nut(my life)shell

Life is pretty calm in the past couple weeks and I’ve settled back into routine. My days are spent at the home, doing lots of school and homework, waging war on the nasty dogs’ nasty tics, and just hanging out with all the kids. The kids can be a bit overwhelming at times, and sometimes I feel short on patience, but it usually only takes a giggle or hug from one of them to re-energize me and remind me why I love it here.

I spend a few evenings a week at Perkup with Lucie and we always laugh because we look kind of ridiculous sitting there on our laptops barely saying a word. It’s nice because we get on well and are perfectly comfortable just hanging out. Thursday nights are our favourite because it is open mic night. We are becoming regulars, and getting to know the others fairly well also. Andy and Merv often try unsuccessfully to recruit us as performers, but I have a bet with Merv. If he finishes the entire first twilight book Lucie and I may have to give in and take to the stage. :S I have been missing being able to play sports, but last weekend Merv gathered up a bunch of people and we played Volleyball at the YWAM base. I still say the other team cheated ;) but it was a great time either way.

I read stupid amounts these days. I will soon have exhausted the mini makeshift Library at Perkup and will have to get around to signing up for the real library. Lucie’s family is a good source to borrow books and movies from as well, so I’ve been catching up on the latest DVD’s here too. I’m not sure if Belize even knows that unpirated movies exist. They would probably be so confused as to why anyone would a) wait for the actual release date and b) pay more than $2 for the movie. I know it’s not entirely proper, but my movie knowledge is improving rapidly.

It’s fun getting to know the dialect here and learning the terminology. Sometimes I can’t figure out what the kids are saying to me so I just smile, and say something ambiguous. “What?... What?... What?... Umm, Yeah, Maybe.”

Lucie speaks very English, I speak very Canadian, and we’re constantly surrounded by Creole, so we are inadvertently picking up bits and pieces of each others’ dialects. There are different degrees of Creole, I think. Some is more concentrated, but some just sounds like broken English with a few Creole words thrown in. I can understand it if it’s not spoken too quickly, but I cannot always decipher it from just improper use of English.

Ie) English: Can I have some chewing gum?

Creole: Me can have chingum?

I don’t imagine I’ll ever be fluent in Creole, but it can be amusing to listen to.

It seems to be a fun game, or maybe just a conversation starter, for people to bet on my Nationality. Most of the time they are actually right. Sometimes I am too nice, or don’t wear enough makeup to be American, or people can “Just tell” that I am Canadian, whatever all of that means. The other day a few locals at Perkup thought I might be Dutch (or something weird, I forget) and we ended up talking about Canada for awhile. My answer is always the same, “Yep… Canada’s cold.” Turns out, one of the men had spent some time in Canada a few years back and apparently misses it like crazy. By the end of the conversation, he was tearing up and another guy had presented me with a ”fly shoo-er” on behalf of Belize.

Speaking of frigid temperatures, Belize has been FREEZING lately. I have no idea the actual temperature, (I’m pretty sure Belizean thermometers only register either “hot” or “cold”) but I have been wearing jeans and sweatpants as much as I do in Canada – although, this may partially be due to the fact that, until yesterday, I hadn’t done laundry for a month. The locals don’t mind because it is a nice break from the sweltering temperatures, and they often laugh at me for being cold, considering the climate I’ve been accustomed to for the last 19 (almost 20!) years.

Every week, Lucie and her parents take a few of the kids to a hotel at Cahal Pech, right outside San Ignacio, to hang out by the pool for the day. I joined in as the “white orphan” on Sunday and it was lots of fun swimming and playing, and chatting with some of the girls. Even though it wasn’t overly hot, my albino skin soaked up more rays than it can handle and I am currently paying the price for forgetting to slather on SPF beforehand. Oops. The kids find it amusing to press their fingers onto my skin to see how it goes white and then watch it fill back in with colour.

In my life, I always said I would NEVER own a dog (or any animal for that matter), but low and behold, I have another roomie aside from a couple Canadians and some roaches (Side note – I thought my cleaning habits were keeping them at bay lately, but apparently they just come out less in cold weather, shucks.) Everyone and their mom (literally) has a dog here. They’re all pretty gross, but they are basically Belize’s version of a home security system. It belongs to one of the ladies at KCH, and she is actually a really good dog so I won’t complain.

