Can you Belize it? We're here!

Well, I’m hereJ

We’re safe, and the hurricane did not affect Punta Gorda very much at all.

We rode on a small fifteen passenger plane, and it was the most amazing plane ride I have ever experienced! It was a smooth ride, and I had a nice long chat with a Belize native who told me about the shrimp farms, the culture, the cool places to visit, and the beaches to tan atJ. I am meeting my students tomorrow, and I’m getting up at 5am to take a bus across town to get there.

My house mother, Elena, is one of the most wonderful people I have ever met. She has been hosting families for about fifteen years, and she’s an AMAZING cook! I had plans to lose weight here, and thanks to Elena, that’s not going to happen!! J

The internet is a bit slow here, and we will have to go to internet cafes to pay $1 American to use it for an hour—not bad!

This morning, I got up at 5:45, read, cleaned my room, and had a sweet long conversation with Elena over coffee. This woman has faith that can literally move mountains.

After my chitchat with Elena, our Education group went kayaking on the Belize River—it was so nice and warm, and we saw crabs crawling on trees! We an coconoseboys—it’s like a mini cocoanut and you crack the shell, and the inside is sweet like a pear. They grow in clumps like grapes right off the trees. Yum!

I will upload my pictures as soon as possible—AND that won’t happen soon because I brought the wrong charger—oh boo. So hopefully I will order one or just get another camera, because the one I’m using now is dying—no charger/usb chord to upload.

One thing about Belize: You sweat. My clothes are drenched, my neck is drenched, my face is drenched. I am a sweating machine here. Sexy? Nope.

Goals this week: Get a bike, find a guitar, swim at the peer, and send some letters.

I hope you are all doing well, and I miss you:) I really do. Minnesota weather on the other hand--that's a different story;)

SO, we're in Dallas, Texas.
Allan-the-American-Airlines-man played "devil's advocate" to get us to stay in the cities for another day, and we decided to go forth on this crazy/wild adventure to Dallas. Woo hoo!!
We got an inexpensive hotel, went to a lounge, and had a great time drinking, playing shuffle board, and meeting some hilarious and kind people.

Joyce-the-waitress (Joycisms)
"Well, you can't fix stupid."
"Shit's gettin' deep now."
"Finer than frog hair."
"It's better to be a smartass than a dumbass."

and good ol' Israel aka "Mo."
"Go on you beautiful ladies, and follow your destinies. By the way, I need your phone numbers."

oof-da.
Yeah, a lot of funny things were said. Some not really appropriate for a PG internet blog...maybe it's PG-13.
Anyway, plans for tomorrow: Fly out to Miami, Florida at 5:45 am, fly to Belize City from Miami, then from Belize City to Punta Gorda---this is IF the storm/hurricane situation clears up. HOPEFULLY:)

Love you all, miss you terribly!

This journey just got a little more terrifying

There's a storm a-brewing in the Carribean area known as Hurricane Richard.

Here is a little excerpt about it from a news article this morning:

"At 3 o' clock this afternoon Tropical Storm Richard was near latitude 16.2 degrees north and longitude 81.7 degrees west which is about 440 miles east by south of Belize City, 437 miles east by south of Dangriga and 432 miles east by south of San Pedro Ambergris Caye. The storm has strengthen a little bit since this morning, maximum sustain are near 45 miles per hour and its moving a little faster moving west at 5 miles per hour, still very slow but a bit faster that it has been moving the last few days. The current projection does have the storm likely to make a impact of some part of the coastline late Sunday night or early Sunday morning and intensification into a hurricane strength is quite like to occur during Sunday, most likely Sunday afternoon. Currently the storm has tropical storm force winds that extend 105 mile out from the center and if it intensifies further the radius of those tropical storm force winds will quite likely increase so it's a storm that we have to treat with a high degree of caution and my advice to the general Belizean public would be to be very vigilant and to monitor closely the reports being issued by radio and television this weekend."

Well, we'll see how this goes, play it by ear. Worse comes to worse, our flight will be delayed on Sunday, and the gals and I will spend a night or two in Dallas, Texas. Yee-ha.

If not, we have a bumpy wet ride to Belize and go on with life.

Send good juju/thoughts/prayers/meditations to the weather, that if it does storm, the people in these areas will be okay.

"Haley" is to "Packing"

as

"Central Asia and Europe" is to "The Black Plague"

I loved packing two weeks ago, and now I'm putting it off until the last minute. The thing is that I don't have too much to pack, but it contributes to the huge laundry list of things I need to do before I leave (i.e. homework, cleaning, purchasing, sorting, researching what can/can't go on the plane, etc)

Boo hoo boo(bs).

I apologize for this lame excuse of a post--I'm mainly using this as my escape of putting off the inevitable of doing all the things I *should* be doing. Wompers.

Aaaaaaaaaand, now I'm going to go pack.

:)

Leaving on a Jet Plane :)

Well, this is it. One week remains until I fly to Punta Gorda, Belize--as you can see on the map, it is located right on the southeast coast.

While I will be staying in PG, I will be teaching in San Antonio at a school called San Luis Rey-RC (Roman Catholic). It is literally in the jungle.

There are 300 students total, and my class of 1st and 2nd graders has 38 students. Ooof da!

The people in this area speak Mopan Mayan, and this language is mainly spoken in parts of Belize and Guatemala. Their second language is English. Most of the people in this area are farmers.

I will be taking a bus at 6am to the village and will ride it home at 4pm. The bus ride is about an hour long, and the roads are not paved.

I've been in contact with my cooperating teacher in the village, their principal, two other teachers in the area, and a Japanese Peace Corp worker who is teaching there right now. I've also been gathering donations to bring to my school. They have asked for a lot, but because I don't have a lot of money, I'm bring certain things I think they will benefit from such as books, crayons, markers, crafts, balls/frisbees, and some other games/educational tools.

Before I go, the students who I am teaching now at Lincoln Piedmont Elementary are going to make a little book about who they are, what Duluth is like, and ask questions to the children I will be working with in Belize. In return, the students I'll be teaching in Belize will work on writing letters to our students in Duluth.

Apparently, Skype is banned in Belize because they want people to buy phone cards, so for some reason they blocked skyping. I can however go to internet cafes once in a while and use gmail as a phone option.

I am so nervous/excited/anxious/ecstatic/[insert related words HERE] to go, and I will miss my fam, soon-to-be hub, and friends a lot.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, that's it for now! Ttfn;)