Things I Will Miss

- Island accents: 3 = tree, everyTING, baby = bebe
- Marie Sharp's hot sauce
- palm trees
- the beautiful, turquoise water
- everyone at Pedro's: Walter, Peter, Alex, Ny, Will, Millie, Paul, Rabbit, the maids (especially my girl, Shanny)
- 3 delicious tacos for $1Bz
- RUM
- RUM PUNCH
- ceviche
- fresh cilantro
- being able to bike and walk everywhere
- boats
- SCUBA DIVING
- snorkeling
- karaoke at Pedro's
- enpandas
- fresh fruit: mangos, bananas, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe
- fresh squeezed fruit juice
- fresh fruit smoothies
- Belize money: I love the colors and the dollar coins
- Island time: If someone says it starts at 6, it really won't start til 7 or 7:30.
- papusas
- hot dog cheeseburgers
- friendly people
- conch (shells, ceviche, fritters)
- bargaining with the vendors
- free drinks
- beach bars actually on the beach (Senor Marlin's especially)
- being barefoot everywhere
- the perfect weather
- the strong coffee
- my favorite teachers at the high school (Mr. Kelly, Mr. Rodriguez, and Mr. Rennisen)
- the high school kids: they are hilarious!
- the pilots at Pedro's: Davide, Gonthalo, and Kumar
- breaks during the school day
- BELIKIN
- golf carts
- boys with their gelled hair
- the San Pedro Sailing Club: Forest, Andy, Randy, and all of the kids, especially Charlie!
- David: a local 12 year old boy that all of us have kind of adopted. He's also the star of my book!
- Jagermeister
- the bar at Pedro's and ringing the bell
- the Palapa Bar
- palapas
- shell jewelry
- Coke in recyclable glass bottles
- living at Pedro's and being able to walk out of my room and see everyone and what they're up to
- having Kelli as my roommate
- lounging by the pool at Pedro's
- being disconnected i.e. not having a phone
- meeting people from all over the world at Pedro's (I've met people from Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Israel, England, The Netherlands, Australia, and more)
- Flip at Ambergris Divers
- my Rastafarian vendor friend
- Creole
- fresh seafood
- Poker Runs
- Reggae/Island music
- opening bottles with butcher knives
- coconut fudge squares
- banana oat smoothies on break at the high school
- lunch at the beach
- the culture (the Mayans, Creole, everyTING)
- not wearing make up
- the dogs at Pedro's (Charlie, Jambo, & Jager)
- Jaguars
- Johnny Cakes
- the bar at Pedro's
- parents riding bikes with their little kid riding on the handle bars
- morning recaps of the night before with everyone on the 3rd floor balcony
- panty rippers
- Trivia Night
- coconut everything
- the flowers
- Kirt: the artist
- Mayan eggs
- homemade tortillas

I can't believe today is my last day on the island. Ask anyone: as soon as I stepped off of the plane when I got here, I was already sad about leaving in five weeks. It's crazy how those five weeks have flown by. This has been an incredibly amazing, and unforgettable experience. I will miss everyone and everything about Belize and San Pedro.

I have to come back.

I will be back.

An Unexpected Excursion

Since our trip has not costed as much as our professors anticipated, we were left with a chunk of change that our professors decided to use to take us on another excursion yesterday (Sunday). I had no idea what we were suppose to be doing because I had been on my trip to the Blue Hole the entire day before. All I knew was that we needed to be at the dock by 8:45am.

Aboard the SEAduced I

We got picked up by the SEAduced I around 9. We met our 3 guides, Luis, Rafa, and the last one I can't remember his name and finally got an idea of what we would be doing. We were going to two snorkel spots and going up to the most northern part of the island (about 45 minutes from Mexico) where the reef actually runs into the beach and having a BBQ.







First, we had to go down to the dive shop so everyone could get their gear. Then we rode for about 20 minutes until we got to our first snorkel spot. Honestly, I wasn't too excited. Don't get me wrong, I love snorkeling, but I knew nothing could even begin to compare to what I saw the day before. We snorkeled around for about 40 minutes. The coral was actually pretty cool. I saw some kinds that I hadn't seen before. I saw 5 sting rays and a bunch of fish. I also saw this really crazy looking fish that I hadn't seen before. It looked kind of like a puffer fish, except he was colored with a weird honey comb mixed with leopard spots and had a round mouth and two protruding horn things over his eyes. When I got back on the boat and started describing him, Luis told me that he was called a trunk fish.

