First Days in Country

It has now been 10 days since landing in Belize City. My brain is still reeling from all of the uniqueness and information. Of course that includes starting school on Monday. I hope they give a little allowance for the brain overload. I am having a hard time getting into any kind of routine.

Friday and Saturday were full of orientation activities. Friday we went to campus and they introduced us to the professors and some Belizean students that are to be the mentors. Our laptops were configured to connect with the campus and last minute changes were done to some of the class schedules. One instructor recruited for the yearly Ruta Maya, which is a four day canoe race down the river. I decided to join, not as a paddler, but as ground crew. We are responsible for food, minor medical issues, and entertainment at the end of each day. After the meeting I met with the instructor that will be coordinating my ESL Practicum here in Belize. Dr. Penados wanted to meet with me to get an idea of what I was expecting and form ideas on where and how I will be integrated into different schools. He mentioned his class, Education and Society, which meets on Saturdays. I picked up that class since it sounded interesting and is full of current and future Belizean teachers. The credits will not transfer back to WSC, but it is not an additional cost and it will be a great source of first hand knowledge for my Junior Honors paper.

Saturday we were taken downtown to the weekend market and then to the Xunantunich ruins. Of course it was a hot, humid day which we Northerners were not used to. But there was very little complaining; we remembered the cold and snow we had left in the states. The site is very peaceful and beautiful. From the top of the king’s building you have a view of Guatemala and if you are lucky you will see monkeys in the trees around the site. The guide said the monkeys move back farther from the site if there are too many people. A few of the girls did see a couple monkeys. I will go back when I can look and move around at a more leisurely pace. We have been told not to go alone because of the border squabble with Guatemala. I guess rebels cause trouble once in a while, but there are some Belize troops of some kind at the site. To top off the day we ate at a local restaurant that could actually hold all of us and got a lesson in how the bus system works.

Sunday was cleared for relaxing by the pool, putting our clothes away, walking into town to explore and a lunch with some Belizean students. I walked into town early and found some boys playing basketball. I sat and watched them for a little while before one of them came over to talk. They were very curious about the strange white lady. It was a great conversation about basketball, school, girls, languages, families, friendship, etc. I told them I was an American teacher and might visit their school. Also I wanted to know if I started a school in the park, would they come. They all said yes, but I don’t believe them. I asked if I could take their picture since they were my first Belizean friends. They were more than willing and had a good laugh at their pictures. The oldest one is 14 and out of school; no money for high school. The youngest one I would guess is 10, but I have found that they are older than they look. They are shown on the side.