Belize, Part 5

Friday morning, we joined Peter and Petra at the "main house" or restaurant for what they advertised as a continental breakfast.  HA!  Trust me, Hampton Inn has never seen a breakfast like this!   It was like dining at a 5-star hotel right in the middle of the jungle.   After we gulped down our stout South African coffee and chatted with them for a while, we headed out to to Placencia and enjoy the beach for the day.    It was about a 2 hour drive to get there and without a radio or cd player, all this drive time was giving Dan and I lots of time to talk instead.  Hehe, we don't get a lot of uninterrupted talk time at home!  :-)   We tossed around ideas and thoughts about how to move our family here.  About what to sell, get rid of, what we could live without, how we could ship the rest, etc.  LOTS of talk time.
The weather was amazing and we enjoyed our morning spent at the beach.  The contrast between the touristy, million dollar homes in Placencia and the almost slum-like conditions of the locals was unbelieveable.   I seriously doubted if many of those people knew how the rest of Belize actually lived.   We had the misfortune of finding the last shady spot left on the beach under a palm tree that was right beside where a girl and her friend were complaining about their lot in life.  She had been fired from a job because of something or another, and was hoping that her father could help her get another job, but she didn't want to take just any job, etc. etc.  After being around such humble, gracious people all week, the spoiled rotten conversation beside me was so overwhelming!  

When we left Placencia, we drove back to The Farm to quickly change and get ready to go make a Cajun Gumbo for the Bul's!   If you've ever made gumbo, you know that it can take several hours to have the right consistency and flavor, right?   Not on an open flame stove!!  We boiled that baby up in an hour, flat!  It was crazy.  They absolutely loved it, too!  Then, we left for a church service they had set up.  We would be leaving before their typical Sunday morning service, so they wanted to hold one for us,  It was also Pastor Marcus's birthday the next day, so they combined causes. ;-)  Because it would be held after dark, we needed to hold it at a member's house who had electricity.   Electricity that could power one lonely light bulb and a great big whopping sound system!  Dan had tried to warn me about the typical Belizean Sound System, but I was still shocked!  I don;t know who told these people they needed to have the world's largest speakers and subwoofers, but oh . my. word.  We were in a tiny area, maybe 10x20? The speakers were turned up full blast to accompany the keyboard and background music.   And THEN, they used a microphone to sing and to pray, just in case the people in the back row might not have been able to hear.  We really got a big kick out of the sound system.  But, the singing and prayers were so heartfelt and earnest, they really were.  They treated Dan & I like we were part of their families and we felt so honored to be there.   It warmed my heart to see how genuinely they worshipped.