Adventure to PG, Belize: Week 6 of Teaching

The end is in sight! Less than two weeks of teaching left and only 7 instructional days. This week was a good one. I taught more and most of my lessons went very well. Every night was the same... came home and planned lessons, ate supper, planned more and went to bed. The week went very quickly. I've actually looked forward to going to school each day and when the day was over I was a little bummed because I enjoy being around the kids. The highlight of my week was Tuesday...

In our class, there is one student who is diagnosed with cancer. He was in school for about two or three weeks when I first started, but then he had to go up to Merida, Mexico to receive treatments. He wasn't doing so well for awhile. They couldn't find his vein at one point to take his blood or give him treatments or something. He was doing well one day and the next he would be doing bad. My teacher said that he told his mother that if he has to take anymore pills he would rather die. This was coming from a 7 year old. So everyday our class offered our prayers to him and we always reminded them to include their classmate in their prayers at home. Well on Tuesday after our class sang our gospel songs my teacher exclaimed that she had good news. She told the class that the boy was feeling much better and the doctors finally released him from the hospital. She proceeded to tell them that he would be coming home on the 9:30 am plane that very morning! Then she had even better news... our entire class was to pack up in two vehicles (all 21 children and us) and meet the boy at the airstrip to welcome him home! I actually got goosebumps when she informed us of this.

So, we had the students make welcome signs. Many of them wrote, "Welcome Back", "I love you", and "I miss you very much". It was so cute. After the kids made the signs we went outside to pack half of the kids in my teacher's van and the other half would go in a pickup truck. I had two students sitting on my lap with another adult in my seat. It was so crammed and very illegal if we were in the States but it was all good here. It then ended up that my teacher's van would not start so our truck had to drop us off at the airstrip and then the driver went to pick up the other kids. Once everyone arrived we waited for the plane to arrive. When it did the kids were cheering for their classmate and waving their signs. The little boy looked in shock that all his classmates came to welcome him back. It was one of the most precious things I have ever witnessed. They all gathered around him, took pictures, hugged him gently and gave him their pictures. After that all 21 students, myself, my teacher, the driver and a lady from customs all piled in the little pick up truck. There were kids everyone. Some sat in the back and some in the cab. The driver thought it would be funny to stop abruptly every once in awhile to give a little jerk. The kids were laughing and we all made it back safely. The whole time I was just thinking how crazy it all was but so neat. I was feeling sick and tired that day but after that my mood changed drastically.