Home is where the heart is.

Its wild how fast the past three weeks have passed! I left my training village on Thursday, teary eyed with a ton of luggage, and am now in my permanent site. I am living about 2 miles outside of Orange Walk Town, in a village with a population of about 350! Although I have just been here long enough to catch my breath, the atmosphere is friendly and the people have been welcoming. For any of you who are wondering about my well being, you should know that I spent the better half of last Sunday watching The Wedding Singer and Billy Madison in Spanish that I bought for $5- beat that!

My new host mom is very “motherish” with me. She insisted on walking me to school yesterday when I went to talk with the principal and introduce myself to the students… I felt a bit embarrassed to say the least. My host dad reminds me a lot of my grandpa actually, quiet and a bit stubborn, but quite knowledgeable. My host family has 5 adult children, and the daughter has introduced me to everyone as her new sister. She is a “hip” beautician… Ive already been promised a manicure, pedicure, and facial. The house is more mainstream and middle class than the one in my other village, I have moved up in my ranks.. now with indoor plumbing, a shower, and enough space in my room to do ab workouts!

It seems that out of nowhere the season has changed from hot and dry here to absolutely wet! Rainy hurricane season hit us about two weeks ago, and its rained just about everyday since then. Some towns have been receiving up to 10 inches a day the past few days due to a tropical storm, and about half of the country is blocked off from transportation due to an bridge that is currently flooded.

The school I will be volunteering at has 81 students and 5 teachers for the grades of Infant1- Standard 6, which is equivalent to Kindergarten- 8th grade. The Peace Corps volunteer before me left in July, and I can see that I have really big shoes to fill. My principal is interested in me working one on one with students who need extra help in language arts, along with being the computer teacher. My school just received a grant, and if time and money permits them to finish the final touches, the school should be receiving 5 new computers and the internet by mid November. This is HUGE for the village- right now nobody has cable or internet, and the children are busting at the seam to learn to use computers. I was also asked to be the girl’s volleyball coach- part of the ‘job’ description that I least expected, but just might be what I am looking the most forward to!

I will FINALLY get to live alone beginning December 15, and my house has already been chosen for me by the Peace Corps. The house belongs to my host mother’s son who lives in San Pedro. We went there yesterday for me to check it out, and I immediately fell in LOVE with the house and the thought of it being mine. As we walked in, I spotted a dead rat bat on the living room floor… but hey, Im in Belize. The house has a large veranda, indoor plumbing in the bathroom, kitchen/living area, and two bedrooms. One bedroom already has hooks for a hammock and I have designated it my exercising/yoga/reading/relaxing room. We are going to paint it a shade of green- what more could I ask for? The house still needs a lot of work, but I have the next two months of nights and weekends to get it ready to be my home for the next two years!

The teacher’s workshop that I mentioned in my last blog was quite a success! Each of us trainees did great and I think that although there were a few cultural barriers at times, the teachers and trainees both were happy with the outcome of the day. As I was doing my presentation, I could see that the information I was sharing was quite foreign to the teachers. One idea I presented to them was classroom newsletters that teachers send home weekly to inform parents about homework assignments, upcoming events, etc. At the end of the day the principal stood up to thank us all, and she mentioned that she really liked the newsletter idea and that she wanted to start that at her school. Needless to say, I was shocked and excited- just a simple suggestion got the wheels turning! I must keep reminding myself that I am here for a reason, and although I might not have been a teacher for the past 20 years and know everything there is to know about the classroom, I still have the ability to help others and to be a change agent in my community.

Ive started a list of things I want to do during ELISHA time:
Learn yoga
Learn to sew
Start a garden and compost at my house
Go scuba diving
READ READ READ
Practice mi espanol
……………………………
Thanks to everybody who has been sending me letters! It means so much to me to hear from you all!

Just a final thought for you- As soon as I introduced myself to the children, kids started coming into the office and began dropping off letters and pictures that they colored for me… and it was only my first day! One small girl stopped by right before I went home for lunch and handed me a note before quickly turning to leave. This is what I read:

Dear Peace Corp,
I am so grateful to have a new Peace Corp. I thanks you. I think you have put all your effort to come in our village. Thank for coming.

And with that said- I am home.