#3

The sun came out just before our ship headed back to Belize City where we caught a cab for the bus station and headed for San Ignacio.  The 2 & 1/2 hour bus ride gave us lots of glimpses of small villages, land half claimed by palm or scrub trees and barren except for the huge crop of Styrofoam plates, homes with wood siding & rusted corregated roofs & barred windows with multiple clothes lines drooping with clothing & a dog or two sunning in a dirt pile.  Also looking out the bus window were 4 other tourist, 6 Mennonites & a variety of other locals who exchanged spots with other locals each time the door opened & shut--which was about 50 times.  Somehow the bus clerk knew who he had to collect money from & $8 was all he charged us for the trip.  As we neared Belompan (the capital of Belize) & later San Ignacio, we saw nicer homes, a few factories & stores, cows & fruit trees--never did see much crop land.  We found our cabana, squeezed between store fronts & a road.  The view from our screen porch includes orange & banana trees where we enjoy the breeze as well.  We are surrounded by good places to eat, several small grocery stores, a couple internet cafes & other stores.  We are impressed with the cleanliness of this town compared to many other large towns we've been in.  We ate, sent off an email to Paula Salazar ( our contact person here) and then set up our new "home" which ironically has the same paneling that was in my own home about 50 years ago.  We slept well on the cement bed (cause the wood ones would be eaten by termites quickly) with a 6"  mattress and headed out early to the Saturday market.  It was bulging with fresh produce, used & new clothing, shoes, jewelry and a few odds & ends.  Rog got a cup for his coffee & a few bananas.  Then we checked our email.  Nothing from Paula so we waited...played cards....read...browsed stores...ate and at 3 pm, Paula came.  She is delightful.  After a nice chat, she left saying she'd be back at 7, leaving us with more questions than answers...but that is what we have come to expect.  We are quite sure we are doing a bible lesson tomorrow.  Not sure for how many or for how long.  Our Ecuador experience all over again.  We set off to scrounge material for the proven-winner lesson, the lost sheep.  Within an hour, we'd rounded up paper plates, cotton balls, glue, cups, Qtips, crayons, balloons, a large typed copy of Ps 23 and a colored picture of a lamb.  Next, Rog found a way to create eye holes in 100 paper plates while I came up with samples & prepared for games.  At 7 p.m., a battered little pickup pulled up.  It's amazing how similar it was to so many other pickups we've ridden in:  seat guts hanging out, no door handles, cracked windshield, gaping hole in floor board and red light glowing on the dash board.  Emanuel, Paula's brother, was driving.  What an entertaining, God-loving young man.  With much enthusiasm, he told us all about his families activities as we slowly bounced along going deeper into the outskirts of town where the working poor and unemployed live.  Pastor Elizabeth was at her door waving us in which meant walking over a blank, then big chunks of limestone & finally, layers of palm branches.  The rainy season has left her yard a mud hole.  A heartfelt hug & warm welcome made you forget the mud between your toes.  Pastor Elizabeth overflowed with enthusiasm as she told us about her belief that we are all family in Christ and how she is compelled to do for others.  Her family & home is busting at the seam with activities and have dreams of many more.  Many church members, especially youth, came by and soon all of us had mounded plates of food and the stories were as plentiful as the food.  We showed her our plans for the bible lesson which she whole-heartedly approved.  Then we hugged our way to the door, crowded back into the truck and headed back to our cabana.  Whew!

#2: friends from Iceland

 I love meeting new people. A few days ago we met a couple from Iceland and learned much about their country.  Leif Erickson discovered it around 900 AD, and today all native Icelanders can trace their ancestry to that beginning.  They even have an app on their phones that they can type in a name and it will show them how they are related to one another.  Most of the 300,000 Icelanders are related within less than 9 generations.  Their heat and electricity is geothermal and it cost about $40 per month for both.  I asked if many move away and they smiled and said, "If they do, they come back."