Blogs from Punta Gorda, Toledo District, Belize, Central America Caribbean

As we approach another Saturday (time is just FLYING by!) I should tell you about the rad Saturday I just had last week, and some other stuff I've been up to! If you can't tell yet, my soul needs some pretty frequent replenishing of things that are awesome, luckily I don't have a hard time finding those kinds of things. Last week we had a teachers retreat at a beautiful centre, so that was a nice mid week break (see the pictures to see why!). Got a chance to chat with my colleagues and just have a Wednesday off from teaching, which anyone can appreciate! We also got Friday off of teaching, because it was Garifuna Settlement Day on Saturday, a day to celebrate when the Garinagu people came to Belize from St. Vincent. The Garifuna ... read more

This post is only... a month late? I wanted to post about some places I've had the chance to go lately but when I tried to post the pictures (more than a hundred of them, I'm a little camera happy) on Facebook, my internet cut out - making me lose all my edits and captions. My frustration pushed me out the door for a walk, and I abandoned the posts and then life went on and now, here we are - either way, better late than never right? So I have had the chance to do a few cool little trips around Belize since I've been here. I already posted about my weekeday-weekend in Placencia (where I will be returning to next weekend hopefully, with my friend Gomi, to get some of their famed gelato from ... read more

This afternoon school was canceled on account of either possible river flooding, or in case a storm hit us, I have heard conflicting reasons. Either way, no school until further notice and therefore : blogging time! I have had a pretty interesting adventure here so far - arranging a placement after surprising the school with my arrival, meeting a great class with very diverse needs and strengths, having my apartment flood twice in hurricane strength storms, visiting a lovely beach town, enjoying Belizean Rotary (more on this later), having my pretty purple bike stolen, and learning how to teach way more creatively! One thing I really am enjoying is getting to know a new town! Now that I am walking everywhere, I decided to take advantage of my slowed down pace (sort of slow, I walk ... read more

I didn’t have to be at school until Friday this week, so I took advantage of my guaranteed time off to go to Placencia from Tuesday to Thursday! Placencia is a little ways north of PG, via bus then water taxi. It was great trip! I took the express bus from PG at 6am, and I was lucky! It was a greyhound style bus, not the little school bus, so it had A/C! It continues to blow my mind how inexpensive public transport is south of the States – just BZ $11 (about CAD$ 5.50) for an hour an a half bus trip, it was $2 more because it was the express. I splurged so I could just go straight there rather than stopping all the time. Once you arrive in Independence, the water taxi is ... read more

The first week of orientation is over and now we have two more weeks of prep and a couple meetings. School starts September 5th. It has been quite the adventure so far! The first piece of this crazy adventure – I showed up to the first staff meeting on Monday and they had no idea who I was. No one knew I was coming at all. Excellent. My VP was at least impressed that I had found out where to go and when, and had even showed up in Belize without confirmation from the school. Thing is, I THOUGHT I had confirmation haha! Turns out the principal who confirmed my placement is in fact on vacation until December and he did not pass on my info to the acting principal and didn’t even mention it to ... read more

August 15, 2011 I’ve only been here for 5 days now but I am definitely starting to feel a bit more settled which is good. Like I said in the last blog, we did find a place to stay! The hotel owner was very helpful in pointing me in a good direction and we ended up renting a two bedroom apartment from a very nice couple, Ludwig and Curlotte. Ludwig, is a vet/artist/gallery owner/chem teacher at the university campus in town. Very interesting fellow to say the least. Curlotte seems to manage the property and run the background stuff for the gallery. She was really helpful too. The apartment is close to both mine and Tom's schools (really, the whole town is close to everything...) so we're set! It's also been kind of nice that the ... read more