The Last Night

It was nice coming back to Belize from Guatemala. Although Guatemala had a lot of things that opened up new ways of thinking to me, Belize feels more like home. Getting back into our bunks, we were greeted by our new bunk mates, the Education department. It was nice because I knew some of them already, so there was no awkwardness between us. Seeing some of the other Professor's I have had in class was nice too. The next day we got up and had some relax time while Dr. Skon took the Kenyon kids to the airport for them to head back to the US. While Skon was away, the rest of us students got to work with Doug configuring out network for our new campsite and cleaning up some of the existing WiFi. I originally started helping Jason configure the routers, then once we finally found the proper config files, it was easier to just unplug and plug in the routers into one computer. Doug then asked me to rewire and move the existing routers at the camp. So I got a ladder from the groundskeeper at the camp and starting snipping and moving stuff around. After a couple attempts, Nick and I got it up to Doug's standards. The rest of the night consisted of relaxing and enjoying our last night at the camp. The people at the camp were so nice and all the people I got to meet and talk to was awesome. You can learn a lot from a few people, and I am glad I got to meet them.

Day Nine in Belize:

     Today was such a great day. We left the camp grounds, arrived at the log cabins, and I actually got to work with things that have to do with my major. Thank God we did not see another tarantula at the camp grounds for the last time this morning. This morning we had breakfast and packed up to get ready to leave. Some of us were ready to leave, and so we're not so much ready because we wanted to hang out with the education department a while longer. But I am sure we will run into them a few times during our stay here hopefully.
     When we arrived, we were stunned and speechless at how nice this resort was and we are very grateful that we are here for the rest of our time in Belize. It feels almost like home. We saw that they were putting in a new walkway to one of the dorms because they knew we had a guy that could not walk very well, so that out that in just so he could get to and out of the dorm which I found awesome to see how people down here are so nice and would go out of their way to do something like that to someone that they did not even know. Our professor decided to try to get our van closer to the dorms by backing in and ended up getting stuck. So we had to wait about half an hour for the workers at the resort to get their tractor ready and hooked onto the van and pull it out. They got it out easily. We went back to the camp grounds to pick everyone else up and a couple things go luggage that we could not fit in the van.
     So when we came back, we ate lunch that the mentors brought back. We had Mexican food. After lunch, I got straight to work with Doug. We mainly worked on trying to get the Wifi working at the resort. We got a good deal on living here because we are helping set up the wifi here. And let me tell you, it was probably the most experience I have ever had with networking. It was not only fun, but it was beneficial to get to know what I would be doing with my major. I think I finally picked the right major. It just felt right and it was a lot of fun to just see how everything worked. Some of the stuff was kind of over my head but I managed to get through it alright.
     There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but we will do our very best to make the internet good for the area for a long time to come hopefully. I really wanted to swim and relax today but I would rather do work with my major to see if I really want to do this or not and I believe I really do. I hope to have time to finally swim tomorrow!

Sunset on Kenyon's Last Night in Belize

The Kenyon/Harcourt Parish group spend their last night eating at the Bird Isle Restaurant. This was our view. 

Day Eight in Belize:

     Today is our last day at the camp grounds, praise The Lord! It's been real but I gotta go to the resort tomorrow. Today was also the day that the people from Kenyon left to go to a hotel to stay the night before their flight home tomorrow morning. They are cool/real people that I would like to chill with again sometime when we are not so busy all of the time. Have a safe trip guys! As for all of that, we did not do very much today which was much needed after an exhausting right days here already. It seems like these days are just flying by now.
     We had biscuits and beans for breakfast this morning (still better than the hot dogs). After that we chilled for a while until lunch time. While eating lunch, we are told that we are just going to stay at the camp grounds for the day and work on the network and computers. That took several hours doing all kinds of stuff like; fixing wires, copying hard drives, putting Wikipedia on the desktop, fixing the WI-Fi, making internet work for the next place we are staying and fixing the internet there. It was a successful day here and we got a lot of work done.
     The education department left early this morning to start their first day of work and they came back exhausted and ready for bed. They seemed to have really enjoyed it which is great for them. We all hung out for dinner tonight and talked while we eat. For dinner we had beef, rice, and vegetables with some kind of sweet sauce.
     Apparently our resort has a swimming pool at it so I know what I am going to be doing tomorrow because if it is going to be as hot as it was today, it will be very nice to be in the water. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow holds!

