Sunday, January 10, 2016
As a final adventure in San Pedro, Belize my girlfriends and
I decided to go on an early morning kayaking trip. At around 7:30 am we walked
across from our hotel to a tourist stand that offered a lot of tourist
attractions. From scuba diving to snorkeling and from renting jet skis to
kayaks, this place had it all. To our surprise the trip only cost us $10 Belize
each which is equivalent to only $5 US (I know, what an amazing price!). Prior
to then, neither one of my friends had used a kayak as a form of transportation
or just for fun so, needless to say, some of my friends struggled to paddle out
of the docking area. The rest of us initially had difficulty to get the hang of
paddling but soon became one with the ocean as we paddled further into the sea.
As I waited for my friends to catch up I wandered into the ocean and I could
not help but think that I was miles away from home and kayaking in the Caribbean
Sea. I thought about these past few days in Belize and how I’ve had such an
amazing experience. I could not thank God and the people who have continuously
supported me enough for the opportunity of a lifetime. The water of the
Caribbean Sea is extraordinary. From the dark patches of royal blue to the
lightest color of teal one can imagine for the sea, I took all the beauty in
and enjoyed as the salty water splashed my face as I paddled.
We returned to the dock about an hour later and headed back to the hotel for the breakfast that awaited us. I could not wait to see and taste what the hotel restaurant
had prepared for breakfast today. The hotel was decorated with Mexican culture
from the green plants and colorful pots with flowers to the name of the hotel
restaurant, Caliente.
I could not
help but to miss my family more. As much
as I have enjoyed the food of Belize, I have missed the homemade Mexican food
of my mother. Breakfast did not disappoint. They served us, what I would
consider ‘Huevo a la Mexicana’, which is egg scrambled with tomatoes, onion,
and green peppers. On my plate I also found some refried beans, crispy bacon
strips, a side of “pico de gallo”, and some homemade tortillas. I had never been
so eager to enjoy my breakfast. To top it off the food tasted amazing. It felt
like I was home.
After breakfast, some friends and I headed out into the
streets of San Pedro once more before heading back to Belize City. As we roamed
the streets and stopped at shops along the way I noticed how rich in diversity
San Pedro is. I met people from Taiwan, people from Guatemala, and even
Caucasians from America who called Belize home. At one of the beach stands a
man stopped my friends and I to ask where we were from. He asked if he could
guess and did so, for the most part, correctly. We told him our ethnicities
were correct but we that we were all born in the United States, so we were also
Americans. He then proceeded to ask about our thoughts on the US allowing
refugees to enter. The conversation went on and I noticed the man was smoking.
I was in awe at how freely this man smoked something that did not look like a
typical cigarette. We said goodbye to him and continued our walk back to the
hotel. I noticed that when I would say thank you to a local after they would
offer some of their merchandise or taxi services, many of them would respond
“No, don’t thank me, always thank God”. This is something I would like to take
back with me. Typically, if someone would thank me I would just respond with a
“you’re welcome”. I didn’t think much of this until now but I feel that it was
as I was entitled to a thanks after doing a favor or doing something kind to
someone else. But now, I would like to try and respond the way some of the
people of Belize would.
After checkout we ate lunch and then walked over to the dock
of the water taxi. I was able to sit at the top of the water taxi with a friend
on an hour and a half boat ride back to Belize City. The view was phenomenal.
We were able to clearly see the natural “white line” that bordered the reef and
even a caught a glimpse of some dolphins. I felt so relaxed on this water taxi
that halfway through I caught myself fighting my sleep.
Upon our return into
Belize City, we were greeted by our bus driver. I was sad when I first looked
up at the bus driver because it wasn’t Victor (our original bus driver that has
taken us to majority of our locations this first week in Belize and whom I’ve
had the pleasure to get to know). However, our new bus driver gave us a warm
welcoming and spoke to us as if he had been our bus driver all along. The bus
driver was so kind and charismatic. So much so that he helped calm the chaos of
traffic inside the city by singing a song about “La Isla Bonita”. After we
settled back into the Princess hotel, we had dinner and met in our groups to
finalize our presentations for the teachers of Stella Maris. I enjoyed seeing
how hard a lot of the girls were working to create their PowerPoints and props
for their designated demonstrations. My partner and I finished our presentation
and then talked about how excited we were to begin our service learning
tomorrow. Even though we were happy about tomorrow meeting with the teachers
and kids at Stella Maris, we were also sad about how little time we are given
to help at the school. Nevertheless, I am so ecstatic that for the next few
days I will be a part of a group that may impact Stela Maris and contribute to
development of some children in Belize.
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