Do people usually stay in Belize until they go home, or is it possible you will get sent back to El Salvador? Yes, I will go back to El Salvador at least to have the last hoopla dinner before we go home. I actually found out today that there aren’t transfers in March, so I think I’m going home at the end of February after all… I should probably ask President, but I don’t wanna sound like I’m baggy… There is a slight chance I might go back to train in El Salvador, but it’s very likely I will finish my mission in Belize because of the paperwork that goes into getting people here they usually plan to keep us here a while.
Tell us a little bit about Belmopan. How big is it, are most of the streets paved, or dirt? Are there any gringos living there? Can you see the ocean? What kind of trees are there? I’ve never seen the ocean. We’re a little farther away from the ocean than the other missionaries in Belize and dangringa–where they pretty much have to walk on the beach everyday… I’m really grateful for that, because it’s hot enough as it is. Yikes. Belize is a really, really, really big beach… They don’t have dirt, everything is white sand. The streets in Belmopan are terrible. There are some paved roads, but the others are dirt road LOADED with pot holes, people swerve all over in their cars and bikes to avoid em and we’re still rocked all over the place in the car because of the pot holes. The trees and stuff are all about the same as the rest of Central America. I’ve noticed that here the grass literally IS greener. Seriously. It’s like a neon color. The photos I’ve sent aren’t exaggerating. There are quite a few gringos, mostly “morenos” and “latinos” though.
Something I’ve noticed about people here is that ALL the women and girls have gold loop earrings. Pretty much not an exaggeration. They all have a distinct style of loop earrings and they’re always gold. I’ve also noticed that when they’re telling stories people always say, “Woo,” to express “that was a long time ago” or “that is a long ways away” and “Hmp!” for “can you believe that!?”
I’ve also had several people walk away from me while I was talking to them which really surprised me because that almost never would happen in El Salvador… In El Salvador they will at least fight with you a little before they walk away but here they just keep going…
There are lots of Chinese people who own stores and restaurants and that’s all they do because they can’t speak English. There are also a lot of Mennonites (they’re like the Amish) and I’m not sure if they speak English or not because when they talk it sounds weird… and they don’t bathe very much. I would be interested in visiting their community but I don’t think they allow that… never had the chance to teach a Mennonite yet, unfortunately, just seen em around a lot in their horse drawn carriages or selling fruits on the roadside.
Well, that was a lot about the culture… I was reading this morning in the story of Joseph of Egypt. It’s one of my favorite stories in the Bible because it’s one of the greatest examples of how God knows what’s going on, and how sometimes bad things have to happen (getting thrown in a pit, getting sold as a slave, getting thrown in prison because of false accusations) have to happen in order for GREAT things to happen (saving the world, getting a wife and kids and world fame).
CTR America.
Marvin, Fermin’s grandson, is getting baptized saturday. It’s kind of a surprise because both me and hna Duarte were not planning on teaching him ( just because we thought he wasn’t going to progress), we just always invited him to church and then all of a sudden he started coming… So we’ll send you the photo soon.
Love,
Bekah