't just keep giving them away... Anyway, after that, out came the government provided Language Arts workbooks, so everyone had one to work in, and that took us to the end of their day. I must've heard "Miss Emleee! Miss Emlee! Miss Emlee!" over 200 times in that hour and a half. I must've said "Go bak to your seat and QUIETLY raise your hand and I'll come to you" over 100 times. I probably begged Kenton to climb out from under the table at least 2 dozen times. And I'm sure I allowed, one at a time!, each kid to go to the bathroom at least once. It was barely contained chaos, but it somehow worked, and I made it to 2:30 with only 2 of the 30 kids crying. I hope to not be a substitute very often though!
So that was my work week. Other than that it entailed lots of bike riding. I rode my bike the 4 miles into town several times, for different reasons. Once was to go to the post office to pick up a package the slip given to me promised had arrived. When they couldn't find it, they looked it up in the big book and discovered it'd been given to me last week, they just accidentally sent me the slip after the fact, oops. Another time I came to use the computer to let other PCV's know of a trip to Chetumal, Mexico I'm planning to go see "New Moon" (I'M SOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!) , and that visit to town concluded w/ me riding all 4 miles back home in the driving rain, garnering a pleasant wave from a Peace Corps vehicle that happened to pass by. They're just lucky they were heading in the other direction or I would've made them stop and give me a lift, dripping wet and all, somehow shoving my huge wet bike into the backseat. That ride I also wore out my poor legs, b/c contrary to your childhood memories, riding a bike is not done leisurely when it's a form of transportation - it's hard work! Especially when you're pushing it twice as hard as normal to get home and get dry faster. My thighs were shaking by the time I huffed and puffed into my driveway and sloshed into the kitchen where my family could only sympathetically laugh. And today was another funny experience. I'm getting involved with the Belize Special Olympics and today we had a fundraiser in town and I wanted to help man the booth (yummy cakes, powder buns, and chocolate cupcakes!). I didn't want to wear casual shorts, so I donned my long flowy white skirt and a blue polo to look nice. It wasn't until I was about 100 yards down the road that I looked down and noticed my skirt flapping alongside the back bike wheel. I could just picture the thing wrapping up in the spokes, sending me plunging headfirst to the pavement - NOT good. So I pulled over and got a hairband from my purse and stood there gathering up my skirt between my legs to tie it up to prevent this. Ohmygoodness, you should've seen the looks I garnered from a truckbed full of Belizeans flying past!!! I'm sure I looked crazy! Not to mention I already get weird stares for wearing a helmet like some paranoid idiot... So now I've gathered it up and have a huge ball of fluffy white skirt bobbing along between my thighs. Getting back on the bike was quite an ordeal, as I now couldn't separate my legs very far from each other, which was further complicated by the fact that I bought a boy bike w/ the bar in front b/c the only girl bike available was PINK - and you KNOW I ain't riding that thing around! (Mine is a stylish seafoam green, by the way) I managed to get on the bike by making sure NO ONE was within seeing distance and hiking my skirt up to my waist, then pulling it back down once my leg was on the other side. Now to ride it, hmmmm... Actually riding it was easy enough, the problem was that w/ each push of the pedal that leg's white white skin was exposed up to my little hotpants everyone here wears underneath skirts, called tights. I rode most of the way w/ one hand on the handlebars, one hand alternately pulling down the skirt on each leg to almost reach my knees. I still received more whistles and catcalls than usual, although not too many more. Once I reached the park where everyone brings their stuff to sell on Saturday mornings I hopped down and undid my little contraption before swinging my leg over the side, but even that got me lots of weird stares, seeing as how at this point I was in a very crowded area. Oh well, I made it and I didn't have any accidents that could've torn my skirt right off my waist or effectively neutralized the usefullness of my cheapest mode of transportation, so I consider it a success. Going home should be fraught with adventure as well - wish me luck!
(A post script for you - THANK GOODNESS for auto-saving by blogspot.com! The guy next to me, thinking my modem went to his computer, turned my computer off while I was proofreading this mini-novel of mine - I about choked! By the time it had rebooted and I'd relogged in, I'd convinced myself you weren't getting a blog today b/c I was NOT going to retype all that! Lucky for us all, it saved it under my drafts, whew!!)
This weekend is our school's Harvest Celebration, so we spent 2 hours every morning in the chapel, each class going through their presentations, and can I TELL you how utterly impossible it is to keep 12 special education children still and quiet for 2 hours??? Who's grand idea was this??? They were, in no particular order: standing on the pews, sitting up on the backs of the pews, crawling under the pews, climbing over the pews, playing w/ the light switch on the back wall, kicking/pinching/pulling hair/poking and otherwise torturing each other, biting me, spinning in circles in the aisle, yelling randomly, talking loudly, singing random songs at the top of their voice in the middle of presentations, eating oranges they'd hidden in their pockets and throwing the peel on the floor, thwacking a smuggled in ruler against the pew seat, along w/ poking others with it, and numerous other mischievous things to pass the time... And I didn't blame them one bit - even I was going stir crazy! And those benches are hard as rock and ramrod straight, none too comfy... Whew! I was pooped before we even got to lunch! And Friday was skewed b/c over half the teachers happened to be out for various reasons, and there was an induction of new Brownie girls into the local chapter. I chased around and entertained Max, our 7 year old w/ Down's and severe Autistic tendencies while Teacher Terry did the Brownie stuff - the rest of our kids were unsupervised, but I guess they did fine! I didn't hear any screaming, at least, so that's a good sign. :) We had lots of brownies and chocolate cake after the ceremony, which was a special treat for me - there's no brownie mix down here, so no brownies (my FAVORITE sweet) unless I get a homemade recipe from someone and attempt to make it myself... After that we went to the chapel again, but I pleaded to keep Max out, and kept him in the room alone w/ me until his mom came to get him at 11:30. He had a GREAT day, and was in a good mood, and for the first time ever didn't bite me or throw anything at me the whole day - yay! Little victories! I thanked him as he was leaving and said, "I NEEDED a good day from you, thank you, Max!" Then I went to the chapel and was given the Standard II kids to watch over - every teacher that was present was watching at least 2 classes all day Friday. The girls in Standard II (almost equivalent to 3rd grade) especially have taken a liking to me, and there were 3 girls that clung to my side in the pews. They like to pet my hair b/c it's so soft, and they rubbed their little fingers up and down my light skinned arms, it was so cute. It also feels good to have physical contact! Their little hugs light up my day b/c otherwise it's a no touching atmosphere for me here, all Belizeans so careful to not upset me or send the wrong message so there's no touching, not even a casual arm touch or pat on the back. After lunch I was in my special ed classroom w/ Tr. Terry when the prinicipal came and asked if I'd watch Infant I for the afternoon, which thankfully was only until 2:30 for them b/c they're like kindergarteners in the States. I read them a story, squeezed as many enthusiastic comprehension questions out of it as I could think of, then we sang the alphabet song, then I sang the alphabet song backwards, impressing them all - kudos to Elizabeth for teaching me this neat kid-entrancing trick! I wrote A,B,and C on the board, then we thought up things that started w/ those letters and drew pictures of them in their little books. Well, those that have books and pencils did, anyway. It's always sad to see those children who can't afford the little writing pads or a pencil (or just forgot it that day) sitting there while others do their assignment. It happens in all grade levels and in all schools, and although we try to provide books for them or pencils, we run out too! And it comes from teachers' own pockets to give these extras anyway, so we can't just keep giving them away... Anyway, after that, out came the government provided Language Arts workbooks, so everyone had one to work in, and that took us to the end of their day. I must've heard "Miss Emleee! Miss Emlee! Miss Emlee!" over 200 times in that hour and a half. I must've said "Go bak to your seat and QUIETLY raise your hand and I'll come to you" over 100 times. I probably begged Kenton to climb out from under the table at least 2 dozen times. And I'm sure I allowed, one at a time!, each kid to go to the bathroom at least once. It was barely contained chaos, but it somehow worked, and I made it to 2:30 with only 2 of the 30 kids crying. I hope to not be a substitute very often though!
