A day on the sea

Our last day consisted of a windy run to Caye Caulker (this year, in 3 open boats with the Bowens and 2 friends) with a lovely lunch at the Rainbow Room and plenty of time to wander around this smaller, more rustic island. We ended up at “the split” – a channel plowed through the island at which there is good swimming and a recently added diving board – and we cooled off and had some fun before bombing back to San Pedro through the wind and the chop. We wondered why one of the boats stopped along the way, only to learn that they had been flanked by dolphins and had stopped to swim with them – I hope they got some great photos!

We ended the day at the Bowens’ home, Casa Verde, with sodas and pizza delivery (yes, even here!), then the grownups went back to pack and the kids hit the town for a last shopping frenzy. A long, fun day in the sun for out last day!

Undersea adventure

A quick note to let you know that we hit the reef yesterday and snorkeled at Shark-Ray Alley and Hol-Chan Marine Reserve. Sunny and warm so we never got cold, but a bit windy so we got a workout against the current.
Everyone did great and we saw 4 huge eagle rays and a bunch of their more colorful friends. We'll have a student blogger fill in the details later today, and add pix and video.
Right now we're heading over to the Bowens' dock as Sir Barry is taking us on a run over to neighborng Caye Caulker for lunch. We'll be back midafternoon with enough time left to catch some sun and shop a bit.
Hard to believe it's our last day!
Parents, if any pick-up plans have changed, please send me an e-mail. Otherwise, I know that Greg gets off at Miami and I assume the rest of the kids know what will happen in Boston. We'll take anyone whose parents don't show up back to Brooks - never fear! We'll also get Ali on her bus on Tuesday.
Hasta luego!

Last thoughts on Gallon Jug & safe arrival in San Pedro

Some closing thoughts on Gallon Jug ...

Yesterday (the day before we left) we spent some time touring the Bowens’ farm. Among the things we saw were the coffee operation (plants, prep area, roasting and packing plant, where they also prepare the cacao they grow); the new saw mill (mainly mahogany); and Sylvester Village, where most of the workers and kids at school live. At the end of the afternoon we drove the 45 minutes to the top of the rock promontory known as “the Escarpment”, which offers tremendous views of the entire region.

On our last evening some of the folks had a Belizean BBQ for us and we enjoyed – you guessed it – rice beans and chicken by the bonfire under more stars than we can ever see at home (there’s no ambient light out here!)

Then … up this morning for a 7:30 departure for the 2 hour ride along rutted logging roads in a couple of vehicles to get us and our bags to the waiting boat, which took us to Lamanai, then on a narrow, winding hour-long boat ride to meet our bus. We were thrilled to see our favorite driver, Carlos Lopez, waiting for us, and he got us to the Marine Terminal in Belize City just in time to board the (packed!) ferry up the coast. After a brief stop at Caye Chapel (a golf resort) and a boat switch at Caye Caulker, we arrived in San Pedro. After that, all that was left was the dreaded 10-minute walk down the beach to our next spot, Ramon’s Village. The air conditioning, pool and beach were all welcome, and we have settled in just a few doors down from the Bowens’ primary home and Caleb’s home and school.

We feel surrounded by Brooks friends though we are far from home, and we’re in great shape to send our last 2 full days. Ahead of us: sightseeing, shopping, great food, snorkeling… and whatever Barry & Dixie have in store for us.

Long day's journey

Today is our longest travel day of the trip - we leave Gallon Jug at 7 a.m. and arrive in San Pedro around dinner time. In the interim we will catch a riverboat at Hill Bank Field Station (if you're watching Google Earth!), stop along the river at Lamanai for a guided tour of that extensive site, have a picnic there, get back on the boat, traverse the country to Tower Hill (hoping to see some crocs along the way), pick up our bus again and head to the Belize City Marine Terminal, where we'll take the ferry up the coast an hour to Ambergris Caye and San Pedro Town, our last stop.

I hope we'll have better Internet connectivity there than we have in past years - oddly, in the most populated place we stay, it's harder to get online, typically. We'll report from there tomorrow morning!

