where has may gone?

i seriously cannot even believe it's well into may already. what is the date anyway? anyone? anyone? i've stopped keeping track in an attempt further integrate into the belizean culture.
(ok, maybe not seriously. well, some days i know the date. if it weren't displayed on my watch, i think i'd be lost.)
this month has been a slightly rainy whirlwind with a case of severe humidity and a slight chance of dehydration. for starter's, coy and i celebrated our 2nd anniversary at the beginning of the month, and were treated to a delicious homecooked meal by an american missionary family in the village. it was not only mouth watering, but also quite touching. they topped it off with a delectable tres leches cake adorned with flowers and felicidades (that's congratulations).
the following week, i found myself wrapped up in mother's day preparations with the other lady teachers at my school. the mother's day program was a huge success, thanks to all their hard work and dedication. it involved wacky games, gifts and corsages for each mother, student poetry and a special singing performance by a mother in the church band. everyone is saying it was the best mother's day program yet!

hair braiding contest
sandwich making contest

playing "dress the baby"

with that project neatly tucked away, i once again focused my attention on word wall domination...i mean, word wall model lessons. i've been visiting two classrooms each morning for a little over a week, doing model word wall lessons and having a blast. the students are really engaged and at least one of the teachers is quite enthusiastic about my beloved word walls. (1 out of 2 isn't bad. i mean, you can't win em all!) now that the upper level students have finished their PSE (primary school exams) i have been working with some of them to help me model these lessons in classrooms. over the next few weeks, i will be doing lessons in nearly all 10 classrooms at our school, in my humble attempt to convince teachers of the magnificence of word walls. the biggest struggle right now is the physical placement of the actual alphabet letters, as many teacher have limited wall space due to windows, doors, and other unfortunate obstacles (pigeons falling through the ceiling, cement walls that refuse the sticking properties of tape, etc.).
i also plan to work with the upper level students (standard 6 is something like middle school in the US) on assisting lower division teachers with tutoring and creation of "big books". we'll have to wait and see how that takes off over the next few weeks. wish me luck.
last weekend we had the privilege of hosting PG's most phenomenal team: john and mica. all the way up from toledo, we gave them a proper tour of the village, including a raucuous saturday morning game day at the field with 50+ kids, fine home-cooked cuisine, and a sunday evening baptism bash. it was good fun and we hope to get down south to visit these two rockstars before they head out this summer. thanks for a great weekend, you two!

coy and john in the midst of a serious game of tunnel tag.

more tunnel tag action.

this weekend we are headed to crooked tree wildlife sanctuary to celebrate (finally!) our anniversary. the sanctuary is located about halfway between orange walk town and belize city, and hosts a great deal of wildlife, especially birds. if we're lucky, we might even get a boat tour of the lagoon and a chance to spot a jaribu stork (largest wingspan in the western hemisphere, i believe). stay updated for details of the trip and photo documentation.