Final Days in Belize

June 27th, 2018

Good morning everyone! Today was the last day of Tykes camp and I was so excited. We had breakfast, got to NARCIE, set up camp, and waited for the kiddos to come. It was 9:15 and we only had one kid, so we went into panic mode. It would have been extremely difficult to run the camp with one kid, so Dr. Brock ran across the street to the special education school to pull some kids from class. When he came back, he had 5 kids with him. I got assigned to a child that was severely impaired, and completely nonverbal. This child presented with fine and gross motor impairments along with speech problems. At first, I thought I was over my head, because I had never worked with a child like this before. BUT, I figured they wouldn’t give me more than I could handle so I just went for it. The little boy was so cute and latched onto me right away when I went over to introduce myself. He couldn’t really walk on his own, so I had basically hold him up and help him move one foot in front of another (what a workout!).

The little boy kept trying to run away but kept falling down, so we started to implement some behavior therapy. We first started with bubbles. If he listened to what we were telling him (it was mostly just to sit and stay in the chair) then he got bubbles blown. It took a while for him to understand this concept, but then he got the hang of it. I also learned very quickly that he liked pressure on his arms/back. For some reason that was extremely comforting and calmed him right down when he started screaming and getting antsy. Dr. Brock quickly taught me to use tape for this. I started out applying the pressure with my hands, but they quickly got tired and limited my help to the child. Instead, we used tape and wrapped it around his arms. I couldn’t believe how well this therapy technique worked.

Our first activity of the day involved shaving cream. We were doing an activity that worked on behavior. We squirted shaving cream on the table in front of the children and told them if they didn’t touch it before the timer, they would get more shaving cream to play with at the end of the activity. Obviously, I knew my camper wasn’t going to be able to follow these rules and boy was I right. The second the shaving cream hit the table, he smacked it with his hand resulting both of us to be hit with the shaving cream. I looked up at Dr. Brock for some reassurance and he just told me to go with it, so that is exactly what I did. By the end of the activity, I was covered from head to toe. Normally, I wouldn’t necessarily stand there and allow a child to keep rubbing shaving cream all over my clothes, but there wasn’t anything I could do, so I just took it. We went to the bathroom to get all cleaned up and we were off to our next activity.

As we were walking back from the bathroom, I was standing behind my camper with my arms around him helping him to walk. He grabbed my arm and pulled it closer to him. I allowed this because that was his way of communicating he wanted my arm for pressure. He started sucking on my forearm, and before I knew it, he took a huge bite into my skin. It took a few seconds for my brain to realize he was biting me. I snapped out of it and fear came over me as I tried to pull my arm away and couldn’t get his teeth off of me. I don’t remember what happened after because I think I went into panic mode and my brain temporarily shut off and blocked out what was going on. All I remember is Dr. Brock asking me he if just bit me and I told him yes. He then took my camper to the corner to yell at him. All I could feel was shooting pains and a stinging sensation down my arm. Luckily, he didn’t break skin, there were just indents where the teeth dug into my skin. I was reunited with my camper, and I tried to put on a smile and act like I hadn’t just been bitten by a 5-year-old.

Throughout the day, we were trying to work on using and teaching my camper simple signs to communicate with (ex: more, wait, want, play). When my camper came in, he didn’t have any signs, but by the end of the day he was signing a very modified version of “more.” This made me feel super successful because I conquered the impossible. My supervisors were shocked that we got him to sign in less than 3 hours. For most kids, that takes days just to understand and use a sign properly. That was just another reassurance that I was made to work with kiddos.

After camp we had Belizean pizza, which tastes nothing like New York pizza but I couldn’t be picky because at least it wasn’t rice and beans. After our little pizza party, we invited the parents of the kids we were working with to meet with us to go over what we did at camp and different strategies they can use at home to improve their child’s speech. I really hope that these parents use the tips we gave them because it would only be helping their children.

When we got back to Monkey Bay, it was time for dinner and packing. Tomorrow we head out to Caye Caulker which is an island off of Belize. Here we will be relaxing and doing more touristy things since camp is now over.

Man did that fly by!

June 28th, 2018

Aloha everyone and welcome to Caye Caulker. We got up this morning and took an hour bus ride into Belize City. From here, we got on a boat which took another 45 minutes, and finally arrived on a little island known as Caye Caulker. There are tons of people here on their vacations because it is kind of an all-inclusive island. There are mostly restaurant/bars, gift shops, and lots of white sand beaches. In fact, there are no cars on the island because it is one giant beach with no pavement, so the mode of transpiration is by golf cart, bikes, or foot. We got off the boat and took a short walk to our hotel. You really can’t miss this building because it is bright yellow and orange, and stands out like a sore thumb. We picked roommates (2 people to a room), got our keys, and settled in. The best part about this hotel is…IT HAS AIR CONDITIONING!!! After living in the 105-degree weather in the middle of the jungle, words cannot describe how amazing the AC feels (it’s the little things, right?) Carissa (my roomie) and I set the AC to 18 degrees Celsius. We really wanted to soak in the cool air. We had a group meeting where our supervisors explained that we were on our own to explore until dinner.

All 11 of us took off to find a place to eat lunch. We came across this little restaurant and decided it looked pretty decent, so we went in. The menu was huge, with so many options. I was overwhelmed so of course I went with the traditional chicken fingers and fries. I think 9 out of the 11 followed my lead and got chicken fingers and fries as well. It was the furthest thing on the menu from rice and beans, so it seemed like a pretty safe option.

After lunch, we walked around a little bit and visited some street venders. There were so many handmade crafts, so I knew I would be coming back when I had a little more cash on me.