Kelli and her pineapple she carried from the boat

Then we rode all the way up to the northern most part of the island. It took us a while to get there, especially since the last 20 minutes we had to go super slow and weave through all of the coral. We got there around 11. There was no dock. Luis anchored our boat about 50 feet from the shore and we had to carry our stuff to the beach.

Our guides brought a volleyball and a net that we set up and a bunch of us started playing. It was a lot of fun and a great way to pass the time in the sun while we waited for our lunch to be cooked. Luis warned us that it was going to take a while because everything was being cooked from scratch. After about an hour of volleyball, Lisa, Julia, and I went exploring. We found a sweet tree house and hung out up there for a while. Then Luis brought out some fishing poles. We walked out in the water near where our boat was anchored and fished for bone fish. We used conch for bait. Everyone who tried caught a fish! I caught a big one!

Lisa and Julia going up to the tree house

Hammock in the tree house

Julia, me, and Lisa in the tree house

Lunch in the tree house!

Me with my bone fish!

The buffet

Not long after I caught my fish, lunch was ready. We had curried rice, chicken curry, fish curry, potatoes, pasta salad, grilled plantains, and tortillas. Everything was fantastic. Most of us ate together up in the tree house.

After lunch, we hung out some more on the beach and went for a swim. Then Kelli and Taylor got us all together to play a game called straddle ball. It was so much fun. I really love when all of us get together. It's been hard to do things together on the island since we are such a big group. I had a really good time and was sad when Rafa told us it was time to go.

On the way back, we stopped at one more spot to snorkel. We did a drift snorkel. The boat dropped us off at one spot and we rode the current to another spot where the boat met us and picked us up. It was another fun snorkel. I saw some lobsters and lots of pretty fish. The current was super strong though, I was exhausted by the time I made it back on the boat.

We got back to the dock around 5. What perfect end to an amazing weekend: snorkeling, a BBQ on the beach, and lots of fun in the sun with all of my friends. I can't believe I will be leaving San Pedro in one week.....

Scuba Diving at the Blue Hole

On Saturday, I went scuba diving in the great Blue Hole! Kelli, Dr. C, Laurie and I dove; Kelsey, Annie, and a few of the grad students went with us and snorkeled. We had to be up super early and over to the dock at Ramon’s by 5:30am. Kelli and I were pretty disappointed that we didn’t get to dive with Ambergris Divers and our favorite dive master, Flip, but Ramon’s had much nicer, newer gear and our boat was much bigger. It was a two and half hour boat ride out to the Blue Hole. We passed by Caye Caulker and several other small islands on the way. We hit some huge swells out in the open water. The massive waves turned our boat ride into a rollercoaster. My stomach was dropping just like it does when you’re on a coaster. Kelli and I loved it and couldn’t stop giggling. Eventually the water calmed down and I ended up falling asleep for about an hour. I didn’t wake up until I heard Kelli screaming, “Look! Look!” I shot up and looked where she was pointing. Our boat had stumbled upon a school of dolphins! There must have been about 50 of them.  Some swam in the wake right behind the boat, some swam right by the bow of the boat, and tons were out in the water next to the boat giving us a show! They would jump in and out of the water, sometimes two at a time in perfect synchronization. If I didn’t know any better I would of said it was choreographed. Our captain drove our boat around in a circle a few times so we could get a good look at the dolphins. It was really neat. Kelli and I decided that that right there already made the trip worth it.

Pre-dive 

After spotting the dolphins, it was another 30 minutes to the Blue Hole. Kelli and I were pretty nervous. The Blue Hole would be our first deep water dive. We would be going down to 140 feet. The deepest I had been before was about 80 feet. When you get down past 100 feet you run the risk of getting nitrogen narcosis, which is is a reversible alteration in consciousness that occurs while diving at depth. It can also defined by a temporary decline or loss of senses and movement or numbness. It can feel similar to alcohol intoxication or nitrous oxide inhalation, which explains why another name for nitrogen narcosis is the Martini Effect. You also have to be very careful on the ascent. You can’t come up too quickly and you have to do a decompression stop. All of these things were freaking us out, and then on top of that the Blue Hole is home to reef and bull sharks. Bull sharks especially are much more aggressive than the nurse sharks that we’d seen on our previous dives. So I was also slightly concerned with the possibility of getting eaten by a shark! Nevertheless, I was in Belize and I wasn’t going home without diving the Blue Hole!

We entered the Blue Hole through the southern opening and we would be diving on the south side as well.  After we anchored, the snorkelers went on in, just as a shark approached our boat I might add, but we had to be briefed about the dive before getting in. We would be going down next to the wall to 140 feet. We would be down there for about 8 minutes, and then we would slowly come back up to 20 feet for a 5-minute decompression stop. We can only stay at that depth for 8 minutes because when you are that deep, you use more air.

