Chaabil Belize!

"Lauren, do you know what you’re getting yourself into? You know you are going to have to bathe in a river." my friend Amy said as she was explaining the living situation in Belize. Amy has been volunteering with the Peace Corps for about a year and a half now and lives in a village with no electricity. While telling fellow family members and friends of my travel plans to visit her and to teach in the school she volunteers at as well as travel, many responded to me not only with puzzling faces but also with many questions. "People actually choose to live like that?" they said. "What do they do with their lives?" "No television?" "Are you going to have to drink out of the water you bathe in?" All valid questions that I was eager to find the answers to.

I left Colorado as it was snowing early in the morning on April 4^th. The plane ride was fairly quick compared to traveling to Europe. A couple hours to Houston, then a couple more hours and I arrived at the Belize International Airport in Belize City. Once I stepped off the plane, warmth and humidity instantly welcomed me to the city. I quickly passed through customs, picked up my luggage and made my way to the waiting area for my connecting flight to Punta Gorda. The airport was pretty tiny and cute so I took a couple pictures, bought some water and sat on a bench until it was time to board. As I was drinking my water, I noticed a lady with a really cute hat sitting across from me. When the lady started to speak, I quickly realized by her southern accent it was none other than Resse Witherspoon with her new husband and her children. So crazy! I really couldn’t believe it! What a fun way to start my Belize adventure!

After about an hour and a half domestic flight, I arrived at my final destination for the day, Punta Gorda. Punta Gorda(PG) is often described in travel books as a sleepy town in which the people are soooooo tired that they cannot even pronounce the entirety of the name hence its initial nickname PG. I liked the quiet town and enjoyed meeting up with my friend Amy there and catching up on life! We stayed the night at a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteers) house and got to see more of the town the next day. My favorite thing about PG was the Jonny Cakes (these delicious biscuits filled with cheese) and Fry Jacks (similar to sopapillas) that are served with beans and eggs for breakfast.

Later that afternoon, we took the high school bus for a two hour ride into the village where I would be living for the next two weeks, Santa Teresa! I absolutely loved everything about the village from the kindness of the people, to the culture, to the food, to the simplistic way of life and even the language. Santa Teresa is a relatively small Mayan Indian village where the people speak a language called K’ekchi (Q’eqchi). English is spoken as well). It was actually really fun to learn some basic K'ekchi. Here are some of my favorite words and phases:

Yo’os- Hello

Ma sa aachol? How are you? (literal translation- Do you have good in your heart)

Sa inchol- I’m fine (I have good in my heart)

Chaabil -beautiful

Laa’in X…-My name is……

Tojokre -Thank you

Tawil Awib -Take Care

Cheat Cheat- Liar

Naka thin ra- I love you

Mas chick sak’e – The sun is hot.

Heehe- Yes

In’ka- No

Bar xic awe- I am going…..

The way of life would be considered old fashioned compared to the States. Most women stay in the home during the day taking care of the children, cooking, doing laundry (in the river) and household chores while the men are out working various jobs from farming to bus driving. Women are almost always seen in knee length skirts and shirts that have short sleeves. A lot of the women and girls also wear the Mayan traditional clothing (uks and po’ots). Amy was so sweet and had some traditional wear made for me to wear in the village. I absolutely loved wearing it!

Since there is no electricity, food is made fresh daily. Most families live on caldo (soup), beans and corn tortillas. Silverware is not needed because everything is eaten with a tortilla. I had the opportunity to enjoy many of the foods when I met and visited with the families. Everyone always offers you food if you come to visit. The food is amazing! They really like to make their food peppery (spicy) which was great. I had everything from fresh fish, to caldo with chicken, caldo with a wild rodent, to chicken tamales, to tons and tons and tons of corn tortillas, sometimes flour (my favorite), the most amazing beans as well as porridge and a cacao(chocolate) drink. They also had the most beautifully tasting zestful oranges! One night Amy and I visited 3 families and were so extremely full but it’s considered rude to not take or eat the food that is given to you. Amy told me once that she went to visit a family that had only 3 eggs to feed 6 kids and the family gave her an entire egg to eat for herself. She felt so bad about it but ate it out of politeness.

