A Week in the OW (Orange Walk)!

Teaching had an amazing time in the Orange Walk district! Since there was the commonwealth holiday in Monday, we were only able to teach for 4 days, but we still had fun.Our  Tuesday started with a rather lengthy walk to the Ministry of Education to meet with the HFLE (Health Family Life Education) district coordinator, who gave us a warm welcome to the district. We were given our schedule of the schools that we would teach at with about one to two schools per day, which was pretty nice.  The ministry was even kind enough to drop the team off at our first school, San Antonio Primary School. The kids were absolutely amazing to teach, however we were only able to teach them for one period. We were lucky enough to have a teacher at San Antonio drop us to our second school, San Pablo Primary School. The teacher's truck was a little small, so some of us had to sit in the back of her pick-up. Let me just say that the ride was very bumpy for Andrei and I in the back! But the gang arrived in one piece and had a fun time teaching the kids.After each day of teaching, we were always hungry and definitely looked forward to dinner time. Unfortunately Orange Walk didn't have a lot of choices as our previous districts (ie. PG), but we were able to find a diamond in the rough. The restaurant's name is Nahil Mayab. Their dishes were absolutely amazing, ranging from a delicious chicken caesar salad to a mouth-watering tomato shrimp pasta. Not only were the meals delicious, but at a very reasonable price as well!Our Wednesday was a little different as we had to split up to teach two schools. Andrei and Rachael had the chance of teaching at Trinidad Primary School, although they had to wake up to catch a 6:30 am bus to get to the school. Paige and I were lucky enough not to have to travel so far and therefore not have to wake up early as their school was Chan Pineridge Primary School (just a short taxi ride away). As I  taught at Chan Pineridge, Paige and I were really surprised at how smart and knowledgeable the students were! They showed a great interest in learning our material and then some. We were even lucky to be provided with some nice hot tamales and a tall coke for lunch by the principal! It was an absolute amazing school to be at.The whole gang was able to teach at one school on Thursday, Carmelita Primary School. We had a fun time trying to get to the school, meaning that the bus had actually forgot to drop us at the correct stop. So we had to walk about 2km to get to the school, but we got some ice cream on our way, so it wasn't too bad of a walk. The school was fairly small, but the principal wanted us to focus on teaching the standards 6 as they were graduating soon, so Andrei and I taught them for the majority of the day. Rachael and Paige got to teach the standard 5 class in the afternoon. It honestly was an interesting day to say the least.And then it was Friday all of a sudden. Our week went by in a flash! We only had one school to teach at, the largest primary school in the district, Trial Farm Primary School with over 1,000 students! The principal was kind enough to introduce us at their assembly, which really got the students excited for our lessons. Even watching the assembly was a treat for the team as two students from a standard 6 class performed to the song "You're a Jerk" by doing the dance called 'jerking' (look it up on YouTube if you don't know what it is!). But it was really great to see how involved and fearless the kids were at performing! We all then set off to teaching the standard 6s in the morning and the standard 5s in the afternoon. Our day was tiring with teaching, but the kids were fantastic and always involved, so the day flew very quickly! Honestly a perfect ending to our week!We were really lucky to be staying at the St. Christopher's Hotel, which was right on the water. It had a spectacular view with a large tree and a little wooden dock. A perfect place to sit with my iPod and a good book while letting my feet soak in the cool water of the river!What a week it has been, but let's see if Corozal can top what the OW had to offer!--Chantel