Prepare for hi-speed Internet!

Today we did a lot but at the same time didn't do much. We stayed at camp grounds and prepare equipment needed to set up internet at a few places. We worked on setting up the routers and getting those ready to go. To get them ready we had to do a Firmware update and then configure the IP information. It wasn't to bad because must of the work was already done and we just had to run a script that was alreadu written.  After it was configured we had to make sure it they all worked amd were ready to be used. Tomorrow we will be leaving the camp grounds and will be moving to where we will be staying for the rest of the time here. We stopped by today just to check it out and it looked really nice. We can't wait to get there tomorrow and relax and hang out. The weather was perfect today and we're hoping it continues as this past week was very chill and damp and raining. It only 8:30 but I'm still trying to catch up on som sleep so I think bed is in my near future. It's been a full week that we've been here but it only feels like a day or two. So much has happened and we've been so busy theres still a lot of things going through my head that I'm trying to process as far as my experience here so far. As those thoughts come together more I'll be sure to share.

Keep it real,

Josh Aleshire

A Blast From the Past

Good morning all!

Sorry this is a day late but I guess that means you'll get to read two today. Yesterday was very neat and enjoyable. We went to the Mayan ruins of Tikal. The runis were incredible and the sights were breath taking. We got to see multiple temples and various building that were used by the people. It's crazy to think that all these structures were built years and years before the all the technology we have today.Here is a picture of the main plaza of the ruins.

After seeing the plaza we continued to wallk through a few other sites and finally made our way to the tallest temple there. Once there we were able to climb the almost 200 stairs all the way up to the top. The view was amazing. You could literally see as far as your eyes would let you. We we're above every tree and could see the temples from plaza that at the time we were there we thought they were huge but from here they all looked small. We had time to just sit and enjoy the view and take it all in. Time to reflect and think about all we had been seeing. This was the view from the top.

After visiting Tikal we got in the van and headed back to Belize. The ride back wasn't that bad and we got back in Belize around 8. Not really sure what we are doing today we have a few ideas but nothing 100% positive yet. I'll make sure to let you know what we did tonight after our day it over.

Until then, 

Josh Aleshire

Day Seven in Belize:

     Even though I only had a few hours of sleep last night, I woke up with a smile on my face knowing that we were going back to Belize. Guatemala was probably the most beautifulest place I have ever seen face to face but it was time to go back. We did a a lot of great work in Guatemala and visited many different places and tried so much food that I think I gained a couple pounds.
     We went to the pasta place for breakfast this morning and had eggs, a big chip with beans on it, and tomatoes. We enjoyed our last view of the lake from our outside meal. After that, we gathered our things and headed off to the Mayan ruins. It took about two hours to get there due to all of the rain we have had when it was suppose to be about an hour drive but I'm glad that we made it there safely.
     When we arrived, we found out that the entire area of ruins was over six miles long and that it would take about seven hours to see everything. I do not think we walked six miles but we were there for about seven hours because we were taking so many pictures and just enjoying everything. Each piece had it's own purpose which I thought was fascinating to see and know what all they did and what they looked like. Even though it was rainy and slippery, it did not stop us from climbing the ruins to get a better view of everything. My favorite piece was the second tallest building in South America which was a ruin. It took approx 200 steps to get up to the top and it was a great reward to get up there. You could literally see for miles and miles and see all of the ruins and mountains. It was a Kodak moment. I am terrified of heights so that was an achievement for me personally but I just could not look straight down. There were a lot of people up there so I decided to make a joke by saying "Hey the Wi-Fi works up here! I have two bars!" And this guy next to me said seriously?! And a lot of people looked at me. I thought it was humorous.
     While we were up there, we saw a raccoon/anteater animal that was super sweet! It had a nose like an anteater and a body like a raccoon that climbed the ruins without the stairs. Pretty impressive in my opinion. We visited a few more spots after that and headed off to the border which was a couple of hours away. We had dinner after crossing over at this local restaurant by our campgrounds. I had fried rice and a chocolate milkshake and it was great. Waiting for us at the campgrounds were the education majors from MVNU. Heck yes to more people! It is nice seeing more people from school and cannot wait to see what all we do for the next couple weeks with them!