Tagging Along: Saturday, June 6

Dean (and consequently I) didn't sleep as well last night. The air conditioner in the room was very noisy. We had seen nearly constant lightning in the distance the evening before and during the middle of the night it dumped rain, and Dean heard some thunder. We awoke to a beautiful, sunny morning though! There was a pond outside our room where we watched iguanas, frogs, and birds. The Aguada had coffee sitting out in the restaurant – yay!
I took a picture of their hibiscus hedge to remind me how well they do in their native environment. I have a scraggly little one at home that would have been thrilled if we could have dropped it off in Belize!

We planned to meet Nathan and Ginger at about 11 a.m. at the Golden Corral German buffet in Spanish Lookout. We drove into San Ignacio first since we had time. We discovered the one-way bridge by coming at it the wrong way, so we turned around and headed east. We stopped at the Orange gift shop...we were still searching for a few gifts.

We headed to Spanish Lookout early to look around. We easily found the Golden Corral. We kept driving and stopped at a bookstore. God had led us to the lead pastor of the Mennonite Church, who also runs the bookstore and is a tour guide. We spoke with Pastor Peter Reimer for some time. Many Mennonites have several things going to diversify their income. He acknowledged that it would be difficult to just up and move to Belize and somehow make a living. His bookstore is impressive – textbooks, a large variety of Christian books, toys, stickers, clothing, etc. We found out the time and location of the Sunday service, and he said we would be welcome to attend.

Motorcycles were definitely the vehicle of choice! Our friends were running late, so we stopped at the Farmer's Trading Center, which turned out to be the most modern grocery store we had seen yet in Belize. It had computerized checkout registers, a cooler room for veggies, bread, chocolate, etc., and a better selection of gift items that said “Belize” that we had found yet in our price range. They had many familiar products: Skippy PB, Cheerios, you name it. Like always, imported stuff cost more, local things were reasonably priced. The Mennonite clerks were very friendly. I hadn't had much milk lately, so I bought a single-serve bottle. Ginger had mentioned that some Belizean stores turn off their coolers at night, but I hoped this was a safe place to get some milk from!

Spanish Lookout is a beautiful area with cows and horses grazing under palm trees, lots of poultry farms and agriculture. It felt a lot like rural America, bit it was distinctly Belizean, too. The farms we're used to in rural Washington state don't usually have the heat, tropical vegetation, or houses up on stilts. Some things were a bit rundown, but there is an obvious difference from the other towns we had seen. A Biblical work ethic makes a noticeable difference!

There is an Amish community in the area as well.

We had a nice lunch with Nathan, Ginger, and kids. Two buffets and two drinks came to about $38 BZ (I use the term “buffet” rather loosely. The food was very good, but it wasn't a huge selection.) We decided to tag along with them again and help with their prep for the mission team. We went back to the Farmer's Trading Center for the groceries, then took them to Camp Camalote. It is an awesome camp with beautiful grounds, A/C in all the inside rooms, a screened in meeting room, dorm-style bunks beds (4/room), a kitchen, washing machines, hammocks, ping-pong tables...

Next we went to Belmopan to meet NT and Joy, Baptist missionaries who have been in Belize for over 40 years. They spoke to the mission team the next night and were helping with the prep work. They've taught, planted churches, have their own little camp on Hummingbird Hwy., and have a little tent church in Belmopan. They are a thoroughly delightful couple.

As much as we enjoyed Nathan and Ginger's children, it sure made us miss our two all the more! I missed them more each day, and couldn't wait to hug them when we returned!

We picked up sub sandwiches at Pasquele's – a popular, American-style pizza joint in Belmopan. ($14 BZ each) It was like a taste of home!