June in brief...
What June in England signifies (or at least, has done in my privileged life up to now, especially the last three summers):-
Long days and short nights. The arrival of sunshine, if you are lucky. The chance to wear a dress without freezing. The chance to take a dip in the sea, also without freezing. The thwack of willow on leather, the sight of rain at Wimbledon, the news of an England tail order collapse. Occasional football hysteria. Strawberries and cream. Pimms. Garden parties, picnics, walks. Fruit picking. The end of exams, and consequently, laziness. Boats. Tourists. Sitting outside in a beer garden, drinking lemonade (definitely not cider :P). BBQs.
My June in Belize:-
Roughly the same amount of daylight as every other day. Rain (actually not that much, though). More heat and humidity than normal. The necessity of wearing a dress, otherwise I might boil over. Obsessive checking of the hurricane outlook (OK, maybe I'm more obsessive than most because I'm trying to be a budding meteorologist...). Watching my first ever basketball match (well I only watched the last quarter-and-a-half; technically three eighths, yes) on TV, so I now vaguely understand references to Cody Bryant. Mangoes, delicious, and yet so plentiful its hard to stop them rotting in the fruit bowl without making yourself sick. The departure of many people on holiday. The arrival of many more Americans etc than normal, mostly here on volunteering or mission trips. A church anniversary and associated activities. The end of term and the beginning of a month of busy-ness with vacation activities (summer camp and vacation bible schools.) Graduations to come out of your ears, for all primary and secondary schools (I've just been to two, I think...important people in churches/schools go to many more). Roughly the same amount of BBQs as normal.
Please pray for the Methodist Camp; we go next Monday and return the following Monday. Not actually under canvas- we sleep (on the floor, yes) in Methodist schools. I'm going to the one for juniors, age 7-13; I anticipate being exhausted. Lots still to do, which is a bit scary, and lots of resources still to chase. Pray that all will be organised and go smoothly and that children will have an AWESOME time and grow closer to God. Seniors (13+) are looking at different types of 'love' and how love is absent in society, so again, prayers they will really learn stuff and that we'll be able to have some positive and lasting influence in contrast to negative influences (same here as everywhere, but in many cases accentuated!!!)
Love to all in England (and anywhere else you may be).
PS- non-Belizean news- I'm going to be in Reading from the beginning of October, i.e. about three weeks after I return, studying Meteorology. hence comments above.
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Hot , sticky, buggy and beautiful
...Just about sums this country up at the moment. Well, the beautiful only describes bits of it perhaps, but anyway.
Last weekend we enjoyed a long weekend in the hills of Cayo district. The weather obviously recognising us as Brits on holiday (or more likely as a consequence of its being rainy season) it rained, quite a lot. So one day of the 'holiday' was spent climbing Mayan ruins with nervous eyes on the skies. A second was spent by Maggie, relaxing, and by me, walking through tropical forests and three rivers in the POURING rain and then into caves which, although obviously protected from precipitation, are generally about waistdeep in water anyway. Needless to say I had a wonderful time! On my return I watched the rain and swam in a pool, again in the pouring rain. On the third day we intended to go up into the mountains but were put off by the weather...so made the decision not to go, at which point the weather cleared up. But we made the best of it and went to the zoo!
I did then get back to work. Teaching English, and my time in Wesley College, are both pretty much done so the focus is shifting to summer activities, when teams come in from the states to help run vacation bible schools and do various work, while the Methodist Church here runs two camps; one for 7-12s and one for 13+. I'm spending lots of my time making schedules, manuals and other necessary plans for the younger age group. It runs for a week and starts at the end of June, so it is close now!
This week we are having a fundraiser to raise money for two chaperones going, along with around 20 young people, to Youth Encuentro, a conference held for all the Methodist Churches in The Caribbean and Central America every four years. This year it is in Trinidad at the end of July. The fundraiser is selling party bags again...1500 this time, with sweets and cupcakes and chips (crisps) and things. So yesterday, once again, we made 100 cupcakes in our little flat. I note that the ability to bake mass quantities of cupcakes was NOT one of the main things I expected to learn in Belize. But it's not altogether a bad skill to learn.
Talking of the unexpected, I had an interesting Friday night. I had received a text message midweek asking if I could sing (as part of my choir, obviously!) the national anthem at an event at the Biltmore plaza (a posh hotel, basically!)
I always feel a bit awkward singing the Belizean national anthem (which I now know as well as if not better than the British one) since I can't help thinking that the lines about driving back tyrants, invaders and despots could be interpreted as referring to the English, although actually I don't think this is the case (unless applied to Lord Ashcroft!!!) Anyway, the event was the inauguration of a Belizean woman into the International Softball Hall of Fame, which was still more awkward because I knew nothing about softball and even comparing it to baseball didn't enlighten me much. Anyway, we got free two course dinner, and a glass of something sparkly, and listened to lots of speeches by important softball people and government ministers. And there were pretty flowers. And, I was COLD because of the air conditioning. I felt very, very jammy.
Last weekend we enjoyed a long weekend in the hills of Cayo district. The weather obviously recognising us as Brits on holiday (or more likely as a consequence of its being rainy season) it rained, quite a lot. So one day of the 'holiday' was spent climbing Mayan ruins with nervous eyes on the skies. A second was spent by Maggie, relaxing, and by me, walking through tropical forests and three rivers in the POURING rain and then into caves which, although obviously protected from precipitation, are generally about waistdeep in water anyway. Needless to say I had a wonderful time! On my return I watched the rain and swam in a pool, again in the pouring rain. On the third day we intended to go up into the mountains but were put off by the weather...so made the decision not to go, at which point the weather cleared up. But we made the best of it and went to the zoo!
I did then get back to work. Teaching English, and my time in Wesley College, are both pretty much done so the focus is shifting to summer activities, when teams come in from the states to help run vacation bible schools and do various work, while the Methodist Church here runs two camps; one for 7-12s and one for 13+. I'm spending lots of my time making schedules, manuals and other necessary plans for the younger age group. It runs for a week and starts at the end of June, so it is close now!
This week we are having a fundraiser to raise money for two chaperones going, along with around 20 young people, to Youth Encuentro, a conference held for all the Methodist Churches in The Caribbean and Central America every four years. This year it is in Trinidad at the end of July. The fundraiser is selling party bags again...1500 this time, with sweets and cupcakes and chips (crisps) and things. So yesterday, once again, we made 100 cupcakes in our little flat. I note that the ability to bake mass quantities of cupcakes was NOT one of the main things I expected to learn in Belize. But it's not altogether a bad skill to learn.
Talking of the unexpected, I had an interesting Friday night. I had received a text message midweek asking if I could sing (as part of my choir, obviously!) the national anthem at an event at the Biltmore plaza (a posh hotel, basically!)
I always feel a bit awkward singing the Belizean national anthem (which I now know as well as if not better than the British one) since I can't help thinking that the lines about driving back tyrants, invaders and despots could be interpreted as referring to the English, although actually I don't think this is the case (unless applied to Lord Ashcroft!!!) Anyway, the event was the inauguration of a Belizean woman into the International Softball Hall of Fame, which was still more awkward because I knew nothing about softball and even comparing it to baseball didn't enlighten me much. Anyway, we got free two course dinner, and a glass of something sparkly, and listened to lots of speeches by important softball people and government ministers. And there were pretty flowers. And, I was COLD because of the air conditioning. I felt very, very jammy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
