I am loving rainy season here! The weather has cooled off a lot compared to when I got here. I am adjusting more to the different culture. I spent one afternoon with my host family dancing to YouTube videos. It was hilarious for my host brother to try and teach his mom how to do the whip(the dance move). These past couple of weeks have been very busy here. I assisted a mission team from Florida that held a Vacation Bible School at the school I am helping out with in Georgeville. I was put in charge of one of the younger classrooms. Once the kids finally started listening to me it was a lot of fun. I led the classroom with an older lady from Florida. The theme of the VBS was the Armor of God. We did a bible story time, crafts time, and sports time, with all the activities centered on different pieces of the armor of God. We went on house visits that week and one of the younger lay ministers joined me, Father David, and Mary Beth. The home visits have been a lot of fun. I am starting to be able to understand Spanish more, thanks to my Spanish lessons and visiting houses that only speak Spanish. We go on house visits in San Ignacio about twice a week and in Georgeville about once a week. Going on the home visits has allowed me to experience a lot of different aspects of Belizean culture.
It has been a great experience getting to spend time in the classrooms here. I have spent most of my time in the Infant 2 classroom at St. Hilda’s. This is similar to our 1st grade. The way they teach is pretty different. The students don’t respond to just talking to them so I have had to yell a lot because that’s what they are used to. But I am loving my students in that class and they listen to me much better than they did when I first started out in their classroom. I have also been working on the VBS for St. Andrew’s Church with a lady from the church. It has been coming together well. The VBS will be in a week and the theme is the Great Commission. I will be helping to lead the Bible Story station and I am looking forward to it. It is hard to believe that the time is flying by and I will leave in a few weeks.
A couple of weeks ago Mary Beth and David took me to Flores, Guatemala. It looked so different than it does here. I saw some chain restaurants like McDonald’s and Burger King and I can’t believe how excited I got about seeing these restaurants considering I don’t even eat there when I am in the States. Now I can’t imagine how weird it is going to be when I get back to the States. I also was super excited to go to the mall! When I got on the escalator at the mall, I tripped getting on so David said I should write about how I have been here so long I forgot how to ride an escalator. We also went to see a movie, they don’t have movie theaters here in Belize. The movie we saw was Everything, Everything in Spanish so I didn’t always know what was happening but it was worth it just to sit in the air conditioning. My time in Flores was a lot of fun but I realized I actually missed being in Belize and was excited to get back even though we were only gone one night.
Flores
Mary Beth and I in Flores
Xunantunich Mayan Ruins