Another Monday - full of up's and down's

Arriving at school this Monday morning, we were greeted by yet another power outage. It appeared to only be on the north end of the island -- I had power at home before I left. There were 2 good things -- a great breeze that came in the back door of the office when we propped the doors open and it only last until about 8:45. Whew! The irritating part is that whenever the power goes out, so goes the internet. The Holy Cross server was down all day so no internet for the lab.

It was a somewhat awkward morning. It started last week when the head of the Anglican schools came to meet with each of the teachers. During her conference with one of the teachers, she terminated that teacher's employment as of last Friday. Long story. This morning, that teacher signed in and went to her classroom as if nothing had happened. Shortly after that, her replacement -- sent by the head of the Anglican schools -- came in. Yikes! Our principal had to send for the original teacher, tell her that yes, indeed, she had been fired and that she needed to leave. Moments later, the new lady walked into the classroom and got to work. I'm not sure I would have had the cool to take over like that.

This afternoon, I helped judge the Miss Central America contest in one of the Standard II classes. The students had worked in groups, researching the countries of Central America. Then one girl from each group represented that country in the "pageant". They competed in dressy, dancing, sports and questions. Since it also counted as their Spanish lesson, they had to introduce themselves and give 3 facts about their country in both English and Spanish. In addition, they had to answer a question which was generally Central American geography. It was cute. Here are pictures of the contestants.

And the winner is.... Miss Guatemala

RAIN!!!!!!!

I awoke at 5 am to the sound of rain! Shortly after came the thunder and lightening. We had quite a thunderstorm in the early morning hours. It was a lovely sound because I knew it also meant the temperature would be lower today. It has been so hot for the past several days that the relief was very welcomed. It rained hard for a couple of hours, let up long enough for me to walk to school, and then the next wave came and it rained until early afternoon.

Very few children came to school today. Many have a long walk and would have been soaked by the time they got to school. Others were home because their parents believe being in the rain will make them sick. I wasn't worried about getting sick but was a little apprehensive about walking across a metal bridge over a river while it was lightening. Fortunately, I didn't have to solve that dilemma.

It's been an emotionally challenging week, and I would like to ask you to include us in your prayers. "Dora", the sweet young girl about whom I have written before, had another awful experience with her step-father over the weekend. I'll spare you the details, but just know it included choking, bruises, arrest, children taken from the home and now children returned to the home. Pray for "Dora's" safety.

My special friend Valdimir is having a harder than expected time in St. Louis. He went for more surgeries on his foot. He has a terrible infection in one foot that has invaded the bones in his ankle. The doctors are doing everything possible to save his foot. This is so sad because he has come so far since his first surgery and is so happy to be able to stand and walk. Please pray for Valdimir and his doctors.

Linda, our incredible school secretary and bookkeeper, is having significant health issues this week that involved a very scary spike in blood pressure yesterday. We hope new medicine and rest will be the ticket to having her back with us soon. I hope things don't fall apart at Holy Cross with me trying to manage the office. Thank goodness everyone who called on the phone today spoke English! Pray for Linda's speedy recovery.

Tomorrow is the payday halfday. But, May 1 is Labor Day in Belize. Many businesses will be closed on Saturday, but the banks are closing tomorrow at noon for the holiday. Things are very complicated for our teachers who need access to their pay for weekend travel and bill paying. Not being able to get to their money until Monday is not a good situation for many.

Have a good weekend.

Hot Sunday afternoon

It's Sunday evening, and, knock on wood, the power has not gone out since Friday. Electricity for just about the entire island was out from 8:30 am til about noon on Friday as "up-grades" to the equipment were made. There is a major substation on the street behind my apartment, and all sorts of equipment and men were spread all around out there. It seems that San Pedro -- and thus the electricity demands -- are growing fast and the equipment is insufficient. I had stayed home on Friday, and it was too hot to stay inside the apartment without the ceiling fans running. I had some very nice time, sitting in the breezy shade, looking out over the ocean with a good book to read.

Aaaahhhhh.......

Today was our monthly worship service. It was nice to have the PA system working. The pigeons in the rafters were better behaved this time too. The Standard VI students, our confirmation class, all of the teachers, and many of the Holy Cross children were in attendance. Not many families this time, but we were "competing" with a festival in Central Park.

The festival is the annual Reef-Lagoon Kayak festival. There were 2-person kayak teams that raced from the lagoon around the island to end up at Central Park. There were barbeque cook-offs, music, food, drink and LOTS of people. As on any hot Sunday afternoon at the beach, there were many, many children enjoying the water.

The upcoming week at Holy Cross includes several early-release days. Tuesday the students will be dismissed at 2:15 for a faculty meeting. Mrs. Grace was in meetings last week with the Anglican administration and the Ministry of Education folks. I'm sure she has a lot to share with the teachers. Wednesday is our usual early dismissal for teacher planning. Friday is payday again, so everyone is out at noon. I think I have found the advantage of not having direct deposit for paychecks!

