A Whirlwind Week

I know I’m the worst, but you have to cut me some slack because in 6 months I’ve been really really good about updating on Tuesdays plus with parents here I’ve had a very unusual schedule. But ok, I’ll start with the weekend.

So we’ve already covered when I had to adjust to the shock of seeing my parents in Belize and then after that we took our water taxi while my mom and I took turns talking, I rambling on and on about little things and big things about my life and she talking all about my nephew. So we got to Caye Caulker at about 2:30 and let me tell you it’s the best feeling in the world to just stand on that dock, take a deep breath of the salty Caribbean air, and soak in the blue and green water.

And man what a weekend it was! Of course for me, my idea of a vacation for the weekend were things like I could take a nap if I wanted to or I could read an entire book this weekend! Which I did. It was glorious and reminded me of life before it was completely consumed by Belizean teenagers. But seriously, if you’re gonna go on a vacation, it’s great to bring parents. It’s very different than vacationing as a missionary! We rented a little house (with AC and hot water!!) and since Caye Caulker is pretty small, it was close to anywhere we needed to go. And really the weekend was spent walking around the island one day and I spent the next day reading and just relaxing, taking a break from the sun. It might sound boring, but to someone who wakes up with her mind racing with everything that needs to be done that day and goes to bed thinking about all the things that need to be done tomorrow, it isn’t boring; it’s vacation. So here are a few pictures though to be honest my dad took more pictures that I don't have.

 What it looked like right off the water taxi.

 This is for my friends Dan and Amylia! I was over 1,000 km from your homes!

Mom and Dad before we had to leave our little island

Well Monday came and it was the bittersweet day of returning to Benque. Well obviously my parents weren’t returning. And I say bittersweet because if I got stranded on Caye Caulker and couldn’t return to school for an extra week or month, I wouldn’t complain. But I have to say it was extremely weird being away from all of the other volunteers for the weekend, and I was very happy to see them Monday afternoon. And then my parents were in Benque! If it was weird seeing them just in Belize, then it was downright trippy seeing them in the little non-impressive town I’ve been living in the past 6 months. Since we got into town around 1:30 ish, I got to school at 2 to get some things done and then my parents came at about 4 to see campus and as luck would have it, they got to meet some of my favorite students right away. That whole encounter was hilarious!! The kids were all so shocked that these were my parents. One didn’t believe me at first and I finally convinced him, and then another girl came out and she just didn’t believe it because “they look too young, Miss!” My mom was like, “oh she’s my favorite!” Tuesday and Wednesday I kinda sent my parents off adventuring on their own but not completely on purpose, so before you go thinking that I just set my parents lose in Belize, hear my side of it. Well ok, I told them off the bat that I had to be at school on Tuesday, so they went to Pine Ridge Mountain braving the truly horrendous roads (we’re talking driving at 5 MPH kind of horrendous) to get to the natural pools and lovely views. Wednesday I was supposed to go with them to the Mayan ruins at Tikal in Guatemala, but there was one small problem: my passport was locked in an office at school and the tour group my parents signed up with was leaving at 7:30 am. Shucks. I was really bummed but wanted them to go anyway. And they had an awesome time! They got to see little bits of Guatemala, had an awesome tour guide, and were in a little group with 3 other Americans. And for today well, we have loose plans to go to Xunantunich and then who knows what’s in store for the afternoon? I’m thinking ice cream in Cayo. Or maybe a nap. But napping isn’t really interesting to my parents so that probably won’t be our afternoon activity.

Oh! Also on Wednesday my futbolito team had a game which was marvelous because a) my parents got to see most of the second half after coming back from Tikal and b) my boys won! 3-1. I was very proud of them and they were so cute (though they would die if I called them that to their faces) because one of them especially was very adamant about taking a team picture to send to Kelley since it was both of us after all that adopted them. Here is a picture of them pre-victory:

Some of the most ridiculous boys you will ever meet! Love this team.

Well I think that’s all I got. But next week should be an exciting update, and I’ll leave you in suspense as to why! So until then, keep those prayers coming! We’ve got a very busy couple weeks in store here at Mt. Carmel. Thank you in advance! And hey! It’s Thursday! You are so close to the weekend. Keep rockin it.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

Life Happens

So....Saturday is kinda like Tuesday, yeah?

Ok well here's the thing: Tuesday wasn't really a spectacular day plus the day got away from me completely as did Wednesday and Thursday and then Friday I left Benque to go to Belize City to meet up with...my parents!!! How insane! After the hugs and hello I stood back and looked at them and said, "It's so weird seeing you guys here." Because it is! But more about the parentals on Tuesday. I promise! I have to finish about last week.

