TIB

Here it is, the first post coming to you from Belize!

There are a couple of things I've noticed right away:
     1. Somewhere between Tampa and Houston, I lost my sunglasses. Oops.
     2. I forgot to pack some hair gel. Seems trivial, but let's just say the battle of Curly Hair vs. Humidity is officially underway 

It was pretty great coming in from Houston. There were 4 of us new volunteers on the flight and a religious sister who was returning for her 3rd year, so there was a lovely mix of reunions and introductions to pass the time before boarding. The flight itself was uneventful, at least I think it was since for my first 2, I was practically sleep walking, and the last flight was spent chatting with my friend Joe and occasionally going, "We're moving to Belize RIGHT NOW!"

Now I know I have next to no experience with Belize thus far, but I have to say that our arrival was absolutely perfect. We got through customs pretty quickly but still looked so ridiculous toting all of our stuff everywhere, looking for the driver who was waiting for us, stopping for some waters, and then starting the 2 hour drive to Benque. When we got here, we met some people, but of course I don't remember who I met because I met them all again 2 hours later after Mass. So after putting our stuff in our respective houses, we went back to the Church where Adoration was going on before Mass. It was so beautiful and appropriate and just the best way to be welcomed by my new home.

Oh yeah, Mass was in Spanish. So perfect.

After that, we were on a quest for some dinner. Yes, all our meals are cooked at the rectory for us, but word on the street says that about once a month, sometimes there just...isn't dinner. Yesterday was that day. But no fear, we ventured out in the (super safe) town and found a completely authentic Benque Chinese restaurant. 

Yes, Chinese food. It's a real thing here. The explanation I got was that Chinese are really good businessmen and Belizeans are not. Hence why there are Chinese restaurants and the Chinese run all the convenience stores. 

The night was just spent hanging out, unpacking, and totally ignoring the fact that I'm actually living here and not just visiting here. Now we're just hanging out at the school, contacting family, waiting for our orientation to officially start at 8. 

It's 9:00.

But that's just how it goes here. That's life. And it's going to be so exciting completely acclimating to my new life here. I'm sure there are about 20 million things I'm leaving out of this, but it's Tuesday after all and I wanted to give the smallest slice of insight into what's happened in the past 24 hours. I'm sure I'll have some time to be able to fill in the gaps more as the week progresses, but at the very least next Tuesday brings the promise of a full on updating-from-my-new-home kind of a post. 

In the meantime, here's what you can pray for:
- the kids we're preparing to teach
- all of us new teachers who are here (Joe, Kelley, Mike, and myself)
- Jack, a new teacher who was supposed to arrive here yesterday with us but had a flight delay and comes today
- the returning teachers who are coming back at the end of the week

Oh, one more thing: whenever something happens that is completely out of your control and may totally change your plans just because that's how life is here (like having no dinner and getting Chinese instead), you just say TIB: This Is Belize.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.