Ray of Sunshine Travel

Hola! Thanks for being here, and thanks for your prayers for our time here in Belize!

This post will cover Weeks 5 and 6 in Belize, as I got sick Week 5 and don’t have much to cover. I mentioned in the last post that I started feeling under the weather on Saturday into Sunday, but I was still really hoping that it would be just a little bug that would pass quickly. Unfortunately, that was just not the case.

On Monday, we went to Belmopan to renew our visa, and I was still feeling pretty crummy. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait terribly long and we got everyone squeezed in before they closed for lunch! We also got to grab some classic Belizean fast food for lunch afterwards, which was good.

I had been taking my temperature over the last few days, since my host brother E had had a fever when he was sick, but everything was showing normal – until I got home from Belmopan and clocked 101 degrees. Thus kicked off five more days of flu.

Reader, it was not fun. I had every symptom in the book – fever, cough, runny nose, chills, aches. I spent 95% of my time in the hammock or the bed. I struggled to sleep at night, whether due to temperature swings or feverish dreams. But by the grace of God, things finally started to turn around on Friday, and by Sunday I was starting to feel close to normal again – just in time to leave our town on Monday. I’m honestly still kind of grieving the loss of that week – there were so many things I wanted to do with my family and so many things I missed out on: the last week of helping at the school, getting to read to J, going to Rio on Pools with the team, going to Spanish Lookout with our family, and so on. But I know God can bring good things out of hard experiences, and I’m counting on him to redeem that week. It was definitely a good reminder not to save things for the last minute, and it truly could have been so much worse. I’m grateful I don’t really have any lasting side effects save for a cough.

I did catch a few fun moments, like the horn on this guy’s bike:

Sunday night was the first night I finally felt well enough to go to church; it also happened to be our last night of church. Mama, Papa, and J all sang, which was a real treat! Papa especially is such a good singer.

It was a night of goodbyes – hard to believe it was almost time to leave this place we had come to love!

I had decided last minute before church to mix up some cake batter, which we baked after church. I had told our family friends about it, and so even though it was late, they came over to help us eat it. Unfortunately, I got the oven too hot, so it stuck to the pan, and I don’t have any pretty pictures to show. But everyone still said they enjoyed it – Papa enough that he was eating the scraps out of the pan!

It was so nice to have everyone over again – one last hurrah.

The next morning, I woke up earlier than normal and helped Mama with the entire process of making tortillas one last time.

Mama left for work, then MK and I said our goodbyes to the boys before they went to school. We did end up walking over to the school so I could say a quick goodbye to my class, since I was sick the whole week before. We stopped at Mama’s work on the way back to say goodbye, then headed back home to pack the very last of our things. Pastor N soon arrived to pick us up, and we said goodbye to Papa and drove to the other house to get the rest of the girls. Before long, we were on the road to our next home.

It was definitely a tear-filled morning. We had fallen in love with our little town and our families over the past five weeks, and goodbyes were really hard.

The drive to our next home really wasn’t that long and didn’t provide a lot of time to process and transition, so we dropped our bags off at new places, said a quick hello to our new families, then went to a local coffee shop to debrief a little. Honestly even that experience was a little overwhelming for me personally – the shop was so modern and different from what we had experienced the past five weeks that I felt a bit of reverse culture shock. But I got to try boba tea for the first time, which was a cool experience! I think I’m a new fan.

When we returned to our house, we got a tour of the place! Definitely a lot bigger than my previous house, but to be fair nobody is living in the second story because it’s still being worked on.

We did get a tour of the upper story, which has some really pretty views!

My housemates this time around are J and H. They are so sweet, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them more! We live with our host mom, Mama E, and her adult son, though he’s not home very often because he works. Mama E at times runs a vegetable stand out of her house, but right now she primarily sells tamales downtown. That first night we ended up going with her to help, which was a fun experience!

While we were there we heard worship music and realized it was live! Lauren had told us earlier that day that a local church she was really interested in was having a worship night on the town that evening, but she couldn’t figure out where it was. And lo and behold, it ended up being just up the street from us! We walked over and worshipped with them for a couple songs, then walked back. I think the Lord knew I needed that experience after a hard day.

We had finished selling tamales by ten, so we caught a taxi and headed back home and crashed for the night. Tuesday we got up at a decent time to head to a local private school, where we’ll be helping out on Mondays and Tuesdays the rest of our time here. Some of the group was assigned to different classrooms, and the rest of us helped the principal with some organization and creating behavior tracking devices.

We walked back with the rest of the group to their house and hung out for a while. Their house is definitely quite a bit busier! But it was a lot of fun getting to hang out and get to know the other family a little more.

