Do Your Best Each Day

I thought it might be good to give you a glimpse inside the Fajina Restaurant. I took my camera one day and took some pictures of the ladies making corn tortillas. It is quiet the art form and mine tortillas until today have been more of an egg shape. I was helping pat out tortillas today and Ms. Maria told me it was "mas chabill" which means very pretty, needless to say I was proud of my work. 

Cooking the corn tortillas on the cumal.

Patting out the tortillas.

About a month ago two other PCVs in PG, Christine and Kristen and I decided to begin an after school tutoring sessions for some children between the ages of 10-12. Our goal was to implement reading time for these children 2 times a week. We developed a curriculum where we could teach them the basics of reading, such as phonics, grammar, spelling, etc and also have them read a book. There are about 16 children and it has been fun getting to know them. Here are some pictures of the kids in one of the sessions, we try to make it interactive to hold their attention. 

Christine with some of the girls.

Last weekend our safety and security office, Daniel got married to Froyla. The had a beautiful reception at Coral House Inn here in PG. Daniel invited the PCVs and we had a great time. At the beginning Daniel and Froyla knelt down and each of their family members gave their blessing to them, it was very touching to watch. The party kicked up with food and dancing. We had a great time. 

The beautiful cakes.

Christine and I at the reception.

DANCING!!!

At the end of the night Christine and I asked to take a centerpiece, I of course picked the largest flower.

Good-Bye Duty Free :(

This week marks my 6th month in Belize. I am astonished it has been that long already. Some days it feels like I have been here years and other days I feel like I just arrived in country. Last week we had All Volunteer Conference aka training for the entire week in Belmopan. It was nice to see everyone and catch up, especially with those from the North that I never see.

I found it interesting that near the end of the week I kept thinking "wish I was back home in PG" Yes, I know home in PG?!?! What an interesting thought. I just wanted to be back in my house, in my bed and having my daily routine with Piglet. I surprised myself. 

On my return here in PG though things have been a little rough this week. I hate to write about being sad. Basically I am feeling as if I am not able to help with the changes that Fajina needs. I know that it sounds silly, but I really want to do good in this world and these past few days I have felt as if I am just a waste. On Monday it was like everything was just adding on top of the other and when I broke my sandals I about lost it. I was not in a good space. I am so blessed to be able to call my Mom. She is the most wise and caring person I know, I would be so lost without her support and love. She got me through that rough patch and I know there will be many to come but I made it through. I did learn that I have people I can turn to for support and that I need to be more aware that not everything happens at once and to keep trying and doing my best. 

Another sad note this week is that my Duty Free ends. Many of you may not know that since being in country I have not had to pay duty on any packages I have received. I have been dreading this day. This now means that I will be paying about 32% of the postage price and customs declaration form which is then doubled to be put in Belize Dollars. Needless to say it will be a RIDICULOUS amount. So some suggestions if you get the urge to send me a package which would make me oh so happy :) 

-When filling out the customs declaration form (this is the slip that is attached to the package that asks the contents) under estimate the price of the items (i.e. book was $15 put it down as $5). 

-Make sure all items in the package do not have price tags on them (i.e. a shirt take off the tag)

-I have also found that small boxes and padded envelopes make it here quickly and sometimes they are treated as regular mail aka not charged duty.

Thank you all in advance for being so great to me! I hope everyone is enjoying February. I am still astonished how much snow there has been in Virginia! Hopefully everyone was able to dig themselves out successfully. I would also like to congratulate my brother Alex on his acceptance to Brigham Young University, he will be attending there this fall. I am so proud. :) xoxo