Time for home

Wow. This finale has been a wonderful time. From Placencia (see Tori’s last blog entry) we drove for Honduras, stopping for a night at Rio Dulce again. Thank God for two more trouble-free border crossings in as many days. In Honduras we went to Loma de Luz Hospital, where I worked for a couple weeks last November. Our family got to see the hospital and meet the missionaries there. They’re a wonderful bunch of people doing a great work. Pray for them (and for their water supply during this dry time).

The following day, driving in Central America finally demanded a (small) price. Or at least, a beefy, hot-headed cop in La Ceiba did. My driving was fine, at least right then. But we figure he noticed our Guatemala plates and caught a glimpse of the extranjeros inside, and couldn’t resist. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, my Spanish was good enough to communicate with him... so after I emptied my wallet of all its Limpiras (175 of them, or about $10) to get my license back, we were on our way to the ferry.

We made it to one of those incredible beaches you see in travel magazines, on the island of Roatan. It’s an amazing paradise, but some of us are still wondering if it was worth the ferry ride, which made Hell’s Gate at the PNE feel like a see-saw at a child’s playground. It was funny at first, especially when the attendants handed out barf bags. But after 30 minutes, with the ups and downs becoming more dramatic and some people on the ferry starting to use the bags, it wasn’t so funny. After 60 minutes, we were all very green and very quiet. After 90 minutes, stomachs miraculously unemptied, we were so thankful to see land that even Annacis Island would have seemed like paradise.

Any earthly paradise has its limitations. Like sand flea bites. Or worse, the sting of a spotted scorpion fish. This was definitely a case of Jeff’s curiosity outperforming his common sense. I had to touch the thing... How was I to know it might have venom in the spines of the dorsal fin that suddenly sprang up? But oohhh, the intense pain—not to mention bleeding, swelling, redness, and even numbness—taught me that he deserved much more respect than I gave him. (For those of you who are wondering, hot water helps, as it does for the sting of jellyfish or stingrays.) Snorkelling just off the beach was like swimming amidst a million unbelievable, colorful things in God’s massive clear blue aquarium.

So we're on our way home. Of course, we’ve picked up a few curios, some coffee, and a few other things to bring along. As we were driving away from Antigua two weeks ago, Hannah had a great idea: “I think we should bring home some time from Guatemala.” I laughed, and the thought has not left me.

Why is there more time here? Truthfully, I’m not sure. Partly, we left our usual busy-ness and expectations at home. But there’s more.

While I was chatting with Fernando (the director of SI Guatemala) one day, he remarked at hearing something about us North Americans: We have a “good day” when we accomplish much. Of course, being so task-oriented has helped us make wonderful advances. But I’m afraid that there are too many times when I’ve allowed relationship to take a back seat while I serve the task. And what do I have, if not relationship?

Well, I have gotten a bit reflective at the end here, what did you expect?

We thank you all once again, for your prayers, encouragement and support, your donations, and above all, for your friendship. We hope to bring home some time for all of you.

What other pearls will we bring home? I’ll speak at least for myself:

Relationship outranks accomplishment.

“Look but don’t touch” applies to scorpion fish.

Life is about generous Love, and little else.

We're in Belize!

Tori here.
We left Antigua early Friday morning, and stopped for a coffee at McCafe in Guatemala City. I had a chai tea latte, the first in over three months, and it reminded me so much of home, and how much I miss things like chai tea lattes that I almost started tearing up.

We reached Rio Dulce, and found a little sign for the Tijax (TEE-hash), the place our landlord had recommended. We entered into a small road, leading farther and farther away from the main road. We came to a gate, and then went even farther. (By this time, we were beginning to doubt our landlord’s judgement.) We came to a parking area, and then had to walk across a very long, twisty, and bouncy boardwalk to get to the actual place. We were quite nervous what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised. It even had a pool and air-conditioning in the cabanas, which was essential in the incredible heat. It was the hottest, most humid place I have ever been, I think. There have been a few of those on this journey. After checking in, we went to see the San Felipe Castillo, which I enjoyed very much. We explored for an hour or so, until everyone was dizzy with the heat. (We also concluded that the people that used the castle must have been quite small, as some of the passageways could barely contain one from our family.)

