In Between

This past weekend I had a really interesting opportunity. I got to volunteer at the National Agricultural Trade Show, otherwise known as the Belize Rodeo! Emily (a group member and good friend) and I were up nice and early in the morning to be at the fairgrounds.
We were actually the official timekeepers! It was neat when the security guard would come up to the rodeo tower and ask us why we're up there, and we'd get to say "we're staff...we're with John." (He's the head guy that runs the rodeo.) Another perk was the free drinks! (aka...pop!)
The days were really long though. We were there from about eight to six on both days. Sunday was the official rodeo day so that was when our timekeeping was really crucial. I think we did a really good job of it, even though they'd be telling us how to time a new event right before it was about to start. Things aren't as organized as they are in Canada, but I guess that could be expected. I also learned a bunch of different rodeo events like pole bending, keyhole race, wild horse race, and a bunch of other ones. It was really exciting, especially since we had two of our team members participating in some of the events! Liesl Thomas and Meghan VanHoeve were competing in the women's division, and Liesl took a second for the arena race! She's been practicing each evening after her placement for the past few weeks at a ranch close to the YWAM base.
All I've been thinking about this past weekend was rodeo rodeo rodeo. Now that it's over, I'm brought back to reality, and realizing just how long ago my last post was. I have yet to talk about my final week of my second placement. Looking ahead, I still have one more three week placement left, but besides that, there isn't much between the present and the day I'm on the plane home. When I'd worry about this trip I'd worry that three months was too long for me to handle. Now, with 29 days left, I'm amazed at how fast it flew by. I think I've mentioned that a couple times already in previous posts, I'm not sure.
So, I finished my second placement a while back at the orphanage. To be honest, it was harder than I thought. It was quite a challenge actually. The kids were great though; they were the ones that got me through it, as well as Aislin, and the girl we met there. Her name is Lisa, and she's a whole separate story! She's from Oregon and she's 23, and she's volunteering at the orphanage for two months. Her first day was our first day, and she came to Belize by herself. When we found out that she'd probably end up sleeping with the children inside the orphanage rather than at the director's home, we talked to Mr. K and ended up inviting her to stay with us for the weekend. She ended up applying to live at YWAM, and now has her own little cabin here on the base! She's not officially a part of our team, but I feel like I've known her for longer than just a few weeks.
The last week I was at the orphanage I spent a lot of time painting. There were a couple teams that passed through the children's home while we were there, and so we did some painting in the kids' rooms, but we also helped to paint the exterior of the building. Thankfully the heat wasn't too intense, and I actually really enjoyed painting because it allowed me to be outside. The home is cramped to say the least. Some of the kids there I'm never going to forget, like Amelia, Leah, Ashton, JR, and Marlon. I don't know if they'll always remember me, because every single morning they were faithful in asking me what my name was!
Right now our team is on our break that we have between our placements. We haven't been doing much, which ended up kind of getting to me. Hannah Smele's family was visiting and they asked me if I wanted to spend a night with them on Caye Caulker, just to get away for a day. It ended up being so refreshing for me just to be able to sit at the end of a dock at ten thirty at night with the other girls that came along and just stare at the moon and talk. Every time I look up at a clear sky at night (but especially down here by the sea it's BEAUTIFUL) I realize just how small I am and how big this world is. It makes me realize that I need to make sure I put in a lot of effort into this trip because there are a lot of people in this world that need to feel love.
I'm back at the base now because I only stayed for one night. It was a pretty long trip to get back to Belmopan from San Pedro. First Lisa and I (we went home together) took a water taxi from San Pedro to Caye Caulker, and that took half an hour. Then we took another water taxi to Belize City, which took probably over an hour. At the boat terminal we found a nice cheap taxi to take us to the bus terminal, and then from there we drove for another hour and a half to finally get to Belmopan! Oh, and Belize transit isn't the prettiest. Just think school bus, but add more seats and reduce the leg room. Travelling back to the base wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The most annoying thing about Belize is probably guys passing in trucks and yelling to you, offering a ride, or just generally making you feel uncomfortable. It's really unavoidable here though. We're always dressed appropriately because we're under the supervision of YWAM, so it's not like we encourage it. We're all really good at not responding anymore though, because we don't want to give them a reaction.
Oh, and I'm going to put it out there...it's Suzanne's birthday today! Yet another sister's birthday I'm not around for, but I have 30 days left on the calendar that I'm here so it won't be long until I'm home again to officially give them birthday hugs!
I'm going to put in an extra effort from now on to keep these blogs consistent because I need to make sure you can all know everything I'm experiencing, and I'm experiencing a lot! There are times when I feel it's not easy to write it all out in a blog post, and then everything builds up and the blog post becomes insanely long. I'm going to have to learn how to write posts about things as they come, not as they build up. I still have a month to master that, so I'm hoping for the best!
I hope you're all enjoying the warm Canadian weather that I hear you're having!


This is Lisa and I painting...sort of. Those spindles took a crazy long time to paint because there are so many corners and curves and annoying parts you need to reach.


This is Leah! She was always ready to be picked up and held.


This is J.R...he's pretty much the coolest kid you'd ever meet.


This is Louis. He drooled a lot but had the cutest smile. At one point they gave him a blue M&M and he drooled blue alllll down his front.


Amelia and Nathan. They were both so incredibly cute you can't help but love them. I never saw Nathan when he wasn't happy!


Although this isn't the best picture of me, here I am with Ashton. Ashton and I bonded after he had a rock dropped on his head and I had to escort him back to the orphanage with one of my shirts covering his pretty bashed up head. He was nice to Aislin and I the rest of the time we were there. At one point while we were at the park he found a dollar and then insisted on buying the two of us a snow cone from a vender walking his cart down the street. The thing was so insanely sweet it almost made me sick, but I appreciated the general thought of it : )