January 16, 2012

January 16, 2012

This morning we slept in until 0800. I slept pretty well during the night except for when one of my earplugs fell out; I wrestled around trying to find it because without my earplugs, I can't sleep through the rain, snores, and jungle noises. I found out that we are currently in San Pedro, Toledo right along the Machaca forest reserve, which explains the jungle that surrounds us. When I was talking with one of the boys, Johnathan, I found out that there are more Mayan ruins about one mile down the road from us. I learned that the Mayans originally lived in Columbia and when the Spaniards came, most of the Mayans moved north. In the south, the Mayans speak Mopan and Kechi. In the north, the Mayan speak a whole different dialect called Yucatec. I also learned that the average yearly salary in Belize is $3000 Bz. This means that the people here live on $1500 U.S. per year. Now this yearly salary is based on those who have jobs and work in the towns. The Mayan villages out here make less than that because they pretty much just live off of the land to feed their families. Most of the Mayan's means of income is selling their produce or crafts in the villages.
The temperature has been really good since we left Kindred Spirits (first place that we stayed), the days can be pretty hot and humid, but at night the air is perfectly cool. I would guesstimate that the temperature during the days has been in the 80s and at night the temperature is in the low 60s.  Apparently, it stormed pretty hard last night just as it had during the day when we were driving. The rain drops the temperature several degrees, but the humidity increases so we still remain sticky. Today it poured the rain and it is still very windy here as the rainclouds move above our camp. In fact, as I'm writing this the rain is again pouring so hard that I cannot hear anything, nor am I able to see outside of my building. I don't blame anybody for being scared of the rain and thunderstorms here! I think I'll be waiting a while before going to the main shelter where most of my group is at right now. 
This morning, we had breakfast which consisted of scrambled eggs, beans, and fried jacks. It is so interesting that they have beans at every meal here. In Succotz, there was refried beans that were more like the consistency of soup because they were smashed up so much. The beans here in San Pedro are like kidney beans.
After breakfast, our whole group drove on the road that has been being built since last March. They have been blowing through the mountains and the majority of the road looks like it is ready to be paved. The road is mud, but it was smooth unlike the potholes that we drove on last Saturday. I was nervous about making it up the muddy hill in our bus, but our driver, Dwight, always does a great job. We went to a primary school today where the group set up more computers and taught the teachers how to use them, the business group demonstrated one of their water filtration systems which is a large straw with a filter inside, and the rest of us sang VBS songs and played games with the children. The filter straws were pretty impressive. Scott and Melissa demonstrated the straws by drinking out of a bottle full of rainwater, mud, and leaves, and Scott drank out of a puddle in the mud. I was amazed to see that the water turned from disgusting brown to clear, purified water. I learned that the spring break mission trips that come to Belize go to the villages and schools to give the people the water filters every March because the straws last for one year. The school that we went to was in Crique Jute Village which means Snail Creek. It was interesting to see that the school was built by the Peace Core in 1994. As we drove towards the school, we saw the block buildings change to thatch covered huts, but it seems like the majority of the homes throughout here are block buildings with thatch roofs. I have slowly learned that although the official language is English, not very many people in the Columbia-Toledo area speak English. The people that live here in the south are Mayan and they continue to speak the dialects of Mopan and Kechi. When I went into the school today, I spoke to the children in English and they did not know what I was saying, so I spoke to them in Spanish and they looked even more confused. I learned that the Mayan children are very shy at first, but after a little while they began to speak the little English that they did know and we were able to exchange names. The teacher told me that they speak Mopan here and that the children do not learn English until they come to school. The class that I stayed in was Infant 1 and 2, so the 2s could say the basic English phrases and were able to understand what we said. The children were so cute and it was even more fun to try to play with them because there was such a language block that we just smiled at each other and used sign language to communicate. These were the first children that were shy in front of the camera! I think this may have been the first time that most of them had seen cameras because they reacted so much differently. I'm so glad that cameras are digital now because as soon as you take a picture, you can show the children their picture. They giggle and point at each other as they look, which is one of the funniest things to see. Their smiles and big brown eyes just melt my heart. We sang all of the various songs that we learned when we were little like the hokey pokey, father Abraham, etc. We played several games like Simon says, but I don't think the kids ever really caught on to the directions. The girls just loved me to death and we did Ring around the Rosie probably a thousand times. I think half of the rhyme was English and the other half was Mopan because they lost me half-way through every time. It rained so hard while we were there and some of the older kids went sliding in the mud with some of our guys. It was hard to say good-bye to all of the children. Literally. It was hard to get away from them! As soon as I tried to leave, I was hugged by ten girls. When we finished hugging, I would be grabbed by ten more children- I was lucky to make it out alive. You never realize how weak you are until you have ten crazy first graders pulling on you and you can't escape. I finally was able to say goodbye so I began walking through the rain and mud to the bus. Cody calls out of the bus saying that he forgot his water bottle. So, I walk back through the mud and rain to find it. I make it to the door  of the classroom and I spot it. Unfortunately, the children spotted me first so the hugging started again. I even got a kiss from one of the girls named Lianee. It seems like most of the children have English names, but they are pronounced and spelled much differently.
We drove back to our camp where we ate chicken, rice and beans. There are so many people complaining about the food here, but it's not bad, it's just bland. I was surprised that the chicken that we ate was so... skinny? As in there was little meat on the bones. I guess it gives a new perspective on the amount of food that the people have. I am a little worried about the food though because this is the first time this month that my stomach has been messed up. 

January 16, 2012 Continued

Well, I took a nap instead of doing homework and then we had class. The debate today was on Euthanasia and the four people presenting did very well. We ate supper (tortillas and eggs) and it did not fill me up at all. Some Mayan women came to sell their things, but I don't think anyone bought anything. I felt really bad that only a few people came to look because the women walked really far in the dark. I spoke with three of the young girls that came and it was nice to learn that they wanted to be teachers and one wanted to work at a business. They all three were going to high school. Then our group drove to Punta Gorda to get food for the next couple of days. We were able to see the ocean even though it was very dark. The town did not feel safe at all and I was happy to leave.