Headed Down South to the Land of the Palms

Hey blog follow alongers! The primary team is happy to bring updates about our fantastic second week in Belize city!! This week the Laura's taught at Unity Presbyterian Primary, a delightful school with talented kids! Vlad and Karina started their week in Central Christian School, a small primary school in downtown Belize. They enjoyed their outgoing students in such a welcoming environment.The Laura's enjoyed being around the lively students and staff at Unity. At the beginning of the week they met the Pastor and his wife who is the principal at Unity, and learned that the two of them started the school seven years ago. They have since been planning on expanding a third level and adding on classes that will focus on specific trades that will benefit the students. We helped the Pastor make "cool cups" which are cups filled with kool aid and fresh fruit that are frozen and handed out to the kids! They are a hit especially on hot days (which most of them are). We taught in standards 4,5 and 6 everyday and focused on goal setting and thinking about ways to achieve those goals in the future. The students loved participating in all the activities that were in the lessons, especially the "life line" activity in the values and attitudes lesson and the "alien tooth brush" and "broken telephone" games in the communication and anger lesson. We finished off the week with trivia, which the students loved. During break the Laura's sharpened up their ping pong skills in the Outreach Centre at the school. The students gave us tough competition, especially the Pastors nephew Corbyn who was in our standard 5 class and had some mean talent with the paddle. On Friday morning the school had a service in the church, with lots of upbeat music, singing, and a message of kindness that complimented our lessons very well. Our overall time at Unity was fantastic and we said goodbye with heavy hearts and lots of memories. Karina and Vlad had a wonderful week at Central Christian School. Every morning consisted of Devotion, during which all the students and teachers sang upbeat songs to start the day off on a positive note. It was a lot of fun learning all the dance moves and words to the songs! The children were very receptive to a variety of different lesson topics, including Communication and Anger Management, Peer Influence, Puberty, Sexual Responsibility, Abuse and Healthy Relationships, and STIs and HIV/AIDS. On Friday, the children enjoyed an intense game of trivia based on the lesson material presented. Karina and Vlad were very proud of their knowledge on the topics! On Wednesday, they were invited to watch the standard 4, 5, and 6 boys play an intense game of football (soccer) against Holy Redeemer School. It was a great chance to bond with the students in the stands while they all cheered on their team. Before the game, the standard 6s performed their graduation song for Karina and Vlad; what a treat! They had a difficult time saying goodbye to everyone on Friday, since they felt as though they made great connections with the students and teachers. They can't wait to use the hot sauce and guava jam so generously gifted to them from the classes they taught!This Saturday morning the primary crew boarded the colourful Punta Gorda express bus and headed out for Dangriga. It was amazing to see the change in scenery as we headed down South. All of a sudden we were surrounded by mountains and jungle forests. We were greeted at the bus station by our long lost QHO pals who have been teaching in Secondary schools for the past four weeks. Kathleen, James, Mario and Jesse greeted us with smiles and open arms and lead us to the Chaleanor which will be our new home for the last two weeks of initiative. The eight of us took part in the Second Annual Dangriga Olympics in an afternoon filled with friendly competition, donuts, watermelon and water balloons. After a series of well executed events, it ended in a draw(we were all winners!) We love Dangriga and all it encompasses already: the chill atmosphere, friendly people, fun community events and ocean side. We are very excited to get more involved in the community and meet the students and staff at the schools we will be teaching at for the next two weeks. Laura M and Karina will be pairing up at Sacred Heart and Vlad and I will be teaching together at Holy Ghost. In a while crocodiles, Cozzi, Junior, Flash(Vlad) and Karina