Driving in Belize

I got to hang out with Lorna Sampson all morning this morning!! It was great. I came into town with Ralph, Lorna's son-in-law, this morning. Dawn and Ralph live out of town in a little village called Sunset, I've been staying with them all week and then coming into the city every morning. Anyway, Lorna needed to be a St. John's Cathedral to lead the primary school kids in Morning Prayer this morning at 9:00. So her husband Joe, gave me the keys to their Prado and I got to be her chauffeur for the day and she was my navigator, I'm starting to figure out my way around the city.

We got to the church a bit early, so while we were waiting we walked across the street and checked out the House of Culture, which is a house on a piece of land that used to be owned by the British when the country was still a colony and governed by the British. The land has since been sold, but is kept maintained an is now a museum on the sea. It's the same place that Ralph and Dawn got married a few weeks ago...it's beautiful.

We then made our way back to the Cathedral, where 300 children were waiting for Lorna to begin the service. It was really great to see her in action. She's a very quiet woman individually, but when she is leading service, and preaching she has so much energy and life. It was great to see the kids and her having so much fun!! Right after the service about 50 tourists came into the church. Three big greyhound type buses dropped them off. Today was a Cruise Ship day. Three Cruise Ships docked at Belize and passengers are then boated to shore and get the day to spend money and check out the city, they were everywhere. The nice thing about them being in town is that the Tourist Village was open and I was able to find a few souveniers for myself that I was not able to find in the south. While walking through the village, I was worried that Lorna may have felt a little uncomfortable, but she really enjoyed it. They have lived in Belize City for about 20 years, and this was her first time in the village. She liked it so much, we went back this afternoon!! I think she just liked seeing people she knew, and looking at all of the crafts!!

We then came back to the house at mid-day and had our lunch, Dawn and I then ran errands. It wasn't as successful as we had hoped. Tomorrow is Labour Day, so nothing will be open, it's a day off. That means that everyone is getting their banking and errands done today....and when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE!!! Line ups at the banks were about a 2 hour wait, it was ridiculous!! Needless to say, our bank errands didn't get done, gonna have to wait until next week!!

The rest of my afternoon was spent on the couch napping. Everyday this week has included a good hour long nap, it's been glorious!!! And now I sit at Dawn and Ralph's in the village of Sunset where you can't hear a thing except the crickets and other noisy bugs outside, the neighbours are burning garbage and the fire is the biggest fire I've ever seen. It's been a great evening. Due to the day off tomorrow, Dawn and Ralph will be spending the day in Sunset. I'll stick around as well, lay in the hammock underneath their thatch and read a book...I'm re-reading The Shack while I'm here as I'm going to Paul Young's lecture at Wycliffe in a couple of weeks. Should be a good time. Tomorrow evening, Ralph, Dawn and I are going to go out and celebrate the fact that Ralph finished an exam today. Saturday - Lorna, Dawn, Diroune, Kayan and I will be heading to Croc Land for the day - it should be fun!!