So that was my work week. Other than that it entailed lots of bike riding. I rode my bike the 4 miles into town several times, for different reasons. Once was to go to the post office to pick up a package the slip given to me promised had arrived. When they couldn't find it, they looked it up in the big book and discovered it'd been given to me last week, they just accidentally sent me the slip after the fact, oops. Another time I came to use the computer to let other PCV's know of a trip to Chetumal, Mexico I'm planning to go see "New Moon" (I'M SOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!) , and that visit to town concluded w/ me riding all 4 miles back home in the driving rain, garnering a pleasant wave from a Peace Corps vehicle that happened to pass by. They're just lucky they were heading in the other direction or I would've made them stop and give me a lift, dripping wet and all, somehow shoving my huge wet bike into the backseat. That ride I also wore out my poor legs, b/c contrary to your childhood memories, riding a bike is not done leisurely when it's a form of transportation - it's hard work! Especially when you're pushing it twice as hard as normal to get home and get dry faster. My thighs were shaking by the time I huffed and puffed into my driveway and sloshed into the kitchen where my family could only sympathetically laugh. And today was another funny experience. I'm getting involved with the Belize Special Olympics and today we had a fundraiser in town and I wanted to help man the booth (yummy cakes, powder buns, and chocolate cupcakes!). I didn't want to wear casual shorts, so I donned my long flowy white skirt and a blue polo to look nice. It wasn't until I was about 100 yards down the road that I looked down and noticed my skirt flapping alongside the back bike wheel. I could just picture the thing wrapping up in the spokes, sending me plunging headfirst to the pavement - NOT good. So I pulled over and got a hairband from my purse and stood there gathering up my skirt between my legs to tie it up to prevent this. Ohmygoodness, you should've seen the looks I garnered from a truckbed full of Belizeans flying past!!! I'm sure I looked crazy! Not to mention I already get weird stares for wearing a helmet like some paranoid idiot... So now I've gathered it up and have a huge ball of fluffy white skirt bobbing along between my thighs. Getting back on the bike was quite an ordeal, as I now couldn't separate my legs very far from each other, which was further complicated by the fact that I bought a boy bike w/ the bar in front b/c the only girl bike available was PINK - and you KNOW I ain't riding that thing around! (Mine is a stylish seafoam green, by the way) I managed to get on the bike by making sure NO ONE was within seeing distance and hiking my skirt up to my waist, then pulling it back down once my leg was on the other side. Now to ride it, hmmmm... Actually riding it was easy enough, the problem was that w/ each push of the pedal that leg's white white skin was exposed up to my little hotpants everyone here wears underneath skirts, called tights. I rode most of the way w/ one hand on the handlebars, one hand alternately pulling down the skirt on each leg to almost reach my knees. I still received more whistles and catcalls than usual, although not too many more. Once I reached the park where everyone brings their stuff to sell on Saturday mornings I hopped down and undid my little contraption before swinging my leg over the side, but even that got me lots of weird stares, seeing as how at this point I was in a very crowded area. Oh well, I made it and I didn't have any accidents that could've torn my skirt right off my waist or effectively neutralized the usefullness of my cheapest mode of transportation, so I consider it a success. Going home should be fraught with adventure as well - wish me luck!
(A post script for you - THANK GOODNESS for auto-saving by blogspot.com! The guy next to me, thinking my modem went to his computer, turned my computer off while I was proofreading this mini-novel of mine - I about choked! By the time it had rebooted and I'd relogged in, I'd convinced myself you weren't getting a blog today b/c I was NOT going to retype all that! Lucky for us all, it saved it under my drafts, whew!!)
Monday, November 9, 2009
All I want for Christmas
I've already received messages from several of you wanting to know what I want you to send me for Christmas, so I feel it's necessary to address this now, rather than wait til December as I had planned...
ALL I want for Christmas is donations made to Canine Companions for Independence's Southeast Region in loving memory of Tinette "Netty" Herrod.
I want for nothing, and need nothing, despite my mentions of desiring to please my sweet tooth. Belize may be a developing country, but they've (and now I've) learned to do without or to make do with a similar version... It's expensive to mail things here, and while I wholeheartedly appreciate everything everyone sends me, I truly don't want anyone to send me anything for Christmas. I honestly believe the money you'll save on buying, packaging, and mailing me anything would be 100 times better spent helping out those individuals with physical and developmental disabilities which CCI caters to. And in Netty's honorable memory... Nothing would make me happier.
Following is their mailing address. Every little bit helps so if it's not a big donation, even $5 is better than nothing. Thank you all in advance and I wish everyone a very merry holiday season!
Canine Companions for Independence
Southeast Region
8150 Clarcona Ocoee Road
Orlando, FL 32818
ALL I want for Christmas is donations made to Canine Companions for Independence's Southeast Region in loving memory of Tinette "Netty" Herrod.
