Continuation of Day 36....oops!

I know, I'm obsessed with the view from our balcony, but this one is pretty! This is at about 5:30 in the morning. We have a bed bug problem and despite our efforts to rid them from our mattresses, they are still there and sometimes I have troubles sleeping. At least this is what I wake up to.

Za three amigos before a night out in PG.

Katie eating her crazy soup in Guatemala. It cost 70 Quetzales (about $10 American), and it had every kind of sea food in it. They were even nice enough to take out the eyes of the WHOLE fish that was in the middle:)

An example of some Guatemalan money.

This is a picture of the iguana on our roof. He became our supper the following night.

Ok, so now you have to do some reading before more pictures...or you can scroll down:)


Belize vs Canada: 7 Differences in Teaching
1) The teachers here are under a lot less pressure. They do not have to meet as many expectations as our teachers back home, as their standards are a lot different here. However, this leads to number two.
2) Children fall through the cracks very easy here. They are given up on rather quickly if they do not show any initiative to do work. They can receive a mark of zero on every assignment and the teacher will pass them on to the next standard simply to get rid of them. Not only that, but minimal efforts are made and little extra help is offered to the struggling child.
3) There are not any special programs or attention paid to children with learning disabilities or physical disabilities.
4) Teachers are more respected here than they are in Canada. People support teachers and believe that they work very hard. It makes me a little disappointed about our current situation at home because teachers in Canada are under a lot more pressure and yet they do not always have the public’s support.
5) Racism is a problem in the classrooms. This seemed absurd at first, but one day I had a little girl refuse to work with a boy because he was black. Now, yes, they are all black, but some are darker than others. This little girl was Mayan or Indian, as they call themselves, and the little boy was Garifuna. I also have children who are Mestizo, Spanish, and Creole, and many who are a mixture of the cultures. It took me a few weeks to realize that they do stick together, as I see the Garifuna kids only hanging around each other after school hours.
6) All the standards (grades) seem to cover the same curriculum. Unlike their lifestyle, they seem to move through topics and lessons so ridiculously fast. The children are not able to grasp the concepts, and yet they move on. This causes the teachers to teach the same things every year! I am teaching standard 2, Melissa is teaching standard 3, and Katie is teaching standard 4, and yet many of the things we teach are identical. Unfortunately, we are having a tough time adding depth because each standard does weekly planning together (4 teachers in each standard), and you are not allowed to deviate from what the group plans. I can try to influence them to slow down and spend an extra week to solidify a topic, but keep I am the intern and have to be careful that I am not too pushy. I can’t come into this situation and try and change everything, but I am trying to help my kids while I’m here.
7) Art, physical education, and music are not actually given grades, and so they are also not paid much attention. In phys-ed they do things like wheel barrow races, sponge races, and 3-legged races. They also only have it once a week so the kids are CRAZY when they get to have it.

Belize vs Canada: 8 Differences in Living

1) There is no sleeping-in here. People in Belize get up at 5 or 6 in the morning, and they make enough racket that we get up and join them. However, this means that we’re also usually in bet by 10.
2) We don’t have any hot water. This means cold showers and boiling water for dishes.
3) People here have different priorities than at home. They may barely have enough money to feed their families, but they will all have a large stereo blaring music in their little shacks. Music obviously brings them happiness.
4) Life is slower. People walk slow, ride their bikes slow, service at restaurants is slower, and you can never really count on any shops being open because they all open and close at their leisure throughout the day. Sometimes it will be mid-day, prime business hours in Canada, and there won’t even be a shop open to get a bottle of water here. They seem to run on Belize time….if they say 10, they really mean 11:30.
5) We have to make powdered milk. Pasteurized milk is hard to come by, and when we do see it, it’s pretty expensive, so we stick to the powdered stuff.
6) There is not a lot of selection for food here. This makes us realize just how many products and choices we have in Canada. Food here is not processed and full of chemicals like back home. Rice and beans is the main staple. From there you get all your fish, vegetables, and fruit from the villagers that come into town to sell them. Even their beef is good, and it’s not pumped with chemicals.
7) We are close to the equator here so we have equal hours of sunlight and darkness. The sun rises and sets at 6. It is also just beginning to enter the dry season, and it was about 35 degrees the other day. Supposedly that’s still cool and the teachers say we don’t even understand what we’ve gotten ourselves into. Yikes!
8) And the most obvious one….we are having to adjust to being the minority. Everywhere we go people (mostly males) shout things at us or hiss at us (their mating call, I suppose you could call it). We draw (mostly unwanted) crowds wherever we go it seems. Whether it’s males, beggars, people selling stuff, or children. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but now it’s just part of the reality. We definitely enjoy riding bikes more around town. This seems to alleviate some of the gawking, but encourages some of the shouting. Slowly the people here are getting used to seeing us around, and so this will slowly diminish. That’s the one thing I miss….blending in.

A few of my kids. They're all a little camera shy, unlike Melissa's kids.

We are doing geometry in math, and this is three of my kids building 3-D shapes out of toothpicks and raisins. Wow did we have a fruit fly problem that day!