Sorry for the blog silence – yesterday was a long travel day and we’re just getting set up at our new location.
Since I last wrote we have:
- cave tubed (more on that later)
- caught up with SeoYeun finally
- added our old friend Caleb Williamson ’03 to our group – he is teaching at Island Academy on Ambergris Caye this year
- moved across the country to the western border, to Gallon Jug
Yesterday, our erstwhile tourguide Carlos Lopez picked us up at 9:30 and we left Jaguar Paw. Our first stop was to be Xunantunich (“Stone Maiden”), a Maya ruin with a huge temple that boasts a tremendous view of the surrounding jungle. The sun came out finally, and the kids finally got a taste of the tropical heat.
On the 7-mile drive from Jaguar Paw to the western highway, we saw a little boy with a backpack waving us down. He looked like he was heading to school, so we stopped to remind him that today is a national holiday – Baron Bliss day – so there was no school. It turned out he was being sent by his mom to the nearest village to make a phone call for her. We picked him up and brought him – his name was Jose Manuel and he was 8, and if we hadn’t picked him up he would have had to walk several miles. You know you’re in a very different culture when it’s safe and normal to send your 8-year-old to hitchhike to town!
On the way to Xunantunich we got our first of 2 flat tires yesterday – luckily Carlos’ son, Carlos Jr., was following us in a smaller van carrying drinks so we had plenty of help. We all got out in a small village and met some kids and their moms bringing food home to cook a holiday meal. We also witnessed the traffic to the local water pump and the families carrying buckets and jugs back to their palapas (thatch-roof huts). The students are beginning to get a picture of the life of the “regular people” here.
After Climbing the temple at Xunantunich and stopping at our favorite outdoor restaurant in this district, Hode’s, we made our way to the Spanish Lookout ferry (a barge that moves back and forth on a cable across the river moving cars and people). One of the Gallo Jug trucks was here to gather our luggage, so we unloaded the bus and said goodbye to the Lopezes, crossed the river and met Lady Bowen, our hostess, and Ben Dodge, the Middlesex alumnus who now runs Chan Chich Lodge for the Bowens.
Eschewing the air-conditioned van, the students piled into the back of the pickup for the bumpy 2-hour ride across the jungle to Gallon Jug (some of them regretted it as the bumps persisted, and we had a few defector join us in the van when we stopped the convoy for a jungle “bathroom break” halfway.
We arrived at the barn at about 4:30, and got everyone settled into their rooms at the barn. We were invited to the Bowens’ for a visit and to see the newest addition to their family – a newborn deer that one of the workers had found at the side of the road earlier in the day, apparently rejected by his mother. Lady Bowen’s housekeepers had cleaned him and fed him and he was beginning to walk. He was happily ensconced in a makeshift “deer bed” in the back hall and got up and wandered around a bit while we were visiting. He was unfazed by our crowd and Bentley Bowen, the resident English bulldog. We took a vote and Lord Bowen named the deer Brooks Bowen in our group’s honor. We’ll see if he returns to the wild or becomes a new pet.
Silvia, our favorite cook from nearby Silvestre Village, had prepared us a meal of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and fresh rolls, and at the end of this busy day the kids ate like horses, grateful for her simple, fresh food. We’ve been talking a bit about the subsistence lifestyle here, and the plusses and minuses of it. Certainly, life her runs at a comfortable pace and while everyone is a hard worker, there seems to be little personal stress and a relatively high quotient of contentment, at least among the people we have come to know here. In addition, the whole idea of growing what you eat (and the virtue of that) is dawning on the group as we eat “the best banana/pineapple/papaya/etc. I’ve ever had” again and again – there’s a significant difference from high-priced flown-in winter fruit at home from a huge American operation and bananas or pineapples that someone picked on their way to work this morning and fed you for breakfast – and they appreciate it!
Today we’re settling in – we’ll tour around the farm some, swim at Chan Chich, enjoy the next delicious meal Silvia prepares, get some horseback riding in and prepare for tomorrow – our day at Gallon Jug Community School.
Later I’ll have our guest blogger, Allie Katz, add her 2 cents.
