I can't Belize time is flying by so fast!

I can’t Belize time is flying by so fast. This week has been incredible and as time goes by its just getting better. We have learned so many great life lessons out here. The people are just so happy with the little things in life. Life is simple and life is good, or as Matt would say, “La Vita Bella.”

The past weekend we decided to do something adventures in Belize, cave tubing. The caves here n Belize are known world wide for the sacrifices the Mayans made in them and the hieroglyphics. It is also noted in national geographic for its stalagmites. I have to say it was pretty incredible we hiked for about 40 minutes to reach the gave and on the way our tour guide gave us a background on the healing plants and animals that they have in Belize. One thing we learned was you could eat termites if we were trapped in the jungle because they are very nutritious. Matthew and I tried a couple of them from off the tree and I have to say they weren’t bad. They tasted like minty carrots. I still can’t believe we ate termites. When we reached the caves it was spectacular while going through it was pitch black only lighted with your headlamp. We got off the tubes and were able to hike around in the caves as well and cliff jump inside them. It was cooler water but it felt good since in Belize you are always sweaty all the time. At the end of the caves you float threw a river for a while until you come to a rope. They say if you pass that rope you are done for because that’s were the crocodiles live I was quick to get out of there a few foot before I even got to the rope. Just to be safe.

This is right at the entrance to the cave tubing. It was so dark we had to use head lamps. 

It was truly in the jungle, which i so beautiful! 

Just another picture of us in the cave off that ledge we went cave tubing it was lots of fun. 

This week we started gun hoe on a projects. We saw a common problem in the rule communities of Belize with cooking on open fires, and burning their trash. Thus this causes much air pollution and problems breathing with the children. Last years team for Belize made adobe stoves that helped to direct the smoke out of the house, because the house would fill up with smoke every time they cooked. There is an average of over one million children a year in third world countries that die from the smoke. So Belize team for this year thought It would be more sustainable if we thought them how to build adobe stoves and create a manual so that there city council can help build them. So we started building the stoves on Monday and it has been a whole weeks process. Lets just say although I am half Mexican I was not cut out for the manual labor. We first had to go and chip out of the mountain cement they call white maul. Matthew and I were sweating so bad that it would drop into our eyes and burn; it was one of the hottest days on record in Belize that day we later found out. Next we had to chip away at cement and dig an 8inch hole to fill with cement to make the ground level. We leveled bricks and all that fun construction business stuff. The families are amazing to us. One lady we are doing the adobe stove for we ran into her cooking with lots of smoke with a newborn baby.

For the adobe stove process we had to mix the cement. Later on our hands were peeling. 

Here we are chipping away at the cement foundation to build a brand new one. That day was really hot, but everyday here is really hot!!!

 We have become so attached to her family, and it hit matt and I that making this stove for them is going to save her children’s lives. She has a lime tree right in her front yard and she always makes us the best limejuice ever, it’s so fresh! She also cooked us lunch the other day, which was the sweetest thing ever because she hardly has any money but she would not take no for an answer. She is a single mother with three darling daughters that are all in love with matt. Matt has especially grown found of the littlest one Juliana. While riding in the car the other day she was falling asleep on his lap. She understands English but only speaks Spanish to Matt. Which is nice for Matt because he has been studying Spanish. The little girls would always want rides on his back so matt would always say in Spanish, “yo soy un coche.” Meaning what he thought was I am a car. The girls would always laugh so hard every time when he said this. Until one day Native the mom informed matt, that while coche may mean car in Mexico in Belize it means, dirty pig. Matt was pretty embarrassed that he has been telling the girls he is a dirty pig this whole entire time. I love him for trying; he has been doing excellent with the language.

These are Natalie's other too little girls. The littlest one in my arms loves to be held,, bt it works out because i never want to put her down. :)

This is Juliana the one that has become so attached to Matt. Just the other day she called Matt Dad it broke our hearts because we have become so attached to them.

These are the little girls that always follow Matt around. They love him so much. Juliana on the right hand side and she always is stealing Matt's glasses off of his head when he least expects it.

Also in this same rural community we have been helping out with their trash problem. The people liter everywhere making such a beautiful place looks like a complete dump. Jose Luois is on the city council and is very concerned with this. Not only because it looks like a dump but because they burn all of there trash at home, causing even a bigger problem with air pollution.  So the city council wanted our help to build garbage cans and post them all over the community. He informed us that they would be posting signs if people liter they will be fines 50 Belize, which is 25 American.  That is a lot of money to a Belizean cause they make an average of 35 Belizean a day. So hopefully they will see a change. We took large posts and big containers that made the trashcans and posted them throughout the city but it was hard work because it wouldn’t be Belize with out all the hills that they have. So time after time we would have to climb hills and that made it super tiring, but well worth it.

On our Sunday drive with the director Kyle and his wife Lindsay we went to look at the circus. I guess about once a year they circus comes around and they have all kinds of shows. A teenager boy approached us and asked us if we wanted to see the lion. Matt being to Africa was so excited about this as well as I was. They took us around the back and there was a huge lion, with his lioness. You always have an idea of how big a lion is but oh my goodness it was huge. Not to mention it began to roar like it was calling out to his tribe. I couldn’t imagine how amazing it would be to see them in the wild. It was very sad to see them in a cage. Supposedly they just had cubs together. However we were not able to see them. We plan to go to a show this weekend and see them perform. I can hardly wait.

President Lamos asked us to teach a marriage class as our calling every Tuesday and Thursday night at the chapel. Matthew and I accepted but are very intimidated by this because we just barley hit our one year mark this month, and will be teaching people who have been married for 10 years. This will be an interesting adventure. We start next week so we will see how it goes.

Time is winding down so fast and I cannot believe all the adventures Matthew and I have had. I am so thankful for him for being such a good example of hard work. Life isn’t about the material things that you have but rather about the people you love that makes life rich.