Well, it's been quite a while since I've said anything and I have a pile of papers to grade, so naturally I thought I'd go on-line instead ;-). What's happened since I last posted? Well, nothing and everything. I mean, nothing in the sense that life here seems absolutely normal now... No more do I flinch at the sight of geckos on the wall and the dog that wandered into my classroom this morning didn't even cause me to bat an eye. The bat that flew through adoration a few weeks ago was a little wierd though... I've finally learned the names of all my students and they're really starting to open up. The retreat for the second form girls went really well, almost all the Catholics went to confession (Praise Him!) and then almost all of them recieved communion at mass at the end of the retreat and then again at the all-school mass on Friday. I gotta say, to see my students go up and recieve the sacraments was one of my most rewarding moments as a Catechist so far. I remember how emotional moms always used to get at First Communion celebrations and now I think I have a better idea of why that is! I think that it was an opportunity for a lot of the girls to get back on track with their faith... For example, one of my students has been going to an Evangelical Church because that's the Church that brought her stepfather back to Christ while he was in jail... however, she went to confession and communion and is going to mass on her own now! I'm so proud of her! Another highlight of hte retreat was that we had the teachers all divide up the names of the girls and write letters to them, to say that they were praying for them and basically tell them that they were special to the school and their class... You should have seen the reactions! Some of these kids have such crummy homes, they're so starved for attention, it really made an impact. As one of my students wrote when I asked her what the best part of retreat was, "It was great to get the letters from the teachers and find out that they really love us even though we can be misbehavable" (her words...) Above all though, I think they really came to understand a little more how much God loves them... So, thanks for all the prayers for retreat, it was a truly blessed day and I know a lot of the teachers were really inspired by it too.
In other news from Belize, it's been getting downright cold, right now it's 78 degrees outside and the kids (and us, honestly) are pretty uncomfortable without a sweater on... The kids say, "miss, it really gets colder than this where you live?". Kind of funny... The first term is over as of Thursday, but I'll be teaching the same students for second term. Right now Ijust taught apostolic sucession and you know what totally nailed the lesson? (For all you Red. majors out there...) the Pope Chart! For those who dont' know, it's this chart that shows all of the Popes of the Catholic Church from Peter to Pope John Paul II. I was teaching on the Gospel of Mathew, explaining how Christ established his Church with Peter as the first Pope, and then I explained apostolic sucession. You should have seen the looks on their faces when I unfolded the chart, they all wanted to look at it and had their calculators out to try and figure out how many popes their were on the poster. It really got them all thinking about what makes Catholocism different! So, for those of you in who havn't been to Austria yet, be sure to pick those charts up in Rome, they go for about 4 euro!
Our basketball teams are in a "playoff" of sorts (in that there's only one other team in town and that's who they have to beat to go on in the country) and they're doing really well... unfortunately they lost their first games. My favorite part of basketball season, though, is that one of my behavior problems can't play if he gets demerits and he's been an ANGEL in class! I'm really hoping they win the next game, just so that the season and good behavior lasts! It's so funny to watch the games though, the Belizians LOVE cheering and they're so obnoxious about it! They bang on the ceiling of the court and make an absolutely hellish noise... it's no wonder they miss so many baskets with all that noise going on... we're wondering when they'll catch onto that.
The volunteers have really been getting along well, community life has it's ups and downs, but the longer we stay here the more fun we have amusing ourselves in the absence of T.V.'s, Radios and... chairs. One of the houses organized a photo scavenger hunt for all of the Cayo district last week, it was great. We couldn't use any money (except for food) and we had to take pictures of all sorts of stuff... Things on the list included: a circus animal, a mennonite, a rasta (someone with dreds), your group at a bridge, your group at a resort.... Oh, it gets better... Your group with the Mayor of Benque (he hangs out with the teachers), your group with a money changer at the border and my personal favorite, your group on the other side of the Belizean Border. And yes, we did make it across the border of Belize because we ran into a friend of a teacher who works there and we just walked through the line... There were some gringo tourists there, I can only imagine what they must have been thinking... Who are these crazy white people? The other great community builder that took place is that we all watched "A Mighty Wind" together... we've all been saying "Whahappened" all the time now, it makes me pretty sentimental!
In news from our house, we've aquired a kitten... With Cathleen around how could we not? Everyone but Cathleen is pretty anti-cat, but this one followed one of the altar boys to Church and it's way to young to be on its own... The altar boy named it Aslan, but we call it "Bo" for short (its legs look really funny, and besides we can't really shorten "Aslan" can we?). The plan is for it to leave us and go live at the guys house when it gets older (in other words, three weeks) and doesn't need so much attention. I must say that I've never been an animal person but it is awfully entertaining to have a small kitten around. Besides, I think it'll eat the bugs and we can't really complain about that, can we?
This upcomming weekend is a long one, so only two more days of teaching left! I'd better get back to that stack of papers... Thanks again for all the prayers that are being sent down. Please keep them up!
