the chicken bus and spirituality training

down by the river-- where we saw a manatee

the house

the second part of my belizian adventures will be in orange walk. but before i get to where i am now, let me tell you how i got here.

last saturday i left the states knowing nothing about where i needed to go, who i needed to call, and what i needed to do once i was in belize but i made a plan and knew that if i ended up in orange walk at the end of the day that everything else would fall into place.

my flights from phoenix to houston and houston to belize city were fine and on time! (even a bit early into belize city). i sat next to some guys on the plane who were on their way to dangriga to work in a hospital. anyways, they wanted to know the cheapest way to get from the airport to the bus station and i replied, "by sharing a taxi with me!"

once i got to the bus station i was faced with the decision of either waiting 2 hours for the next express bus to orange walk or get on the bus that was leaving in 5 min and take the "chicken bus" as the belizians call it. why, you might ask? because the buses are always crowded and sometimes the passengers are even carrying live chickens on board. to my luck, there were no chickens but if the capacity for the bus was 85 people there were easily 150 people on board. standing. slouching. sitting. sitting on other people. uncomfortably pushed up against sweaty vinyl seats. nothing good about it... at one point in my over 3 hour journey (a distance that should take about an hour and a half) a woman started yelling from 'back a bus' and, due to the crowdedness and noise levels the driver stopped about a quarter mile past her desired stop. she starting yelling and cussing at the driver in creole effing this and effing that until she finally exited, picked up the first stones she could find and began chucking them at the driver. oh my gosh! only in belize! she threw about 8 stones before one unavoidably hit a passenger at which point the driver put the bus in park and hurdled over 8 passengers to get off the bus and chased the lady almost the full quarter mile down the road yelling that she would never ride his bus again. oy vey!

against all odds, i arrived in orange walk in one piece. walked with all my luggage about 3 blocks to find a hotel, checked myself in, found some food, unsuccessfully tried to video chat with my parents and then watched tv and enjoyed the AC.

the next day i eventually got a hold of the right person, adrian leiva (dean of muffles junior college) and he got me settled with a host family. what a relief! and such a blessing. this family hosted two of the other girls who did their student teaching abroad last semester and another a year ago! they have an amazing house and are an amazing, beautiful family.

that night i got settled into my dora the explorer themed room. it rocks. i have a tv in my room with cable and there is wireless internet so i can video chat from my room-- it's like a dream! for those of you that don't know, gmail's g-chat works in belize! having a tv with cable in my room also means that i will be able to watch gossip girl every monday night. so excited!

my belizian family

(so that when i talk about them in the future, you'll know who i mean)

uval- host dad

yvette- host mom

anora- evette's sister who lives with them

ethan- anora's son (5)

john- evette's brother

fiona- evette's sister

brenden- fiona's son (15 mo)

luanne- evette's sister (18)

alyssa- youngest daughter and owner of the dora room (11)

nayely- oldest daughter (18)

osmani- boy who lives with them (11)

tia noemi (tia chum)- their aunt who works at louisiana

gran ida- evette's mom

that's all i can think of for now... i'll update you with significant people as they come up

monday morning i had to report to lousiana government school, where i will be doing my student teaching. they were doing some sort training. it was for all government school teachers. i met the principal and found out that i will be teaching in a standard 5 classroom (7th grade in america). turns out that the training was spirituality training so that each teacher would be equipped to teach the 42 most important bible lessons in the classroom. we were all provided with a bible, a cloth to hang on the walls of the classrooms, and a lesson taught to us on all 42 bible stories... all i could keep thinking was in america, i would be sued for this!

post spirituality training i went to a meeting with the general manager for the government schools which i certainly did not need to be at. it was a long winded meeting about what the teachers were and were not allowed to do in regards to days that they needed to take off of school. men are allowed to take off 5 days for paternity leave. and they are told not to use it all at once so that if their girlfriend and their wife are pregnant at the same time, they can take time for both. no joke. cheating is not even frowned upon.

school starts tomorrow... yipee! : ) i can't wait!

more to come soon. xoxo

also-- a shout out to charles and kristi for their infinite ways of helping me. i love them and would be a hot sweaty mess lost on a bus somewhere in belize without them!

laura riding

i am always inspired by poetry. always.
this is a poem that i read today and fell in love with.

this is not exactly what i mean

any more than the sun is the sun.

but how to mean more closely

if the sun shines but approximately?

what a world of awkwardness!

what hostile implements of sense!

perhaps this is as close a meaning

as perhaps becomes such knowing.

else i think the world and i

must live together as strangers and die--

a sour love, each doubtful whether

was ever a thing to love the other.

no, better for both to be nearly sure

each of each-- exactly where

exactly i and exactly the world

fail to meet by a moment, and a word.

by laura riding

there's no place like home...

traveling is always an interesting experience. sometimes is seems that nothing else could go wrong and then, almost like clockwork, it will. nevertheless, i am home in one piece.

