On Thursday, the scrap material from the convent was still being cleared. It was swept and cleaned ready for when the real work can start. After this the front garden was cleared up, weeds, waste material etc cleared up.

There are quite a lot of kids that hang around our flat after school, so after I finished with Fish, I took a ball out to play football. Derek and I did try to split them into 2 teams but gave up ? we played all against all. We called if a day after a couple of hours, I think if we had of waited until they were tired we would still be playing.

Friday we dumped all the rubbish from just next to the convent, it took 2 trips. We couldn't manoeuvre the trailer so a couple of guys helped push it in by hand. So I'm glad it only took 2 trips. The dump is about 6 miles out of town, next to a citrus grove, I had fresh orange from the tree ? it was absolutely delicious. After we put up the flag decorations for the Christmas Bazaar which was on the following day.

Saturday I was told, correctly, that it would be a very busy day. I agreed to help with the football tournament, a competition between all the parishes' schools. There were 4 girls' teams and 5 boy's teams. I was asked to be a linesman, I had to run up and down a full pitch for 2 ? hours. We started at 10:30ish so it was during the hot time of the day. I really enjoyed it ? the quality wasn't great but they gave it their all. The other stalls at the bazaar offered a turkey dinner, which was delicious except for the serving of pigs tail and rice which is a delicacy here. Trust me it will not come back with me!

There was also horse rides along the beach, raffle, a DJ, dance competitions and Santa showed up, towed in a newly decorated trailer. It did feel weird seeing Santa pull up on a beach wearing North Pole clothing, in 30 degree heat. The Bazaar is the only big fund raising event of the year and it raised about $20,000 Belize, which works out to be about ?6,000, not bad.

After the bazaar the local football team were playing in the stadium, just acrossthe road. Wagiya (Dangriga) won 1-0 against a Belize City team. The atmosphere was friendly and thoroughly enjoyable.

Sunday, just like home, is a lazy day.  Derek took me windsurfing in the afternoon, in a town called Hopkins. This is a lot more like a resort town, lovely beaches and places for tourists to stay.

Monday we were still clearing stuff from the convent, but we took it to a friend of Fish & Felix who was building a house in an area that had become overgrown. The grass would be killed by the chip board and water soaked up. While here I was informed that someone had an alligator in the swamp. It had just had 2 babies. I did try to see it but I couldn't among all the trees and grass. It is apparently 7ft long. It struck me that this family were surprisingly calm about having a huge, man-eating reptile living within 5ft of their house.

Cheers for now

Stephen

(Stephen is a parishioner from Hayes and volunteered his time and talents to work out in Belize, supporting the community there.)