After coming back, we had a refreshing swim, a tolerable meal, and an air-conditioned sleep. The next morning we got up early to do a tour along the river. We saw some interesting birds and many mangrove trees (which I thought before was supposed to say ‘mango grove’, not ‘mangrove’). We also saw thick, rainforest-type jungles, and the people who lived on the river in the jungle. We saw a town called Livingston, which doesn’t have much to it, but my mom got her hair braided and we helped some people load up their boat there. On the way back we went to a seafood restaurant and ate some delicious shrimp and a fish that looked like it went straight from the river to the frying pan.

After we got back, we left straight for Tikal. On reaching the national park entrance, we heard a very strange noise. The guard there told us it was the howler monkeys! So we all got out of the car to watch and listen. In fact, in Tikal we saw many different types of jungle wildlife. In our hotel room (which was, unfortunately, NOT air-conditioned... and also recommended by our landlord, come to think of it) there was a scorpion. Yes, a scorpion. Aaron discovered it by trying to kill a bug on the curtain. Instead, a scorpion fell out! My dad came and killed it, and afterward I was teased for all my screaming and whatnot.

Bright and early in the morning, at about six, we entered the park. We had been advised to go early, since the afternoon heat is unbearable. Also, you are more likely to see animals in the morning. Only about thirty seconds after entering we saw some monkey-possum-raccoon-anteater type creatures. They were so cute. We spent the morning exploring Mayan ruins, which were very interesting—and large. The tallest was about 70m! We climbed all available for climbing, excepting my mom. On one there was a water bottle incident. Everybody was egging Hannah on to throw an empty one off the top, and try to reach the Grand Plaza instead of letting it be stuck on the tower. Aaron ended up throwing it, and it did in fact land on the tower. Eventually the wind blew it down and we triumphantly threw it in the garbage, where it belonged. My mom let everyone know that she was right in telling us not to. We had a great laugh at some of the faulty English on the brochures and signs. Some more wildlife we saw included Toucans, another type of bird that makes weird hanging nests, wild turkeys, and army ants. Aaron and Hannah also claim to have spotted a spider monkey—twice—but I have my doubts. We did not see any jaguars.

We left Tikal a day earlier than expected, due to the air-conditioning situation, and headed straight for Belize after a quick canopy tour—zip lines through the trees, very fun. We had changed our plans. Originally, we were going to drive down to Puerto Barrios, take a boat, and then a bus to our place in Belize, but we decided to drive straight on through the border and have an extra day in Placencia. However, the border took much longer than expected. We had to unload all our bags to be checked. After all was done and we were through, we were astonished at the immediate change of atmosphere from Guatemala to Belize. Guatemala does seem quite third world, but as soon as we crossed it felt much more small-town America. However, Belize has its share of poverty. In Placencia, we expected it to be very quaint and touristy. In fact, as my mom says, it is quite dumpy. There is however a very cute gelato place here. We have gone twice already and will definitely go again; it’s so good—even better than Gelato Gelato in Abbotsford. Our place here (for this is where I am as I type) is very very nice, apart from the fact that the air-conditioning doesn’t work as well as expected. As you can see, air-conditioning is quite vital to me in this climate. There was a severe lightning storm our first night, so the ocean isn’t as green as we would like, it is rather a brownish color. But it is starting to clear up. Now, as I type, the prospect out the window is very beautiful.
Unfortunately, our beach is inhabited by jellyfish, stingrays, and turtle grass (seaweed). Aaron and I have been stung by jellyfish, and my dad was maybe stung by a stingray, since it seemed worse than our stings. They hurt a lot! We also have some frequent human visitors, who swim and catch crabs on our dock (despite the ‘no crabing’ sign—more faulty English). Yesterday we walked along the shore in search of a less occupied beach. We found one with barely any turtle grass and no apparent animals. It did have a strange type of muddy, gooey black sand, though. A war broke out in which all the kids (but me) and my dad threw it on each other.

Tomorrow we leave for the hospital in Honduras my dad worked at in November. After that, we go to Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. Then it’s back to Antigua for a day or two before our flight home on June 19.