You gotta be flexible!

So the latest: Pathlight would like me to come to California this upcoming week and meet some other volunteers and work on some new ESL programs to bring back to St. Margaret's. Since the program is new, we are just getting familiar with the education system in Belize and seeing how the volunteers will be best useful to the school. I will be eagerly returning to Belize the 8th of October and another volunteer, Heidi, will be joining me the 14th. I am looking forward to having someone to work with! Well, more to come later as I am learning to just be patient and see what God has in store next. 

Thought you all should know

I wanted to let everyone know that I got sick late Tuesday night and had to come back to Austin to see the Dr. and get medicine. I had an infection and had gotten medicine in Belize but it didnt work and the infection came back. I arrived here Wed, went to the Dr. Thurs and have gotten on the some new medicine and should know some test results next week. I am planning on returning to Belize when I am fully recovered. I will right more later, keep praying and thank you all so much for all your dear support.  

Meet Janelle!

This is the teacher I work with, Janelle.

 We are both working in the Infant 1 division, which is like Kindergarten. 

She and her son will be keeping me company while I am here alone, 

living in the house part of the week.

Here we are in our lovely uniforms.

Here we are on the rooftop of a grocery store, which, yes, did turn into a restaurant, having a good time! 

Where am I living?

I am living in Belmopan, the capital of Belize. It is a medium size city with lots of homes and businesses. 

Here is the home I am living in, it is very large with 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. 

 I am so lucky because they installed small air conditioning units right before I moved in and just a few days ago they installed a TV and cable!  

Here is my bedroom, look closely and you can see my fan and AC- also known as my saving grace from the  relentless heat!

Dance Party!

Friday we had a bit of a dance party in the classroom. Independence day is the 21st and we were practicing marching and waving flags  and somehow it just turned into a dance fiasco with every 5 year old just dancing away- it was the cutest thing ever. 

Made it through the 1st week!

Well, I made it through the 1st week and have lots of  mosquito bites to prove it! This week has been pretty hectic getting to know everyone as well as the city itself. The house that I am staying at has the Internet but it is very finicky so writing on the blog is harder than expected. The highlight of this week happened today after school- coloring with a girl in my class, Anlelly, who has been taken out of her home because of abuse. She finally opened up hugging me tight and calling me maestra ( teacher). I really felt God's presence during those 20 minutes, it is very hard to describe but was really amazing. 

St. Margaret's School

This is the school I work at, St. Margaret's. It is in a rural village outside of the city. The school is both government and church based, which means half of their funding is from the government and the other from the catholic church. 

Wednesday, we had to leave school early because it was so hot and there was no water in the whole village, which means the kids didn't have enough drinking water to keep them from fainting- which one student almost did Tuesday. So, the principal ordered everyone to go home early and get stored water from their house. These are just everyday realities for the people here. 

I'm here

So today was the 1st day of school. I will be assisting in a kindergarten classroom, the kids are so tiny! Also, they all just speak spanish, 

so this will be interesting.

 Looking forward to a great week!