Ray of Sunshine Travel

Welcome back! Thanks for reading, and thanks even more for keeping our team and families in your prayers!

Monday morning got off to a bit of a rough start. Our youngest brother E, who had been sick the few previous days, reached a 105 degree fever that would just not respond to medication, so our parents took him into town to go to the doctor. He’s doing a lot better now, praise God! Unfortunately the bug (I’m convinced it’s a strain of the flu) has made its way around the family, and I’m currently fighting it – this past week was my turn to have a 105 degree fever! Feeling better now, but we would really appreciate continued prayers for health for our team.

It was a welcome distraction, then, to get to go to Big Rock Falls in the afternoon with the team. It’s a beautiful spot, located in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. The pools that the water flows into are deep enough that you can do a little cliff-jumping if you so choose, which I did! Honestly, I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t think I’d do it again – the stress of trying to hit a good place to enter the water and the pain from entering the water pretty spectacularly (read: flop) detracted from the experience for me. I got by far the biggest bruises I’ve ever had! Nonetheless, it was still a great afternoon with a lot of bonding time with the team.

I think my favorite picture of the day, though, was this one!

We came home to company over, which was fun! We had a good time talking and joking before we excused ourselves for some much needed catch up time with family back home.

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day – normally we would be working in the school, but MK and I decided to stay home and watch E so that Mama L could go to work. He was feeling considerably better already, which was great! We had missed that mischievous smile – if not all the shenanigans usually preceded by that smile…

Wednesday was a fun day because we got to experience a parade for Independence Day! The holiday itself wasn’t until Thursday, but it was organized largely by the school I think, so the kids all marched in it and then got the rest of the day off. It was lots of fun!

The rest of the team had followed the parade over to our house, where they stopped and hung out for a while, so we got some team time in – plus Mr. E, of course!

One of my favorite moments of the week was that night when Mama mixed up a concoction of instant coffee, egg, and cornstarch for some DYI skincare! Us girls had such fun with it, giggling the whole time about how ridiculous we looked and joking about how Papa would respond when he came home and saw us. I have no idea if it did anything for our skin, but we at least got a great memory out of it!

Since there was no school on Thursday, MK and I decided to pay Miss S a visit and see how she and the puppies were doing. (They’re all doing great!) We happened to be there just in time to see her newest member of the family, Miss Sophia the kitten! Absolutely precious. One of Miss S’s friends had rescued her but couldn’t keep her, so Miss S volunteered to take her in. She’s definitely got her hands pretty full – at least the puppies are pretty low maintenance right now!–

I also taught J how to make a friendship bracelet using one I had started on Sunday, and he picked it up so quickly! You can hardly tell where I stopped and he started. Talented guy, especially in the creative arts!

Friday was a great day. We helped our family with clearing out the old tomato field in the morning, then after lunch we piled in a truck to go to Barton Creek. There we put on life jackets and piled into canoes. Our destination? A cave!

C, who’s related to the other host family, acted as our tour guide and expertly guided us through. It was so interesting – he told us all about how the Mayans thought that the rain gods could be accessed through the cave and how they would offer sacrifices in the cave. There was even a skull left behind from a human sacrifice, propped up where we could see it! There were also tons of really interesting formations in the cave, some that we really had to duck around to pass by. We paddled about a kilometer in, then got out and swam a little, then paddled out.

After we exited the cave, we spent several hours playing in the water! I enjoyed taking my canoe up the river a little ways, and there was a little more cliff jumping for those strong enough to straddle some vines. And of course there was chicken fighting! We had a lot of fun.

Afterwards we rushed back, grabbed church clothes and ate dinner quickly so that we could go to the church for the worship night we were putting on! As it turned out, nobody really showed up, but we were okay with that because it meant we got time to worship as a group!

Saturday morning I got up early to help Mama make tortillas, then we went over to the church to help prep for some food sales they were doing that night as a fundraiser. Afterwards, though, I had a pretty bad headache and wasn’t feeling great, so I went back to bed for most of the morning. I did get up and about that afternoon and caught this picture of Papa shaving, which I thought was really fun!

That night we had a nearby church come and visit our church, which was pretty cool! The other pastor preached, and while I was kind of in agony due to my headache, it was really amazing to see two people give their lives to the Lord that night, including our pastor’s son!

Sunday morning MK and I stayed home from church and listened to her service back home, which was a nice change of pace! I tried to take it easy most of the day, as I still wasn’t feeling great. We did walk over to the other girls’ house around dinner to get some pizza – my first pizza in Belize!! It definitely had some strange toppings – pineapple, carrots, peppers, and broccoli – but it still tasted pretty good!

Well friends, that makes another week – thanks for tuning in! I’m sorry this last post was pretty late – I’ll try to have the next one up soon! Much love!!