But this time, it means it's been one week of school. That's insane. It feels like we've been in class forever and then whenever I remember school started a week ago, it seems to be the Lord's gentle way of reminding me it's ok that I haven't gotten everything figured out. It's only been one week.
How did that week go? Oh boy, how do you even describe your first week of school? Well, I didn't walk into the wrong classroom so that's always a good start and even more impressive coming from me when you consider how many times I walked into the wrong class in college. It's been a wild ride and it's only beginning. I think the best way to describe how I'm feeling is this: when you convince yourself to go on a roller coaster even though you're terrified but you're trying to conquer your fears so you do it anyway and as soon as the ride starts to move you start to panic and wonder if your harness is actually secured. I was so ready for the weekend and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was my birthday weekend. I just didn't want to go to school. I sound just like the kids now!
My birthday. It was such a glorious day highlighted by the fact that it fell on a Friday. First, my birthday came early because on Wednesday, a package from home came!!! Ok, I knew it was coming because it was mostly stuff that couldn't fit in my suitcase (oops. but hey it's hard packing to move to a foreign country!). However, because my family is awesome, there was a birthday card and one of the best surprises in the entire world: 2 cans of dry roasted unsalted peanuts and a giant bag of chocolate chips. Both of these items are impossible to find here and my favorite snack happens to be the combining of these two ingredients. It felt like Christmas.
Friday night came and our Belizean tradition is that the birthday person gets to pick what we do on said person's birthday. Because I'm an introvert and because it was the end of the first week of school, I chose the only logical option: a movie night. What did I pick? Jurassic Park of course. It was absolutely perfect! AND Kelley, who loves cooking, decided to make dinner for all of us, so instead of our usual tortillas and rice and beans and chicken, she made garlic chicken with pasta. SO GOOD. And Joe and Katie made me a most delicious cake: chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.
The next was Greg's birthday, another volunteer, so we had another birthday party! It was such fun especially since we all had to dress up like celebrities/characters of Greg's choosing. We had Destiny's Child, Baby and Johnny Castle from Dirty Dancing, Friar Tuck, Hercules, a stereotypical Franciscan student, and Adele. I don't have pictures, but we were certainly a sight to see. And since this was birthday #3, we were getting a little tired of birthday cake, so Joe and Michael had the brilliant idea of making ice cream sandwiches on mocha snickerdoodle cookies. I told you, brilliant. And ice cream is kind of expensive here, so it was a delightful little splurge.
That's pretty much all of the exciting things. Sunday was full of planning and Monday was back to the grind. This week is hard so far and today was especially challenging. But we had the unexpected gift of having a little Mass right after school which was perfect because all I really wanted was Jesus. Life certainly doesn't slow down here, and like I said, it's only been one week. Keep the prayers coming. They're seriously holding me together. And please pray for the other volunteers and especially our students.
One last thing, a couple of people have been asking me for an address they can write to. Here it is!
Melissa Montrowl
Catholic Mission
Benque Viejo del Carmen
Cayo District
Belize, Central America
Don't send me super expensive things though; I don't want to pay the tax for it :)
Ok, until next time!
St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.
Totus Tuus, Maria.
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