Welcome to the Jungle

We finally made it to Punta Gorda! We got up at 3:30 yesterday morning, got ready and went to the airport. Luckily, all of our flights departed and arrived pretty much on time. When we landed in Belize City we exited the plane down stairs directly outside. The heat was outrageuous! I instantly started "glistening". Once we got into the airport we were greeted by some of the friendliest people I've ever met. We had to wait for an hour until our plane left but we kept ourselves busy by looking in the gift shop. Once it was time to board we walked outside to a small 10-passenger plane. If I had not been on an even smaller plane with Cory before I would have been completely freaked out. However, I was a pro and hopped on with much excitement. Our plane made some pitstops in Santiago, Palencia and then it finally landed in PG.

Once we stepped out into PG I was a bit shocked. It was rather quiet and different than I expected. Unfortunely, my luggage did not arrive right away so I had to wait. My host dad, Paul, met us and took us back to his house. Many of the houses are on stilts and have tin roofs. Some actually looked like forts. There is quite an ecletic mix of houses becuase ours is rather well developed. Andrea and I have our own room with a bathroom and our house even has internet! When we arrived at our house with Paul and our host mom, Celia, we met two of their children; Giselle is 15 and very mature and welcoming and Alwyn is 13 and really nice. Their oldest daugher, Karena, is away for college in Trinidad.

At our house Celia fixed Andrea and me guava jelly sandwiches and homemade lemonade. We also tried some guavas which were okay. :) Next, we sat around and talked and Paul told us his many stories,  one including his meeting with the Queen of England. Our family is very nice and they really stressed for us to feel at home. When I got here I was a little homesick because of the culture shock, but once I started talking to our "family" I felt better.

After my luggage arrived, Andrea and I went with Celia to the store. The store had tons of essentials that I didn't think they would have! They even had teaching materials so I should be pretty good on that. The store only had three walls so that was kind of interesting. When we drove around there were kids everywhere riding bikes and walking around. They do not really seem to care if a car is driving by. One kid almost ran into Celia on his bike. Here, you can't get your driver's license until you're 18.

When we got back, I started unpacking and then we had our group orientation. In the midst of the talk, the power went out in the whole city. We heard people screaming and laughing. It was kind of scary. Then the power went on and off again. After the orientation, Andrea and I had a candlelit spaghetti dinner as Giselle pointed out. Then we finished unpacking and showering. Falling asleep was kind of hard due to the heat, but eventually I fell asleep. Now we are going to go kayaking in one of the town's rivers!