Last Week at Tumul Kin :(

This was my last week at Tumul Kin and I can't even put into words how sad I am.

I'll start off with two weekends ago, when we went to the keys. We got up early on Sunday morning and went down to the docks. The group that was taking us to the keys are called TIDE and luckily Jon and Eddie live with the person who runs TIDE, so we got a good deal. The boat ride to Snake Key was about an hour long. The weather was perfect! This is the first Sunday that I've been in PG where it hasn't rained!! (Well besides the first weekend that we got here) We got to the key and it was paradise! I mean this little island and this beautiful white sand beach surrounding it was all for us! No one else was around. We all got settled and then into the water we went. Snorkling was so much fun. We saw tons of bright red and yellow star fish, squid, sea urchins, barracuda, parrot fish, jelly fish, sting rays, and the best was this giant tuna fish....it scared the pants off of Lana! I heard a scream and immediately thought reef shark and I turn around and it's just this giant tuna....LOL. We layed on the beach, read books, talked, snorkled, ate lunch, and just basked in the beautiful water. It was seriously paradise. Our lives rule!

The next morning I got up at 5 to meet the bus and prepare for classes and my observation. I had 2nd and 3rd form all worked out. The 2nds are going to be doing literature circles with "The Indian in the Cupboard" and the 3rds are going to learn about Reader's Theater and write one of their own. So exciting!

The highlights of the week were just hanging out with students for the last time and joshing around with them. I got a giant package from my mom with Valentines candy so I was giving out chocolate all week, if they didn't like me before they loved me now! There was a group of students from Toronto Canada that came to Tumul Kin so we moved Culture Night from Saturday to Friday night. Jen, who is my weekend roommate at Cristina's, came out to Tumul Kin to see Culture Night. We hung out during the day, with the other college students, and watched the Tumul Kin boys try to smooze their way with the ladies. Good times.

At Culture Night the 1sts did a hilarious skit about a man who dies and how they try to bring him back to life....it was great. Then the 3rd formers danced a few traditional dances, including punta! The marimba players performed, and the Toronto students did a step routine for us, impressive and the students loved it. Then the final show was the 3rds had an eating contest. The first half they had 4 competitors and they had to shove 4 bananas in their mouth. Whoever were the first two done moved on to the next round, a ramin eating contest...that was too funny!! Don't worry I have video of it to share! Then we danced the night away. I danced every dance and the Toronto students joined in....it was a hoot!! We danced marimba, harp, punta...it was all good. Jen even danced with us! This was definitely the best Culture Night that I had been apart of.

Saturday we all felt kinda weird because of the move of Culture Night. All my classes were going very well and I did a lot of teaching! Definitely in my element! On Saturday night we played monopoly, what else? On Sunday I went to all of the special classes and helped strip the jippy jappa for the baskets, then took pictures of everything. It was fun, again to just hang out and be with the students. Later that afternoon we had a community meeting. There were some public apologies for behavior issues. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Pablo was talking about how lucky they were as a school to have such good students and also good help. Then he started talking about how they were lucky to have me for these past two months and if I would like to say anything. Yeah....I started crying like no other. It just hit me all at once. I tried to thank everyone for everything and to express how much this experience has meant to me...I'm still not sure if they understood everything I said. Then when I was done I thought that would be the end but student after student got up and said something about how they appreciate me and how great of a teacher I had been, etc, I could not get ahold of my self, it was the most amazing thing. We were all crying by the end of it. To ease the saddness we picked rice afterward to help level us.

After the meeting we had sports so they had their running contest. I got to be the finish line judge. The boys had to run so far and then the girls had to finish it up. There were four teams that competed. One of my students, Selvin, beat everyone! He started the race and was the first to finish it! Apparently this is the second time he's done this. Then the played football and I watched and laughed. The girls had to play too and some of the boys took some time to adjust to the "new" players. LOL.

