Belize Days 1 & 2!!!!
So, I have some time here at work so I thought I might update you all about my Belize trip. Like I said, it was AMAZING!!!!!! It was also amazingly tiring, but I didn't care!!!!!!! We left on July 6th, a lovely Thursday morning *cough*(no morning is lovely on 3 hours sleep). We had to be at the church at 2:45am for our final team gathering and to load up. So, we did all that, got a team pic and said our good byes . Then we loaded up in the vehicles to take us to Nashville-I got to ride in a limo(borrowed from the funeral home, but whatever)! So, we got to Nashville and had to wait in the crowd to check our baggage, which took a while. We saw my old band director, which was interesting. Then we got through security and had some downtime to eat breakfast and sit, since our plane was delayed about 30 minutes.
We boarded there and flew to Miami, where we had 30 minutes to catch our plane to Belize City. Luckily, the gate was right across the terminal from the Belize City plane gate, so we had no problems. We boarded that plane and off we flew!!! We went over the Caribbean and down the coast of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula, which was some beautiful scenery. Of course, so was flying into Belize. It was a lot of uninhabited jungle and water, but so pretty. We flew into the Belize City airport, which was the most po dunk airport ever. It just appeared out of nowhere....it was dirt and airport. Plus, there is only 1 runway in the whole airport to accommodate the whole 5 gates they have!!!!! It was crazy! Well, we get off the plane using some steps they attach....no nice hallway things there....and walk into the airport for customs.
That's when the humidity started to hit.......sticky, steamy jungle humidity. Anyway, customs was interesting, but not too scary. We got our bags ok and met up with James, our bus driver. He was a really cool guy, really funny and nice. More about him later though. Well, James picked us up and we started our 2 hour bus ride to Ontario, where we would be working and staying, stopping along the way for "lunch"-snack food really. We got to Ontario and headed to Pastor Taite's house, where we would be staying the next week. We get there, meet Mrs Barbara (Pastor Taite's wife), and she showed us to our bunkhouse, where we unloaded. It was pretty nice, perfect size for our team and all(we had 10 and it houses up to 12). After some unloading and setup time, we walked down to WCA, where we would be working. It was only like 1/4 mile from the house, and you could see it form there, so that was a good thing. (WCA is a Christian high school, run by Ms. Dayna, a missionary lady from Wisconsin-more on her later). So, we got to see the roof the guys would be working on and the books we would be fixing, plus got our stuff to teach the next day!!!!! Then we headed across the street to the 1 pay phone in the town, the only means of communicating with the world that I had. After some down time, we had our 1st Belezian dinner-it was soooooooo good, even though I am not *exactly* sure what I ate. Then, team time and off to bed-at 8:30!!!!!! Oh well, traveling is exhausting!
Day 2 started at 6am-7 here(they don't do daylight savings time). We got up, had a Belezian breakfast(eggs and journey cakes-biscuits in Belize), and off to work. We did some paper grading that morning, then got to meet our classes. My kids were a bit, um, amused by the sight of me. I probably would be too if I was them, but still. We had our 1st lesson, reading and math, and everyone survived-although with plenty of snickering by them. Then lunch, and work all afternoon. I got to sand desktops and fix books-it was interesting. By then, the rain had started, so we walked home all nice and wet. We had dinner and got ready for the teen night at the church. It was kind of cool, pretty amusing though.They watched this cheesy movie about teens and love and all....it was pretty corny. Then we headed back to camp, had team time, and hit the bed again.
If you made it this far, thanks. I am gonna pause here for now. Tune in soon for the next episode of Jenny's Belizian Adventure!!!!!!!!
We boarded there and flew to Miami, where we had 30 minutes to catch our plane to Belize City. Luckily, the gate was right across the terminal from the Belize City plane gate, so we had no problems. We boarded that plane and off we flew!!! We went over the Caribbean and down the coast of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula, which was some beautiful scenery. Of course, so was flying into Belize. It was a lot of uninhabited jungle and water, but so pretty. We flew into the Belize City airport, which was the most po dunk airport ever. It just appeared out of nowhere....it was dirt and airport. Plus, there is only 1 runway in the whole airport to accommodate the whole 5 gates they have!!!!! It was crazy! Well, we get off the plane using some steps they attach....no nice hallway things there....and walk into the airport for customs.
That's when the humidity started to hit.......sticky, steamy jungle humidity. Anyway, customs was interesting, but not too scary. We got our bags ok and met up with James, our bus driver. He was a really cool guy, really funny and nice. More about him later though. Well, James picked us up and we started our 2 hour bus ride to Ontario, where we would be working and staying, stopping along the way for "lunch"-snack food really. We got to Ontario and headed to Pastor Taite's house, where we would be staying the next week. We get there, meet Mrs Barbara (Pastor Taite's wife), and she showed us to our bunkhouse, where we unloaded. It was pretty nice, perfect size for our team and all(we had 10 and it houses up to 12). After some unloading and setup time, we walked down to WCA, where we would be working. It was only like 1/4 mile from the house, and you could see it form there, so that was a good thing. (WCA is a Christian high school, run by Ms. Dayna, a missionary lady from Wisconsin-more on her later). So, we got to see the roof the guys would be working on and the books we would be fixing, plus got our stuff to teach the next day!!!!! Then we headed across the street to the 1 pay phone in the town, the only means of communicating with the world that I had. After some down time, we had our 1st Belezian dinner-it was soooooooo good, even though I am not *exactly* sure what I ate. Then, team time and off to bed-at 8:30!!!!!! Oh well, traveling is exhausting!
Day 2 started at 6am-7 here(they don't do daylight savings time). We got up, had a Belezian breakfast(eggs and journey cakes-biscuits in Belize), and off to work. We did some paper grading that morning, then got to meet our classes. My kids were a bit, um, amused by the sight of me. I probably would be too if I was them, but still. We had our 1st lesson, reading and math, and everyone survived-although with plenty of snickering by them. Then lunch, and work all afternoon. I got to sand desktops and fix books-it was interesting. By then, the rain had started, so we walked home all nice and wet. We had dinner and got ready for the teen night at the church. It was kind of cool, pretty amusing though.They watched this cheesy movie about teens and love and all....it was pretty corny. Then we headed back to camp, had team time, and hit the bed again.
If you made it this far, thanks. I am gonna pause here for now. Tune in soon for the next episode of Jenny's Belizian Adventure!!!!!!!!