February 2

Monday

What a day! Woke up to a crazy loud rain storm. Up here in the church it sounded like a train or a truck or something ridiculously loud was going through. Plus we can also hear the rain beating down on the tin roofs all around us. I could hear it through my earplugs (which I am very glad to have, by the way) and could not figure out what the noise was. Anyway, it rained basically all morning. So much rain in fact, that many roads were flooded and caused traffic problems.

Our morning of painting went very well. Jen, Keith and I started on the Robideau's extra bedroom while Janice and Julia worked in the bathroom. We came back to the school for lunch. Miss Rhoda is the cook at the school and sees that about 100 kids get their lunch each day (some also get breakfast). Back to the house after lunch to finish up our first day.

While Jen, Janice and I painted this afternoon. Keith and Julia took the two boxes full of medication and medical supplies (donated by Health Partners) to a local clinic. This was a great success and much appreciated. Think they said they took some pictures.

After cleaning up we came back again to the school and painted the bottom portion of the "dining room" walls in a dark green. We got the kids to help us tape the ledges and even gave each of them the brush to paint something on the wall before we covered it up properly. The little kids loved this! I made a simple girl happy face with hair. Picasso I am not.

Miss Rhoda came back while we were painting and made us these fry cake things. Like a beaver tail, but I guess it's a Belizean version. Whatever - they were amazing. And then Mrs. Robideau came by and brought us some pizza for our dinner. Must've cost a fortune here! There was still some left over, plus the food from yesterday and Saturday's leftovers ... we're not going to run out of food any time soon. I just hope we get to eat it all before it goes bad.

Tonight the other girls played Tag and Hide n' Seek with the kids while Keith and I painted a second coat on the walls in the dining room. The paint dries so fast here. Crazy. Later, while the girls were preparing for their workshops tomorrow with the school kids, I sat outside and chatted with some of the kids. They are at times loud, quiet, violent, caring, playful, bullies. It's very confusing.

The Creole and their accent is hard to understand but I'm starting to get it. Sometimes though I have to ask the kid to repeat something they've said two or three times and it still doesn't make any sense to me. Ah well. Even now, 8:40pm, there are still a bunch of them outside, chatting, laughing and arguing.