I want for nothing, and need nothing, despite my mentions of desiring to please my sweet tooth. Belize may be a developing country, but they've (and now I've) learned to do without or to make do with a similar version... It's expensive to mail things here, and while I wholeheartedly appreciate everything everyone sends me, I truly don't want anyone to send me anything for Christmas. I honestly believe the money you'll save on buying, packaging, and mailing me anything would be 100 times better spent helping out those individuals with physical and developmental disabilities which CCI caters to. And in Netty's honorable memory... Nothing would make me happier.
Following is their mailing address. Every little bit helps so if it's not a big donation, even $5 is better than nothing. Thank you all in advance and I wish everyone a very merry holiday season!
Canine Companions for Independence
Southeast Region
8150 Clarcona Ocoee Road
Orlando, FL 32818
Sunday, November 8, 2009
A heart divided
I'm torn between missing Louis and loving riding "pahn di bos"! My car, named for 2 important-to-me guys with that middle name (well, basically), is sorely missed, as I'm not allowed to drive ANY motor vehicle for the duration of my time in Belize. As many of you know, I LOVE to drive, anywhere, and for any length of time. I'd willingly run errands just to get to drive, and often would drive deep into LA and MS backwoods in the middle of the night just to mellow out and zone out, and to enjoy belting out my favorite songs at the top of my lungs or, conversely, have a quiet, heartfelt conversation with God, or sometimes, my grandfather. It was often a kind of therapy for me... But, I've recently learned to also thoroughly enjoy being a passenger. Especially since I now have Belizean beauty rushing past my window every moment of the journey. The bus rides are so relaxing and contemplative, it's hard to have a care in the world when the lush green mountains and beautiful rushing rivers are flowing by just outside of the vehicle... Let me quantify this, however. The early morning, late afternoon, breezy and cool, and non-crowded bus rides are the ones I'm speaking of. The middle of the sweaty, sweaty, HOT day bus rides, when you're standing in the aisles, crowded in on all sides by other sweaty, often smelly people, bus rides are not quite so magical. But the good ones make up for it. :) Then there's the long distance bus rides, an entirely different animal... The Express bus is a glorious thing. It's like a charter bus in the U.S. Roomy, comfortable seats, air conditioned to the point of needing to carry a warm blanket with me every ride, and it doesn't stop except at the designated 4 terminals between Punta Gorda and Belize, therefore getting you to your destination in a mere 5 hours. These leave at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., depending on where you're starting from... The alternative is taking the regular bus, which leaves almost every hour, on the hour. These are the buses you'd take to go short distances, say, up to 3-4 hours. They stop every what seems like 100 yards to alternately pick up or drop off people as they please. These are nice when you want to catch a bus or be dropped off directly in front of your house or the store you went to town to visit. They are not, however, desirable when you're traveling a long way. Like, PG to Belize, for instance. The seats are uncomfortable and smooshed, the ride is much bumpier, the bus more packed and therefore smellier when it's midday and the sun is beating down, and it takes what feels like FOREVER to get where you're going...
Which brings me to my trip to Belize for my doctor appointment on Thursday. I got the early express, and froze my happy butt off til I arrived in Belize at 11, then spent the next hour and a half walking around running errands. I asked where the nearest Atlantic Bank was and discovered it was on the dreaded South Side... The gang wars and general violence claim several lives a day down there and volunteers are forbidden to live down there and encouraged to not visit it if possible. So trudge along I do, with my surely-a-tourist look of my overnight bag and "express-bus blanket" slung over my shoulder. I was greeted by 3 cops at three different points of entry to the bank and had to state my reason for being there to each one before the corresponding locked door would buzz me in. Very reassuring. I spent several minutes explaining to the teller that PC had automatically set all PCV's up with an Atlantic account and I now live in PG where it's not available, and that I needed to transfer the money to my Scotia Bank account. I finally figured out the only way I could do this without a large fee was to do a regular withdrawal and personally walk my money to Scotia, 8 blocks away. PCV's are, by nature of the beast, broke, and unnaturally cheap so I opted for this. I then clutched every penny PC gave me for moving in to my soon to be new place and first month's rent tightly to my side as I trudged to the Scotia in the center (safer) part of town. I arrived, no one having glanced at me more than twice. Eyes forward and walk purposefully and most people leave you alone... One chore down, 2 to go.
I called Bryan at the PC HQ to inquire about the Hurricane Ida threat I'd received a text about while on the bus. If a hurricane or any severe weather or civil unrest or ANYTHING that could potentially harm PCV's occurs, they consolidate us all to Belmopan so if evacuation is necessary we'd all travel together. I, at this point, was seriously hoping the hurricane would not cause us all to converge on the Garden City Hotel the following day, b/c I, anticipating arriving home fresh off the 5 a.m. express the next morning, had not even brought a change of clothes! I figured I'd just be on a bus the next day and could shower and change once home. If consolidated for several days in Belmopan I wouldn't even have any extra clothes to change into... That could get smelly pretty fast. I spoke with Bryan several times throughout the day and eventually was told the 5 a.m. express bus to PG was out, to head to BMP instead, and plan on spending at least one night, whether everyone was consolidated or not. Bummer. In the meantime, get shopping done that can't be done anywhere else....
So off I went in search of knitting yarn. You know, the soft kind you might actually want to snuggle up in once made into a blanket. It doesn't exist here. There's just not enough demand for any sort of fabric that's of a high quality. I finally found, after trekking all over the city in the heat AND the rain, backtracking my course several times, some yellow and purple yarn that would suffice, but it's not ideal. My homemade goodies fashioned from a weaving board "teefed" from the school (with permission!) will be sub par, but still something to be proud of, seeing as my own two hands will make them! :)
I then finally submitted to hailing a taxi, which turned out to be a fabulous idea b/c the doctor's office was way far away and by then it wasn't just drizzling, it was pouring. Plus my cabbie was the kindest one so far. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with the former architect whose son is in NY doing architecture as well, and tipped him when I left. (Tipping, for anything, is not customary here) My appointment was just like comparable ones in the U.S. except for the fact that there was no female nurse or assistant in the exam room during my female exam, a huge liability for harassment lawsuits in the States. But the doc was professional and very nice and all went well. After hand walking my own paperwork and lab sample to the lab in the next building over (weird), I was free to go. But where...