My days spent in the village were always fun! A typical daily schedule looked like this:

5:30- Wake up (Usually by dogs barking, rosters crowing, howler monkeys making a creepy howl sound or the neighbor family playing Mexican music which was fun because it reminded me of my family and covered up all the animal noises)

6:00- Go for a walk or run

6:45- Go to the creek to do laundry and bathe

7:45- Get ready for school and eat breakfast

8:30-School

11:00- Lunch break (1½ hours! )! Make lunch and rest in the hammock!

1:30- Walk back to school.

3:30- Schools out! Time for music club!

4:00- Rest

4:30- Play futbol(soccer) with GLOW girls (they play with bare feet..wow)

5:00- Visit various families to make tortillas and play with the children.

7:30- Back to the thatch house to relax, read, write, talk with Amy, get things ready for the next day, etc.

8:30- Bed time! :) :) :)

Getting to teach at Santa Teresa R.C. School was a very great experience. It was really neat because the school in the village happened to be Catholic although there are 3 different religions in the village (Baptist, Protestant and Catholic). They start the day in prayer, have religion class in the morning and transition breaks/lunch as well as ended the day in prayer. A priest comes into the village once a month for a school mass and the children spend a week preparing the songs to sing at it. It was neat to see how a Catholic School works and is operated in Central America.

In Belize, most of the teachers start teaching right out of high school and don’t receive any training to teach. I had the opportunity to teach math to all of the grades showing the teachers different strategies to use when teaching as well as ways to get the children to participate and make learning math fun. I am really a big advocate on positive reinforcement and will never forget the first day I taught math in Belize. I was teaching Standard 3-4 students how to reduce fractions in which I did whole group instruction, board practice for the students, a fun game and then seatwork review practice. When the students were finished, I checked the problems and if they were all correct I gave them a star with a pen. I have never seen kids so excited to receive a star on their paper. Once other kids heard about it, I started hearing many voices say “Can I have a star, Miss?” “I want a star, Miss.” I don’t think I will ever get over how excited these kids were to receive a star on their paper!

Something else that I got to experience in Santa Teresa R.C. School was a field trip to the Food Fair. If you have ever been on a field trip in the States you might remember your teacher always counting and taking attendance multiple times to make sure no kids are missing and everyone has showed up. Belizean culture by nature is just very relaxed. We arrived on the bus by the school a little before 7:30 and at 7:30 the principal, Mr. Pop stepped onto the bus, and announced, “Well, looks like everyone is here.” And we were off for the two hour ride to the nearest city Punta Gorda. There were literally 6+ children in some seats and tons of children were standing in the aisle. When we arrive at the fairgrounds the kids were free to do what they wanted. No real supervision. There were many booths set up that sold various types of foods and some were learning booths. There was also a MC that had music and games.

I was really excited for our booth! We not only had great food and drinks to sell, but the kids, Amy and I made a punchboard for this event. I brought a ton of prizes from my mom’s classroom to Belize and we used them for the punchboard. We had the kids write the prizes on white slips of paper and also messages about healthy eating on others. We folded them and punched them into the board. At the food fair, kids came up to our booth and paid a shilling (25 cents) to pick a slip from the board. Some would win the prizes I brought and others just got the message. The kids loved it! With the prizes, we ended up raising $164.25 for the school!! So cool!

Highlights of life in Belize:

*Amy and I have birthdays that are 4 days apart so we spent one weekend on the beach in Placencia for a little relaxing birthday bash. We had a blast snorkeling, swimming in the salt water, and Karl-okie-ing!

*Also for my birthday, killing a chicken to make tamales, learning how to weave a kuxtal (purse) and then having homemade doughnuts made by the neighbors.

