Happy Halloween!
Oh, how I pine for jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treaters and other hyphenated phrases on this the eve of All Hallows Eve. Alas, while the American holiday of Halloween has trickled down to the calendars of Belize, not many people celebrate, or are able to celebrate, the way we do in the States. "We too po, miss!" was the answer I got when I asked Dennisha, one of the girls in my Standard VI class if they got candy for Halloween. Still, they did get to have a Halloween Fair at school last week Thursday, which effectively got them out of school all day.
Naia is the daughter of the cook at St Matthew's, the most precious baby, and an excellent model of the Halloween garland that Drew's mother sent us.
The annual Halloween Fair is a fund raiser for the school. Each classroom organizes a stall, or a booth of what they are going to sell at the fair. Then, each student is asked to bring a donation to help fund the booth. Standard VI ran the soda booth and was asked to bring $3BZ each. No more than six students (out of 23) brought their money, either because their parents didn't have it, or because they used the money their parents gave them for something else. One beautiful shy girl, Nora, however, knew her parents wouldn't have enough money for a donation, so she did extra chores for her neighbors and earned the money. The principal, Ms. McCoon, gave her a special prize for her initiative. It made my heart break.
Other booths at the fair included BBQ chicken for sale (delicious!), homemade sweet corn ice cream (don't knock it 'till you try it, who knew corn could be so tasty?), chips and dip, "party bag" (bags filled with candy), a movie house, a bake sale and Jump-Up. Oh, the Jump-Up. You have previously read my description of Punta dancing, correct? Well, imagine a small classroom, suffocatingly hot and smelling of pre-pubescent sweat, pounding with thumping Punta Rock, writhing and bouncing with students of all ages dancing their $1 worth that it cost them to get in. I went in for approximately 2 minutes and witnessed the beautiful pre-teen insanity before I escaped when some of my students noticed me and tried to get me to Punta with the regular Standard VI teacher, Mr. Stephen. Retreat!
So, why were the students so anxious to see me dance and make a fool of myself? Maybe because I had been substituting for Mr. Stephen the previous three days ALL DAY. That's right. I was teaching 23 students, ages 11-16 for 7 hours with literally no preparation. I was given no lesson plan, textbooks or worksheets. I managed with some old textbooks the principal had and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Yep. I would read aloud a chapter of the book, we would discuss plot. I would point out subject/verb agreement, and then we would have a short grammar lesson and a writing assignment based on the book. Usually took up most of the afternoon. Fabulous, and the kids loved it too.
The weekend before I became St. Matthew's Standard VI teacher, Drew and I took a mini-trip to Hopkins, a small village on the coast about 8 miles or 45 minutes from Dangriga with nice beaches. It was beautiful and relaxing. Since it is the off season, most of the multiple small hotels were empty, but the restaurants were open and the food was great. We also met an amazing country music loving wood carver named Dennis, who we bought a great Mahogany bowl from. It is our new favorite fruit bowl, though we hope to fill it with freshly baked bread soon. When you guys make your way to Belize, if you bring some country music CDs, Dennis will probably give you a great discount on some of his beautiful pieces!
P.S. Drew also helped fill in at St. Matthew's on Monday for Standard IV. I think one of the girls in his class has a crush on him, because she keeps asking me where he is.
P.P.S. We are in the middle of so many meetings with so many amazing community leaders getting the projects prepared for the UofA students and professors to take over. Things are shaping up nicely.
Naia is the daughter of the cook at St Matthew's, the most precious baby, and an excellent model of the Halloween garland that Drew's mother sent us.
The annual Halloween Fair is a fund raiser for the school. Each classroom organizes a stall, or a booth of what they are going to sell at the fair. Then, each student is asked to bring a donation to help fund the booth. Standard VI ran the soda booth and was asked to bring $3BZ each. No more than six students (out of 23) brought their money, either because their parents didn't have it, or because they used the money their parents gave them for something else. One beautiful shy girl, Nora, however, knew her parents wouldn't have enough money for a donation, so she did extra chores for her neighbors and earned the money. The principal, Ms. McCoon, gave her a special prize for her initiative. It made my heart break.
Other booths at the fair included BBQ chicken for sale (delicious!), homemade sweet corn ice cream (don't knock it 'till you try it, who knew corn could be so tasty?), chips and dip, "party bag" (bags filled with candy), a movie house, a bake sale and Jump-Up. Oh, the Jump-Up. You have previously read my description of Punta dancing, correct? Well, imagine a small classroom, suffocatingly hot and smelling of pre-pubescent sweat, pounding with thumping Punta Rock, writhing and bouncing with students of all ages dancing their $1 worth that it cost them to get in. I went in for approximately 2 minutes and witnessed the beautiful pre-teen insanity before I escaped when some of my students noticed me and tried to get me to Punta with the regular Standard VI teacher, Mr. Stephen. Retreat!
So, why were the students so anxious to see me dance and make a fool of myself? Maybe because I had been substituting for Mr. Stephen the previous three days ALL DAY. That's right. I was teaching 23 students, ages 11-16 for 7 hours with literally no preparation. I was given no lesson plan, textbooks or worksheets. I managed with some old textbooks the principal had and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Yep. I would read aloud a chapter of the book, we would discuss plot. I would point out subject/verb agreement, and then we would have a short grammar lesson and a writing assignment based on the book. Usually took up most of the afternoon. Fabulous, and the kids loved it too.
The weekend before I became St. Matthew's Standard VI teacher, Drew and I took a mini-trip to Hopkins, a small village on the coast about 8 miles or 45 minutes from Dangriga with nice beaches. It was beautiful and relaxing. Since it is the off season, most of the multiple small hotels were empty, but the restaurants were open and the food was great. We also met an amazing country music loving wood carver named Dennis, who we bought a great Mahogany bowl from. It is our new favorite fruit bowl, though we hope to fill it with freshly baked bread soon. When you guys make your way to Belize, if you bring some country music CDs, Dennis will probably give you a great discount on some of his beautiful pieces!
P.S. Drew also helped fill in at St. Matthew's on Monday for Standard IV. I think one of the girls in his class has a crush on him, because she keeps asking me where he is.
P.P.S. We are in the middle of so many meetings with so many amazing community leaders getting the projects prepared for the UofA students and professors to take over. Things are shaping up nicely.
posted by danis at 9:21 PM
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