San Ignacio Goodbyes....

"Because of your faith, my JOY is full..."

 

So for those of you who don't know....my adventure in Belize officially came to an end. I am back in good old America. As happy as I am to see my friends (and FAMILY soon!), have my bed back, not be sweating from every pore of my body at all hours of the day, to drive, and eat salads....at the end of the day I REALLY miss Belize. A lot. I'm gonna miss:

• Bus Rides 
• The Jungle 
• The Fruit Market and cheap BANANAS 
• The colorful buildings 
• Cayo Twist 
• Oaties 
• The Punta/Reggae Music (don't worry I definitely got as much as I could before I left tho, obviously) 
• Hearing all the accents and CREOLE 
• Walking Everywhere...especially the steep hills ha kidding 
• Flayvas 
• Li and Hudsons 
• 4Runners EVERYWHERE! 
• How everyone repeats words 3x: "morning, morning, morning!", "that is deep, deep, deep", or "it is hot, hot, hot"... I LOVED it. 
• Belizean Time...everyone's at least a half hr late so I fit right in! 
• Doing Turbo on the ROOF 
• Octavia Waight and our tender friends there 
• The Simplicity of life 
• Being honked at EVERYWHERE we went 
• The children 
• The beautiful flowers everywhere 
  • The great lines we would get from EVERY guy we passed

• HUGE avocados 
• The AMAZING, life-changing pineapple 
• Palm Trees 
• Riding in the tender Purple Van and cramming as many people as we could inside

But above all that, I'm gonna miss the people more than anything. The people in Belize have honestly changed my life. They were friendly, loving, caring, funny...I love them so much and will definitely go back and visit them sooner rather than later! Here are just some of my favorite people in the world and some memories and lessons I learned from them:

This is Richard. He may or may not be the funniest person I know. Clearly, as seen in the picture above. This man could literally talk to you ALL day and keep you entertained. He has done the most random things in his life and always has a good story and "a friend" that can help you out with whatever you need. Richard is also probably the kindest person I have ever met. He always has a community project he is working on to help those in need and he does them just out of the good of his heart. He uses so much of his own money to give those less fortunate a better life. He truly was such an inspiration of someone who is constantly serving and putting others before himself.

Richard helped us with the square foot garden project we worked on. Within the first hour of meeting him he had a nickname for me. The nickname was Bebe (a flower in Belize) apparently its just what he does. Some of my favorite phrases of his are, "Oh Sacremento!" and "God Bless America"....you would hear these almost every 5 minutes from him. AND he had a RED '96 4Runner so of course we were instant buddies. If we ever go back to Belize, we would definitely be staying with him and his family. We love them a lot.

This is Anthony. He also helped us with the square foot garden and is Richard's buddy who helps him with a lot of his community projects. This man was known for appearing out of NOWHERE, honking/waving/almost hitting us and taking us on random car adventures. We would just hear him yell out his window at the top of his lungs to get in his car. Normally this would be a dangerous thing to do. But we trusted Anthony with our lives and knew every car trip would be a great story. The trend of our adventures seemed to always be with barbers?? Don't really know why but thats where he took us. Benque, Santa Ellena, Succotz...we've been there with Anthony. He also maybe wanted Kayla to be his girlfriend. Again....this also could've been classified as creepy, but not with Anthony. We just would laugh.
One of the major things I learned from Anthony was how well he treated people. This man treated everyone he met as his good friend. One day when we were talking about life he told me to always remember to treasure everyone you meet because you never know when you are going to need them. It just really touched me and I could tell he really lived by those words. So my goal from now on is to sincerely treasure everyone I meet and to not take life for granted. Thank you Anthony for the great memories.
 
These are some of the little kids in the neighborhood we would play soccer with. (NOTE: please disregard jaden smith's older brother aka me with the braids). These 2 are brothers and ah I just loved them so much. Marco on the right was our buddy. We would see him the most and were even able to be there for his baptism. He was a crazy kid that felt instantly like a little brother. He could make me laugh so hard...I kinda became a little kid whenever we were together. People who know me well know I can't control my laughter like at all so if that annoys you, you wouldn't want to be around me and Marco. I just hope I get to see these kids soon before they forget about us!

And then there's Mama Kay. I know I have said this 80 million times, but she has changed my life. Her faith and determination will continue to inspire me for the rest of my life. She has been through SO much in her life but continues to be happy, raise/provide for 2 wonderful kids, live life to the fullest, serve everyone around her, and make everyone laugh. We had some REALLY good laughs. Some things should probably not be shared ha...we had a lot of fun. She called me and Kayla Laman and Lemuel....apparently she thought we were trouble makers. But deep down she knew we weren't. I learned so much from this woman...from her amazing recipes to how to properly hang clothes to dry. But above anything I learned the importance of loving and serving others. This woman sacrificed so much to help others and make them feel important and loved like her own children. I want to be just like her when I grow up.

And finally there's Mama Kay's daughter Kayshel. I loved this girl so much. She had a heart of gold. We instantly became close because of our love of music. And she was the only girl in the Sunday school class that didn't laugh at me whe I didn't make sense. I miss her so much already and I know we will stay close even though we are far apart.

Ultimately...Belize was amazing. I want to go back already and hope I can one day I can visit all of these people again. The first line in this post to me just sums up how I felt about every person I met. These people had so much faith and love towards life and I feel privileged to meet them. I am so grateful for the experience I had to live among and learn from these amazing people. I am forever changed because of this experience. You betta BELIZE it! :)
Peace and Love.