*Going to Blue Creek to swim in the caves. I felt like I was in The Goonies movie…it was awesome.

*Biking 2 miles up and down the steepest hills, then hiking a mile to see and swim in these beautiful waterfalls.

This is definitely an adventure I will never forget. I loved living in the village, napping in a hammock as well as playing with and teaching the children. I always wanted to be in the Peace Corps so it was really cool that I got to have a mini-experience. Amy does so much good in her village daily. Peace Corps is known as, “the hardest job, you’ll ever love.” She is pretty much always “on-call” to any of the villagers at all times and spends the days working with reading groups in the schools, putting together field trips and leading an after school music club. The kids are currently learning to play the recorder and one afternoon I taught them, Hot Cross Buns. Amy has also taught many of the women in the village new things to bake as well as showed them how to make soap. In addition she has taken over a GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) group for Standard 6. I had the privilege of leading a GLOW group session about inner beauty and self-esteem. The village is extremely lucky that they have Miss Amy and everyone loves her very much. It will be so hard for her to say goodbye in October.

Looking outside at all the Colorado snow falling in May as I finish writing this makes me miss the humid heat of Belize (even the days I needed a sweat rag). I hope to go back someday. I was telling my mom I want to adopt a Belizean child…lol

I have so many other fun stories and things to share about the culture in Belize that I could probably write a book. If you are still reading and want to know more, feel free to ask! Also if you are thinking about going, don’t think…DO IT!

A BIG THANK YOU (tojokre) to Amy for inviting me to her village, sharing her Belizean life with me and being a superb hostess! I am very thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful friend! I have been extremely fortunate to have so many amazing experiences in travel but this has been hands down my favorite!

Guatemala travels are up next!

All my love,

L

Belize Children

I instantly fell in love with all the children in Santa Teresa (the village that I lived in for two weeks). They are incredibly loving, adorable and fun to play with. The children are very polite when speaking and always end their sentences addressing the person they are talking to. For example:

"Can you take a picture of me, Miss?"

"Will you remember me, Miss?"

"Will you pray for me, Miss?"

This video of Arnold and Rhondina is pretty cute!

I'm working on a massive Belizean experience blog.

Until then.

All my love.

L

Have a nice day! :)

I can’t believe a week and a half has gone by since I said goodbye to Germany! Truthfully, this experience has made me realize how lucky and fortunate I am to be American and how many wonderful opportunities my country offers. I guess they don’t call it the land of the free for nothing. But as the saying goes, “You must immerse yourself in another culture, to truly understand your own.”

While I was in Germany, I followed the cultural ways as much as I could because I figured while in Germany, do as the Germans do. But in doing that, I felt that I lost a little bit of myself. I, naturally laugh at everything quite loudly and felt that my laugh echoed in this European country. Everyone is so quiet and truthfully it made me want to scream! One always has to follow the rules and the way the education system is run just breaks my heart. I would gladly go back as a tourist and traveler but to live, it’s not the place for me.

It’s nice to be able to breathe this fresh Colorado air again. I love the Colorado sunshine, seeing the mountains in the distance and that it’s warm outside during December. Oddly, I miss the German language. In Germany, I could speak both English and German and be understood and here if I accidently reply in German people just look at me strange. I miss using the language everyday and having people reply but I also love having an in depth conversation in my own language again! One of those can’t have your cake and eat it too examples.

Things that I loved/miss about Germany:

*The transportation system- I loved that I lived right next to the train station and go anywhere at any time without the use of a car.

*The forest- riding my bike or running in it! And that people were so active!

*The heated floors-so cozy!

*The chocolate J

*My family (of course) esp. my cousins! Wish I could bring them back with me…sigh

*Whenever a German found out I was American they would always end with, “Have a nice day!” J

I will always be thankful for being able to live in Germany for that time I did but as Dorothy says, there is no place like home! It’s great to be back in Colorado and see everyone again-my kiddos from Lion’s Den, all my friends from STM as well as the High schoolers and my family. Tomorrow I travel to my favorite place in the whole wide world: Gering, Nebraska and am so ecstatic to see my crazy huge familia and celebrate Christmas with them!

