Sheraya Smith

Northern Road Trip Week 2: Island Hopping

February 22, 2026April 10, 2026Sheraya Smith1 Comment

Welcome back to week 2 of the Great Northern Road Trip! We left off at Chapel Rocks National Park in Michigan’s UP, so I’ll pick back up there.

Saturday I hiked the 10+ mile Chapel Loop trail, starting at Chapel-Mosquito Trailhead. It came highly recommended, and I would argue it was well worth the hype: sights included the 60 foot Chapel Falls and a couple of miles of Lake Superior shoreline. After having seen the sights from the lake the day before, it was neat to get a different perspective on land.

I met a really neat woman by the name of Jeanne along the trail, and we had some good conversation about my upcoming mission work and other topics. Unfortunately I cut our conversation short to stay back and look for a letterbox, and I wasn’t able to catch back up with her, but I’m still glad I got to meet her even if for just a short time.

After finishing the hike, I decided to drive up the road to Miner’s Castle and do a short hike there. It’s the only cliff area of the park that’s accessible by vehicle, so if you’re not looking to put in the ten miles on the Chapel Loop trail but still want some views, this is the way to go! There’s only about half a mile of out-and-back, paved trail to all the overlooks, so it can be a pretty quick stop if you want it to be.

I then drove out to Sand Point Beach, where I made dinner and enjoyed people watching for a while, then capped off the day with a short (<1 mile RT) hike to Munising Falls – beautiful at golden hour!

I spent another night at my free campsite at Hovey Lake, then rolled out that next morning. I picked up a letterbox in the nearby town of Munising, but instead of a quick stop, I decided to linger a little while afterward. It was Sunday morning, and I was missing attending church, so I decided to stream my Grandma’s church service. To my surprise, it was the worship pastor giving the message that morning, and the sermon topic was unbelievably fitting for my journey: God’s glory displayed through nature. Psalms 8, which was the core scripture for the message, is now one of my favorite passages – highly recommend looking it up.

After a nice, restful morning, it was time to hit the road for my second National Park of the trip: Voyageurs! Named for the French-Canadian fur traders who frequently traveled the area, the land can be characterized as having lots of small lakes close together. If you’re familiar with the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Voyageurs NP lies just to the west and has very similar topography; however, rules are much more relaxed in Voyageurs, and motorized boat travel is allowed in much of the park.

Unfortunately, I was at a water-based park without any watercraft of my own, and I couldn’t even camp in the park because virtually all of the campsites were only accessible by boat. Fortunately, I was able to get tickets for a boat tour so that I could still enjoy the lakes other than by land, and I found a campground just outside of the park situated on a lake – even better, I managed to snag a site that was directly on the water! It was raining when I got in on Sunday, however, so I just slept in my car that night.

Monday dawned beautiful and sunny. My boat tour wasn’t until Tuesday, so I took a nice, easy chill day exploring what I could of the park. First I meandered down to the Ashe River Visitor Center, stopping first at the Beaver Pond Overlook and the Lake Kabetogama Overlook.

The Visitor’s Center, though not much to it, was very cozy and quaint! I quite enjoyed eating lunch out back on the Adirondack chairs, soaking up the sunshine.

I set off on the 3-mile Blind Ash Bay trail and was overjoyed to hear another hiker mention finding blueberry bushes! I scrounged around in my pack for a ziploc, and finding an occupied one, quickly dumped it out so I could start gathering. I came up with a good little haul and enjoyed views of Kabetogama and some birch groves.

I decided to meander back to Woodenfrog Campground, stopping along the way for a letterbox – I was impressed how much the stamp resembled the sign!

Back at camp, I took a “bath” in the lake and managed to wash my hair under a faucet, then did some bucket laundry. I met my neighbor – a sweet older man named David who had to temporarily leave his apartment due to maintenance issues. Rather than be put up in a hotel, he decided to camp at Woodenfrog instead and was even hosting his grandson for part of the time I was there.

Sunset on the lake that night was very tranquil – I’m so glad I managed to get the spot I did!

Tuesday morning I decided to make pancakes and add in some of the blueberries I had foraged the day before. Pancakes is one of my dad’s favorite breakfasts to make – even in the back country, where the extra effort involved makes them a delicacy – so I was looking forward to recreating that experience. Unfortunately, I underestimated the time involved and wasn’t very accustomed to doing anything more than boiling water with my setup, so what I envisioned to be a relaxing breakfast before my boat tour turned into a scramble to get on the road in time – oops!

I made it though! And I’m so glad I did – as much as I had enjoyed relaxing the day before, a trip to Voyageurs just wouldn’t have been complete without actually getting on the water.

Our first stop of the day was the former homeplace of a man named I.W. Stevens. Stevens, more commonly known as “Steve”, purchased and moved to his 400-acre island after a doctor recommended he choose a less stressful career. He built a small, rustic resort on the island and operated it for over 20 years. While the guests were mostly seasonal, Steve lived there year-round, growing a garden, grinding his own wheat and baking his own bread, heating his cabin with wood he chopped himself, and many other impressive feats. He continued to live on the island for another 20 years after he closed the resort, putting him at 94 years old when he left, and he lived for another ten years after.

This was my favorite stop on the tour: I was in awe of Steve’s tenacity in building multiple structures basically by himself and eking out a living in such an isolated, formidable place – especially up until 94 years old! I’d say his doctor’s advice paid dividends, and then some!

The next stop on the tour was the Kettle Falls Hotel. In true Voyageurs fashion, the hotel is only accessible by water. Built in the 1910’s by timber barons, the hotel purportedly hosted some rather seedy guests, including Prohibition-era bootleggers who took advantage of the hotel’s proximity to the Canadian border. It’s now a much more mellow place and is most known for its tilted bar floor, which has slowly sank over a century-plus of operation.

While we were stopped here, we were also able to walk over to the Kettle Falls Dam, which happens to be one of the few places in the US from which you can look south into Canada. More of a fun little trivia fact than anything, but the view wasn’t half bad either!

After boarding for the final time, our boat meandered back to the visitor’s center, the interpreter pointing out sights to us as we went. Overall, I’d highly recommend the tour and even call it a must-do if you don’t have a boat of your own or other water access.

After deboarding, I decided to do another small, out-and-back hike on the Sullivan Bay Trail, but I honestly wasn’t very impressed, so I didn’t stay long; it didn’t help that it had gotten kind of overcast, so views weren’t especially appealing.

I headed back for my campsite, made dinner, and caught another pretty sunset: I really lucked out with getting the campsite that I did.

I also talked with my neighbor David a little more, and he showed me what serviceberries are! They are in fact edible, though a little seedy and slightly tart. I quite enjoyed snacking on them. These pictured here are not ripe yet – they should be a dark purple color.

Wednesday I packed up my site and said goodbye to David. I was really touched at how disappointed he was that I was leaving, and I even got a bit emotional on the drive to my next destination. I love solo travel and the freedom that comes with it, but I was starting to understand the drawbacks of extended solo travel. Up to this point the most I had traveled by myself was about ten days; here I was pushing 12 days and planning to spend another 4 weeks without seeing anyone I would know – quite the lonely thought.

Despite a somber start to the day, it ended up being a good one – I got to stop at the beautiful Glensheen Estate in Duluth, Minnesota. Built on Superior’s lakeshore between 1905-1908, the 39-room mansion was home to the family of the influential Chester Congdon, who gained his fortune by investing in iron mining in the area. My favorite room in the house was probably the Breakfast Room; the beautiful green tiles lining the room were said to be individually designed, each stamped with their own serial number in case it should need replacing. Such a luxury came at a cost: each tile cost $1 – $30 in today’s money – making it the most expensive room in the house. The custom chandelier, fountain, table, and stained glass windows were the cherry on top.

I also enjoyed exploring the grounds; having a view of Lake Superior from the backyard was quite the treat!

It wasn’t until after I had finished touring the estate that I learned about a terrible event that had marred its history. It’s a rather dark story, so I won’t go into details here, but if you’re into true crime, you should look it up.

Having made it as far south as I would go, it was time to turn back north towards my next National Park: Isle Royale! My route, however – the beautiful North Shore Scenic Drive – held some stops for me along the way.

First I made a last-second decision to pick up from Betty’s Pies a slice of strawberry rhubarb, which I enjoyed at Gooseberry Falls State Park.

I then stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse, which was unfortunately closed by the time I arrived, but I still was able to explore and walk down to the shoreline. It was pretty cool to stumble upon remnants of an old tramway, which was used to hoist supplies from the lakeshore up to the lighthouse. After hiking up and down the stairway running parallel to the tramway, I can definitely see why it was needed!

At this point, I hadn’t made it very far out of Duluth and had a ways to go to get to Isle Royale, so it was time to put “touristing” on hold for a bit and hit the road. I had planned to stay at a free campsite that night that was a ways off the beaten path but one of the closest I could find to the ferry departing for IR. The drive in to the site took me on a gravel road that got progressively rougher the further in I went, until I was suddenly faced with a very rocky, steep hill that I knew my little Civic would never be able to climb. I turned around, thinking I made a wrong turn somehow, but Google Maps led me right back to the same spot.

I debated just parking there, as there was no around to get me in trouble, but I was a bit unnerved – Google Maps was starting to cut out on me, and I didn’t really trust myself to find my way back to the main road in the morning. My only hope of lodging was a state park that I had passed a few miles back. I pulled in – it was past dark at this point – and managed to find the camp manager. Miraculously, there was one campsite available that someone had checked out of early, and because they had already paid for it, the camp host let me stay there for free! It was truly such a blessing and a relief. I set up camp and quickly passed out.

