Random sampling of pictures

 belize money!

 Girls working hard in class

some of the nicer houses

I have a ton more I just forgot my flash drive, smooth I know

lime trees and ukulele's

Over the weekend we had some locals that were taking us around, the girls name was Rosie and she was maybe five feet tall.  We hiked into this jungle ranch and watch a cock fight, no joke, they also got us coconuts from trees and macheted them open so we could drink the coconut water, we also ate avocados off the trees which was so good. And then we went swimming in the river since it was so hot.  So this week has been a little slow just because we are in between projects, so I have been walking around and sweating my head off and going to a lot of meetings. We are working with this high school and will start building a wheel chair ramp next week and painting their desks. I also have been going to this old peoples home and we did a Meals on Wheels type of thing one day, and then the next day I was helping out with the physical therapy and helping them walk. And then I also learned how to take blood pressure the nurse was like take blood pressure! And taught me how, so I learned how but it was a little nerve racking, cause I didn't want to mess it up! We went to the school some more to help out with the kids, but since they are done with the exams the teachers have basically stopped showing up, or they see that we are their and they leave, and then the kids go insane. But you are probably what the significance of the title. Well theres a lime tree in our backyard and I pretty much put lime on everything, and I learned how to play the ukulele! Cause one of the girls brought one and taught me, so that has been fun I only know like one and half song. Oh the power went out the other night OH MY GOSH talk about being hot...even one of the locals we work with, his name is Richard he helps us out a lot and will drive by our house a lot to make sure we are safe, commented on how hot it got. You know its bad when the locals say something. We also attempted to make brownies, which was interesting.

 just walking around, more pictures to come!!

Its only been a couple days

and it feels like I have been here for so long! So when I arrived we waited in the airport for a while and the country directors (people in charge of us) kept commenting on how nice the AC was, I kind of blew it off but it was not a joke...the house we live in is literally a sauna and AC is non existent here and I feel like I never stop sweating, but I know I will get used to it and at least we have an actual house. Most of the people live in little structures of cinder block and tin and everything is up on stilts because of the flooding. Coming here and seeing all of this is incredibly eye opening, and all the people are so nice. At night a couple of us will do Insanity to work out and I know that's challenging the structural integrity of the house given the rotting wooden floors that already have holes in them....but the house is safe! There is bars on all the windows and big fence and gate. As the country directors told us on the first night "dont tell anyone where we live...except everyone knows the house of 18 americans" it is a small little town it has a more Rastafarian/Caribbean feel then latino. They rather speak english then spanish and they speak a lot of creole and will mix it with english and its impossible to understand. I got here on Thursday night and so friday we went and worked in the school, it was incredible how many of the kids couldn't even read. We helped grade paper and read the exams to the kids. The kids will get out of school soon and one of the projects we are going to do is a reading camp and computer camp. We get the weekends off so we went swimming in a river and drank coconut water out of coconuts and have just been hanging out and playing cards. The food is all delicious, every frozen pineapple? Try it, it is so good. Sleeping is probably the hardest we all sleep on these little foam pads on the floor and dont forget to put on your 40% deet bug spray before you go to bed! But it has been so much, and I have been loving every minute of it, I cant wait for this week to work with the peeople more! Still havent figured out how to post pictures :( hasta luego!!

Is this real life?

So I graduated..yeah weird..walking in hearing the music playing looking around to the sobbing mothers and my 600 fellow classmates and it just hit me. That was it. That part of my life is truly over and there is no going back to it. As exciting and happy the hwhole thing was, it also was a rude awkaning to the fact that everything is going to change, exspecially since im leaving, as my friends plan their summers by the beach and around work scheduales I'm off to another country! And that I could not be more exctied about it. It's hard to picture my summer otherwise now, as sad at it is to leave my friends behind for the summer, this wil by far top any Carolina beach trip or a day in the sun lifeguarding. Graduation was awesome, it was such a good feeling and so nice to have my family here. However everything moved incredibly fast graduated moneday and had Tuesday and wedensday to pull together the last minute things. And well actuall put stuff in my suitcase as opposed to the large pile on my floor. I registered for classes at 2 in the morning today and now am about to board my flight to Belize!! Adios amigos the next post will be over the border!! Sorry this post is rushed and if there is spelling or grammer errors...I Havnt found the spell check feature on my phone and it's hard to see the whole screen. Love Alyssa

Once upon a time...

Hi I am Alyssa I hope everyone reading knows me but since I started it with once upon a time I figured there should be a minor introduction. Sometimes I feel like life moves so fast and you reach an "important part" and think how did I get here?! I finished high school last week and graduate tomorrow which still seems unreal to me but I am definitely glad to be moving on. I am attending BYU-Provo in the fall. I have always been bad at journal writing, always getting excited to start one and then the excitement wears off along with the writing. To my moms dismay I have also been awful at taking pictures and documenting things. So in hopes to be able finally succeed in both these aspects I have started this blog, because there is T-4 days and I'll be headed off through customs and into a foreign land! As in Belize, San Ignacio de Cayo. I am going with a program called HELP International (here's the link to their website if you're curious http://help-international.org/) they go all around the world. I will be living there for 6 weeks, as of right now, I have a feeling I will not want to leave and I have the ability to extend the stay if I want. So basically I could not be more thrilled, I don't know anyone going, my flight is directly there and the country directors (the two girls in charge of us) will pick me up from the airport and take me to the house where the whole team lives. Which is around 25 college age kids. The program works in waves so the number of kids in the house varies, I'm on wave two which is June 14th-July 25th. I will be doing humanitarian work so everything from building gardens to teaching English classes. We get the weekends off for exploring and other fun adventures. And I will be lucky to be treated to the area cuisine by the in house chef who cooks dinners Mondays through Fridays. I am so thankful for my parents who have given me this incredible opportunity and to all my family for all the love and support they have shown over the years. So I hope all of you reading right now will continue to check back I hope to be able to update at least a couple times a week with what I'm working on and other experiences.