The rest of the week flew by and before I knew it Wednesday came and I had to say goodbye. It was a pretty quiet day and there wasn't as much talking as their usually is. I cried in all of my classes, saying goodbye, and we had a "free" day in classes to say goodbye. In 1st form, I got a class pic and video, and then we finished "The Giver" and then we learned and played spoons. It was a fun class. Then I had 2nd form. Again we took a class pic and video. Then we just chatted and they came up with a Tumul Kin Wish List. :D Then we sang for the rest of the class period. My last class was 4th form. We took a picture and video, went over homework, and then talked for the rest of the period. 3rds had their goodbyes the day before and we were supposed to go down to the river but it was raining, so we watched "Accepted" instead. :D :D

Saying goodbye to everyone was the hardest thing. They all gave me letters, that I CAN'T open until I get home. I had one student who cried all day and there was nothing I could really do to console him. I didn't leave until around 7, so I hung out with the students that stay at the school or don't leave until the next day. When I finally had to leave we dragged it out as much as we could. All of us were bawling and I had students clinging, asking me not to leave. Yeah it was so hard. Then Aurelio said we had to stop at his place quick so I could say good bye to his son Utzil. When I walked in all the staff were there! They threw me a surprise dinner! Cried again! It was a super emotional day....obviously. I brought a student Mathew back to PG for the weekend because he didn't have a place to stay. On the way to PG we all jammed out to "Who Let the Dogs Out?" and Celine Dione....good times.

It's been a super emotional rollarcoaster so far. This upcoming two weeks I'll be heading north to the Maya Temple Altun Ha, with Ellen and her fiance Eric. Then we're heading to San Ignacio, west side of Belize. There we are going to see the 1,000 ft. falls, another Maya Temple, Spanish Lookout, etc. The Cayo district is supposed to be amazing so needless to say we are super excited to ship out tomorrow (Sunday). After all that we are heading to the Keys and I'll be in San Pedro and Caye Caulker for a couple days before coming back to Tumul Kin for the torch run and meeting up with family :D So excited to see what the next few weeks have in store for me! I will definitely try to keep up the blog when I find internet!

Stayed tuned!

Shout out to Uncle Terry! Love ya and hope to see you when I get home!

Love you all who have been keeping up with the blog. I'll be home March 21 and I hope I get to see people when I get back! Love, Hugz, and Kisses!

Woa! It's been awhile!

Hey all you happy people!

So it's been forever since I last wrote and I'm not sure where I left off so I'll just bounce around and give you some highlights. For the Super Bowl *boo that the Steelers won :( we went to Ellen's "moms" place and watched. We had peanuts, coke, beer, and pizza...it was fabulous! I'm sure all the locals heard us hollaring and wondered what the stupid Americans were up to now.

I didn't think I would be doing much this last session because it was finals week. They reviewed all week and then Sunday through Wednesday were finals. There wasn't much prepared for "review" and it was a semi awkward week in teaching. Everytime I was told..."And now Ms. Garnet is going to teach the class...." I was first shocked and completely unprepared...and second I had no idea what they had done for most of the semester....no one thought to fill me in. There were a couple of awkward moments. I introduced "sparkle" to some of the classes to help them review vocabulary. That was fun! For those of you who don't know what "Sparkle" is...shame on you. We also started telling jokes, riddles, and learning hand jives. I will let you all know that I didn't start this....that was all Aurelio....but I did get a couple of students with some riddles. ;)

In the mornings we have started a new tradition that I like a lot and will cry when I have to leave. I usually show up to the library around 9-9:30 and read or prepare for class. Classes start at 10:30. Lately my 1st form students have been coming into the library and chatting with me. Now we read to eachother in the mornings. Their favorite book to read from is "Where the Sidewalk Ends." They love the poems and the library has two of that authors books so we take turns reading poems. I usually have a crows of 7-10 students listening in. It's so much fun!!

