Orientation week! (Part 1)

BELIZE --

Staff members Ashley, Joelle and Nick can't contain their excitement at the air port just before the students arrive!

During the first few days students were here in Belize there was much to see, hear, smell, taste, and do to get acquainted to their new tropical home. Questions filled the air and bounced back and forth as we also became more acquainted to each other. And such an exciting time it truly is, when a handful of folks eager to learn and grow come together to share this space for 3 and a half months.

Sometimes walking was the best way to take in our surroundings, especially during the golden evening hour.

Right away we hit the ground running with a busy schedule and with so many people to meet. Along with the CCSP community, there’s the surrounding farm, and the surrounding Belize neighborhood of cities and villages. For starters, spending time with the Juan family (including the rambunctious little ones!) made us feel right at home on the Nabitunich farm. The conversations covered everything from food to biology to the history of Belize, all over toasty warm tortillas, beans, veggie Kabobs, BBQ chicken and lime juice. We also met Ms. Flora’s family (our cooking staff) who played a large part in helping facilitate some campfire games after dinner.

While being tons of fun, pick-up futbol games remind us of the importance of staying hydrated!

Although we’ve only scraped the surface of what Belize has to offer, we’ve learned so much so far. With a few day trips we’ve glimpsed the different ecosystems of Belize, highly anticipating the ecology courses. Plus with meeting of the people of Belize and seeing development, we can feel the home stays and the development courses tugging at our eager brains.

The Blue-crowned Motmot has amazingly already been spotted on two separate occasions (notice the racket tail).

Now with the first half of Orientation under our belts, we take it easy for a relaxing breath of fresh air after Church on a Sunday afternoon. The dry season seems to have arrived early, and slightly uninvited as farmers hope for just a bit more rain for the crops. Yet the early dry season is a tropical spring, triggering flowers that cover entire trees and speckle the roadsides. Butterflies and hummingbirds put our busy schedule to shame. The Mango trees fill the air with their lovely bittersweet chocolate fragrance, while Melodious Blackbirds sing all hours of the day and Grackles grackle about silly things. Occasionally the Aracari crew stops in to check out all these new faces, while the Toucans just watch from up high in the Guanacaste tree. Many northern species of warblers, along with Eastern Meadowlarks and Gray Catbirds are also a part of our Nabitunich community, reminding us of our Northern roots, yet surprise us with the new awareness of their winter homes. These winter getaways are an entire second half of their fine feathered lives that before this week we were oblivious to. But soon it will be on to the second half of orientation week and of course the grand entrance of the academic semester!

It's always a good idea to beat the heat in a cool swimming hole fed by an underground stream network.