January 24, 2010

January 24, 2010

 

This weekend has, again, been amazing. I honestly can’t even describe how great it was. Gerry and Dan, our professors, were in town and are in town until Wednesday. They came and observed my teaching on Friday. I was so nervous for them to see my lesson. I did well on my observation though. My class was really good that morning. After they observed me they came over to my house and had lunch with me. They talked about what I did well and how I can improve for my upcoming lessons.

 

Friday afternoon we immediately went to the beach. We do that every day! As soon as school is over, I am completely gone! I just think about how gorgeous it is and how much I want to be outside. We bike everywhere! We swim everyday. It’s gorgeous out here! I feel like a bad teacher sometimes, but it SO hard to be a good teacher when there is so much to do outside. Planning for lessons isn’t my favorite thing to think about. I do love the kids though! They are so much fun!

 

One day we all played football after school in the water. The water at one of the piers is only up to your waist so it’s perfect for playing. We tackled each other and ran like hell. It was tiring but it was the most fun.

 

Friday night we went out here in Punta Gorda. We went to Waluco’s with our professors and we sang karaoke. The boys are pretty talented. The three of them have gotten really close. Too close… J Then we went out to the sports bar and, of course, danced. Mackenzie and I were the only white people dancing and all the black girls were looking at us laughing.

 

Saturday we went on a day trip with our professors. Gerry got UMD to pay for one day of fun for all of us. We all went out to the cacao farm. It’s only 40 miles away but it takes SO long to get anywhere. None of the roads here are paved and usually on those roads it’s so choppy that it’s hard to drive over 20 miles an hour. When we got there it was SO HOT AND SUNNY. It ended up being fine though. It was an organic farm that makes chocolate. Pretty amazing. Juan, our tour guide, took us through and we all harvested our own chocolate plants. Ty broke one in half and there was this wet, nasty, brain in the middle. Not at all what I thought it was going to look like. Juan harvests all the cacao by hand and then they crack the fruit open. They use the beans that are inside the fruit to make the chocolate. The bean is just like a peanut. We had to crack the shell and then put the chocolate down. Then we had to winnow the beans and then we had to grind it down until it turned into a liquid. It was so cool to see how the whole process worked. I feel bad eating chocolate after seeing all that goes into it. Juan was SO smart about farming. They care so much about all the animals and plants that are on the farm. He grows other fruits for animals to eat so they will stay out of the cacao plants.  He also does the farming at the same farm that his dad started. He names the chocolate after his mom and does the tours to teach people about the ancient ways that Mayans would harvest and make chocolate.

 

After that we got to go back to Rio Blanco. It was so fun to go back there with everyone. I’m so glad that we’re all together. We have such a fun group. We all got to jump and swim together. It was a blast.

 

Sunday (today) me and Ty had to get up early. His class had a confirmation acceptance program this morning. Church started at 7:30 this morning so we had to leave his house by 7 to bike down there. I got to meet some of his students and help them get their pins on for the church service. He will be such a good teacher. I’m really proud of him. He makes me wish that I was a better teacher! I think at some point we’re going to try to co-teach for at least one day.  (I also want to go and observe Mackenzie and Jess.)

 

Then we had to get back to our houses to get ready. Elena’s son, Howard, brought Ty, Nate, Mackenzie and I to Blue Creek today. There are waterfalls, hiking trails, and caves there. We have been wanting to go SO bad. We had to drive there through the bumpy, dirt roads. It took a long time but when there is jungle all around you there is a lot to see and the time flies by. The house next to the beginning of the trails is where the tour guide lives. He had other plans for the day so he couldn’t take us through the caves at all, but he let us take his headlamps and go swim through there anyway. Elena packed us lunches and we had all out towels and stuff there so Howard staying with our stuff at the entrance of the cave.

 

It was honestly UNBELIEVEABLE. There were waterfalls leading up to a cave that was in the middle of huge mountains that were covered in a thick rainforest. The water was perfectly clear and you could see the fish swimming around. The cave didn’t even look real.

 

It wasn’t scary at the entrance but once we got into the first area we were already scared. If you have seen the movie, “The Descent”, you know what being in a dark cave is like. It’s terrifying. Between the four of us we had two headlamps and one regular flashlight that Nate was just carrying and swimming with. The water there wasn’t deep but we had to swim if we weren’t climbing for the most part. The water was unbelievably clear and clean. I can’t believe how gorgeous it was in that cave. We got to the point after the first 20 minutes that if we turned off our lights there was no light in sight of us. Anywhere. There were waterfalls in the cave too. We could hear them and we wanted to get to them so bad. It was absolutely amazing! I have never in my life been so scared and had so much adrenaline. At one point I was so scared that I literally started crying a little bit. I just went under water and didn’t say anything to anyone. Haha.

 

When we got back to the entrance and we could see the light we had SO much energy and adrenaline rushing through us. We were pretty excited that we made it. I just wish there would have been a way that we could’ve gotten pictures inside that cave. It’s something that I will never be able to explain to anyone. I am for sure taking my family on vacations like this someday. I don’t know why anyone would bring their kids to Disneyland over a vacation where you do insane things. This country is so gorgeous and there is SO MUCH TO DO. It only costs $10 to go to these parks and you could easily spend an entire day there without trying. We were in that cave for about 2 hours swimming and when we got back we climbed up the side for a couple victory pictures. We mooned the camera for one picture. It reminded me of being back at home and mooning everyone. J

 

When we got out we ate our lunches and fed the fish that were swimming all over. There were well over twenty fish in the little area right in front of us. I was glad we fed them once we were out of the water.

 

I was already freaked out when we were swimming through the caves and climbing up the waterfalls in the pitch black but when we started hiking back Nate noticed a rope swing. The rope swing went out over water that was deep enough but you’d have to make sure you swung out far enough and landed in the right spot. Nate went first. Even he was really nervous. He of course jumped though. Then Ty went up. I honestly thought he was going to die. He went out and came back twice. He almost fell off the ledge. He was shaking and flipping out. I wasn’t even sure he’d do it at one point. We all died laughing watching the video of him once we got home, but he did end up jumping and it was pretty sweet. Mackenzie wanted to go too and she was of course shaking but it didn’t take her long to jump in. I had zero intention of jumping. Watching them scared me out of it. There was no way. But once they all said I should do it or I’d regret it I thought I’d better at least get up there and see how scary it was. Honestly, WAY less scary when it was me. I was still nervous though. I went in though and it did feel good! It’s fun to challenge yourself and have your adrenaline going out of control. Plus, how often do you get a chance to rope swing into a waterfall in front of a cave in the middle of a jungle… So sweet!

 

I could honestly NOT be happier with the way we’ve been spending our time here. We have already seen so much. It’s insane! Next weekend us girls are planning to go to Hopkins. We have no idea what we’re going to do there, but it has white sand beaches and it’s supposed to be amazing there so we’re going. Nate’s parents are coming to visit so the boys are going to Guatemala. We’ll all go there soon though!

 

By this Friday we’ll all be half done with our teaching here. It’s so insane. I am going to be taking over all the subjects after that and I can’t wait! I want to really have fun with the kids. The hard thing is trying to have fun with them but still get through everything I need to teach. I can’t even believe that I’m in charge of thirty-one seven year olds. Scary!