Another highlight was on Thursday night. The 4th formers are learning about debating and also about the land rights issue that is huge here in Belize. The 4th formers were given the assignment to write a speech as if they were going to address the cabinet on the land rights issue. They are also having a mock court case on the land rights issue here at Tumul Kin. I was picked to help out the side of the government....gulp! The 4th formers are on the side of the Belizean people. It was a lot of fun to watch the students and this coming Wednesday we are cross examining witnesses....I hope they take it easy on me! I'm a "famous" historian who knows all about the history of Belize....yeah it's hard to BS my way through this.

On saturday, instead of culture night we had presentations. Before dinner all the specialty classes showed what they had learned or made throughout the year so far. They showed off their jippy jappa baskets, their kuxtal (bags), the performing arts danced for us, and the marimba class all played different tunes. It was a lot of fun. After dinner I told a riddle to Ms. Heather and Mr. Pablo (Ac. Dir.) just to pass the time, before I knew it I had 15 students trying to figure out the riddle too! Before they could answer the 3rd formers gave presentations on the Queqchi, Mopan, and Yucetan Maya. These are the three Maya cultures that are present in Belize. It was so interesting! My favorite part was learning about the courting rituals. Mr. Pablo told us that if a young man wanted to marry a girl he had to go out into the jungle with her father and uncles and chop wood. They would call him "pig" and if he couldn't keep up with the chopping they would eventually pen him in with all the wood they would chop, like a pig! It was so funny to watch some of the boy's faces when they heard this! At the end of everything Mr. Pablo finally figured out the riddle....hahaha.

Saturday started the testing for English, it was the composition section. After that they all had testing everyday. I supervised a couple of tests for Mr. Pablo so he could go to meetings. Some of the students got to experience my "angry teacher" face during testing. Biggest pet peeve as a teacher; when students talk during a test! So I scared a few students and then all was peaceful in the land. On Tuesday night the boys wanted to learn spoons but come to find out that no one had a deck of cards...gah! So we decided on Monopoly. Holy Cow!! The boys really got into it! They were buying hotels and houses left and right! I don't know about you....but we usually never get that far! There was yelling, bagging, bargoning....so funny! Two of the teachers came to watch and were wiping their eyes they were laughing so hard. I had one student in the hole with the bank by over $3500! The rest of the students watched "white chicks" but we stuck with Monopoly.

On Wednesday I woke up, went to the library and came across a bunch of the boys clearing out this land right next to the snack shop! It was crazy...no worries I got pictures. All the girls stood on the sidelines while the boys hacked, raked, and threw debre everywhere! I'm sure it's good frustration management but I get super nervous seeing some of those students swinging machet's everywhere! After watching for a bit I did some planning....don't know if that will help, and then played more Monopoly after lunch! The boys really enjoy the game! I was just banker this time around. Then I went to the caves with my student Melisa and just relaxed in the water all afternoon....it was a hot day! When I got back the boys wanted to play again but we had no where to set up. So we waited until the commons area was free and set up. Half way through we all made dinner. Ms. Nat (the cook) left along with most of the other students. The only students still at Tumul Kin are either leaving on Thursday or stay at Tumul Kin. Usually they live a long ways away and it's cheaper for them to just stay at school. I got to help make flour tortilla's and help bake them! It was fun! Then we sat down and played Monopoly! I left at 10:30 and they were still going! It was down to just two boys and myself...I had 4 hotels! Two boys got knocked out. Too much fun!

On Saturday I have parent teacher conferences, Sunday going to the keys with the other teachers, and Monday I'm being observed by a supervisor (which may blow up since I don't really teach a lot....gulp!) Wish me luck all around!

That's about it for now. Yay for my cousin Jess who is getting married on Valentines Day! Happy Valentines Day to everyone...hope you eat a bunch of chocolate for me :D

Family: Need to know plans...email me or whatever. I lied...I get done on Feb. 25...so I'll going to make plans unless I hear different from you. Communication people!!

Love and Kisses to all...hope everyone is well and I hear you got a bunch of ice....dang....that sucks.... :evil smile on my face: Keep your chins up!