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Day 2 on this 5 acre island ...that brings back memories of the Gulligan's Island TV show.  We know most every one on the island now...both tourist and locals.  The morning sky was cloudy and hung them just  before it started to rain.  In intervals we read, visited with neighbors & staff, napped in hammocks, played cards, walked around the island & made careful & prolonged viewing of the osprey, pelicans, crows, herons, rays & fish swimming around the docks.  Even a coconut dropping was interesting.  After a couple showers, we re-wrung out clothes & hung them on our porch.  The day went by about as fast as the clothes dried.  Island time is easy to get use to.  Here meals are served family style and on days like today...we linger around the table with rich conversation.  Fellow travelers can tell such fascinating stories!  Day 3 brought sunshine so we were on open water and what is called The Garden.  The vibrant colors of the fish & reef was worthy of it's name.  A group of Vermont students snorkeled at night with headlamps and showed us their video of a green moray eel & a large octopus they'd spotted.  It was tempting but not convincing enough to make me go.  Princess, a 3 year old hung around me for a while so we wrote the ABC's in the sand & read a couple books I had.  She rewarded me dancing the Punta (she could shake every part of her little body!).  Day 4  Spent the first couple hours saying goodbye to Muriel & Judd and then getting to know our new neighbors...Jeff & Erica better.  We had talked to them a bit yesterday and today they said they thought it was such a good idea to do some volunteering while traveling that next year...they were going to do it.  We exchanged our emails & they want us to let them know more about Safe Haven...the orphanage we worked at in Thailand.  We canoed along the nearby reef and spotted sting rays, trunk fish, star fish, coral & many tiny fish through the sparkling clear water.  We watched guy cleaning conch & later his wife brought us some freshly made conch fritters. Our dinner last 2 hours as a couple from Belgium, a girl from Switzerland & her boyfriend from Hawaii and a couple from Canada shared many of our views of this world discussing all we have learned while traveling. ..not only from the countries we travel but also the many people we meet from all over the world.  Truly these conversations are one of the best parts of traveling!

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My Birthday!  FIrst thanks for all the emails wishing me a good one!!!  We found a great place that had cheese omelets, french fries & Coke Light for breakfast then hit the bank, internet cafe, bakery & a grocery store to stock up with Coke Light and then climbed into a boat headed for Tobacco Caye about 45 minutes out.  Ahhh! What a haven surrounded by turquoise water and a reef that is part of the second largest in the world.  By 2:30we were snorkeling seeing schools of various fish feeding on the reef.  Can't say it was the best we've seen...but no complaints.  We watched a glorious sunset and the dinner bell rang at 6...just like at camp.  We enjoyed the company of a couple from Oregon comparing travel experiences.  Drummers filled the night air with their rhythmic sounds late into the night. How is that for a birthday???

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We got on the bus and headed to the jungle stopping at the Hummingbird Guest House.  It turned out to be another unique experience.  A clearing had been cut in the middle of the jungle by a group of mostly Californians who lived there at various times for various amounts of time ...basically communal style.  They worked & ate together and made joint decisions on what to do with the property.  They had planted many trees and flowering bushes that all produced something edible and had gardens and chickens.  It was pretty basic living with shared outhouses & showers.  I am not sure what the attraction was.  We walked the land that was encircled by a clear, fast running creek.  We rode to the village with one couple but there seemed to be nothing happening there...or would be happening.  A bit farther up the road, what seemed to be a mirage was actually a real ice cream stand...they had Coke Light too...I got one of each!  The ice cream was made fresh daily by the Mechannites--they were Mennonites that used mechanical equipment.  Great fine!!! Unfortunately some nasty biting sand flies (we call no see-ums) found us and we itched lots.  Next a.m. we waited in what looked like the middle of no where for one & a half hours for the bus.  We felt like Steve Martin in The Jerk.  The bus finally did come and we headed for Dangariga passing by acres of orange trees that produce not the picture perfect ones we buy in the states...but rather greenish-blackish ones that taste delicious.  We got to Dangariga and found Ruthie's --our hotel.  Lonely Planet--our guide book...sure let us astray on this one!  A dump...but it seemed all the ones nearby were the same so we just bit our tongues, scratched our bites & made the best of it.  The beach we were on was covered with litter & the water was as muddy as the Mississippi.  We walked around town...everything was pretty run down.  We did enjoy going to the Garifuna museum.  We were the only ones there and the guide unlocked a gate to allow us in & relocked it as soon as we entered it.  We'd been told this town was unsafe...guess this was proof.  Our guide was of Garifuna descent and spoke from her heart as she explained each exhibit.  The Garifuna is a mix between the Black Caribs & slaves from a slave ship that shipwrecked on the island of St. Vincent.  Later the British deported them in chains to Honduras & some made it to this area.  They remain a people who hold fast to their traditions.

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As I reflect on our time helping the Omega Church, I am grateful for the time we spent with kids, Paula & Emmanuel.  But I also find myself thinking, we could have done so much more if only they had been more organized.  That's my Midwest USA, work ethics talking...that's not here.  Don't I always tell myself that I will let God be in charge, not me?  He let me know he was in charge as I hugged Paula and she whispered in my ear, "You inspire me and give me the courage to continue."  So that's enough for me.  Amen