I try to remember to appreciate every day I have here because I know that June 23^rd is going to sneak up on me soon and steal me away forever. Okay well not forever; Belize isn’t going to be rid of me that easily ;)

XO

Steph

Projects, Serving, and Such

I suck at blogging; sorry I haven’t updated in forever. I’m not actually that sorry, it just means I’ve been busy, which is good, right?

The boys (Josiah and Edgar) are so great. We are BFF’s and perfectly comfortable around each other so class goes by fairly quickly and we all have a pretty good time. Time has awarded me their respect and with that comes the authority I need to keep them focused on the task at hand without too much lolly-lagging. (If that is not a word bring it up with my mom) Of course, teaching is still challenging, but I am figuring out what works and seeing a lot of progress with the boys.

There is a group of eight girls from Toronto staying at my (Leonie’s) house right now. They seem fine, but I’ve not seen much of them because I’ve been hanging out with the PROJECT SERVE team instead! It was so so great to see some familiar faces and spend time with some of the most amazing people I know. It was absolutely unreal to see the team get to know and love the kids that I have so much affection for. To see them experience the exact moments I experienced a month ago, knowing the exact emotions flowing through them at that second in time was incredible. I am ecstatic that they got to taste the joy I feel every single day I spend with these kids, and have them share and understand this part of my life.

They came to the children’s home for the first couple afternoons they were here. They played at the park, spun kids around and around… and around and around, allowed themselves to be dragged by the hand all over the place as the wee ones showed them any and everything, took thousands of pictures, raced laps around the building (usually losing to their speedy counterparts) and attempted to absorb as much as they could in the short time they would spend as Belizeans. They adored it.

My church had a barbeque on Saturday so I helped bring lunch to the team at the YWAM base and got to be an adopted member for the day. We came back into town after lunch, shopped a bit, tested out a favourite café of ours in Belmopan, shopped some more, had dinner, and headed back to the base for the evening. The night was relaxed, getting reacquainted with good friends, and getting to know the rest of the team as well. I am pretty sure Belize dropped to Canadian temperatures that night because it was definitely the coldest I have been in over a month. Brr. Around 5am we were awoken by a beautiful serenade from about a thousand howling dogs, and for some reason it was the funniest thing I’ve ever experienced and I about died laughing. I am still laughing about this actually, as I relive this moment again. Anyway, we headed to church a bit later that morning, (the church I’ve been attending, actually – it’s great… the pastor is American and quite engaging, and the majority of the worship is all familiar, which is nice) and led a Sunday school program for the kids. The regular Sunday school lady had a bit of a ‘bee in her bonnet ‘(this little gem in my vocabulary can also be accredited to my mom) but other than that everything went really well! After church we split off into small groups and were taken into the homes of some of the members of the church. Wow. This was one of the most humbling and amazing experiences of my life. People who’ve got next to nothing sacrificed so much in order to serve and bless us. Belize has quite a few sub-cultures – Creoles, Garifuna, even Mennonites all over the place! Laurelle, Kaitlyn and I headed to Las Flores (a region in Belmopan) to spend time with a Mayan family. It was unbelievable. I’m sorry, Canadian cooking has NOTHING on Belizean cooking. Rule #1: no meal is complete without rice. Lunch was amazing, and we got to spend the afternoon with some of the cutest kids in the world, and get to know the amazing ladies that raised them. I often forget that I live in Central America. I live in a fairly well off neighborhood, considering, and don’t always realize how much of this country is consumed by poverty. It is incredible to be slapped in the face with the reality of how lucky we truly are. We take everything for granted on a daily basis: electricity, running water, clothes, finished houses, security, food to get us through the day, health, family, education, and SO much more. The house was little more than a concrete shell, and the family made sure we each sat on a rickety chair at the tiny table while the adults ate outside and the kids sat on the floor. After lunch I got to know the ladies a little better as we watched a few of the boys play with their homemade basketball net. We wandered around the neighborhood a bit (there were chickens all over the place!) and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the base. I feel so privileged to have spent time with people who truly know how to serve and cherish the opportunity to do so. I hope to one day be half as selfless and full of joy as they are.

On Monday the team joined me at the home once again, and treated the entire Children’s Home to a fried chicken dinner! The kids were SO happy and excited, and the team was quickly infected with their smiles as well. We headed back to the base to rest up for the next day’s road trip to… Caye Caulker!

