home in 5 hours

casey and i are currently sitting in the miami airport waiting for our flight to take off (8:15 miami time). we should arrive at lambert at about 10:05 tonight. our last night was spent in belize city and we had fun hanging out one last time with all of our friends. everyone in PG really took care of us these past couple days as well. we had lunch at the parish 3 times in the last week and dinner made for us twice. last night in belize city we made spaghetti and meatballs for our friends up there. it was a really good last night. we cant wait to get home and see everyone — but i need to get myself ready to go back for 6 more months. im already excited to get back. i miss the warmth.

pics from guatemala and the cayes

matt with his starfish on the cayes

the market in puerto barrios, guatemala

chickens in a basket in the market in puerto barrios

the cathedral in puerto barrios

view of puerto barrios form the cathedral bell tower

the street in livingston, guatemala

shopping in livingston

view from the top of the market in puerto barrios

guatemala and a day at the cayes

the past 5 days have been jam packed and this is the first time i have had internet since last wednesday. thursday and friday in guatemala were so much fun! then on saturday we went out to the cayes with 8 JVIs and some belizean friends. i have never seen a more beautiful place in my life. as we pulled up to the caye you could see STRAIGHT to the bottom of the sea. it was so clear the water looked white because the only thing you saw was the white sand at the bottom. i will have more details and pics up hopefully by this afternoon, but i just thought i would let everyone know i was alive with a little post.

quick post about the garden

today was a really good day at st. benedicts. we basically played games (educational ones of course) all day long and they behaved themselves really well. im going to miss them over the break. i only teach them 2 more times before i head home. i will be in guatemala this thurs and then i only have next week left. so sad

today was garden day and things are starting to pop up and be ready to eat. the first cucumber was harvested today. i have a hot pepper in my pocket to put on dinner tonight. i cant wait. it smells so nice, but i know it is going to burn my tongue off! also i tried a bunch of things that grow back in the forest that Jarvis and Ryan were picking for me during garden time. one was sarosi which is this little yellow-orange looking fruit bud that grows in the forrest and when you open it up it is filled with sweet seeds that are bright red colored. you eat the seeds. it was really nice. its supposed to be a cure when you are feeling ill. also the picked me this berry which they call grandpa balls and they are these big red berries and you open them and they are filled with a hard piece of flesh and you just take the juice from them and throw them away. it was also very sweet tasting. ms jan, the gardener and librarian down here from canada for the year, was looking at me like i was crazy for trying everything these 11 year old boys were telling me to eat. i havent died yet tho… so i think ill be ok. also neria is supposed to be bringing me a banana tree so maybe i will be able to have baby bananas soon.

no light corn syrup

so there is no light corn syrup in all of PG. i am supposed to be making some gooey butter cakes for bday presents and such, but there is no light corn syrup to be found. which is probably better because that would have taken about 3 or 4 hours of my day to finish all the baking. so i bought pudding instead to make for myself. yum.

its monday in PG and we are in the SPC office. our job today — receipt books. this is an ongoing task that never gets saved and always gets lost and will never ever be completed. we take all the receipts from every single payment from the parents and put them into an excel document to see who has yet to pay. the annoying thing is that some people pay on 4 or 5 different occasions and we have to decide whether they were paying for homework books, tuition, computer fees, p.e. uniforms, or any other of the many $5 fees. its such dumb work and it takes forever and it is constantly being messed up. stupid stupid stupid. but tomorrow is St. Benedict and then thursday we are off to guatemala. thank goodness.

i spent all day yesterday trying to find internet, but failed miserably. i was trying to submit my slu scholarship application, but did it today instead…. actually just about 4 minutes ago. huge relief. its over!

SPECIAL SHOUT OUR TO MY FAVORITE (and only) SISTER MADELEINE! HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY! TRY TO REMEMBER IT TOMORROW!

chilly saturday in PG

i am staying at the JVI house this thanksgiving weekend since they are out on retreat and i woke up this morning and it was so chilly! it was a perfect morning to run all the errands i had. i woke up, went to the market to stock up the fridge for the week, went to the grocery store to get the essentials, went to the parish office to do part of my laundry, and walked down to carol’s to give her the rest of my laundry that needs to be shrunk down as well as cleaned. and now i am sitting outside SPC updating my blog, trying to finish the final copy of my SLU scholarship essay, and apply to loyola new orleans. i am currently chatting it up with kacie down in argentina right now — swapping international gossip. i havent talked to her in over a month so its nice to catch up!

for thanksgiving we were invited over to some minnesota voulenteer’s house to eat with them. it was nice to have a thanksgiving dinner to go to since i had to miss it back home. of course i didnt take part in the consuming of the food seeing as none of it is vegan… so i brought a salad. but! just being there was nice.

