20. My Birthday – My birthday was made special by the 400 smiling faces singing “Happy Birthday” to me while I stood in the middle aisle of the church after Mass. Also an old student heard it was my birthday and he called a current student to let me know that he was going to treat me to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Then one of the Belizean teachers had their wife bake me a cake. The volunteers also had a signed card for me and made a cake to celebrate.
19. Siddarth/Sanji/Zoe/Sandra – These adorably cute children always brighten my day when they’re around. Siddarth and Sanji are the son and daughter of Mr. Punjabi, the Math and Business teacher at the high school. Zoe is one of their friends and Sandra is the daughter of the custodian who works at our school. These four children are so joyful and so funny, coloring with them and playing games with them is always a treat.
18. Visiting two students at their house – One of my students was in a motorcycle accident in which he was banged up pretty bad. Another teacher and I made the point to go visit him at his house. He was very grateful for the visit – we were his first visitors. Another student was missing from class for 10 days. I knew that he was a student that had potential to drop-out. I took initiative to visit him and to make sure everything was okay. He was not planning on coming back to school, but through a little persuasion, he was back at school the next class day. These were two opportunities where I realized the impact we can 
make as a teacher.
17. Mountain Pine Ridge – the staff retreat in the middle of the mountains. The highlights were swimming in the pools, going to the Rio Frio Caves, and playing games with the volunteers.
16. Hurricane Richard – The electricity went out which means that we volunteers, who normally have nothing to do, had even less to do, but we make do with what we have and it ended up being a blast of playing games in the dark with flashlights and candles.
15. Theology of the Body Song Presentations – This was one opportunity where I realized that I have the potential to be a great teacher. The students had to present on a song in modern culture (“Soy Hombre” ~ Aventura, “Whatcha Say” ~ Jason Derulo, “Don’t Tell Me” ~ Avril Lavigne, “Mine” ~ Taylor Swift, etc…) and tell me whether it was a good example or a bad example of masculinity, femininity, sexuality, love, or lust. They did awesome with it! I was so proud of them!
14. St. Ignatius High School – Although I dreaded the thought of it. It was actually a blast and renewed my love for teaching as I entered into 6 different classrooms at a different high school to give a talk on God’s love. I saw some familiar faces from when I first visited on a week mission trip in March 2009 and I really connected with the kids there.
13. Los Finados – I never really appreciate All Souls Day until I celebrated it this year. It was absolutely beautiful as we processed in candlelight from the church after Mass praying the Rosary in Spanish to see a beautifully decorated, candlelit, and populated cemetery with families praying in remembrance of their deceased family members. Students made altars dedicated to praying for the faithfully departed. Families invited me to drink xpasha and eat bollos in honor of their family members.
12. Hanging out with Victor – Victor is my Belizean friend who is an IT teacher at the high school. He is such an awesome friend and I am so thankful for the many times I have hung out with him and just relaxed. School can get very stressful, but whenever I would go over to Victor’s to eat, watch TV, or have a drink, it always put my mind and heart at ease.
11. Market in Melchor – There have been many times when I have went over to Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala the border-town right across from us and have went to spend time with my students at the market place where they work. The market is so much fun. There are clothes from Hollister, Abercrombie, American Eagle, etc… (which explains why my students are way more stylish than I) and this is where my students work. On the other side of the stalls are the houses of my students and it’s amazing to experience the hospitality that they have to offer. When I visit they make sure to take out chairs for me to sit and to offer me Pepsi or cola.
10. Christmas Celebrations with Volunteers - Because we are always looking for a reason to celebrate when there’s not much to do, we do holidays big. This Christmas we made a bunch of snowflakes and hung them from the ceiling, made a paper life-size Christmas tree, had Yankee Swap, and Secret Santa.
9. Halloween Party with Volunteers – we all dressed up and invited a few Belizean teachers to come join us. It was a masquerade fiesta as we had the 80’s, a Twister board, a Coke bottle, a mobster, a biker girl, Ursula, a pumpkin, a 50’s girl in a poodle skirt, a gypsy, a Islamic woman, and a Jedi. The dancing was fun!
8. Fishing in Melchor – One day, I was asked to go with a bunch of students to go fishing with them in Melchor, Guatemala. One student drove their jeep to the place where we would fish. We “fished” with a stick, fishing line, a hook, and we had to look for the worms. Later they decided to put chicken necks on the line, but they had to go buy them. Their jeep ended up getting stuck for three hours in which we pushed and shoved and dug. It was hilarious! To top it off, they drove me back to the border on my very first motorcycle ride.
7. San Pedro – One of the three day weekends, the volunteers made sure to get out of good ole mundane Benque to go to La Isla Bonita – San Pedro on Ambergeris Caye. It’s so beautiful out there! We stayed at a resort for super cheap through a connection that someone had. We had great food and a great time!
6. Day on the Ranch – I was asked to go hang out with some of my former student’s on their ranch in 
Guatemala. We drove out there and there we cooked steak on a stick and then rode a horse. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and have quite the adventure.
5. Mr. Mai’s – We were invited to lay cement for one of the teacher’s house. There we mixed the cement and laid it down, then after all the hard work – we went for a relaxing swim down the river making fun pit-stops along the way.
4. Flores and Tikal – Another three-day weekend rolled around and a few of us had a much-needed vacation to Flores in Guatemala. The beautiful island on the Lake Peten Itza. We sang karaoke, went souvenir shopping, ate delicious food, and enjoyed the view and each other’s company. Later we went to Tikal, which is a huge Mayan ruin site which is absolutely amazing. There we met two amazing people, Adam and Kate, who are biking to raise awareness for Autism. Later we met up with other volunteers and took a boat tour around the lake.
3. Third Form Girls Retreat – Was a great opportunity to get to know and show my support for the girls that I teach in the third form. It was so clear that God had so much healing for the girls on this retreat and it was beautiful to see them be so receptive to God’s love.
2. Skit – There was a welcome assembly for the first formers and the teacher’s decided to put on a skit in which we dressed up like the students and acted like them. Then we broke out into the Cupid Shuffle in front of all 400 students who erupted into smiles, laughs, and screams.
1. Knights of the Immaculate Retreat – This was such a huge blessing of the semester in which I saw God do such mighty things in the men who were open to the power of the love of God and it helped me grow in fellowship with them.
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