Wednesday
The trip began with picking up Dad from the airport in Belize and immediately catching a bus to Benque. This involved a little 'layover in Belmopan' and we reached Benque by 1:30. I was hoping to do Xunantanidge (the big mayan ruins) but the river was too flooded for the ferry. As we waited for Roger's meeting to finish at the Town Hall we toured the community library, went to the House of Culture and played the marimba, then I ran into the head of the Belize National Library Service, Joy, and it was pretty great. We had these big plans of going to a fancy 'American style i.e. seats and real tables with menus and air conditioning' Mexican restaurant. We walked all the way there only to discover that the one day it is closed is...Wednesday. So we decided to make a pasta dinner instead! We chatted with Roger about Peace Corps, Benque, and how the first time Roger saw the ocean it was in Hawaii when he went with the boy scouts. Roger had a meeting at 6:00pm so we made and ate dinner, bathed in the
last warm shower of the trip, and went to bed.
Thursday: Kaylyssa's 25th Birthday!! We woke up at 7 and feasted on tortillas and eggs before heading off to xunanatanidge. We lucked out and the ferry was open again. We hurried across the river to beat the large bus of cruise ship tourists. We were picked up by a European couple on a private tour and therefore got to skip the uphill mile walk to the site. We went straight up to the top of the main ruin. Dad is pretty scared of heights (something he passed on to Greg) and so there were some pep talks and hugging of walls as we climbed up above the jungle canopy.
When we reached the top Dad loved the view...even if he stayed between the two pillars. We hung out there enjoying the breeze and chatting while the tourists we sped past spilled into the courtyard like ants attacking. On the way back down Dad said, "It's like an infinity pool up here." as he inched on his bottom towards the stairs. He did really good, my sister thought she was going to vomit when we were at the summit. After a
thorough tour, and a quick call to Mom
Casaletto, we were on our way back to
Benque. While at the bus stop we met a returned Peace Corps volunteer from Peru who is starting up a non-profit in Nicaragua. After I quickly jotted down the number of a hostel he could stay at in
Dangriga he hurriedly shook our hands and ran to catch his bus. After lunch at 'The Three Sisters' we caught a bus and were off to the best district in Belize...Toledo!
We made it to our junction at 7 and began the walk in...periodically stopping to turn off our flashlights and stare up at the stars and the Milky Way. As we got closer to the village and started passing houses people began to hail us. The Pops on the hill asked if this was Greg's father...
we had to yell over the preschoolers', "
KAVINA!" but we got it across that yes this was the dad. They yelled, "Welcome to our village!" as we picked up our bags to continue the hike. Along the way there were shouts of 'goodnight' and 'Mr. Greg! Miss
Kavina' (that's how they say my name...or
keveen). We finally made it to the house with Sheldon,
Morpheus, and Margarita all running out to greet us. Morpheus instantly hung all over Dad and they were all very interested in him. We sat outside and chatted...you know, about how old Dad is, how he is still young, and where my Mother in Law was.
This is when we found out that Al is how you say young in
Ketchi! I set up the bed, swept the floor and made oatmeal while the men talked until Brendon fell asleep sitting up. We had oats for dinner, Dad sat in a hammock for the first time in his life (and proceeded to fall asleep in it) then we all read a little and went to bed.
Friday
6:00 wake up. Mrs. Cecilia gave us a big plate of corn tortillas and chi'chiron (fried pig skin) which we enjoyed with oranges from the backyard. We headed out on a little village tour starting with our library and world map and then visiting 6
families. Everyone wanted to see my father-in-law. Mainly the same questions were asked:
-How old is he?
-Where is his wife?
-When will he go back?
-How is he liking Belize?
and of course they all say, 'but he's still young' Since it is hurricane season, the weather was a common topic during our visits. We talked about hurricane Iris (the one that leveled the village) and how everyone had to live in the school for a month until they finished building back everyone's houses. The men would just all come together and build one house after another until everyone had shelter once again. While visiting with Anna's parents I sat and gossiped with Mrs. Chun while the husband showed them all the types of plants growing around their house. We did all this in just an hour and a half! Dad and Greg walked to the junction and headed off to San Antonio to see the falls. Dad and Greg hitch hiked for the first time since the 70s. They got lunch at the High School at Dump...chicken chow main made by an East Indian guy. Then got the most decrepit village bus in Toledo, the Chen bus, to San Antonio. Dad said he wished it was okay to just take a thousand pictures of the bus scene. Packed with people, each bump would jostle the shift boot exposing the road below. Dad latter said he was amazed at how these kids would just stand,
sit 5 to a seat, or seemingly
levitate in ungodly positions and not say a word of complaint...well,
actually, not say a word at all. They had the falls to themselves for 3 hours and the water was cold enough that Dad actually got slightly chilly. They waited 2 hours watching chickens for the next bus and while grabbing a beer at Dump George, one of Greg's friends picked them up and proceed to shuttle them from the principals to the bars.