After hiking for a while in the pouring rain I ended up spending several hours at a local PCV's apartment catching up and enjoying her company. She's an older volunteer who I hadn't had much opportunity to hang out with and I'm glad I did. After Christine (who was in Georgeville with me for community based training, remember?) got home from her school, she and I met for dinner. PIZZA! I was thrilled!!! After a good chat with her about how everything's going I walked her home (it was dark by then, and even on the North Side, Belize isn't the best place after dark) and attempted to call a taxi to pick me up and bring me to the hotel. He wasn't available so Christine's host sister drove me, which was nice. And while waiting for her sister to get home so she could bring me, Cara-Lyn and Jordan called! It was the best surprise call I'd gotten since I got here! I miss them so much.... It was great to hear him and he sounded older and more mature already - it's only been 3 months! What'll it be like when I go home and he's 6 years old???? Anyway, at the hotel I thoroughly enjoyed having cable tv and a comfy bed to snuggle in. I watched 3 Grey's Anatomy episodes on various channels and got to watch some old Scrubs episodes as well. I was in heaven. A hot shower the next morning and I headed to the bus terminal to go to Belmopan on the 10 a.m. bus. Then I got a text from Bryan that the threat was passed and there was no need for me to go there. So, now I've missed the express, and am stuck with the regular bus. Oh well, it had to be done. Now that I know I have a day's worth of bus riding in front of me, what to do for food??? I walked to the daily market just outside of the terminal and bought 6 bananas for 75 cents, and ate one at every terminal, thus having an easy and healthy breakfast and lunch. So, over 7 hours later I arrived at home, safe and sound, albeit with a numb butt and feeling gross and sweaty.
I was home for an hour before Melanie and the girls and I headed into town for a fair/pageant held by the local college. Lots of dance/singing/and cultural flavor from the 6 main cultural backgrounds in Belize were shown and it was pretty cool. But the girls mostly loved the rides. They rode the kiddie round and round one, then Kaliah begged and begged and threw a fit until I agreed to take her on the huge ferris wheel. She's a chicken at heart, and I KNEW she would be terrified as soon as it started to move and of course I was right. Poor dear, she was shaking, sobbing, clutching my arm so hard I thought I'd lose circulation in my hand, and begging me to make it stop. I hid her face in my chest and rubbed her head and sang every song I could think of and prattled on about random things to distract her til it was over. When I started singing the states song she mentioned I'd already sang her that one. She enjoyed the alphabet song backwards though. :) Anyway, we survived, and once it stopped she pulled up her head and said, "Oh! It's over?" We made it home and crashed around 11.
I came into town yesterday to do some internet stuff but discovered 1/2 an hour in that LSU vs. ALA was televised after all! And it started in 20 minutes... No bus would leave for the next 50 minutes, so I started walking, too amped up to simply sit and wait for it to arrive. I'd been walking for less than 10 minutes when a drunk man on a bike came weaving up next to me. He seemed harmless, actually kinda funny as he assured me he liked his drink but that he "neva hurt nobody" and if he made me uncomfortable he'd leave. So I let him accompany me for the next mile and a half, til he spotted a friend driving by and flagged him down, saying they were headed my way and wouldn't mind giving me a ride. I took a calculated risk and took my first hitched ride (one of many, I hear, as it's a very common form of transportation by Toledo volunteers), and saved time, a buck, and made it home halfway through the first quarter! We won't discuss the rest of the game, but suffice it to say I'd rather see it than not get any LSU in my blood. I sure miss the fanfare of it all...
Anyway, that's my week since my Wednesday update. Oh, one more piece of good news - the girl who I was going to live with decided to keep renting her current place, so I'll have my 2 bedroom apt., furnished, and only $200/mo all to myself from the get-go. This is more perfect than I could've hoped for! And now, I'll leave you with a humorous mental image. Wednesday, after leaving here with 2 other PCV girls to get lunch, I was walking along in the pouring rain, attempting to balance my four big packages (one of which was chock full of books), my purse, and trying unsuccessfully to hold an umbrella over my head and bags. Do you have this picture in your head? Okay, so we're trudging along when we decided to cross the street. No, I didn't drop everything, although I very nearly did, more than once. Instead my wooden-bottomed "slippas" (flip flops) were very slick b/c of the rain and I slipped right out of my shoes, mid stride, while crossing the street. There were 8-10 little girls huddled together under an overhang that found this completely hilarious and laughed and laughed. I turned back to retrieve my shoes as a car came and after another 2 feet they slipped off again! By now the car is patiently waiting for me and the girls can hardly breathe they're laughing so hard. I shrugged and laughed with them and explained "they're very slippery!!" This just made them laugh even harder. I'm glad I'm so amusing to the youth of Belize... :-)
Which brings me to my trip to Belize for my doctor appointment on Thursday. I got the early express, and froze my happy butt off til I arrived in Belize at 11, then spent the next hour and a half walking around running errands. I asked where the nearest Atlantic Bank was and discovered it was on the dreaded South Side... The gang wars and general violence claim several lives a day down there and volunteers are forbidden to live down there and encouraged to not visit it if possible. So trudge along I do, with my surely-a-tourist look of my overnight bag and "express-bus blanket" slung over my shoulder. I was greeted by 3 cops at three different points of entry to the bank and had to state my reason for being there to each one before the corresponding locked door would buzz me in. Very reassuring. I spent several minutes explaining to the teller that PC had automatically set all PCV's up with an Atlantic account and I now live in PG where it's not available, and that I needed to transfer the money to my Scotia Bank account. I finally figured out the only way I could do this without a large fee was to do a regular withdrawal and personally walk my money to Scotia, 8 blocks away. PCV's are, by nature of the beast, broke, and unnaturally cheap so I opted for this. I then clutched every penny PC gave me for moving in to my soon to be new place and first month's rent tightly to my side as I trudged to the Scotia in the center (safer) part of town. I arrived, no one having glanced at me more than twice. Eyes forward and walk purposefully and most people leave you alone... One chore down, 2 to go.
I called Bryan at the PC HQ to inquire about the Hurricane Ida threat I'd received a text about while on the bus. If a hurricane or any severe weather or civil unrest or ANYTHING that could potentially harm PCV's occurs, they consolidate us all to Belmopan so if evacuation is necessary we'd all travel together. I, at this point, was seriously hoping the hurricane would not cause us all to converge on the Garden City Hotel the following day, b/c I, anticipating arriving home fresh off the 5 a.m. express the next morning, had not even brought a change of clothes! I figured I'd just be on a bus the next day and could shower and change once home. If consolidated for several days in Belmopan I wouldn't even have any extra clothes to change into... That could get smelly pretty fast. I spoke with Bryan several times throughout the day and eventually was told the 5 a.m. express bus to PG was out, to head to BMP instead, and plan on spending at least one night, whether everyone was consolidated or not. Bummer. In the meantime, get shopping done that can't be done anywhere else....