Thursday I woke up nice and early to get my pack ready for my 31st National Park. Located on a large island in Lake Superior, Isle Royale is one of the least visited, but most revisited, of the 63 parks. This is largely due to its relative inaccessibility: to reach it, you have to take either a ferry or seaplane, and once there, there are no roads and only one full-service lodging facility. This inaccessibility, however, is definitely a large part of the draw, and has made the island an exemplary place to conduct population studies on moose and wolves, for which it has become well known.

A 40-mile trail called the Greenstone Ridge Trail traverses the island from east to west, and I had originally hoped to hike it during this visit; unfortunately, permits and ferry schedules did not work out for that itinerary, so I settled for the lesser known 30-mile Feldtmann Loop Trail on the western half of the island.

The ferry ride went pretty smoothly, though it was a little chilly with only outdoor seating available. Got some beautiful views of the island though!

After docking, we backpackers had an orientation with the ranger, and then were set free to hike.

I had about 8.5 miles to go before reaching my site for the night at Feldtmann Lake. There was a little bit of elevation gain, enough to get a few views, though I think I liked the views of the wildflowers just as much!

I soon concluded that this trail doesn’t get a ton of traffic compared to the popular Greenstone Ridge Trail – it was quite overgrown, in some places nearly up to my shoulders. I quickly learned that my trekking poles worked well as a sort of plow through the grasses in front of me. This trail, in fact, made me a convert to the trekking pole lifestyle: I had never understood the hype and had found them awkward, just one more thing to coordinate and to occupy my attention while hiking. Here, however, they proved invaluable: the undergrowth was not just an annoyance, but a cover masking a rocky, rooty trail. Though the poles would occasionally catch on the grasses, they also caught me after tripping on a rock or root a handful of times.

I reached Feldtmann Lake after about 4 hours of hiking, with plenty of daylight left in the day. I snagged a nice site right on the lake and set up camp, then decided to hike the 3/4 mile trail to Rainbow Cove to get some views of Lake Superior. It was a nice little view, but I didn’t really feel like swimming, so it was a pretty quick trip.

The real excitement happened once I got back: I was at my campsite chatting with my neighbor when he suddenly spotted a classic Isle Royale sight: a moose! This one in particular was swimming in the lake, diving down to eat reeds growing on the bottom. The news spread among the campers, and soon we had a small crowd gathered on the beach, watching to spot him each time he would resurface. A large portion of the group was made up of a volunteer crew of deaf teenagers doing trail maintenance; not knowing sign language, it was a little tricky at first to tell them what we had seen, but once they had figured it out, it was really fun to watch them excitedly tell their friends.

This was my first moose sighting, so it was a pretty special moment. I thought it was so funny how each time he resurfaced he would shake his head, just like a dog would shake dry after being out in the rain. I was also really glad that for my first encounter he was a fair distance away – those things are big!

After Mr. Moose disappeared, a few of us poked around the lakeshore and found some moose tracks, and soon had another moose encounter – likely the same one, just closer up this time.

After the excitement died down, I cooked dinner and retired to my tent, where I picked up the Fellowship of the Ring (yet again) before falling asleep.

The next morning I took my time cooking breakfast and packing up before eventually hitting the trail. A wrong turn, however, meant I ended up back at Rainbow Cove, which added a mile to my hike for the day and pushed my start time back even later. Thankfully I only had to cover a little over 10 miles for the day, so I wasn’t going to be reaching camp in the dark.

This section of the trail followed a ridgeline for the first few miles, so I got a few nice views! Here’s looking back on Feltdmann Lake.

A few miles in, I stopped at a firetower for the views and ended up having lunch with a small group of girls who were out for (I think) their first backpacking trip. My pace was a bit quicker theirs, so it didn’t really work out to hike together, but I was fortunate to keep running into them – they were a lively and fun bunch!

I enjoyed the hike this afternoon quite a bit more than the previous afternoon. Though the trail was still overgrown, it wound through fields of fragrant flowers and beautiful birch forests.

I also had my second moose encounter! This one was definitely a bit more scary – we startled each other, and a startled moose tends to behave aggressively. Thankfully, moose do not have great eyesight, so I just had to stand still, and it soon calmed down and moved on.

Even with my late start, I made really good time to Siskiwit Bay, enough to set up camp and take a nap, and still have a few hours of daylight left. After my nap, I wandered down to the docks on the lakeshore and shot the breeze with a couple of boaters for a while before returning to my campsite to make dinner and crash for the night.

Well, that officially wraps up Week 2 of the Great Northern Road Trip! If you’ve made it this far, thanks for coming along – hopefully the next installment will be a little quicker to come out!

Northern Road Trip Week 1: Lake Country

November 6, 2025November 10, 2025Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

Hello all! This post is the first in a series from when I took a 6-week road trip across the northern U.S., Canada, and Alaska in the summer of 2023. Thanks for joining!

Before I dive right in, let me give a little background. After studying abroad in New Zealand for a semester, I developed two goals for my life back in the States: visit all the National Parks and thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. When I graduated and took my first job, I set an exit date for myself of three years in order to accomplish the latter. These plans evolved, however, due to logistics, and I decided to push back the AT to ’24 and in the meantime road trip around to National Parks. Plans evolved even further when I felt a call to spend some of this time in missions. Thus, two ten-week trips to Belize and South Africa were added to the itinerary. I still wanted to chip away at my goal of seeing all the National Parks, however, so I kept it in the plans but shortened it to six weeks so that I could depart for Belize at the end of the summer.

Thus began the first leg of my sabbatical! By June 30, I had quit my job, thrown a farewell party, and had just finished moving out of my rental house. I drove to my parents house to stay the night, and woke up July 1 to the scent of my dad’s banana pancakes wafting through the house. I hastily packed the car, enjoyed a delicious breakfast, and figured out health insurance before I finally got on the road. My first destination? Michigan City, Indiana.

My dear friends Quinci and Anna wanted to send me off, and so we came up with the idea of renting an Airbnb near Lake Michigan and spending a day or two there, since I was headed that way anyways. Unfortunately they got caught in traffic and arrived considerably later than me, but it did give me the chance to take a nap and decompress a little after several incredibly hectic days.

Once they arrived, they got settled in and we checked out the Airbnb a bit – I was particularly amused by this drawer!

We made a run to the store for pizza ingredients and other goodies, then returned to the house and enjoyed dinner together. We decided we wanted to try and catch sunset on the beach, so we drove to Washington Park. We didn’t get quite the spectacular colors we were hoping for, but it was still pretty.

Otherwise we had a relatively quiet night in and enjoyed watching A League of Their Own together.

July 2nd we made breakfast together, then finished the movie and packed up our things.

We decided to go to an antique market together, then went to the Old Lighthouse Museum, both of which were neat!

We grabbed a late lunch at Bartlett’s Fish Camp, which was a really cute restaurant.

Unfortunately, at this point it was time for that goodbye we had all been dreading. We spent a long time in that parking lot sharing tears and hugs. These dear friends had been so so good to me – there wasn’t anyone else I’d rather have send me off on this adventure!

After they headed for back home, it was time to dry my tears and start prepping for the trip ahead. I made a run to Walmart to grab food, and took advantage of the free Wi-Fi and an outlet I found to do some planning.

Normally when I plan a National Park trip I have all my accommodations booked and have a somewhat flexible itinerary, with a couple of must-do items per park and maybe a point of interest in the city I’m flying into. With a trip of this length, however, I figured I would probably need more flexibility, so while I had a general idea of which parks I wanted to shoot for and in what order, I really didn’t have any reservations or tickets before leaving. I ended up planning about 5-7 days ahead at a time while I was on the road, stopping at a fast food place or wherever I had access to free Wi-Fi. This seemed to work pretty well for me, though I was amazed at how much time planning ate up.

Another big difference for this trip was accommodations. I tend to prefer camping when I travel because of its affordability, but even campgrounds can cost north of $30 a night – which is fine for a week but a little pricey for six, especially when you’re planning to stretch your savings for 1.5+ years. I did my research and found a website called http://www.freecampsites.net, which aggregates paid and free campsites all over the US and Canada. Though there were times it made more sense to stay at a paid site in an established campground, I used the website to find sites for a majority of my nights traveling, and it ultimately saved me probably hundreds of dollars in camping fees.

Another new change was my Garmin InReach, a two-way satellite communicator. I had previously used the Spot satellite device on my travels to let friends and family know my location and that I was safe, but as a one-way communicator it couldn’t receive messages, and the text of the messages I could send, while customizable, weren’t designed to be changed frequently. Though the Garmin cost a good chunk of change at north of $400, I felt it was worth it to help give my family peace of mind, and it would allow me to better reach out for help when cell service was absent.

Alright, back to Walmart: after I had knocked out shopping, planning, and setting up my new Garmin, I headed out for my campsite for the night at Indiana State Park.

“State Park?” you might ask. Yep! There is both a state park and national park by the name of Indiana Dunes, which can definitely make things kinda confusing. The two complement each other very well, however, so if you’re in the area and have the time, I highly recommend visiting both – you can still hit the highlights in about a day, in my opinion.

Ironically, though I had lived my whole life in Indiana and had spent the last three years visiting National Parks, I had yet to visit Indiana Dunes NP. Growing up we had favored the state park, since its beaches were more popular and readily accessible. Also, to be fair, Indiana Dunes NP had only existed for about four years at this point – it was previously a National Lakeshore until 2019.

I started off my first full day at the Dunes by taking some time to organize my car – not the most exciting thing, I know, but after the last few whirlwind days, my car needed it. After that was accomplished, I decided to hike the “3 Dune Challenge” in the State Park, a 1.5 mile trail linking the park’s three tallest dunes. It was a fun little challenge, and it came with some pretty views to boot!