Meanwhile I have been busy helping the
BNLS sort the rest of our books to take back then making
tamales at Vera's house for the football marathon the following day.
Greg was happy to get my text so he had an excuse to ask George to take them home (drinking is a weakness here
amongst Mayans...usually ends in crying) So anyway Dad, George, and Greg arrived at Vera's house where everyone stared and they were served rice with gizzards and chicken feet. They went home around 8 and I stayed sifting
masa and baking until 10:30.
Saturday...The Day of the Marathon
I begrudgingly woke up at 4:30 to bathe and then go back over to Vera's to finish the tamales. The ladies liked they way I folded them (they said it
was very neat) they made me show another lady how I did it because she folded hers backwards.
Luckily I had practiced this art once before at
Florintinas. At 8:00 we stopped to have breakfast...tamales of course. I walked over 6 to Dad and Greg and took this time to sit for a while (I'd been standing until late at night and all morning) I wanted to take a nap but the three bowls of coffee wouldn't let me. We all walked back to Vera's and all the ladies watched as we approached (the men had gone to the field apparently) we sent Dad and Greg to the field and immediately after they turned their backs the
banter began. In
Ketchi one lady said 'I want to get me that old man' which was followed by
another one saying that, 'no he is too handsome for you...he should be for me.' This kept up until everyone was laughing and joking and Virginia, I guess thinking I wasn't understanding, said, "Looks like there will be a fight." I said, "That's what I hear!" much to the delight (and
squeals) of the ladies. Virginia, realizing I understood much more than they thought, quickly added, "Don't tell your mother-in-law!" with a very serious pleading look on her face. Too funny. I made it over to
mand the food station with Sofia around 10:45 to see Dad, Greg, and about 3 men standing by the 'bar'
trying to shout over the
blaring music. Greg said the music had been on full force since 8:30. Lilly and Erica came to hang out until the 1:00 bus then (after our free lunch of rice and beans with stewed chicken) Greg went to pick up Chris (one of the volunteers from the new group) and Christen (a volunteer from my group) from the junction. I was delirious from lack of sleep and my shift was supposed to be over at two...it was 2:04. I stuck it out for about 20 minutes then mumbled something to Andres about how I think these girls can handle the money and left. I found everyone chugging water,
soaked with sweat at the house. Chris and Christen were standing because they were aching from their 8 hour bus ride. They went back out to the field after they
re-hydrated, or as Dad said, "I am beginning to feel like a human again." They watched Silver Creek take both second and third (youth and senior team) and got to see the 3 potential Silver Creek Queens be escorted onto the field by nervous looking policemen. I slept. Then I went to wash, at dusk and
much to my surprise the creek was pretty busy. I scrubbed as fast as I could to finish the two buckets before
it was too late. Everyone was already back when I 'reached.' They used the excuse of me baking dinner to get out of a long, endless conversation with a drunk guy. So I got straight to work making tortillas. It was so nice having a girl visit! Christen happily helped me pat tortillas and then washed the dishes for me while I made cake. We were all exhausted and attempted reading...Greg fell asleep in the hammock. Chris and Christen were in the other two hammocks and Dad was in his tiny bed.
Sunday
6:00 AM wake up. We had coffee
and toast with jam and dallied around until around 8:00 when we walked over to the library and began painting the library. Alberto (a recent high
schooler) came over to help too because he wanted to make it open fast so he could use it for school! We got a lot done in a little more than an hour. As Dad was turning and pushing the wired on roller every which way to try to get the uneven walls covered he said, "you know you should really get some fluffy rollers." Christen quickly pointed out his fault, " You do realize you're painting a library in the middle of a
Mayan village?" Everyone had a good laugh and periodically Dad would just mutter, "fluffy rollers." When we had 30 minutes to catch the bus we quickly packed our football bags and then began the trek to the junction to make our way over to Trio to play football against their women's and men's teams! We got to watch the set up of the Big Falls Football Marathon as we were waiting for the bus. When we got on there were already 5 Peace
Corps on the bus. Each village we stopped at a few more got on until we reached Trio where we all
piled up and immediately began to catch up on each other's lives. We stood in a circle
sharing our snacks of snickers, carrots, tofu
sandwiches, and cheese. There were around 12 of us and then
Zander showed up with a truck and a driver and we ALL piled in. Ashley, Holly, myself and Dad squished in the back of the cab and everyone else packed into the back.
