Home, Sweet Home

After learning in God and Nature about ecological homelessness and what it means to be responsible to, for, and with the place one calls home, we took a trip to Barton Creek to visit a community of conservative Mennonites. If anyone knows the value of home, it's them. The families we stayed with spend their days working the land they live on, building their relationships, and studying scripture. They enjoy living a simple life: no electricity, no running water, no motor vehicles, and only plain clothing that covers ankles and wrists. While it was certainly challenging for all of us to adjust to not having some of our modern conveniences, we learned a lot about how it impacts their relationships and their faith. Some of us even came away skilled in milking cows and harvesting vegetables!

With two classes and a homestay under our belts, we headed into reading week, which is devoted to getting started on material that will be covered in upcoming classes. To take a little break and relax, we headed to the pools of Mountain Pine Ridge on Wednesday. Here we enjoyed cooling off, taking in the beauty of the pine forest, and having some fun. After the pools, we visited Rio Frio Cave, which is giant! It was an amazing sight.

Some students have also been finding time to take part in a local soccer team's practices in the evenings. Our cook, Ms. Flora, is on the team and is enjoying having the girls join in. They're looking forward to playing an actual game this Saturday! This has been a great outlet for the athletic of us, as well as a great way to get to know the surrounding community.

Last Saturday we celebrated the Chinese New Year by going to Cayo Twist, a local favorite ice cream shop. What makes this place so interesting is that the ice cream is actually made with soy instead of milk, which gives it a unique taste. They have all kinds of flavors that rotate through, from orange/vanilla to eggnog. It's incredibly tasty, especially on those hot days or after a soccer practice!

Class is Now in Session

What does it mean to be an image bearer? How does God's covenant relate to all of creation? What are our responsibilities to to the places we call home? Am I going to finish this paper on time?

These are just some of the questions that have been filling our thoughts over the past couple of weeks as we dove into the first two classes, God and Nature 1 & 2. Professors Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh have been challenging us to consider how we are called to interact as Christians with the earth and all its inhabitants. After going through scripture and learning about God's desire for us to live redemptively with creation, we explored what that looks like in our lives today. In one of the assignments, in classic CCSP "out of the box" style, we even got to see each others' creativity come to life through dance, poetry, photography, and art!

In addition to class, these past two weeks have given us reason to celebrate! Brindley, one of the student life coordinators, had a birthday, so we feasted on local Belizian burgers and homemade fries (her favorite meal) and topped it off with cake made by a friend of the program. We also decked the veranda with streamers and hearts for Valentine's Day, which is actually a huge holiday in Belize, and we had a fun night of Valentine's-related games, discovering our love languages, and eating Ms. Flora's delicious brownies! It's great how celebrating and eating delicious food often go together.

Professor Keesmaat is also very knowledgeable about gardening, so having her here has been very beneficial to our garden. With most of the seedlings in the ground now, and some new seeds directly planted into the garden bed, we're expecting to see quick growth of our plants. Also, Professor Walsh is an avid birder, and he's managed to get a lot of us excited about waking up early to go to a nearby riverside to view some of Belize's birds. We're already starting to pick up on the calls of some local birds.

We are now looking forward to this weekend, when we will stay in a Mennonite community. We had a Mennonite fashion show, to make sure everyone had something appropriate, and it appears as though we have quite a modest bunch! They pass the test with flying colors...well, with neutral colors, anyway.

CCSP Belize Begins!

The Spring 2010 semester of CCSP Belize is now in full swing as we came to a close on our orientation week Thursday. It's hard to believe that the students have already been here for over a week! This semester our student roster consists of seven girls. While many different backgrounds and interests are represented by these girls, they have quickly found themselves to be a close-knit group. It's been fun for us staff to hear them all in the dining room conversing, laughing, and really connecting.

It's been a full week in which they've learned a lot about Belize, Nabitunich (the campus), and each other. After a couple of days on campus we relaxed by tubing on the Macal River which allowed everyone time to slow down and take in their beautiful surroundings. Several days later they learned all about the Mayans at the nearby ruins called Xunantunich (which we can see from the campus). Students got to experience the vegetation of Belize at the botanical gardens on Wednesday and the local wildlife at the Belize Zoo just two days ago. There's no shortage of vegetation and wildlife right on campus, too. Students have already had the opportunity see toucans, aracaris, and other tropical birds right outside their doors (not to mention a few tropical insects right inside their doors)!

We also gave them an up-close look at the people and places of San Ignacio, Belize's second-largest city. Here they experienced the Saturday morning market, St. Andrew's Anglican church, and the general population. They also learned how to take the bus between the Nab (our nickname for Nabitunich) and San Ignacio, which is an important skill so they can get out on their own and explore.

Speaking of getting out on their own, the students are currently enjoying a travel weekend. We've closed the campus until Sunday dinner and sent them out to have a weekend to themselves before classes start on Monday. All seven girls decided to stick together and are having fun in the sun on Caye Caulker.

We as staff are excited for the students to start class because we know they're going to learn so much! And we, in turn, will get to have some great conversations with them about what they're learning.