Visitors Galore

Another busy week! So the rest of Kat's visit was quite lovely. Kat, Joe, and I went to dinner at Benny's in Succotz (which has cheap and delicious food!) on her last night and then the rest of the night was spent in a mad rush of preparations for a couple of things. On Friday, Kat returned to the States. Also on Friday, La Ruta Maya began and every single volunteer was gone except for me (and I'll tell you why in just a second). For those of you who are a little too lazy to click on the link, the Ruta Maya is a 4 day canoe trip across Belize and people even fly in from around the world to participate. So we had a boat with Joe, Michael, and Jen, a second with Fr. Scott, Eric, and Jack, and then a third with the Brits and one of our former students. Katie, Elisabeth, Monica, and Jeremy were part of what's called support team so their job every day was to set up and take down camp, drive to the next site, and cook the food for the rowers. It's really crazy and they all came back saying they had a ton of fun which is always good.

 Carrying the canoe down to the river!

 In the water...past the point of no return. Our second canoe is right next to them

Of course my Friday was a little less canoe filled though we did go to the start of the race which was in Cayo. Our day began very early with a Mass at 5 am, boats in the water by 6:30, and the race starting promptly at 7 am. One of the canoes whom I will not identify flipped before they even lined up at the starting line! 

 Poor babies, we felt so bad for them, but it was honestly so hilarious to watch. But then everyone got off to a...well, maybe not a great start, but they started. After they disappeared, Kat and I went to this little diner in Cayo called Pops for some breakfast and because they were so crowded, there was a couple who was probably in their late 50s who invited to share their table with us! They were fascinating too, they were just here in Belize for 3 months to dive. That's it. But it was quite lovely talking with them. And I had pancakes for breakfast which is always good (though I really wanted a ham and cheese omelet, but thank you Lenten Friday). Then Kat needed to do a little souvenir shopping before we hopped on the bus to Belize City. It was a very enjoyable ride with her, just talking and spending the last little bit of time with her. What a blessing that woman is. It was so good to see her.

But then I came home to quiet lonely Benque and for the next 24 hours just had time to myself to watch Harry Potter and get some grading done before my grades were due. I also got to spontaneously FaceTime with Sarah, one the best friends a person could ever hope to have! And even if we just talked about grass the whole time, it would've been completely wonderful. But hearing how she's doing and being able to talk about how I'm doing with someone who knows me even better than I know myself, it was just so comforting and therapeutic. I don't know, it was just nice being like oh ok I'm not the only 22 year old who's having this crisis with her life of doing something in a place you won't be the rest of your life and having no idea what you'll do after. Like I said though, any interaction with Sarah is pure joy. 

Saturday was a wonderful day that I spent by myself in peaceful silence, watching movies and The Office, and eating cheese and crackers from the surplus of cheese I bought at Caye Caulker, getting ready for that night and the week ahead. Why you may ask? Because Saturday night was when the mission team from Franciscan came! It was totally surreal bumping into John (one of the leaders and one of my friends from school) and Lana (one of my roommates last year and a household sister and the other leader) on the street outside of the church. There were many hugs, mostly on my and Lana's part and then the three of us headed up to Chapel Hill where the rest of the team got dropped off. So that night I joined them for dinner, Mass, and some time of praise and worship. And honestly it was so good for me, even though I was there to welcome them to Belize and talk to them about safety and common sense things, it was still a break for me because there were other people taking care of things. And it's just been such a long time since I've been able to just be with a group of people, just do things with them without worrying about how things are going or what's next. Now that's not to say that I didn't worry because the whole weekend I felt like the mom with John and Lana being the oldest siblings taking care of all the other siblings in the most responsible awesome way. But I don't know, being the person who lives here, you kinda feel a certain responsibility for these 20 white people. It was such a good weekend though and the team is awesome and they've been able to spend a lot of time with some of the students. We even had 7 of them come to the ruins and lunch with us on Monday! That was also the day that everyone (including the students!) got sunburned except for me! And it wasn't because I was wearing sunscreen! I guess I have 2 consecutive weekends at Caye Caulker to thank for that.

 Yay back at the ruins!

 This is a great picture of Elvira and Joana! You almost can't tell that Elvira was terrified her daughter would fall off the edge.

 All of us on top of the ruins!

 This is Gabe and I taking our "Gainesville in Belize" picture. (Gabe is obviously missing...he wasn't feeling well that day..)

The whole Monday group!

So here we are at the end of the week, the team is in 4 schools in the area with a successful mission (almost) under their belts and a lot of us volunteers have our classes taken off our hands to let the Franciscans go in and do their mission thing in the classes. I don't know what we're gonna do next week when we have a real and regular week of classes. It'll be totally bizarre. But until then, we'll enjoy the break and the last week of 3 crazy lovely weeks.

And when I say next week is normal, I mean it totally won't be because...

KELLEY IS VISITING!!!!!

 That little stinker, she surprised all of us by just showing up yesterday afternoon at my desk in the staff room! I didn't even say anything to her, I just started crying! I'm sure there will be much more to come about her visit next week, so I won't dwell on it too much right now. But it just feels so right having her here! Praise God.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.