The Sweaty Days at San Pedro High

The past four days have been some of the hottest days in my entire life, maybe even hotter than hiking up the Grand Canyon!

Saturday, the high school had an Intramural Track and Field meet. The school is divided into ‘houses’ with students assigned to each group. Throughout the year students within the school compete with one another to score points for their house. All of the student teachers at the high school got up early and went to work at the meet. Although we were asked to be there promptly at 8:00 nobody actually started showing up until 9:30. (It’s called Belize time). The meet was held at a local park and one of the teachers came the day before and pained lines on the dirt field. Some of the students that came were amazing athletes! Many of them are going this weekend to compete for the school in the national competition. I talked to a few kids who went last year, but aren’t going this year because they simply can’t afford it. I was also amazed at the number of students that were running without shoes or socks because they didn’t have running shoes. The biggest difference between students here and at home is that they aren’t upset about what they don’t have. If they don’t have shoes for the race, it doesn’t matter and they will run just as fast as the kids who have them. What amazed me the most was that many of the students ran 6-7 races that day, and although they were exhausted they kept competing for their house. The track meet was the beginning of the heat, and I don’t think I have fully cooled off since then. We spent about five hours out in the sun that day and I drank about a gallon of water due to the heat. All of us that volunteered now have beautiful tank top tan lines to prove it! :)

After the track meet we biked about 3 miles to get a place called Palapa bar. It is a restaurant out on the water with inner tubes and a beautiful deck to relax at. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see the ocean as I was when we got there! They had a chicken burrito lunch planned for us and watermelon juice. Watermelon juice is amazing! It tastes like watermelon in a glass because, basically it is! The area was also having an outbreak of Pica pica’s, which are little tiny jellyfish that make you itch when they touch you. Luckily, I didn’t get stung.

 

Sunday was also an exciting day, but a little bit less hot because I spent the morning diving! The surf has gotten stronger and created a surge underwater, which has made visibility a little murky. Nonetheless, I had two great dives and say rays, morays and nurse sharks. 

The classroom of 1G at San Pedro High!

The past two days I have been teaching at San Pedro High and I haven’t stopped sweating the entire time! You know it is hot when all of the local teachers are complaining about how sweltering it is. The average daily temperature for this time of year is a comfortable 82F, however, the last two days have been 91F, with the heat index making it feel like 110! The classrooms are like sweat boxes, since there is little breeze and the fan’s that the students have in their rooms can’t keep up with the heat. Today, I even sweated through my shirt that is supposed to be sweat proof! As I was writing this blog, one of the teachers came up to fill his water bottle and said, "Water is like gold!"

Hopefully it will start to cool down soon, but if not at least there is an ocean out my window! 

Until next time,

AAA