We descended really quickly. It only took us about a minute to reach 140 feet. The wall looked similar to the walls of the ATM cave-lots of stalagmites and limestone. It makes sense that the Blue Hole reminded me of the ATM cave because the Blue Hole was once a cave that collapsed into this huge, perfectly circular sinkhole. Down there, I felt like an astronaut floating in space. It was dark and when I looked down I couldn’t see anything but more darkness. While we were down there, I did experience some nitrogen narcosis. It didn’t bother me though, I just felt like I had had a few drinks. Probably when I was feeling loopy, I went down to 150 feet. But one of the dive masters quickly got my attention and I swam back up to 140 feet. While we were down there we saw 3 big reef sharks swimming about 20 feet below us. They looked much scarier than the nurse sharks I’ve seen. It was an exhilarating feeling being down so deep and being so close to these sharks that could easily kill me.

Post Blue Hole

Back on the boat, Kelli and I could barely contain our excitement. We had survived the Blue Hole and it was absolutely beautiful. Everywhere we looked was more and more of the gorgeous blue water with no land in sight. After the snorkelers got back on the boat, we headed off to our next dive near Half Moon Caye.

Me at the Blue Hole

View from the top deck of the Blue Hole
(That's our guide Wil showing off his muscles)

Half Moon Caye

It took us about 20 minutes to reach our next dive spot called the Half Moon Caye Wall. We were about half a mile off of Half Moon Caye and could see tons of birds flying above the island. The dive was nothing short of amazing. Once again we were doing a wall dive, but this time it wasn’t a cave wall, it was a huge wall of colorful coral and tropical fish. We only went down to 60 feet and dove for about 45 minutes. I felt like I was in the movie The Little Mermaid. The coral was much bigger and way more colorful than the corals we had seen on our local dives. We saw two huge eagle rays, a sea turtle, several reef sharks (one actually followed us around), lobsters, and tons of varieties of fish. We went through many swim-throughs, which are like tunnels through the coral. It was really, really cool. It definitely beat all of my previous dives.

Kelli, Annie, and Kelsey with Half Moon Caye in the background

Me before the dive at Half Moon Caye Wall

After our second dive, we went to have lunch and spend some time on Half Moon Caye. Half Moon Caye is located at the southeast corner of Lighthouse Reef Atoll, the furthest of Belize’s three atolls from the mainland, and one of only four such atolls in the Western Hemisphere. It is a natural monument and is home to the red-footed boobie bird that is only found here in Belize and in the Galapagos Islands.  We had a delicious lunch right on the beach and then had about an hour to walk around the island and see the boobies. The island was incredibly beautiful. We walked all over and up to the bird lookout to see the hundreds of boobies. We also saw several lizards, geckos, and a big family of hermit crabs. When our time was up, we got back on the boat for our last dive at a spot called “The Aquarium.”

Hermit Crab feeding frenzy on a dead bird. It smelled horrible.

BOOBIES!

View from the top of the booby look out 

This guy was screeching like crazy!

Me with the giant Booby in the gift shop 

Hammock chillin 

The beach on the opposite side of the island

Me diving at the Aquarium

The Aquarium got its name because at this spot on the reef, there are literally thousands of fish of hundreds of different varieties. The fish are so abundant here because fishermen come to this spot to throw out all of their unwanted fish parts. Once again we only went down to 60 feet and had a dive time of 45 minutes. And again, everything was breathtakingly gorgeous-the reef, the fish, the rays, the lobsters, and even the sharks. We saw around 5 sharks on this dive. By then I actually grew kind of comfortable around them.

Kelli and I after our last dive in Belize

Towards the end of our dive, I got an unwelcome sinking feeling in my chest. I had realized that this would be my last dive in Belize. I thought how on earth could I leave all of this beauty? And where in the world and when will I ever get the opportunity to dive somewhere like this again? I felt so grateful that I had had this experience, but I felt even more sadness at the realization that more than likely, I would never be here again. About this time, I made eye contact with Kelli. She brought her pointer finger up to her mask and traced a tear falling from her eye. She too had realized that this was it.  When we got back on the boat, I didn’t say anything for a few minutes. I was trying to really soak it all in, appreciate what a truly magnificent day we had had, and permanently ingrain everything I had seen into my memory. My face must have conveyed what I was feeling because Annie asked me if I was all right. I told her I was fine and tried to explain to her that I was just depressed that this was my last dive in Belize. Then Kelli came and sat down next to me. As we had done after all of our previous dives, we had our explosive conversation about everything that we had seen. Except this time it was very bittersweet. We had just had this amazing day with the three best dives of our trip, but it was also the end of our diving in Belize.