The Belizean coastline is scattered with tropical islands that are absolutely GORGEOUS! We drove to Belize City early in the morning, and spent an hour on the open Caribbean sea, arriving on the first Island, Caye Caulker, around 10am. We then grabbed some equipment and hopped in another boat to snorkel in the worlds’ second largest barrier reef! It was awesome. The salty ocean water was crystal clear as we meandered our way around the coral checking out fish and getting freaked out by eels and barracudas. We moved to a second spot and hung out with some stingrays for a while. They were completely harmless, and quite slimy! After soaking up a bit of sun (a little too much for some people… this girl not included, woo!) we headed back for lunch and afternoon shopping. It was so cool to walk along the street and see the beautiful azure ocean on both sides of us! We headed back to Belmopan a sleepy bunch after a day of sun and snorkeling.

Back to work Wednesday; the team, leading chapel and kid’s club and me, home schooling. Today (Thursday) was kind of a sad day. The team visited the Children’s Home for the last time, saying goodbye to the kids that will forever occupy a place in their hearts, and getting ready to head home. I met them again in the evening at Perkup, my favourite coffee shop, for Open Mic night to wrap up their time in Belize. Lucie and I arrived early and were thankful when the team made it there so we didn’t have to suffer through any more awkward poetry or tone deaf squeak- I mean, singing. (It wasn’t thaaaat bad, only a couple of the performances were painful). Gill Walker braved the crowd, grabbed a guitar and sang a couple beautiful songs with her beautiful voice. Everyone was captivated; she did absolutely amazing!

Much too quickly it was time for the team and I to go our separate ways. It was hard to say goodbye, and I wish they could have stayed longer, but the time had managed to slip through our fingers, as it always seems to do, and Canada needed to steal them back. Au Revoir!

My life is reverting back to normal now, but I feel very fortunate to have been able to walk through this life changing experience with the team. You are all amazing people and have sooo many wonderful things waiting for you in the future. Miss y’all already!! Thanks for hangin out.

Annnnnnnd that is what I’ve been up to lately! Phew, congrats if you made it through all that writing!

I promise not to make you wait so long for the next update this time!

XO

Steph

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…”

January 27

I’ve been here about two weeks now, which feels impossibly short. I’ve already generated so much love for these kids, and I feel like I’ve known them for years, rather than a mere few days. I’m sure those of you who’ve spent time here know exactly how I feel. There is so much individuality and character packed into each and every little body, and it’s unreal to experience more and more of it each day.

The home is basically just a family on a larger scale; Leonie and the kids with a couple smaller families tied in as permanent fixtures of the home as well. One major difference here is the independence of the children. They grow up a lot quicker, mostly because they have to. There’s not always someone available to coddle and carry around the babies, so they learn to walk and start to wander on their own sooner. If someone gets hurt (which, as you can imagine, happens often) their tears are more often met with encouragement to toughen up than with hugs and soothing words. Kids, who are just that-kids, are taking care of, and at times parenting, themselves and each other. In our society children seem to be nurtured, and sometimes babied, a lot more as they grow up. Who’s to say which method is better than the other; it’s just interesting to observe the contrast between the two.

Teaching the boys is still quite challenging, and I don’t feel like this is the most effective way for these boys to be getting their education, but I’m trying to make the best of it. The curriculum is not very straightforward, and the days are not well planned out. The main focus is to set the foundations of reading and writing, but there’s a long way to go to say the least. I can’t remember the last time I sang, let alone had to teach, the ABC’s before this week. Some (most) days I wish there was two of me!

As for life outside of the home, I met a girl from Australia who invited me out with her and a few other girls, most of them are med students from Australia or Europe who've chosen Belize for their practicum and will be here a few weeks. So monday I grabbed Lucie (a girl from France who's family also helps at the home) and we met them for dinner and chats! It was nice to socialize a bit. I finally picked up a bike; walking everywhere is fine, but it takes soo much longer. My friends at the home are slowly dying off.. the cockroach count is up to 11 now! I'm looking forward to having the Project Serve team come visit in only two weeks!!!