I have been following the stories from Central Mississippi where tornadoes devastated areas there. My family and friends are south of the area that was hit and are all fine. I've also heard from my friends in Oxford where all is well too. Many were fortunate, and we pray for those whose lives and homes were lost.

Have a good week.

Earth Day 2010

It's World Earth Day, and Holy Cross marked the day in many ways. First of all, the children and teachers were encouraged to wear green shirts. The school was a sea of shades of green. Very different from our usual grey and white uniforms.

Many classes made posters urging everyone to save the earth -- to pick up litter, to drive less, to conserve energy, to save the mangroves, etc.

Ms. Zulma's class has created a skit and will perform it next week at the Hol Chan Reserve competition. Classes from Standard 1 up went out to various locations and picked up trash. The middle and upper divisions worked along the beach north of the bridge while the younger children cleaned up the campus and surrounding areas.
This morning we had our regular weekly chapel services. We were very happy to have Pastor Pam from Ohio lead the service today. She has been volunteering at the school all week before going on a diving vacation.

Work goes on in the Standard VI math class. The PSE test is May 4 so time is short. Their teacher, Ms. Joy and I were on our own Monday and Tuesday as Mrs. Grace was in meetings in Belize City. We did a lot of review. Then Mrs. Grace returned to teach about proportion on Wednesday. That topic always stumped me when I was a math student -- I can reason it out in my head but can't put the problem into steps much less explain it to someone else! So what else would I do but fire off an email to my math buddy at Hill. Bonnie to the rescue! I'm still a little shaky in my explanations but am doing a little better.

It continues to be very hot although today we had some much welcomed clouds and a bit more of a breeze. We are consuming much more water, and the air conditioned school office has become a haven. One of the student teachers from Canada told me today that never in her life had she ever been in a temperature like this, and probably there had never been this temperature recorded in all of Canada. I feel sure she's correct! Summers in Mississippi were good preparation for me --- but I still love my air conditioning.

Whew! It's Hot!

We have had a very hot week -- highs in the 80s everyday. I suppose this is the norm for April. I've just never been here this time of year. After a whole lot of thunder and lightening the past couple of nights, we finally had some rain last night. It rained hard for about an hour in the middle of the night. At least it added to the cisterns as the water supply in San Pedro has been kind of if-y. In fact, over Easter weekend there just wasn't any water. I'm glad I was at home and missed that adventure.

There is water now, but the power outages continue at crazy random times. A neighbor remarked this morning that in the US we are used to the power going out when there are strong storms with thunder and lightening. Not here -- plenty of electricity during last night's storm, but on a clear, cloudless day, it will go out for several hours. Hmmm.... Electricity in Belize comes from Mexico, and there has been a varity of reasons given for the outages --- downed lines in Northern Belize, birds landing in transformers, someone who forgot to mail a check to Mexico :) and the list goes on. I am now armed with a flashlight and an assortment of candles. It just gets pretty warm without the fans.

I have some company in my apartment. This pair of geckos (cleverly known as "Tropical House Geckos") make their appearance on my ceiling about dusk. They make a loud "clicking" sound which makes them seem much larger than they really are. They are fun to watch, and they very nicely eat insects. Tomorrow a group of 10 student teachers from Vancouver Island University arrives at Holy Cross. They will be here until the middle of May. It should be a good mutual learning experience. In another week, another group of student teachers from Gainsville State Univ. will also begin working with and learning from our teachers. It should be eye-opening on both sides.

Francis left yesterday to spend time with her daughter who is nearing the end of her pregnancy. She has been put on bedrest, so Grammy Francis has gone to help out with the 2 year old and 4 year old grandsons. I am very grateful that Vernon is still here. I am not totally on my own out there this time, and I have a much better idea of expectations and responsibilities. I know we will be ready for her to be back long before she actually returns.

I took a short stroll through town this afternoon. Too hot to do more than stroll. It seems pretty quiet -- not many tourists. The Belizean economy is suffering because of the American issues. Many folks have cut back on vacations, and that hurts things here. So, if you find yourself in need of a holiday, come on down! Let these pictures entice you..... Have a great week.

This & That

Who would have thought I'd ever write that I was having fun teaching math?? Well, I am. For the past 2 days, I have been helping out in the Standard VI (8th grade) math class, working with those kids who need some extra practice to get the current concepts. We are all working hard to have the students prepared for the second part of their big state test. We've been working this week with various problems involving percent -- simple interest, buying on time, etc. So far, so good for me, but next come ratio and proportion. I may need some tutoring myself! I think what I am most enjoying is the time spent with the kids. This group is really well-behaved, smart and fun.

