What have we been up to....

Hi family and friends!

You are all probably wondering why we haven't blogged in forever. Well, its for a good reason......we don't have Internet access...well, not until July. In July, Nate and I will move into our house. We will live in this little two bedroom house that is cute and quaint and all things that are a combination of America and Belize. Well the house being in Belize and the owners were Americans who moved down here a couple of years ago. It comes with a lot of different amenities, like in-door plumbing. YAY!

Once we move in our house, we will be able to get Internet so that we can talk to people more often and respond better to emails. More importantly, we will be able to describe this amazing journey and highlight some of the funny events in our lives. Until July, you will all have to wonder what is happening to us over here and if we are okay because there seems to be less and less blogs. Let me assure you, Nate and I are fine. Happy and loving Belize. We are now comfortable with the heat (if that is even possible). We have bought bikes (yes...that's right...beach cruisers, a reminder of my childhood). We have begun shopping for our house hold supplies. Can i tell you how difficult it is to buy a lot with very little money. Man...its fun to bargain. We cannot complain, nor will we.

Nate and I have met some amazing people. Some of them are related to our host family. In fact, we all celebrated Nate's birthday last weekend by throwing a Belizian Bash. I (and my host sister) made Nate homemade pizza, made a cake, and had drinks and music. I can't explain to you how amazing that night was. Nate loved his party and hanging out with our Belizian family. I loved it too. It was great. 25 people there to share in his birthday and celebrate each other.

This week everyone is super excited about the World Cup. Everyone hangs out drinking and watching the games. Nate and I have found a couple of people to hang out with so we can watch the game too.

Nate uploaded some pictures onto our blog (click here to view the album), so if you haven't seen them, please check them out. They were of the last two months, and more excitingly, our swearing-in ceremony with Peace Corps. We are officially PEACE CORPS Volunteers!!!! YAY.

We hope all is well and we love and miss you,
Michelle (and Nate)

Happy and home in Punta Gorda

Good morning (doesn't it seem like i tend to write in the mornings?),

So Nate and I love Punta Gorda. Let me try to describe our town. I know that I will not give it enough justice. The town over looks a vast ocean. The ocean is a little murky near the land, but if you look out 50 feet, you can see the beautiful greens and teals of the Caribbean sea. We are three blocks from the ocean. We are staying with the most loving host family. We talk and laugh with them when we are not at our site. We even have two host sisters. One is 15 and the other is 24. The cooking is amazing. My host sisters are amazing cooks, just like their mom. We have tried so many different foods that i can not describe them all.

The town is full of life. We have a main street that has tons of little shops and restaurants. There is even a town park that is wonderful. Nate and I have a friend who is in training near by so we hang out with her a lot. Her name is Mallory. We have met tons of PC volunteers. One, Erica, use to stay with our host family too, so comes by often and we hang out with her a lot too. She took us out on Saturday to show us around. We believe we found a house to rent for the next two years. It is beautiful. We have to get PC to come and look at it (policy) but if the safety guy says it is okay, we can rent it, starting at the end of June. Honestly, we are ready to have our own space. The cool thing about the location of the house is that it is two houses down from our host family, so we will be close enough to them and Erica if we need something. It is also three blocks from the ocean and main street. YAY.

Our projects are going well. We are just figuring everything out. We will post more when we have a better understanding of it. Tomorrow marks our third anniversary, so Nate and I are going to Placinica (SP?) on Saturday for a night away. Placinica is a town in Belize that is a little north of us. It is known for its sandy beaches and teal water. We will describe it more after our stay.

Next week we will be in Belmopan again. That means we will have internet access. PG has Internet access (obviously...i am using it now) but its hard to find time to get to use it. Thus, fewer emails initially. Next week Nate and I get to attend our Swearing In Ceremony!!! YAY. That is when we become officially a PC volunteer.

Hope all is well. Love and miss you all,
Michelle (and Nate)

Leaving Belmopan and heading to Punta Gorda

Gud Maarnin Everyone!

