Sunday, February 24, 2013

Project Belize. From 7 months ago... Whoops

OK, so I leave for Haiti in a little less than two weeks and I figured that since I said this was a travel blog way back in the day that I should write about all my travels. And then I realized I never actually blogged about Belize in July. Part of this I think was due to the fact that I think my blog posts were torture for people to read. Like no personality whatsoever. After reading Katie's blog about Granada (check it out  http://katiemcspain.wordpress.com/), I felt REALLY incompetent about my blogging abilities and decided I would never write again. And then I realized she lols at all my texts and/or Facebook posts, or at least is nice enough to make me think she does, so I thought maybe I should just write like I'm talking to her. Thanks Katie :)

So here goes.

The reason why I'm writing this now might be because I feel like you all should hear about Belize, but part of me also thinks it's because I have a paper due and an exam on Tuesday, neither of which I feel like preparing for at the moment. And if you think I actually remember everything that happened, you're kidding yourself. I'm pretty much just looking through all the pictures I have and recollecting as I go. Also side note: we were in Belize City which is like right on the coast of Belize.

The first pic I have is of these freakishly huge crabs. Living in the roads. Literally blew my mind when I saw them because this is NOT something you see every day in Connecticut.

The next picture I found to help describe the trip is this one of our classroom. I guess this would be a good time to explain what we were doing down there... I got the chance as an intern to go with my company, PwC, to Belize to teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship camps to Belizean children. So for 3 days I worked with other PwC interns, partners, and staff in some of the schools down in Belize City. Sometimes it was rough since the kids in our classroom ranged from 8 years old to something like 12 or 13 and they were NOT all at the same learning levels, but we managed to get by and hopefully they learned a thing or two about budgeting and saving! Especially because kids there also have to pay for high school... I feel bad complaining about having to go to school at home when it should seriously be considered a privilege for us to get a good, free public education.

OK, this next picture made me laugh a little on the inside when I saw it because it's literally the creepiest photo ever (at least I don't try to deny being a creep). This kid Leopold was 9 but you never would have guessed cause he was sooo little and he never spoke to anyone and his spelling and writing and everything were very sub-par. But he had the CUTEST SMILE EVER. And he would giggle at stuff the other kids at his table were saying, and if they made fun of him he would actually give it right back to them. So when one of the other "teachers" in my room was giving one of the lessons, I took the opportunity to hardcore zoom my camera in from across the room and take this picture of him.

So on the second day of our fun little learning camp, I brought my camera out during play time and the kids LOVED it. They all wanted to pose for the camera and they all wanted to use it to take pictures of themselves and us. Another side note: when they were all fighting to play with it they got some fingerprints smudged on the screen and thought it was broken so one of the boys started yelling, "Miss! Miss! I didn't break it! She did! I didn't break it!" I think they were all very relieved when I told them it was just a small little smudge and wasn't actually broken. But anyways, here are a bunch of glamour shots that they took of themselves.


 (don't worry he wasn't just carrying around a bag of garbage just for fun... we were learning about corporate responsibility so one of our activities was picking up trash from around the school)





On our last day, the kids had to come up with their own ideas for starting a business so that they could make money and start saving, so they were making posters for the business fair they were going to have in the afternoon for all the parents (unfortunately, parents there don't really place the same emphasis on school as they do here, so not that many actually showed up). My favorite was Leonard's because he was seriously the funniest little boy ever. He was only 8, so everything we were doing went over his head and he was always in his own little world. He spent the whole day coloring and drawing on his papers, so we made him this awesome poster and then he just put the color and glitter on it himself.
Also another side note: all the girls in our class LOVED that I could write in cursive so I had to write all of their posters for them and put decorative flair all over the posters.

It was kind of sad for all of us at the end of the day when not that many parents showed up, cause we were really hoping that they would be more supportive of the kids, but since they didn't we pretty much had a whole 'nother recess in the afternoon where we were free to take tons of pictures. And not think about how this was our last little bit of time with the kids :( So I guess on that note, I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures of the kids and us from the last day (Gary commented once that my blog was all pictures of people so I guess this just goes right along with that theme).

Renzo found these glasses somewhere... I don't want to think about where he found them because he subsequently made me put them on. Also I don't think I was supposed to smile.


Stacy was SO quiet but SO loving. She gave me a hug at the end of every day before she left and at the end of the last day she gave me a little paper she made into a card that said "Bye Miss Rebecca" which is still hanging on my wall.

ohmygosh Leonard's mom actually came to the business fair and brought his 6 month old sister and Leonard was so excited to show her to me and let me hold her and I was fully loving it.

after I asked him about a million times, LEOPOLD FINALLY AGREED TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH ME. #ultimatecreeperstatus


The whole gang at St. Mary's!

Our classroom. Seriously, looking at this picture reminds me of each and every one of them and makes me smile at all of their different quirks and how they were just fun-loving kids. And I know I'll be forever changed just for being there for a few days, and I pray for an equally awesome experience in Haiti in March!

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