SeoYeun on teaching school

Today we went to the Gallon Jug Community School to teach the students who are the children of the workers. Each pair of Brooks students worked with the teachers to teach different subjects such as art, science, math, and Spanish. Charlotte Garcia and Lester Savage paired up to teach the kindergarteners; Pat Lahey and Sam Olsen paired up to teach Kinder 1 and 2; Jenna O’Connell and Greg Pappas paired up to help out the 3rd and 4th graders; and Allie Katz and Andrew Farris took care of the 5th and 6th graders. I paired up with Ali Palacios to help Mr. Casey, the headmaster, to teach 7th and 8th graders (standard 5th and 6th). Ali and I covered chemistry; we talked about elements, compounds, and mixtures and gave them a little quiz to make sure that they understood the material. Then we moved on to art and the students used their own sketches to make varieties of tropical birds to put on the poster boards. I had a lot of fun interacting with the students who are about my age. The students found humor in my inability to pronounce their names. For example, I thought that Eduardo’s name was Gregorio! The students were very nice and welcoming. They were eager to learn about chemistry and I was glad that I was there to help them out. I also learned about how I have such a wonderful opportunity to study in a place like Brooks. Some of the kids have to go to this so-called “Internet High School” because there is no “real” high school for them. I learned to appreciate the environment that I’m studying in. Every one of the Brooks students had interesting perspectives to offer and the students at Gallon Jug Community School enjoyed learning. They also enjoyed playing soccer and volleyball with the Brooks students. Ending the day at the school with the group picture, the Brooks students came back to the barn for more of the exciting Belize adventure!

Jenna on cave tubing (from Day 3)

Today we went tubing in the caves at Jaguar Paw. It was a lot of fun but rather challenging. You see, we had to trek though the jungle to get to the place in which we would start the cave tubing. The walk was really long but we saw some interesting things along the way. There were a lot of termite mounds, lines of marching leaf-cutter ants, and spiky give-and-take trees. It was raining on us most of the walk up there so the way was really slippery. I actually fell twice… though nobody else fell. That’s probably because I was in the front and they knew where to be careful. Hahaha.
Before we went cave tubing we went up another trail to what they called “Cave Six.” There was a nice pool of water there that was quite deep. Mostly everyone climbed up this high cliff and jumped off into the water. It was really high and kind of scary at first, but it ended up being really fun.
After swimming and diving at Cave Six we went back down to the place where we would start tubing. We all had to wear head lights because it was dark, it was really cool. We paddled through all the caves and sometimes we could take a break through the “rapids.” They weren’t really rapids, it was just faster water because it was shallower. A few of us hit our butts on the rocks because it was shallower and faster.
In the end it was so worth the long treacherous walk because it was really cool to be floating through some caves in Belize. It was one of my favorite things we have done so far. Actually everything has been great! Belize is so much of fun! I love it!

Off to school!

Today is a big favorite of the trip, and one we prepare for for many months. Today we visited our friends at Gallon Jug Community School and bring them the goodies we’ve been collecting for them. The Brooks kids have been working on lesson plans with the teachers of the 5 classes (2 grades in each room), and today is their day to shine. This remote school so rarely gets outside visitors that even without the school supplies and carefully prepared lessons, our visit would be exciting. I love wandering from class to class looking at the eager little kids staring up at our kids who are valiantly trying to impart the information or experiments or projects they have brought. I watched Andrew and Allie disclose the Pythagorean theorem, watched Patrick demonstrate the Earth’s orbit around Sam’s head, saw Charlotte and Les try to wrangle the kinders, who are still learning English and enjoyed playing with magnets, suction devices and paper airplanes as they learned about force. SeoYeun and Ali got their kids’ attention with candy and PowerPoint, and Greg and Jenna tried to keep their young scientists from burning down the school as they learned that rubbing 2 sticks together creates heat…

After lessons we had recess and spontaneous games of volleyball and soccer broke out, as well as some ongoing physics experimentation on the seesaws.

My personal favorite part of the day was unveiling the 4 laptops we brought down for the kids. We had been working all fall to raise money to acquire 4 “One Laptop Per Child” laptops, and finally delivered them today. We couldn’t think of a better place to try out these rugged and funky little computers, and we know Mike and Jill will make great use of them to expand these students’ experience. By the time we left they were using paint, making music, mastering the Web cam and engaging the mesh net to text each other. No doubt the kids will figure them out before the teachers do! It was extremely satisfying finally delivering these computers after planning for so long, and Sam and Jake, who raised the money for 1 of them by themselves, were excited to finally get here.

After school Silvia fed us again, and some more of us rode while the rest went to Chan Chich to swim. Dinner was a feast at Chan Chich’s lovely restaurant, and we ended the evening with a final swim and catching up on some e-mail.

Tomorrow a number of kids intend to go back to the school, while others will ride and explore the farm some more. In the afternoon we will climb the Escarpment to admire the view, and return for a last-night BBQ with some of the villagers. Hard to believe this leg of the trip is nearly over!

Following are some guest blogs - SeoYeun's impressions of today and Jenna's reflections on cave tubing, a few days ago (better late than never!!)