dr. seuss' secrets

hi everyone! this may be my last or next to last post before i'm back.

today was a great day. last night it started storming at about 9 and didn't stop until after 11 - it was wonderful to sleep in! and it actually felt cold in the middle of the night and i curled up in a little ball under my sheet. during the storm however i had to pull out my raincoat and put it over my head, because even with the shutters completely closed - i was still getting rain on myself while i was going to sleep.

this morning we made certificates for all our kids on the computer and a "Reading with your Family" handout for the parents so we can pass them out this week at our last sessions. we ate lunch at a new restaurant today called the seashell cafe. (our beloved king burger with its wonderful juice and ice cream apparently got shut down after its health inspection...eesh). anyway, a lady from germany opened up this cafe and it was wonderful. she told me that it had always been her dream to open a cafe and she first visited dangriga a year and half ago and decided to move here and she "changed her life." she had omlettes, bagels with cream cheese and mango and pineapple jam (that's what i had), coffee drinks, the best two glasses of orange juice i've ever had, great toast, etc. it was a really good lunch. she was so funny, she kept telling us how this was all new to her and laughing every time we would send her back for another glass of orange juice. she told us that it really frazzles her to run out of oranges as she has been the past few days, but she is finding that belizeans don't really mind. in her exact words: " i feel bad when i run out of oranges because, you know, germans are perfect, but the people here don't really seem to mind." she was so cute. we plan to go back tomorrow and bring more friends.

i had my last session with keedia and her mom martha today. it went really well. we got to sit by the beach again and read which i'm trying to take in because it's not every day that you get to tutor on the sea. we did another fill in the blank story about keedia and then read one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish...that is we got through half of it. those dr. seuss books are much longer than i remember. but they are fun. it's funny reading all these children's books now, because you realize that all the rhyming words and matching sentence structures are actually there for a reason. because it makes it so much easier for 5 year olds to recognize words. this is news to all of us 20 year olds who remember these books as just for fun. anyway, at the end of the session i got to give keedia her certificate and four books to take home for her very own! her mother was very thankful and promised me that keedia would read them at home. we also exchanged addresses so hopefully we can be pen pals.

tomorrow is trash pick up day for the whole group. this means from 9:30 in the morning all 40ish of us will be in various parts of dangriga picking up trash. i am excited to do a little bit of hard work/manual labor, it always makes me feel so productive - and it will make the day go by quickly i think. i don't have much else today, except that i've discovered val's (internet/laundry) owner dana makes incredible banana bread.

hopefully i'll get to write one last time on wednesday maybe.

hope everyone is doing wonderfully! i miss y'all and can't wait to be home and see you!

much love from the carribbean, hill