Alright so I don't really remember what happened Thursday. Oh wait yes I do! Well Thursday night was exciting because that night we made a special treat for dinner....homemade pizza! Joe has a delicious crust recipe and then top it with lots of cheese, onions, and green peppers and oh baby we are in business! Though truth be told, I picked off my green peppers because I think they're yucky. So we ate as we wantched the Olympics at Brynne and Victor's.

Friday was Valentine's Day which meant a "rags" day aka jeans with a red, pink, purple, or white shirt which is nice but also terrible because while everyone has an opinion on school uniforms, let me just say that at Mt. Carmel our kids turn into...not students on a rags day. Good thing I don't teach on Fridays! And because of that, Jack and I decided to rebel a little bit and skip school for the morning. Neither of us were missing classes, but this also meant that we couldn't get sucked into anything stupid like subbing for a class. So we spent our morning eating popcorn and watching Toy Story and half of Up (half because Jack did have class at 1:45). But that was actually perfect timing because that afternoon Joe and I went to the cooking class to sample food. His birthday was the next day so Ms. Indira was all about a) having us helping her judge and b) making a cake for Joe. But there was a football game after school and the food wasn't ready yet anyway, so we ended up tasting the food around 5 ish which was the best because hey, there was dinner! We had some excellent baked chicken from one group and the most delicious mini coconut tart from another. I could've eaten about 10 of them! I didn't though, I had more self control than that. 

Saturday was Joey's birthday!! And it was great because most of us partook in the Saturday tradition of French toast and coffee for breakfast and then the rest of the morning was spent very low key getting work done while Joe Skyped with his family. The afternoon was filled with guitar practicing and getting dinner prepped and started. That's what we did for his birthday, we just ate. So fitting! But really, we all had dinner and then we went to Cayo Twist which is non dairy ice cream that is super good and lactose intolerance friendly. Then we came home and had a dance party and played games. All in all we celebrated Joe's birthday from 7 am til midnight, so he definitely got a full birthday. 

Sunday was another interesting and wonderful day that started out with a large Mass to conclude the 2 week parish mission that had been going on. In Spanish. But it was surprisingly only an hour and a half which is half the length we were expecting. After Mass and lunch we went to our house to enjoy Joe's birthday dessert! Eric made cups of worms in dirt but because we got ice cream we were too full to eat them the night before. Such a treat for Sunday!  

But then Monday happened and it was a horrible day. And Tuesday happened and instead of being a new day it was Monday Part II. But Wednesday was pancake day plus my futbolito team played an exciting game and the week is now over. And I'm sipping red wine watching ice skating exhibitions after spending the day on a little island in the Caribbean. So is life good? Yeah, I'd have to say life is pretty dang good right now.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

Life Goes On

 

I’m afraid this might be an even more uneventful update than usual. From Wednesday to about Sunday afternoon/evening, I was actually sick, but I couldn’t tell you with what to save the life of me. All I know is that I had horrible sinus pressure, really tight achy muscles, no appetite, and literally zero energy. I even did what I never thought possible: I went home from school early one day. And granted I’m still working on getting my energy and strength back, but on the whole I would definitely say I’m feeling better. But alas what this means is that I could tell you about the 5 days of lying around and sleeping I had. Instead I’ll just skip to the good stuff.

Ok first things first: how cool would it be if we could climb on the walls? I’m actually writing this Monday night in my living room and I’ve just noticed the lizard on the opposite wall. He’s just hanging out. I mean think about it, how cool would it be to just climb a wall? Like it was no big deal.

Alright, well an update on our little lives here: with a lot of prayer and sound discernment, Becky (who had just come down in January) decided that this wasn’t her mission, so on Saturday she went home. I had been joking that I was slowly weeding out the downstairs: last semester Monica moved upstairs due to a potential mold problem, Betsy left after 3 years, Kelley went home for her health, and now Becky realized she’s meant to serve elsewhere. Jen (who isn’t a volunteer teacher but is a nurse so she goes around doing nursey things) just moved back in after being gone a while. If she moves out of the house again, then we’ll know that I have some secret subconscious power to drive away housemates.