Next up was a stop at the Visitor’s Center to pick up an annual park pass and get my picture by the sign…

Then it was off to explore the old Bailly Homestead and Chellburg Farm. I like old buildings, so this part was somewhat interesting to me, but I wouldn’t put it on a list of must-dos.

Next up I decided to hike the 3.4 mile (RT) Paul H. Douglas trail, which led to the lakefront. It’s a rather flat trail, but the sandy terrain definitely slows hiking speeds. I really enjoyed the variety of terrains the trail traversed, especially the globally rare black oak savannah. Also spotted some wild lupine!

Probably my favorite attraction in the park, however, was the Century of Progress Homes. Originally built for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair to showcase up-and-coming materials and designs, these five homes were later relocated to the lakefront as part of a plan to create a resort community. These plans didn’t quite come to fruition, however, and the land was acquired by the National Park Service in the 60s and 70s. The houses continued to deteriorate until the non-profit Indiana Landmarks leased them from the park service; they then sub-leased four of the five houses to tenants willing to restore them. Today the houses are only open to the public one week a year, but you can still view them from the sidewalk and read the informational signs they have posted.

Daylight was running out on me, so I decided to finish out the day with dinner on the beach! I was lucky and got a really pretty sunset to boot.

That night I crossed my first state border into Michigan and stayed at my first free campsite, just outside of the small town of Bloomingdale. It ended up being one of the nicest free camps I would have on the whole trip – fire rings, picnic tables, and privy included!

I packed up and headed for South Haven, Michigan, a very cute little town on Lake Michigan. My primary goal here was to see their iconic lighthouse and grab a nearby letterbox.

It just so happened to be the Fourth of July, and of course South Haven had a parade, so getting out of town was a little trickier than I had anticipated. I had planned on Holland being my next stop – I was eager to visit the Windmill Gardens and Holland State Park after having visited earlier in the spring – but traffic ended up being really bad, so I skipped to the next location on the itinerary, Grand Rapids. I’m a history buff, so naturally I was drawn to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, and it felt even more patriotic being there on the 4th!

Personally, I found it really interesting learning about the only U.S. President who wasn’t voted into office, particularly how he dealt with the fallout from the implosion of the Nixon administration. And regardless of politics, he seemed like a really decent and admirable man – a rare treat for a politician.

After Grand Rapids, I continued north and was happy to catch some sunset fireworks from this viewpoint! It had felt kind of strange to spend the Fourth alone after having spent it with friends for several years, so it was nice to have some of the tradition at least.

I crossed the Mackinac Bridge for the first time in my life – very cool! – and grabbed a free campsite nearby.

The next morning I was up early to catch the ferry to Mackinac Island. I packed up most of my belongings but left my tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping bag to claim my spot, since I was planning on returning that evening. It was a nice spot, if rather buggy.

I boarded without a hitch, and off we went!

Mackinac Island was high on my list to see for two main reasons: one, my grandparents honeymooned here, so it’s a pretty meaningful place in our family history. Two, Mackinac Island was actually home to the nation’s second national park after Yellowstone! It was later turned over to the State after the fort, whose soldiers served as the caretakers of the park, was decommissioned – making it the first National Park to be delisted. As a National Parks nerd, I was really curious to judge for myself whether the island was National Park-worthy.

After docking, I scoped out a few of the shops…

…Then decided to go the touristy route and rent a bicycle. For those unfamiliar, no cars are allowed on the island, so bikes are a really popular way to get around. One of the most popular routes is an 8.5 mile highway that encircles the island, and is the only US highway to not allow motorized vehicles. I thought it was a really great way to see the natural beauty of the island, namely Arch Rock.

Afterwards, I tracked down a few letterboxes – there’s tons on the island! I had unfortunately left my supplies back on the mainland, but I was able to make do. It was also quite nice to escape the crowds a bit.

My next stop on the island was the Grand Hotel. When my grandparents honeymooned here, they only had enough money to buy a Coke at the hotel, so it was my goal to try and get a Coke there in their honor. Unfortunately, they only sold Pepsi products, and they charged a fee to explore the hotel, so my idea fell flat. At least the outside of the hotel was pretty!

Next I headed over to the site of Fort Mackinac. The fort was originally constructed by the British during the Revolutionary War, then eventually turned over to the Americans after they won the war. It saw the most action during the War of 1812, when the British recaptured it. It was again returned to the Americans upon their winning the war and afterwards served primarily as a strategic troop reserve. When Mackinac National Park was designated in 1875, it was the troops who served as park caretakers until both the park and the fort were decommissioned. Today it remains a popular destination as one of the few remaining intact Revolutionary War forts.

One of my favorite exhibits told the story of a visiting fur trader named Alexis St. Martin, who sustained an accidental gun shot wound to the stomach while on the island. Under the care of fort surgeon William Beaumont, he miraculously survived, though his wound healed in such a way that he was left with a hole that allowed external access to his stomach. Beaumont quickly realized that St. Martin’s case was an opportunity to study digestion and employed some quite unethical tactics to keep St. Martin in his care and perform over 200 experiments on him over 10 years. While undoubtedly amoral in nature, these studies yielded hugely significant medical findings for the time and moved the field of gastric physiology light years ahead of where it had been.

I also got to attend a cannon firing demonstration, which I thought was pretty cool!

I raced around trying to see as much of the fort as I could before it closed, then picked up another letterbox and a souvenir for my grandma. I really debated purchasing some of the famous fudge, but decided to just stick with a free sample due to not having a refrigerator. The shop was neat though!

After a long day of running around the island, it was time to board the ferry for the mainland. Upon deboarding, I managed to find a shop that made pasties, a UP specialty consisting of meat and vegetables wrapped in a dough. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to heat mine up for me, but it was still pretty good cold! I also grabbed a Coke from the nearby McDonald’s since I wasn’t able to get one at the hotel – not quite the experience I was hoping for, but I was still glad to think of my grandparents enjoying the same beverage in at least the same vicinity some fifty years prior.

After bumming some wi-fi from the McDonald’s for a while, I drove back to my campsite, ready to turn in for some rest after a long day. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened: upon arriving, I realized that someone had stolen my sleeping bag and sleeping pad from my tent while I had been gone. The value of the stolen items was negligible – I was very thankful the thief had failed to realize my ultralight tent was much more valuable – but I was quite shaken at somebody having invaded my “home”. I decided to sleep in my front passenger seat that night to be safe.

After a fitful night of sleep (I never sleep well sitting up, and the theft certainly didn’t help matters any), I hit the road again, but not in the direction I had originally planned. I figured I could do without a sleeping pad for a few days, but I wanted a sleeping bag in case temps dropped. The rather sparsely populated UP just didn’t have many stores around, so I had to go back south across the Mackinac Bridge to Cheboygan in order to pick up a replacement sleeping bag. While I was there, I also picked up some groceries and did some more planning, then it was back across the bridge for the third and final time.

I arrived at my destination, Whitefish Point, Michigan, in the late afternoon. The area surrounding the point, which juts out into Lake Superior and is home to the Whitefish Point Lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, has claimed over one-third of the entire lake’s wreckages. I had planned to explore the museum that afternoon, but I arrived closer to closing time than I had expected, so instead I relaxed and ate an entire clamshell of strawberries while sitting on the beach. What luxury…

After enjoying the beach, I decided to go for a letterbox at a nearby cemetery. It was a rather sobering box, honoring the many shipwreck victims buried there.

It was getting kind of late, so I headed to my campsite for the night. Even after the theft I wasn’t ready to give up on the free campsites entirely, but I was still pretty rattled and knew I needed to change my approach. After finding a good spot, I took an hour or so to rearrange my car so that I could fold down my back seat and lay on top of it with my feet in the trunk. Upon trying it, there seemed to be just enough room for me to stretch out, but the true test would have to wait until that night.

I grabbed another letterbox that so conveniently happened to be my planted close by my site, then struck up a conversation with my neighbor. He was a very sweet older gentleman who had already been camping a few weeks here at this point, spending his days fishing and enjoying the beautiful outdoors. He so kindly invited me to dinner, and I got to feast on fresh-caught fish and potatoes! We spent most of the evening talking, and he shared his hobby of creating rock art with me. When I turned in that evening, we agreed to have breakfast together before I hit the road again.

Also, just a fun little sidenote – I was amazed at how going just a couple of hundred miles north really extended daylight! This picture was taken at 10:05 pm: the sun had just barely gone down.

That morning I woke up refreshed and relieved: sleeping in my car had worked! I had a few concerns about how I would fare if the weather got warmer, but for now I was really pleased at the quality of rest I had gotten without having to compromise safety. I met my neighbor for breakfast, and just before we parted ways, he gifted me one of the rock sculptures he had created in the form of a cross. Such a sweet man – meeting him was a highlight of the week for sure.

My first destination of the day was the Shipwreck Museum. I decided not to cut it out of the itinerary after missing it the day before, and I’m so glad I made that decision. The museum was overall fascinating if (inherently) quite sad. Probably the highlight for me was the items on display related to the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in a nasty storm in November of 1975 and has been immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” All 29 men aboard perished in the wreck; 50 years later, it’s still not known what exactly caused the ship, which at one point was the largest on the Great Lakes, to sink. The families of the victims requested that the bell be retrieved from the wreckage, which was done in 1995, and every year the bell is rung 30 times on November 10 – once for each of the crew members, and once in honor of all the others who have lost their lives on the Great Lakes.

