Thank You for a great trip!!

I wanted to thank everyone for being a part of such a successful Graland service/educational program. The students in La Democracia will have a shaded place to eat a well-deserved healthy lunch and the Graland students gained the confidence to know they can accomplish a difficult task when they are motivated to help others. Hope everyone has a great summer and see you all in August.

Back in Monkey Bay and Ready to head HOME!!

These past two days we have traveled to an island paradise called Tobacco Caye by boat and snorkeled in the Caribbean sea, but that would be a huge understatement. On the simple boat ride from the city of Dandriga we saw many dolphins that circled around our boat. When we arrived at the island it was paradise from the clear, blue waters to the soft sand that we desired most of us wanted to call it home forever.  Our cabins were small and not fancy but that was not important because amazing snorkel spots and many snack shops that had everything we ever wanted surrounded the island. 

Before snorkeling, we visited the Smithsonian Institute field station on one of the neighboring audience.  Snorkeling was like going into a whole new world under the waves.  There were many exotic sea creatures and coral kingdoms.  The barracuda was the coolest thing we saw it was huge probably over 3 or 4 feet long with razor-sharp teeth.  Three to four feet long does not sound like much but when you are in the water it is the biggest thing out there except for you.  The barracuda swam at the top of the sea it had grey scales and a big mouth.  We had lunch on the beach and took a little swim to rest.  To top it off the end of the days we all walk over to the pier and watch the gorgeous sunset.   

We had an amazing time on the island and now are ready for a long day of travel.   We can't wait to see you all and we have had a great experience and many stories to tell!!

Happy in Tobacco Caye

Dear Parents,
I spoke with Chris Lindstrom, WLS instructor, who told me the group had a wonderful first day in Tobacco Caye. They learned how to snorkel in the incredible shallow-water coral reefs that start right at Tobacco Caye's dock. They then ran through Marketplace of Ideas, an activity that challenges students to come up with innovative solutions to a key challenge. In this case, the students were challenged with the following questions: how do we make this experience sustainable? How do we continue this cross-cultural relationship with Democracia School after we return to Graland? They also had a wonderful meal and enjoyed a Caribbean sunset. Tomorrow the students will head to the Smithsonian Center and continue to explore Belize's reefs. It is likely the group will not make any further updates until returning to Denver, as there is no internet access on Tobacco Caye. We are so proud of the work the Graland students have done -- they have been a fantastic, and very mature group of students and have been extraordinary ambassadors for Graland.
--Ross Wehner

Having a great week!!

WE WILL BE OUT OF INTERNET ACCESS WHILE WE ARE ON TOBACCO CAYE, SO DON'T EXPECT AN UPDATE UNTIL MONDAY AFTERNOON OR EVENING. 

 ALL IS WELL AND WE ARE HAVING A GREAT TIME!!!!

Reflection on Goals

To complete our work and benefit the students and community

We finished what we set out to do. We benefitted the community by offering them a place to eat. The meals are critical because it’s difficult to learn when you are hungry.

To put how lucky we are in perspective

It definitely did. The back flips they were doing in the dirt were amazing. The one store they have is in a house and we have many grocery stores in walking distance. They only have a few items in their schoolyard (e.g. swings) and we have many options.  They are able to enjoy themselves like we do, but they do not have as many resources. Their lives are good and they have many talents (e.g. 14 back flips in a row, building skills, etc.). We aren’t better than them.

To give back to the community of Belize

We did this by building the part of the dining facility (i.e. the knee wall). We gave them school supplies. We also played with them and watched their gymnastic skills.

To make four new friends. To get to know one of the school kids and establish a friendship

Check. Everyone made new friends. What broke the barrier for us was playing soccer and basketball with them on the first day. There were also instances where we introduced ourselves and then played other games with them (e.g. hopscotch, cards, etc). Even on their day off, they chose to participate in the building with us.

We will have a good attitude when we work in the village

We didn’t complain even though we were tired and sweaty. The breaks were needed. We had motivation because the community needed the building.

To make a change in one life

“I made a big change by building them a place to eat and making friendships.” We changed all of the kids’ lives with the dining space.

They made a difference in our lives by giving us the opportunity to do something for them. It was a gift being able to give to them.

