Day 2.
I turned the lights out a little before 9 pm (which is 11pm
Michigan time) and struggled to fall asleep.
I kept thinking bugs were crawling on me and that the geckos were in my
bed. I learned this morning that the
geckos do not crawl on you they just eat the bugs in your room….lovely. I’m not going to lie, the living arrangements
are tough. I do not need air
conditioning since I rarely have it on at my home, however when I feel like I
just got out of the shower constantly, it makes for rough sleeping conditions
when you are not used to it.
The mosquitos have gotten my ankles and my butt (through
clothes, I was not streaking at any time).
The welts they leave are even bigger than the ones in Guatemala, fingers
crossed I don’t come home with Dengue fever or Zika again.
The morning started out with the daycare. The little kids just made a circle around me and
we rolled the ball back and forth a million times. They want nothing to do with their caregiver
when there is a volunteer here. One
little girl Isis has stolen my heart.
She is so sweet and tries to include me in everything, even the sharing
of her bbq mangoes (YUCK).
I then helped the older kids with their school work. Even though it is summer, they have to do
either math, spelling, or writing daily for 1.5 hours in the morning before
they can play. Then they have reading
time. It is apparent that education is
not a strong focus here in Belize. My
old teaching ways came out and some of the kids started to do really well on
their work.
What I found sad is that the older boys here that are 16-18
can go off grounds, but the females cannot because they fear they will become
pregnant. When in the daycare, many of
the female residents come in there and play mom with many of the kids. What they don’t realize is that even though
it is cute to hold the babies, there is a whole lot of responsibility that
comes along with keeping the child as yours 24/7. There is a strong lack of education about
children and responsibility here.
For lunch we had a scoop of rice and black beans, and a mini
chicken leg (and when I say mini, it was smaller than a premature babys’ leg).
The afternoon is too hot for me to be out in the direct
sunlight so I usually choose to lay down and read or relax until the sun goes
behind the clouds or away.
Decided to walk to the supermarket to check out the area and
know where I need to take the bus next week so I can go on my tours. Worst decision ever. I had to stop multiple times and sit down because
I could feel my heart racing. Never
again will I walk anywhere between 3-4 in the afternoon.
I spent most of the afternoon with some of the younger
girls. Many they are sassy as all get
out. Then I spent some time with a girl
who is going to turn 18 soon. She shared
with me that her parents are dead because they sold drugs and got involved in
the wrong crowd. Her two siblings were
adopted up in Iowa and she has another brother and sister at two other
orphanages here. Her dreams were to
become a midwife because she wanted to be the first one to bring a baby into
the world. I shared with her what
happens in a delivery and as soon as she heard blood and cerumen she was
disgusted and wants to stick with becoming a singer. To hear her story just broke my heart. We prayed that she will be able to come to
the states and have an opportunity that most do not have.
Dinner was a little sausage, bread, and beans. The food is a struggle for me. However, its temporary. I am blessed and get to come home where the
food is such a variety. For now I will
take the periods of feeling hungry because the food just does not fill me up,
and to be honest I miss my vegetables!
I booked a trip for next weekend to Ambergris Caye which is
an island off Belize. It takes about 75
minutes to get there by water taxi and then I will be staying at a resort on
the beach, kind of like when I go to Caulker after my trip but this is more
populated. After only being here two
days, I can say I am looking forward to a warm shower. Cold showers just don’t do it for me, even if
it is 95 degrees.
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