After making my way through the museum, I hit the road again and grabbed another letterbox in Paradise, Michigan…

….before making a quick stop at Tahquamenon Falls.

To be honest, I wasn’t overly impressed by the falls. It’s possible that I missed the better sites because I was in a hurry, but I think Cataract Falls in Indiana was personally more impressive.

The reason I was in a hurry is because I had booked a kayaking tour on Lake Superior along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore – or so I thought. I went with Uncle Ducky’s Paddling Michigan; they were super accommodating and were even able to switch my time slot when I realized I had actually booked for the following day. Whoops!

I didn’t have my phone out on the water, so unfortunately I don’t have many pictures to share. Probably the neatest part of the tour for me was getting to paddle over the wreckage of the ship George – the water was pretty clear that day, so we were able to see the boat’s frame protruding from the lake floor. Of course, it eased the conscious to know that there weren’t any casualties on that wreck!

I did take out my phone on our dinner break, and happened to stumble on my guide’s favorite spot to hang out. Talked with him for a little bit – nice guy!

Back on land after the kayaking tour wrapped up, I got really lucky and caught a beautiful sunset on the lake. It was a great way to end a good day!

It also happens to be the way I end this post, as this marks seven days on my trip. If you made it this far, thanks for reading – I’ll try to get the next post out before too long!

An Island Escape

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025Sheraya Smith1 Comment

Welcome back y’all! A lot of life has happened since I made my last post, and I’m finally kind of settled down and ready to write. This post will focus on my trip with friends to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, back in January of 2023.

When I travel, I frequently go solo, partly because I really enjoy the alone time, but also partly because my close friends don’t really enjoy the rugged travel style I’ve adopted. When I was researching how to best explore Virgin Islands National Park, however, I realized that this was a trip my friends could probably get excited about. Thus Meg, who I knew from work, and Quinci, one of my close friends from Greencastle, joined me on this adventure.

Because the Virgin Islands make up just one park, we decided to expand the itinerary to include visiting Puerto Rico. I had heard lots of good things and was excited to explore the island.

Come January, we landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Saturday evening, picked up our rental car and drove to our Airbnb. Tired from the journey, we decided just to order tacos to the apartment. It was soo good – definitely made us excited for the cuisine the rest of the trip!

Sunday morning we were up and off on a whirlwind of a day. First up was a tour of Hacienda Muñoz, a coffee farm just outside of San Juan. The coffee of course was delicious, and it was really fascinating to see and hear how the coffee was produced from start to finish. My favorite part was probably seeing the machinery used to roast and sort out coffee beans by size.

We had to cut out slightly early in order to make it to our next stop: a Don Q rum tasting and tour at Castillo Serrallés in Ponce. Fun fact: Puerto Rico is known as the rum capital of the world, with up to 70-80% of the world’s rum originating there. Brands like Bacardi and Captain Morgan are most well known, but Don Q was equally as delicious in my opinion.

Our tour guide was great. I was fascinated by the fact that Don Q ages its rum in barrels that are first used to age Kentucky bourbon. We also learned a good deal about the Jones Act, which prohibits goods from being shipped on anything other than American vessels when being shipped between two American ports. This rather obscure act heavily impacts the Puerto Rico economy, forcing the costs of goods higher – which is significant when nearly all of the island’s goods are imported and nearly half the population lives below the poverty line.

After the tour, it was time for our Mixology class. Two drinks were included, an Old Fashioned and a Piña Colada, and they were absolutely delicious. Beautiful weather, beautiful setting, and tasty drinks: spirits were high (pun intended)!

Afterwards, we took a little time to explore the gorgeous grounds, which look out over the city of Ponce. It was a good opportunity to ride out the neurological rollercoaster we had put ourselves on: first caffeine and then alcohol!

Our final stop of the day was the salt flats at Cabo Rojo on the very southwest corner of the island. In my research for the trip I had stumbled upon pictures of salt flats with beautiful light pink water, and I was fascinated. When we got there, however, the sights were a little underwhelming. Apparently the color changes frequently and is highly dependent on many factors, including tides, salinity, and algae and bacteria levels. Nonetheless, it was still neat to see the salt deposits, and the water did look slightly reddish/pinkish if you caught it in the right light. All the same, I probably wouldn’t recommend going out of your way for this one unless you know for certain that the colors are strong.

We didn’t stay for too long, as we had managed to cross the entire width of the island and had over a two hour’s drive back to San Juan. We were famished after a long day, though, and stopped for dinner at a restaurant, I think in Ponce. I got to try mofongo, which is a traditional Puerto Rican dish made from mashed fried green plantains. Mine was served with a chicken stew over top. Tasty, though very filling!

Monday we were up and off again, this time to El Yunque National Forest a little ways outside of San Juan. It’s the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest system, so I was pretty excited to experience it. We started off by climbing Yokahú Tower and got some great views.

The next stop was Baño Grande and Baño de Oro, which translates to Big Bath and Bath of Gold. These were two pools constructed by the CCC (or “Los Tres C’s”, as it was known in PR), under FDR’s New Deal. I don’t know about you, but it had never dawned on me that the CCC might have existed outside of the mainland, so that was a pretty neat discovery. The pools are no longer open to swimming, but they were still really pretty.

Next up, we stopped at La Coca Falls. So beautiful! We had the option of going off the beaten path and exploring a bit, and I’m so glad we did.

All in all I’d say El Yunque is a neat stop for a day or half-day; it does have a permitting system in place that made our lives kind of difficult, but that was partly because I didn’t book far enough in advance. There was also a fair bit of construction happening while we were there, but I’m guessing that’s probably finished by now.

Tuesday we realized that we were pretty tired from the previous few days, so we decided to sleep in and take a beach day. We ultimately decided on La Posita Del Obispo Beach near Rincón for our destination – but first, food of course! These fried cheese cubes were delicious.

The beach was gorgeous. Rock formations create a shallow pool good for swimming and also allow you to climb up and get good views. We sunbathed a little, swam a little, and explored a little.

That evening we had booked a nighttime kayaking tour near Fajardo, which is home to one of Puerto Rico’s three bioluminescent bays. Living in the waters of the bay are microorganisms called dinoflagellate, which, when disturbed, emit a blue-green light. Depending on conditions and the number of dinoflagellate, the whole bay can glisten with the light from these tiny creatures. Unfortunately, the night we went was not one of those nights, but it was still a really neat experience.

We were in tandem kayaks, and I got lucky enough to be paired with one of the guides, Noel, who pointed out interesting sights to me the whole time. We had to paddle through a mangrove forest to get to the bay, which was a slightly eery but neat experience – spotted many iguanas along the way. Once we got out to the bay, we still got to see the glow – we just had to go literally undercover! We had all packed out tarps, and one person would stir up the water to produce the glow while the other would put the tarp over their head to block out any light and watch the water sparkle and gleam. The guides also brought laser pointers and used them to point out stars and constellations in the night sky.

Overall I thought it was a really neat experience even if the water wasn’t as bright that night, and I’d recommend it. There were multiple kayaking companies to choose from; we went with Kayaking Puerto Rico and thought they were good.

I don’t have any photos of the water itself since I didn’t take my phone out on the water, but I highly recommend googling it! I do have this one of the three of us once we got back on land.

The next morning we awoke abruptly and packed up in a hurry. Our airline had bumped our flight up rather last minute, and we were cutting it close on time. We made it, but unfortunately in the rush I forgot to pack my knife in my carry-on, so it got confiscated, and I left my satellite tracker back in the Airbnb: not a good thing to lose two methods of self-defense as a young female traveler.

The flight to the Virgin Islands was pretty short and smooth, so much so that we never hit high enough altitude for the seatbelt lights to go off!

The flight was only the first leg of the voyage: we landed on St. Thomas Island because it’s the only island with an airport, but the National Park, which is what we were most interested in, is solely on the neighboring St. John Island. To get there, we took a taxi from the airport to the ferry dock and then a ferry over to Cruz Bay on Saint John. Once we docked, we took a second taxi to get to our accommodation/base camp at Cinnamon Bay Campground on the north side of the island. It was quite a lot of logistics, but we made it!

Cinnamon Bay had been on my radar for a while, but the campground was hit really hard by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and had to be shut down for a few years, so I was really excited to find out they had reopened just a little before our trip. They offer multiple types of lodging, ranging from tent camping to cottages; we booked a cottage for a little more comfort. I loved Cinnamon Bay because it had everything you could want on site without having to leave: a restaurant, a camp store, a beautiful beach, and a gear rental shop. It was also a pretty quick drive from Cruz Bay and a good central point on the island. It definitely is a little more primitive than what you would get from a typical hotel or Airbnb: there’s no AC on the property and no bathrooms in any of the units, only in shared bathhouses. The showers were cold water only in the bathhouse closest to us, but at the very end of our trip we heard of another bathhouse having hot water, so your mileage may vary. The beds in our cottage were also not super comfortable and squeaked quite a bit, so it might not be a bad idea to bring an extra sleeping pad or cushion if you have one. For the cost savings, these sacrifices were more than worth it to me, but then again, I’m used to tent camping!

That evening, we had some substantial conflict between us. While it was basically resolved by morning, it was a good reminder of a couple things: a) managing preferences and expectations is hard and requires a ton of communication, especially when they differ between group members, and b) even when you’re on vacation with friends you love, it’s still good to have alone time and give each other some space and grace, particularly when you’re all tired and hungry.

On that latter note, we decided to spend Thursday individually doing what we wanted, so I went exploring. I spent a little time on Cinnamon Bay Beach first, which was absolutely beautiful. The building in this photo was the oldest building on the island – dating back to the 1680s – when Hurricane Maria hit in 2017 and effectively destroyed it. It’s unfortunate, but the bright side is it makes for a really cool photo op.

