Friday was the last day of work for Fish and Felix so it was spent cleaning and finishing the plastering in the Parish Hall. On Friday night there was a cultural presentation held in the shed, which I went to. It included 2 drummers, maracas and 2 dancers. It is organised during the tourist season. The presentation talks about the traditional dances of the Garifuna. One the most popular and used for celebrations is called Punta; it is where all the Punta Rock originates from. After this I went to a Punta Festival, This was held in the basketball court. It cost $20 entry and when I got there it was pitch black and silent. There was, I suppose, about 100-150 people there, I found out there had been problems with the electrics. I stayed for a good 3 hours and only saw about ? hour of music. It was not quite Glastonbury but everyone was having a great time, despite the music being non-existent.
Christmas is probably the busiest time of the year for priests; Christmas Eve was booked quite full. I was to drive to Red Bank to meet a new high school football team and help out, also to drop off some special for Bethany. This was at 4pm. I was then supposed to get back to George Town ? 5 mins back up the southern highway ? to pick Fr Newman up, where Fr Cutler was dropping him off for 7:30pm, ready for Mass at 8pm. When I arrived at Red Bank, however, the football team were not training because they were busy so I popped in to see Bethany (? hour) then headed back early so Fr Newman could just take the car. I got to the corner of 6 mile by 5:45pm and then the gear stick snapped! It was in neutral so I pushed it to the side and tried to wave down some help. Luckily a man, Rob, pulled over in a car that looked as though he'd found it on a big pile in the local dump, he offered to tow me back into town. Grateful, but dubious as to weather it would be able to move a bike let alone a pick up truck twice the size of it, I agreed and thanked him. After a few mishaps, i.e. me not unlocking the steering wheel when he began to pull, we got back, just to see the two Fathers leaving. They didn't see me of course. That would be too easy. Rob then kindly tried to find me a cab driver he knew to take me back to George Town, the cheapest was $300 BD. He said it was too much so we then managed to find Ms Ramos's house, (she is the lady who works in the parish office) and borrow her car. Problem sorted, I offered Rob $50 because his car was limping by now but he only took $15. Thank God for goodwill at Christmas! I got to George Town just as the Mass started and it was all fine.
Christmas Day was quiet, we had chicken & chips at Pelican Beach for dinner, there was no turkey on the menu. Then relaxed for the rest of the day.
On Boxing Day I went for a walk in Bocowina National Park with Fr Newman. We walked to Antelope Falls, which is about a 40min walk into the Jungle, up a steep hillside, 'til you come to the base of an absolutely gorgeous 50ft waterfall. It was a pretty cool day, still boiling compared to Hayes, and when we got to the top I jumped into the basin, a pool crystal clear and very cold. By the time you walk back down, you're sweating like crazy again, but it is defiantly worth it.
The next day we went to see the other 3 falls. Fr Newman came to show me the way and proceeded to lead the way into thick jungle, where there was, after some time, no discernable path at all! It wasn't his fault, there are supposed to be pink ribbons tied to trees to show the way. Someone had taken a load of these down, as a joke I suppose, but I didn't find it funny. Quite a few trees had fallen down as well, blocking the supposed path we were on, so at times we had to climb through thick greenery, and climb over tree trunks. The Tarantula I saw the day I arrived was kindly popping in and out of my mind. But the only animal I saw was a giant Lynx with huge teeth bared, only joking' I only saw a tiny crab. The falls we finally found were pathetic to be honest, Bocowina falls, which you'd expect to be special, as the Reserve is named after it, was barely 10ft high, not much of a pool at all at the bottom and no rockeries to climb. Peck falls was even smaller and it was too late to visit Big Falls by the time we reached the sign. I thought we should follow the way out direction, I was beginning to think Fr Chris actually didn't know where he was going and was actually lost. But miraculously we ended up leaving the jungle right by the car. Amazing!
Wednesday I decided to take it easy, so Fr Cutler had arranged for us to go for lunch at a Canadian Couples B&B resort in Placencia; Elsie and Brad Elder. They are parishioners who moved to Belize 6 years ago and set up a gorgeous place for tourists to stay. After lunch Elsie took us out snorkelling, their B&B has its own private beach; it is called Colibri, and incidentally is on the internet. So we went snorkelling, even though at lunch everybody was saying how many jellyfish they had seen in the morning. They said they were beautiful and that if you do see one just to wave it away. I was a little alarmed at this and surprised how relaxed they were about almost getting a jellyfish in the face. We went and it was quite nice. There were little reefs about 30ft from shore with all sorts of little fish and plants on them, I had no idea what I was seeing. The only things I recognized was a starfish and loads of big jellyfish! I found it hard to relax because I was sure I would swim into one, if I stopped looking around. Sure enough, as soon as I relaxed enough to just float and began to enjoy it, I swam backwards into one and turned round so it stung me across the chest and left arm. I remembered not to rub it so as not to make it worse. When I got back vinegar was poured over the stings. It didn't hurt half as much as I thought it would, but I thought it best to call it a day all the same.
Thursday, Fish was back working, making a kitchen sink and drawer unit for his sister, I helped with that, painting it and cutting laminate for it. It was nice to just be working again and not getting lost in Jungle or dancing with jellyfish.
Cheers, Stephen
(Stephen is a parishioner from Hayes and volunteered his time and talents to work out in Belize, supporting the community there.)