We walked home, and since Mama E had already left to make tamales, we got to stay back for the night and enjoy the sunset from the roof, along with some time to ourselves! Sunsets here are just gorgeous – definitely something I will miss when we leave.

Wednesday morning we headed to a local private preschool to help for the day. It was quite a bit different from the primary school the day before, as the preschool was much smaller. Half the group was in one class and the other half in the second, so there was a lot of time with individual kids.

School in general is a bit different from our experience with school in the village. There’s definitely a lot more access to resources here – the primary school has a printer, a laminator, laptops for the teachers, and projectors for nearly all the classrooms. Most classroom decorations are purchased or printed rather than handmade. There’s also a lot more diversity in students here – almost everyone in the village was mestizo (Latino), but here there’s a good mix of mestizos, garifunas (black people), and even a handful of white people and the occasional Chinese person. Spanish also isn’t as widespread here, though it’s still pretty commonly spoken! Our host mom speaks almost exclusively Spanish, so we’re still getting lots of practice in!

Wednesday we were also introduced to the process of making tamales – we cleaned banana leaves over lunch for Mama E and her helpers.

After school, we went with her into town and sold again! This time we tried tostadas from our friend M – que rico!

Thursday we got up bright and early and went to Pastor N’s new house to help him with some work there. We were tasked with spreading some dirt (read: clay) to help even out the yard, which was some trying work. We did as best as we could and called it quits around lunchtime. Before we left we did get to try some coconut water and starfruit! There might have also been just a little bit of horsing (or shall I say “turkeying”) around with the farm animals!

That evening was a birthday party for one of the guys in the other host home, and our house was invited too, so the three of us went. There was a lot of really good food – barbecued chicken, fresh tortillas, chips with queso, and even ice cream cake!

Friday was a long, hard, but satisfying day of work! We went with Pastor N to the other church he preaches at, where they’re building a new church building around the old one, and mixed up concrete all morning into the afternoon. It was a really hot day too, into the 90s, but Pastor graciously supplied us with breaks and treats throughout the day, such as chocobananas, Cokes, apples, and cold waters. I was pretty proud of our group and the progress we were able to make – praise God for healthy, strong bodies!

We took a good solid nap afterwards, then went to church with Mama E that night. This church is the same denomination as the one we went to in the village, but definitely a bit more charismatic. It’s not uncommon for some of the women to start jumping up and down, shaking their arms, moaning or yelling, and sometimes talking in words we don’t understand. When asked afterwards, these women would tell you that they were experiencing the Holy Spirit, which is amazing! I guess I’m still struggling to process it because it’s so different from anything I’ve seen and also very different from what I expected a Holy Spirit encounter to look like. It was really kind of the pastor to have someone translate the service for us, and it seems like it will be a regular thing whenever we’re there!

Saturday we slept in a good bit – we were still recovering from all that concrete mixing – but eventually got up and headed to the downtown market with Mama E. We walked around and got some groceries, then she took us to go get pupusas since we’d never had them! They were really good – almost like a corn tortilla quesadilla/pancake with cheese, beans, and meat. It sounds like it might become a tradition for us!

Afterwards, we had our Ephesians bible study at a local ice cream spot. I got rum and raisin – so good!!

Saturday evening the team went to a more contemporary church that had a service in English. They had a prophecy team from New York visiting that weekend, so things probably looked a little different than normal – I’m looking forward to experiencing a typical service. I honestly struggled with many of the same things that I had struggled with the night before – several people fell to the ground and were moaning and shaking. A lot of the team had some really amazing encounters during that service and Sunday morning – praise God! I just have the feeling that it might take me a while to open myself up and trust that the Lord is in what I’m seeing.

Sunday morning we returned for service, then returned home and helped Mama make tamales. I’m pretty sure this was the first day I started helping with wrapping the tamales in banana leaves! It’s just one small part of the process, but it was nice to be able to contribute. We made 100 that day since it was a holiday on Monday, and we took them into town to sell. It was a long night – I think we finally returned home around 11:30 – but it went quicker than I expected! One of the best parts of selling tamales with Mama is the conversations we get to have with people and the outreach opportunities it provides. We definitely got to have a lot of convos that night! I’m praying that God works through us in these interactions and that people would see Him in us, whether or not they want to or are looking for Him. We did get to have a lot of laughs, and I particularly enjoyed jamming with one of our friends to 80s romantic classics for a good solid hour!

Well friends, that covers two full weeks – as always, thanks for the prayers, and I’ll try to have the next post up soon! Much love!