Mission completed..and then some

Hey parents, siblings and Mrs. Kuhn,

The Belize trip is amazing and today didn’t disappoint any of us. After washing our laundry we packed up sunscreen and got ready to go back to La Democracia for half a day to finish our “knee wall”(which ended up being a waist wall). All of the local kids pitched in and helped us work. It showed all of us how much they appreciated what we were doing. We formed relationships with all of they kids. We saw them doing phenomenal back flips and other gymnastic moves. They tried to teach us but it didn’t work that well so we taught them how to play cards. We also played with a baby brown dove that fell out of its nest. The kids’ bright smiles definitely lit up the rest of our day. After leaving La Democracia, we got ready for a three-hour canoe trip down the Sibun River. We got our canoe groups and dipped in for a swim. Then we were ready. We went down a small rapid with a hard turn at the end and then we were off. The trip was fantastic! All along the way we stopped to cool off and swim in the river. In the final stretch, all of the canoe groups had a race to the finish. Today was awesome and we made amazing friendships. What more can you ask for?

Connor and Rachel

Laundry Day

Our clothes are getting a little stinky and we want to be considerate of others.  Laundry in the sink and drying on the line will our morning teambuilding activity.   Mrs. DuBose will help but you are responsible for your own underwear.  She loves us all but the underwear is a bit too far. We are learning skills that will benefit us the rest of our lives. 

We are preparing to head out to La Democracia this morning to finish our knee wall.  We are waiting for the kids to go to class so we are not disturbing them.  After lunch at Monkey Bay, we are taking a rewarding canoe trip down the Sibun River.  

Building Walls and Friendships in La Democracia

We show up at the school this morning and nine a.m. and all we see before us is a big slab of concrete and we wonder “what now!” Before long we all had jobs to do and a purpose to work for. But, we couldn’t do this on our own, Chester, Louis, and Trinidad were our teachers and happily helped us complete our goal. We all were divided into three groups and took 40 minutes working to 20 minutes resting in the shade.  When the kids in the school came out on break they watched us with curious eyes, grabbed a shovel and tried to help us, or went onto the field to play soccer with themselves and those who were on break. After a while we all continued to do our jobs tirelessly and we realized, “maybe this is possible.”  Shovel after shovel, bucket after bucket, and water bottle after water bottle, we worked through the morning. When lunch came we received a fantastic meal from Ms. Areetha, the woman who runs the feeding program at the school.  She feeds on average 30 kids every day out of her own pocket.  She is truly amazing.  We then continued working in the afternoon and at about four o’clock we decided it was time to go home. But not before stopping at the Sibun River to swim. Right before we got on the bus to leave the school about five kids started doing back flips and back handsprings with only dirt under them. It was pretty awesome. We had fun today and will finish the dining hall tomorrow.

We spent the evening brainstorming ideas about what the village needs and what we can do to make a sustainable difference.  We will talk with villagers to find out what they thing about our ideas and try to make plans for future Graland groups to accomplish in future years.  Who knows what we will come up with, it is fun thinking about the possibilities.

-Victoria and Kyle 

We want to know what you think about our work and adventures!  Comments are appreciated and read daily.

Goals for our La Democracia work

To complete our work and benefit the students and community

To put how 

lucky I am in perspective

To give back to the community of Belize

To make four new friends

We will have a good attitude when we work in the village

To get to know one of the school kids and establish a friendship

To make a change in one life

To change a life of one person I meet

It seems like they are on their way to meeting these goals.  Stay tuned to see the rest of the week.

Xunantunich ruins and visiting La Democracia village

Today was awesome. The first thing we did today was visiting the ancient Mayan ruins,  Xunantunich. They are very close to the Guatemala border. We climbed halfway up the main “castle” but we couldn’t reach the top due to the recent earthquake in Honduras. After we visited the ruins we went shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for shopping!!!!!!! After a quick shopping spree, we drove to the La Democracia primary school. We had a brief tour of the village and we looked at the site where we were going to build on. Then, we had some fun. We played soccer and basketball with the kids from the school. We got all hot and sweaty and we decided that we had to cool down. We ended up going to the Sibun River, which was the perfect temperature where we cooled off and relaxed. To top the day off we had a delicious Creole dinner. Also, after the dinner, we participated in a team building activity where we learned how work with other people in a group. It was great preparation for the work tomorrow. –Ryan and Ralsey

Big Rock Falls and Rio Frio Cave

Today we had a lot of fun. We started off the day by taking a forty-five minute hike to Big Rock waterfall.  The falls are just below the cabin we have been staying in and we could see it sitting on the ridge top as we hiked.  Of course, we only swam in the pools of water gathered below. We jumped off of a large rock, maybe ten feet, into the deep waters waiting below.  Watching the group jump in with various styles was fun.  Mini waterfalls made perfect slides and provided a lot of adventures.  When the swimming time was over, we headed back to our camp to relax in our cabins.