Next I did a little loop hike around some nearby plantation ruins and found a letterbox…

…then hiked up to America Hill, where there’s more ruins – this time of an old estate house. The views were just gorgeous.

I spent a while up there soaking in the views and attempting to chip away at Fellowship of the Ring for the nth time (and more than two years later, I’m working on the nth + 1 attempt…. I’ll get there eventually!).

That evening Meg and I attended a talk on coral back at the campground, which was super interesting. I decided to splurge on dinner from the restaurant and got a blackened Mahi Mahi sandwich with a slice of key lime pie and a Painkiller, the island’s unofficial cocktail. Everything was SO good.

Friday Quinci and I caught a taxi into Cruz Bay and explored a couple shops there. My favorite was the St. John Spice Company, which smelled heavenly and had so many fun little goodies!

I eventually split off from Q to do a short little hike and find some letterboxes, plus get my picture with the National Park sign. The scenery was beautiful, though I can’t say the same for the location of the park sign…

And of course, Q and I had to get ice cream once we reunited!

After we taxied back to Cinnamon, I decided to head for the gear shop. The talk on coral from the night before had really piqued my interest, and I decided I wanted to try my hand at snorkeling, something I’d never done before outside of messing around in the pool as a kid. Unfortunately, my first attempt didn’t go super well: I hadn’t rented a life jacket, which made staying afloat in the waves as a below-average swimmer quite difficult, and I was pretty sure water was leaking into my snorkel. I hung up the gear for the night and decided to try again the next day.

Saturday we had decided to get out and explore a bit, so we reserved a taxi out to the southeast corner of the island, where we planned to hike the Ram Head Trail. It was about three miles round-trip and had some gorgeous views, along with a couple points of interest.

Unfortunately a cactus picked a battle with Q on the way up to the peak, but Meg and I were able to patch her up! Between that experience and their rather *ahem* phallic shape, the cacti were definitely not Quinci’s favorite flora on the trip.

On our way back to the trailhead, we crossed the peninsula to see Drunk Bay, which was also pretty, though a little more turbulent.

Though we had scheduled a taxi back to Cinnamon and made it back to the trailhead well before the arranged pickup time, our driver was nowhere in sight. We waited quite a while, knowing people here tend to operate on island time, before I called the company. Our driver had completely forgotten about us! She apologized profusely and ran out the door, but we still had to wait for her to cross the entire island. Thankfully we had some shade, I had brought extra snacks, and we made friends with another tourist, so the time didn’t pass too slowly. Meg enjoyed all the rental Jeeps in the parking lot – it’s definitely the vehicle of choice in VI!

We finally made it back to Cinnamon, and I decided to give snorkeling another go, this time with a life jacket. A staff person confirmed my snorkel was indeed leaking and replaced it, so I was set! And WOW, what an experience it was! I don’t have any pictures, but I saw so many colorful fish and beautiful coral formations. I’m so glad I tried it a second time – definitely a highlight of the trip.

And to top it all off, we got a gorgeous sunset that night! We were just basking in the glow.

For our last night in the Virgin Islands, we got dinner at the campground restaurant. It wasn’t quite as good as the Mahi Mahi, but it was still pretty tasty.

Sunday morning, Q and Meg decided to take the first ferry back over to Saint Thomas, but I stayed back: I had heard about sea turtles at the next beach over and wanted to see if I might be able to swim with them. Unfortunately I didn’t have any luck with the turtles, but I did get to see a rainbow! It was a nice little parting moment.

Though we were back at the airport, it wasn’t time for us to fly back to the mainland just yet. The way logistics and prices worked out meant that we were flying back to PR and had one more whole day there to explore before going home. As a result, Sunday was basically a rewind of the day we arrived in the Virgin Islands – we even went back to the same Airbnb in Puerto Rico!

Monday was our day to explore San Juan, particularly the historic sector. We started the day off by going to brunch at this gorgeous cafe called Vera.

Next we Ubered to the San Juan National Historic Site, which is a whole campus of rich history dating back over 500 years. The main attractions are the forts of El Morro, Castillo San Cristóbal, and El Cañuelo, the first of which was built by the Spaniards in the 16th century. The forts withstood attacks from a Dutch privateer, the British Navy and the American Navy before they came under U.S. control with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1898. The site then became known as Fort Brooke and even saw a little bit of action during the world wars until it was turned over to the National Park Service in 1949.

On top of having so many layers of history, the location is really stunning, and the architecture in some parts is quite lovely too.

After touring the fort, we walked around the historic district of San Juan and popped in and out of some shops. So many of the buildings were so brightly colored and beautifully designed.

We grabbed gelato from this super boujee place…

…then decided on dinner at the place where piña coladas were allegedly invented. Naturally, we had to test the quality for ourselves. Approved!

We called it a night and Ubered back pretty early because Quinci and Meg were flying out early the next morning. I bid goodbye to them on Tuesday morning and sent my checked bag with Q (ah, the good ol’ days of two bags fly free on Southwest) so that I could more easily explore the city. We had hit a lot of the highlights the day before, but there were still a few things I wanted to see, like the old cemetery near the fort. I had also come across a few letterboxes I wanted to look for. It was a last day well spent soaking up the sun before heading back to the cold grey Midwest.

Before long, my flight was beckoning me too, so I Ubered to the airport and started the journey home. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for following along! I’ll include a couple of logistical details below for anyone looking for advice in traveling to PR/VI.

If you’re planning a trip to either or both of these locations, know that while you’re technically still in the U.S., it’s almost better in some ways to have the mindset of traveling abroad. Here are some of the biggest differences from the mainland:

Puerto Ricans as a whole speak Spanish more than they do English; some hardly speak English at all. This extends to writing too – basically all of the road signs we saw were in Spanish. The museums we went to had both English and Spanish tours available, which was great. If you’re sticking only to a resort or the more touristy areas of PR, then you might not encounter much Spanish, but otherwise you’ll probably want to brush up on the basics. People from the Virgin Islands speak primarily English, but they do tend to have kind of a heavy accent.
Time in these places is a bit more lax. Definitely still be on time to museum tours and flights, but don’t be surprised if natives run late.
In the Virgin Islands, people drive on the left hand side of the road. Unlike most places that drive on the left, however, they use cars where the driver seat is on the left hand side of the car. For these reasons, plus the narrow, winding island roads, we decided not to rent a car in VI and just use taxis instead.
Do your best before the trip to make sure you’ll have cell phone service. I have Verizon and thought I would be fine based on my research, but I ended up having issues. I was able to get them resolved mid-trip, but it would have been really stressful had Quinci and Meg not been with me.
You may get kind of heckled like you would expect to in a second or third world country; when we deboarded the ferry in Saint John, there were several people waiting for the passengers, competing to show them around or help them navigate in exchange for money.
When flying out of the airport on Saint Thomas, you will have to go through U.S. customs regardless of whether you entered another country. This one caught me by surprise – thankfully we still had plenty of time to catch our flight.

I hope this helps in your planning! Thanks again for reading!

The End of a Chapter

January 27, 2024January 27, 2024Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

Well, in classic Sheraya fashion, I did not get this post finished before I left for the next mission trip… so here I sit in South Africa, writing about Belize! In a way, though, I’m really glad to have had this time and space to process a bit more – plus, going through training again and entering our new community has made me realize how much I’ve learned and grown from my time in Belize.

I’ll try to remember what all we did that last week and a half in-country – it was a lot, so please bear with me!

To sum it up, it was a week of lasts and goodbyes. They started on Monday, when after school we hurried home to go sell tamales with Mama E and our dear friend M. M was leaving on vacation and wouldn’t be back before we left, so it was our last night with her. It was a night filled with hugs and laughter, Monsters and at the very end, tears. We were so blessed to have such good times with M, who from the very beginning loved us so much – I lost track of the sheer number of pet names she called us!

Monday night was also a chance to say goodbye to the many taxi drivers I had become good friends with. The hours we spent talking are some of my favorite parts of the whole trip.

Tuesday was our last day at the primary school – the kids in my class were so sweet and all chipped in to get me a small gift and wrote a card. That class was also a major highlight of the trip for me – it was such a redemptive experience after having to miss a lot of class in the village. I adore them!

That night we went downtown to sell tamales for the last time – just for a few hours this time, because Mama had house church. H decided to stay downtown and meet up with the others on the team for an outreach event, while J and I went with Mama. I ended up kind of regretting it, because during the event H ended up experiencing healing that we had been praying for throughout the trip! When we woke up the next morning and heard the news, there was such celebration!

Wednesday was our last day at the preschool – we helped create a poster for some of their financial supporters. It was awesome to see the artwork we had created the weeks prior up on the wall already!

After we said goodbye to the preschool teachers, we headed to Sarita’s for a little going away party with the primary school teachers! It was so good to see them one last time – and trying the last couple of ice cream flavors on my list was a nice perk too!

Wednesday also happened to be the first day the rainy season finally kicked in! While we were initially really excited about the drop in temperature, we quickly realized that the rainy season is truly rainy – think maybe 4 15-minute breaks in 24 hours – and that nothing ever really dries at that rate. I think it rained every day afterwards for the rest of the trip!

The rain also meant that we weren’t really able to do our typical work on Thursday and Friday. Instead, Thursday morning we helped Mama make tamales and tried to record the process as much as possible.

Afterwards our new Pastor C and his wife picked us up and took us out for coffee, which was such a treat! We even got cheesecake, which was just scrumptious.

After we were finished, they took us to their campus and gave us a tour. It was a beautiful facility, and some of the group provided entertainment for the rest by trying to catch chickens!

