School Days

Yesterday, we drove 45 minutes to Duck Run Three where we spent our day at the Hidden Paradise Government School. The school is for children grades K-8^th. There were four small classrooms that were for the separate grades, so there were 2 grades per each class/teacher. All of the kids wore white shirts and blue pants or skirts. There were two brothers who were white, blue-eyed Mennonites, which was interesting to see the minority difference in comparison to the States. All of the children were so cute, funny, and very interested in our being there. We did crafts with them, played games, told them about America, and sang praise songs with them. Several of the little boys asked me if I knew Spanish, so I was able to keep up with everything that they said, including their persistent quizzing of my Spanish knowledge. They loved giving and receiving hugs, and the especially loved taking pictures. They could not get enough pictures taken of themselves and I ended up just giving them my camera so that they could take pictures of each other. They were so funny and I giggled with them as they took pictures of everyone and a cowpie that was on the ground. The boys were the ones who took the picture of the cowpie, of course, and they loved seeing my reaction. There was a man there who was going to show a movie about Jesus after lunch, but we had to leave to allow the children to get back to their schooling. It was interesting to see their daily schedule which had three separate times for devotions. The morning started with devotions, then they had a spirituality (Bible) class, and they ended their day with another devotion. One of the classes was learning math during the time that we arrived and many of the children said that they liked math. I was glad they did not try to quiz me on my math skills because I would probably fail that quiz. We sang songs with the children and it was cool that they knew the same songs that we did, English and Spanish. The children learn Spanish and English at the same time; I wish that we were able to learn a second language as naturally as they do. We ate lunch in a diner that was inside of a modernized store. I have noticed that Belize is much more advanced than I had initially thought before coming. We stopped for ice cream afterwards, which was pretty awesome. Then we had class that was focused on Mother Teresa and Christian Ethics. We ate pork, rice, pineapple, cucumber, and cake for dinner. Now, I am trying to catch up on homework before our next class time. I'm so happy that we were able to spend the day with Belizean children!