Nature

Before I left for Belize I had the feeling that the people there needed me. I felt that they needed me to help them teach, to show them love, just to make their lives better. I absolutely hate to admit that I ever thought these things, especially now. The people of Belize didn't need me at all, I needed them. I needed them to remind me that life is about relationships, community, and Christ. I needed them to break my heart so I could see what it is really all about. In my freshman and sophomore fields felt like my goals for the day were to teach a good lesson or learn a new strategy from my cooperating teacher. My junior year I put a little more focus on investing my time in the student's lives. My goal while here has totally been surrounded around just showing love to my students and I wonder why this hasn't been my focus all along. I know this experience in Belize will have a definite impact on my attitude as I enter my next field and as I one day have students of my own.

On a completely different as I was typing this I had the first encounter with a tarantula. All of the girls are seated around one long table in our cafeteria playing Draw Pass as Rachel and I sat at a nearby table headphones in blogging and journaling. Out of the corner of my eye I see Rachel rip out her earbuds and jump on top of the bench while calmly saying, "Girls there is a tarantula." I looked down to see a very nice sized tarantula right inbetween Rachel and myself. I jumped up and booked it to our cabin where I knew Jean had a small fish net just for such tarantula occasions. I ran to her bed, grabbed the fish net, and announced that we had a tarantula in the cafeteria. By the time I arrived back to the cafeteria all the girls were standing atop tables and benches screaming at the top of their lungs. The first attempt to trap the tarantula under the net was not successful, those things are creepily fast! It was then cornered against the leg of the bench and was easily trapped under the net. Thanks to the ingenuity of Ali we slid a piece of paper under the net trapping the tarantula in-between. Ali, Brittany Day, and I picked up the net and paper contraption and walked it out to the sidewalk. Then began the debate of wether to release it or to kill it and how. The decision was made that for our peace of mind it's life would have to be sacrificed. Brittany Day took the plunge and did the deed in two swift stomps while wearing flip flops. Thinking we were done with tarantulas I returned the net to Jean and told them that we had taken care of everything. We all settle back to our games and blogging thinking we were safe. Not even 10 minutes later were we standing on table tops screaming. I made another dart back to the dorm for the net and returned to find that the tarantula had hid under the fridge. We attempted to get it out with a broom stick, but did not succeed. We think it might have been impailed by the fridge leg, but the fish net sits next to me as I type this. We have (so far) survived to see another day.