thank you, ladies. it means a lot to me. yes barb & ruth, we still talk about it too! ok, let's get on with it:
What did we do Wednesday? Oh yes. We took the day off. Well, sort of.
We had brought down a bunch of stuff (like most of us do), yet the only things we managed to actually get delivered to their recipients were the goodies for Chris & Sari, and Colette’s housewarming yummies. 3 more deliveries still to go. I told Bruce I really wanted to get that done. I sent a text off to tacogirl to see if she was up; i knew they were anxious to get their well-pump. Steve had gotten up early many days in a row now, and with school looming next week, I promised him he could sleep in today. So Bruce, Leo and I headed south to chez taco. It is reeeealy nice.
http://www.pbase.com/sweetjane/image/103392035TG gave us the grand tour, and we sat out on the deck for a few. We’d been lucky with the weather. Though it was very hot, and there were a few showers, it’s been beautiful. We were enjoying the chat overlooking her lovely yard and view, but we had more to do.
From there we headed north to Holy Cross School. I knew I could have just given the stuff to TG to take up, but we felt it was important for Leo to see it. We are always trying to get our boys to see how fortunate they are, and also see how people around the world live.
Wonderwoman is behind the desk, hurriedly getting ready for school to begin. We chat for a few, and she calls Ms. Francis in. she insists we MUST see the new computer lab. the PCs were donated, and are very nice, but she explained the building to house them, the custom steel security doors and heavy duty lock to keep them from getting stolen put them many 10's of thousands in debt to the hardware supplier. sigh.
She gives us a tour of the entire school.
http://www.pbase.com/sweetjane/image/103391451Leo is silent, but listening and taking video. I told her we’d seen the school before, and thought they were making great progress. But the truth is, it breaks our hearts. Many of you have seen it, but for those who have not, it is like several double wide trailers built in a dirty, muddy swamp, with shiny opulence in view all around it. Francis asks if we’ve ever seen san mateo (did I get the name right), the neighborhood behind the school where many of the kids live. i said we'd seen it from the bridge and road many times; she said we really need to walk through it. (photos by Leo)
http://www.pbase.com/sweetjane/image/103391454She took us through the maze of corrugated shacks and lean-tos, walking on 2x4s over garbage and filth. they have no electricity, no running water. you cannot walk on one square foot of solid ground.
http://www.pbase.com/sweetjane/image/103391456http://www.pbase.com/sweetjane/image/103391455She tells us she believes it is the poorest community in all of Belize. Still, kids waved and smiled to her “hi Ms. Francis!” She knew them all by name. Although he’d traveled to several countries before, it was a real eye opener for Leo. he seemed a little shaken.
But it was time to say our goodbyes and thank yous, and head back over the bridge to pick Steve up and get some breakfast.
Steve was up, ready and hungry when we returned. We had eaten in the room morning, Everyone wanted fry jacks, so we went to Estel’s for an extended breakfast. IMO, their breakfasts are not great, but they are good and plentiful. The real draws are the atmosphere and the view. It can’t be beat and we are all happy. Steve fusses with the dogs, Leo snaps pics of the lovely beach area, and Bruce and I nurse our coffees. I really could have sat there for a few hours and been perfectly content.
We start making a list of all the cool animals we saw so far. It is amazingly long for being there just five days: Spider monkeys, howlers, white ibis, crocs, manatees, stingrays, electric ray, moray eel, hummingbirds, not to mention multiple types of lizards, insects, arachnids, fishes and seabirds.
We still had things I needed to do. Next, we walked across the street to see Amanda. We were supposed to meet up at the Catamaran Bar 3 days earlier, but that’s another story too. I found her to be bright, pleasant, and interesting to talk with. She clearly loves the island. We talked for some time on all sorts of subjects, particularly our kids, but I still had one more stop, and we were supposed to be relaxing today. It was already quite past noon.
The last stop was to BC’s to deliver a package for a friend to Charlene so she could deliver to someone else...but that is yet another story. We all had a cold beverage of our individual choices, and voted unanimously to go back to the pool for a swim. I had PROMISED Leo we’d get Waraguma for dinner later. We gave Chris a call and asked if he wanted to come over after work to have take-out with us.
A swim, a snack, and a nap - perfect. And nap we did. We woke and washed up just in time, as Chris was knocking on the door. Dinner was yummy and plentiful (2 lobster burritos, 1 shrimp ceviche & an order of pupusas fed 4 hungry people). As we ate, we told him all about Lamanai, and showed him some pics. He’s lived in Belize for over 15 years, but said he had never seen an electric ray or a grasshopper that size. cool.
We sat on the balcony for a little while, but he was tired, and we had to hit the hay too – tomorrow was a full day of fishing, snorkeling and a beach bbq. We made plans to see him up at La Perla on Friday, said our goodnights, looked at our photos, and went to bed.
Ambergris Caye 
YAY! Lobster for lunch too!
I was like “AHHH!” for just a second. Then I said to myself, ‘its ok -nurse shark, its ok - nurse shark’, and started laughing out loud.
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