Day 2 of 2009 Trip

Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009...day two of our trip.

After breakfast (at 8am), we started our day with Mass in a village called San Antonio. San Antonio is a larger village, so the church was bigger and made of concrete brick...it looked like a cathedral compared to some of the churches in the villages. The church was decorated for Christmas...they even hung garland on the crucifix that made us laugh. Fr. Murray, a missionary priests said Mass (he is also from St. Louis). Although this is a larger village and a nicer church, there was still only an outhouse as a bathroom.

After Mass, we drove to a nearby village called Crique Jute...All Saints had raised money for the metal blinds that were being used at the village church through the Shopping As Jesus Would program.

Then we headed to the visit some of the Mayan ruins. This particular one has a legend of a crystal skull buried there. I had to take pics, as my beloved Doug is a big Indiana Jones fan. The young girls of the village were set up selling their items. They will say things like "Please miss, buy from me, I need money for my family." You want to buy from each of them, because they are so sweet. We started splitting up so we could each buy from each one of the girls...however, Ann Lacker and I seem to be the biggest suckers and can't seem to say no to any of them...so many bracelets later...

One particular lady had her baby wrapped in a swing hanging from a stick that was stuck in the ground...we are asked to take a picture of the baby, and the mother said yes...but for a tip! Smart business woman,

After the Mayan Ruins, we headed to a local tiki bar to visit our friend who runs the bar...we met her last year. Then it was back to the convent for dinner. After dinner, we headed to Punta Gorda to enjoy an evening of culture to celebrate the Garifuna culture and dance. Local Belizeans of Garifuna descent (Carib and West Africa descent) put on a show of traditional dance using drums and maracas. Very nice evening and they had many of our team members up dancing along with them.

A few additional notes from the day...Fr. Don was sporting his Bob Marley t-shirt! And, the church at the convent was celebrating the Epiphany and we could hear the kids in the choir singing Little Drummer Boy...which was interesting to hear considering it was 90-degrees outside!