Church Day

Journal #6

Church Day

January 8, 2012

Church Day

The day started out with a delicious meal made by the cooks which consisted of fry-jacks, eggs, and water. After breakfast we hurried to get ready in order to make it to Sunday School on time, which did not end up happening, anyhow. We arrived at the church and sat down in the wooden pews, additional seats were added by setting up plastic porch seats.

Church service was very fun, and very upbeat. The service started with welcomes and a few of our professors also stood up and talked for a few minutes about us, and also thanked the congregation for allowing us to be there and worship with them. A few of the songs were in Spanish, so the gentleman beside us allowed us to borrow his Spanish Hymnal. A few of the songs that we did were in English, and the mood and excitement was so much different here than in the states. In between songs the youth minister talked and read some scripture. In addition, there were a few times during the service that we had what they called activities, which consisted of us moving around, singing, and shaking hands or hugging other people in the church. Church lasted at least two hours, which seemed like a long time in the sun and heat of the day.

After church we went home with a single mother who had two daughters, but only one still lived at home. We ate lunch with the family and asked them a lot of questions. We talked with the family about anything from Internet to school to shopping to hospitals. We were supposed to have chicken, but because she was not expecting us to have to be home so soon- the chicken was still frozen and we did not have it with lunch. For lunch we had salad, rice and beans, and orange juice. The food was great tasting and was not as spicy as I expected from an authentic Belizean family meal. The family was super nice and very hospitable, they want us to come back sometime this week before we leave. After lunch, they brought us back to the campground. Amelia, Sarah, and I really enjoyed our visit with them and were excited to learn that the youngest daughter, who will graduate high school next year, wants to come to the states and study nursing.

After they dropped us off at camp, we changed from our church clothes and changed into climbing clothes. We were heading to the Xunantunich site in Western Belize. The climb was much higher, but much easier than the climb we did this past week. The view from the top was awesome, and the top platform was much wider than the last platform we were on. To get to ruins, we went on a ferry where the person running the ferry had a hand crank and pulled the ferry along with at least one car, and numerous people standing on the outsides of where the car was parked.

After the visit to the ruins, we quickly visited the straw markets and then headed back to the campground. We worked on homework until dinner was ready. The cooks in the kitchen fixed us: homemade tortillas, chicken, coleslaw, and beans. We also had a choice of fanta pop, coke, water, or sprite. Dinner was really delicious, the chicken was grilled with charcoal, and the kids were excited that they were able to take a piece of cold charcoal and use it to make hop-scotch on the sidewalks.

After dinner we worked on more homework and continued researching for our debates. If I have time, I would love to walk down to town, but I think that I will spend my evening working on classwork.

In reflecting on poverty, families, justice, friendship, happiness, materialism, technology, Christianity, and defining self- I was able to dig deeper and form opinions more after the interactions that I had today with the people at church, the family I had lunch with, and the vendors at the straw markets. The family that we had lunch with was very well off, so I did not get to experience poverty from an inside view. Family was very important to them, the man had recently passed away, and the lady and her daughter lived with her parents. Friendship is an important aspect of the culture, but the family we had lunch with said that there are some corrupt people in Belize and they normally just stay away from everything. Materialism even in this wealthy family was nothing compared to the states, and the family seemed to just have what they needed, and not much more. Technology was readily available for the family, they had an Internet stick that allowed them Internet access as soon as they plugged it in. The daughter told us that almost everybody has cell phones, and most people have Internet access. Christianity was very prevalent to us today, but I feel that we also get treated differently because the people of Belize know that we are here with a Christian education group.