Hey everybody! It hasn't been too long since my last entry but we've had a couple events that I thought I could add to the 'ol blog. Our school had a spelling bee last week while Melissa's friend Danae was down for a visit. We were the judges for the contest so the pressure was on! Katie wasn't seen as neutral because one of her students was in the contest, so it was up to Melissa and I to keep track of the words spelled correctly, and the points each student earned. We only had a couple bumps along the way so we did alright. Danae was the official time keeper and the principal introduced her as an International Spelling Bee Judge who was flown in from America. It was cute. The two kids who won go on to compete regionally, and then nationally if they win there. They have a chance to win a laptop computer if they win at the national level. This is a picture of the four of us at the contest.
The teachers had a workshop this past Thursday where all of the teachers in our district came to learn different strategies to teach reading and writing. We were not able to participate in the workshop, but instead, made everybody lunch! It was interesting and we all enjoyed learning 
how to make a traditional Garifuna dish. I don't know the proper spelling, but the dish was called Hudut. It's a kind of soup made from coconut milk. There's fish and vegetables in it, and you eat it with mashed up plantains. Plantains look like bananas on steroids. The picture to the left is of us peeling the plantains. They were really hard to peel so we had sore thumbs! They peel easier when they are yellow, but these ones were green. Altogether we probably peeled over 100 of them. The other girl in the photo's name is Musanda. She is the librarian at the school. So after they are peeled, they are boiled, and then we mash them in a really big version of a spice grinder. All of our pictures of this process were really blurry, but in this one below, if you look at the bottom of the picture, you can see the large grinder. You really had to put your back into that chore, and so Katie and I passed that torch onto some young boys who definitely worked up a sweat!
This past weekend we just went to Placencia again. We figured Danae's Belize experience would only be perfect if it ended with Placencia, so we met her there after school on Friday. It was beautiful out on Saturday and we found a 60ish year old man who had a volleyball net with him. So we set that up and played some games against some local guys. We ended up winning overall, but it was great fun and they were good sports about it.
That's about it for the update. I put together another little list of differences, and some pictures at the end again. Hope you enjoy the read!
18 Little Details:
1) People here would never greet each other by saying hi or hey. They always say good morning, good afternoon or good evening, and starting at about 5:30, they say good night. This was a little strange sounding to us at first since we only say good night when we’re going to sleep in Canada, but we quite like it now. Also, they would never ask, ‘how are you?’ like we always do. Instead, they say, ‘ya alright?’
2) When we walk down the street, men make this hissing noise at us. It sounds just like a snake (ssssst, ssssssst), and if we were to do it back, we would be sending them a frisky little invitation. Katie’s tried it out a couple times and she says that it worked out alright for her. (just kidding Katie;)
3) The big dipper is upside down here.
4) The food is GREAT. My Mom thought that I would come back skinnier……sorry to disappoint you Mama.
5) Body image is opposite to what it is in Canada and the US. They don’t really like skinny women. They say that us three are nice and shapely, but that all the girls that have come from the states have looked like sticks. Of course there are all shapes and sizes everywhere, but most of the women here are rather voluptuous. That’s why they’re so good at Punta dancing. They’ve all got something to shake!
6) Whenever a DJ or band is playing Punta Rock, they’ll chant out, ‘back it up, back it up, back it up’, and that’s a challenge to the girls to see who can shake their booty the best.
7) People don’t understand sarcasm here. That is still tough for me because I often tease people by using sarcasm. When I forget and they get confused because they take things literally, I actually have to say, no no! I’m just teasing you. Then most of the time they’ll catch on and laugh.
8) They LOVE Celine Dion here.
9) The Birthday Song is so long here. They have 4 verses for it: happy birthday to you, how old are you now, we wish you many more, and may God bless you today….phew!
10) They don’t have bathing suits. They don’t wear them, nor will you ever find them on sale anywhere. The locals swim in their clothes.
11) The pineapple is fantastic. It’s not acidic like the ones we can get at home. It’s really sweet instead, so I can eat as much as I want without a sore mouth!
12) I’m more flexible here. Our workouts at the gym remind me of Andrea Hehr’s bikram yoga stories – we’re literally soaked because it’s so hot, and so our muscles are a little more stretchy.
