Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Read, Write, Map

BELIZE--

Over the past weeks, we have been doing a lot of reading - expanding our environmental imagination through the Environmental Literature course.



Led by our professor Lucas, we indulged our literary senses on some of the greats of environmental lit, such as Wendell Berry, Flannery O'Connor, Lawrence Buell, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard, Ernest Hemingway, John Muir and Bell Hooks. Their words helped us to learn a great deal about our place and our relationship to the creation. We discussed and wrote about the concept of "place," and worked on how to map our own places. To supplement our understanding of "place" and to consider the text of creation itself, we ventured around Belize a bit.

Big Rock Falls in the Maya Mountains


Mapping our place at the base of the falls...


And of course, we also made time for some slack-lining on campus.

Photo credit: Nina Voli

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

God & Nature I

Belize -

We have just finished our first class of the semester with Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat in God and Nature I. Throughout the week we immersed ourselves in scripture learning more of who God is, who we have been made to be, and the sort of ethic we should have in how we relate to one another and the land.


The Black Orchid is Belize's national orchid and a beautiful flower of creation found right here on campus!

On Monday evening we celebrated Sara's birthday with a Star Wars themed party that included light saber battles, searching for the lost Jedi, a Potoo, and some really good chocolate brownie ice cream dessert.

Gellie (SLC), Sarah (Gordon), Flora (Staff), Kirsten (Bethel), and Kelsey (Bethel), chop up bell peppers, garlic, and variety of other ingredients for cooking and canning salsa.

Part of our class involved implementing some of what we learned by cooking Sylvia's famous salsa and canning it. For many of us it was our first time canning anything, but with Sylvia's talented instruction it tasted great and we got quite a few quarts of salsa for the rest of the semester.

Photo compliments to Nina Voli for this last picture.


Monday, February 13, 2012

Important Lessons From Orientation

BELIZE--

Some things to remember when orienting oneself to the CCSP Belize context:

1.) Always remember to bring rain gear with you to ancient Mayan ruins


Climbing up to the tallest structure at Xunantunich Archaeological Reserve




Kirsten and Kelsey (Bethel U) just learned how to pronounce 'Xunantunich'


2.) Transplanting papaya trees in your backyard is exhilarating work


Lindsay (Messiah), Jenny (Messiah), Nina (Gordon), and Angelica (staff) making pots out of recycled materials


3.) Birthdays are important and will be celebrated accordingly

Kelsey turned 21 after only 6 days with us! She loves crepes.


4.) Scarlet Macaws enjoy peanuts


Sara (Gordon) and Brittany (Bethel) feeding macaws at the Belize Zoo


5.) Don't panic if you get dropped off in the middle of the Western Highway in the pouring rain


Nina (Gordon) excited to conquer Travel Weekend


and 6.) Miss Flora makes the best barbeque in all of Belize


One of our cooks and good friends, Flora, making a meal for our neighborhood barbeque