Day In The Life

My new life was a little lonely for the first few days, but as I get to know the kids better, and fumble my way around town, my niche here in Belize is beginning to unveil itself a little more each day, bringing with it some comfort and familiarity. I am genuinely happy in my new surroundings. My main focus at the children’s home is to help homeschool two of the boys, Josiah and Edgar (whom everyone calls “Papito”) I work alongside another girl, Elizabeth, who is studying Education in university, to hopefully complete the curriculum of each of their appropriate grade levels. It’s a bit of a challenge most days, and the boys can be quite stubborn, not leaving us a large span of their attention to work with. They’re great kids though; I love them both a lot and I feel like we’ll be able to make progress in the next few months. Elizabeth teaches a couple hours in the morning, I join for a couple more until lunch break, and then take over in the afternoon. We get lots of visits from Alicia, one of the most independent toddlers I know, and also the home’s puppies, whom Edgar LOVES to play with whenever he can sneak away from math and spelling. I know I shouldn’t encourage distractions, but he honestly has one of the most infectious heartfelt giggles I’ve ever heard, and I can never help but to laugh along with him. Class ends at two thirty and the boys race to the computers to play all sorts of games on their favourite websites. Meanwhile, all the young kids, Dj, Aiden, Alexia, Nathan, Alicia and Benjamin, are just waking up from their afternoon nap so I usually wander over and scoop up a baby or two to cuddle while they suck their thumb and rub bleary eyes. Sometimes I just sit in the kitchen with some of the ladies and listen to them chat and cackle away for a while. Everyone speaks English here, for the most part, but I can’t always follow conversations if they are speaking quickly in their Belizean accents. Deciphering what they are saying becomes easier each day though! Shayanne, a super outgoing young teen girl, was telling me about a boy in her class today, “He is American and talks funny, like you!”

The rest of the kids arrive home from school a bit later and the house sees a little more action as it fills up and there is forty-some people milling about. The rest of my time at the house is less structured; changing diapers here, washing dishes there, and just hanging out chatting and playing with kids until around dinner when I usually start my trek back to my house because it gets dark early here, around six. I have a lot of time to myself in the evenings so far, as I can’t (shouldn’t, anyway) walk anywhere while it’s dark. So my nights usually consist of various combinations of reading, writing, cleaning, napping, yoga, organizing, or playing with the kids from the family also living at the house. I know.. exciting, right? I’ve met a few people outside of the home who are also visiting Belmopan for awhile, so maybe I’ll have some sort of social life at some point, but for now I’m quite enjoying to relaxation!

In The Beginning

The idea of moving to Belize didn’t feel like a reality until I finally booked my plane tickets, and even then it felt surreal up until the moment I had to make my way from the Tim Horton’s to the security gate in Saskatoon’s tiny airport. Thankfully flights went well and, as scheduled, I hop off the plane at 11:40, January 15, in my jeans and hoodie into a humid twenty some degrees. (Yes, that’s positive!) James Brown, the pastor of the church attended by, and mostly composed of, the King’s Children’s Home members, is waiting outside Belize City’s even tinier airport to drive me back to Belmopan, where I’ll be living for the next couple months.

The countryside here is fabulous; kind of a small town feel, but with flourishing foliage and lush green mountains off in the horizon. About an hour later we pull into Belmopan. At a population of only around seven thousand people, it feels a little more like Hepburn than an independent country’s capital city. There is one road, ring road, that forms a loop around the town and accesses pretty much anywhere you’d need to go. It’s like our own mini Circle Drive ha! We pull into the Kid’s Home and after a few quick introductions I’m left to find my way around and meet some of the kids. I feel somewhat scattered and out of place, but soon some of the little ones have coerced me into giving multiple piggybacks and building cakes out of gravel on the seesaw (Edgar looks at me like I’m a little crazy when I refer to it as a teeter-totter). Dj, one of the preschool-aged boys clambers up into my arms, pops his thumb into his mouth and begins to order me around. He’s so cute that I simply comply. It feels like a slow process, but I’m beginning to connect names to the faces and plant the first seeds of the relationships I’ll be forming with these kids.

In the evening I head home to the volunteer house a few minutes away, unaware of the roommates I share living space with. There is a family of seven staying until Saturday, but more so I mean my new friends: cockroaches, spiders, one scorpion (previously dealt with, no worries) and newly discovered, gecko’s! (or some type of small lizard anyway. They are on my team though-they eat cockroaches). Aside from the roomies, I haven’t got anything to complain about. The house has much more space than I’ll ever need, cable TV, locked gate, giant backyard, most appliances, etc. After a long day of flights, new sights, new names and faces, playtime, supper (I’ve decided, once and for all, to officially declare Rice and Beans as Belize’s national food item,) and energetic devotions, I hit the hay at 8pm. I’ve found Belize to be the cure for my previously nocturnal lifestyle.