Zander spoke
Spanish just like a
Trioian and
hilariously we listened to
English nursery rhymes from the CD player (he actually turned this up when we started talking to loud). After a stop at
Zander's host family where we met up/ caught up with the 8 or so other volunteers who came in last night, we
went over to the 'Go Bananas' office, changed and walked to the field. What we thought was just supposed to be a friendly game turned into a 6 team mini marathon packed with spectators. Bring on the nerves. Girls were up first so we run out to the field, to our opponents (dressed in skirts and shoeless and since I am playing a forward I hear them saying, "Mira los zapatos!" and so I asked the girl closest to me if she wanted us to take off our footwear. She said, "I don't know' which means yes so I yelled to the girls to take it off and within 5 minutes were were all barefoot in the mud reading to begin. The field was covered in puddles/lakes, surrounded by banana trees and watched over by the maya mountains in the distance. I was smiling the entire game as girls slid and dropped helping one another up regardless of which team you were on. Mallory ( a volunteer from the new group, and a college football player) was our MVP doing amazing things and scoring one of our two goals. Alas, we lost 2-3. We took a picture with both teams then the girls invited us to come bathe in the
river with them. We walked over barefoot chatting in Ketchi, kriol or spanish depending on what we knew and what they spoke then got to the cliff that overlooked the emensly swollen river rushing below. One girl goes flinging off the cliff, by the time she surfaces she's almost out of sight downstream...I am dripping hot, we all jump in. We have to paddle like mad to make it over to the alcove with the big stump before the current takes us. We are all laughing as we reach out to pull each other to the shore. We do some flips...Taylor does a back flip! I do some front flips...we send one of the boys to get a camera
and we take another team picture right there in the water. The sun came out for the boys game, and even though there was still some comical slipping and slidding it was a much more serious game and Peace Corps Men (the Gibnuts) won 1-0. I bought BBQ in Ketchi (much to the vendors delight) and downed a bag of fresh pineapple juice with two oranges with salt and pepper for desert. Greg hurt his foot kicking the ball the last minute so we went off to jump in the river again before Zander and Owen aranged a ride to the junction 7 miles away. We made it back just in time
for a quick visit with the Pop's (to check out Gilldo's art) put down our stuff and head over to the Tiul's for their son's 18th birthday. This family is from Guatamala and doesn't have electricity so we had delicious ix'qu with meat by candle light. I joked around with Rosa and much to my delight found out she is going to repeate standard 6 at a school in town! (This is only her 3rd year speaking english and she was the only one to not go to high school from last year). This made me so happy so after a few family pictures we went home full and tired.
Monday6:00 wake up. We had a breakfast of cinnomin toast with real butter! We then went over to the library to paint some more. Christina (our future librarian) came over as we were opening it up and I showed her all the new books and shelves and talked to her about how the library would work. She'd never seen a library before. She was very excited to hear some of my ideas and can't wait for her training (it should be soon!). We barely got the lids off the paints before 6 other boys came to help. We bought some more brushes and set everyone to work. It was amazing 
how much we painted in a couple of hours...even without 'fluffy rollers.' The boys worked hard doing all the dirty work (painting under the shelves,etc) and we bought everyone ideals (ice pops) for a shilling (25 cents). When we were finished, much to my dismay I walked out to see the boys took it upon themselves to give a yellow face lift to the community water pump. Great. Boys. I quickly laid into them with guilt about how this would be the last thing my father in law remembered from the village how 'mas xul' very rude the boys were. They immediately and silently began to try to scrub off the quickly
drying paint with their brushes and their nails. I sent a boy to get my steal wool and stood there with Christina lecturing them while they silently worked. They got it pretty clean again pretty fast and really it wasn't that big of a deal but rudeness is just not tolerated in a Mayan village. We came home to bathe and pack and had our farewell lunch at the Coh's. They prepared my all time favorite meal again...cahoon cabbage!!! Mr. Santiago told Dad how were were like his daughter and son and it was really nice to hear him say that. I do love that family. Dad was amazed at the number of tortillas we
could throw back (he was stuffed since you had to eat tortillas to eat the cabbage (no silverware is offered in the village). After some final goodbyes and thanks yous we made the walk once more to the junction. We made it to PG, had a tour and a taste of the Toledo Cacao Grower's Association and then met Peter, Michelle, and Nate at their house. The boys went off to the Ocean View bar while Michelle and I had girl time meeting back up at the only restaurant with air-conditioning. Dad later said that he was getting pretty hungry and kind of annoyed at the hour plus wait for our food but we
volunteers (having developed an ungodly amount of patients in Belize) barely noticed. Peter delighted us with stories of his turbo powered shower with a delayed pump to lure it's victims in. They unknowingly stand under the trickle of luke warm water until the pump roars to life propelling the innocent victim against the wall with a super powered, super heated fire fighter hose jet of water. He also told us how at times it smells like pool-water (due to over chlorination) and other days like a sewer. Oh Belize.
