Culture & Guatemala

This past week has been packed with a lot of great experiences! During the week I taught my lessons and helped my cooperating teacher with some. Overall the kids have been behaving fairly well. They have their moments but I have been using a lot of positive reinforcement which seems to be paying off. I still need to be firm and consistant, but the students respond well when I applaud or notice their efforts. On Wednesday our class got ready for the school's cultural day on Thursday. Our class was assigned to create a booth about the Creole culture. The Creole people originated when British Baymen mixed with African slaves. A Creole person is defined as a person of both European and African ancestry. When these people came to this land they were forced to speak English but altered their words to make a language of their own. Thus, the Creole language was established.  During this week I learned a lot about the five main cultures of Belize. It was very interesting. In the States I don't think we celebrate our different cultures as much as we should. My experience with the rich culture here will definitely be something that I bring back to my teaching.

On Thursday we set up our booth and we walked around to look at the other four booths. I really enjoyed the day but after awhile I was getting a little bored of just looking around. However, in the afternoon the dancing portion of the day took place. Each class created a little dance or play for the entire school to watch. The dances/plays were performed in the school volleyball court. At this time, the group of older girls, two other teachers and I performed our dance. It went well! I was even dressed up in Garifuna wear so it made it more exciting. My suit kind of looked like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz's dress, but it worked! Andrea had a pink costume. As we walked to and from school many of the locals kept thanking us for celebrating their culuture. They were so happy with us which made us feel good.

After school we came home, did a little homework and then went to hang out with my cooperating teacher and another teacher, Janice. They showed us around the town and took us to some drummings. During intermission I had a chance to practice my drumming skills. It was fun but boy did it make my arms hurt. I can't imagine how hard the drummer's arms hurt after playing for so long. While we were out some of our group informed us that we would be leaving for Guatemala on Friday morning (the next morning) rather than Saturday morning. So I went home, packed and went to bed to wake up around 6:30.

The next morning it was raining heavily. I was very thankful that I purchased a raincoat to bring on this trip at the moment. I walked to customs while eating a delicious tortilla. When I arrived the group was there and then Darren from our group started joking that he forgot his passport. Everyone laughed until I realized that I actually did forget mine. So, I dropped my stuff and ran all the way back home in the heavy rain. It was pretty frustrating, but it all worked out. I arrived back and we still had to wait forever for the boat to arrive. When we got on the boat is was still down pouring. The customs people said that they would have plastic for us. I envisioned that we would all be getting nice big ponchos to cover up with. Yet, that was exactly the case. We were handed soaking wet plastic tarps to cover four people up with. We were laughing at our struggle because there wasn't much else we could do. Then we took off on the worst hour and a half boat ride of my entire life. I could not see land in any direction, the waves were crashing over the boat, I was soaked and it was so bumpy. Every once in a while I would just look at Beth and laugh. Luckily there was a middle-aged man from Australia or something on my right that kept telling me that it would all be alright. Fortunately, he was right. We finally made it to some port in Guatemala. We got off the boat to discover a worn down town that was very scary. None of us felt safe in this town so we decided to ask if we could go to a different town. My spanish skills really came in handy during this whole trip. Haley and I kept bouncing words that we knew off of each other just to get through the trip. Anyways, in this weird town we found a guy who said that he could take us to Livingston which is a safer town. I asked (in spanish) to see his license. He showed us and we decided that it would be our best option to go with him. The boat ride wasn't too bad and he showed us to a decent hotel.

The hotel in Livingston only cost me $3.75 US a night. Very cheap but we definitely only got what we paid for. The room was pretty disgusting but it had beds, a toilet (with no seat), a gross shower and a sink. So... it worked. Once we got settled in our luxurious "hotel" we had a little lunch. I had chicken which wasn't that good but luckily there were tomatoes and fries for me to eat. Some people ordered fish and the fish actually look like a deep fried whole fish. I don't think anyone could have paid me to eat that. Other people ordered shrimp and they still had their eyes. Poor Beth was really grossed out but she was brave at ate them anyways.

After lunch we walked around town. I was expecting some really nice shops with beautiful  jewelry but that wasn't the case. I found one good store but the rest were kind of chincy. After shopping we went to a restaurant called "Happy Fish". I had grilled chicken and salad which was pretty good. It ended up being expensive.. well at least is seemed so. It was 100 quentzales (Guatemalan currency) which would be 25 Belizean so really only $12.50 US. I really had to use a lot of my math and spanish skills this weekend. After dinner we went to bed and slept for about 12 hours. It was nice but the bed hurt my back and we only had one thin sheet.

The next morning we went to breakfast at a place called Baga Mama. I had banana pancakes and they were yummy!! After that we took a boat ride to a beautiful park with waterfalls. Before entering the rainforest I saw a sign on a tree that said "Nany cura la diabetes". I asked the man inside the hut what that tree did and he said it is supposed to cure diabetes. A liquid is squeezed from the leaf or the fruit and a diabetic person is supposed to drink some every morning. I thought about taking some leaves but I didn't think they would last all the way home. Then we started our hike. It was a lot of work but the scenary of the rainforest was gorgeous. I was so happy at this moment.  I got wet and I regretted bringing my phone but luckily it avoided any water. At the end of the hike was a decent sized waterfall. I was hesistant at first but after a couple of our group members went I decided to jump off of it as well. It was scary but I was so glad I did it. Then we hiked back, went to change and went to have a long dinner at Baga Mama again. I had a good meal and our group just talked and relaxed. It was very nice.

This morning we took a much better boat ride back. It felt good to be back in PG but the day is going by very slowly. I am starting to really look forward to going home. Overall, good week but now I want to relax!

Can't wait to see everyone again!!!