Leaving Mt. Carmel.... going to San Pedro

The Island

Well, we’re not in Benque anymore, that’s for sure. However, the last few days in Benque were just great, although I’m sure our hostess is glad that I left before I burned her house down or something… Our hostess and friend Dinorah just moved into a beautiful new house that’s right down the street from where I lived last year (we saw them build it last year), it’s decorated in a very classy beachfront meets pottery barn style. I’m a fan. Anyways, she also has a new “American-style” washing machine which is pretty exciting. Unlike the agitator we’re used to using here in Belize which requires you to fill up the washer with a hose and then take it out and put it in the spinner for each rinse cycle (making even the smallest load of laundry a very time-consuming process), you simply place your laundry in the machine, add the soap and forty minutes later it’s ready to hang out to dry. An amazing invention, really, and one that I should be somewhat familiar with having done a few loads of laundry in this American fashion (I know that my mother is nodding her head emphatically and saying “very few” to herself). Anyways, I put the clothes in, pushed the buttons and then Courtney said to me, “is the water supposed to be spilling out the back like that? Whoops. The hose that drains the washer is a little loose and had disconnected. So, I rushed to put the hose back as the kitchen floor flooded. So, we mopped the floor and by that time it was raining so we couldn’t dry our laundry anyways and had to hang our dirty, wet laundry up so that it wouldn’t mildew. Later that day I attempted the second round, this time making sure that the hose was secure. Dinorah was sitting at the table with me, dictating a recipe for beans and rice (which, once attempted, will be a whole new, embarrassing story I’m sure!) and suddenly the floor begins to flood again! So, Dinorah’s floor was cleaned twice that day with the same water that washed the shirt I’m wearing.

Meanwhile, while I’m flooding the kitchen, great things are happening at Mt. Carmel High School. A huge issue that constantly disappointed us last year was the fact that at the Friday school mass, so many students won’t receive communion because they’re too shy to walk up to the altar. I’ve attended masses where only five or ten students approach the altar. Two weeks ago, Father Dan gave a really great homily about peer pressure and encouraged the kids right before communion that if they were in a state of grace, not to let peer pressure keep them from approaching the altar. Whoah! What a difference! There must have been over fifty kids who went up to communion that day. It was incredible, you could just see groups of kids getting up and going, it was like dominoes or something. Some of the teachers had tears in their eyes (o.k., I was crying) it was just so beautiful to see these kids approach the altar regardless of what their friends thought after staying in their seats for so many weeks. This whole phenomena repeated itself the next week, so something’s going on. Keep the Mt. Carmel students in your prayers, that they can continue to be so courageous during mass!

We left for San Pedro after mass last Friday, so today marks the completion of our first week here. Life on “La Isla Bonita” is very different from Benque, I’m embarrassed to report about how nice our accommodations are. We’re staying in an apartment owned by a parishioner and it has a kitchen, television with cable, table and chairs, sofa and a tempermental air conditioner. Not to mention my favorite feature, a real hot water heater instead of a little coil inside our shower head that will give you a perm if you stand too close to it. We’re on the first road in from the beach, so we walk right next to the water to get to the Church everyday. The physical comfort of San Pedro feels worlds away from the rest of Belize!

I'll post the rest of the San Pedro story soon, but it's time for lunch!