Next, it was time for some relaxation, so we went back to the hotel and changed into our bathing suits. Some locals told us that there was a private beach right off the island, and a short boat ride away, so we decided to go and check it out. The private beach was hopping. Lots of people were there having a great time, so we decided to spend our afternoon there. On the beach, there were swings that overlooked the water, as well as a bar in the water. I always wanted to visit a place like this. We immediately dropped all of our stuff and jumped in because the clear blue water was calling our names. After cooling off in the Caribbean, we decided to take a trip to the bar. Here we had smoothies (with a special ingredient) We took our smoothies over to the swings and had a photoshoot (because when on an island this is necessary). The sun felt so good and relaxing. We all had sadness in our eyes when it was time to leave, but we were supposedly having some really good street food for dinner, so that was something to look forward to.

The food did not disappoint. We went to Fran’s stand and got barbecue chicken with rice and garlic bread. Boy was it delicious. The rest of the night was ours to enjoy so of course we went to one of the bars to participate in karaoke night. I think everyone in the group sang the lead once, and when you weren’t singing the lead, you were singing backup. We sang until the bar closed, and finally made our way back to our hotel to try and get some sleep for tomorrow!

June 29th, 2018

Hey guys, today I got to swim with sharks. I never thought these words would ever come out of my mouth. We started the day at a flapjack stand. Flapjacks in Belize are like little fried dough pockets that you can stuff. I got my flapjack stuffed with ham, cheese, and eggs. It was delicioso! After breakfast, we had time to shop around and get souvenirs. I went a little crazy buying things, but how can you not when the street venders dangle it right in front of you.

We brought all of our purchases back to our rooms and got ready to go snorkeling. We met up as a group outside of the hotel, and headed over to the snorkeling gear shop to get geared up. They handed us the mask with the tube to breath attached to it, and flippers. With our gear, we made our way to the dock to board the boat that would take us out to the second largest barrier reef in the world. Australia is home to the largest barrier reef, which is super cool because in a few months I can say that I have been snorkeling in the two largest reefs in the world. The boat took us about 20 minutes away from the island for our first stop on the snorkeling tour. The tour guides were young and goofy and liked to joke about how most of us were terrified to be jumping into the middle of the ocean with who knows what animals. They did a safety briefing on how to use the materials and they also distributed life vests for those who wanted them. The guide couldn’t even finish asking, “who wants a life vest” before my hand shot into the air.

We got all suited up and one by one jumped into the water. The first stop on the tour was manatees. We only saw two, but that was plenty for me. They kind of look like rocks at the bottom of the ocean because they don’t move much. Every once in a while, they came up to the top for air, and they came right up to us to say hello. They were so friendly and I wished I could swim with them all day, but we were on to our next stop.

The next section of the tour was the coral reef along with the hundreds of fish that live in them. We all got out of the boat and this time our tour guide got into the water with us to. At the last stop we just stayed close to the boat because it was a trial run. At this stop, we were going to be swimming along the reef for about an hour. It was amazing!!! We found Dory and many other marine life such as, seahorses, puffer fish, eels, lionfish, and tons of others. The coral is very hard which is weird because it looks like it sways in the water. Some of the coral was so tall it was very close to the surface, so when going over this we had to stay horizontal so you didn’t cut your foot open. Back to the boat we went for the next stop…sharks!!

The boat stopped and hundreds of sharks and stingrays started swarming our boat. Our tour guide told us that the motor of the boat sounds like a dinner bell under the water. We were supposed to jump into the water with the sharks/stingrays and once they realized we weren’t feeding them, they would swim away. I thought this man was insane, but before I could even process what was happening, he pushed me in. I was panicing and waiting for a shark to eat me. They were all around me so I reached out my hand to touch it, and it eventually swam away once he noticed I didn’t have food for him. They are slimy and gross feeling, but I felt accomplished because never in my whole life did I think I would swim with the sharks; let alone touch one.

Our last stop on the tour was an old ship wreck. It was really cool to see in person, an old ship at the bottom of the ocean. It makes you wonder what happened, were there any people on the ship, did they survive? Luckily no skeletons floated to the top, because that would’ve really freaked me out. This was a short stop because the water started getting rough, so we hopped back onto the boat, they served fresh mango, watermelon, and pineapple, and we were on our way back to shore.

When we got back to the hotel, we grabbed dinner, and then spent our last night back at the sports bar dancing the night away. I cannot believe tomorrow we have to go home and part ways. It will definitely be an emotional day!

Concluding thoughts…

As I sit here on my plane back to NY, I can’t help but cry as I think about the time I have spent in Belize. Going into this experience I didn’t know what to expect. I was nervous, excited, and scared that I wasn’t going to get along with any of the girls. Part of me almost wishes that had happened because it would’ve made saying goodbye a lot easier. Everyone woke up this morning a little hungover, a little excited to get back home, but overwhelmed with sadness as we knew it was about to get emotional when we had to part ways and head to our separate terminals.

We ended camp every day by singing a goodbye song to each individual kid. Here is how it went…

Goodbye Jordan

Goodbye Jordan

Goodbye Jordan, we’re glad you came to play.

So, you can only imagine what we were doing in the middle of the airport as we were about to leave each other. We got some pretty weird looks our way too.

I am so thankful for this trip, these girls, the kiddos I have helped, and the memories I have made. This trip has helped me to find myself not only as a person, but as a speech pathologist. About a year ago, I remember sitting in my mom’s bed crying my eyes out because I didn’t necessarily know if I wanted to be a speech pathologist anymore. I now know that I was made to be a speech pathologist. I have learned something special from every single one of the kids I have worked with in my time down in Belize and I am so grateful for that. The future looks bright my friends!

Today I left a part of my heart with these children.

So, I’ll be back Belize