Before and After

Things I miss:

-Sweeping up normal things like dirt, or crumbs… NOT dead cockroaches. Granted, the real treat is when they are still half alive.

-FamJam, Friends, and all the great people I left behind (yeah, yeah.. Cliché but necessary, right?)

-My D-Girls… all of D4 actually

-Internet that isn’t monitored and blocked by the… Government? Service providers? Belizean Mafia? I don’t know. It’s annoying though

-Vegetables! Mostly soybeans.

-Non-stick pots and pans. (Dishes take foreeeeever)

-High heels… *sigh*

-My previous vocabulary including “monkey” “silly” and “punk”

-Unlimited texting

My favourites:

-Waking up to rays of sunshine streaming through the curtains

-Video dance-offs.. even when there’s no music

-Perkup, my two-in-one fix of caffeine and taste of home

-My Chinese neighbors’ huge screaming matches

-My Chinese neighbors’ music selections. Backstreet boys dominate by far

-Sitting on my balcony reading, writing, whatever, in the warm Belizean breeze

-Just sitting and observing everything going on. Seriously unreal.

-Jungle mountain biking

-Watching and learning the mechanisms of the home

-Getting lost in Belmopan - and not caring because it's gorgeous and I have all the time in the world

-Finding out that “Potty-trained” Alicia wasn’t put in a diaper again by way of a wet lap. Not actually my favourite, but it’s happened like 3 times already! Ay yi yi

-Eight bananas for one Belizean dollar. (50 cents American!)

-Every time one of the boys remembers something I’ve been teaching and I feel somewhat effective

-Afternoon naptime when there’s toddler’s sprawled all over the couches in the play room

-Never having an empty lap when I sit down

-The smell after the rain has just finished pounding; It’s like spring over and over

-All the colourful houses!

-Spontaneous conversations with a new face, whether traveller or local

-Not always being freezing, Hallelujah! Sunshine > Snow by far.

-Cool breeze in my hair while cruising on my new one-speed

-Talking about “Juvie’s” (boyfriends/girlfriends) with the teen girls. They usually try to deny it but someone always rats them out

-Remembering new names – I’m gettin there!

-Belmopan's "Yellow Brick Road" – The sectioned path that lies all throughout town

-Edgar’s huge smile when he reaches for the monkey bars, knowing full well he is going to get tickled

-“Hi Bebe!” – Greetings between Alexia and I

-Alicia’s wild hair and magnified emotions

-Multiple photo shoots (and face-wars) with Josiah

-Playing along with Laquisha’s fake irritancy towards me until she cracks and slips a giggle

-When JR wears cologne and greases his hair to wheel the babes in his grade two class

-Being blown away by the kids’ maturity

-Ashton singing along to the ipod even though he doesn’t know the words

-Nathan and DJ’s favourite form of transportation- the cartwheel

-Mia hopping onto my lap and automatically reaching up to play with my ears

-Seesawing with JR and Marlon so they bounce really high

-Chatting about music with Crystal

-Playing "Suppose I..." with Marlon

-Every single day I get to spend here.

There is so much more I could write about. I could never run out of material here, but maybe I’ll end off with a “To be continued…”