Not much to report today.  Just mundane living in paradise…school, grocery store, commuting, etc.  I did have a great meal at our dinner last night to celebrate the first day of school – whole grilled snapper!  Elvi’s Kitchen continues to be our favorite restaurant in San Pedro.  Maybe I’ll be able to cook like this some day.  I asked if I could help out in the kitchen!  Tomorrow, we are taking the children to school in a boat and then going fishing ourselves.  Somehow I don’t think mine will look like this.

Today was the first day of school at The Island Academy!  Whit and I picked up Iris at 3pm and it was obvious that her teacher was already smitten.  Iris was all smiles and seemed to enjoy the day.  Iris says her favorite thing about school playing was banana tag at recess.  One hour later, we picked up Sam and Julia.  They will get out at 4pm three days a week because PE is after school.  We were impressed when we pulled up and the boys were running wind sprints!  Sam was drenched.  So much for wearing the same PE clothes all week!  Sam says his favorite thing about school was the fact that they have THREE recesses – one before school, one at snack break time, and another after lunch.  Julia says she loved the lunch and getting to use her new school supplies.  The “school lunch” is brought in by Mr. Lelo (for those Heiskell families reading this, it reminds me of the setup they had with Ms. Kim), whose wife cooks lunch and he brings it in his taxi cab.  On Wednesdays, they have a formal lunch where they have to sit at the table with napkins in lap, eat “real” food with a knife and fork, and converse with the teacher.

I managed to catch a shot of the almost sunrise.  The sun rises around 5am, but I got this one at 6:

We were very excited to go and check out Sagebrush Community Church today.  It’s a church plant out of Albuquerque, NM.  Whit thinks they must have been to the “Drive” conference at Northpoint because it’s so similar in format to our church.  They meet in the movie theatre, and truly, thank GOD, it is air conditioned because it was a brutally hot still day today.

The sermon was fantastic.  The pastor is the son of a Baptist preacher (sound familiar?), so there was a Baptist feel, with a contemporary vibe.  I have to say, I walked out of there full of the spirit!  Look up the writings of JC Ryle on “A Zealous Man burns for one thing.”  Woo doggy, I need that sucker printed on a poster.

After church, what else but to go to Starbucks…oh I mean MARBUCKS, for a frappacino.

I’m happy to say that Whit arrived safely today, so we’ll get to add him to our adventures tomorrow!

Today was orientation day at The Island Academy.  It was blistering hot without a breath of wind.  I thought I would pass out under the palapa.  I was stunned by the number of people in full “business” attire who weren’t even sweating!  We took a little selfie on the bench:

Here is the headmistress, Lady Dixie Bowen addressing the group:

I spent the most time in Iris’s classroom, so I was able to sneak this pick of her in her class.  Typically, they will wear uniforms, but today they got to be casual. There are six students in “first grade,” known as Infant 1 and another 7 students in Infant 2, which aligns with US second grade.  The two grades are in one classroom!!!  I’ll be very curious to see how this works out.  Sam’s class is the same, with the equivalent of 3rd and 4th grades combined.  Same room, but two different curricula.  Julia’s class is all “6th” grade with 11 in the class.

OK, this last one is the money shot.  This is the view from Iris’s classroom (thankfully, the classrooms are air conditioned).  They will play in front of the beach and eat lunch in the palapa in the right side of the photo.

Today we took the ferry to the island next door, Caye Caulker.  It is smaller than Ambergris Caye, where San Pedro is located.  We were basically looking for a relatively inexpensive way to get on a boat.  Caye Caulker is like a movie set, it’s so quaint.  Here we are at the ferry “departure lounge.”

On the ferry:

In Caye Caulker:

Amazing ceviche at the Lazy Lizard.  Of course the kids ate French fries with cokes…

When Whit gets here we’ll have to add our fifth Yates to the picture.

I made a vow that I would try to “go native” in our eating while we are down here.  I’m already wondering just HOW hungry these kids will have to be to eat food that doesn’t taste the same as at home.  Our papaya experience did not go well…

You should have heard the crying in agony when I made them eat this.  I’ve never been a fan myself, but it was delicious tossed in lime juice.  The kids did not think so.

So we are trying to buy some of the things we need for day to day living.

Yep, that’s the price.  Now, it is in Belizean dollars which are exactly double the US dollar.  That means this box of Cascade pods costs a mere $46 dollars!  Clearly I packed the wrong things in my suitcase.  Before you think “oh the pods are expensive, you should just get the powder.” I did look for it and, due to the humidity, that is like buying a brick that you have to chip off a chunk of every time you want to wash dishes. No thanks.  Mostly I’m just thankful we have a dishwasher!

On the other hand, my children had stone crab claws for lunch.  At $15 it’s a pricey lunch, to be sure, but, hey, STONE CRAB CLAWS!  Those are at least $10 a claw in the US.

And fresh pineapple smoothies…

Today we did some island exploring.  While we were out, we ran into some road construction.

This is the road we will take to school every day.  We went a little further and there was a wreck on the side of the road.

The cops were sooo busy handling the traffic that no one was manning the station.

Our love to all from the traffic jam capital of Belize!

Well, the day finally arrived.  Up at the crack of dawn to put final items in the suitcase (err suitcases) and off to the airport.  Already thinking of my newfound career as a blogger, I asked the cab driver to wait to put the suitcases in the car so that I could take a picture of the kids in front of all of them.  I snapped the picture and ran back inside to do a couple of last minute things while he loaded up the bags.  I come out, lock the door, and hop in the front seat with my purse in my lap and look expectantly at the driver…thinking “Well, let’s get going.”

He says ” Where’s the little girl?”

I look into the back seat and there are Sam and Julia, but no Iris.  Apparently, she had gone back inside to do some last minute things herself.  Now, how ’bout that as a way to start off your trip by yourself overseas with 3 kids?

For those of you wondering, no, Moses did not come with us.  He just photo bombed the picture.

We made it with almost no issues…here are just a few hiccups:

• On the way to the airport, Iris asked me if Whit was going to get a new wife while we were in Belize!
• We brought one extra suitcase that Whit was supposed to bring when he came (he’s coming next week)
• The wheel fell off one of our EIGHT bags as soon as we unloaded it from the cab
• Iris spilled her whole coke in my lap on the plane…argh
• Three of our EIGHT bags were searched by customs (lots of fun looking at crayons, notebook paper, pens and pencils)
• One of our EIGHT bags didn’t make it to San Pedro…MINE!  Fear not, all of the crayons, notebook paper, pens and pencils made it.
• At immigration in Belize City I was asked for the notarized letter from my husband stating it was OK for me to take the children out of the country.  Gulp.  “Um, I don’t have that. We could call him?”  Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be a hard and fast rule.  Whew.  Now, don’t y’all wonder why they wouldn’t ask that BEFORE we left the country?
  

  

  

  

Friends and family, I’ve had a lot of folks ask if I will be doing some sort of blog or travelog of our time in Belize.  I have hesitated because I don’t want the pressure of having to be insightful, funny, or erudite, but I guess I will give it a go.  I’ll try to be brief, and honest, but this is as close to journaling as I’ll ever get, so get ready for more detail than you’d probably like.  Next post from Belize!