Tragedy Next Door

In the neighbouring country of Guatemala the rains from Hurricane Stan have had tragic consequences. Here in the Toledo District of Belize the weather has continued to be beautiful. Were it not for the Internet one would never know that just next door…... A number of people have enquired about my safety. Thanks for your interest and prayers – stay interested, and just for now send your prayers via Guatemala!

Yesterday, on my day off, I visited with Deacon Tess at Monkey River, a two-hour bus ride north from here. We took the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi to Placencia, a completely different world from Punta Gorda. It’s a little community built on a sand-spit and more or less designed for tourists who want to relax and perhaps do a little sailing or diving (http://www.placencia.com/). This is a new side of Belize for me and I love it! I hope to return in a few weeks to do some shopping.

Back here in PG, the power has just gone off for no apparent reason. This isn’t unusual but means that a) the Bank’s alternate generator kicks in next door, adding to the general noise, b) the fridge, which isn’t working well anyway, doesn’t work at all, and c) no fans. Not that I’m complaining, mind you – or perhaps I am! Hey, it worked. The power’s back on. Actually, we haven’t had many more outages than at home.

Like at home, each church chooses when it wants to celebrate Harvest. Ours is on October 23, and the Preschoolers are practicing every day for their part. They are going to recite, one line per child, the first two verses of We plough the fields and scatter the good seed. They make quite a big thing of the Harvest Services here and all our Preschool parents will be expected to attend ours.

The telephone bill came this morning – I will gladly pay whatever the Internet portion is! It’s so great being able to keep in touch.