Last Days In Belize
Friday morning was a sad morning. Belize had stolen our hearts (I know, it sounds so cliche, but we truly fell in love with this place!) We filled some more bags with rice to give to some people who we promised it to. Pastor Betson’s grandkids had to be brought to school so we dropped them off – they went to Unity Presbyterian in the Burial Grounds. So we jumped in the back, along with our luggage and a random printer. It was a little chilly so I tried to keep this lil one warm with my legs – hey, I wasn’t going to complain!
The boy in the red shirt (I forget his name) was actually born in Chicago! We were talking about the States and we asked them if they knew where Michigan was. We were saying that it was snowing and this boy said he was born in Chicago so he knows :).
Such a welcoming sign! Hope to see it again someday!
Our Team (we were more than just a group :)) – Alex, Joe, Karen, myself, Dan, Scott, and Christina. They all left aft 12:15, while our plane didn’t leave until 4:40. We didn’t feel comfortable driving the rental truck around (the Sterks have experienced Murphy’s Law all too often) so we decided to just chill at the airport. We got to the airport at 10am, so if you EVER need to know ANYTHING about the Belize airport, just ask us :). We know the ins and outs of that place it seems! It was hard to say goodbye to them all because we were like a family!
On the way to the airport Scott stopped at a roadside stand (very common in Belize) and bought some apple bananas. I know that seems strange, but they are SO GOOD! They are mini-bananas, but have a hit of apple taste to them. I think I ate 3 or 4 of them that morning 🙂
The Belize airport doesn’t have these huge gates – they only have 6 gates total. But a gate consists of just a door, where you walk outside to your plane – very fun!
View of Belize from the air…
The sunset was just amazing – this doesn’t do it justice at all. We flew into Dallas/Fort Worth (got in around 7:30, went through customs/immigration) and then got to our hotel around 8:30. We grabbed some supper at the hotel and went straight to bed! We had to get up at 3:30am b/c our flight left DFW at 5:45am. We then flew to Chicago, then back to Grand Rapids, arriving at 11:20am. It was a crazy flight schedule back, but it all went fairly smooth. I definitely had a hard time keeping myself together when we left Belize – tears definitely started to come! But Lord-willing, we will go back someday!
Some more random facts about our trip and Belize:
– Their beef tasted quite a bit different than our’s in the States – we realized that we never saw a “fat” cow and they are only grass fed – no fat in the beef whatsoever, which made it very dry and tasted quite a bit different.
– One night we were driving down in the Burial Grounds and we drove by a basketball court. Some guys were playing basketball and saw Dan and said “Hey Yo! Pop, Pop! – we didn’t realize that the week before there was that slaying, but it made us think twice of how prevalent guns are! No, they didn’t have actual guns – just the motions.
– While driving back from Patchakan, we could see the mountains of Mexico!
– Their cars are similar to ours – a lot of American made cars, which surprised us! Fords, Chevys…
– Keron said the Belizeans LOVE the NBA – my heart kind of sank because that is who these guys look up to and to be quite frank, I don’t think some of them are the best role models. That is the life they want to live, yet they may not realize the small percentage of people who actually make it to the NBA. Dan said he would LOVE to go down to the Burial Grounds and just lead a Bible study – for anyone who would want to come. Like I said before, they are HUNGRY for the Word and to just teach them (not preach), and have dialogue about the gospel, would be amazing. Maybe next time! Even more so, do it with the youth down there. Many of them just need a solid mentor – someone to guide them through life!
So how do we apply what we learned in Belize? That will be coming up next…
