Field Trip with the Little Ones

As if our previous adventure wasn't enough Dennis and I went on the field trip with the younger students last week.  We went to Cahal Pech, a Mayan Ruin in the middle of San Ignacio.  A much shorter bus trip and a much hotter day, but we had fun with the kids.  (And we didn't have our speedy bus driver this time.)

Loading up outside the school in Buena Vista.

In the museum at Cahal Pech.

 The museum is nice and the walkways are well maintained.
Cahal Pech is more of a family-communal area, whereas Xunantunich
is a huge temple-formal place.  We like them both.

I put a bunch of photos of the students again.  I'm sure some of you
will recognize some of the kids you met in 2012.

We counted cows and horses on the bus ride.  We had 27 horses and well over 78 cows.  It was fun.  I also started to teach some of the
kids the "Caterpillar Song" that my daughter-in-law Amy taught me.
See Amy, you are responsible for little kids in Buena Vista walking
around singing about how only God can make a caterpillar!

A photo of the Jade Mask, very famous archeological find here in Belize.

I can name almost all of these, Thalia, Marisela, Mauda, Jonathan,
and in the front is Jayme.

Arles and Elvis

Justin

Herlin and I can't remember the other one.

Emily

Justin, Johnathan, Brenis, Dimas, Wendy.
Those are the names I remember.

Thats Brenis waving.

Zuly

Jayme and Rosa

 It was a hot, humid day but when you keep busy you don't notice it as much.  Many of these kids have not been here before.  Families don't get the opportunity to do "family type" outings here, no vehicles, money or time to go have fun as a family.  I think that's why so many moms came with us.

Love you guys!

Field Trip!!

What a day we had!  Got on the bus with over 50 students at 6:30 in the morning for a three hour drive to the top of Belize.  We were nine miles from the Mexico border.  We went to Orange Walk and Corozal way up north of here.

I gotta tell ya that the bus ride was, shall we say, exhilerating.  Buses rank number two on the Belize Road Food Chain, only after semi trucks and oil trucks.  Buses out rank taxi cabs, farm equipment, and any other vehicle on the road.  I would say that our average speed was at least 50mph.  This doesn't seem very high until you see Belize roads.  When we would come up on a slower vehicle our driver stayed about ten feet behind him in anticipation of passing when the slightest chance occured.  After a while I decided to not look at how close we were as we passed the trucks.  Some of them were loaded down with sugar cane which seemed like they could hit the sides of our bus as we passed.  After the first two hours on the road I stopped praying so much and just said, "OK Lord" everytime we passed someone.  Oh, and I can tell you it is very un-nerving to hear your bus driver yell, "Sorry, Sorry!"  Then we feel a bone-jarring jolt as we hit the Belizean Speed Bump.  There was a quick moment of weightlessness and then the final jolt as we landed on the other side laughing.  Now our field trip included a theme park ride.

Every field trip has to have a "bus" picture.  This was early in the day, they
are all happy and dry and clean still.

Mr. Mefi wearing Delmi's hat.
Every school has one of these "funny" teachers.

We stopped at two different museums.
Delmi is waving and the other one is Norma.

 There is an entire building in Corozal that just houses this mural.  It is very famous in Belize, showing
the history of the country with very few words.

My personal favorite place was the Bay of Corozal.  It was a beautiful green color and very warm.  We all got off the bus and enjoyed lunch by the Bay.  

Some of the kids enjoying the ocean.  This doesn't happen very often.

Jamila

Jaison

Playing in the warm Carribean water.

These guys had a great time!

In one of the back alleys of Corozal is a beautiful Mayan ruin called Santa Rita, and we got to climb all over it.  There used to be a few more of these that were even bigger but they got bulldozed down.  Hard to believe that people would do that.

Santa Rita in Corozal, Belize

Ms. Jizelle's class, roughly third graders.

Mr. Jimmy's class, grade 4

Mrs. Betty and a few of her students that will be graduating.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Belize.  This is Mr. Jimmy's class.

We had a great time!

The real Dennis and Vicki!

Eguille on the way home.  He will be graduating from sixth grade in June.
Not sure of his plans but he is very smart.

Diana in third/fourth grade.

Jaquelyn, grade 4

Look at these guys.  Slides are for older kids too!  And nobody
cared about the water at the bottom.

Yulmar, a very kind young man, in grade 4.

Mrs. Betty and I heading for the bus.

This is what you get when you hand a kid your camera.

It was a long day and we enjoyed almost every minute.  I could have lived without those minutes on the bus.  Oh, I forgot to mention, Dennis found out that the bus driver used to be a drag race car driver....that explained a lot.

Love you guys!!