My Humble Abode

Greetings!

I'm almost settled into my apartment in San Pedro. It has everything I need, no more, no less. My apartment is a 2-room wooden buildling on stilts. (Everything here is on stilts because the town is only inches above sea level.) It has 4 walls, a floor and a roof. The walls don't always meet the floor and geckos like to sneak in through the gaps. There's a double bed, countertop, cabinets, kitchen sink, toiliet, concrete shower, bathroom sink and shelves. I just got a stove lent to me, but I still need to purchase a tank of butane to use it. The windows all have screens and shutters to keep the mosquitos out (a real plus) and I have a fan to keep me cool. Compared to my experience camping on BLM land in Colorado for months on end, this is living in luxury. It's not the nicest place in town, but is certainly not the worst. It's clean, furnished and perfect for 2 months.

The neighborhood I live in is very friendly. Miss Francis did a wonderful job finding a location that I would feel safe in. The vice principal of the school lives right in front of me. I can see her front door from mine. I've met a couple of other neighbors as well. One is a tailor who lives with his wife and the other is a construction worker. Times are hard down here, just like in the States, and steady employment has been hard to find for both of these people. A couple of these apartments look like large families live in them. I don't how they all sleep at night but I'd have to guess that they pull mattresses out from the double bed at night to use every square inch of available floor space.

Families here are big and not nuclear. It's actually really depressing to hear about. Yesterday, I was in Miss Joy's Standard VI class during language arts. Their task for the day was to write a letter to Miss Francis about why they need a scholarship to attend High School the following year (a cost of $500 per year for tuition, books and supplies). I helped edit several letters and each one looked the same. There were 4-8 kids and the father was either dead or "doesn't care about us." Many families in the area have immigrated from Guatemala or Honduras. I can't imagine the hardships that a single mother of 8 faces in this town. Many people relocate to Ambergris (the tourist hotspot of Belize) in hope of finding better employment opportunites but are usually met with the extremely high cost of living.

I am finally finding my niche here at the school. I will be doing a lot of remedial work with the upper division students (Standard V and VI). Everyday, I will be working on remedial reading skills with students from Miss Joy's Standard VI and Miss Laura's Standard V. There will be two groups of students based on level. Two students need to start over at the beginning to learn to read. They understand spoken English perfectly but don't know how to read or write it. They know how to physically write (form letters and words) but they don't know what they are copying down from the black board. Those students I will be starting at kindergarten with to teach them all the different sounds and then how to put those together into words. The other group of students can sound words out and read, but they don't comprehend what they are reading.

Everyday, I will also be working on math with 4 or 5 of Miss Laura's Standard V classes.  Right now, we are working on reviewing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They have all seen the material before, but their level of mastery and retention is low. We are trying to make sure they have a solid foundation.

The computer teacher, Mr. Shane, is out on paternity leave. His daughter was born in Orange Walk (on the mainland) a few days ago. While he is gone, I will be teaching the computer classes. This might be tricky as there is no curriculum for me to work from.

Last but not least, I have been assisting Mr. Vernon to write a grant proposal to one of the Belizean programs. He is trying to get funding for a mangrove restoration project at the school. The mangrove farm will surround the school by 20 feet in each direction (the school is built on stilts above a lagoon). This will help keep sand from eroding from beneath the school buildings, increase biodiversity in the lagoon, and help keep the bigreef healty by providing a spawning ground for many fish. The school children will also be able to participate in planting seedlings and study their importance.

There is a long weekend this week, in honor of Christopher Columbus Day. I'll be at the school a bit working on some projects but mostly reading books at the Wilsons (they are out of town leading a Cursillo, or walk to Emmaus).

~Julie