"thank God, He deserves it"

hi family and dear friends! i just got back from my second weekend trip and feel like i have a lot to catch you up on!

thursday i worked again with dylan, the 8 year old boy at Christ the King. we read some more and did some more spelling - he is a great kid. i get worried that he is bored, but he has the best attitude! whenever i ask him if he's enjoying the reading he grins really big and says "yeah, fun!" also on thursday i met my second family from pomona, which was a mother of TEN, who barely read english at all, and her three youngest: saillas, abraham and consuelo. we had a fun time reading together and then kicked the futbol around. consuelo is also the mother's name, and as we were eating our snack we had been talking about how she is 49 and has 10 kids, the oldest of which is 35. when i came back from throwing away my trash she looked me right in the eye and said "thank God" and i looked around as if someone had a close call or something, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. as i turned back to her she smiled a little and continued "He deserves it."

thursday night some girls came to the jungle huts (our hotel) and tried to help us punta dance, which is the traditional dance here. it was pretty hilarious, the girls were about 14 or 15 i bet, and were being so nice to teach us with a minimum amount of laughing! it was really fun though, and i think someone took pictures that hopefully not too many people are able to get a hold of.

friday was Christ the King's school fair - so the literacy group all went to that, and the kids were all running around winning little prizes and eating all the different foods they were selling. they were playing really loud garifuna music from a dj and so even the littlest girls, like i'm talking 5 or 6, were doing the punta. i think they are just born being able to move that way - it is crazy.

the weekend we spent in caye caulker, which is an island off the coast of belize. it was INCREDIBLE. i realized when i was there that it was my first time to be on a tropical island - and it was a cool feeling. no one has cars on the island (except the police) so everyone walks, bikes, or drives golf carts - it was so nice to not have any noise or smells of traffic. their culture wasn't touristy, but there definitely were more visitors and it was more of an island feel. kind of like living in a bob marley song for a couple days: hammocks, reggae, white sand, seafood, and relaxing...i could have moved there. there is one peace corps volunteer that works at the library and teaches on caye caulker - he most have done something wonderful in a past life to get stationed there for two years. friday night we ate at a place called "wish willy's" owned by this guy maurice who went to culinary school in chicago. it cost 15 bz ($7.50) for all you can eat buffet dinner that he makes right there, and all you can drink rum punch. we all sat at one long picnic table in his front yard, and he grills the food right there and he flavors it etc. inside. it was sooo good, we had peel your own bar-b-que shrimp, snapper steak, grilled snapper, salad, etc. then we went to the oceanside - a little bar with a sand floor that had a band playing. the band was playing oldies, from 70s rock to elvis - and we all danced for probably two hours - it was such a fun night. all the other patrons of the bar were probably thoroughly entertained as well.

saturday we snorkeled, which was a first for me! it was amazing, too. we got to see lots of different fish and the 2nd largest coral reef in the world. the water was crystal clear - i have never seen anything like that. and the guides who took us made fresh fruit and iced punch for us between every stop. at the second stop we swam with sharks and sting rays and barracudas. and by swam with i mean sting rays swimming in and out between your legs and touching you - it was crazy. we ate at a little italian restaurant for rachel's birthday last night, and went back to the oceanside to kareoke. this included some professors kareokeing as well. jill and i sang "all by myself" by celine dion in honor of our temporarily long-distance boyfriends.

it has been a full few days! it is cloudy and cooler here which is a nice change, and we are on the downhill side of our month here. my new favorite treat here is cake and vanilla and oreo ice cream from king burger, of which i always get one of each because they are both so good and i can never decide which i want more - imagine that.

so i agree with my new friend consuelo, thank God - for dylan and for soccer and for the clear ocean and for good food and for dancing on an island and for you getting to read this from such a far way away! - he deserves it.

love y'all and miss you all the way from belize!....hill