Update 4

So it has been a while since my last blog, so I have quite a bit to talk about. First I will talk about my placement.

For the past two and a half weeks I have been working at the Kings Children’s Home, which is an orphanage in Belmopan. It has been a good placement but I have a few concerns with way its run. My first concern is the way that it seems to be a daycare up until 2:30. Hannah and I take care of 4 four year olds and 3 of those kids have parents that work at the orphanage. It makes it a little bit hard to discipline the kids when they aren’t listening. Another problem with that is those kids with parents here are treated much better than the other child. They receive more candy if it is given out and they are not disciplined for things that the other one is. There are also three babies in the morning, if they have a dirty diaper, the staff won’t clean them up. The staff just lets them walk around with it on until we see it and clean him up. The staff that does the most work is the two cooks. They cook the meals and all the kids love them. The staff seems like they don’t do anything, for at least 5 hours during some days they will watch television in the back room. I guess that’s enough bad things to say, because there are also good parts about this placement.

The things that I really like about this placement are being able to hang out with some really cool kids. Some of these kids I will never forget, they have just had an impression on me that I love to see them. Amelia is one of those kids; she is two years old and extremely cute. She is just learning to speak and can already say my name. She has no problem when I want to hold her, she cries when I leave her with Hannah (only one time though). Kearra is another cutie, but she is only at the home for a couple of hours. Her mother works here and she attends school, she is only here after school. I like to take the kids to the park but this can be a hassle at times, and also picking up the kids is a task, but it is fun. When the kids get home from grade school, I often will play hop scotch with the little girls. Reyna, one of the girls I play with is certainly another fun part of the day. I also play little hand games that girls here play, called slide-slide. Marlon is in infant 2, so grade two back at home, and he is incredibly smart. He is always the first one of the kids here at the home in that grade that is done his homework. He is also one of the best kids in terms listening. The children are definitely the best part of this first placement.

Now I have to talk about our time at the blue hole. We rented a cave guide, Israel, and we walked a tour through a cave near the blue hole. When we were in the cave we were allowed to swim at a certain point. This was an adventure, it was so dark, and the depth fluctuated. After a cave tour we went swimming in the blue hole, this was the inland blue hole, so it was more or less just a giant deep swimming hole. We swam there for the afternoon. It was fun, but there was no jumping off the rocks around the sides, that would have made it awesome.

Well this is becoming a novel, so I am going to end this here. More to come later.