 

Soon after that, we piled up into our bus and drove out of the forest and into the jungle. When in the jungle we explored the Rio Frio Cave and the beautiful river and rocks that are settled nicely inside.  The cave was carved out of ancient limestone and the stalactites grew one centimeter every ten years or so.  We saw waterfalls of stalactites near the river that flowed through both ends of the cave. 

 

Before dinner, we did a leadership activity where groups of us had to make an egg protection holder to drop it.  We wanted to see what types of leadership each of us had and how we worked in the group.  Most of the eggs didn’t survive the fall but the building was fun.  We learned about our selves and leadership roles within a group.   And after dinner, we reviewed what we knew about global climate change and what could be done about it.  Today has been awesome, and we’re all sure that there will be many more to come!

 

The food so far has been exquisite.  Today we had French toast and hash browns for breakfast and rice and lentils for lunch.  Dinner was pasta with amazing sauce and eggplant.  There has been a wide variety of food so far from chicken to tacos; I cannot wait for tomorrow’s meals. J

Heading the Mountain Pine Ridge

Today was our first full day in Belize! The morning came very early, earlier than we had planned. We were so excited for our first day seeing Belize. Almost everyone woke up at 5:30 am to birds chirping and the sun shining in our windows. While some of us cleaned up, others played and laid around in the hammocks. We had breakfast at 7:30 and packed up our headed out for another adventure.

We drove through the countryside, through villages and some forested areas. We stopped along the way to get a snack at a local shop and enjoyed our first ice, cold drink since the airport. We played a game called assassin the whole bus ride and it was a blast. When we finally got to our destination we ate a delicious lunch and hiked down to a bunch of little waterfalls and swam for a very long time. The place where we swam was a bunch of small pools with small waterfalls called Rio On Pools! Everyone absolutely loved sliding down the smooth parts of the tiny waterfalls! If you didn’t want to do that you could swim in the small pools or jump off the edge of a rock into a particular pool. There was one pool where you couldn’t even touch the bottom unless you went completely under for a couple of feet. After a while some people got bored of fighting the current and decided to jump off the edge of a rock that Mr. Murray said the bottom was deep enough that you wouldn’t hurt yourself. Spencer won the award for the biggest splash with Joey coming right behind him in second!

After we were finished swimming, we got on the bus and drove to the place where we will be staying for the next two nights. Everyone unpacked and hung around for about two hours or so and then we did an activity based off the personality survey and our leadership styles and had a delicious dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and salad! Overall it was a very great day of swimming and seeing the scenery!

Hanging out in the hammocks, just chillin'
Help, the hammock is eating me! Just getting comfortable!

American Crocodile eating a frog from his exhibit. Good thing there was a fence between us.

Junior, the jaguar, showing us his new trick.

Two brave ladies with the boa constrictor. Everyone took their chance with the constrictor.

We are about to go to the mountain pine ridge to swim in the pools of Rio On, visit monsterous Rio Frio cave and hike to the Big Rock Falls tomorrow. Look for another extensive post on Wednesday, we have no internet in the mountains. Fun times in the tropics.

Can we sweat anymore?!?!

Happy Gralanders in the Tropics

Getting ready for a night in the Belize Zoo

The Beginning of the Journey to Belize

We began our journey on the one-hour flight from Denver to Dallas. Later going from Dallas to our destination, Belize. When we arrived at the Belize airport, we boarded onto a bus. When we stepped out into the country, we didn’t expect how thick the humidity was. We took an hour-long bus ride feeling the wind and viewing the wonderful country landscapes. You could see the palms and smell the jungle. It was a brand new environment than what we were used to. We passed by La Democracia, the village we’ll later be visiting and working at the school. We finally arrived at Monkey Bay. We toured around the compound seeing the shower, which uses natural water from rain; the composting toilets, which create gases to help cook the food; and where we will be spending the nights. During our tour, we talked about what is planned for the rest of the week such as the canoeing trip, visiting the Belize Zoo and heading up to the Mountain Pine Region.

We visited the Belize Zoo this evening to feed and play with some of the animals after dark. It was quite interactive and we were able to hear the howler monkeys, feed the tapir, ocelot and kinkajou. We saw the harpy eagle and spectacled owl in the dark forest.

We will not have internet access for a few days as we go to mountain pine region but we will blog again soon with more photos of our adventures.

Our descriptive words of the day: upbeat, intenseness, exotic, tiresome, humid, fun, amazing, interesting, exhilirating, tapir, sweaty, incredible, adventuresome, kinkajou, exciting, grateful, stupendous, different, swedish fish, wild & anticipation!