I had to shake off my emotions so I could enjoy our boat ride back.  As usual, it was a perfect day in paradise. Kelli, Annie, Kelsey, and I sat up on the top deck of the boat soaking up the sun and chatting with our dive guides. They were all really nice and fun to talk to. Our dive master, Ernest, told us that he had logged over 9,000 dives! Kelli and I about fell out. He said that he averages about 600 dives a year all over Belize. I wish that was my job! After about two hours, we finally saw San Pedro in the distance. I was a bit sad getting off the boat, but simultaneously filled with joy from our amazing, fun-filled day. If you ever find yourself in Belize, a trip to the Blue Hole is a must!

Here is a video that Annie made that includes some footage of the dolphins we saw and some of what she saw on her snorkels.  Annie's Blue Hole Video

Day 31- Recap of week 4

So I have quite a bit of catching up to do.  

This past week, we have been back to work in the schools. On Monday, I was at New Horizons for the first time. I taught two classes of about 40 kids each. Once again, there is no gym or open area to have PE at the school, so I take the kids up the street to a soccer field. The field is mostly dusty dirt with a few patches of grass, and is completely littered with trash. Beer bottles, metal rods, broken glass, cement bricks, and much more can be found scattered around the field. And there is usually an audience of 3 to 4 sketchy guys sitting in the concession stand doing who knows what. The classes are an hour long and the only equipment I have is what the students bring from home. My first class, Standard V (6^th grade), only brought a flat basketball, so we played kickball. They had never played kickball before. It took them a minute to catch on, but I think they were enjoying it by the end. With my second class, Standard III, we started with some stretches, played a tag game as a class, and then I let the students split up and play soccer, volleyball, or jump rope. The students brought a soccer ball and a volleyball, and I brought the jump rope (I braided my clothes line to make a long rope). There were simply too many students to try and do anything else as a class. I ended up working with the students who wanted to play volleyball, and I taught them the correct form of the bump pass. I went over how to hold your hands and how to pass off of your forearms. Then I had the students get in a line and take turns passing to me.  

Me leading stretches

Tag Game

Tuesday morning I was at New Horizons again. I taught three classes. The first class I did basically the same thing that I did with the Standard III class the day before. Stretches, a tag game, and then I let them choose to play soccer or jump rope. My second class brought a wood baseball bat and some tennis balls, as well as a soccer ball. With that class, after stretches, the students could choose to play soccer or baseball.  I had the students who wanted to play baseball scatter around in the field and then come up, one at a time, and hit soft toss. None of the students knew how to hit. As each student came up, I had to give them a quick run down of how to hold the bat, how to stand, and how to swing. Some students caught on right away, but others   struggled. However, I did manage to get every kid to hit at least one or two balls. Everyone loved it! When it was time to go, they didn’t want to leave and everyone wanted to hit again. The next class brought the bat out too (there was a sibling of the girl who brought the bat in the class), so I did the same thing with them. Once again, it was a huge success. 

Boys playing soccer

Jump Rope

In the afternoon, I was at Isla Bonita. I took the Standard II class out to the beach. First, we played a group tag game. Then I went over how to shoot a basketball and let each student take two shoots. I could tell many of them weren’t interested in learning how to shoot so I finally gave up and let them either jump rope or play basketball. I find it important to note that all of the girls went to jump rope and all of the boys played basketball. 

Wednesday morning I observed one of the high school’s PE classes. It was very interesting to say the least. Many of the kids didn’t wear shoes and there were tables and other objects around the gym that the kids could easily bump into and get hurt. However, overall it was a pretty good class for the circumstances. Mr. Kelly had them do some warm up stretches and sprints, and then they played a game that combined soccer and basketball. There was definitely room for improvement in Mr. Kelly’s lesson, but I did see a lot of good things happening. 

Wednesday afternoon, I was at Isla Bonita for two classes. I borrowed a king sized bed sheet from Pedro’s, brought some tennis balls and some balled up socks, and did parachute activities with the Infant I (Kindergarten) class. Since I didn’t need a lot of space, I was able to have class on the playground instead of walking all the way out to the beach. It was a bit of a struggle to get the students to work as a team to get the parachute to work at first, but eventually we made it happen. The students had a blast. Then I had to teach Standard I and Standard III together. The classes came out 20 minutes late, leaving me with not enough time to take them out to the beach, so we played soccer steal the bacon on the playground. Steal the bacon is not an appropriate game to play in PE back home and I hated to do it, but I had to think of something on the spot that I could do in the space provided with one ball and about 30 kids. Honestly, it didn’t go so well. 




