Teaching, Beaching, and Shopping

Today was my first day of teaching—the whole reason I can down here. I woke up with the birds at about 6 and laid in bed until 7:50something. Laying and listening is one of my favorite things to do here.

School starts at 8:30 here which is definitely different (can’t really say better or worse) than South Christian’s 7:15. We get a Belizian shuttle to our schools. My school is out in the BOONIES! We just rode and rode and rode pothole after pothole after pothole. It was the cutest thing seeing the kids walking and riding their bikes to school in their uniforms. Their was one 6-year-old that was riding a mini bike with a smaller girl riding on the handle bars backwards. That was quite impressive. Where there is a will, there is a way.

We walk in the Standard 3 classroom which is the equivalent of 4th-ish grade. I got to see the kids interacting and found it fascinating. They were from ages 9-12 which made them all different sizes—some pubertized and some not. They ALL speak Spanish and a
Lot of it. They were so interested in teaching me words. That part was fun.

There were 28 students, lots of fans, and no electricity when we got there. Having random spurts of no electricity is a common thing down here. I’ve learned to grow accustomed to it. They greeted us which was too cool. I’m such an adult and a contributing professional to this world! I can hardly believe it. Quite surreal.

The teacher’s name is Mr. Sanchez. He’s been teaching for about 23 years and will be retiring at the end of this term. He told us the kinds of things he will be teaching. There is very little order I gleaned from talking to him. There are a variety of books they use because they don’t get new ones every year. Some books were written in from last year and the students work on the pages that have not been written in. They are at least 10 years old—some are 20 or 25 years. There is no SmartBoard or even dry-erase. Just chalk. They don’t even have teacher’s manuals which made it interesting for some of the math. The students write all their lessons from the board onto Composition notebooks. I couldn’t double-check myself. Good thing my dear mother made me go through Mennonite math bootcamp with no calculator when I was growing.

Despite all the things that were not in the classroom, I actually will like teaching in this atmosphere more than I do in a school that has more stuff. It took a minute to get used to it because I just came out of a first-grade classroom in the States that had every possible thing imaginable in it. Here, there’re pencils, paper, 2 kick-balls, desks, 6-7 erasers, and a few random things. School here is school. No beauracracy, no No Child Left Behind, no help. Just me, kids, learning, and a chalkboard. I am the music teacher, PE teacher, subject teacher, assessment coordinator, and everything else in between. I can be what I have been trained to be.

We went to Mexico yesterday. There is a beach about 45 minutes into Mexico. The water we swam in was not salty. I don’t know how God did that, but I think it’s called a lagoon. It was amazing. Bright blue, sandy, peaceful. I had a mango on a stick that wasn’t my favorite, but a mango on a stick is a mango on a stick. I also tried the pumpkin seed version of the nuts you get in the mall that are laden with sugar. That was great. Since I didn’t bother trying to get a tan, I spent most of my hour in the water. Man I’m glad I’m chocolate brown!!! I wanted to dive off the jump-off thingy more, but there was a couple “not drinking a margarita” and I didn’t want to intrude on their happy times lol.

I went to a market and found some insane dresses. I’m pretty excited about how decked out I’m gonna be for the summer. I also found out that nowhere south of the border has my shoe size. They stop at about an 8.5. Their faces were hysterical when I would try on their biggest size shoe and it still wouldn’t fit. Is a 9.5 really all that big?? I was disheartened, but the dresses made me feel better.

Well, before the electricity dies away, I will post this and continue my life south of the border.

Adios for now!

JLP