week three!

...coming to you from Belmopan! I'll update you in bullets about what has been going on in the past week because its quicker and I'm exhausted...

• Sunday we had training in the morning and in the afternoon a group of us forked over 10BZ! to swim at the pool at Cahal Pech (yes, we hiked that miserable hill...but the view and experience was COMPLETELY worth it!)
  
• Monday the Youth Development group facilitated a computer skills course at St. Barnabus primary school just outside San Ignacio. Overall I'd say the youth were very receptive and the experience was great for learning the various levels of students in the school system here.
• Tuesday was fairly uneventful but I did manage to squeeze in some relaxing time at the house for a bit. Its rare that I get some alone time so when I can sneak in an hour or two it makes the day so much better.
• Wednesday we found out where we would be going for our PCV visit this weekend. Luck of the draw and I headed back to Belmopan... I was diappointed at first, but the experience has been amazing and I'm so glad that I've been able to see another side of the Garden City. Also...it was the eve of National Day (aka Battle of St. George's Caye Day) so a group of us braved the late night hour and headed out for some fun in San Ignacio. A bunch of us went to see a movie in the air conditioned theatre (we saw Brothers Bloom) and then made our way to where the fireworks display was. There was a LOT of drinking and fun to be had....which made
• Thursday...recovery day. I'm so glad that I was able to lounge around and do some laundry. I did manage to pull myself together mid afternoon and head downtown for the parade and to meet up with other trainees that were in town to watch the celebrations. Christine and I also decided to try our hand at making pizza...we failed. After buying all the ingredients (which cost as much as just ordering one) we set out to make one fantastic pie. Everything was going according to plan - including my homemade dough -until it was time to actually bake the thing. Apparently in our rush, we had managed to blow out the oven and our crust didnt bake...HOWEVER, due to the warmth of the oven, all the cheeses melted and it became an unbalanced cooking mess. I believe we'll attempt again, hopefully with better results.
• Friday was our weekly trip to Belmopan. I had packed my weekend bag for my PCV visit and we hopped on the express bus to the capital city. This is supposed to be faster....it was not. After some issues with immigration resulting in half our trainees being asked to get off the bus, we once again arrived late to the session. We're now hoping that everything is straightened out and that this next week we will finally get to Belmopan on time. The end of the night was spent with the volunteers in Belmopan...we checked out a local coffee place that reminds me of home called Perk-Up. There was live acoustic music and delicious food...great night!
• Saturday we got up early and headed to Belize City for a tour. Once there we shopped around and got to check out the disgusting view of the ocean. For those of you cruise ship tourists...you generally only get to experience "tourist village" in the city...its a line of a few shops that are brightly painted with a view of a sailboat harbor. it looks quite nice from where you sit. Let it be known that this is NOT an accurate description of the city at all! Please, brave the cultural experience and step outside those gates - get another perspective of the country. We left around 4 and arrived back in Belmopan in time to sweat profusely, grab a snack and head to a festival at Governor General field celebrating the 2nd annual celebration of Independence for Mesoamerica (Central American countries from Mexico to Panama have September Independence Days). There was a huge crowd, lots of entertainment and drink - one of the funnest cultural nights I've spent in Belize thus far. After the festival, a larger group of us went out to a few bars with the intention of calling it an early night...we strolled in around 2am having had a fantastic evening out with some new friends.
• This morning I was awoken by blaring Christian music at 6am...Our neighbor loves his church music and apparently felt that the appropriate time to begin his lovely music filled morning was at a time that not even the roosters felt necessary to be awake for. OY! We headed to the Belize Bird Rescue for the morning and checked out some beautiful land in Camalote village. The owners graciously showed us their home and projects and introduced me to a whole new way of looking at wildlife preservation...IMPRESSIVE lives they lead. It was unusually hot here today so we then headed for a long walk to a local resident's pool. Again, so worth the trouble to jump into water and cool off for an hour or two.
  

My weekend in Belmopan will end after I get the chance to experience a day-in-the-life of my lovely hostess, Tonya. Its another busy day, but I wouldnt trade the experience of this weekend for anything.
Hope you all are enjoying the cooling weather at home!!!!