Half-way Point!! 3 week update!

May 24, 2010

Oh HEYYYYYY

Jenny and Talia here. We thought we would give you a little taste of how things have been going thus far… Kathryn has been a superstar with the blog but we thought we would give you another perspective!
We have just passed our projects half way mark which is pretty nuts! From our last post you know that we were heading to San Ignacio, Cayo District this week. We were wondering if it would be as amazing as our Project Director Kasey made it out to be – and it WAS! Even in our delirious state from the 3:30am to 8:00am bus ride from Corozal, we knew that Cayo’s reputation as the most picturesque district in Belize was true! The bus winds through mountains and hills of Belizean jungle that looks like it comes right out of a National Geographic spread!
Peer Ed this week was awesome! Jenny was in Sacred Heart College with Emre (‘Jemre’ as they are called) and Talia tagged along in the afternoons to start getting a feel for the Peer Ed Project which she will be starting next week! The students were very enthusiastic about the program and loved to participate, which made it so much fun to teach! The counselor at the High School was also very helpful and excited about keeping contact with us throughout the year to have a bigger and better week organized upon our return next year. Our work at the BFLA (Belize Family Life Association) also went really well. We are helping the nurse there organize an Open House on June 4th. Peer Ed will be leaving the Stan Creek District one day early to return to San Ignacio for the Open House. Our prep this week included making posters, inviting schools, and organizing the activities. Our goal for the day is to reach out to the schools in the community to help get the word about the BFLA as a resource out there and to make learning about sexual health fun!
In terms of the Teaching Project this week, it was one of the best districts we’ve experienced so far! The 5 schools that we visited were so welcoming and both the students and teachers were very eager to learn our material. Since Jenny and I are switching it up next week (I’m going to Peer Ed and she’s Teaching) she tagged along as well to watch the lesson plans in action! As always, Becca played lots of football (soccer) with the kids, even in the 40 degree weather. I was really happy that there was some softball going on during recess because there is not as much running involved (I thought I was adapting to this heat but maybe not). On the Friday we taught in a school in Benque, which is a village outside of San Ignacio. We bused there and although Jose (the District coordinator for Cayo) had advised us to cab to the school, we proceeded to walk to save some mula. BAD DECISION. It was SO hot, there was steam rising off the pavement. Eventually, we got there and it wasn’t as much as a hike as we thought although we had to seek out H2O!
During the week, the Hi-Et guesthouse became our ‘home away from home’. The guesthouse is owned by a local family who are some of the nicest people we have met so far. The girls especially connected with the mother of the house and are incredibly sad to leave her today. She saved Jenny’s life when the night before heading to Guatemala for the day to renew our traveling Visas, Jenny’s passport was nowhere to be found. You can imagine the panic that spread through the group, even Jenny who is always ‘even keel’ was starting to get a little nervous (an understatement of course). In a panic I even searched the fridge thinking that it may have gotten mixed up with the food. Our Hi-Et mama didn’t blink an eye. She calmed Jenny down and helped us move all of our things from the room to search. After about 20 min, Becca and Kathryn arrived on the scene and immediately exclaimed, “oh it’s in our room!”. GREAT! Well, we were happy that Jenny would be able to leave the country.
A few more stories from the week just have to be shared:
1) ANTS. Ok, I like sharing a room with Jenny. But, this is starting to freak me out. ANTS follow her everywhere. I think it started with all the candy she brought for her kit for Peer Ed. Once that first Starburst melted, she didn’t stand a chance. They were on her like wild fire. And some of these little guys are even FIRE ANTS. We were just walking along one time and Jenny started complaining about a stinging on her right chest. We just ignored her and moved on. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that she showed us the bites that we realized how bad these ants were. I had had an experience with them last week when they attacked my ankle and knew how painful they can be, so having them attack your chest would be a bit much to handle. They were HUGE and blood rushed to the top of the bites to give the illusion of bleeding. I was considering bringing her to the doc. She was brave and today the swelling has down…a bit. So the ants are in Jenny’s clothes, bags, etc. They are known as an extension of her. We are hoping that in Belize City this week there aren’t as many. Luckily our Hi-Et mama had ant spray which we used a lot.