Pastor C picked us up again a few hours later to attend a prayer meeting, which was also really good.

Friday morning we stayed home and rested, and Mama treated us to the most amazing fried tacos for lunch! They were so good that she made them again for dinner. This woman is just incredible – she rearranged her week so that we could have more time with her for our last weekend.

The team also made one last boba run! We had a lot of good convos and made some fond memories at that little place.

After dinner we went to church with Mama one last time. Saturday morning we headed to the market and checked off multiple items on our to-do list: getting pupusas with Mama, buying the last of our souvenirs, printing photos to give to our families, secretly buying a gift for Mama, and purchasing a printer for the school in the village! It was a big list, but we knocked it out!

We went home and rested for a little bit, then surprised Mama and took her out to eat later that afternoon at the fancy pizza place in town! She was so excited, and the pizza was so good!

Afterwards, we headed over to the other host home for a birthday party! It was so much fun, and it was really good to see the other family and say goodbye.

Sunday was our last full day in Belize. We started off the morning by trying out a sweet version of fryjacks with strawberry filling! They were so good, and even better, I finally got to use my can opener that I had accidentally brought along!

We then went to church, where the pastor asked some of us to help lead worship when the scheduled people didn’t show. It was a real privilege to sing with my teammates!

After church, Mama made us our favorite, fried chicken… The thought of it still makes me drool! I miss her cooking almost as much as I miss her!

That night we walked over to Mama’s church and anxiously waited while makeshift seats (aka cinder blocks and boards) were installed in the back of a van. Our destination: the village! The village church was having a children’s compaña, and Mama’s church attended. I had really been wanting to go back and see our first host family before we left Belize, and for a while it didn’t look like things would work out, but by the grace of God they did! It was the best of both worlds: we didn’t lose any time with Mama and we got to see our first host families again! Unfortunately the other house wasn’t able to join us, but we passed along hugs on their behalf.

We got back to town tired but happy. I was up early the next morning to make a banana cake and finish packing, and Mama made some fryjacks too. Finally our bus arrived, and it was time to say some tearful goodbyes.

We loaded up and began the long trip home! First was a 90 minute ride to Belize City…

…then a several hour wait for our flight to Miami…

…then we rushed through customs and got our favorite US beverages before hopping on a flight to LaGuardia…

…then crashed on the floor overnight before our final flight to Chicago!

No matter how much I enjoy traveling, it’s always so good to see the ole stars and stripes again.

We caught another nap at the airport while we waited for the Costa Rica and South Africa teams to get in, then we all hopped on a bus and headed back to Michigan! It was so good to see the other teams again and hear their stories too.

The next couple days were spent debriefing our experience together. In short, it was hard but good – there was a lot to process! We got a lot of good time in together as a team too – a lot of laughs, a lot of hugs, and a lot of stories too.

One of my favorite parts of debrief was when Lauren surprised the team with the movie Twilight! It had been a bit of a running joke that we should watch it because J and I hadn’t seen it before, but we had never got around to it until debrief. We all nestled in to watch the first movie – which I agreed was hilariously bad. It wasn’t super late, so we decided we could probably watch the second movie. Long story short, J and I ended up finishing the fifth and final one at three-something in the morning! It was so worth it, especially since J and I had never gotten around to doing a “frate” together!

After 10 weeks of waking up to each other and spending every day together, it was suddenly our last morning together. We packed up our stuff for the last time, finished the last debrief session, then I said goodbye to the team as they went to the airport. I had a little extra time with L since I ended up riding back to Indiana with her, but before long we said our goodbyes too and I was back at my home sweet, dearly missed home.

Final Thoughts:

So many people have asked me since I got back how Belize was, which is incredibly hard to answer when you have to condense 10 weeks into a sentence so that you don’t talk the ear off of someone who was just trying to be polite. What I came up with was not particularly profound: “Belize was good – hard but good.” There were a lot of really hard things, like being sick multiple times, figuring out how to live daily life without consistent water or electricity, and wrestling with a side of Christianity I had never encountered before; but there were a lot of really good things too, like getting to bond with my host families even across a language barrier, become close with a team that was significantly younger than me, eat some really delicious food, meet and serve and be ministered to by some amazing people, and most importantly, meet my God in a way I hadn’t before. I learned that I can crack jokes in a different language, that I can befriend taxi drivers at a tamale stand and hang out with them all night, that I can talk to God for hours if I only set aside the time and space. I learned about how real the spiritual realm is and how evil evil actually is, but also how strong God is and how strong I can be if I just lean into Him and give myself to Him.

Though I’m not proud of my procrastination on writing this post, I’m really glad to be writing this from South Africa because I’ve seen just how much I learned from Belize. Yes, I had to go through some really hard times, but now I understand that those hard times showed me how to submit myself to others, to a culture very different from mine, and most importantly to the Lord. I’m so grateful for my team, my host families, and my time in Belize. Belize, siempre estás en mi corazon. Gloria a Dios!

Visas, Vigils, and Visits

November 16, 2023May 7, 2024Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

Well, it’s official – we’re home safe and sound! There’s still 1.5 weeks that I haven’t covered on the blog, though, so I’ll try to wrap that up here soon!

Week 9 started off with a trip to Belmopan to renew our visas. We got there a little earlier this time, so the wait wasn’t as long, then afterwards went to the same food stand for lunch.

While we were there, I decided to try some lychee, which looked really funky but tasted pretty good!

Later that night, while Mama was out selling tortillas, J and H and I walked to our favorite tea place for some boba and good convos. We had a good time and caught this gem while there.

We also went to the store afterwards so H could buy a comal to make tortillas! I absolutely love how this sign is in Creole – it’s very fitting.

Tuesday we worked at the school, then hopped over to a local restaurant to call our host brother E from the village for his birthday! It was so good to talk to him and Mama L.

Afterwards we scrambled home so we could go with Mama to sell tamales. She had only made 50 that night so that she could sell out in time to go to house church that night. We made it just in the nick of time, and I was so glad we went! Even though it was all still in Spanish, it was a lot easier to understand what was going on because it was a much smaller space and people weren’t speaking into mikes. They even served ceviche afterwards, which I had been wanting to try for a while! I seized the opportunity too to get a family photo while we were all dressed up.

Wednesday we helped out at the preschool, mainly recreating some drawings of nursery rhymes.

Mama made us some delicious rice and beans with stewed chicken when we went home for lunch! It was so good.

After school, we went to the local pizza place for some team time and our final Bible study of Ephesians. The food was really good, but I was struggling emotionally and mentally with our study – really it was a continuation of some struggles with the content being taught in the churches there. I continued to struggle with it that evening, and emotions were exacerbated by not being able to get ahold of anybody back home. Thankfully H and J noticed I wasn’t doing great and really comforted me that night.

Thursday we were back at our church build site! We started off by shoveling as much of a huge pile of sand as we could inside the structure, then mixing up some more concrete. J and I got pretty covered in it, as we were lifting buckets of concrete up to pour into a column. We also made a friend of one of the local hardware store staff, and he was kind enough to bring over his shofar and play it for us! I have never heard of a shofar before, but apparently it’s an instrument typically made out of a ram or antelope horn and has been used for celebrations and announcements by the Jewish people for centuries.

We took the afternoon to rest up, as it was going to be a busy night! After dark, we first went to a Breakthrough Group at one of the churches we were attending, where we played a game and heard a lesson.

Afterwards, we taxied into town to a house of the other host family to hold a vigil! I had missed our vigil the previous week because I was sick, so I was pretty excited (and honestly nervous) to experience one for the first time! It was better than I could have expected – just a night full of prayer with breaks for coffee and pumpkin cake. I never knew that I could pray for hours at a time and still have more to say! I got to encounter the Lord in such a sweet way and experienced some emotional healing that had been truly over a decade in the making. We ended up turning in about 3 in the morning, truly worn out from a long day. But what a beautiful experience it was! I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

We slept in a good bit the next morning, then returned home around noon or so. Our house arrived home to a delicious fried chicken lunch prepared by Mama E – I can assure you, she makes the best fried chicken I’ve ever had!

After lunch we got ready to travel to Spanish Lookout! Spanish Lookout is a large, mostly Mennonite community that’s home to the locally famous Western Dairies, maker of our beloved chocolate Ideals. My first host family from the village had planned on going out last week there, but that was the week I had gotten sick. Getting to visit definitely helped to redeem that really difficult week.

We were picked up by some friends, and we crowded into the back of their truck with our dear friend M. We got really lucky with the rain – it cleared up just before we headed out!

Our first stop was a little Mennonite store, where I was so excited to find a coconut pie! Second we stopped at the Western Dairies store to get ice cream and some pizza. I tried their caboo flavor, which was honestly just okay, but I tried a bite of the Oreo, and I think I can safely say it was the best Oreo ice cream I’ve ever had!

We stopped at a large store to browse before leaving. It was probably the closest thing I had seen to a Walmart the whole time I was in Belize, and it had about the highest concentration of white people I had seen on the trip, which was a strange feeling. While I was glad I got to experience Spanish Lookout, it was definitely an unusual mishmash of cultures – I couldn’t get over seeing silos next to palm trees!

We headed back at our favorite time of day, the late afternoon/early evening when the sun makes everything golden and beautiful. As much as it was fun to experience the town, I think we enjoyed the drive there and back as much (if not more than) the time there. It’s amazing the love these two women have for us, and have had since the day we met them.

The sunset that night was beautiful – just the lightest pink tinting the clouds. This was the view from our house.

