More Pre-Christmas Festivities!

The weather has been continually rainy, four times the normal for the last month or more.  When the day for the annual Christmas Parade dawned bright and sunny and the perfect temperature, the time for celebrating began!  I loved being outside, watching people and waiting for the parade to begin.  Dave was off flying, so I walked the half mile to a good spot across from the hospital.

The parade was filled with children, marching in holiday colors, playing in bands, and dancing.

 (The man marching behind the band, above, is a neighbor of ours, George.  He directs traffic for St. Joseph's Church a block away, and on this day he had been tipping the glass way too early!  He always greets us with a cheer and a wave as he sees us drive by!)

We always have our favorite clown, too!  He is Javier, the medic who works for BERT and flies with Dave, when he isn't being a clown!  And Santa brought up the rear atop the fire engine!

On December 20, the Department of Human Development hosted a lovely dinner and dance for employees and their guests.  The room on the fourth floor of a nearby building was beautifully decorated!  A turkey dinner was served, and a DJ provided music for dancing!  Here are a couple of pictures from the event!

Christmas Party at the Centre!

Ho, ho ho!  Santa came early to Dorothy Menzies Child Care Centre!

Laura Connelly and Natalie Lanni, our faithful volunteers from Florida who come every couple of months, came with two other frequent volunteers from their church to host a holiday party at the Centre.  This was no ordinary Centre party!  Two months ago, Laura made sure to get a wished-for gift request from every child and staff member!  Then she and her team in Florida went to work, filling the wish list and shipping it to Belize.  When Laura and team arrived on Wednesday, they began wrapping the gifts, getting ready for Santa's arrival on Saturday.  Meanwhile, they also had prepared a performance of the Christmas story, bringing costumes for Joseph and Mary, the Wise Men and the Angels.  Rehearsals began on Thursday!  

Yesterday was the big event!  Christmas morning magnified! The Christmas Story was presented first, followed by a dance choreographed by a group of four girls.  Then the sign language teacher, with a group of children with whom she has been working, signed a lovely song!  

  

At the end of the performance, Santa arrived!  (We decided that he had walked, due to a strike by the reindeer, as he lost a lot of weight on his journey!!!)  Each child was called to come up and receive a gift, the one they had requested, from Santa:  Jordan sandals, remote control cars, several baby dolls, MP3 players!  The importance of each child having a gift with his or her name on it cannot be underestimated.  One little girl, the day before the event, asked:  "Is my name going to be on my gift?"  These children receive lots of gifts at Christmas, but seldom one that is personalized.  Usually it is "girl under five" or "boy over twelve."  To have a gift which they asked for and with their name on it was most special! Then cupcakes and ice cream were served, and the staff received their requested gifts:  big pots for cooking rice, tablets, DVD players, jewelry and phones!  

Chaos reigned as children put batteries in and played with their toys!  Additionally, there was a crew working on the new, cement wall that is being constructed at the back property line of the Centre!  They got in on the fun, since they had tools to unscrew modules needing batteries!  And of course, they had to have cupcakes!  (A little disruptive was the large truck arriving to deliver the rice and beans and flour, etc. for the week!)  What a lot of fun everyone had!

Earlier in the week, Dave took an afternoon off, and we drove to the Orange Gallery in Cayo.  I love that gift shop, filled with beautiful wood pieces and art!  We ate lunch at the Gallery's cafe, which was wonderful.  Just being out in the country, in the hills in the mist, was heavenly!  

On the flying front, Dave flew less in November than in any other month.  He seems to be making up for it now...9 flights in 3 days! One morning, he was called early.  Upon arriving at the airport, he found that high tide had spread debris across the run way.  A few guys with brooms were slowly clearing the runway.  Dave thought the patient might get critical at the pace they were going!  He took the push broom from the hangar and headed out to help them. Within a few minutes he had cleared enough space that he thought he could get off the ground.  As he took off, they workers moved off the runway.  The control tower at the International Airport said:  "I thought the runway was closed at Municipal!"  Dave had to explain how he managed to get off the ground.  When he returned after a short flight to San Pedro, he informed International that he'd do a low fly-by to check on the runway condition before landing, as International was still reporting that the airport was closed.  The workers, still sweeping, moved off of the runway when Dave flew overhead, and he landed safely with the patient!  Such is life in Belize!