I do, plan on continuing my travels and am going to Belize in April! I really can’t wait for that adventure but for now Nebraska is where my heart is heading!

Merry Christmas!

All my love,

L

Guten Appetit!

I wish I could throw a big dinner party and invite all of you over to taste and try the German foods I have been able to indulge in. I have been working on a fun food blog but my computer shut down and of course somehow all my work wasn’t saved. Such is life but I still want to share with you some of my favorites. Meals are really an important part of life here in Germany and I can only think of one dinner that lasted less than an hour. Everyone eats or sits at the table until everyone else is finished and then when everyone is done coffee, tea or wine is served and then dessert.

My first dinner here in Germany, I was served Maultaschen. Maultaschen is kind of like ravioli. It has bits of minced meat, spinach and onion covered in noodles. You can eat it by its self, fried or in a soup. Long ago, as the legend goes, people wanted to hid meat from God on Fridays so they thought by eating it this way, it would not be discovered. lol

Fresh bread is everywhere and is the norm! There are a variety of breads at the supermarkets and grocery stores that people constantly pick up to refill the bread box at home. I have had a variety of types of breads and most of them contain nuts on top or within. Bread is usually eaten with a spread of butter, Kiri(which is like a cream cheese type of butter), jam or my favorite Nutella! Also, when served as breakfast bread is accompanied with a few different meats (ham, salami, turkey) and cheese (they have the most wonderful chesses). My favorite bread however, is the German Bretzel. It’s kind of like a soft pretzels minus the soft part…lol Well, I would say ¾ of the bretzel is hard and 1/3 is soft. One usually cuts open the soft part to spread butter in it and then eats it! It’s so delicious! Other things that are usually consumed for breakfast include eggs, yogurt with granola and fruit.

It’s very common for kids to come home for lunch because the schools don’t have a cafeteria (lunch room). You know when school is out for lunch because many kids are at the bakery or grocery store to grab a piece of bread or a sandwich on a baguette.

I have also been to a few restaurants during my stay here and they all have been really good. I live next to a good Chinese place we have been to a few times. We also went out to a pizza café’ and although the pizza was good, it just tasted a lot different from American pizza! At restaurants, kids usually eat schnitzel and then always get a mini-pack of Haribo gummy bears. My conversation partner, Katarina told me that I should try the McDonalds here before I left. It’s funny that she talked so highly of McDonalds and said that she liked the burgers but that they are not made with love because the workers just slop them together. lol So, Alex and I ventured to McDonalds but instead of trying a burger- I thought I embrace in the culture (picture below). lol

For dinner, many different dishes can be severed. It’s common to have bratwurst with sauerkraut (white or red) and potatoes. Other things that I have had include soups with hotdog, kidney beans and peas. I have also had a yummy rice soup, lots of fish, pork chops type of meat and mozzarella salad. Dishes are usually severed with rice or potatoes and cauliflower, broccoli or spinach. My favorite thing that I ate here was a type meat-beef with pickles and bacon wrapped in it. I also loved these special noodles they have that are fried topped with cheese and then sauerkraut!

Dessert has been by far my favorite! There are many types of Kuchen (cake). There are also these German ginger Christmas cookies that my Aunt has got me addicted to. They also have the most delicious chocolates. I love Milka which is a chocolate brand that makes all sorts of chocolates from vanilla to strawberry to milk chocolate to chocolate with caramel and milk inside! I also am a big fan of Duplo which is kind of like an American kit-kat but so much better! I had also tried Berliners which are a jelly type filled doughnut! Yum!

Fun Facts about essen/trinken:

*The first supermarket ever was opened in New York in 1930. It was called the King Kullen Grocery Company.