13) Teachers here get rewarded for their years of service. For example, my teacher is leaving 2 weeks before me because she has been teaching in PG for nine years, so they are giving her 3 extra months off for summer (5 months total). My poor kids are losing she and I within 2 weeks. It makes me sad to think about.
14) They don’t give grades for music, art, or physical education.
15) They need dental education and sex education very badly. There are lots of smiles with gold front teeth, and lots of young girls with babies.
16) They don’t have any major painkillers here. If you get into an accident or injure yourself badly, the hospital can only give you Advil.
17) So far, food allergies are unheard of among Belizeans.
18) Quarters are called shillings; loonies are simply dollars.
1) People here would never greet each other by saying hi or hey. They always say good morning, good afternoon or good evening, and starting at about 5:30, they say good night. This was a little strange sounding to us at first since we only say good night when we’re going to sleep in Canada, but we quite like it now. Also, they would never ask, ‘how are you?’ like we always do. Instead, they say, ‘ya alright?’
2) When we walk down the street, men make this hissing noise at us. It sounds just like a snake (ssssst, ssssssst), and if we were to do it back, we would be sending them a frisky little invitation. Katie’s tried it out a couple times and she says that it worked out alright for her. (just kidding Katie;)
3) The big dipper is upside down here.
4) The food is GREAT. My Mom thought that I would come back skinnier……sorry to disappoint you Mama.
5) Body image is opposite to what it is in Canada and the US. They don’t really like skinny women. They say that us three are nice and shapely, but that all the girls that have come from the states have looked like sticks. Of course there are all shapes and sizes everywhere, but most of the women here are rather voluptuous. That’s why they’re so good at Punta dancing. They’ve all got something to shake!
6) Whenever a DJ or band is playing Punta Rock, they’ll chant out, ‘back it up, back it up, back it up’, and that’s a challenge to the girls to see who can shake their booty the best.
7) People don’t understand sarcasm here. That is still tough for me because I often tease people by using sarcasm. When I forget and they get confused because they take things literally, I actually have to say, no no! I’m just teasing you. Then most of the time they’ll catch on and laugh.
8) They LOVE Celine Dion here.
9) The Birthday Song is so long here. They have 4 verses for it: happy birthday to you, how old are you now, we wish you many more, and may God bless you today….phew!
10) They don’t have bathing suits. They don’t wear them, nor will you ever find them on sale anywhere. The locals swim in their clothes.
11) The pineapple is fantastic. It’s not acidic like the ones we can get at home. It’s really sweet instead, so I can eat as much as I want without a sore mouth!
12) I’m more flexible here. Our workouts at the gym remind me of Andrea Hehr’s bikram yoga stories – we’re literally soaked because it’s so hot, and so our muscles are a little more stretchy.
13) Teachers here get rewarded for their years of service. For example, my teacher is leaving 2 weeks before me because she has been teaching in PG for nine years, so they are giving her 3 extra months off for summer (5 months total). My poor kids are losing she and I within 2 weeks. It makes me sad to think about.
14) They don’t give grades for music, art, or physical education.
15) They need dental education and sex education very badly. There are lots of smiles with gold front teeth, and lots of young girls with babies.
16) They don’t have any major painkillers here. If you get into an accident or injure yourself badly, the hospital can only give you Advil.
17) So far, food allergies are unheard of among Belizeans.
18) Quarters are called shillings; loonies are simply dollars.
I don't know if you can see this picture very well, but the ants in this picture are quite big and they are leaf cutter ants. They are nocturnal, and so whenever we see them collecting leaves during the day, it tells us that it is going to rain that night.
This is a picture of down town PG. The clock doesn't actually work, but there's a little playground where lots of people always seem to be hanging out.
This is just a really cool flower.
This is a picture of the village that Danae got to visit. We drive by these villages all the time, but she was able to get out to visit and take some photos.
Again, this is a photo that Danae took, but this is a type of fruit that grows here. The women use those red seeds for lipstick.That's all for now. Good night!
3 comments:
Hey Trish!
Wow those are some interesting facts and photos! It all looks so amazing, and you girls all look so good! Sounds like quite the time you are having and so many new and interesting things to do all the time. Glad its still going great....excellent job on your updates!
luv ya
Kate
Trisa,
Great pics. That flower looks interesting. Must have been interesting to judge the spelling bee contest.
Brad
Hi Trish. Just a hello to let you know we are keeping up with your posts.
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