Belize Navidad!

One of the things the Belizeans know how to do well is take a holiday.  The schools here have 3 weeks off for Christmas and 2 weeks off for Easter!  Unfortunately we have to make up a few days because of all the days we missed in the Fall due to hurricane nonsense.  So, I enjoyed my break thoroughly by staying away from school and all schoolwork.  This is why I also didn't post anything for that time.  Our internet is only available in the teachers' lounge at school and who wants to be the teachers' lounge over Christmas?!

I've been trying to think of what to say for my next post and haven't come up with anything too thought provoking so I've decided to just post some pictures and write captions for them.






Some of you may not already know that my Mom and Dad were able to come down and visit me for Christmas!  It was such a blessing to get to see them and to have them experience some of what I'm experiencing here.  Also I think it gave them peace seeing that I'm 'safe' here and I have a makeshift family with the other volunteers and the SOLT priests and sisters.  I know they really enjoyed their time here, especially in Benque, the town where I live.  It was good that Mom and Dad were here for my first Christmas away from home!

Guatemala City Bus Station

 The first days of their trip were spent in Antigua, Guatemala.  Antigua is a beautiful city with cobblestone streets, a European feel, and an awesome view of several volcanoes.  The trip there is just the usual sort of travel in Central America, but it was a shocking for Mom and Dad so I'll share some of the funny details with you.  We started off at the border where we payed an exit fee to leave Belize and an entrance fee to enter Guatemala.  Then we walked a bit (with one very inconvenient-to-carry-for-long type bag, you never realize how inconvenient a bag is until you have to carry it instead of roll it!) to the bus station.  The bus station is a one-room wooden building with at cement floor and a desk.  Cash is the only acceptable form of payment and you can buy your tickets in advance, meaning the morning of.  We found out that there would not be a bathroom on the bus and Mom started getting worried, as if she wasn't worried already.  The buses in Guatemala are like old Greyhound buses, with maybe a little less leg room.

 After 10 hours (and one stop when we got off to use the bathroom and the bus started to pull away without us) we arrived in Guatemala City.  The bus station is bigger there, with benches inside to sit on, too, but cash is still the only acceptable way to pay.

I just added this pic of us standing on the side of the street with our bags because I think it's a funny and interesting picture.  It was about 7:30am and it was COLD (well, cold for me, anyway ;o)


We got a ride to Antigua from the sister of one of Mom and Dad's friends in MS.  She's been living in Guatemala for almost 40 years so it was great to get a tour and information about the country from her.  And, after being on the bus overnight, I noted right away how incredibly comfortable the seats are in her car!


This is a tuk-tuk.  Although Mom called it a Tu-Tu for a bit.  It's a popular mode of transportation in Guatemala.  You can catch a tuk-tuk and pay less than a taxi ride in a regular car.  Yes, they're cute, but Dad will tell you they're VERY bumpy on the cobblestone roads.







While in Antigua we stayed in the beautiful home of that same friend who gave us the ride in her comfy car from Guatemala City.  It's hard to pick just one picture of the house where we stayed because it was so amazing.  Probably the nicest house I've even been in!  There are such beautiful gardens in Antigua.  In this house the rooms (as you can see the couches in this pic) are partially outside.  It's a wonderful design, I think we should adopt it in the US... if it weren't for snow.




We were in Antigua to go to a friend's wedding.  Some of you know Matt and Michelle so I'll include a pic of the wedding party at the reception.  The reception was right outside Antigua with the volcano as the backdrop and beautiful gardens the wedding pictures are going to be amazing!

After the wedding we spent our last day there journeying (some hiking some riding) up a volcano.  Since Mom conveniently twisted her ankle within the first 10 feet of the hike she had to ride a horse, she was nice enough to carry the backpack with the water for us though.  The volcano had just erupted in May 2010 so it the last half of the 6 kilometer hike was covered in volcanic rock pebbles and sand.  The trees and plants were already growing back.  We were about 10,500' elevation.  

