Belize Bound! A Whole New World (Chapter Two)

From the tiny Punta Gorda airport, we were picked up by the crew. Hopping into one of their vans, we then made the trek to their site. First of all, the main highways are nicely paved, but the side roads are vastly potholed (worse than expected). At the beginning it was funny when we hit our heads on the roof of the van, but by the end of the week we were road sick every time! It didn't help that our drivers would swerve and weave around the craters at suddenly decreased/increased speeds.
We arrived at their spacious Machaca Outreach Center (not pronounced Ma-cha-cha as my Dad hilariously mistook it to be, but Ma-cha-ka) where we would be staying for the next week. The place was located in a massive clearing, surrounded by lush rainforest. We have friends from London, ON (Don and Cliff) who also run a Technical College on site, and Don would keep reminding us that he had pretty much built everything there. Impressive; the buildings included a gymnasium with a basketball and volleyball court (all regulation, I was assured), dining hall, women's two-story dorm cabin, a few men's cabins, the outdoor technical college work hut, and ~5 house cabins (p.s. the gym, dining hall, and college work space were all practically outdoors with the exception of roofs). It was greatly developed, yet still contained the Belizean culture and feel. It was quite the place. The cabin where we slept felt like a classic anthropological setting. A long, four-roomed, stilted place with a screened-in hall/lobby area, wooden floors and walls, and a red, tin roof. The concrete stilts are needed because of flash flooding as well as for wildlife of course. On average Belize gets ~140-200 inches of rainfall per year! You better BELIZE IT (Ha, gotcha with the pun)! Every night it would pour, and I mean POUR! Plus, it wasn't even the rainy season when we were there... yikes. The downpours would arrive in increments of 10-15 minutes as well. So there would be breaks in between of nothing, then it would start up again. It was very hard to get to sleep, or get back to sleep! They said that sometimes, if they needed to get to the airport the next day, they would go into town the night before just in case the road became a river and they couldn't get across!
Rain also means mud... I'll get to a funny story in my next chapter.

You may be wondering what the reason was for us being there... Communication isn't the directors' forté, so only one thing was for certain: My Dad would be speaking on mental health and lecturing the staff on how to deal with the people involved in their ministry. Machaca is presently running a discipleship program for young adults/youth who have come from a troubled past of drug addiction. Even some of the staff have been down a troublesome road, and it was amazing to see how they had turned their lives around, credited to God's love, grace, and help (I would tell you some stories, but I do not believe it is my place to share those here!) The program is 12 months long from January to December and is based on Christian leadership development. A lot of these young adults/youth are from the directors' church back in California, so this program is to separate them from their past lifestyle and have them start-a-new in a drug-free environment (some are local Belizeans as well). They are mentored by the staff, trained biblically, help run a cafe/church in the town, and interact with the local community. For those who are interested, in the first month of the program Don and Cliff teach a trades course (either electrical, construction, etc.), then do a final group building project in one of the surrounding communities with the students. The primary focus is to teach/certify local Belizeans to equip them with the knowledge needed to help develop their own communities.

p.s. Much to our surprise, an old family friends' son was also there volunteering with the course, so it was great to catch up with him and see what he was up to as well.

We arrived during this course, so Willie and I did not have much to volunteer for at the centre. I took Grade 9 electronics, but I did not want to go near all of their practice circuit boards. In fact, our first day there we found a bat near death, struggling and flapping beneath one of the boards (you'll see some pictures in the second vlog). Bats weren't the only thing we discovered down there. The amount of species that live in the rainforest boggles my mind. Don went on and on and on, listing all of the creatures he has ran into, as well as those he thankfully hasn't ran into! So I'll list them here for you as well... Enjoy:

Jaguars, Jaguarundis (mini jags), Tarantulas, Tarantula Wasps, Iguanas (up to 7 feet), Barracudas, Tapirs, Killer Bees, Armadillos, Lizards, Jesus Lizards, Basilisks (not the Harry Potter kind), Manatees, Scorpions, Mighty Termites, Mighty Cockroaches (massive), Army/Fire Ants, Howler Monkeys, Fireflies (hundreds), Coral Snakes, Fer-de-Lance Vipers, Parrots, Vampire Bats, and MORE. UnBELIZEable.