So off I went in search of knitting yarn. You know, the soft kind you might actually want to snuggle up in once made into a blanket. It doesn't exist here. There's just not enough demand for any sort of fabric that's of a high quality. I finally found, after trekking all over the city in the heat AND the rain, backtracking my course several times, some yellow and purple yarn that would suffice, but it's not ideal. My homemade goodies fashioned from a weaving board "teefed" from the school (with permission!) will be sub par, but still something to be proud of, seeing as my own two hands will make them! :)
I then finally submitted to hailing a taxi, which turned out to be a fabulous idea b/c the doctor's office was way far away and by then it wasn't just drizzling, it was pouring. Plus my cabbie was the kindest one so far. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with the former architect whose son is in NY doing architecture as well, and tipped him when I left. (Tipping, for anything, is not customary here) My appointment was just like comparable ones in the U.S. except for the fact that there was no female nurse or assistant in the exam room during my female exam, a huge liability for harassment lawsuits in the States. But the doc was professional and very nice and all went well. After hand walking my own paperwork and lab sample to the lab in the next building over (weird), I was free to go. But where...
After hiking for a while in the pouring rain I ended up spending several hours at a local PCV's apartment catching up and enjoying her company. She's an older volunteer who I hadn't had much opportunity to hang out with and I'm glad I did. After Christine (who was in Georgeville with me for community based training, remember?) got home from her school, she and I met for dinner. PIZZA! I was thrilled!!! After a good chat with her about how everything's going I walked her home (it was dark by then, and even on the North Side, Belize isn't the best place after dark) and attempted to call a taxi to pick me up and bring me to the hotel. He wasn't available so Christine's host sister drove me, which was nice. And while waiting for her sister to get home so she could bring me, Cara-Lyn and Jordan called! It was the best surprise call I'd gotten since I got here! I miss them so much.... It was great to hear him and he sounded older and more mature already - it's only been 3 months! What'll it be like when I go home and he's 6 years old???? Anyway, at the hotel I thoroughly enjoyed having cable tv and a comfy bed to snuggle in. I watched 3 Grey's Anatomy episodes on various channels and got to watch some old Scrubs episodes as well. I was in heaven. A hot shower the next morning and I headed to the bus terminal to go to Belmopan on the 10 a.m. bus. Then I got a text from Bryan that the threat was passed and there was no need for me to go there. So, now I've missed the express, and am stuck with the regular bus. Oh well, it had to be done. Now that I know I have a day's worth of bus riding in front of me, what to do for food??? I walked to the daily market just outside of the terminal and bought 6 bananas for 75 cents, and ate one at every terminal, thus having an easy and healthy breakfast and lunch. So, over 7 hours later I arrived at home, safe and sound, albeit with a numb butt and feeling gross and sweaty.
I was home for an hour before Melanie and the girls and I headed into town for a fair/pageant held by the local college. Lots of dance/singing/and cultural flavor from the 6 main cultural backgrounds in Belize were shown and it was pretty cool. But the girls mostly loved the rides. They rode the kiddie round and round one, then Kaliah begged and begged and threw a fit until I agreed to take her on the huge ferris wheel. She's a chicken at heart, and I KNEW she would be terrified as soon as it started to move and of course I was right. Poor dear, she was shaking, sobbing, clutching my arm so hard I thought I'd lose circulation in my hand, and begging me to make it stop. I hid her face in my chest and rubbed her head and sang every song I could think of and prattled on about random things to distract her til it was over. When I started singing the states song she mentioned I'd already sang her that one. She enjoyed the alphabet song backwards though. :) Anyway, we survived, and once it stopped she pulled up her head and said, "Oh! It's over?" We made it home and crashed around 11.
I came into town yesterday to do some internet stuff but discovered 1/2 an hour in that LSU vs. ALA was televised after all! And it started in 20 minutes... No bus would leave for the next 50 minutes, so I started walking, too amped up to simply sit and wait for it to arrive. I'd been walking for less than 10 minutes when a drunk man on a bike came weaving up next to me. He seemed harmless, actually kinda funny as he assured me he liked his drink but that he "neva hurt nobody" and if he made me uncomfortable he'd leave. So I let him accompany me for the next mile and a half, til he spotted a friend driving by and flagged him down, saying they were headed my way and wouldn't mind giving me a ride. I took a calculated risk and took my first hitched ride (one of many, I hear, as it's a very common form of transportation by Toledo volunteers), and saved time, a buck, and made it home halfway through the first quarter! We won't discuss the rest of the game, but suffice it to say I'd rather see it than not get any LSU in my blood. I sure miss the fanfare of it all...
Anyway, that's my week since my Wednesday update. Oh, one more piece of good news - the girl who I was going to live with decided to keep renting her current place, so I'll have my 2 bedroom apt., furnished, and only $200/mo all to myself from the get-go. This is more perfect than I could've hoped for! And now, I'll leave you with a humorous mental image. Wednesday, after leaving here with 2 other PCV girls to get lunch, I was walking along in the pouring rain, attempting to balance my four big packages (one of which was chock full of books), my purse, and trying unsuccessfully to hold an umbrella over my head and bags. Do you have this picture in your head? Okay, so we're trudging along when we decided to cross the street. No, I didn't drop everything, although I very nearly did, more than once. Instead my wooden-bottomed "slippas" (flip flops) were very slick b/c of the rain and I slipped right out of my shoes, mid stride, while crossing the street. There were 8-10 little girls huddled together under an overhang that found this completely hilarious and laughed and laughed. I turned back to retrieve my shoes as a car came and after another 2 feet they slipped off again! By now the car is patiently waiting for me and the girls can hardly breathe they're laughing so hard. I shrugged and laughed with them and explained "they're very slippery!!" This just made them laugh even harder. I'm glad I'm so amusing to the youth of Belize... :-)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
If you ask for it, they will mail it
Hello everyone! I find myself, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, with internet access so thought I'd drop you a line. All the Toledo district PCV's came to PG this morning for a meeting with the chief of police for the district so we could meet him and learn about some stuff and know who to contact if anything happens. He seems like a superbly on top of things and straightlaced man, and I think he's a fabulous contact for us to have. Not that I'm expecting anything to happen. Toledo has the lowest crime rates of all of Belize. Really, everywhere is pretty safe except Belize City, so it's really nice down here. While in town I took advantage of being here when things are actually open to go to the bank and the post office - I had FOUR packages waiting for me. And they all had candy!! :) You guys have gone above and beyond with the candy requests. Every package I've received since I first posted wanting some has included goodies in it, and it's been great. The pikni and other PCV's have loved it almost as much as I have! So a big thanks to Mary Ann, Aunt Sally, Mama, and Mom for this week's goodies, it's much appreciated!! I've decided the month of November will be Hot Tamale month! If a package is being prepared to come my way already, throw a box or two of hot tamales in and I'll be set! :) And again, if you're planning something, even a letter, let me know and I'll give you my address down here. If it goes to PC HQ it'll still reach me though, don't worry, just will take a bit longer.