There are hot spots near the top where people were roasting marshmallows they brought up and throwing in sticks and watching them burst into flames in about 10 seconds.  It was a really neat experience!

Back in Benque... 

Here's a picture of our back porch.  You can see the railing doubles as a clothesline when our clothesline in the yard is full (quite frequently since there are 8 girls in the house).  Looking at this picture makes me wonder how it was ever cold enough to wear fleece pajama pants!  It was only a few weeks ago but it's already warm enough to sleep with the fan on at night now.  Notice the horse, "Mosey" grazing in the drainage ditch.  His owner brings him there a few days a week for a good healthy meal.  Horses are pretty commonly seen around town.

As you can see, Dad took full advantage of the Belizean version of a recliner!  The hammocks are used a lot here and are the coolest seat in the house when the weather heats up.  I had my students draw the 7 days of creation as a homework assignment in the beginning of the year and was surprised that about half of them drew God in a hammock between two palm trees on the 7th day!  I thought it was so great, and my students didn't get why I thought it was cute and was so pleased, to them it's the norm.  

Mom and Dad kind of adopted the 3 other volunteers that stayed here for the break.  There are 12 volunteers here for the year and 4 of us stayed here for the Christmas holiday.  Christmas Eve after Mass we had our traditional Hess late night feast of delicious snack foods.  The most popular was CHEESE this year!  We don't have access to a lot of dairy here, there's not much of it or selection, and it's super expensive.  So, we were all very happy to see the delicious cheese Mom brought for us!

Thanks to Mom and Dad, I had a ton of fun presents to open!  They were nice enough to pack extra luggage full of necessary (and unnecessary but really fun) things for me and the mission!  We had a great time opening them, laughing, and enjoying thinking of friends and family through the presents they sent.  And, don't you like our paper Christmas tree?  

Christmas day turned out to be quite warm, in the 80s and sunny.  Everyone from the mission gets together for a big meal out at the Robinson's ranch.  The Robinson's are a family that have been living here about 15 years and been doing mission work throughout Central America for years before that.  They have a beautiful thatched roof house they built a couple of miles outside of town.  

The Robinsons' Ranch

In this picture you can see the other members of SOLT (the religious community I'm working with here).  There are two sisters, two priests, several seminarians, and one family.  It really is like having my extended family here (and the priests tease me just as much as my family does!)

Chicken Bus

The day after Christmas we set off for San Pedro.  We took the public bus (referred to by us as the 'chicken bus' because they pack in so many people!).  The public transportation is fairly reliable and inexpensive in Belize, which is something to be thankful for.  Old school buses from the states don't seem so bad in developing countries.  At first you start to complain about your bum getting sore and then you realize you should just be happy you're not standing (like those 20 people in the aisle).

Once we got to Ramon's we checked in at Ramon's and headed out to explore the island a bit.  We went shopping, saw the airport (small airstrip), and went to Mass before heading back to Ramon's for a late dinner.  Here's a picture of Mom and Dad at Ramon's, the trees and plants around our thatched roof cabana are what really make Ramon's neat!  Dad was inspecting the roof like he was planning on making one himself when he gets home.  The next day it was hot, sunny, and beautiful!  We got up early, had breakfast, and spent a lot of time laying in the chairs on the beach.  It was so nice!  I got some cerviche (like a seafood salsa) for Mom and Dad to try because it's sooo delicious.  Local food was a big part of their trip.  Once they got over their fear of amoebas they were happy to try anything, including all street food we came across!

It was a wonderful visit with Mom and Dad.  They enjoyed it so much they're already planning their next trip down here!  After they flew home I spent the remainder of the break graded final exams and doing a lot of nothing.  I also spent 3 days on Caye Caulker, another island near San Pedro.  I laid on the beach or in a hammock with a book or asleep for 3 days straight.  It was the perfect ending to a Christmas holiday in Belize!  

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are beginning a great New Year!  It would be nice if all of you had a blog so I could keep up with what's going on in your life!  You're in my thoughts and prayers, God bless,  Betsy