When Erin Came to Town

First off, I apologize for my lack of diligence in keeping this blog up to date.

The past

On the morning of Thursday May 3^rd I got a very exciting e-mail from Erin saying that she would see me the next day! Erin came to visit for one week, and it was so refreshing to have her here. Mr. Kamphuis and I went down to get here on Friday afternoon from the Belize airport. It was so exciting to see Erin again! There was so much for us to catch up on, so many memories to reminisce about… and lots and lots of laughs. On Saturday went out shopping with Kathy and Amy. It was nice to be able to travel around to all of these places that I go so often now. It gave me a perfect opportunity to show Erin Belize and to tell her more about what I have been doing way down here for so long. First we went to Spanish Lookout, which is a Mennonite colony. There is a store there called “Farmers Trading Centre. It is a store that is most like department stores at home. We like to call it the Mennonite Walmart. I personally love that store… I especially love the fabric section. Next we went to San Ignacio to do some shopping around. We went into a bunch of little shops down there and then we went out for lunch. We went to a restaurant that I have never been to before. It was nice there. They sold lots of tea there. Erin and I tried this really good Fiery Chai Tea. On the way back to the base we went into this really nice arts and crafts gift store. The thing that they sold in that store were gorgeous. There was so much stuff that I would have loved to buy, but thing were fairly pricey and I simply don’t have all the money in the world. I also don’t have all the space in the world to be able to take things home with me. In the evening we just relaxed watched some OC on my laptop.

On Saturday Mr. K picked up his daughter and friends from the airport.

Erin and I decided to get dressed up and go on a little picture taking spree. We had fun trying to be creative with out pictures. There are trees on this base that have SO much potential for amazing pictures. Sadly I do not have the creativity that it takes to bring out the tree’s inner beauty. After picture taking we discovered these really pretty pods on the ground. We decided to open them up and discovered that they had these really pretty seeds in them… seeds that people here make necklaces out of. We sat down and spent quite some time just opening up pod after pod. They were really sticky and they smelt kinds funny… but the sees were worth it. Now I just have to see how I can get them across the boarder. In the afternoon we went out for a bit just before dinner to hand out my beanie babies to the kids on the street right near YWAM. The kids were excited to get the toys. It was nice to have Erin there to be with me to do that. Handing them out went so fast, but it was something that God had really impressed on my heart. In the evening we went to church.

On Monday Amy Erin and I made invitation to the banquet and thank you cards for all of the people who had blessed our students during our stay here. It was a lot of fun. Amy, Erin and I had so much fun together… just laughing about everything and anything. In the afternoon we got all of the stuff printed. It took hours to print them. It was different printing something there. They let us go behind the counter and work on the computers. After hours of printing we treated ourselves with some ice cream.

On Tuesday Amy, Erin and I baked and baked and baked our little hearts out making tons and tons of cookies.

Wednesday to Thursday we went to the Caye Cawlker with Mr. Kamhuis, Rachel, Anita, Ayron, Nic, Justin, Amy, Erin and I. We left fairly early in the morning and headed for the bus. We took a public bus from Roaring Creek to Belize city. It only cost us $4 Belize, which is $2 American… for an hour and a half bus ride! It is so cheap to take the bus here! When we got to Belize city we walked to the water taxi terminal. It was a bit of a walk down lost of city streets… with an annoying suitcase.

The water taxi was nice. I think the water taxi ride was an hour and a half.

When we got to Caye Cawlker we found a hotel and checked in. We decided to go the cheap rout and squished 5 girls into two double beds. Erin, Amy and I shared a bed. The hotel was nice and affordable that way. We were all a little hungry so we picked up some scrumptious chicken burgers from this little pick up window. We ate them on the side of the water and then went for a little dip in the salt water. After lunch we went to the snorkeling booth to get all of our gear and then headed for the boat. The first place that we snorkeled was in sting ray ally. When we first got in there was a nurse shark in the water. It swam right at me! It scared me a little.. I tried to back up, but that didn’t work so well. I touched a whole bunch sting rays in the water. Apparently sting rays don’t sting you unless you touch the tail. The sting rays were very slimy feeling. After the sharks and sting rays we went snorkeling in some coral reef. It was so cool. It was like swimming in a Big All’s fish tank. Nic had an under water camera so he took some pictures. Hopefully I will be able to get a hold of some of those pictures.

In the evening we went out for dinner. The place that we went was nice. The food was really good… I got a shrimp quesadilla dinner. There was a problem with how we set up out bill, though. It took us FOREVER to figure everything out! Apparently if you have a group of people you get charged an extra tax or something. The thing is we wanted our bills all separate. That was a little frustrating.

In the evening we just enjoyed watching the stars.

The next morning we went out for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Erin and I tried “fried jacks” which are one of the Belizean specials. They were pretty good. They were these deep fried dough things and we put jam on them. We also went out and go some fresh juice. We discovered this guy who make fresh juice that is so wonderfully good. We stopped by his look booth fairly often during our stay on the caye. Amy, Erin and I spent lots of time just relaxing on Thursday. We spent some time in the water. The water was really warm, so I was able to stay in there for quite a lot of time. I tried kayaking. It was pretty relaxing. Apparently the one that I was using was a relaxing one… it didn’t seem to easy to tip. I didn’t really go anywhere in the kayak… I just went around in a little circle.

Erin. Amy and I decided to leave the caye earlier then the other folk. We caught an earlier water taxi back to main land. We had no idea how to get back to the bus terminal so we took a taxi. That was my first time in a taxi. It was kind of exciting. As soon as we walked off of the boat there were people all over us asking us if we needed a taxi. There always are people doing that… but this time we actually got to say yes! I personally found our trip to Caye Cawlker very relaxing and enjoyable.

On Friday morning Opa drove Erin and I to the Airport to see Erin off. When we got there we learned that Erin’s plane was cancelled due to bad weather. Continental switched Erin to another airline, though, and worked all of the stop over stuff out for her. It was a little nerve racking. Thankfully we got to the airport as early as we did because there was not sitting around! Everything was very rushed, in fact. It was sad to see her go. We hugged and kissed and waved. Opa and I went to the waving gallery and waited for Erin’s plane to take off. We had an interesting time there. We saw an ambulance go up to the plane that Erin was going to take and they took someone out on a stretcher and put then on the plane. We also saw some Amy guys putting out a red carpet. I guess someone important was coming to Belize. I saw Erin come out onto the tar mat and I waved good-bye to her one last time. Then her airplane took off into the horizon.

When Erin was here visiting we got two pieces of concerning news from home. That put a little bit of stress on our time together. I was so glad that Erin was here with me, though. At least I had a piece of home here to help me deal with the problems back home. Both Esther and Mark were in the hospital with potentially very dangerous illnesses. Thank God both of them are doing better now.

Overall, Erin coming to visit was perfectly wonderful.

I love you Erin and I am so glad that you could come and visit!