5 more cold showers...

until I'm home again! It's hard to believe I've been in Benque for over three months... It' s also hard to believe it's Christmastime. I mean, I'm used to warm weather this time of year, being from South Carolina, but the low 80's with humidity (and that's a sweatshirt day) is a bit much even for me! Still, all the houses have put out Christmas lights and when you walk around at night it sort of feels like Christmas (that and all the fireworks going off. I guess the rainy season is the only time of year that they're allowed so there's all these kids setting them off in the streets. It's kind of annoying.) Still, I'd rather they set them off in the streets than in my classroom, which is the reason that I'm short three students today. Yes, believe it or not, on Friday I walked into my second form boys class only to discover that they had just thrown fireworks into the classroom next door. Honestly, who does that? Part of me is really impressed at their ingenuity for breaking the rules. (Imagine packing that morning: pencil, check. ruler, check. lunch money, check. fireworks, check....) However, our vice principal and disciplinarian came in and managed to find out who set them off just by staring them down and consequentally, three of my students are suspended.

This was a disapointment because we had just had a great retreat with the second form boys the day before. The limits of my sanity were definately tested when myself and one other girl helped lead a retreat for 68 second form boys, together with 11 other male teachers and two priests. Can I just say that I will laugh at the next person that tells me boys and girls are basically the same! Myself and the other teachers marvel at how much more their personalities come out since our classes are not co-ed, and retreat is no exception. At the girls retreat a few weeks ago, they all showed up dressed in heels and wearing lipstick ready to run to the bathroom every two minutes to powder their noses and fix their hair while all the boys show up ready to basically wrestle with each other and catch fish out of the pond (they used gum and a shoestring... don't ask). Still, a lot of them received the Sacrament of Confession and went to Communion and that alone makes the day a success! Plus, it was great to hang out with them and let them see that their super-strict religion teacher can be slightly human and play games with them and joke around with them (although apparently I should have mentioned that this new-found familiarity doesn't mean I smile at fireworks in school!).

So, there's four more days of school and then we all go home for three weeks. I'm awfully excited about hot water, toilets that flush paper, wearing winter clothes and driving a car! Even more exciting is seeing (or talking on the phone with) everyone! This will probably be the last post for a while, so thanks for all of your prayers and stay tuned for the gap girl's return to Belize in January!