Holidays

Hello everyone!

Well, boy, it has been a few months from our last blog. What can I say....it must be the holidays. So, where to begin. First, Thanksgiving was as blast. On the actual day of Thanksgiving, Nate and I stayed home and made a real Belizean dinner. I made split peas, rice, and pig tail. That's right, pig tail. It is a delicacy here and well, everyone loves it. Its like ham, but saltier and needs to be boiled 4 times so that it can be edible. It was great! But then that Saturday, we had our traditional Peace Corps dinner. I made a big old turkey for Thanksgiving. Plus, I made my mom's famous broccoli salad. Nate made his famous Goss brownies, a recipe created from scratch! The dinner was wonderful. It was a time to give thanks and reflect on how much we missed being surrounded by family and friends.

December went by in a blur. We had tons of Christmas parties and Christmas concerts. We only had a few weeks of school but they were crazy. I loved watching the Christmas parade with the children from my school dancing and singing. During the Christmas break I also had the change to visit another Peace Corps friend in her Village called Peublo Viejo. It is one of the furthest villages in Belize. It was a 3 hour bus ride through the jungle and the Mayan mountains. The village has no water or electricity. In the two days that I was there, I watched the villagers kill a pig. The pig fed over 100 people and for 3 meals. We had pork caldo (a traditional Mayan soup) as well as pork and rice/beans. It was delicious. My favorite part of the whole visit was going over to someone's home and baking with a family. During that time, we helped to make homemade corn tortillas for the caldo.

Besides cooking, we bathed and washed clothes in the river. We also helped to wash dishes in the river as well. Boy what an experience.

After the trip to the village, Nate and I made a large Christmas dinner for all of our Belizean friends and family at our house. It was a day long event. Nate and I made 2 turkeys and a traditional Christmas dinner including green bean casserole and stuffing. In addition to our traditional food, we also added foods that are traditional for Christmas dinner in Belize that included rice/beans and potato salad. It was a wonderful time to honor our time here in Belize. Oh, a side note. Guess what?! I made my first ever pies (FROM SCRATCH). I made a homemade apple pie and pumpkin pie. They turned out wonderfully. Who knew you come to Belize to learn how to cook?

During this time, we were also babysitting a friend's dog while she was in the states. Nate and I were surprised on Christmas day, when the dog somehow opened the refrigerator and ate another pumpkin pie. Boy, it was something else. We spent Christmas with our Belizean host family and friends, minus one pie!

Belize basically shuts down during the holidays. The school is closed for 3 weeks and most businesses closes for two weeks. Nate had two weeks off and I was off for 3 weeks. Its sounds all fun and relaxing. And honestly, it was for the most part. Nate and I both kept busy doing Peace Corps initiatives. He is in the process of working on a language program, teaching others the languages of Belize. I know I brag about him all the time, but seriously, he is a brilliant man and this program will change the lives of so many people in and out of Belize. I will let him describe it, as I know that he will describe it better than I could.

The new year has started with a bang. Nate is working hard at work, helping his organization get ready for an annual general meeting. He is still working hard on his language initiative. School started for me and the after school programs are going well. We are getting really excited to have Nate's mom come into country in a few days! We plan on visiting one of the cayes (island) in Belize. We cannot wait to see her. In February my sisters, Melissa and Janice are coming. Nate and I are excited to have family come and visit. We cannot wait to show them the sites of Belize, as well as our home and things that we have learned. We also cannot wait for them to meet the people we love and try some of the food here in Belize too.

I think Nate and I are starting to grasp that we only have a few months left in this journey. We have a large conference (COS-Close of Service Conference) in February. Nate was selected to be on the COS committee. I think he will offer his computer talents, sense of humor, and creativity to the conference.

We are in the process of getting our resumes updated, so we can start applying for jobs.

I am not sure when we will blog again, but know that we miss you all. There are so many funny stories that we encounter here and so many learning lessons as well. Too many to blog about, so we will share them when we get back. Think June!

We hope you enjoyed your holiday time. We can't wait to see you soon! Email us and let us know how you are doing too!

Love,
Michelle (and Nate)