Tuesday
5:00 wake up. We walked over to the 'airport' aka trailer and arrived at 6:10. No one's there. 6:35 (25 minutes before take) off and one clerk shows up. Finally pilots and crew start arriving along with a lot of old Garifuna ladies speaking Garifuna in the house dresses. Dad checks in, which consists of him showing the printout and them saying, "oh Al, yes we have you on the list you can have a seat." A few minutes later they pass out the laminated yellow bookmarks that say 'Boarding Pass' in big bold letters. At 7:00 a lady stands by the door and says quietly, "now boarding" everyone awkwardly walks towards
the door...we say our goodbyes and give our hugs and Dad hands his yellow plastic ticket aboard to the clerk and walks out to his plane. Until next time Dad.
Now for the...
VISITOR SURVEY!!!!!!
1. Dates of Visit: 8/25-8/31
2. Itinerary: Benque until Thursday, Thursday-Monday in the Village, Monday- Tuesday PG.
3. Weather: A typical day stared out a little cloudy in the morning then
sunny, hot and humid in the afternoon, I am guessing between 85 and 87 degrees and when the sun when down the clouds rolled in with thunder, lightning, and rain.
4. Money spent: &235 USD
5. Souvineers taken back: Bug bites and lots of great memories
6. Something that surprised you: Chicken feet and gizzards over rice was a delicious meal.
7. Something you learned: Now I have an appreciation of how life must have been on US farms during the 40s and 50s
8. Something you wish was in America: The close knit community
of the village. It was a nice atmosphere. I liked how everyone banded together for the good of the people.
9. Favorite Part: Swimming in the San Antonio Falls. The setting was beautiful and the water was cold.
10. Hardest Part: The weather conditions may have been bad at times with the heat and humidity, but other than that it wasn't hard at all.
11. Funny Story: The time I laughed the hardest was at the girls football game. The field was riddled with puddles and mud and all the
girls could do was slip and fall and splash. It was not the most skilled game I have ever seen but it sure was the most hilarious. It was a lot of fun to watch them play.
12. Celebrity Spotting: Andres, the Mayor (correction the chairman...like a mayor), El Calde the magistrate (correction Alcalde) and the Bush Doctor (*who looks like the kid from the Mad Magazine)
13. Other Peace Corps Volunteers you met: Roger, Lilly, Erica, Chris, Christen, Joel, Zander, Ashley, Laura, Miguel, Denise, Owen, Mallory, Dan, Holly, Taylor, Alyson, Megan, Kristen, Cali, Andy, Klifton, Michelle,
Nate, and last but not least...PETER! That's right 25 Peace Corps...a little more than a fourth of us!
14. Illnessess or injuries: 1 upset stomach (lobster fritters at the bus stop the first day), bug bites (no one warned me about the small fly that you don't see or feel that produces a hell of an itchy welt), and one sore toe (wearing crocs on a gravel road is not the smartest choice of footwear).
15. Thoughts on your visit: I met a ton of super nice people and that includes volunteers and locals alike. There is a lot of hard work going on and everyone (locals and volunteers) is trying to make a difference. I hope
Kevina and Greg are proud of what they're doing because you have a great amount of influence on peoples lives. Stay safe, have fun and hurry home, we all miss you.
16. Advice to the next visitor: Remember to be patient, drink plenty of water, and just enjoy the experience.
So we had an action packed, no stop, last week of vacation with Dad. He was probably one of the best guests we had, working hard, always with a smile and really going with the flow. Margarita said it best, "I like Al miss." Everyone does margarita, everyone does.
My fat hand after a doctor fly bite
At Marencos for our farewell dinner!
Ocean View Bar
The airport and Dad's boarding pass.
Bye Dad!
