Mini Vacation!

Last weekend all the trainees were sent off all over the country to visit a current volunteer. This was great because they were in different project sectors and we got a chance to see more of the country. We went to Punta Gorda! We stayed there previously but, only for one night and didn't get to see much of the town. It was super great because there were around 7 of us going down south on the same bus. The first night everyone stayed in town and we went out to eat and hung out until 2AM officially the latest I have stayed up in Belize by several hours...okay 4 hours to be exact.

Saturday we had a delicious breakfast at the 'Snack Shack' where the owner was American but would switch from English to perfect kriol with no problem! Greg got a huge breakfast burrito and I got whole wheat pancakes! We then went out to a small village and watched a workshop two volunteers were putting on. There was a great turnout and they were learning how to write receipts and keep the books for the new market stalls they just built! Katie, the volunteer we were staying with, was hilarious. She was making up an example and said, “so lets say a husband asks his wife to buy him a stall for tomorrow...and he says, 'Hey babe, will ya please please go get me a stall for tomorrow.” It got a few chuckles from the ladies in the audience because it is unlikely a husband would ask so nicely.

We also walked to a waterfall with a volunteer stationed in that town. It was a hot walk but very much worth it! I fell hard twice...the first time with 3 local boys staring at me so of course I got laughed at. Oh well it was fun jumping off the falls and playing in the cool water. We played until it was time to walk back and catch the bus back into town. We made a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes, callalu, guacamole, cucumbers with vinegar, and ginger tea. We managed to stay up till around 9 talking but we were so hot and tired we had to go to bed.

The market on the water AND the fish market!!! Kinda smelly.

We jumped off the falls!





The workshop on book-keeping.

Sunday we went fishing with Katie's counterpart and some of his friends. They borrowed a boat and after much delay (waiting for someone to bring food, waiting for someone to bring a knife, then us going to get our bathing suits, etc) we finally headed out for the day. So after we went about 15 minutes we stopped to fish. They passed out our fishing apparatuses...which were an empty bottle, or a piece of foam that they wrapped the fishing line around a bunch of times then tied a hook on the end. We used shrimp as bait and just threw the line in the water and held it with our hands. When we felt a tug we just quickly pulled in our line letting it pile up on the bottom of the boat or our laps and then up it comes! We altogether caught 30 fish. This was one of the hottest days yet in Belize (later all the volunteers were all talking about how it was exceptionally hot. So here we are sitting in a boat with no shelter and no breeze just dripping sweat. As soon as I put on sunblock instantly I would sweat it all off. I was getting so burnt. Finally, at around 1:30 I remembered I brought my umbrella (which you always keep with you in Belize, not really for the rain but for the noon time sun. So here I am sweltering with my yellow umbrella in one hand and the fishing line in the other. Greg was catching fish left and right and having a grand time hanging out with all these guys (seeing as how he is surrounded by women all the time during training). In the afternoon we rode by some lovely looking Cayes or islands. One had a couple tour boats anchored and so we dropped anchor and jumped in to finally cool off. It was kind of funny thinking these people probably paid hundreds of dollars to do what we're doing. We floated around and then went on shore where the guys found coconuts and proceeded to shuck them by just banging them against things....when they came back to the boat they said it was man vs. wild out there and they wanted to challenge that guy on TV to man vs. Belize! So they cut a hole in the coconut and we all shared the juice then ate the meat. We ate so well on this trip. We had a total of around 20 sandwiches between 6 people (fish and chicken), watermelon, coconut, bananas, and cokes! After the swimming I gave up on trying to fish. My sole goal was to prevent the sun from touching my body. I covered my arms with my towel and hid under the umbrella drinking water. We met up with a boat of four guys that we stopped to chat with earlier in the morning. They were in the fishing contest that was going on that day. They were using the same home made fishing situations as us. They caught a huge 7 ft sand shark! We gave them our cooler of fish to help them win. If they won they would use the prize money to through a party with all of us. The exchange was pretty funny they barley stopped because the time for the contest was almost up. They did a circle around us and just scooped up the cooler on the turn and sped off. They didn't win, not even third so we got our fish and split them up between us. We tried to say we only wanted a few (we caught 30 altogether) but they insisted we have half. So then we spent the next 3 hours cleaning and cooking the fish. We marinated them in lime juice (there was a lime tree next door) then baked them on the grill with honey BBQ sauce in banana leaves. We also made onion rings! We were so burnt. My hands were a purple color because I forgot to put sunblock on them (since I never do).

Our homemade fishing lines!

A quick dip to get out of the ridiculous heat!

After a lovely swim to an island where we found and opened coconuts!





Dinner of champions!

We decided to take the express bus at 6am since it was AIR CONDITIONED and would put us back home earlier. We dragged ourselves out to the bus stop ( I was up almost all night with bad stomach issues) and as we got on the luxurious bus we saw two other trainees. At each stop we picked up a few more trainees until all of us that went south, except three, were with us. At the main pit stop in Dangria we had quite an interesting bathroom situation. So we paid our dollar and went back and I was second in line. So as I get back to the bathroom the woman in front of me is yelling at someone, when I turn the corner I see why. There is an older man IN the bathroom. She is yelling and pointing to the womans sign. He just smiles and walks into the stall. Then he proceeds to take a poo with the door about a foot open! We all try to look away and quietly whisper our confusion. THEN a lady walks in, right past the rest of us and goes up to his open door and just stares inside until he is finished! I guess she knew him. So he comes out and the lady, skipping all of us, goes in. This causes a bit of an outrage with the kriol lady in front of me. So the guy takes his sweet time washing his hands and then just stands in the middle of the bathroom. By this time the lady in the other stall came out and sort of, “on no you need to get out of here” and swatted him out of the bathroom. AND THEN when the lady came out when she turned to wash her hands and her dress was tucked into her underwear! My friend and I exchanged glances of shock and after a while I tapped her and told her. She thanked me and walked out and that was that.

Update:
So the starving dogs. The final straw was a small 6” puppy hungry and with mange. So that day during our lunch break I walked to the new store and bought a bag of dog food. Now I carry around a zip lock bag of around 3 big handfuls of dog food so when I see a hungry dog, he gets a handful of food. It's not going to save lives, it won't change their life but it is the best I can do and helps me sleep a wee bit better at night. Hopefully when I get in my final site I will work on more sustainable answers to this problem.

Finally an animal I can cuddle with (without getting mange or worms)!

We got to skype with Kristen, hunter, and Greg's mom and dad! Little hunter is huge! He looks like a little man already! He is just so cute and squishy and I get a big knot in my stomach when I see him because I want to hold him and kiss his fat cheeks SO bad! I cannot wait to see in February! We also skpyed kaylyssa, brandon and Aiden so I got to see two babies and two sisters in one day!