Day 10 -Beautiful Big Falls, Belize!!!!

We woke this morning packed and ready to head to Big Falls.  But first we left for the bus terminal with Henry to do some witnessing to the bus passengers. 

 

There were several Witnesses there already…the two sisters from the UK Violet and Bethany, Patrick and David and Cornelius.  They sit around and chat and eat breakfast and had coffee and waited for the buses to roll in…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Gordon and I had the experience of hopping onto the bus and offered magazines and brochures…”Would you like something to read for your journey?”  we asked, and believe or not they actually took the magazines and actually started reading them before our eyes!  Who da thunk!?!??!  LOL

 

 

 

 

We waited with the crew for our 8 o’clock EXPRESS bus to Big Falls….ummmmm we are going to start believing that there are no such things a Express buses, because the 8 am bus pulled in and it was a CHICKEN BUS!!!!!!  Yes, I am soooooo serious!  So we asked two people and were told, “No, there are no Express buses today.”  Okay, now we were told that the Express runs only Monday thru Saturday…it’s Tuesday….welcome to Belize!  So you know what we did!?!??!  Boarded the Chicken Bus!  It wasn’t too bad because it was real early in the morning, but the seats are just so uncomfortable, especially for people like me who don’t have that extra cushion!  LOL  So we were off on our 2 ½ hour ride to Big Falls!

 

 

So Gordon ask the Bus Conductor if we could get off at the Kingdom Hall in Big Falls…no problem, until he forgot and then it was a problem!  LOL  Not a big one though, Gordon and I saw the Kingdom Hall passing us by so we started yelling, “Sir! Sir!  Kingdom Hal!”  He said, “Oh, it’s the white and blue building back there.”  LOL.  So we get off the bus in the middle of NO WHERE!!!!!  (I just thought my mom would have a fit if she knew where I was right now!  LOL)

 

 

 

 

 

 We were told to ask for where Mr. Bill and Ms. Beth live…white man, white man!  So we found some local Mayan people and asked them….Houston, we have a problem!  LOL  They couldn’t understand us or didn’t know who they were…did I mention that we are in the middle of NO WHERE!?!?!?  LOL 

 We decided to walk toward the Hall, I don’t know maybe someone would be there.  I was praying to Jehovah to send someone to help direct us!  So as we were approaching the road, there was a car pulling down the street next to the Kingdom Hall.  Gordon was about to ask the man if he knew Mr. Bill…”Are you Witnesses?”  “Yes!” we said!  We asked where Mr. Bill lived and he directed us down the street!  Thank you to my wonderful Heavenly Father Jehovah!!!!  Did I mention that we were in the middle of no where?  Oh, I did?  Okay, sorry, I wanted to make sure that I made that point!

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the housing and sites in Big Falls, most people lived in thatched roof houses...

 



 

 

 

 

 

 Brother Bill Taylor told us that he had two German Shepards and not to be afraid of them….ummmm I was afraid!  LOL. So his wife Beth put the dogs away and let us in the house…it was…it was….MAGNIFICENT!!!!  Their house is actually OUTSIDE!!!!

 

 

 

 

We sat and chatted with Beth while Bill was out in the ministry.  We even helped her peel cocoa beans…not like the regular cocoa beans, but Beth put them in some cookies and they tasted just like chocolate chip!  Delicious!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Bill returned home from the ministry, and they sat and share interesting stories with us, like how they ask their company that visit not to drink alcohol out in public places because the local people would lose respect for you and not listen to you when you witness.  They said that drinking is such a problem here, that the people can’t wrap their minds around someone being able to drink in moderation.

 

Beth made a delicious lunch for us…can’t remember what everything was called, but I remember that it was real good!

 

By this time a couple visiting Big Falls from British Columbia, Canada arrived.  Their names are Jordan and Danielle. 

By this time I had gotten comfortable with the two German Shepherds Fly and Ben.  And of course we loved the cats!!!!  This is where I give a shout out to Tigger and Stinky!  Holla Holla!  Mommy and Daddy miss you!  LOL

 

We started to head out to where we were going to lay our heads.  Bill was showing us him mango trees, cinnamon tree (the leaves smell just like cinnamon when you smush them!) and a bread fruit tree that he says is like a potato and makes delicious French fries!!!!

 

 We stopped and dropped off Jordan and Danielle at Latricia and Andy’s house…

 

 Then we headed to Big Falls Adventure and Shemirah and her little girl Andrea took great care of us and gave Mr. Bill the local price for us.  $40 US dollars for the night.  The Kingdom Hall is right up the street for the meeting tonight.

 

 

 

 We then went down to the river and just relaxed a little while. 

 

 

 

We then went down to the river and just relaxed a little while.  Gordon was speaking to a man who was fishing using flour.  And there were women bathing and washing clothes in the river.  It was so surreal!!!!  Then some kids came and went tubing as their mom washed laundry.