Thursday I taught one class at Isla Bonita. I did parachute again with Infant II. It was the hottest day of the week and I almost passed out, but the kids still had a lot of fun. 

The girl I am helping did not understand English very well so
 I had to hold on to her hands so that she could see what to do. 

I tried to play all of the games that I do with the parachute back in the states, but I had
 to make some adjustments because the bed sheet is so much smaller than an actual parachute.

Friday I was at the high school all day. I observed two of the new PE teacher’s Life Skills classes and one PE class. It was interesting to say the least. The new PE teacher’s name is Mr. Rodriguez. He is a super nice guy and I enjoyed hanging out with him all day. He is only one year older than me and he came from a middle grades math teaching job on the mainland of Belize. He told me that he got the job as PE teacher because he has an associate's degree in education and is a basketball player with some coaching experience. The topic in Life Skills was “Responsibilities of a Parent.” We don’t cover that kind of thing back in the states so I really enjoyed observing those classes. Mr. Rodriguez did very well in the classroom. His PE class was a completely different story. It was complete chaos. I actually ended up stepping in and getting the kids out onto the court and leading the warm up because Mr. Rodriguez didn’t have a plan or even a whistle. After my warm up, he made them run some and then he basically rolled out a basketball and a soccer ball and said play. The boys all played soccer and the girls sat down in the bleachers. I ended up prying the girls off of the bleachers and teaching them how to shoot a basketball. They were pretty uninterested at first, but once a few of them started making shots they kind of got into it. 

What a crazy week! It is so, so, so, so different than what I am use to back home. There is a serious lack of behavior management here and safety is not high on the priority list. These two things alone make things extremely difficult for me. And the students at the primary schools don’t think of PE as a class. They see it as recess or free play and they only want to do one of two things: soccer or nothing. Also, the lack of facilities and equipment has been tough to work through. And I have to mention the weather. It has been blistering hot this week and when I am at the primary schools, there is no shade so I melt in the sun. I am literally soaking wet with sweat when I come home. Oh how I miss my air-conditioned gym back home! However, I’ve learned a lot this week and I’ve got some better ideas for activities to do next week. 

Day 22- Last day on the mainland: Trip to Belize Zoo

Today, for the very last time, we woke up at Rosa's Hotel, ate breakfast, and were on a van by 7a.m. I wasn't that sad to leave Rosa's. Our room was constantly buzzing with mosquitos, like an igloo when the air-conditioner was on, a sauna when it was off, and the lumpy pillow and single sheet on the bed didn't help much.

We drove an hour and a half toward Belize City to the Belize Zoo. Unfortunately, they only allowed us two hours in the zoo, which in my opinion was not enough, but I did manage to see most of everything. The zoo was unlike any zoo that I've ever been to in the U.S. There were hardly any barriers to the enclosures. Only fences stood between us and the animals instead of big thick bars or glass like back home. All of the animals in the zoo were native to Belize. We saw lots of beautiful flowers, colorful birds, monkeys, various rodents, reptiles, and lots of cats!

Right when we walked in, a guy was there
with a boa constrictor that we could pose with.

Owl

Ocelot

Scarlet Macaw

Junior the Jaguar (born at the zoo)

Tapir (National Animal)

Japanese Lantern

Crocodile

Keel-billed Toucan (National Bird) 

Otter

Howler Monkey

Puma

I was able to take this great picture of the puma because one of the zoo workers let me into the enclosure next door to the pumas! The enclosure was empty, but once again I feel like that is something that would never happen back home.

Another cool thing that we got to do at the zoo was for $5 you could "high-five" two of the big cats. You know I had to do it! First, a zoo keeper led us into a restricted area in between the black panther enclosure and some other enclosure. We went into this little room, for a lack of better words, where the panther would come up and the keeper would feed it jerky. He would make the panther stand up on his hind legs so we could pose with him. 

 This is Lucky Boy. He is a rescue. He was super skinny and sickly when they brought him in. Now, he doesn't have any teeth because he broke them all by gnawing on his enclosure when they brought him to the zoo.

He jumped at me once!

Then we went to another jaguar cage where we got the jaguar to do tricks! We would say, "roll over" and draw a circle in the air with our finger and the jaguar would roll over. He also knew how to high five.

I loved the Belize Zoo! Everyone who comes to Belize should go! When we left, we drove another hour and a half to Belize City, got on a water taxi, and finally made it back to San Pedro. Man, it is good to be home! I've missed the island life and everyone here in San Pedro. Kind of nervous about this week though, it's our first big week back in the schools!