Today was just an awesome day!! You could see God’s handiwork in every step of our Journey! Jim and Shelley picked us up bright and early! So early that I said “Good Morning!” and right after “I’m going back to sleep!” Fortunately I didn’t sleep at all and was able to see everything!! The two hour ride was absolutely beautiful! Half way there we got stopped by a tractor who was digging up the middle of the road. We only waited for about a half hour and got to enjoy our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!! This truck thought he would be first in line while we waited and got right in front of us. Not a big deal really, but about a few miles up the road we saw him broken down on the side of the road! Gave us a good laugh!
We were kind of nervous when we got to the border of Guatemala and Belize, cause we weren’t really sure they were going to let us through! It was all good, until they checked my bag, and saw that we had oranges and apples. Jimmy told us to pack a snack, and all we had was fruit. We didn’t think anything of it. Well, apparently the customs lady had just asked Jimmy if we had any citrus, but he said no…right after they pulled it out of our bag! She was like, “what is this then?” Jimmy totally threw us under the bus and told them that we weren’t with him. He was just giving us a ride! We forgave him though :)
Belize is totally different than Guatemala! There are a ton of black Hispanics that speak English! The houses were all up on stilts, and it just seemed a lot cleaner! We finally found a sign for Spanish Lookout and right underneath it you will never guess what we found!!! A sign saying, “Cayo Deaf Institute…1 ½ miles!” I was so so excited!! We didn’t know exactly where it was, so we went ahead to Spanish Lookout hoping someone could give us some directions!
We had to take a ferry across this river to get to Spanish Lookout! It was fun! We really had no idea where we were going, but we knew who we were looking for. So the first hardware store that Jimmy saw, we pulled over to see if anyone could help us. The first guy in the checkout line just happened to be the guy, we were looking for, brother. He led us right to Clarence Dick’s house, where we waited for him to get back from the rice fields. They had a little fence with monkeys and chickens inside! The monkeys were sooo cute, and I am seriously contemplating getting one someday! I have to do some more studying up on them though!
Clarence and his wife are some of the nicest people I have ever met! They gave up their whole day and took us around Spanish Lookout! Our first stop was lunch!! Brittany and I had an authentic Beliezan dinner! It was delicious! He then took us on a tour of the whole community! It is huge and has pretty much everything you can find in the States! It was like a Promise Land for missionaries, and Jim and Shelley are so glad that they have found it! Clarence owns rice crops, and he himself is responsible for 80% of Belize’s export of rice and for the rice in the whole country. He took us to his rice factory and even gave Jimmy a bag of rice! It was so cool to see the whole process of growing rice!
One of my favorite stops was when we went to the Christian bookstore they have there! I saw so many good books that I hope to read someday! We then went to this fabric store that had those pom pom things! Shelley was really excited to get them for the babies’ room! Another one of my favorite stop was when we got ice-cream!! I got an oreo ice cream cone, and it was really good! Afterwards we went to this store that was a grocery store, hardware store, and craft store all in one! It was pretty much amazing…it had all kinds of stuff that Jim and Shelley can’t find in Guatemala. We had such a good time with Clarence and his wife! They were so hospitable and genuine! They are also good friends with some of Jim and Shelley’s friends that we will get to meet next week! Their names are Virgil and Dara, and their story is amazing too! We will safe that story for another day though!
Our day there ended all too quickly, but our next stop was the Deaf school! We pulled up to this work shed and sure enough there were 5 deaf people there! I was super excited!! I jumped right out, kinda of nervous cause I wasn’t sure what sign-language they use! But to my surprise they totally used American Sign Language! I totally forgot to introduce Jim, Shelley, and Brittany cause I was too excited! So one of the guys was actually the principal of the deaf school! Joel moved from Lancaster, PA in 2005 and met his wife, Emily, in Belize. Right now the school is out for summer vacation, but they have a couple students that stayed behind to learn carpenter work as a trade! I was able to talk to all four of them! They were so excited to meet someone from the States who knew their language, and I was equally excited to meet someone from their country who was deaf! I also was able to meet Yilmer, a deaf girl who works their as a dorm mom! She was actually born in Guatemala and moved to Belize when she was 2. Her heart is so full of love for these deaf girls! Meeting these people was such a total God thing and totally made my day! I now have contacts that are a little bit more than two hours away, who could give me some pointers in starting a deaf school in the Petén. Thanks be to God who is in total control of our lives and knew several weeks in advanced that Jim and Shelley would have to get their visas renewed, which can only be done by crossing the Belizean border. Then by putting some friends in their path, to tell them about Spanish Lookout. God knew that the only time they would be able to go was when we would be here! And He alone knew that there is a deaf school right next door!
Well, I kinda of did a lot of talking once I met the deaf people, and so we kind of got back on the road a bit late. We weren’t sure if we would make it back across the border in time, but we did without any problems! For dinner we stopped at Luis’, another one of my bus drivers from a previous trip, mom’s restaurant. There is this jungle rodent in Guatemala that used to be legal to cook and serve, but only a few months ago was declared illegal to hunt. Well, this restaurant will serve it to friends. Apparently it is bigger than a beagle with the hair of a fawn. That was what Jimmy ordered, and I totally got to taste it! It wasn’t that bad! I ordered steak, but Brittany ordered what she thought was shrimp. When it came out, we realized that it was a crawfish that was still looking at you. She couldn’t eat it, so I traded with her. As most of yall know I am not the biggest seafood fan either, but I thought I could try it. It was definitely difficult to get the shell of and then the meat really didn’t have any flavor. So I thought I would put this sauce on it to make it taste better…yeah it was super spicy!! My mouth was on fire, and I could barely even talk after eating it! I ate a corn tortilla and that helped some!
I am writing to you now while I am in the car on our way back to Guatemala…unfortunately I am not feeling so hot right now…but I think it is only motion sickness! Tomorrow we are going to a school that has a class for challenged kids! We are hoping to find some deaf kids!! Thanks for all your prayers!! Until later!!
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