Nate and I are very excited to announce that we received our final placement on Tuesday. We are heading down south to Punta Gorda! Punta Gorda is a small town of the coast. Literally, our village (a village within a town) called Indianville is across the street from the Caribbean Ocean! We are ecstatic! Nate will be working for a cacao organization. He will be doing tons of fun things, like helping the organization with their database and marketing. I will be working with a primary school. A primary school is essentially an elementary school. I will be helping them to establish sports programs and after-school programs. We will be heading out this afternoon to get to our site. It will take 4 hours to get there without stopping (or in a car). On a bus, it could take us 8 hours. From what we understand, there will be Internet cafes and phone service. Oh and we are going down with 8 of the funniest and most fun volunteers too. We feel extremely blessed. We will keep you posted on our new adventure and with our new host family. We love you and miss you all.

Love,
Michelle (and Nate)

Over 60 New Photos from the past 3 weeks and I Shaved My Head...

New Photos Uploaded to our Belize Photo Album - CLICK HERE!

Did I mention how hot it is?

Okay gang,

Nate and I are really having a great time. Its great. We knew what to expect when we got here. We enjoy being "one" with nature. We enjoy the carbs that are given to us daily. We even can handle the bugs (well not really the roaches) and we are handling the heat, but boy 100 degrees is hot. Does anyone know a good technique that can keep you cool at night when its 100 degrees and no air ventilation? So here is what we have been doing. Feel free to make suggestions.

Imagine if you will, Nate and I sleeping on opposite sides of the queen size bed (we really don't touch because of the heat). I take a shower minutes before going to bed. Then Nate takes his. We have a fan (that has a short in it and turns off every 5 minutes and circulates the warm air.) We now have ice packs to lay on top of us. Then we decided to apply cool rags on us too. It was not enough. As a last resort, we now leave the bedroom door open so our host family could see us sleep and the window open. The window has no screen so big spiders, mosquito's, and snakes could crawl in. Nate and I don't care. We need it to be cooler. We are now a little cooler. Hope you enjoy this example of our assimilation process in Belize!

Okay, on a different note. Nate and I are doing well. We finished our presentations this week so now we can enjoy this weekend. Today and Friday (tomorrow) we will hang out with our group of new volunteers. On Saturday we are going to a Agriculture Fair. It is apparently the place to be in Belize. There will be a fair, food, and booths for organizations. We will keep you posted. Next week is our last week of training. We find out next Friday where are permanent site is. Whoa. We will keep you posted.

Finally, a daily description of our week. Wake up every morning at 6am. Take the 7am bus to work. (Nate wakes up at 6:30am and walks to his training class by 8am). We are in training from 8-4 or 5pm. Trainings insist of language (Kreol), techniques, cultural classes, education of medical and mental health. We love Fridays, that is when we get to see our group and we are in the office with a/c. Some days Nate has training until 8pm when he meets with his community group. On Wednesdays, I meet with a youth group until 6pm. Then I catch a bus at 6:30pm and get back by 8pm. From 5 or 6pm (when we are not staying late) until dinner time (around 7pm) we catch up each other on our day. We eat dinner (that will be another blog conversation) and then we hang out (usually listen to music, do homework, or read) until 9pm. I take a shower and then Nate takes his, and lastly we go to bed. On Saturdays we have training from 8-12 or 2pm. Same as above. Saturdays is when we relax, try to catch up on emails if possible and hang out with our host family. On Sundays, we chill.

We miss and love you guys. Nate has pictures to upload but we need to get good wireless Internet to post them.

Love ya,
Michelle (and Nate)

HOT HOT HOT

Hey Everyone,

So let us begin by saying how extremely hot it is (not that we didn't expect this....but boy is it hot). We are in the hottest months of the year in Belize. Nate and I are staying hydrated and trying to stay as cool as possible. Most days the temperature stays around 94 degrees. It does cool down sometimes when it briefly rains. From what we understands, Belize never has thunderstorms or lightning but just a lot of rain. Well, except for this past weekend where Nate and I got stuck in a pretty big thunderstorm....where should I begin.