my last few days in belize were spent with a new and dear friend bryony. she so graciously allowed me to stay in her house with her out on the chaa creek property. i spent some time going to the market, eating lunch at blancaneaux lodge, and enjoying the company of the lovely fleming family.

the trip home was a long one. i woke up at 5am, caught the bus to belize city at 6am, boarded my plane in belize at 11:00, arrived in houston at 2:30ish... had my next flight delayed six different times that finally resulted in me spending the night in the airport. another adventure. 26 and a half hours from when i woke up to leave belize, i was home.

day 1
stopped by to say hi to my mom at her work
lunch with dad
picked up some blueprints
"watched" twilight and new moon with my little brother
ciara came over for dinner
besus came over and i told her stories of my travels
besus and i went to in&out to get her some dinner
devon and i went to see eclipse at 10pm- FINALLY!! : )

day 2
picked up devon's books with him at asu. he let me drive. i love driving.
spent the afternoon apartment searching in virginia/dc/ny
watched the departed with devon
went to jazzercise with my mom
dinner
scrabble
blog

there's so much more to do while i'm home: dinner in fountain hills with my emily and caitlin. bbq at my house on saturday. seeing b's new place in tempe. sushi. sushi. sushi. seeing inception... which dillon claims is the greatest movie ever made. i trust his judgement.

the legend of the jungle pirate

it's been a while since i last had a chance to write, but here is my longwinded belizian update:

a little over a week ago the kids and jackie and i were off to an awesome week of eco camp at chaa creek. chaa creek is a beautiful resort just outside of san ignacio in the cayo district. the kids got to go through a week at their river camp in the little cabins there! i was in cabin 3 with some awesome girls... kaitlyn (the girl i'm teaching at barton creek) being one of them. chaa creek has an awesome set up that is so environmentally sensitive. they have organic farming, a reverse osmosis system that purifies their river water, they have a glass grinder that is used when making the cement for their location, they grow bamboo and it is used in construction... and the list goes on and on. the camp had a different theme everyday and the kids got to learn about the history of the maya people, medicinal remedies and ways that they can, in their everyday lives, help to conserve and save the environment. i learned a lot myself and got to work as the house photographer during the week. there were campfires at night and this is where the legend of the jungle pirate comes into play. jackie and i had decided that it would be fun to create our own legend since all the other ghost stories we found happend in canada or west virginia so our jungle pirate, captain clock-whose one arm was shorter than the other, was haunting the jungle grounds at chaa creek, searching for his stolen treasure. we had one of the cooks dress up as a pirate and come out of the jungle dressed up like a pirate and banging a machette. the reactions ranged from logan (the boy i'm teaching at barton creek) and a few other kids running up to attack the pirate and save the other to my camper magie, who had to sleep with her bed pushed up to mine for the remainder of the week, no longer wanted to have campfires, and would wake up in the middle of the night convinced that ghosts were after her... led by captain clock himself. oy vey!

it also recently, and luckily, came to my realization that i have been in belize for over 30 days and i had to get my passport stamped. this required that i go to belmopan, the capital, and find the immigration building. i got on a bus from san ignacio and rode to belmopan. i must look helpless because a menonite man sat next to me and after discovering what i was going to do in belmopan he informed me that he wanted to walk me to the building himself to insure i got there safely. once i was there, there was a canadian man who took me under his wing and told me that i had to be assertive and just go up to the window or else i would be stuck in lines that led to nowhere for hours and hours. i think i smile too much and so people feel like i am always in need of assistance. regardless, i made it there, got my stamp, and back to san ignacio in one piece. mission accomplished.

i have also gotten to hang out with brad, kristi (who amazingly enough, coordinated with my mom and brought me a new little laptop!! so excited!!) and charles. it's good to have friends to run into now and agian! :)

today i am luckily sitting on the beach. the britts took a family retreat to the coast for a few days... and so graciously have taken me with them. jim's mom, susan, came in on saturday from nashville and is a beach bum and so we had to take her away from the jungle to hit the sand! i have no complaints about it!! the place where we are is called placencia. it's beautiful. i woke up this morning and the sun was rising, the water was calm, and it all seemed to be glowing. yesterday i jumped in the water as soon as i could and got stung by a jellyfish. i also have become a professional at the stingray-shuffle, making sure not to step on or irritate any of those bad boys. later today i think we're going to the local town to go for some icecream and hopefully (fingers crossed) get to go out to sea on the kyacks. or for a very long swim! :) away from the jellys and senor sting ray.

missing everyone badly. thoughts of home are always on my mind and wish i could call/talk more often. know that you're all in my thoughts!

also-- a big congrats to my amazing brother ian who, after weeks and weeks and weeks of waiting to hear back on a new job got news that he will be moving to virginia!! so proud of you E, and miss you and can't wait to see you on the east coast! xo