But my big news for today is that I found a place to live! YAY! I've been searching and stressing for a month now, and as always, God took care of it in His own way and time. He likes to swoop in with the solution when I'm wigging out. I really should've learned by now to not stress as much, and just wait patiently, but this lesson has eluded me... Anyway, over the weekend a man responsible for the pink house 2 over from my host family's house came and walked me through it and discussed fixing it up for me. It's 85 years old and needs a new floor, roof, kitchen, and has no toilet... It was kind of a dump, on top of that, theoretically due to the current resident not being too tidy, but you never know. So I was like, okay, fix it up according to PC standards (sturdy, no leaks, no open holes for bugs to climb in, screens, burglar bars, sturdy locks inside and out, well-lit, the works!) and you've got a definite resident with an assured rent coming in every month for 2 years. He says okay, he'll start finding people to do that. 2 days later he shows up saying he doesn't have the money to do the repairs and since PC won't give him the money to do it, it ain't gon hapn.... Back to the drawing board, and possibly living in another village... Then, miraculously, we become aware of a place a family member down the street is almost done building. I went to see the place and meet the lady and it's all but set in stone, since there's no legal paperwork involved in renting here, her saying it's mine is good enough for me! So here's the breakdown. The woman lives downstairs in this sturdy concrete house, and is almost finished building the upstairs to rent out. The stairs are outside, the place has a kitchen and bathroom, everything, so it's completely separate except for being situated on top of the lower house. It's a 2 bedroom apartment, all concrete, very safe and secure, in a safe area, and being upstairs the drunks are less likely to come bothering. The owner, Mrs. Judy has a neice that she's told could live there til she moves to the States in June, so I'll have a roommate for the first 7 months, but after that she won't rent out the other room, so I'll have a 2 bedroom place all to myself. And the best part is she's going to fully furnish the place, AND only charge me $200 a month! And the rent won't increase when the other girl leaves, either. This place is heaven! All I'll have to spend my move-in allowance on is a chest of drawers, and plates, and pots and pans and stuff. Mrs. Judy is going to give me a microwave, tv (and even run cable upstairs for free - holy cow!), bed, table and chairs, refrigerator, everything! And with such a low rent I'll be able to save enough money to travel around a bit. A lot of volunteers are planning trips to Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and other close places, so I hope to tag along! So that's my super exciting, weight off my shoulders news.
My funny anecdotes for the day: a village "post office" is merely a home where someone who picks up the mail for the village lives. You can go there and ask if they've gotten any for you. They don't sell anything, no envelopes, stamps, nothing, and will not bring letters to be mailed for you. You have to go into town (a long journey for some people!) just to mail a letter... I've been asked numerous times by Belizeans if I "consume alcohol". It's a regular question right up there with what's your name and where are you from. Just last week a woman I was standing near waiting for the bus struck up a conversation with me and this was one of the first questions out of her mouth. I asked her why and she shrugged, like why are you asking why I'm asking this, it's an obvious question??? Alcohol is such a big thing here and public drunkenness is quite common; along with drunken friends stumbling to your house for a visit - this happens a couple times a week and I usually go to my room til they leave b/c they can be very obnoxious and persistent in asking you to drink with them!... As I'm sure many of you know, bike riding is a very common form of transportation here. And I've learned that almost anything can be transported on one, including water jugs and multiple tiny children perched in various places. What still seems so funny to me, though, is seeing 4 year olds on adult bikes barely able to reach the pedals, and then grown men riding a pink child's bike. This is common, but still makes me chuckle. Use whatever's available, I guess! It also amuses me to see men and women all dressed up in fancy church clothes and such riding along. This will be me soon, when my commute to school will be a bit farther than I'm willing to walk when it's super hot outside. My school uniform is quite fancy looking and I'll be riding my bike (yes, WITH helmet, Cara-Lyn!) to school and back... The word for taking s/thg is teef. "She teef da fu mi pencil!" It's kinda funny sounding... Children you don't know (as well as ones you do know) will be walking along, see you have a half eaten anything in your hand and ask if they can have the rest. You have to say, no this is my apple, or I'm eating this cupcake, otherwise word quickly spreads you hand out free food and you're bombarded by hungry pikni. They also ask you for money a lot. It's hard, but you have to say no....
That's it for today. I'll be travelling the 6 hour bus ride up to Belize for a doctor's appointment tomorrow early in the a.m. and my appt. is at 1, so I won't be able to catch a bus back down. I'll stay the night in Belize, hopefully meet up with some PCV's up there for dinner or something, then head back down Friday. I have another PC meeting here in town Saturday, so if I have comp time I'll drop you a note then too! Hope you're all having a great week!
But my big news for today is that I found a place to live! YAY! I've been searching and stressing for a month now, and as always, God took care of it in His own way and time. He likes to swoop in with the solution when I'm wigging out. I really should've learned by now to not stress as much, and just wait patiently, but this lesson has eluded me... Anyway, over the weekend a man responsible for the pink house 2 over from my host family's house came and walked me through it and discussed fixing it up for me. It's 85 years old and needs a new floor, roof, kitchen, and has no toilet... It was kind of a dump, on top of that, theoretically due to the current resident not being too tidy, but you never know. So I was like, okay, fix it up according to PC standards (sturdy, no leaks, no open holes for bugs to climb in, screens, burglar bars, sturdy locks inside and out, well-lit, the works!) and you've got a definite resident with an assured rent coming in every month for 2 years. He says okay, he'll start finding people to do that. 2 days later he shows up saying he doesn't have the money to do the repairs and since PC won't give him the money to do it, it ain't gon hapn.... Back to the drawing board, and possibly living in another village... Then, miraculously, we become aware of a place a family member down the street is almost done building. I went to see the place and meet the lady and it's all but set in stone, since there's no legal paperwork involved in renting here, her saying it's mine is good enough for me! So here's the breakdown. The woman lives downstairs in this sturdy concrete house, and is almost finished building the upstairs to rent out. The stairs are outside, the place has a kitchen and bathroom, everything, so it's completely separate except for being situated on top of the lower house. It's a 2 bedroom apartment, all concrete, very safe and secure, in a safe area, and being upstairs the drunks are less likely to come bothering. The owner, Mrs. Judy has a neice that she's told could live there til she moves to the States in June, so I'll have a roommate for the first 7 months, but after that she won't rent out the other room, so I'll have a 2 bedroom place all to myself. And the best part is she's going to fully furnish the place, AND only charge me $200 a month! And the rent won't increase when the other girl leaves, either. This place is heaven! All I'll have to spend my move-in allowance on is a chest of drawers, and plates, and pots and pans and stuff. Mrs. Judy is going to give me a microwave, tv (and even run cable upstairs for free - holy cow!), bed, table and chairs, refrigerator, everything! And with such a low rent I'll be able to save enough money to travel around a bit. A lot of volunteers are planning trips to Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and other close places, so I hope to tag along! So that's my super exciting, weight off my shoulders news.
