Nancy Is Back In Belize

I am back in Belize for the fifth year in a row, hoping to beat my record of twelve summers in a row at Camp Kahdalea in Brevard, NC. Every year the old friendships become more precious even as I make new friends and start toward sweet new connections. 

I enjoyed a restful weekend and spent Sunday afternoon doing a bit of souvenir shopping and making our Saturday restaurant reservation for eleven people! The delicious part of the afternoon was a visit to Belize Chocolate Company for a chocochino and a chocolate chip cookie! Chocochino is a heavenly cold chocolate drink with foam on top and a cold chocolate drink on the bottom. It's more like chilled hot chocolate than cold chocolate milk.

Having requested my classroom assignment ahead of time, I knew that I would be in the classroom of Ms. Tanya that is filled with an infant I class of 5- to 7-year olds. Ms. Tanya is a marvelous teacher who likes to have visitors in her classroom. On Monday I shared with the class the poem "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly." Tuesday I brought the illustrated book of a poem I've found since last year: "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell." The one with the shell has a happier ending; the old lady burped up all she had swallowed and all that stuff turned into a sand castle all by itself! 

Here I am at the blackboard.

Unfortunately Ms. Tanya isn't feeling well, so today (Tuesday) I found myself teaching the whole class with minimal guidance. In English we worked on the 5 Ws: Who? What? When? Where? Why? I gave them some words from the poems to use in sentences that began with the one of the "W" words. After snack we worked on math, practicing writing the numbers from one to one hundred using numerals, not words. This revealed that many of the students don't understand the concept of place value so we may work on that tomorrow. 

The little ones are such fun to work with since they are full of hugs and excited to have a visitor help them. I was reminded on the playground that they are also full of screams which make me jump. 

St. Luke's has done so much good work here over many years. I hear people say, "St. Luke's helped build that" often, and I see the influence we have had in the lives of several particular students. Deacon Jan (Lamb) says that some people come and are bitten by the "bug" here, destined for a multi-year ministry. She also recommends putting a little Belize money in your passport to assure you'll return. It's worked for her 18 times, I think, and for me, four times.