Even though there is contstant lightning on the horizon tonight, we're enjoying one of the first clear nights since we've been here. I think all the fireflies are responding to the lightning, too - they're putting on quite the show. Here are some things I recently learned about this crazy country we are calling home for now:
- We have vampire bats (you MUST have screens in your house)
- Yellowflies are miserable insects responsible for the drops of my own blood on top of my feet and legs
- Locals call Jaguars "tigers" because the Spanish speakers here refer to them by the Spanish word, "tigres" ... and we just can't stop them from doing that...
- We're approaching the end of the rainy season - the road to Orange Walk Town was completely underwater in some parts and is still very rough where it had been washed out
The night before last, we had dinner with the English-speaking pastor and his family. Their children are so nice! Their funny/crazy son will be one of my students, and they're somehow related to our neighbor, Liz - so we all ate enchiladas together. That, and a delicious "eclair pie" that Corrina made. Mmmm...eclair pie...
Yesterday we drove to Orange Walk Town. Thirty miles, with four villages in 
between. It took an hour to drive. The main road really wasn't as bad as the people in Blue Creek made it sound...it's a rough road but manageable. The bad spots were in the towns themselves - you couldn't drive more than 20 miles per hour through them and swerving like a madman all the way through to avoid the potholes. The roads are mostly limestone, so even where it's paved it doesn't take long for the soft lime to wear away beneath it, leaving gaping white holes that throw you around and slow you down.
Then there were the two spots on the road that had been washed out and still held standing water. One section had three small lakes in a row - with an island of sandy road between each of them. We were in a small two-wheel drive pickup truck. Only one option there - we got as much speed as we could before hitting the water and flew through them all hoping to still have enough momentum by the time we hit the third puddle that we wouldn't get stuck. It worked! And, it was fun...
Orange Walk didn't have everything we were looking for, but it did have a lot. We'll have to go to Chetumal for the wall art and a couple other random things.
We went to an open-air market though market and a fancy restaurant that had a TV
in it. We didn't realize that Orange Walk had a siesta - around lunch time everything everywhere closed. So we stepped inside a restaurant with a nice breeze and looked over the menu - each of us about to order some roasted chicken or a hamburger before the man behind the counter interrupted us,
"We only have rice and beans."
"Excuse me?"
"We only have rice and beans."
"Okay...I'll have, uh.. the rice and beans. And a red Fanta. With a straw!"
I'm an American, I want options! But, it was the best rice and beans I've had yet! It came with some chicken pieces cooked with just a bit of yellow curry and garlic along with saltwater cabbage and this big piece of ... something like a vegetable. It smelled like squash but had the color and texture of an avocado. It was good with hot sauce! I love all the hot sauces in Belize.
Now we're just planning for the coming week - school starts on Wednesday and the parent's open house/meet the teacher night is Monday. The only bit of stress there is that the entire curriculum - textbooks, workbooks, materials - has been tied up in customs for two weeks now. It came to Belize in a large container that included everything recently ordered for this area: school supplies, an airplane engine, random tidbits necessary for suvival in the jungle, everything in one cargo container - and the red tape kept it in customs longer than usual. So, that will come to Blue Creek tomorrow and I'll have just a couple days to set up the classroom. It will be perfect!
Last year, 7th and 8th grades were separate, but this year I'm teaching them both in the same class. For the first time tonight I was able to get into the 7th grade classroom to drag the desks over to my room. Holy Teaching Materials, Batman! This room has everything! And I get to use it all! We did have to move cautiously, though...before moving each desk we had to look inside for scorpions, centipedes, frogs, geckos, the chupacabra... I don't know how these things find their way into a locked up classroom but they do.
So tomorrow, I work! My classroom is going to RAWK! Anybody coming by for Open House? See you there!
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