September - Wahn mont ful op ah tings

The big giant flag that appeared in the SavU parking lot back in June. On the news we saw the man who made it and it is to be displayed for celebrations, but they need something big enough to support it. It was, and is again, up on a large tower now but wind whipped it and for a day it was just hanging off as if it would pull down the tower!

September has been one busy month fi true! Schools have been open since the first and we got right back into projects and classrooms with teachers. What a difference it is to start the year knowing everyone and having a plan! It's been really nice. Each of us has some new faces at our schools and we've enjoyed working with new teachers, a new principal for Anthony (she was VP last year, so he knew her well), and new pikni - boy can those Infant I students really give you a work out...

So, some highlights of the month have been:

Celebrations

As we have noted previously, this is the month of celebrations and Belize loves a parade! There have been many parades in the past several weeks, starting with the most exciting - Carnival. Many PCVs came to the city to enjoy Carnival and then 10 of them competed in the Lionman Triathlon. We had three relay teams and one individual competitor. Anthony and I joined a few of our peers as official team cheerleaders! Our teams did great and despite the heat and blazing sun, they all swam, biked, or ran with a positive spirit. We were inspired, maybe not enough to actually compete in a triathlon, but still:)

The hand at a rotary heading into Belize City from the Western Highway. I've been trying to get a picture of the statues that are at the entrance to district towns, but never have a camera or a need to walk down here, so it had lots of pikni on it waiting for Carnival to come our way

As we wait for Carnival on Central American Boulevard; we and love how Chanda popped into this picture!

Just hanging out on the street, in the sun, getting burned, waiting for the Carnival procession, oh and eating junk food too, why did I pay $2.50 for a small lee cup of not-so-good ice cream?

This kid is adorable, we had to take the picture of him as he watched the parade head toward us

The Carnival bands (as they call the groups who march and dance) really go all out for their costumes and themes

After an afternoon in the sun, we were hungry and Chinese food was just what we needed

Rachel and Nicole get ready to swim 0.9 miles in the Caribe Sea to start their teams off in the triathlon

Teams and cheerleaders after everyone has crossed the finish line

Other celebrations include The Battle of St. George's Caye Day on September 10th and Independence Day on September 21st. I am quite sure we gave details on those dates last year, so we'll just share the highlights. We went out for the parade on the 10th, being told by everyone it would be bigger and better this year under the new government. Not sure we noticed a difference, but I did spot some teachers marching along waving their Belize flags high! We decided not to head out for the Independence Day parade which marched through the city streets on Monday rather than Sunday. It involves high school and college students marching in their uniforms - it's quite a hot day for them, but they look good. We were able to see the fireworks at midnight Sunday morning from our veranda, which was nice. I think I mentioned this last year, but it just makes so much sense to have the fireworks as Independence Day begins rather than as it ends in my opinion.

A float depicting the 2008 theme: Belizeans! Learning our Past, Impacting our Present, Embracing our Future.

For the first time in our 15 months in Belize, flags have been raised on the poles in the flag circle - we had to take a picture since this is a site we may not see again! It's too bad they are not flown daily, it looks so nice

Along with parades and holidays, the month is filled with fairs, special events and performances, and a big expo. Last year, we noticed several people stocking up on cases of toilet paper at the expo and wondered about it. Living with a host family at the time, we didn't shop for ourselves so had no interest in toilet paper. We did not go to the expo to buy toilet paper, but we again saw the people leaving with so much we had to check it out. Turns out, it's a great deal - we bought it:) As we left the expo, we ran into our medical officer who told Anthony he had now made his rite of passage to become a true Belizean (case of toilet paper in hand!) I mean, it's like we got two packages free and with the cost of toilet paper here, that's huge. Every dolla' counts! We also took advantage of the discounts on Marie Sharp's jams and Hot Mama's Spicy Mango Sauce. The expo was fun. Ginnie has been informed she won a prize from one of her teacher/friend's sister's booth - but she has not yet received it since said teacher keeps forgetting to bring it to school! It's alright, someday it will appear, I think ;)

Just had to get a picture of Belizean Anthony with the bulk toilet paper

As September comes to a close, the excitement of the celebrations will calm back down and the city will return to it's general state of normalcy. Which just means, much quieter again, except when someone has a birthday or other party and sets up ginormous speakers on the street...

Turning 33

And, of course, the other celebration of the month was Ginnie's birthday, which was bittersweet. The sweet part was spending time with other PCVs and ordering pizza and hanging out and then buying a box of US ice cream at SavU (it's a major indulgence at $24.38, but so worth it!). The pizzas weren't exactly cheap either, four pizzas cost over $130! Everyone always just says - it's the cheese - but we make pizza weekly, and we would not have to sell it for those prices to make a profit even with the cost of cheese! There's something more, like maybe that I doubt average Belizeans like pizza since it's not made with rice or beans:) But, anyway, it was fun to have pizza and then the next day, ice cream (which is somewhat of an investment too since we cannot eat an entire box in one day and will have dessert for weeks with this!). The following week, we took a trip out to our favorite district town, San Ignacio, and had a delicious dinner at Erva's where we met a senior from Stonehill who is here on her study abroad internship, and spent the night at Martha's Guesthouse - a beautiful place with the most fabulous, friendly owners. The next day we finally made it to the ruins at Xunantunich, which we'll tell you all about in a next post. It was a great birthday getaway!

So worth it! We paired the ice cream with a cake fresh from the crock pot

About to eat American ice cream after 15 months

Sad Times in PC Belize

The reason we were with other PCVs on Ginnie's birthday is the sad part - our good friend and fellow PCV, Bertie, passed away in her sleep the week before. She was an amazing woman and an inspiration to we youngens. At 72, she came to Belize to volunteer and she was loved by everyone she met. Bertie has been described as the nicest person we'd all known here in Belize. She was like a mom and grandmother for us and we'll miss her greatly. You can read all about her on the Peace Corps press release here http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1374&cid=rssnews

PC Training

Ms. Alma, our once language trainer, is currently the tech trainer for the education trainees. She called us in August and asked if we would be a part of the training. During the second week of the month, we headed out to the villages of Camalote and Christo Rey in the Cayo District to facilitate sessions on lesson planning and also help the trainees understand the things Belizean teachers must include as they plan and ways to work with teachers using this structure. It was fun to spend time with the trainees and be on the other side answering the questions - and they had many of the same we did when in their shoes. We'll be back for sessions this week and then trainees will head out to stay with PCVs all over the country for a more in depth look at life as a Belize PCV. I think it's going to be fun to host them and show them around the city and share our projects with them. We'll be sure to share the experience. I think it would have been really cool to have done this in our training, but different directors have different styles.

A view from the training site in Christo Rey Village

Us doing some training of the new education group, it's hard to believe we're now the second-years

Check this out!

Back in August, we were contacted by Stonehill to give an update on the state of our service. We had been featured in the winter alumni magazine and they wanted to know if they could feature us on the new website in the alumni section. We said sure, and now here we are! You can link to it from the homepage, too and may even see us there since the four featured alums rotate.