On Friday we headed out to our first project idea the Belizean Botanic Gardens. There they have over 40 acres of land that they need to maintain, and believe it or not they only have 8 people working on it. So Help was needed. Matt had a heavy job duty as to gather wood, send it through a woodcutter to make malt. I watered all day long and potted as well. The Gardens are beautiful there; there are so many different types of plants with so many different purposes. After a long days work in the gardens, we were able to kick back and relax as well as cool off in the river near by. At first I was afraid to get in the water because it was very murky and I couldn’t see to the bottom. Thank goodness I have my personal chaorriot Matthew because he carried me around in the water everywhere. Later on I asked one of the natives if there were crocodiles the water. He said no, I asked him how he knew there wasn’t. He said because he had never seen one in that area before. We realized how the Belizeans think, the animal doesn’t exist in the area until you see it there.
Saturday was our day off so as a group we decided to head out to the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. The ruins were only about 30 minutes from where we live. You had to take a little water taxi if you call it that across the river. When I saw water taxi it’s basically a wood panel connected to wires that you crank that get you across. Hopefully the pictures I post will show you what I mean. When we reached the old myan city it was breath taking, the city was estimated to occupy 7-10,000 residents of the Mayan culture. It was beautiful. Xunantunich is actually one of the last ruins you can actually climb on. We got some great pictures on top but the pictures do not do justice to the beautiful view. As we were leaving the ruins the tour guide pointed out the Howler Monkey family above. I have always wanted to see monkeys before and it is incredible to seem them in the wild. The baby howler was so cute clinging to her mother and copying everything she did. The tour guide told us that their monkeys are very territorial in nature and when other monkeys come near by they have fights to the death. Such aggressive animals for being so fury and cute.
Sunday was also our day off and it was our first venture to church. We had to walk about a mile, which took about 20 minutes. Due to the heat, we arrived as wet as if we went swimming to greet the members. When we arrived we met the cutest sister ever, Sister Kaye, who pretty much runs the church here. She welcomes everyone at the door with her warm hugs. I was shocked by the church building cause it seemed to be the nicest building around, but still was tiny, extremely hot, and located in the jungle. Our group basically made up the whole congregation. Also I have never heard members sing so loud in my life other than Italy. So I was quick to learn that the Belizeans take the Mormon standard of late to an extreme here, lets just say that the members love to talk here. Sister Kaye taught Gospel Doctrine and she was quick to call on anyone who had their hand up or not…you were bound to participate in the lesson. She loves Matt and remembered his name right off the bat. As for me I was called Matt two because I was always with him. She joked with me constantly in Relief Society that I was not going to survive one hour without my precious Matt. I love her so much already. After church she came over to our house because she is also our Sunday chef. She whipped up a great meal, potato salad, veggies, rice, beans, and some yummy chicken. Her goal she said was to get everyone fat. After dinner we took a Sunday drive in our luxury mini van that wobbles as it drives and has doors that want to open only on certain occasions with Kyle and Lindsay (The Director and his wife). It’s so wonderful to have another married couple out here among all the singles. We were trying to find this resort but soon found out from a hitchhiker we picked up that it was another hour in. We had already been driving for 45 minutes, so we found the hitchhiker another ride headed on our way back. On our way back we came across a small trail that lead to a lodge and decided to head up there. We were so glad that we did too because it was beautiful, it was dark there when we arrived but the pathway lit our way with tiki torches. We met the owners and they let us tour the site. While we were out we saw what we thought was a glowing bat but soon came to find out it was a glorified fire fly. It was so beautiful, big and green glowing in the moonlight. With the quietly smooth running river, with the fireflies and jungle sounds we thought for a moment that we were on the Pirate’s of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. After that we headed home on the dirt road in our mini van. What an adventure this has started out to be so far.
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