My funny anecdotes for the day: a village "post office" is merely a home where someone who picks up the mail for the village lives. You can go there and ask if they've gotten any for you. They don't sell anything, no envelopes, stamps, nothing, and will not bring letters to be mailed for you. You have to go into town (a long journey for some people!) just to mail a letter... I've been asked numerous times by Belizeans if I "consume alcohol". It's a regular question right up there with what's your name and where are you from. Just last week a woman I was standing near waiting for the bus struck up a conversation with me and this was one of the first questions out of her mouth. I asked her why and she shrugged, like why are you asking why I'm asking this, it's an obvious question??? Alcohol is such a big thing here and public drunkenness is quite common; along with drunken friends stumbling to your house for a visit - this happens a couple times a week and I usually go to my room til they leave b/c they can be very obnoxious and persistent in asking you to drink with them!... As I'm sure many of you know, bike riding is a very common form of transportation here. And I've learned that almost anything can be transported on one, including water jugs and multiple tiny children perched in various places. What still seems so funny to me, though, is seeing 4 year olds on adult bikes barely able to reach the pedals, and then grown men riding a pink child's bike. This is common, but still makes me chuckle. Use whatever's available, I guess! It also amuses me to see men and women all dressed up in fancy church clothes and such riding along. This will be me soon, when my commute to school will be a bit farther than I'm willing to walk when it's super hot outside. My school uniform is quite fancy looking and I'll be riding my bike (yes, WITH helmet, Cara-Lyn!) to school and back... The word for taking s/thg is teef. "She teef da fu mi pencil!" It's kinda funny sounding... Children you don't know (as well as ones you do know) will be walking along, see you have a half eaten anything in your hand and ask if they can have the rest. You have to say, no this is my apple, or I'm eating this cupcake, otherwise word quickly spreads you hand out free food and you're bombarded by hungry pikni. They also ask you for money a lot. It's hard, but you have to say no....
That's it for today. I'll be travelling the 6 hour bus ride up to Belize for a doctor's appointment tomorrow early in the a.m. and my appt. is at 1, so I won't be able to catch a bus back down. I'll stay the night in Belize, hopefully meet up with some PCV's up there for dinner or something, then head back down Friday. I have another PC meeting here in town Saturday, so if I have comp time I'll drop you a note then too! Hope you're all having a great week!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Have you hugged your washing machine today?
I hate doing laundry now! Many of you know the household chores I've never minded doing are cleaning the kitchen and dishes, doing laundry, and vacuuming. Well, there's no carpet here, so no vacuuming. The kitchen and dishes I've not done b/c my host families won't let me touch it (it's been quite nice having meals ready to eat on the table for me and nothing to clean afterwards!). But the laundry process makes up for it. And I don't even have the beat-it-against-a-rock-in-the-nearest-river type laundry that many volunteers have... I'm lucky enough to live with a family that has a washer-type machine.
You drag the contraption outside and set it up on cinder blocks or some wood, plug it up somewhere, fill it up with water from the hose, and put your clothes, detergent, and fabric softener in (and if you forget or don't have the fabric softener, like I did at first, your clothes feel like dried straw!), then let the agitator tie all your socks, sleeves, bras, and underwear into tight knots. Once that's done you attempt to untangle them without ripping your clothes to shreds, take them out, and dunk and rub them one at a time in a bucket of clean water, then repeat this in a second bucket, then put them into the spinner part, wringing each piece of clothes out between each step. After the spinner gets the rest of the water out you hang them up on the line to dry. All of this is done in direct sunlight, the bending over makes your back hurt, and it takes about 45 minutes per load. And it's small, so it takes 2-3 loads to get your clothes done. It's tiring and annoying if you're spoiled and used to the ease of regular washers and dryers. But like I say, I've got it easy compared to the others, so I shouldn't even complain!
Other funny oddities/sights: no one tucks sheets into the beds here, I've noticed. Not sure of the reason for this but I make my bed before getting in it or the sheets are everywhere in no time... Men urinate everywhere here, whenever they feel like it. Out the back of a bus when it's in motion, against a building in town, or even just while walking down the street - okay, so the last one was my neighbor's little boy, but it was quite impressive to see him going WHILE walking. How did he not walk into the stream and get it all over himself? Oh, little Eduardo... Let's see, what else - oh, the baby fell into the rainwater barrel this morning. Ms. Anna fished her out about 1.6 seconds after she was in, but it was still scary. She came out blubbering and blinking, but didn't even cry. I think she was too shocked. Things like allowing the 1.5 year old to stand on a bucket peering into the water barrel and seeing the 5 year olds chopping the yard with machetes still makes me look twice... Used a public restroom the other day and found myself faced with a toilet with no seat and looking at a sign on the wall telling parents to not allow their children to stool on the floor... It's cool to see all the games kids come up with to play at recess when the only source of entertainment is a soccer ball. You get creative when there's no playground equipment around!... I've learned there are few pleasures in life like mastering the art of bucket bathing to the point of actually having enough warm water left over to dump over your head at the end - it's the most luxurious part of my day!... I've scoured the library at school (which at the moment is pretty unusable, but hopefully it will revert from storage into a working library at some point) and have found so many fun reads that take me straight back to my preteen years! The Indian and the Cupboard, The Boxcar Children, The Babysitter's Club, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys... It's awesome! I'm reading like a book a day... And b/c my class does more than math and science since the goal is to have them able to contribute to society by the time they finish school, I'm learning to knit, weave, crochet, and other cool things.
