Orange Walk Rotary District Meeting

Patsy and I were invited to the Rotary District Meeting tonight.  We had a delicious dinner and great conversation, all under a "hut" outside a Rotarian's home.  There are 10 Rotarians who are on this committee, only four of them were able to attend this meeting.

Orange Walk has been incredibly receptive to both Melissa and Patsy. We have had two very full days of teaching in separate schools. The teachers have all been extremely motivated and are learning to work collaboratively with others. They quietly listen during instruction, then quickly get to work when assigned a task. We have been extremely impressed with the quality of their work and their confidence as they work thought it.

During the ''Getting to Know You" session, one teacher said he loved Orange Walk because the people here are very friendly. We both have to agree with him. The teachers have been very kind, and even smile or chuckle at our jokes.

Our Rotary hosts have been incredibly hospitable and generous: they ensure that we have food in our bellies and that our thirst is quenched.

The Technology class has progressed at an incredible rate. I am supposed to have the beginners group, however most of them peg themselves as intermediate in skill level, so when they are given a task they work diligently to complete it. Yesterday we used Google Docs to communicate with each other. I posted a rambling piece of "creative" writing that the teachers were able to comment on, and that they did. They had fun correcting my work or providing me with suggestions. Today we worked on Google presentations; the teachers teamed up with others at the same grade level. They had to collaborate using the "Five Steps of a Search Plan" to create a presentation that they will use with their students. They all created amazing presentations (and yes, they all shared them with me on Google)!

A teacher participant demonstrating how to use animation. 

When life gives you lemons (or hurricanes), make lemonade!

The teams in northern Belize were moved south to the Cayo district to stay safe from Hurricane Ernesto.  We had some heavy rain for a short time in the evening, but felt no other severe effects at our location.  Since classes were cancelled, we decided to learn more about the culture of this beautiful country with a trip to the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich, only 1 km away from the Guatemalan border.  On our way to the bus, we walked by a playground built by a rotary club, so  we stopped for a photo opportunity.

The ruins were beautiful; they are amazing structures.  We enjoyed a light lunch on the top of Plaza A6, before retreating back down the ruin.  On the way down, we spotted some howler monkeys playing in the trees.

On our way back , we received a phone call indicating that any storm danger has passed and that we would be returning to our respective locations to go back to the real work we came here for - to coach the teachers of Belize in curriculum implementation and technology integration. It is an adventure here!

After settling into Orange Walk Town on Sunday, we took a boat tour on the Lamanai River up to the Mayan Ruins.  We spent the day there learning about the culture and history of Belize and appreciating the jungle flora and fauna. 

We arrived at our schools on Monday morning ready to start the work we have been waiting to do.  Many teachers were already at the sites. About 30 minutes into setting up, we were called for an emergency meeting telling us that the training would be cancelled for at least a few days due to Hurricane Ernesto. 

We have now been temporarily located just outside of San Ignacio, Cayo.  We moved south to avoid the heavy storm, as it was headed for our area.  The program will resume on Monday, once the people have been able to recover from what may happen as the storm moves through their areas.

This is a beautiful country, with beautiful people!!

Lamanai River boat launch