One last time...
On Friday, we completed Week 6 which also signals the end of initiative! This week, both teaching pairs taught their final lessons and said extremely difficult goodbyes to all of their students. On Thursday afternoon, they made their way to Belize City to meet up with the secondary team ahead of the meeting on Friday with district managers from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Education. At the meeting we discussed the schools, the lessons we taught and future plans for QHO Belize. Lindsay and Bianca had a great last week at Kuxlin-Ha Government School. They taught Bullying and Abuse and Healthy Relationships to the Standard 4 and 5 classes and were able to play review games on all the topics they taught over the last 3 weeks. It was nice to see how much the students had retained and also provided a chance to solidify the main ideas of each lesson. As the Standard 6 classes started their exams this week ahead of their graduation, Bianca and Lindsay had the opportunity to teach lessons on Bullying and HIV/AIDS to the Standard 3 classes. They were extremely sad to say bye to the students and teachers of Kuxlin-Ha but are thankful for 3 weeks of smiling faces, stimulating discussions and thoughtful questions!
Sam and Sierra had another crazy emotional but fantastic week! As our last week came to a close it was really heartbreaking saying goodbye to our students, the teachers and the entire school. The beginning of the week started amazingly with great lessons about self esteem and goal setting. The standard 4s, 5s and 6s all did amazing jobs creating goals from themselves for the future. Wednesday was our last full day teaching and we spent it playing review games about all the lessons we had taught to the kids. We were so amazed about how much the students retained and learned from all of our lessons. Our final day was Thursday, though we were only able to go to the school for a couple hours in the morning. What was planned to be an activity for the students actually turned into a surprise service the students put on for us. Each class sang a song or read a story which made it was a very special day as well as an awesome farewell for Sam and Sierra. After the service ended there was just enough time for Sam and Sierra to play a couple games outside with the kids before having to leave. Sam and Sierra were extremely sad to leave Eden Primary SDA School but we're happy for all the memories that were made and the awesome lessons that were taught.
The primary team has had a wonderful 6 weeks in Belize and would like to say thank you to our family, friends, PDs, QHO, readers and supporters! Without you, we wouldn't have been able to have such a successful initiative. Next up, the primary team is heading home for the rest of the summer. In September, Sam and Bianca will be heading back to Queen's to continue their undergraduate education, Lindsay will commence her Masters and Sierra will be going to Singapore on full-year exchange.
Signing off for the very last time,The Belize Primary team