Back home in Wilmington

Some of my students and I on our last day together !

Going Away Star Wars Party at Pedro's!

I arrived back in the United States on Saturday and spent a few days in Lexington with my family. Almost immediately after leaving our final airport, I was already missing Belize! Thinking back to all of the amazing people I met leaves me thinking that I have no choice but to go back and visit soon! Working in the schools was an amazing experience and living in San Pedro for 5 1/2 weeks was the most amazing experience of my life and I am so glad I took part in it. Anyone else who is thinking of doing a similar experience, I seriously recommend it! I learned so much about myself while in Belize and so much about being a teacher which I cannot wait to use in my own classroom.

Living in Belize B)

Ms. Andrea and I at the Farewell party! :

Today was honestly such an awesome day! (I know I probably say that like every time I blog but it truely was!) This morning I went to substitute at the primary school since all of the teachers there went inland for training. It was pretty neat because it was only UNCW interns running the school! It was also very interesting to get to teach in an 8th grade class. The students were awesome and it was just fun to be in another environment. Around lunchtime, I headed over to my favorite place to get a breakfast croissant and was hit with a huge downpour. This may seem like a negative back in the states but it feels pretty amazing when you are exhausted from the heat! Finally got to the high school around 1 and found out we were getting a surprise going away party from the staff after school for the 5 uncw interns there at the school. Just when I started to get super excited to be heading home to the states, I finally get to know and love my students and partnership teacher! It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to them all tomorrow after school :( At around 3 we all went to one of the classrooms where the staff had a "dj" playing and desks pushed to the sides. It honestly felt like a high school dance but was so adorable! They made us a farewell banner and everything! We spent the rest of the afternoon playing childhood games like musical chairs and relay races! It was hilarious to see all of the teachers just having a good time and letting lose. They provided us with great food and punch as well which is always nice :) At around 5 oclock we headed back home to meet up with everyone for our big group dinner. Luckily Bailey and I ran into our friend Kirt before he left to go inland and got some awesome souvenirs to take home which he hand made! Later, we all met up at Caroline's for some great food- she specializes in jerk dishes and is just an all around really sweet lady. Afterwards, we headed back to Pedro's for the weekly trivia festivities. Today just makes leaving that much harder :( I will honestly miss the people of this little town so much and can't wait to come back and visit! 

My Experience Coming to an End :(

So some of you may be wondering why I have not posted in so long and I guess it is honestly just because things have really calmed down lately and we have all just been busy in the schools and just hanging out. Last week and this week we have been in the high school all day teaching and normally come home around 3:30 and hang out around the pool. Being in the schools has been so awesome! I have really started to get to know my students and will truly miss them after leaving here. San Pedro really has started to feel like home for many of us. Whenever we go out, we ALWAYS run into multiple people we know. The people here are so genuinely nice and it will be extremely hard to leave them behind. Today we took a half day off from school in order to go around the island and explore some of the other schools. Unfortunately there is only one high school on the island so we spent the afternoon going around exploring primary schools. It was really interesting to see some of the other schools and to see how they ran. Some schools literally only have 10 students and consist of one classrooms. One of the schools we visited was founded by Americans and Canadians who have been visiting the island which is positioned in one of the poorer sections of the island. It is literally built on a landfill and really struggles to get by on only donations. It was amazing to see how far the school has come and hear its history. It just recently got a new computer lab which the students love! They also developed a library which they call the suitcase library because almost every book in there was brought to Belize in someone's suitcase. This was really awesome to hear, because we all brought books in our suitcases as well for the students.

"Cafeteria food" aka food from the High School Canteen
yummy- stewed chicken and conch fritters

Standing on the deck of the primary school built on a landfill

Suitcase Library 

We added a postcard from Wilmington, NC to the board at the primary school!

The place to go if you want an amazing milkshake!

Tomorrow and Friday will be the our last days on the island and they should be pretty interesting. I will be substituting at the primary school in the morning and teaching a lesson to an 8th grade class (much younger than what I am used to!) With little lessons to go on and our interns completely in control of this primary school, it should be interesting! The teachers at the primary school are going inland for some professional development so we have volunteered to substitute during our planning periods so they do not have to close the school. 

Belizean Culture

I have learned so much so far about the Belizean culture, especially from our Inland trip. One thing that stood out to me during my interactions with the people of San Ignacio is that everyone is so knowledgeable about their history and culture in this country. Everyone from waiters/waitresses to food stand workers to tour guides have educated us about the history of Belize. This shows the importance of incorporating culture into lessons at school. I have also seen how for many Belizeans, their culture is a huge part of their life. At many of the ruins, we saw evidence of volunteers for sacrificial purposes. The Mayans used to play games and the winner would be sacrificed. This shows how it is an honor for them. It would be so hard to separate church from state in this country, because the locals' beliefs are so tightly woven into their lives. From our inland trip, I also saw how many people in this society live in the moment and are not as concerned with saving money. This may explain how hyper and playful the students behave in class. It is so important to incorporate different pathways into the high school since college may not be the pathway choice of all students.