*The first hamburger was made in the United States by Germans who came from Hamburg.

*People throughout the world drink about 30 billion gallons of beer annually. Germans average 6.3 bottles per person per week. Americans average in at 4.4.

Moving on to fashion:

I’m no fashionista but I do dig great style and these Germans really know how to dress. When I was really little my dad told me I had a sense of fashion because I always knew what I wanted in a store and would take him to it and tell him that mom said he had to buy for me. lol Anyway, when it comes to German fashion, they like to keep things simple.

You would find a typical German wearing:

Skinny jeans

or

a dress/jean skirt with multicolored leggings

with

Boots

Or

Converse shoes (My conversation partner has a pair in

every color)

Plus

A scarf, sweater

And A pea coat jacket

Shopping here is insane and very different. All the stores are built up! One of my favorite stores is called Muller and it’s kind of like a Target well, minus the clothes. It has 4 different levels. On the first level you would find shampoo, conditioner, body products, etc. The basement is filled with goodies as well as cards, backpacks, office supplies. 3^rd floor contains toys for kids and the top is the electronics. My favorite place to go for clothes shopping is called Breunnger. It’s kind of like a mall but everything is opened and labels which I guess would be like the stores are above the clothes. There are tons of floors to this mall and I could spend hours getting lost in it looking at everything! Also, I have only once seen someone out in sweatpants.

I'm so glad I was able to EXPERIENCE Germany! I am going to miss the beauty of this country as well as my family BUT it will be nice to get back to the land of the free!

THANKS for following my adventures! I hope you has as much fun reading as I had living and writing about them! Until my next travels!

All my love.

-L

So schön: Berlin und Copenhagen!

This past week has exactly been the adventure I have been looking for! I decided I wanted to go to Berlin before I headed back to America so I paid 35 Euros, hopped into a car-pool type van with 7 other travelers and 6.5 hours later, we arrived in the beautiful capital of Germany! When I was dropped off in this big city, I took the U2 to my hostel before I set out to explore.

This was my first ever experience in a hostel and I had so much fun! The rooms were clean, the staff was friendly and helpful and there was always someone new to meet. I slept in a room with 8 other people where we all had keys and lockers to keep valuables in. Each night the people in the room would change except for Rob-a new Australian friend that I met who was staying in Berlin for a week!

Berlin ist so schön und interessant (so pretty and interesting). In Berlin, I went on a 3 hour free walking tour of the city. It was fantastic minus the fact that my fingers felt like frozen popsicles by the end. The tour guide was hilariously entertaining and gave us a great history lesson of Berlin. We got to see everything from where Hitler is buried/shot himself to the Berlin Wall to the well known hotel Michael Jackson hung his baby off the balcony to Check Point Charlie to the TV tower to The Berliner Dome to the Brandenburg Gate to the memorial they built for all who died in the Holocaust, etc. It was really interesting to learn about how different people lived in East and West Berlin when the wall the built overnight and how quickly things changed when it fell. My favorite quote that was said on the tour, “If you start by burning books, you end with burning people.”

I also met another really cool Aussie on the tour, Joel and after 3 hours of walking in the cold wind blown show together, we decided to find a café’ to warm up in . Joel sings in a band in Melbourne and was actually in Berlin to watch his guitarist play a show. He was really cool and it’s always fun making new friends!

I was only in Berlin for about a day and a half before it was time to travel onward. I met up with one of my college friends, Trevor in Berlin and we traveled to Copenhagen together. Our travel and time spent in Demark was so wonderful due to a random connection I had. An exchange student who came to western Nebraska last year and became a family friend lives in Denmark. His name is Fred and he lives in Hareskovby, Denmark which is about 25 min. train ride away from Copenhagen. I just sent him a message saying Trevor and I were going to Denmark and maybe he would like to meet up but he kindly offered us a place to stay!

