Sunday, June 30, 2013

Day 7: Francesca and Matthew

Hi everyone! Francesca here, writing to you from Tobacco Caye. We all started our day by saying a sad (and sometimes tearful) goodbye to our homestay families. They were all wonderfully welcoming and we will dearly miss them. I especially want to thank the children in each for bridging the cultural gap for many of us, and allowing us to become a  part of the family.
After our last delicious breakfast at Ernesto's, we stopped by the Women's Center to buy gifts for our families and friends, and then we were on our way. The boat ride to Tobacco Caye was wonderful, the water calm and crystal-clear. For the first time in nearly six days, we didn't feel hot. We arrived at the island and Sean and Jen warned us about falling coconuts. The tour of the island barely took ten minutes, and then we were off to our first snorkeling lesson! Jen told us about the multiple dangers present in Tobacco Caye' s waters, thus frightening some of us before even entering said waters.
The lessons went well, so we are now all expert snorkelers (not really). I will now hand over the blogging to Matthew, who will entertain you with stories of our first snorkeling adventure. Bye everyone!

Matthew here, now how to describe our first expedition into the calm and crystal clear water of the Belizean Reef. The words that comes to mind are marvelous, majestic,awe inspiring and a few others but you get my point. The reef and the wildlife were amazing and Sean and Jen's still in spotting all the amazing sea life became a life saver for some of the less talented snorkelers as they showed us some of the sea life, such as tarpon, lionfish, spotted eagle rays,and much much more. After a jaw dropping first reef snorkeling experience (for some of us) we reluctantly exited the cool water and came back to our cozy beach house were we washed, played games, and in some cases bashed coconuts against trees (strange I know but true) all while awaiting the sound for the dinner bell were we would learn who would be on the night snorkel that night. That ladies and gentlemen brings us up to the present and I have no more to tell, stay tune for tomorrows blog as it will be a action pack one, but for now goodbye and thanks for reading. :)

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Day 6 - Tyler and Lexi

Today our last day at the school. The previous night, we went to bed early s
o that we would be prepared for another hard day at work. I looked out my window to see a sea of greenery and wildlife. Birds cried and bugs buzzed across the vast horizon of tree and bushes. I was greeted graciouly by a traditional Belizian breakfast of beans and plantains, as well as a cup of coffee for the morning as well as the lively banter of my homestays. Everyone at my family posed for a goodbye picture since tomorrow we're leaving for Tobacco Caye. After a delightful conversation with my homestay family, I excused myself from the table to get ready for work. I left the table with tears in my eyes, knowing that this was the last full day I would share with my family.

 
 
I walked to the work site, excited to see my fellow comrades. As a group, we played a tropical variation of the game commonly known as "Duck, Duck, Goose". The game was called "Toucan, Toucan, Macaw" (see the resemblence) and practiced our Mayan words. After that, Katherine designated time to prepare for the Cultural Demonstration/ Talent Show. After much discussion, we agreed on preforming PSY's song "Gangnam Style". Although this song is not American in origin, the song has played a big part in recent pop culture. After practicing for 15 minutes, we broke off into groups to start work. Today we mixed cement for the columns, moved books for the library, and leveled the ground wherever necessary. Everyone worked very hard and we felt a strong bond form between us from the hard work we did. The cement mixing was physically strenuous however everyone it the group was eager to shovel cement. When it was time to move the library, the group worked together to strategically keep the books in order as well as move them efficiently. After a hard day of work, we were rewarded by some delicious locally baked coconut crusts, sweet empanadas with a shredded coconut filling. 

After this, we all took a well-deserved break and bounced to the Mayan museum. Here we saw several Mayan artifacts and better understood their way of life. Our tour guide, Julio, described the Mayan way of life as 'basic' with few creature comforts, but with efficient tools like thick pots for roasting tough meat and a sugar cane crusher. We also made tortillas the traditional Mayan way and witnessed a traditional Mayan dance; some enthusiastic students even joined in! After the Mayan dance, Julio led us to the far end of the museum. Behind a wall reviewed a traditional Mayan kitchen. In the kitchen, the students chefed up a storm. Francesca worked on coffee grinding while Armando worked on grinding the corn for the tortillas. After that, we shaped corn tortillas and ate them too. The museum was really interesting and informative however the group seem excited to return for showers and get ready for the  Cultural exchange and community celebration at Ernesto's.  After everyone got ready for the celebration, we met at Ernesto's to practice our dance.  Nash preformed a break dance routine for the community. Alex White and Bernd sung "No Diggity". The night was full of fun and festivities however we were all tired from a long day at work so we also looked forward to our good nights sleep. Tomorrow we depart for Tobacco Caye. Look forward for exciting pictures and blogs to come. Goodnight devoted followers! 