Saturday we continued our tradition of going to the market and going shopping for tamale groceries and eating pupusas afterwards! J also got a great deal on a beautiful hammock. We got hit with a bit of rain, but las niñas made sure the groceries were safe!

We did laundry when we got home, which was much needed, evidenced by me wearing my towel as a skirt for a few hours because everything else was in the wash.

We rested up that afternoon to prepare for attending a vigil at Mama’s church that evening. It went until three in the morning, but thankfully we only stayed until one – two late night vigils in three days is a lot!

Sunday morning we attended church at a new location. We had hoped to go there from the beginning of our time in Santa Elena, but the pastor had been out of town for the last several weeks. I’m so glad we got to go for the little time we did, though – while it was still very different from my church experiences in the States, for me it was the most edifying and positive church experience I’d had in Belize by far. The pastor and his wife were so kind and welcoming to us and took the time to learn our names, which I so appreciated!

After church, we went over to the house of a woman from Mama’s church who had invited us over for coffee. J and H went to our other church that evening, but I was pretty pooped, so I stayed home.

Well, that wraps up week 9! I’ll try to get the final posts done soon. Thanks for reading!

“Touristing”, Cake, and Kittens

October 28, 2023Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

Week 8 has officially come and gone, and we’re well into Week 9 now – the time is definitely flying. I’ll try to keep this post a little shorter just in an effort to be a little more present here with the time we have left!

Monday and Tuesday we were back at school. I ended up working with the same class both days, which I really like – it helps to create deeper relationships with the kids. Probably my favorite moment was sitting with two little boys during reading time, listening to them sound out the words to an Amelia Bedelia book and cackle at her misunderstandings and antics. It really made me miss reading and what an impact it had on my life as a kid. Books are the best!!

Monday we also got to go to an altar night on the town put on by the church we’ve been going to. They have one at different parks each week, and this week we lucked out, as it one was pretty close to where we live. The goal is to do outreach and “take back” that area for the Lord. There’s a lot of prayer and worship, which is pretty awesome!

Unfortunately, I started feeling sick again after school on Tuesday, so I stayed behind while J and H and Mama went to house church. I did go with the team Wednesday morning to help mix up more concrete for the church we’re working on, but I was definitely not feeling great and was told to sit down partway through. It was really satisfying, though, to see the project we were working on finished!

Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and a good part of Friday I spent in bed, just trying to recover. The symptoms were extremely similar to the flu I had had back in the village, just (thankfully) without the fever. It was definitely disappointing to be sick yet again, and Thursday I hit kind of a low spot, just struggling with my purpose here and whether I was even supposed to go to South Africa next year for more missions. Thankfully, the Lord helped pull me out of that on Friday morning, and I feel confident that he wants me to go to South Africa in January and even hike the Appalachian Trail afterwards!

I also got to have coffee with Lauren Friday evening, which was really good – our “frate” back in the village was very short and interrupted several times by my little host brother, so it was good to dive a little deeper and not be so distracted!

The big highlight of the week was getting to see some Mayan ruins on Saturday! Our friend from the village who had given us the tour of the cave picked us up early that morning and drove us to the Xunantunich ruins.

We hit a small hitch upon arriving: the ferry that usually transports cars across the river was only ferrying people due to high water levels, and it was a mile walk up some serious hills to the ruins after you had crossed. Normally this would be no big deal for me, but since I still wasn’t feeling 100%, the two mile round trip walk plus probably another mile or two walking around the ruins really took it out of me. Nonetheless, it was so so worth it! The walk was pretty too, which helped, and it gave us more time to talk with our guide.

Even better, after touring we stumbled upon a monkey! It was the first monkey I’ve ever seen in the wild, and it was really cute!

We stopped in the visitor’s center but didn’t stay long, which I was kind of bummed about – normally I probably could have spent a good hour there! I think the group was pretty tired though, and honestly I was too. We did get to see some cool artifacts that they had on display.

After the walk back, we stopped at a little shop for some Cokes and some homemade Ideals that were so good before heading back home.

It definitely feels a little strange doing more touristy activities – we know we definitely look like tourists, but after 8 weeks here we don’t feel like one! It is really interesting to talk with true tourists and see where they’re from, but it’s funny how even the Americans feel so “other”.

The rest of the group went to a youth night at our church that night, but I was pretty worn out still, so I had an early night in. Sunday morning we had church, and then we went to sell tamales that night with Mama. We were pretty pooped after a busy weekend!

Here’s some other fun moments from the week that I didn’t already mention:

The kittens are getting so big and so fluffy!! We can cuddle them now, and it’s so good.

Mama made a pineapple upside down cake with a lemon base, and it tasted so good.

Here’s H sipping some coffee by our window…

…and J going a little nuts out of same said window!

And finally J with her adorable stingray sunburn.

Well, that makes another week! I know I sound like a broken record, but if you all could continue praying for health for the team through November 9, we would so appreciate it. We had someone else sick again this week, and honestly I’m pretty worried about traveling back home through several airports (read: germ hubs) and convening with the two other teams who have also been traveling through numerous airports for debrief, what with the blow my immune system has taken so far. I’ll be drinking my orange juice and praying!

If you could also be praying for a good last week here in Belize, we would really appreciate it. As much as I’m excited to get home and see friends and family, I’m trying hard to stay in the moment because I know I’ll really miss it here. And in case I don’t get another post done next week, prayers for safe travels on the 6th and 7th and prayers for adjusting to life back in the States would be much appreciated too!

Much love to you all – until next time!

A Much Needed Break

October 19, 2023October 19, 2023Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

Welcome back for Week 7! This was actually a really restful week for us, as a lot of our plans were cancelled. It was really nice to take it a bit easier after a busy first week in our new home!

Early Monday morning we had quite a bit of excitement, though I didn’t really realize what had happened until I woke up several hours later: one of our cats who had been pregnant had her kittens! J definitely came to her rescue and whipped up a much more suitable birthing box than the box full of wires she had chosen! We now have three little kittens; it’s crazy how much bigger they’ve gotten already, and I’m hoping they’ll be old enough to play with a little by the time we go!

Thankfully Monday was a holiday, so we didn’t have to go to school. We took the time to sleep in after a late night of selling tamales (and for J midwifing kittens!), then we got up and helped make the next batch of tamales!

I think it was Wednesday I graduated from banana leaf cleaning/wrapping to assembling some 92 tamales! I definitely don’t have it down yet, but it was neat to be involved in a different part of the process.

Monday we also went back to the boba tea spot to do a little processing of our church experiences over the weekend, which was good. It’s so wild how we all had such different experiences and perspectives, and it was really amazing hearing some of the stories of how God worked. I’m definitely not quite comfortable with this new, very charismatic style of church, and I’m still praying for discernment, but I do think some of my initial hesitation is decreasing some.

Tuesday we were back in the primary school again. Unlike the school in the village, we’re not really assigned to a classroom; we just kind of float around to wherever we’re needed. This day I was in a Standard 1 class, which was fun! I mostly graded papers and helped cut out some decorations for a bulletin board. (I was pretty amused at the irony of decorating with pictures of colorful maple leaves in a place that doesn’t really have fall, neither maple trees, and was experiencing record-high temps of over 100 degrees that week.)

After school, we walked towards town some and browsed a little; I found a cute linen dress that I’m hoping might work for when I go to South Africa next year!

J and H and I got home and decided to spend time on the roof together, which was so good! We spent hours up there, just talking and eating tamales and enjoying the sunset and stars.

Wednesday we were supposed to go to the preschool, but school was cancelled last-minute as the power was out. We took the time to rest and help make tamales, and then it was time for our big adventure of the day – finding a way back to our village! Normally we would just rely on Pastor N for a ride, since he lives in the city but preaches in the village; however, we were trying to surprise him for his birthday! After much planning and scheming (and thanks to the generosity of an extremely kind bus driver), we were able to hop on a bus taking kids from the city to the town.

And man, did it feel good to be back. None of us could believe it had only been ten days since we left – it felt so much longer! MK and I were so thrilled to get to see our family again and spend time with them before going to church. I spent most of the time playing with the boys and helping Mama pick some veggies. We got up to some good shenanigans and had some good laughs!

The congregation had decorated the altar for Pastor’s birthday and prepared a whole big meal of what else but tamales, along with rice and beans, salad, and cake! With all the festivities, it was about 10 pm before we got to enjoy the food, but I did a really good job of cleaning my plate that way!

We hung out at the church for quite a while after, just talking with our friends and catching up. Before long, it was time to get going, so we said a much less tearful goodbye and squeezed into the back of Pastor’s truck to ride back to town. The stars were beautiful that night, so I watched for constellations on the way back and praised God for the opportunity to see our families again and for such a good night. It felt especially redemptive since I had been sick that last week in the village and leaving on that note was so hard.

Thursday our plans were cancelled yet again, which meant we were able to sleep in after a late night out. J and H and I accompanied Mama to the store, where she spoiled us and bought a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch!! We were so excited.

That night we went to a prayer night at Mama E’s church, then Friday morning we were up early to head to Pastor N’s house, where we worked to fill some more holes in his yard.

We spotted the tiniest little toads I’ve ever seen there, which is wild because the biggest toads I’ve ever seen in my life have also been from Belize. They really range the whole gambit here. (Hard to tell, but the one below is easily 7-8 inches long and a pound and a half or more!)

After getting back from Pastor’s house, we went over to the other host family for a while to eat lunch and hang out. Probably the biggest entertainment was watching one of the boys suddenly cut down a big tree with just a machete, though cuddling the sweet little neighbor baby was pretty up there too.