The biggest issue I'm facing right now is trying to find housing. I'm good to move into my own place in 3 weeks, but there's nothing in my village. There's a house 2 down from my host family's that has 2 men living in it for free, that I'm trying to find out if I can rent, but it's not looking good. There's nothing available in the next village over either, so I'm looking to live closer to PG and ride the bus to school every day. We'll see how that works out. It'll be more expensive but what else can I do? I'm jealous of the volunteers who're getting the same or more money than I am based on where they live that're renting places for $150 a month or have free housing. I'll likely be paying $400 a month where I'll end up. Oh well, as long as I have enough to get by, I'm fine with it. I've heard of volunteers who've wound up saving 1-2 thousand USD over their time here by finding cheap places to rent, which is awesome. I'll have to see if what I can get will allow me to save some extra money for travelling or for when I go home, but I'm not thinking that will be the case.
School is going fine, frustrating and stressful at times, as working with children with disabilities can be. They're great kids though, and I love them all. I doubt I'll teach them 1/100th of what they'll teach me! I'm getting involved in other activities as well - I've taken over 1/2 the reading club. They're getting a chess club going and I'm helping them with that, and I've gone to one Special Olympics meeting and plan to help with some fundraisers and events they have coming up. Also, other volunteers who're nearby are recruiting help for stuff they're doing, like I'll be going up to Big Falls to help a volunteer up there go through and organize 5000 books they received to start up a school library, things like that. Plus we have meetings and doctors appointments PC has us going all over Belize for, so I'm here and there as well. Staying busy, and when I'm not doing any of that or at school, I'm watching Hannah Montana with Kaliah, playing with the baby (Kadija), playing cards with the 2 boys who live behind us but are at our house 24/7, or attempting to get my 15 year old host brother's attention for more than 15 seconds. He makes me miss Grant.... It's nice having so many kids around, but then I also find myself going to my room with my Ipod and book to hide sometimes.
I guess that's all for now, except to tell you to go to youtube and search for eherrod's videos to see all the ones I've uploaded. Enjoy!
You drag the contraption outside and set it up on cinder blocks or some wood, plug it up somewhere, fill it up with water from the hose, and put your clothes, detergent, and fabric softener in (and if you forget or don't have the fabric softener, like I did at first, your clothes feel like dried straw!), then let the agitator tie all your socks, sleeves, bras, and underwear into tight knots. Once that's done you attempt to untangle them without ripping your clothes to shreds, take them out, and dunk and rub them one at a time in a bucket of clean water, then repeat this in a second bucket, then put them into the spinner part, wringing each piece of clothes out between each step. After the spinner gets the rest of the water out you hang them up on the line to dry. All of this is done in direct sunlight, the bending over makes your back hurt, and it takes about 45 minutes per load. And it's small, so it takes 2-3 loads to get your clothes done. It's tiring and annoying if you're spoiled and used to the ease of regular washers and dryers. But like I say, I've got it easy compared to the others, so I shouldn't even complain!
Other funny oddities/sights: no one tucks sheets into the beds here, I've noticed. Not sure of the reason for this but I make my bed before getting in it or the sheets are everywhere in no time... Men urinate everywhere here, whenever they feel like it. Out the back of a bus when it's in motion, against a building in town, or even just while walking down the street - okay, so the last one was my neighbor's little boy, but it was quite impressive to see him going WHILE walking. How did he not walk into the stream and get it all over himself? Oh, little Eduardo... Let's see, what else - oh, the baby fell into the rainwater barrel this morning. Ms. Anna fished her out about 1.6 seconds after she was in, but it was still scary. She came out blubbering and blinking, but didn't even cry. I think she was too shocked. Things like allowing the 1.5 year old to stand on a bucket peering into the water barrel and seeing the 5 year olds chopping the yard with machetes still makes me look twice... Used a public restroom the other day and found myself faced with a toilet with no seat and looking at a sign on the wall telling parents to not allow their children to stool on the floor... It's cool to see all the games kids come up with to play at recess when the only source of entertainment is a soccer ball. You get creative when there's no playground equipment around!... I've learned there are few pleasures in life like mastering the art of bucket bathing to the point of actually having enough warm water left over to dump over your head at the end - it's the most luxurious part of my day!... I've scoured the library at school (which at the moment is pretty unusable, but hopefully it will revert from storage into a working library at some point) and have found so many fun reads that take me straight back to my preteen years! The Indian and the Cupboard, The Boxcar Children, The Babysitter's Club, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys... It's awesome! I'm reading like a book a day... And b/c my class does more than math and science since the goal is to have them able to contribute to society by the time they finish school, I'm learning to knit, weave, crochet, and other cool things.
The biggest issue I'm facing right now is trying to find housing. I'm good to move into my own place in 3 weeks, but there's nothing in my village. There's a house 2 down from my host family's that has 2 men living in it for free, that I'm trying to find out if I can rent, but it's not looking good. There's nothing available in the next village over either, so I'm looking to live closer to PG and ride the bus to school every day. We'll see how that works out. It'll be more expensive but what else can I do? I'm jealous of the volunteers who're getting the same or more money than I am based on where they live that're renting places for $150 a month or have free housing. I'll likely be paying $400 a month where I'll end up. Oh well, as long as I have enough to get by, I'm fine with it. I've heard of volunteers who've wound up saving 1-2 thousand USD over their time here by finding cheap places to rent, which is awesome. I'll have to see if what I can get will allow me to save some extra money for travelling or for when I go home, but I'm not thinking that will be the case.
School is going fine, frustrating and stressful at times, as working with children with disabilities can be. They're great kids though, and I love them all. I doubt I'll teach them 1/100th of what they'll teach me! I'm getting involved in other activities as well - I've taken over 1/2 the reading club. They're getting a chess club going and I'm helping them with that, and I've gone to one Special Olympics meeting and plan to help with some fundraisers and events they have coming up. Also, other volunteers who're nearby are recruiting help for stuff they're doing, like I'll be going up to Big Falls to help a volunteer up there go through and organize 5000 books they received to start up a school library, things like that. Plus we have meetings and doctors appointments PC has us going all over Belize for, so I'm here and there as well. Staying busy, and when I'm not doing any of that or at school, I'm watching Hannah Montana with Kaliah, playing with the baby (Kadija), playing cards with the 2 boys who live behind us but are at our house 24/7, or attempting to get my 15 year old host brother's attention for more than 15 seconds. He makes me miss Grant.... It's nice having so many kids around, but then I also find myself going to my room with my Ipod and book to hide sometimes.
I guess that's all for now, except to tell you to go to youtube and search for eherrod's videos to see all the ones I've uploaded. Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
