Our biggest challenge, however, was designing and giving a presentation suited for 7 and 8 year olds. We each wrote our own sections and then I put the power point together, came up with an activity to play with them about the essential things pets needs (food, water, shelter, pet doctors), and found a picture of a dog that they could take home and color. We gave the presentation today and I think it went really well. I took some pictures of the kids and they seemed to really love the activity, but not so much the power point. When we quizzed them at the end, they all knew the basic things their pet needs and were really excited by the coloring page. We decided at the spur of the moment to have them bring the coloring pages back by the end of the week and we would hand out prizes to all of them for coloring and listing four things their pet needs on the back. We decided animal crackers and m&ms would be appropriate…and even got to snag some for ourselves.
The kids playing our game
Monday – This was the first official day where it felt like true summer. From that day on, it has been smothering hot and humid, even at night. I now wear shorts to school and am not cold like I used to be from the air conditioning because it is just so hot outside. After taking a shower and feeling clean, you start sweating about 5 minutes later. I can’t even imagine staying here for all of May, June, July, and August. People must not come out during the day because it gets so hot.
Tuesday - I went to Branch Mouth, or Green Iguana Park, to go swimming in the river with a few people. It was about a 20 minute walk down to the river and then I had to cross a really old bridge that was swaying back and forth like it was going to snap at any moment. We crossed the bridge successfully and were greeted by several really large, dirty pigs wallowing in the mud by the river. There was a huge fig tree to the right of the bridge and a string with a branch attached to it for swinging into the river. After about 10 minutes of trying to grab the string from the hanging tree so we could swing on it, we each took turns swinging into the river. We soon found out, however, that the water was not deep at all and several of us came back with scrapes and bruises from hitting rocks at the bottom of the river.
Since our field trip to Gales Point Manatee Reserve was canceled once again for the weekend, some people went to Tikal, Guatemala, while others went to Chetumal, Mexico. Most of us, however, stayed back in San Ignacio for the weekend.
Friday – I woke up early to catch the Galen bus to school to go talk to Ms. Shaw, the teacher of the students we would be giving the presentation for our service-learning project to, and to see if I could take out a projector for the presentation. I got to the bus stop at 10:05, since the bus normally comes at 10:15. I stood outside in the blistering heat until 10:40 and no bus was in sight. Two other public buses passed through, but I had never taken the public bus by myself before and wasn’t sure which one to get on. Plus, the public bus is always an adventure with many people standing because there are never enough seats for everyone and it gets extremely hot on the buses.
At that point, I walked back to the guesthouse to figure out the correct bus schedule and found out that the Galen bus wasn’t coming until 12:45, so I had to take the public bus. I knocked on Meg and Jay’s door, our group leaders, and talked to Meg about which bus to take. She told me it would cost one dollar and to get on the Belmopan/Belize City bus. I headed back to the bus waiting area downtown and as soon as the right bus pulled up, a horde of people scrambled towards the bus to increase their chances of getting a seat. I followed the crowd and managed to squeeze myself towards the front of the crowd and got a seat right in front with a woman who refused to move into the seat, but I didn’t mind. The guy collects your money about 5 minutes into the bus ride and depending on how far you’re traveling is how much it costs. There are no specific stops either. When you want to get off, you have to stand up and walk towards the front and yell stop so the driver knows to stop. As soon as one seat vacates, someone standing must sit down. I was only on the bus for about 20 minutes and during that time I had about 5 different people sit next to me. I’m also pretty sure I was the only white person on the bus. It’s still bizarre to me being the minority all the time here.
I got off the bus and went upstairs to talk to Ms. Rhondine, who OKed me signing out a projector for that following Monday. I then walked over to the children’s school to talk to Ms. Shaw, who is the sweetest woman I’ve ever met. She was completely fine with us giving the presentation whenever we wanted at whatever time we wanted. I waited for the Galen bus to take me home and then when I came home, the power was out, again, so I couldn’t work on my project since my battery on my computer is dead and I can only use it when it’s plugged in.
I lied on my bed like a star fish for quite some time, just trying to cool off, since I couldn’t turn the air conditioning on either, until Andrew came in and wanted to go to the river. Alex, Andrew, and I went to branch mouth, since Alex had never been there and cooled off for a bit. When we got back, Andrew had to go find an outfit for the talent show that night, since they asked him to model in it, along with several other girls and two other guys. We walked to an “American exchange” store and the door was already halfway shut, since they were going to close in 15 minutes. A couple kids came out with hula hoops and told us we could still go in if we wanted, so we ducked under the door (the doors are like garage doors here or something you would see at a mall) and looked around. Andrew found a banging t-shirt that looked Japanese with designs that looked like hello kitty to wear. Before we got a chance to look some more, the kids told us they were closing as we had to leave, so we crossed the bridge over to Santa Elena and went into one of the thrift stores.
A few people had gone to some of the thrift stores before and each one came back with a piece of cheap American nice clothing. We spent about 15 minutes looking, in which I found one top I really liked, but refrained from buying it since I don’t really need it. Andrew found something else for the talent show, but I didn’t see what it was before he bought it and wore it to the show.
By the time we got back, we only had about a half hour until the show started. I quickly made myself dinner and packed it to take with me and then headed over to Hode’s, a restaurant where it was being held. It was $5 to get in and was supposed to start at 6:30, but of course that’s in Belize time and the show didn’t actually start until after 7. The group of us that went got seats towards the front for prime viewing. After waiting about 45 minutes for the show to start, a man got on stage and announced the start of the show. What I then witnessed in the show I will never forget.
See next post for the rest of the story…
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