 

 

Then it was time for the meeting, so Gordon and I said that we would walk to the meeting…it was getting dark and we’re still in the middle of nowhere!!!!!  I was moving!  Gordon encouraged me to slow down and enjoy….so I took my husband’s hand and kept pace with him…I was so nervous!!!!  We decided to walk because the congregation only has about 3 or 4 cars, and so they have to pick up the friends or their Bible students, so we didn’t want to take space from them because they live further away than we were staying…

 

 

We get to the Kingdom Hall and it seems like Gordon and I are always drawn to the little ones.  We met Lionel (not pronounced how you think), Lincoln, George (who Gordon renamed Judge), Kellyn, Kristy and so many others that I can’t remember.  You know what we did?!?!?  That’s right bribed them with candy!  LOL

 

 

 

 

Now, okay here’s the situation (in the words of the Fresh Prince), we were talking before the meeting, and I go to sit next to Gordon and I look at something that looks like a brown peanut M&M on the seat, so I was like….ummmm what’s that?  Gordon looked and said, “Oh!  That’s a beetle!” So I calmly moved my books to the seat in front of him…ummmm that was only the beginning….

So during the meeting they have the ceiling fans going, the windows open and two doors open…it’s night time and the lights are on inside the Kingdom Hall as bright as the sun..which served as a beacon for the BUGS!!!!!

Bugs in every color…green bugs….brown bugs….black bugs….red bugs….all landing on me, Gordon, our Bibles, my hair, our books, my tablet….EVERYWHERE!!!!!  I know that at have bugs in my hair as we speak!!!!!

Me and Gordon were just hitting bugs!  Gordon punched me!   I was like…what is going on…he was killing a bug (or so he says LOL)  So we were sitting there during the meeting and Gordon was getting so frustrating because the bugs were biting his feet that he whispered in my ear, “I can’t take it no more!”  LOL  I thought that I was going to wet…my…self!!!!!!

I prayed to Jehovah that we would be able to endure the bugs, because I didn’t want to offend anyone in the congregation, but it was so miserable!!!!!!  Part of me wanted to start crying!  LOL  You know how you feel when it’s night time in the summer and you pass by a street light and bugs are swarming….picture that light in the middle of the jungle with every kind of bug you can imagine….yea!!!!

There were a couple of cool things that I noticed at the meeting…I looked back and they had a sister working the sound!  I was like really?!!?  That is so cool!  There’s aren’t enough brothers, so a sister does sound and the accounts.  And a little boy about 9 years old was recently baptized and he was handling the microphone.  He was so little and adorable it was really nice to see!

 

After the meeting I rode with Beth to take home her Bible study Ger and her family, including my boy Lionel!  Pick-up trucks are the best here because people just climb in the back.  Once they said they fit 21 people in their truck….Then she took me back to her house where Gordon and Bill were waiting and they cooked a nice simple meal of corn tortillas, beans and tomatoes with onions for us to have for dinner.  They were awesome and a perfect display of kindness and hospitality.  We sat and they shared stories of their life in Big Falls, it was quite interesting.  They gave us apple bananas...little tiny bananas that kind of taste like apples...

 

They told us how there aren’t any undertakers or funeral homes here, so that when someone dies they have to bury them the same day or the next day.  That the hospital gives you the family member to take home to prepare the body.  One time a sister died in Mexico and the hospital gave a brother and his wife who were sitting with her when she died her body…they didn’t know what to do with her, so they took her to the Kingdom Hall and put her in the second school.  They made an announcement that the second school was cancelled for the night.  Then after the meeting, they announced that they were going to have a brief funeral for the sister.

 It was really sad for a brother and his wife who had a baby and the baby died after birth.  There is a rule that you can’t take a dead body on the public buses (why they have to have a rule for that I have no idea!) so Bill and Beth had to drive to pick the family up.  A sister told the morgue to make sure that they dress the baby and put it in a box…they put it in a computer box!  That just broke my heart!  So sad…and then they had to bury it the next day, because it’s so hot and there is nowhere to keep the bodies. 

Now, it was PITCH BLACK, so their house was totally different at night!  (que spooky laugh!!!!)  LOL.  I know that I got more bug bites in just this one day than I have had this whole trip!!!!

 So Bill drives us back to our room, and everything is shut down, pitch black, fortunately the owner told me to turn our outside light or else we would have been in trouble!

 We get inside, and things just look a whole lot different when night falls!  We keep hearing this weird noise, I think it’s a gecko!  I don’t know where this thing is in this room!  Gordon said there’s a whole lot of stuff in this room…I just said, “Don’t tell me that!”  So I’m dying to take a shower to wash the bugs out of my hair…Gordon said, “Don’t take a shower!  This is one of those times you just got to be funky!”  LOL!  WHERE ARE WE?!?!!??!?! 

So here I sit in this room, where I don’t think that I will be able to sleep tonight!  Don’t get me wrong the room is “clean”, but you know how you just feel uneasy?!?!?

Then, check this out…Gordon lays down and I look over at him, and I was like, “Is that a rosary by your head?”  It was…so he picked it up and put it outside of the room and then we said a prayer!  I’m really a little nervous because as we were told, the Mayan and Garafuna people are really into spiritism so you have to be careful.

I can’t sleep….no tv….no WiFi in the room….what am I going to do!?!?!?  Gordon abandoned me by falling asleep!  I’m playing music so that I can drown out the sound of the gecko, and he ain’t selling car insurance! 

I told Gordon that it was very loving what the Mexican Branch did.  They suggested a fast paced location on an island, a slow paced location on an island, and a slower placed location in the jungle….they covered all of the bases.

We have to get up early to catch the Chicken Bus to a town called Hopkins where we are going to meet the Kemps on the side of the road as they pass thru.  This has been an interesting experience!

 

Good day!  Thanks for reading!  Love you all!

Wait!  There’s that noise again!  Ugh….Mommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  LOL  I’m going to say a prayer and try to go to sleep!