mural!

sigh…bye bye Belize

night swimming

For those of you who remember the song - well, it was running through my head that night. Four of us traveled to the Cayes (pronounced Keys for those who don’t want to feel like iddiots when speaking about or while in Belize) - anyhow, four of us traveled to the Cayes this weekend to partake in dangerous activities not recommended by our host program or university (is that a disclaimer?) We went night snorkeling. It was, perhaps, the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It was also the most amazing and exhilirating thing to be in the middle of the ocean with no moon out, a flashlight, and the stars struggling to illuminate all of us. Harry, our guide, is the most amazing man I’ve met in Belize. He was quiet, smoked a lot, and drank his beer, all before jumping overboard to point out the wonders of the night ocean. He kept saying to us “Don’t worry, as soon as you get in and see amazing things, your fears will disappear!” We kept slamming into eachother, dodging coral as the waves took us hostage, pointing out giant lobster + fish, and desperately searching for any signs of Octopus, Squid, or giant sea monsters. No luck. But, the feeling of exploring the ocean floor was amazing. We experienced brittle star fish, snails, sleeping fish, feeding coral, sea lice, spanish lobster, and at one point we turned out all the lights and watched as phosphorous lit up the ocean around us. “The stars! Look at the stars” Harry kept saying. He turned to me and giggled like a five year old as we both watched a string of these stars make patterns right before us. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

mark twain on travel

“We wish to learn all the curious, outlandish ways of all the different countries, so that we can ’show off’ and astonish people when we get home. We wish to excite the envy of our untravelled friends with our strange foreign fashions which we can’t shake off. �The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the gentle reader has not been abroad and therefore is not already a consummate ass. If the case be otherwise, I beg his pardon and extend to him the cordial hand of fellowship and call him brother. I shall always delight to meet an ass after my own heart when I have finished my own travels.”
–Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)

we pet a jaguar - that’s pretty stupid.

Another visit to the Belize Zoo led us behind closed doors and off-limits areas. Yup, you got it, we got to pet a jaguar, a very tame, baby jaguar named Junior. Our school actually adopted the guy. I’d post the video, but as you might know, the internet is painfully slow here.





The Harpy Eagle is the most amazing and HUGE bird I’ve ever been anywhere near. It was a little freaked out that we were there, trying to feed it. She, Queen, didn’t feel like eating. Our guide says the eagles don’t eat when it’s raining, so instead, we made our portraits with her!All-n-all, the zoo was once again amazing!:)kat

Finally Collie Buddz come around!

This is why Skyler has so many cool points right now. Here she is with the incredibly nice and wonderful Collie Buddz, at the bar before his big concert in PG. You’re a sweet man Mr. Collie. No wonder the gyals love you…

This is why Cris and Ya Ya get Big Ups…thanks for gettin’ us into the show! Mad love! (Ya Ya, I wanna see that scarf on TV!)





And I shook my booty all night long to the Punta sounds of this Garifuna traditional drumming crew! A-M-A-zing.Thanks PG! Your city is wonderful!- kat

finally!

It’s been a long 7 year wait for me to witness the Garifuna Settlement Day reenactment, and finally, I got to see it! Talk about amazing. If you don’t know about the wonderful Garifuna people and the culture, then take a look here: Garifuna The Settlement Day celebration lasts all night and all weekend long - with lots of dancing, drumming, and yes, tons and tons of drinking! I think we got three hours of sleep. It was well worth it. 

mural progress

Here’s Ashley, the Peace Corps volunteer who works at the school…she’s working hard, bleaching the walls to prep for the primer. Who knows how much gunk was on this wall, but I can tell you that I had to pull down some type of mud-hut out of one of the cracks on the wall! That would be fun to paint.

My students, aka “Team Mural” learn to pay attention more and more each day. At first, it’s a free-for-all because they’re so excited, but eventually they calm down and start to listen. They really know how to work together to get things done. It’s refreshing.

Yours truly re-painting the walls, brightening them up.

The kids trace their Butterfly books. We’re designing the mural based on the original ideas of some of the girls I worked with in the beginning. They really came up with some creative ideas!

Go Team Mural!

Mexico

Just got back from a 4 day trip in the Yucatan Peninsula. As we crossed the border from Belize into Chetumal, Mexico I watched my friends jaws drop. After spending about three solid months in Belize where we live completely McDonald’s-free, the malls on the horizon sent us into shock! This would be my third trip to Playa del Carmen…They now have a Starbucks.

The strip of Playa is a giant European/American Tourist circus where everything is a complete spectacle. Flaming pinapples, break dancers, Mariachi bands, souvenirs, Gelato, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway, Mexican Fine Art, you name it, they sell it.

To my utter disappointment, the Hair Braiders are no longer the force they used to be. I was told that the new Mexican president is the reason for this. In order to be a hair braider, you have to pay a permit fee and since no one can afford it, the braiders disappear and the business goes to the local spas and, I’m assuming, on board the cruise ship. It was pretty sad!

We got to go to the local cemetery and see the memorials and graves all decorated. It was abandoned by the time we got there, but none-the-less, it was still a sight to see. Really haunting with no one there…But the Day of the Dead is a celebration of life and death. The kids on the “strip” at Playa had it made. Since the Day of the Dead is a 9-day celebration, the kids trick-or-treat-ed the entire weekend, walking by tourists in their costumes asking for anything. Some just skipped the entire candy deal and held out their piggy banks. Capitalism at its best!

Afterwards, our group split into two, with some of us returning home to Belize and the rest of us stayed and swam off the shores of the Maya ruins of Tulum. We swam across to a cove that used to be a beach you could climb down to, but the ocean crept in and you can’t get there anymore by foot. We were determined to get there, so…we swam! It was amazing.

After Tulum, we experienced the capital city of the Yucatan. It’s kind of strange because Chetumal is this giant town, but it’s not near anything. Just the ocean. Kind of reminds me of Wilmington, North Carolina. It’s definitely a microcosm.

All in all, in the past four days, I’ve spent a total of almost 24 hours on a bus. And maybe that’s why I couldn’t contain my excitement when we managed to catch the express bus back to Belize with its AC and cushy seats. Ahhhhh.

L8!
kat

green-leo?

One night, while I was staying in Punta Gorda, my favorite part of Belize so far, I had a dream that Leonardo Dicaprio checked into the hotel with a friend of his. No big deal, kind of a random dream right? Wrong. I told some friends about the dream and they said, He bought an island off the coast of Belize City about two years ago.

Turns out Leo planned on building an eco-friendly resort on the 2-mile island that he bought. But guess what? According to local Belizeans, the green-hollywood man is ripping out the natural Mangroves that surround the island and dredging sand to make private beaches for his luxiourious friends.

Go Leo.

A Link to a 2005 article about his purchase