Today we went to the Belize Natural Enery Plant to test the workers' height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, glucose, and cholesterol. We worked until about 12. Then we put the workers into groups based on how healthy/unhealthy they are. From 1-3, we talked about their results and told them what they needed to do to improve their health or to keep doing the same thing if they were healthy already. After that we went into town for a late lunch. I wasn't that hungry so I got a smoothie. After that, we chilled until dinner. I went to bed after dinner cause my stomach wasn't feeling great.
Today we went to a nursing home. We helped by cleaning and talking to the patients. I was talking to one lady most of the time. She was very funny and I enjoyed taking to her. She used to love to dance so we talked about danci for a while. She also traveled all over the United States. There was one point when she got emotional because she was upset with herself because she could no longer walk and she wanted to walk so much. She was sad because she used to be so active and couldn't be anymore. She said she prayed every day that she could walk. I really hope she will be able to walk again someday she said she made a lot of progress since she first arrived at the nursing home. I really enjoyed talking to her and other people at the nursing home. After the nursing home visit, we went to lunch and then went to La Loma Luz Hospital. We took a tour of they hospital. They did a lot of renovations in the past year so parts of it looked really nice. They still have a lot of work to do on the hospital but it's amazing how much work they've done. I was surprised to see that there weren't many patients there but I think that's because people have to pay to go to this hospital. There's another hospital near by that's free but it's not as nice as the one we went to. After our tour, we helped out for a little. I helped clean the kitchen. If I ever have to go to the hospital here there is no way I'm eating the food. The kitchen was so dirty! I helped clean the windows and it looked like they haven't been cleaned in years! After that, we went back to the Log Cabinn and rested and ate dinner. Today we went canoeing. It was a very long canoe ride. It took 3 hours to go down the river. Thankfully, my canoe did not tip. I did get a very uneven sunburn, so it looks a little funny. I went in the pool after we got back. After dinner we got ice cream and it was very good. Today we went to San Ignacio city and split up to hand out brochures about aids, teen pregnancy, cholesterol, and blood glucose. We also tested blood pressure height and weight. We handed out tooth paste and tooth brushes to children and condoms to whoever wanted them. After that, we went to lunch and I had delicious nachos and limeade. After that, we went to a medicine trail and iquana sanctuary. Before going on the medicine trail, the tour guide warned us about venomous snakes to watch out for and right when we started the trail, a snake jumped out of a flower pot. This was just a little snake that is not venomous but it made us worried that we would see more on the trail. Thankfully we didn't. On the trail, there was a big termite mound. The tour guide told us that if we were stranded, we could eat the termites for protein. Then he let us try them. I tried one just so I could say I did. After the medicine trail we went to the iguana sanctuary. We first went into a cage with big iquanas. They were really scary but I held one so I could get a picture. Then we went into a cage with baby iquanas. They were so cute and fun to hold because they were so small and liked to crawl on you. After the sanctuary we went back to the Log Cabinn and rested until dinner. We had fish for dinner and the most delicious lime pie for desert. Today we did the coaching clinic. We taught people CPR, ankle and wrist taping, and warm up/cool down for sports. After the clinic, we ate lunch there. We had really good barbecue chicken. After lunch, we played volleyball and basketball with the people there. After that we did some more shopping. This was the first time it rained all week and it rained really hard! But it also felt nice after working at the clinic. Then we ate dinner and went out into the town for ice cream. It was really good! These were the hardest days of the trip. We were building a cellars or an orphanage. The orphanage will be for teens orphans and it provides a place for them to live while they figure things out. The people building it are using recycled materials to make the orphanage enviormentally friendly. They also have gardens and animals to make the place self sufficient. On day 4, we worked from about 9 until 4:30 and on day 5, we worked from 7 to 12:30. After working we rested because we were exhausted! On day 5, we went back into town to get ice cream. It was a nice treat after working so hard! It was a lot of hard work these past two days but it was very rewarding. I'm happy to be done with that portion on the trip. Today we went to the ATM cave. We went for a short hike through the jungle before getting to the cave. The cave from the outside was beautiful and nothing like I have ever