Thanksgiving--Belize style!

Thanksgiving in Belize is a little odd.  First of all, the fact that it is mentioned or celebrated is odd, given that the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and not on a Caye.  Secondly, it is not a national holiday, so if one were to actually celebrate it, one would need to take the day off.  The larger restaurants feature turkey dinners, for which I presume one would need a reservation.  And some families do fix a turkey dinner.

Dave and I, being Belizean right now, worked per usual.  Dave had a flight, and I worked at the Child Care Centre.  I did order a Thanksgiving lunch, prepared by and sold by the Anglican High School students.  Hmmm...I think it was a Belizean Thanksgiving lunch!  Rice and beans with a slice of turkey on top!  And a slice of ham lunchmeat!  And one teaspoon of cranberry relish!  Most amusing was the "dressing," which actually was a small pile of toasted bread crumbs!  The student who sold me the lunch was so very grateful and appreciative, so I felt totally great about it!  As Dave was flying, his lunch went to our van driver, who brought us the lunches from the high school.  I might mention that the number of styrofoam boxes for lunches defies counting here!  At lunchtime, on nearly every street, a vendor will be selling lunch, packaged in a styrofoam container.  Often it is chicken with beans and rice.  You will see parents outside schools buying lunches from a vendor for their children.  Some vendors are just outside of a business, making it convenient for the employees to dash out and buy lunch!  I find it expensive, so it rather surprises me that people feel okay to purchase lunch.  Of course, it is their major meal of the day.  I am sure that some bring their lunches from home to work--maybe peanut and butter sandwich and a banana!?!

The Child Care Centre has had an influx of children recently.  We now have about 65 children, and a number of them speak only Spanish.  I am wishing that I'd been studying Spanish!  My interviews of children have prompted great laughter in some of the kids!  Anything to amuse them, I say!  LOL!  I spent the better part of one day with a 6-month-old and a 4-year-old, who was very traumatized by the move to the Centre.  I was the "grandma," giving the children time together, as they are in different dorms and not frequently seeing one another.  The difference for the 4-year-old was amazing--he left me and the baby and began playing with the other young children, for the first time since his arrival! Success!  And he is doing much better now.  Of course, we are not equipped to have such young children at the Centre, but if there is no foster family available at the time, here they come!

The week ahead will be an exciting one!  I think I'll start by taking Monday off!  I am actually going to the Centre today to open the admin. building for a University of Belize social work student who is going to do a healthy boundaries group with some of our boys.  I'm supervising for a bit!  On Wednesday, the Centre has a Board meeting to which I've been invited, with a catered lunch!  The only hiccup in this plan is that in our conference room, we have about 20 gigantic shipping boxes of gifts needing to be wrapped.  On December 14, a Christmas party will be held at Bliss Centre for all of the children in care throughout the country--thus the boxes of toys!  (I wonder who will be wrapping those gifts, and if it is on Wednesday, we have a problem!)  Also on Wednesday, Laura Connelly and her group arrive from Florida, bringing gifts for all of our staff and children.  On her last visit she asked each and every person what they wanted, so these are personalized gifts.  And on December 7th, we will have our Centre party with Ms. Laura and Ms. Natalie!

Yesterday, Dave and I shopped for Christmas!  We went to the "Expo" at the Princess Hotel, which featured the major stores selling wares.  We bought a few things there.  Then we went to Mirab Store where we purchased necessities such as a new set of sheets and towels for some special visitors who will be coming in just 3 weeks!!  We also bought a few Christmas decorations so we look a little festive.  We are decorating today.  Some homes are already fully decked out with Christmas lights!  I thought there may be a palm tree or two used as Christmas trees, but people seem to have artificial trees up.  We may or may not go that far in our decorating!

The big news from "home" is that Jonattan has his Green Card in hand!  And Jeremy and Jonattan are on their way to the Philippines on December 10!  We are so happy for them!