Nate and I went on a PCV visit (Is where we go and stay with current volunteers for the weekend). PCV stands for Peace Corps Volunteer. Nate and I stayed in Belize city. It is the largest city in Belize and it felt like the states and less like Belize. We stayed with a married couple named Pat and Keri. They were Kool (that's in Kreol...wink wink). We left on Friday and returned to Belmopan on Monday. Friday we went to a really cool restaurant. It was yummy...my favorite meal thus far. The four of us got caught in this really amazing thunderstorm that night. The electricity went out and it was beautiful. Saturday we walked to the market and throughout Belize City for most of the day. We made dinner that night for all of the PCV visiting Belize City for the weekend. I was so proud. I learned how to make a true Belizian Meal. I also made tortillas. I am now officially a pro. Sunday, Nate and I went with a group of PCVs to an island called Caye Caulker. It was beautiful. Nate and I had a blast. We will post pictures soon to show everyone. Sunday night we ate at one of the most well known restaurants in Belize City call Le Che's $5 fried chicken. Yum. And finally, Monday we headed back home. During the weekend though, we met with some people that Keri works with. They were great.

Since Monday, Nate and I have been working hard on presentations that we have to do for community members. Nate is presenting next week on Computer websites and I am presenting on safety planning for children from 5-7yo. This weekend we are planning on sleeping and possibly going to pick up trash and tree planting in a town called Dangriga.

So....next time, I will be writing on our daily schedule thus far, so you guys might have an idea of how we spend our crazy and action packed days. We miss everyone tons. We wish we could talk to everyone. If you can make internation calls and would like to call us, email us and we can give you our number. Feel free to email us too and we will definitely respond back when we can. We hope everyone is doing well.

Love ya,
Michelle (and Nate)

on a beautiful saturday afternoon

Gud Eevnin,

So I thought I would start off with a little Kreol today. In Belize, time is distinguished between morning, afternoon, evening and night. Morning (Maanin) is from 6am-11:30am. Afternoon (Aftaanoon) is from 12-3pm, Evening (Eevnin) is from 3-6 or until dark and night (nait) is from dark or 6pm-6am. You can even say Gud dae (good day) for all day long. A little different from US.

So Nate and I are loving Belize. Its been HOT HOT HOT. Like 94 degrees. We have a fan so we stay not as hot. :). We got placed in Belmopan with our host family, so technically, we are still in the city for another 4 weeks. After the 4 weeks are up, we will get a final placement, hopefully in a village or town (which is a lot smaller). Nate works/trains in Belmopan and because we wanted to live together, I commute to a village every day to work/train. The village is 30 miles away but with the bus, it takes about an hour to get there. I love the village. Its called Georgeville. We will be posting pictures soon of the village, Belmopan, and other fun things.

I also wanted to give everyone an update on the things we brought with us to Belize. It was interesting. We were told up to 80lbs total for the two bags each. Nate and I stayed up until about 10:30pm the night before the flight to get it to the weight requirements. We had to wake up at 3am for our flight! With much frustration of having to unpack half our stuff, we ended up with:

shower towel, beach towel, yellow wet towels, wash clothes, soaps, shampoo, shavers (one of the most expensive things here), female stuff (another expensive things here) hygiene stuff and medicine stuff. I took a little bit of makeup and of course a thousand hair ties.

Clothes: tank tops, shorts, a few pairs of shoes-really. Nate: running shoes, dress shoes, 2 flips and me: running shoes, 2 sandals, 1 flip. We also brought 4 pairs or dress pants each, 5-10 dress shirts, Nate brought 5 casual shirts, I brought 2 casual shirts, 6 skirts, 1 dress, and 4 running shirts. We both brought our bathing suits. We brought some technology things like a computer of course, and ipods. A few books too. Oh and underwear (tons of them), bras, boxers, that kind thing.

We find that the stores have almost everything here. More than I actually thought but the money ratio is 2:1 Belize to US dollars. So things that cost 4 dollars in the US cost us 8 dollars here (and if you only get a little bit each week/month-soon) then it adds up.

We have Janice (my older sister) sending us things that we couldnt find room to pack like more clothes or hygiene stuff. Feel free to send love this way too. It is strange, in US we always get mail (even if you dont want it like bills) but in Belize you actually miss getting something.

Anyways, Nate and I have everything we need right now. If we need medicine, the Peace Corps Nurse (Nurse Jackie who rocks) will hook us up. They take care of us here. We can buy most things here. We wash our clothes weekly and the clothes that we packed are a perfect amount.

In the end, we had 86lbs each but didnt have to pay. Whew.

We love you and miss you tons.
Michelle