seen before. The water was so blue! We went into the cave and we swam and walked. The water was cold but it felt very nice. It was so beautiful inside the cave. I can't even describe how beautiful it was! We climbed to a dry chamber in the cave and there were many pots and skeletons from the Mayan sacrifices that happened in the cave. The coolest part was everything was laying right where it was found. They did not move anything from its original placement. I really enjoyed going into the cave! It was so incredible. We were not allowed to take pictures in the cave because someone, a while ago, dropped their camera and broke one of the skeleton's skull. Since then, cameras have been banned in the cave. There are many awesome pictures of the cave online. This was probably my favorite day on the trip. It was so amazing! Today we went to the San Ignacio market place to do health care testing. We took people's height, weight, heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar. It was really nice interacting with the people and testing them. They were all so excited about getting tested and we're happy we were there. It was such a rewarding and great experience. I was shocked to see how high some of the blood pressure and blood sugar levels were. I really hope they take the advice we gave them so they can live a healthier lifestyle. We also took breaks and walked around the market. There were so many interesting things to look at! After working with the health testing, we went to lunch. We went to a bubble tea place and I got a mango shush with a spice added because the worker said it was really good but it was disgusting! It was really spicy and it had a strange flavor. Since that failed, we went to a restaurant and I ordered a salad and carrot cake for desert. It was so delicious! After lunch we went back to the Log Cabinn and I got in the pool. It felt so nice after being outside for so long! After that, we went to another Mayan ruin. This wasn't as tall as the one yesterday but there were more ruins to look at. I got some cute pics too! I am having trouble posting pictures on my blog so I am trying to post them on Facebook. It's strange, the wifi is fine for watching tv and texting but is awful for blogging! After the ruins, we went back to Log Cabinn and I rested and watched tv before dinnerr. The food was really good for dinner. It was beef stew with mashed potatoes and salad. With dinner, there was fresh pineapple juice that was amazing! Tomorrow is going to be a long, hard, day. We will be building the road for an orphanage from about 8 to 5. We'll see how that goes. Today we woke up and had a delicious breakfast. We had eggs, sausage, banana pancakes, and fresh fruit. The best part was the orange juice. It was so fresh and delicious! Then we went into the city of San Ignacio where we went on a scavenger hunt for different places around town. We met many nice people especially one person named Feliz. Feliz had such a nice view on life and had a great relationship with God so it was amazing hearing him talk. After finding all the places, we went to an ice cream shop. I had papaya ice cream in a homemade waffle cone. Then we walked around more before going to lunch. I split a cheese quesadilla and it was huge! Four people could've split it and been full. After lunch, we went to the Xunantunich ruins. It was amazing! It was very windy at the top which felt nice after being in the hot sun all day. It was really high up and scary, but it was amazing because we could see everything! Well not everything, but we could see Guatamala! There were shops near the ruins and I bought some suvineers. Then we went to the pool and ate dinner. We had chicken kabobs, rice, and veggies with fresh watermelon juice. It's been a long day and I can't wait for bed! Tomorrow we will be doing healthcare testing in the market place. Can't wait! Today we got up early and went to the airport. I was very excited about the flight because I haven't flown in so long and I had a window seat! I was hoping I could watch movies on the flight, but they didn't have any on the plane. Good thing it was only a 3 hour flight. When we flew over Belize, there wasn't much on the ground to look at. It was mostly trees despite a few roads and towns here and there. It was very different from flying over the U.S. where there's buildings and towns everywhere. We had to fly around Belize a few times because the airport was crowded, but I was able to get a few really good pictures. Then we landed in Belize City and the airport there was really small. We drove in the car for about 45 minutes then we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. The food was delicious! I had a chicken burrito. Then we stopped at Hot Mama's Hot Sauce Factory. We weren't able to take a tour because it was closed but we were able to buy hot sauce.i was able to sample some hot sauce and it was very good! I also sampled some jalapeño chocolate but I didn't buy any because I didn't want it to melt. Then we drove through San Ignacio on the way to the Log Cabinn. I unpacked and jumped in the pool. Then we ate dinner, we had very good chicken fajitas. I can't wait for the rest of my time in Belize! |