The final days of working on completing the school cafeteria extension project were a success! We focused on painting the old cafeteria and cafeteria extension as well as the welcome sign. We also added continent names and ocean names to the world map that a Global Routes group originally created in 1992! It was great to see an older project still standing in the community! We hope many school children will benefit from the new school cafeteria that our 2015 group helped to construct.
Some updates from the final construction of the cafeteria: the professionals worked on putting up the wood beams to support the roof, the roof itself went up, and the chain link and mosquito net for the windows were installed. On Thursday it poured all day – oh the tropical rain! – we couldn’t get any work done at the site so we enjoyed some drier activities as a group instead, including having a family appreciation day for our homestay community. We made thank you cards for our homestay families and then spent time with them, doing a chore or two to help them around the house (such as laundry or shucking peanuts) and then we learned how to cook a Belizean dish and helped prepare it for dinner. Some foods we learned how to make include garnachas, Johnny cakes, banana cake, bread pudding, tostones, and wheat tortillas. We also interviewed our families to make a family tree. Thursday evening Kelsey and Alexandra surprised us with a bonfire, or fogata, in Spanish. We roasted marshmallows and made s’mores and sat around gazing at stars, talking, and reflecting about the trip.On Friday we were back to work and were able to finish painting the cafeteria. We made progress on the welcome sign and completed it all except finishing the school’s emblem. Friday evening we had our final meal with our homestay families and then went with them to the farewell at the new cafeteria. One student from each homestay spoke about their experiences and speeches were also given by our homestay families, Arcelito, Carlos, James, Marvin, and Pedro. We were all grateful for the opportunity we had been given to work in San Antonio, and the community was grateful for the new cafeteria and new relationships formed between Global Routes and San Antonio. Kelsey and Alexandra were given a plaque in appreciation. After the speeches, we drank watermelon and lime juice and ate cake and tasted a Mayan dish called schtop, which is a warm drink with milk, rice, and squash. We gave out some extra gifts we brought from home to the children there and played with bubbles and light up balls. All exhausted from the day and happy with our final celebration, we went home to spend our last night with our homestay families and pack for our final days in Caye Caulker.