Thank you for all the prayers for our family at Holy Cross after Gabriela's tragic death. We will honor her life at chapel tomorrow. It has been a difficult time, and our hearts ache, but your support and caring are helping. We hope her sister will be returning to school in the next few days.

Many of you have asked about Destiny. I have this update -- she is out of the hospital, although never clear of congestion. She is living with a lady in Belize City in, from what I can gather, a foster home. She has called her dear adult friends, Cullen and Kath in San Pedro, and seems happy. No word yet on whether she will go to the children's home or remain in foster care. She's been assigned a new social worker so the action has slowed some. At least she is a little healthier and is happy.

Some of you may remember my special friend Vladimir ("Baltimore") who I met the first time I came to Holy Cross. He left yesterday to go to St. Louis (the Shriners take care of him) for more surgery on his feet. He will probably not be back at school this year. He hugged me good-bye on Monday. He's very excited about going -- he can walk better after each time there. I will miss seeing his smile in the Standard III class but am so happy he can have this opportunity. His story is one of the many miracle stories at Holy Cross.

We had another one of the unannounced power outages last night. The electricity went off around 1:30 and stayed off til 5:30. I guess that's not a bad time to be without electricity other than having no fans or AC. I think that's what woke me up -- I realized I was hot. The power went out for short periods of time twice more during the day today. We are frequently reminded of the importance of saving when working on computer.

For almost 2 months, we have been waiting to hear from Bishop Wright about when he would be able to come over for a confirmation service. Yesterday we got a call that he would be coming on May 30 so today we got our classes going in full swing. There were 7 kids who came today for class. There are several others who have already participated in a preparation program but were not confirmed, so we should have quite a nice group.

Today I sent my federal taxes to my mother to send on the IRS (I filed for an extension before I came back from Easter vacation). Filing from Belize is not an easy thing to do. The mail is so incredibly slow that I had planned to use the e-filing. But, at the very last minute I was informed by TurboTax that my return was not "eligible" for e-file. Good grief! I just couldn't send that whole packet off to the IRS from here, having no way to know if it ever arrived there. So, thanks to Mother for being the intermediate stop. Apparently the state of NC has different technology because I was able to e-file the state return. It should not be this difficult to get my own money back.

My neighbor brought over a delicious-looking piece of key lime pie (here, they call it "caye" lime pie) . I think it's time to go enjoy it.

I'm Back....

Easter greetings to all. I had a wonderful time at home with family and friends. It was a whirlwind trip - 10 airplanes, 6 airports, 4 cities in 2 states, 4 suitcase packings/unpackings -- but it was fun. And now I'm back and settled in again in Paradise (Villas, that is.)

Holy Cross re-opened today after a 2 week break. I heard a couple of teachers say what I always do at the end of a long vacation -- "if I just had a few more days..."


We began the day with news of a tragedy. One of the children in Standard II was killed in a car wreck in Guatemala over Easter weekend. She and her family were there for her grandmother's funeral and unknowingly drove off into a place where a mudslide had washed out the road awhile back. There is an older sister who also attends Holy Cross. The family has not returned to San Pedro yet. I spent time in both classrooms this morning, providing what comfort I could, allowing the children to share stories and concerns and saying prayers for Gabriela and her family. Many of the children and teachers didn't learn about the accident until they came to school this morning. In chapel on Thursday, we will honor her life and say special prayers for her and her family. The children in both classes are making cards for her family. It was a very difficult day. So sad to lose a young child so suddenly.


Work continued on construction projects at Holy Cross over the break. The cafeteria floor has a new coat of paint and looks so nice. The classrooms were cleaned top to bottom and were sparkling clean to greet the classes today. The bottom floor of the new septic system has walls and a floor. I still don't understand how all this works but will be anxious to see the rest take shape.

There is also now a large flat area of land behind the library and adjacent to the construction shed. Somebody has shoveled a whole lot of sand since the St. Luke's team began filling in that space in February.

There is a new teacher in Infant I. Ms. Nadime had the opportunity to transfer to a school near her home of San Ignacio. Our new teacher comes from St. Barnabas School in Central Farm -- the site of an earlier St. Luke's mission trip. She worked all weekend making the classroom her own and was hard at work with her class today.

It's very quiet here in Paradise Villas. Most of the long-term residents have returned to the US or Canada. Rentals are way down because of the economy. This tourist season has been even bleaker than last year. It is hoped things will pick up soon.

I must go and put the finishing touches on my income taxes. I was all set to move into the 21st century and e-file them yesterday, only to learn that my return is not eligible -- it contains too many copies of one particular form. So.... I will print and mail, the old fashioned way. With the experience many of us have had with the mail, I think it's good that I applied for an extension before I left home. Snail mail lives up to its name in Belize.