There was one really exciting part about the sad occasion of bringing another volunteer to the airport:

That's right! The Belize Central Prison has a gift shop. Joe and I first saw it when we brought Kelley to the airport and we were so shocked at its existence that we were already too far by the time Joe realized the items sold were probably all made by inmates and would actually be cool. So we added it to our Belize bucket list having no idea we would be back in just 3 weeks. So this time with Monica in tow we made the long awaited stop. And it was actually pretty cool! The inmate/clerk was telling us about all the different types of woods that everything was made out of. Unfortunately, they were all larger items, so we didn't get anything. I was totally ready to buy something though! How awesome would that have been? Some of you would've gotten some one of a kind souvenirs. Also worth noting is that we of course stopped for ice cream in Cayo on our way home. 

Do you know what else is happening right now?? THE OLYMPICS! I can't emphasize how much I love the Olympics, so these are a really exciting couple of weeks for me. Of course it's hard to watch them and if I was in America I would spend every free moment I had watching, but Brynne and Victor have had us over for the primetime sports which has been really fun. 

I have 2 more important things to say and then I have to go be a taste tester/judge for the Food Processing/Nutrition class (which means I get to test their Valentine's Day, red velvety desserts!)

1. Happy feast day! Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes who happens to be my favorite gal (or more reverently speaking, my favorite Marian apparition...). This is the 156th anniversary of when Mary started appearing to St. Bernadette asking her to bring everyone back to prayer and penance. As some of you may know, when I studied abroad (already 3 years ago!), I spent my 10 day break serving at Lourdes in the miraculous baths there. That is by far the best week of my life thus far and Lourdes reigns as my favorite place on the entire planet. (Fun fact: St. Maximilian Kolbe also had a great devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes)

2. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the death of a student at Mt. Carmel. He was in second form last year and he drowned in the river. Last night they had a memorial Mass for him and a good number of students were there which was really beautiful. Please offer a little prayer for him and his family. His name is Rodney. 

Ok, I think that's all I've got! Well, it's not because I could write a whole separate blog just on Lourdes, but it's time to go test yummy desserts! Keep praying for me please. It's doing wonders!

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria. 

You Can Call Me Tia

This is what I told my 1st Form girls today because...I'm an aunt!!! On Saturday, Job William was born at about 1:30 pm EST. And as per typical style of my sister, it all went pretty quickly and smoothly as far as I was informed. But that's just so Jen isn't it?

Anyway, that was my big excitement for the weekend! I do have a couple of pictures, but I mean the little guy is just so new! I'm sure more will come in due time

 Look at that little man!

The new family. Let's please note what a babe my sister is. She gave birth while wearing pearl earrings.

And if his new little life wasn't enough, I just got to meet him over video chat! Oh technology, it hates me on so many days, but today it was very kind and only cut out at the very end of our conversation. And I can say that my little chunky monkey is the cutest little one around. Though he does have a squealing little mouth on him! Of course, I was saying how cute his noises are and Jen was like, "Well yeah when they're quiet! And not at 3 am!" Touche, Jen.

There really isn't anything else to say. Job is in the world now and while it really sucks not being able to hold him and give him kisses, there's not a whole lot that can be done about it except be grateful for being able to see him, even if it is over a phone or computer. And it'll be one big comforting bright spot about leaving in June.

Oh yeah, there is one other thing from my weekend worth mentioning. So I'm sure most of you are aware that the Super Bowl was this past Sunday and while I don't have particularly strong feelings towards the Broncos or Seahawks, Jack is from Denver so it was a big deal for him. Coincidentally, Kelley had brought down a bottle of buffalo wing sauce for Jack. Naturally the only thing you can do with that information is make Buffalo Chicken Dip. Heck. Yes. Jack was very on board with this idea, so I set out to find a good recipe. After all, the only time I've ever made or consumed BCD, it was made with Frank's Red Hot Sauce (aka the best for this sort of thing), but we just had buffalo wing sauce. I was kinda nervous that it would taste too different or not as good. But as it turns out, it was fantastic!!!! Ok, but the best part about it was that I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, a wonderful place, but I also found one on a different site and I let Jack choose which one to use. He picked the allrecipes.com one for one simple, brilliant reason: the username of the person who posted it is NUNPUNCH. The clear winner of course! And we took a picture of Jack getting punched by a nun

Ok she's technically a SOLT sister, but we needed the picture because we're going to write a wonderful review of that delicious recipe and then show nunpunch that we're just really good at following directions.

Well that was pretty much my weekend! The school week was busy and boring like usual, so I spared you those mundane details. All you need to know about my super enjoyable weekend is Nephew and Nunpunch.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.