Oh how we miss napkins

Howdy family and friends,

Nate and I wanted to fill you in on our last two weeks. We also thought we will increase some of this interesting facts about our experience thus far. To begin with, we will do a list of fun medical stuff that we have encountered thus far. Please enjoy.

whiplash...check sore throats...check
flea bites...check cold....check
bike accident...check spider bites...check
chiggers....check sun burn...check
red bugs...check muscle spasm...check
mosquito bites...check cuts, burns, scrapes...check
explosive diarrhea...check close call with scabies...check
food poisoning...check

So...hehe... we are having a blast. These things make our experience rememberable. On a different note, I thought I would also list some of our favorite things thus far. First, Nate and I love the thunderstorms down south in PG. They are some of the loudest thunderstorms we have ever heard. Imagine having your house shake for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Also, Nate and I love our nicknames here. Most of the Belizians call Nate "Nathan" and me "Mich". It's cool. We also love how all the kids are getting familiar with us and call us Miss Michelle or Mr. Nate. We love how we can walk down to the market to get fresh produce. We love how we are becoming friends with people who live in PG too and that they just stop by to "hail" us (drop by to say hi).

Okay, now on the last two weeks. Nate has been working incredibly hard on creating a database for his site. He went to a local village called San Jose and took some incredible pictures of the mountains, the cocoa trees and plant. He loved walking in the mud and throughout the farms. I on the other hand have been working at home mostly. I have been creating new food dishes and learning how to make more Belizian food. I have been also working on secondary projects like Special Olympics and a boys groups on healthy relationships. Over the weekend, we hung out and said good bye to one of good friends here. He is done with his two years and will be heading out today.

I am pretty excited too. Nate and one of our friends Laura are planning a 30th birthday bashment at our house this weekend. They invited all the PCV down for the weekend. There are 100 volunteers and about 50 of them are coming! WOW. Nate and I are also inviting our host family and friends from our placement sites. I hope to take tons of pictures.

Well, thats it....for right now. We miss and love you all. Don't be a stranger!

Michelle (and Nate)

4th in style

Hey Fam and friends,

Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th. I wanted to tell you guys that we had an amazing weekend. Wow. So Nate and I both went on the fishing trip this weekend. It was awesome. We left on Saturday morning at 6am and returned Sunday at 4pm. We fished all day in the Caribbean Ocean. We swam and snorkeled. We slept overnight on one of the Cays, Lime Cay. It was amazing. Nate and I went with his placement/work. They were great and it was a great way to to get to know them better too. Nate and I both caught a barracuda each. ROCK ON.

Sunday we returned to PG and went to BBQ for the 4th at one of the PC volunteers house. There was like 30 people there. It was just great being surrounded by family (PCV) and friends. We miss you all and hope everyone is doing well.

Love,
Michelle (and Nate)

AND HOW

Hi fam and friends.

Nate and I have been busy beavers. Let me try to recap the last week or so for you guys. Well everyone probably saw that we had that tropical storm come up last week. Peace Corps has incredible procedures for weather situations.The week the storm actually came, we actually had a hurricane drill (kind of like a fire drill but instead a hurricane drill). We all (110 volunteers throughout Belize) had to go the office to make sure we could all get there safely and follow the protocol. We all did it in less than 8 hours (which is pretty cool considering most bus trips are like 6-8 hours to get to the office....including where we live in the south). GO PEACE CORPS! Any who, after that fun drill we went to Placencia for Lobster Fest. Placencia is a local hang out for Belizians. The ocean is beautiful. We had a blast for the first two days but then Peace Corps had us evacuate from Placencia because of the fear of the tropical storm. FYI...we got nothing. A few rain showers, but everyone and every where in Belize was safe. Also let me reassure everyone....Peace Corps keeps us incredibly safe. You never have to worry about us in a storm/hurricane. Etc.

On Monday, Nate and I moved out of our host families house and into our own house. YAY. It was bitter sweet for Nate and I. We will miss our host family considerably, but they live two houses down from our new house, so i am pretty sure we will still hang out with them. We are super excited to be living alone again. The house is beautiful and its coming along. We have our kitchen set up, but we have no living room yet, so right now we have white lawn chairs for a living room set. Awesome. We kind of like it. We keep thinking....this is what it is all about.

Last night Nate and I made our first dinner for a few of the other Peace Corps volunteers. I made the tortillas....i could give pointers if anyone needs them :), and we made Kalalu and eggs and served it with happy cow cheese. We made a pretty traditional Belizian meal. Kalalu is like spinach. Yum. We find that we have to relearn how to make meals here and cook them.

Today I am heading to Hopkins, another beautiful beach. I am just planning on hanging out with a friend for the night. I am on school break til September. I am utilizing the time by traveling and working on secondary projects. Taking care of Nate too. Nate still has to work daily. He loves his placement very much. They actually invited Nate on a weekend fishing trip on the ocean. Cool huh. I think he is in heaven.

Okay, so besides that, we took some pictures of the town and of our house. We hope to upload them soon. Happy 4th!

We love and miss you all very much.

Michelle (and Nate)