The weekdays are definitely not as fun as the weekends; I think that goes for any country and person though.
Monday was just a long, hot day...looking forward to tonight is what kept Lauren and I going. I taught my lower group of students in the back of the classroom. I am teaching the same subject but we are going at a slower pace and it is more teacher guided. I definitely have to be on my toes working with the students. We finally made it home at the end of the day. The night was unfortunately warm as well. Lauren and I walked the town like we always do and talked with our friends and we headed home; it was an uneventful night besides finding out the real meaning of some words/phrases we thought we knew. Quite hilarious.
The next day was a little more interesting. On Tuesday mornings the teachers have a staff church session. There we prayed and sang hymnal songs; it is definitely interesting. It was also a student's birthday in which we celebrated. He brought cake and soda and we took a good chunk of the morning honoring him. The thing about the educational system in the US is that you cannot waste any educational time, and here it is a lot different: constant interruptions, teachers always walking in and out, celebrating birthdays or religion etc. Later that day I was working with my group and getting to know my students more. During a break, the teacher was talking to me about her past experiences in the other schools in Belize as a teacher. She said that there was one student who would pull knives on teachers he did not like. She explained to me how she ended up with the student, who was bipolar. She said that he threatened to pull a knife on her and hit her several times. The way she dealt with the situation is that she would stand up and give back to him the same attitude and similar threats; the kid backed down. She told me how they battled all the time and that all it took was a taste of his own medicine. She said she was terrified inside but if she did not stand up to him he would win. The amazing part of this story is that the kid visits her every once in a while now and says yes mam, no mam and respects her. A friend of hers has the kid in a correctional facility and says that he writes about her all the time. She has definitely made a positive impact on his life; those are the stories that inspire me. After another day at the school, Lauren and I headed home. We have developed a habit of taking an hour nap after school and then getting ready for the night. After getting ready, we met one of Lauren's student's moms downtown. She picked us up and we headed to dinner. The mom is 29 and a mother of two. She and her husband are very well off and own a lot of businesses and hold high ranking positions here. She was very easy to get along with and we probably spent about 4 hours talking about everything under the sun and driving around town after dinner and drinks; we were lucky she treated us to a girls night out, a very fun, hilarious and amazing night. She took us around to see a couple of her businesses and her house and she gave us a whole past history of her life. To say the least, the three of us are good friends now and talk all the time. After returning at 11:30 on a school night with a thousand inside jokes between us, we really needed to head to bed.
This morning was a little rough waking up, but we made it. Luckily the weather has cooled a bit, so we were not as miserable today in class. The most eventful part of the day was when my teacher and students called Lauren and I into the classroom. They introduced us to a new fruit that they wanted us to try. I do not remember the name of the fruit but they all stood around as we were staring at it. The fruit was slimy because it was in a sugar syrup. We bit into the fruit and it was very hard and leathery but tasted good. The fruit got stuck in our teeth and we barely could eat any at all. The teacher and students were laughing and staring along with us; two white girls or gringos as they say trying to eat an exotic fruit. The fruit at one point slipped through both Lauren and my fingers and we were trying to catch it several times. Lets just say that we all got a work out from laughing so hard. After we all got under control we finished our lessons. I stayed after to tutor my Standard 4 students who were having trouble in multiplying decimals. Lauren eventually joined me and we helped all those who needed it while the teachers were planning. After we finally left school we headed home to tutor Andre, Dr. Harrison's nephew who we play with sometimes after school. Now Lauren is napping and I am writing this blog. Once I am finished I will take a nap as well and then get ready for tonight. Tonight is American themed by eating pizza and ice cream with friends and then going to a karaoke bar. Should be interesting!
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