Fred has such an awesome family! I kind of already decided that Maggie (my cousin that dated Fred back in the States) really should marry him (in a good ten years that is), just so I can somehow by association be related to them and visit them all the time. lol My cousin Mags joked that I was going to knock and their door and ask them what’s for dinner, ironically enough I did eat dinner with them (picture above).:) Not only did the Bigum family welcome us into their home, they literally gave us a taste of the Danish culture. We were severed Danish foods, as well as learned about the traditions and ways of Demark. Fred’s mother and father (Lone and Peter) also gave us an insiders’ tour of the city where we got to see The Little Mermaid statue and a hippy town called Christania. Plus they included us in their Christmas stocking exchange where we received presents of warm socks and Danish candies. Talk about the nicest family EVER!

A few fun things I learned about the Danish Culture:

*There is no drinking age but you have to be 16 to purchased alcohol.

*You can get your driver’s license at age 18.

*On New Years eve, Cod is served and it’s a tradition to stand on the couch before the New Year and as the clock strikes 12 jump off of it so you’re jumping into the New Year.

* On Christmas day, they hold hands and dance around the Christmas tree! How fun!

*Children do not receive grades in school until year 9. Then there is a pause year between 9^th and 10^th grade where students can travel, study in another country or go to a boarding school if they prefer.

*Students start learning English in 7^th grade and then learn another language in High school.

*A lot of the Danish television is in English with Danish subtitles.

*People like to curse in English. Which I can see making sense, it doesn’t feel as bad if you say a curse word in another language because in some sense it losses it’s meaning.

Going back to Stuttgart turned into more of an adventure then I bargained for but I guess it makes for a fun story. Trevor and I took the bus back from Copenhagen to Berlin. The bus was running late due to the weather so we didn't end up back in Berlin until around 2:00 AM. The U-Bahn doesn’t run this early in the morning so we had to take the city bus back to his friend Johanna’s apartment which runs every ½ hour. We missed the 1^st bus and ended up arriving at the apartment around 3:30 AM.

I was suppose to head back to Stuttgart on Monday but the ride I found bailed on me. Luckily, Johanna was nice enough to let me stay at her place another night. It was really cool getting to know her, too. Johanna speaks 4 different languages (German, Spanish, Russian and English) and LOVES Mexico! :) I think it’s neat that she and Trevor only speak German and/or Spanish when conversing with each other.

Trevor helped me find a ride to go back to Stuttgart on Tuesday. The lady that I was going to ride with said her name was Hana when we talked to her on the phone but when I met her she was actually the Susan I rode with on the way to Berlin. Now I was just all over confused. She was about 45 min late and then the engine started to smoke so we had a wait an hour before we all ended up leaving. I got back just before the last S-bahn left..what luck! I made it home around 12:30 in the morning! What a day!

It feels good to be back in Stuttgart! My cousins missed me and Leila said that she cried for her Lauren and that it is unfair that I was gone and am only back for a couple of days before I leave for the States. It’s really going to be a hard parting. Leila wants to come with me. I think she could possibly fit in my suitcase. lol

THANKS Dad for all the American candy and goodies that you sent. They kids LOVED them and think we have the best candy in America and now want to come so bad. lol The skittles and s’mores were an instant hit! I like to teach the kids “American” ways like drinking milk out of the carton or watching TV during lunch. They think it’s so fun being American. lol Today Leila and I spent the afternoon making Christmas cookies while listening to Christmas music! So fun!

Wow…my journey is quickly coming to an end. I head back to America the 13^th or 14^th of next week, already. How time flies when you are having fun! I can’t wait to see you all when I get back! It’s been a grand adventure but there really is no place like home! Currently craving New York style pizza and my Mommy’s/Nina’s enchiladas (either will do)! :)

All my love,

L

Ps…I didn’t forget about the food blog…it’s just taking longer than I anticipated but coming up next as my final shebang. It will be about all the F’s – food, fashion and fun in Germany!