-Tyler and Lexi


Friday, June 28, 2013

Day 5 -- Nancy and Nash

Today was the last day playing with the kids at the school. We played basketball, played on the seesaws, and had a water balloon toss, and fight. The little kiddos threw water balloons at us Awty students, drenching us, head to toe. We finished the wiring on the steel, and mixed cement for hours on end, while the kids relentlessly begged us to play with them. We played ninja, and the children climbed on our backs as we threw balls at each other. The kids laughed and chuckled as we played a version of rock paper scissors. We all later gathered in a classroom for a ceremony, presented by the principal, Liberado. He and other teachers organized a gift exchange, in which, the students, and home stay families gave us homemade and hand crafted gifts, such as authentic bracelets and necklaces. Many families gave additional presents, such as Nancy and Margaret's. Their home stay daughters gave them vibrant necklaces, and beautifully-made head bands. We

The most exciting part of the day was our very special luncheons with an assorted group of village leaders and other influential members. I (Nash) had the chance to eat lunch with Alaliya, a village elder who had been in the village since it was first founded in 1976. She gave us an extensive history of village and its relatively fast progression into the modern world. In addition to this, she told us about the influence that religion and politics have had on the villages well-being in recent years. Other classmates had the chance to have lunch with school teachers, chocolate makers, and herbal healers. All of them enjoyed their chance to talk and have elaborate discussions with people that make decisions that directly effect everyone around them.

After we finish writing this blog post, we are heading off to play soccer with local children and we both expect it to be boat-loads of fun entertainment.

Pictures





























Thursday, June 27, 2013

Day 4 -- Bernd and Nick

Greetings parentals!
The day is still rather young, and our group is about to split in two to go cruising down the river on some tubes and make some traditional Mayan chocolate. Yesterday, I (Bernd, that is) had the wonderful opportunity to make some Mayan chocolate using a grindstone. The chocolate maker was a real charismatic bloke, and is actually quite the entrepenuer. With his cocoa beans, he's experimented a bunch: he's made some fancy frozen drinks from a juice that's inside the cocoa beans, and for all you tea drinkers out there, a cocoa powder tea! And it's only $1.50 USD for a pack of 6! We were also blessed with 5 minutes of air conditioning inside the room where all the chocolate packing magic happens, and we were only lured out with the prospect of fresh chocolate, made by our very own hands. My co-leader of the day is aching to tell you about his tubing experience, so here he goes:

 
Hey guys, Nick here! As Bernd said, some of us including me went tubing yesterday. First of all we took a very hot but fun van ride to the jaguar reserve. Then, we ventured to get some tubes from the base camp to use on our journey. Also, before any of us could forget, trusty Ms. Winegarden and Ms. Bastedo reminded us to apply sunscreen and bug spray. We then hiked down to the tubing entrance which took about 10 minutes through the thick brush of the temperate rainforest. As we reached the entrance of the river, we were all extremely excited to TUBE! But first, we had to recieve the safety talk from our World Leadership School coordinator Peter. And then we were off! We tubed down the river fast, slow, and safely. Everyone was going at their own pace, especially Ms. Bastedo who was being the kaboos cruising comfortably at approximately 1/2 miles per hour. We spent about 45 minutes venturing down the river and finally reached the end point. We were very sad it had ended but happy that we got to experience it. We climbed up the rope and hiked up back to the base camp. Then we hopped on the bus and headed back to Ernesto's.
 



After the activities yesterday, we made our way to homestays for the first night! We took a stroll through the village, dropping off students at the gate where the homestay families were excitedly (and also nervously, much like the students) awaiting. Personally, I had a great first night with my homestay family. I was lucky enough to have a returning Belize Trip member with me, and he already knew the family, so that helped break the ice a little. After getting settled in, we had a lovely dinner of chicken and rice, with a tomato and habanero pepper sauce. For those of you who don't know, habanero peppers are arguably much hotter than jalapenos, so of course I had a few spoonfuls of the sauce. And. It. Was. DELISH. Mind you, I burped fire for the rest of the night, but it wasn't an unpleasant experience. What followed was a night filled with quite heavy rain, which sounded like a warzone on a tin roof.

This morning, we all shared our homestay stories (and it seemed as though there was a general consesus that it was good) before getting ready for some hard manual labour at the worksite! Our progress is going quite swell, for all who are wondering.

So, that has been the day so far, and we're off. We're all still alive (mostly).

Bernd and Nick

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Day 3 -- Hank and Margaret

Greetings, lovely parents!
It is I, Hank (and his lovely assistant Margaret of course) and it is time to summarize today's eventful occurences!
Hank awoke this morning to Alex Plezcko's lovely infrared headlamp, and boy that thing is effective.
Falling asleep was quite a challenge the previous night, but everything calmed down when the power went out and Alex White serenaded the vicinity with his unique and lovely voice. His soothing lullabies regarding "brotein" shakes and "gainz" were entrancing and quite the bomb.com.
The group headed out to the worksite (that's one word now, yes) after a huge breakfast, and it was immediately greeted by the truly warm weather and excellent humidity.
The bugs were pleased to meet us as well, and we were delighted. Alex White, Tyler, Nick, and Hank all headed out to a remote location behind the school where they lifted concrete blocks for a grueling and gruesome hour. Tyler taught his posse by grabbing two bricks at once, and told us it was the only way to truly get "swole."
In case your slow minds can't keep up with this current generation, "swole" refers to being or becoming incredibly muscular (think Tyler Goulding muscular).
At recess, Alex W. was assaulted by a horde of ecstatic children as Hank sicked them on the poor soul. In case you are wondering, the children view Alex as a "horsey," and tried to "tame" (with quotation marks) him with their willpower and forces.
Hank is running out of time to write this post as Ms. Bastedo yells angrily in the background, so it's time to speed things up, folks!
We came in for lunch and had a delicious and brotein-full meal loaded with carbs and PROTEIN.
IT MADE US SO SWOLE MMMM.
Hank has to go grab his wet clothes, so it's time for Margaret to take over!