Back in the schools :)

Today marks my third day back in the schools and it has been really nice to see and get to know the students a little better. All 4 of the classes I am teaching are freshman math classes. One of those classes is a lower level class which moves at a slower pace. Many of the students in this class are suspected of having disabilities but have not yet been identified. Our principal explained to us that there are not too many students in the high school who have serious disabilities because parents keep them at home. This is because they have to pay for their children to go to schools and there are not many accommodations for them here at the school. One of the students in this particular class cannot speak English which makes it hard for her to understand what is going on in class. Another student who just returned to school cannot read so many times he does not try any of the work. Many of the students with disabilities in the school are unidentified but hopefully some of the teachers visiting from the states can help set up a system to develop more accommodations. When working in the classroom, I try to keep the students focused by giving them verbal cues to get back on track. One thing that stood out to me is that many of the teachers are not filled in about the disabilities or barriers some of the students in their classes are having. Currently, the guidance counselor at the school handles all of that information. Much of the staff has little training on how to work with students with disabilities. They have been extremely excited and open to any ideas and techniques we may have for them.

Friday April 13, 2012- Inland Trip

Friday came and we were all excited to return to San Pedro, Belize. San Ignacio was an awesome place but it did not have the homey and comfortable feeling that San Pedro has. We packed up our stuff and headed home around 9:00 a.m. We started off on a bus which took us by the Belize Zoo. This zoo was a little different than what we are used to because it was almost as if the humans were the ones caged in looking out at the animals in their natural habitats. All of the animals in the zoo were rescue victims from around the community. Our driver to the zoo was also a guide so he came into the zoo area with us. It was awesome because he knew the different calls the animals made. He would make the noise and the animals would come out of their hiding spots. The high light of the visit was feeding the Jaguar! We went through the jaguar cage in order to get into another cage within the Jaguar’s territory. The jaguar then came over to our cage and we got to feed it raw chicken and pet it! It was really gentle until it noticed we had food! The guide inside the cage got Junior, the jaguar, to do summersaults for us and to climb on top of the cage! It was such an awesome experience. Bailey and I got a lot of pictures to use for our children’s book that we are writing so that was exciting as well! At the zoo we also got to pet and play with the tapir, the national animal of Belize! He was so sweet and is also going to be the main character of our book. After about two hours at the zoo, we got back on the bus and headed to the water taxi to take us home. At around 6:00 p.m. we arrived home and settled back into our rooms.   

 

Junior looks a little hungry!

Tapir!

Dr. K trying to get me to hold a boa!

Thursday April 12, 2012- Inland Trip

Today was our free day to either relax around San Ignacio or to book an excursion of our choice. All of us were extremely sore so many of the group decided to do some shopping around San Ignacio. My friend Parker and I decided to book a horseback riding excursion to Xunantunich which is another Mayan Ruin. Wednesday night we spent walking around to tour guide agencies to get some price quotes for the excursion. Many of the agencies were going to use a guide named Santiago and wanted to charge us $65-$85 US for the trip. We finally walked into the last tour guide agency we knew of and before we knew it, he was handing us a phone with this man Santiago on the other line. We spoke with him and he said he would pick us up at our hotel the next morning at around 8:00 and that the whole trip would be $40 US. We were ecstatic! The next morning, we woke up, got ready, and walked down stairs and there stood Santiago. Next thing we know, we were getting in his personal car (which made me a little nervous given I was in a different country and didn’t know him) and driving to Hannah’s stables which was about 15 minutes away. Santiago hooked us up with a guide from the stables named Arnold who would be taking the hour and half to two hour horseback riding trip to Xunantunich with us. We got paired up with our horses and we were off! My horse’s name was Joshua and he did not really like Parker’s horse Zack. Whenever Zack tried to get in front of Joshua, Joshua would start running ahead and cut Zack off. The views on the trip were some of the prettiest I have ever seen. This was my first time on a horse and I cannot think of a better place to try it! Arnold sang to us on our journey and pointed out some of the wildlife. Once we finally got to the Mayan Ruin, we met up with another guide who would be taking us around. I really enjoyed this excursion because it was just the two of us and a guide, making it a little more personal and easier to talk and ask questions. Xunantunich was a lot smaller than Caracol and the largest temple was only about 10 feet shorter than Caracol’s largest.  Xunantunich’s temples had stairs around the back of the temples which created the illusion that the rulers who were climbing the temples had a magical power to them since they would just seem to appear at the top. Some of Xunantunich was ruined by a man who came to the ruins and claimed to be an archaeologist and dynamited part of the ruin, breaking it off forever. Currently today, they are still looking for more people to excavate around the area. After about 1-2 hours in Xunantunich, we headed back on our horses. We took a different route home which was along the riverside. We even got to take the horses in the river so they could drink some water. On our way there and home, we had to take the horses on a ferry to cross the river. The ferry’s here are much different than what we are used to back in the states. They consist of a wooden raft like thing attached to a pully system which is controlled by a person, not a machine. The whole experience was awesome and here are some pictures from along the way:   

Just hanging out on a Mayan ruin 

Joshua and I waiting on the ferry