Belize & Stann Creek Districts!

On May 25th we had our first teaching day in the Belize District. We went to meet with the district coordinator on Monday morning and I was so proud of us for finding the ministry building until we realized that we were at the wrong place! We had to take a taxi to another building but we made it and they made us coffee when we got there which is always greatly appreciated!

We went to our first school called Ladyville and when we got there the principal sent all the kids to the church for our lesson…but then we told them that we couldn’t teach all 100 kids together in a church (especially when we talk about sex and condoms!) so they moved all the kids back into their classrooms. We felt bad for causing so much disruption but the class went well after that! The kids asked a million questions which was great and one of the teachers had a female condom for me to use for a demonstration.

On Wednesday we taught in 2 different schools so it was a long day but both schools were great. We play a puberty jeopardy game at the end of the lessons and my classes got super competitive and involved in jeopardy which was hilarious and makes it so fun!

On Thursday I tried a new flavor of ice cream called “sour sop” which is a fruit in Belize, everyone loves sour sop here so I had to try it and it was pretty good. On Friday I helped the Belize Family Life Association set up a health fair at the nearby hospital so we helped organize pamphlets and we sat at their booth for a little while. Then we went to a junior college called St. John’s Collage to meet with a group called Bionics (Believe It Or Not I Care), we’re hoping to establish a partnership with them next year. They were really sweet and they seemed really interested in our program so we have high hopes for collaboration next year!

The next week we went to a town called Dangriga in the Stann Creek District. We’re staying at the Bluefield Lodge which is owned by a very friendly woman, the beds are so comfortable here so we’ve all been having really good sleeps! We met some medical students from England and we talked to them a lot about HIV testing and treatment. We learned that it’s free to get tested and to buy the HAART but that people have to pay to get CD4 counts which can be expensive.

In Stann Creek we taught in a town called Hopkins, the kids in my class were really friendly and loved the sperm and egg dolls! (Inta, Katy, Nicole and Kylie…..haha) We bought the best hotdogs there; they had onions, ketchup, mustard, mayo, parmesan cheese and hot sauce on them! The next morning we took a teacher’s bus to a school called Holy Angels and Talia and I combined a couple small classes to teach one big group which worked out a lot better than we were expecting. At the end of the class one girl came up to us and told us that she had learned so much and that she loved the games we played during the lessons; it’s always so sweet when the kids tell us that they enjoyed what we taught. That night we discovered a bakery owned by a man from Montreal! We bought so many muffins and banana bread and it was all so delicious!

We have one more week of teaching in the Orange Walk District, time is really flying by! I'll try and post some pictures later, hope you're enjoying the notes!