Hi Y'all it's Margaret! I had a much less eventful evening (no singing) but my room did play "Hey Jude" in order to fall asleep. It appears that everyone had adjusted to the heat well since there was a lot less complaining. When we woke up, we were treated to a wonderful breakfast (as usual) before we headed to the work site. I am proud to say that we were extremely productive today despite the grueling heat. After we worked we got the pleasure of experiencing an authentic Mayan chocolate presentation. We got to make our own chocolate and even eat it! Then most of us bought loads of milk chocolate that was equally fantastic! Today we are going to meet our homestay families! Most of us are excited about this.



OK Margaret is gone so it's just me now huehuehue.
TL;DR The trip is awesome so far, the river tubing was epic, I'm sure the chocolate was great.

Shoutout to H-MONEY'S PARENTS for keeping him swole, Marge's family, and Lexi requested a shoutout to her dad.

As always, we miss you all, dear family :(
XOXOXO

Hank & Margaret

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Day 2 -- Stephanie and Armish

Hello everyone!

Day 2 of our trip has been eventful so far! Everyone was really excited in the morning to finally start our service project(and to eat the delicious food!).

We started off the morning with a yummy breakfast followed by some bonding activities outside!
After slathering ourselves with sunscreen and bug lotion, we headed off to the school where we were going to work together with the community to build a new classroom.

This is what the worksite looked like when we first started! Hopefully it will be done when we leave!

We were separated into two groups. Half of us worked on the site, mixing cement or measuring and preparing wood for the classroom. The other half joined the children in the classrooms and helped the teachers with them. Our group was in the classroom first with four year olds, and lemmie tell ya, it was crazy! As soon as one of us pulled our cameras out, the kids went nuts and wrestled each other to take cute pictures of each other. We also read short stories to them and colored with them. They were not at all shy with the crayons! (Meaning they were chucking them at each other, so cute!)

Some cuties!
At around 10am the kids had recess and we spent about half an hour playing with all the kids in the field outside the school. Some children were very shy but others had no problem chasing after us and taking our cameras to take selfies! Some of us played tag with them, and believe us when we say... these are pretty fast runners! They sure did make us sweat... more than we already were! But these are really adorable kids.


Climbing in the trees!!

Already taking selfies and modeling for each other!
 

After a very fun-filled break, the groups rotated "jobs". Now it was our turn to work on the site. I (Armish) was working with Lisa(still sounds awkward not calling her Ms. Bastedo) and some other girls on making weird wood things that are apparently columns for the classroom. Basically we were measuring and nailing. I (Stephanie) volunteered for making the cement for the walls of the classroom - much more difficult than I thought! The upside is that now I know how to make cement, and am sure I'll have stronger arms by the end of the trip (because all I feel now is soreness!).

At around midday we all went for lunch - another delicious meal. Then we freshened up after all the hard work and being all sweaty and sticky... We then regrouped and played some more bonding games. After those, we did a scavenger hunt focused on learning about global issues that affect the community (such as electricity, water, community needs, etc). We walked around the village to learn how the community works and what issues they face. Some also asked for suggestions on what they need to make a potential project for next year. It was an interesting experience and opened up doors as to how we can help them improve what is needed.

Now it is about 4:30pm and we are going to gather up, have some activities, followed by the long-awaited dinner!

Don't worry... we're still alive and hopefully we can survive this humidity (by the way, if you think that Houston's humidity is bad, think again.)!

Thanks and we love you!
Stephanie and Armish

Monday, June 24, 2013

Day 1

You know, airlines really should notify you when they're going to have problems with their fuel tanks. Then maybe we wouldn't have had to wake up at 4-5 AM to sit on a plane for a good half an hour before taking off. Other than that (large) setback, we set off on our way and were soon in the lush, tropical paradise of Belize. We had a delicious lunch at the Tropical Education Center, and spotted wildlife like iguanas and crocodiles.  Then we embarked on a long bus ride to the Mayan Center Village, and ate some keneps (aka booger balls). At the village, we reunited with Kitty Softpaws (the resident cat) and did orientation activities.  It was a great start to our grand adventure in Belize. Shout out to Mr. Bastedo and our families (and pets)!



Students in Belize!

Hello friends and families of the Awty Belize trip! The students have arrived safely in Belize City. They just had lunch at the Tropical Education Center and are headed to Maya Center. They will start updating the blog tomorrow. Please call with any questions. (303)679-3412.



Christina Martin
Program Coordinator

Friday, June 21, 2013

Test Post

We look forward to seeing everyone Monday morning at 6:00 a.m. at the airport!!