Since I last wrote we have:
- cave tubed (more on that later)
- caught up with SeoYeun finally
- added our old friend Caleb Williamson ’03 to our group – he is teaching at Island Academy on Ambergris Caye this year
- moved across the country to the western border, to Gallon Jug
Yesterday, our erstwhile tourguide Carlos Lopez picked us up at 9:30 and we left Jaguar Paw. Our first stop was to be Xunantunich (“Stone Maiden”), a Maya ruin with a huge temple that boasts a tremendous view of the surrounding jungle. The sun came out finally, and the kids finally got a taste of the tropical heat.
On the 7-mile drive from Jaguar Paw to the western highway, we saw a little boy with a backpack waving us down. He looked like he was heading to school, so we stopped to remind him that today is a national holiday – Baron Bliss day – so there was no school. It turned out he was being sent by his mom to the nearest village to make a phone call for her. We picked him up and brought him – his name was Jose Manuel and he was 8, and if we hadn’t picked him up he would have had to walk several miles. You know you’re in a very different culture when it’s safe and normal to send your 8-year-old to hitchhike to town!
On the way to Xunantunich we got our first of 2 flat tires yesterday – luckily Carlos’ son, Carlos Jr., was following us in a smaller van carrying drinks so we had plenty of help. We all got out in a small village and met some kids and their moms bringing food home to cook a holiday meal. We also witnessed the traffic to the local water pump and the families carrying buckets and jugs back to their palapas (thatch-roof huts). The students are beginning to get a picture of the life of the “regular people” here.
After Climbing the temple at Xunantunich and stopping at our favorite outdoor restaurant in this district, Hode’s, we made our way to the Spanish Lookout ferry (a barge that moves back and forth on a cable across the river moving cars and people). One of the Gallo Jug trucks was here to gather our luggage, so we unloaded the bus and said goodbye to the Lopezes, crossed the river and met Lady Bowen, our hostess, and Ben Dodge, the Middlesex alumnus who now runs Chan Chich Lodge for the Bowens.
Eschewing the air-conditioned van, the students piled into the back of the pickup for the bumpy 2-hour ride across the jungle to Gallon Jug (some of them regretted it as the bumps persisted, and we had a few defector join us in the van when we stopped the convoy for a jungle “bathroom break” halfway.
We arrived at the barn at about 4:30, and got everyone settled into their rooms at the barn. We were invited to the Bowens’ for a visit and to see the newest addition to their family – a newborn deer that one of the workers had found at the side of the road earlier in the day, apparently rejected by his mother. Lady Bowen’s housekeepers had cleaned him and fed him and he was beginning to walk. He was happily ensconced in a makeshift “deer bed” in the back hall and got up and wandered around a bit while we were visiting. He was unfazed by our crowd and Bentley Bowen, the resident English bulldog. We took a vote and Lord Bowen named the deer Brooks Bowen in our group’s honor. We’ll see if he returns to the wild or becomes a new pet.
Silvia, our favorite cook from nearby Silvestre Village, had prepared us a meal of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and fresh rolls, and at the end of this busy day the kids ate like horses, grateful for her simple, fresh food. We’ve been talking a bit about the subsistence lifestyle here, and the plusses and minuses of it. Certainly, life her runs at a comfortable pace and while everyone is a hard worker, there seems to be little personal stress and a relatively high quotient of contentment, at least among the people we have come to know here. In addition, the whole idea of growing what you eat (and the virtue of that) is dawning on the group as we eat “the best banana/pineapple/papaya/etc. I’ve ever had” again and again – there’s a significant difference from high-priced flown-in winter fruit at home from a huge American operation and bananas or pineapples that someone picked on their way to work this morning and fed you for breakfast – and they appreciate it!
Today we’re settling in – we’ll tour around the farm some, swim at Chan Chich, enjoy the next delicious meal Silvia prepares, get some horseback riding in and prepare for tomorrow – our day at Gallon Jug Community School.
Later I’ll have our guest blogger, Allie Katz, add her 2 cents.
1 comment:
What a wonderful whirlwind your trip seems to be! I am so glad Seoyun finally made it down and caught up with you. The photos are great - thanks for the time and effort it takes to post these so we, back home, can have a sense of the fun and excitement of your trip.
Note to Charlotte: in your class, concentrate on the forces themselves rather than on what is causing them, i.e. you are showing them a number of different examples of forces.Good luck and have fun!
Sorry to be serious for a moment.
With best wishes to you all,
Belinda
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