Belize In Living Colour

Just wanted to show you my latest purchase. My friends here have warned me not to buy too many souvenirs too early, but this one really caught my fancy. It was on sale at the local Crafts Fair – not a prizewinner but good enough for me. It’s about 24” x 20” and cost US$25.

Easter Holidays (1)

The Prestons from St. Stephen, New Brunswick arrived on Easter Monday and headed back home yesterday. This presented a great opportunity for me to have a week’s holiday. I left PG after church on Easter Day with Heather and Rick Leslie as passengers. They actually did the driving all the way to Belmopan and then headed off by bus for a couple of days in San Ignacio before returning to Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories. From there I drove on to Corozal, arriving after dark in the midst of a big outdoor party. After spending a reasonably comfortable night in Echo I bussed to Chetumal, a city just across the Mexican border.

That was an interesting little adventure including being left at the border crossing by my bus, taking a ½ mile ride in a mini-taxi, getting another bus which didn’t charge me, visiting a real shopping mall where there was this restaurant which looked vaguely familiar, taking another taxi to a sports store where I priced baseball equipment, spending all of $8 in the duty free zone, and finally sharing another taxi with eight others, two of whom were on their way to Belize City. They accepted my offer to accompany me as far as the airport and, amazingly, I arrived there only about ½ hour late to pick up sister and brother-in law at 3:30.

Immediately we retraced my previous day’s trip as far as Belmopan but kept going west to San Ignacio where we spent the night. The next morning we did our first touristy thing, visiting the Barton Creek Cave. This wet cave is an ancient Maya sacred site that can be explored by canoe for about a mile. Around 1:30 we set out for PG via Belmopan again, moving along pretty quickly with only a couple of stops, one being at a swimming hole called Blue Hole. We arrived at Cuxlin Ha, our resort, just in time for supper.

(To be continued.)

Holy Week and Easter then...

On Wednesday last I took the 7-hour bus trip to Belize without having been able to arrange to stay at the Diocesan Guest House. I hung around in the dark hoping that the Bishop might arrive home with a key. No such luck, but even better – he put me up for the night in his “palace”! I had come for the special Maundy Thursday Service at the Cathedral. There was the washing of feet, the Commemoration of the Institution of the Lord’s Supper, the Renewal of Baptismal and Ordination Vows, the Blessing of Three Oils (healing, catechumen and chrism), and finally an Agape Lunch. Quite a lot for a non-liturgist like myself! I left with an autographed colour picture of the Bishop and copies of the Easter Edition of the Diocesan Newspaper with the lead article by yours truly.

I was ready to go home at noon but it made sense to wait for the 3:30 express bus. However, when I arrived at 3 the bus was already full, so it was back on the slow one instead. But I did have a seat all the way and some entertaining fellow travelers, so it really worked out fine.

There were eleven out for our Good Friday service including four there because of the baptism tomorrow. For Easter I’m expecting a couple of visitors from Canada, a keyboard player and the baptism of two young people, all of which will help us celebrate in style. I always think that the Easter Service should be a little more exciting than it ever seems to be. I guess it’s hard to come anywhere near the joy and excitement and mystery of that first Easter, but may it be a blessing to you and may you find your faith renewed.

THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED!

Tumul K'in

Yesterday I spent a fascinating afternoon at the Open House of Tumul K’in, a non-governmental boarding school seeking to provide empowering alternative education based on Maya values to underprivileged rural youth…by fusing modern and Maya science, philosophy and technology.  In many ways it is similar to the St. John’s Schools where I once taught.
There were displays of the student’s work, opportunities to buy their farm products, and all sorts of contests from native marimba dancing to greased pole climbing.


Tumul K’in is in the village of Blue Creek which boasts a lovely river with a wet cave where you swim up the underground river to a waterfall.  I haven’t even seen that yet, but perhaps when my sister visits next week.

Anglicans and Acolytes


A visit by two staff members from Church House in Toronto provided an opportunity for the people of St. Joseph’s to say a personal “Thank you” to the Anglican Church of Canada for Echo, our van. The ACC provided the funds to purchase Echo and are providing a monthly allowance to keep it running. Canon Philip Wadham from the Partnerships Department and Miss Stephanie Peddle from Anglican Appeal were in PG this Sunday as part of an extended Caribbean tour. Canon Philip is retiring as staff person responsible for partnerships with Latin America and the Caribbean. For more about their journey go to: http://www.accnotes.org/westindies/.

But now we need to say “Thank you” again because our visitors presented us with a new hard cover NRSV Lectionary Bible to replace our well worn soft cover one. After service they attended a parish lunch, took Echo on a run through three Maya villages, did some computer work, went for a walk, and finally allowed me to test my culinary skills on them. It was a strictly northern-style meal except for the jippy jappy (I think that’s what they call it) a vegetable something like asparagus.

Today was the first time since I arrived that we have had a server (acolyte). Jay Lee and her brother, Peter, have been training and this was the first live performance. Aside from arriving 10 minutes late (“now be sure to arrive 15 minutes before the service!”), all went well. Stephanie took a picture and I’ll post is as soon as she sends it to me.

My last Blog included the suggestion that we might have seen the end of rains in PG for some long time. Well it rained on each of the next five days! People say you can never be sure about the weather in PG. It’s hot and dry now so we’ll take another run at the dry season.