2) Ok this is Jenny and I would like to share a story about Talia. We had this awesome idea to wake up at 4:30 AM and hike to Cahal Pach, a Mayan Ruin site just outside of town, to watch the sunrise. How Romantic! Little did I know that Talia doesn’t know how to set an alarm. We woke up to her ‘cricket’ alarm and started getting ready to go. Then she exclaimed, “GO BACK TO BED”. You could understand my concern when I could still hear music playing from the downtown area and we realized that we were on Toronto time. AKA it was 2:30 AM Belizean time. Back to bed we went. Cue ‘cricket’ noises at 6:30 Am Toronto time and 4:30 Am Belizean time. We got ready to go again and headed downstairs. We couldn’t get out of the guesthouse. The locks were too complicated. We went back to bed to hear a commotion coming from downstairs. Princessa and Duke (their dogs) had heard us trying to get out and had started barking like crazy. Then we heard people wandering around worried someone had broken into their house! We just sat there and listened. Go to 7 AM Belizean time. We decide to actually hike to Cahal Pech. There were many hills and a few wrong turns. We’re actually lucky we didn’t go earlier because we would have gotten lost for sure and would have just wandered around. It’s also rainy season here now so the sunrise would have been blocked by clouds. When we got to Cahal we realized that we had to pay ten dollars to get in to the site so we didn’t even see it. Good one.
3) The Outdoors. So we would both like to think that we are “outdoorsy” people, but I am seriously starting to question that statement. Talia screams. And by scream I mean a gut wrenching noise that sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Example: hiking in the Jungle, she came very close to stepping on a snake. WAHHHHEJEJEJKSBJDKFJKLEKLEJKJKD SK! I had a heart attack and thought she had been bitten. But no, but it did “come really close to her” as she will tell you. Example 2: Swimming in the River. This is a great way to cool down after a long day of teaching and our extremely sweaty shirts. Besides screaming when ANYTHING touches her, including twigs, she managed to get taken down by the rapids and screamed and flailed the whole way down. I was killing myself laughing as her long limbs floundered and I just saw her head bobbing and heard the killer scream. I felt bad laughing and was relieved when I saw her grab onto a rock on the side of the river to stop herself from getting pulled further down. She was also convinced that there were crocodiles in the area we were swimming and kept sketching out.
4) Jenny and Animals Part 2. BIRDS. There are a lot of them in Belize. Jenny hates BIRDS. They are one of the things that she most fears in this world. On our Belize Zoo visit, we had the extreme privilege of meeting Sharon. The founder of the zoo and the subject of a book about saving the Scarlet Macaws of Belize, an endangered bird here. Becca is reading this book so Sharon invited us into the Macaw cage to help feed them. Everyone was really excited except Jenny. We had to coax her to step in and shaking the whole time she managed to stay while we fed them. The whole time she just stared with this look of terror at their clawed feet. She also let out a few screams during the ordeal. She’s really proud of herself though and we think she’s starting to make progress! Good for you Jenny!! She was also ecstatic when going through the zoo, literally 90% of the animals are birds (I’m being sarcastic if you didn’t notice). She especially loved the eagle that was the size of a large human. It looked like those hypogrifths from Harry potter. Its feet could definitely pick up one of us no problem. But, she made it through and did one thing that scared her, getting close to the Macaws! One man in the cage had to be like, “ARE YOU OK?” because the look on her face was hilarious and not normal. We took a video so stay tuned for that!
Ok if you managed to get through our entire ‘essay’ congratulations, GOLD STAR! As you can tell, project is going amazing and we are so happy to be here in Belize! This afternoon we’re heading to Belize City, we will write more after next week!
XOXO
Jen-e & Tal-e-ah