we are headed off to guatemala this next week on thursday and friday. that should be a fun trip. everyone has been saying how beautiful it is. the weekends are coming to an end here. only 2 more after this one is over. how crazy is that? well i have to get back to college work. i feel like i did a year ago — deadlines are not my friend.

culture day, garifuna day, and placencia

Culture Day at St. Peter Claver

a student dressed in a traditional maya outfit

dancing at the SPC culture day celebration

girls at culture day

children near the pier before the garifuna landing reenactment

allison shielding herself from the sun

the reenactment of the garifuna settlement

lower division running races on sports day

lining up for the races

boys we hung out with while waiting for the bus to placencia

where we stayed in placencia ---- the sea is about 20 yards behind the camera

the sea from in front of our cabana

another beach pic

another pic of the cabana we stayed in

barefoot bar in placencia

update from the coral house

this week was hard work! i was up at st. benedicts tuesday, wednesday, and thursday for full days of teaching. casey has had a cold for about a week and i had a fever (most likely just from exhaustion) on wednesday night. then monday was normal at SPC and then friday was SPC culture day so st. benedicts traveled to st. peter claver for the day and it was a huge day of over 1000 children dressed up in their cultures traditional outfits and dancing and drumming and singing and stuff. the grounds were piled with trash when it was all over but the kids all had so much fun. i will hopefully have some good pics to put up soon. i am currently in the middle of trying to plan my schedule for 2nd semester down here with jessica. im still going to have us be at st. benedicts for tuesdays and thursdays, but SPC is just not enough work to do so i think im going to cut it down to one day over there so they can get all the work together they need us to do and we can get it all done in one day instead of having random tasks thrown at us throughout the week. they were just not organized enough to have full time volunteers over there. i am hoping to talk to the clinic, the eye center, or the red cross center and see if they could use us on wednesdays and fridays. i will keep everyone updated on my findings. on the 17th of this month we will only have a month left in belize til we go home for xmas. i will be staying in stl from the 17th of december to the 2nd of january. and then jessica will be meeting me down here a week or two later. im excited to come home and see everyone but i know its going to make it hard to come back. at the moment i am trying to get my SLU scholarship essay done. its only 500 words and it is a personal essay, but it is hard to get started on it down here. i only have til Dec 1st to get it in….. so lets hope i get inspired quickly! well casey and i are just up laying out at the coral house at the moment. it is a beautiful clear day…. not a cloud in the sky. it has been cloudy lately and we werent sure if we were ever going to get a sunny weekend day again. this next week is a short week. monday is normal at SPC and then tuesday is culture day at st. benedicts and then wednesday is off for something or other, thursday is garifuna settlement day so we get off for that, then friday is childrens day so we are off for that. i think this weekend casey and i are going to head up to placencia and hang out on the beach since there is nor much to do when work if off around here. then the following weekend is thanksgiving… im not sure what we will do for that. the JVIs are out of town on a retreat so maybe we will get invited over somewhere for dinner. then the weekend after that we are traveling to guatamala with fr. perl, william, and kevin. we are pretty excited for that trip. im surprised fr. was able to fit us in because he is constantly on the move and always busy busy busy. then the weekend after that is our last weekend in PG til next year. i cant believe this semester is almost over. well hopefully i will get up culture day pics from SPC soon. they are so cute.

boring fridays

well we just got to SPC this morning and the copiers are all broken and the printer isnt working and only one computer is working…. so we dont have much to do sadly. but it sure does make up for all those days where we have so much that i wish everything was broken. well the weekend is basically here and that is going to be a nice break from everything — except the tropical storm that is expected to hit tonight… we have been warned to stock up on water and food to survive for a week (just in case) so we are off to do some shopping to make sure we can survive.

stormy days in PG

so it has been raining since saturday on us. we arrived to belize city saturday at noon and were welcomed by rain — which lasted all day and night. then it rained on and off sunday and followed us back to PG for the rest of the week. monday it drizzled all day and then tuesday we woke up to dark skies and it started pouring the second i got on my bike to head to st. benedicts. even with a rain jacket i still showed up SOAKING wet. i sat outside the classroom ringing out my skirt for at least 10 minutes while the kids journeled. yesterday (wednesday) was cloudy all day and then rained after lunch into the late night. it rained all day today (although i got to school right before it started) and i am currently at SPC soaking from riding my bike home in the rain. the rain im sure is from this tropical storm or hurricane (whichever it is) and is supposed to get worse tomorrow. muddy muddy muddy! the best part about all of this is the weather…. it feels a little like early fall back home around here…. so its kind of nice. well my classroom is perfect and i have had such a fun time teaching them math on the board…. and since there are only 17 of them, playing games is easy. well thats all i have for today. the weekend is tomorrow! cant wait! im sure i will be wearing my rain jacket out tho…. also pray the electricity stays on (it was out most of the day today!).