That night, Mama’s niece’s husband Ed came to stay with us! He is extremely outgoing and quickly rounded up a group of people to play Uno. Unfortunately, I was pretty pooped from the digging, so I didn’t stay up for it, but we got plenty of time with him the next day.

Saturday we went into town with Mama to pick up some groceries at the market. We were there earlier than the week before, so there was a good bit more of a selection, such as this big pile of dragonfruit! (Yes, we did get some.)

After groceries were acquired, we went to the pupuseria at the market, where Ed joined us for some fresh hot pupusas. Afterwards we walked over to a local ice cream shop, where Ed treated us!

Saturday also happened to be the day of the solar eclipse, so once we got home, we headed up to the roof and took a look. Even though our coordinates weren’t the best place in the world to view it, we lucked out with a pretty sunny day, so we could still see it! It got noticeably cooler and darker – I think I cracked a joke about how it would be nice to have a solar eclipse every day! (Did I mention it had cracked 100 degrees multiple days that week? Thankfully it’s gotten cooler since then, but we could still really use prayers for rain!)

A couple hours later, Ed and a friend moto-ed us over to the river for a little escape from the returned heat. We had a good time just hanging out and even jumping off the bridge a time or two!

We came back home and hung out for a while before getting ready for church. Did I mention we have horses around us that randomly walk by and sometimes grab a snack from our front yard?

That night at Mama E’s church we had a vigil! It basically was like a very long church service. Some of the team stayed for the whole thing, while the rest of us left at the break at 11:45, since we had church early in the morning.

Sunday morning we walked to church – I caught some pictures of this beauty with some gorgeous flowers along the way!

We rested for a good while after getting back…

…then headed to a coffee shop we hadn’t tried yet to hang out as a team for a while. H found some of E’s favorite chips in the store and bought a bag for her – it was pretty funny to see E’s reaction!

I have been pretty surprised at the number of familiar snacks here, especially now that we’ve moved to the city and have access to bigger stores. We even found some Cheez-Its in the store the other day, so we might be splurging on a box of those before the trip is up! There’s also a really nice selection of snacks that I haven’t seen back in the States, so it’s been really fun trying those. The favorite right now among our house is Chocolate Ideals, which is basically frozen chocolate milk in a bag. We usually tear off a corner and sip it as it melts. They’re super cheap, and very nice for a hot day!

We hustled home afterwards so we could help Mama pack up tamales and go with her downtown to sell. It was definitely a quieter night, and a shorter night for us three since we took a taxi back early, but it was still a good time!

Well friends, that makes another week! If you would be praying for health for our team here, we would really appreciate it! Unfortunately I am under the weather again, though thankfully not as badly as last time. It’s kind of hard to get enough vitamins here, so I think that between that and me having the flu a couple of weeks ago, my immune system has really taken a hit. I’m praying for a speedy recovery so that I can get back on the ground! Much love!

Goodbyes and Hellos

October 13, 2023Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

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!

A Week of Adventures

October 5, 2023October 5, 2023Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

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!!

New Friends, New Life, and New Lessons

September 24, 2023September 27, 2023Sheraya SmithLeave a comment

¡Bienvenidos! This is the fourth installment of Belize posts and covers our third full week here.

Monday was such a good day! Sunday was a holiday, so the kids got off school on Monday, and Mama L didn’t have to work. Because of this, Mama L ended up taking MK and me to visit her Mennonite friend a little ways outside of town. The drive there was just beautiful!

When we first arrived in Belize, I was pretty surprised to hear that there was a rather large population of Mennonites. Since I’ve been here, I’ve learned that there’s several more religious groups here, including Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. It seems several of them have migrated from the United States or Canada, perhaps because of the higher percentage of English speakers here than other Central American countries. A lot of these groups do tend to keep to themselves; we’ll occasionally run across a Mennonite coming into town, but it’s not an everyday occurrence for us.

It was a pleasure to meet and talk with D, Mama L’s friend, and hear a bit of her testimony. Unfortunately it was a pretty quick visit, but I did get to see her dragonfruit patch, which was really cool!

I’m really hoping we get the opportunity to go back and spend a little more time getting to know D – I’ve also been told she makes a really great pizza, and I can’t tell you how good that sounds!!

Afterwards, we returned home and started making food. My birthday had been the day before, but with the wedding we hadn’t had any time to celebrate. After a while, I got kind of tired and decided to go lay down for a couple minutes. Mama L told me that she would come and wake me some three hours later! I think I only slept about twenty minutes, but it was nice to have more time to rest, and I put some headphones in so I wouldn’t spoil any of the preparations going on outside my room.

I was “awakened” a few hours later to a firecracker going off and my team singing Happy Birthday! We had not one, not two, but three cakes, and a delicious dinner afterwards. They had also decorated the dining room with so many balloons!

The team even brought presents! First was a travel Chutes and Ladders game for A, since his birthday was on Friday. He absolutely loved it, and several days later we are still playing it regularly! As for me, I got a bag of goodies, because I love trying sweets from other countries, and a cover for my Bible! MK had noticed I was carrying around my Bible in a Ziploc to help protect it from the elements, so the team decided to get me a more aesthetic protector. It was so thoughtful!!

Tuesday was back to normal. I started off the day bright and early helping Mama L make flour tortillas, which are sold at the local shop as an extra source of income. They are so good!! Definitely one of the small things I’ll miss most about living here. We made a HUGE stack this morning – right about 90!

We make tortillas most mornings, depending on demand, though sometimes we make them in the evenings instead. It’s usually about 7:30 by the time we’ve finished, at which point the boys are usually up and getting ready for school. I usually help get them out the door, then we finish getting ready ourselves. This was our first normal week of helping in the school, so we volunteered on Tuesday and Thursday.

Wednesday MK and I were able to take a bit of a slower day, as we weren’t helping at school and Mama and Papa were out running errands. We helped fix lunch for the boys and did some chores around the house, but otherwise enjoyed the day to ourselves.

Thursday I finally finished my number chart at school! After cutting out 100 circles, gluing them down, cutting out borders, and covering the whole thing in plastic – all the while fighting the wind that kept trying to blow everything away – I was pretty thrilled to be done!

Friday MK and I started the day by helping Mama L “clean” chocho plants. Chocho is a type of squash commonly used in soups here. Our farm has a couple of fields full of them, and they’re just about ready to be harvested! Mama L says that they typically clean, or remove the old dead growth, three times a year! It’s a very impressive setup.

Afterwards, we got the opportunity to meet Miss S, an American ex-pat living in Belize for the last couple of decades. She graciously invited the team over for lunch and prepared a pretty big spread: vegan lasagna, walnut rice balls, and fresh salad. I think my favorite, though, was the dessert – chocolate pudding made from avocadoes!

We also got to meet her many dogs, and we even took them on a walk with us as we explored her property.

Friday night I had a pretty humbling learning moment. Because we don’t have church on Friday nights, we’ve been having worship nights with more contemporary music at the church. This was the first Friday we decided to open it up to youth in the community as an outreach event I was pretty excited to share a different way of worship: more contemporary music, dimmed lights, and I had even had the idea of lighting candles! I got the candles all prepped and ready, but I forgot the most important part – permission. We ultimately decided not to use them since the church hadn’t approved them, but we still turned off the lights during worship and just turned on our phone flashlights. Near the end of the night, the lights suddenly came back on. A church member we are close to had informed us that it’s not looked upon very favorably to worship in the dark here. The kicker for me, though, was what he added: “At least you didn’t light candles!” Ouch. I was pretty frustrated walking home; it honestly felt like a bit of a slap in the face to have our culture of worship rejected like that. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized that I was focusing a little too much on sharing culture rather than sharing Jesus. And yes, our goal was to present a slightly different culture of worship to help attract a different group of people than those that usually attend. But as team leader L reminded me, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians, we shouldn’t do anything that will cause another Christian to stumble – even if it’s with the best of intentions!

Saturday was an unexpectedly eventful day. At lunch the day before, MK and I had volunteered to stay and sit Miss S’s very pregnant dog while Miss S was out of town. We arrived early that morning to find Miss S still at home and one puppy already delivered! Over the next several hours, we got to act as puppy “midwives” four more times, and thankfully, they were all healthy! It was a pretty awesome experience getting to see new life being brought into the world, and I’m really glad we got to be there for Miss S, who was pretty nervous about the whole ordeal.

We went home a little after the last puppy was born at 4:00 and found Mama L doing some landscaping projects! We helped a little bit with transplanting some bushes to the backyard so the boys would have more space to run around.

I had been itching to do some baking and finally got some time on Saturday to make it happen. Tasting the plantains we cut down the week before made me miss banana cake, so I found a recipe that didn’t use butter and took a stab. It tasted good but was really, really sweet, especially with the icing. Definitely fun to get to bake though – my first time in several months! We had some company over too to help us eat it.

Mama and I talked for a bit after our company left, and somehow we got on the topic of body weight. Before I knew it, she had whipped out a scale, and we were weighing ourselves by hanging from the ceiling! I love her so much – never know what might happen when I’m spending time with her!

Sunday we didn’t go to church because all the leaders were out of town at a conference. We helped out around the house some, then walked over to the community center for a girl’s group with Miss S. Our main goal was to just support Miss S and try to make some connections with the girls, and it was a good time! We did a speed dating style icebreaker, then E from our team led a tutorial on how to make friendship bracelets.

That wraps up another week in Belize! It’s crazy to think we only have one more week left in this town before we move to our next spot. We would really appreciate your prayers for a smooth transition – we love it here, and it will be hard to leave, but we’re also excited for the next chapter. God bless – I’ll leave you with a sunset photo from the top of our hill!

Ray of Sunshine Travel

Author: Sheraya Smith