They had it all. We were fascinated by the stories Don and Cliff told. Even walking around on site led to encounters with many new and exciting insects or animals. Whether it was parrots flying overhead, hearing playful growling in the bushes (jagurandis), stepping over a line of army ants (who marched nonstop all day in this line of who knows how many metres), or seeing a 4-inch long wasp stumble about unpredictably in the air. We were also told to always look on the other side of rocks or logs when we were walking because there could be a poisonous snake (fer-de-lance, or coral) coiled and waiting. However, our biggest shock came the first night when we were about to go to bed. But I'll let my second vlog tell/show the story of our first ever SCORPION experience... Check it OUT!


Belize Bound: A Whole New World (Chapter Two) from MannyG on Vimeo.
We arrived at the Machaca Outreach Center in the coastal tropical rainforest region of Punta Gorda, Belize. Creatures galore, we couldn't have imagined how many different types of species lived down there. In this second installment, we check out the center's site as well as some creature interaction. Enjoy!

Music:
Grouplove - "Tongue Tied"
The Antlers - "No Widows" (Daytrotter Session)

#KONY2012

This is a very moving short film, I suggest you check it out and support Invisible Children Inc. in their quest to take down International War Criminal #1, Joseph Kony... This video lays out the steps to help and most of all it explains their mission! I'm sure this organization spoke at Prov a couple years ago, so I'm super disappointed that I missed it. Anyway, take half an hour of your time (well worth it) and soak this in, it's super inspirational!


KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.

Pledge your support by donating here: http://bit.ly/konydonate and continue to share this story. GOAL: 500,000 shares

Belize Bound! BON VOYAGE! (Chapter One)

As you may have noticed by now, I work at my own pace. That said, I'm kind of disappointed that it has taken me this long to get going on blogging about my incredible experience in Belize. So let's get this show on the road!

~~~

BUD LIGHT, MILLER LIGHT, HEINEKEN... CAAHHHH-ROHHNA! This beer seller was serious. He would walk up and down the steep aisle with an intense glare that would charm American bills out of anyone's pockets. A few people in front of us were finally coaxed and hailed him over. They ordered a few Bud Lights and asked how much it would cost them. The man as he poured the second of the two, exclaimed, "$27!" They were choked... "I guess it's too late now," one of the guys said as he forked over two twenties. He replied, "These are King Cans, boys!" and went off for his next sale... "BEER, HERE! BEER... HERE!" 
Too funny!

We were at the Miami Heat game vs. the San Antonio Spurs, and it was our night lay-over until heading down, over the Gulf, to our destination of Belize. We were fortunate enough to snag some nose-bleed tickets for this clash of super talent. It was just our luck that the game turned out to be a doozy. LeBron James probably had his worst first half of the season, which resulted in the fans booing him, as he did not score a point until a free-throw (1 for 5 from the strip & probs 0 for 6 FG wise, mind you) late in the second quarter! UNBELIZEABLE! Oops, I meant unbelievable. I'm not even in Belize at this point... I'll try and save those puns for later; just you wait! Anyway, Tony Parker just TOOK OVER in the first half. He was relentless, hitting everything as well as driving and draining ridiculous runners. However, it was in the second half when the three-headed beast of Chris Bosh, LeBron James, and... nope not Dwayne Wade (who was injured), but Mike Miller was unleashed!! James went 4 for 6 and Miller went 6 for 6 from behind the arc! The arena was going nuts, it was quite an exciting game. The icing on the cake was definitely Bosh's 360⁰-pivot-two-handed-throw-down, which he uncorked from the free-throw line. Ultimately, the Heat came back from a 20+ deficit and ended up winning 120-98. What a game!

With an early flight in the morning, we headed back to the hotel and crashed. Our journey had just begun and it felt like we had been gone for a while already.

After arriving in Belize City, we were greeted by the inevitable, touristy nature of it's airport. It was hilarious. This picture captures it the best:

Pushing that aside, we couldn't wait to discover the raw country itself. As well as to see what life was like for the locals and also the outreach team, with whom we were going to be staying with!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Here is the first installment of my short Belize vlog series! Watch to check out some clips and pictures of our trip. Enjoy!


This is my first vlog installment of our trip to Belize. My Dad, Brother and I had an amazing experience hanging out with an outreach team in Punta Gorda in the south district of Toledo. Here is just a taste of what it looked like...

Music:
Kanye West & JAY Z - "Gotta Have It"
M83 - "Echoes of Mine"

Poison & Wine

I mentioned earlier that I covered one of mine and Lindsey's favourites from The Civil Wars for her Valentine's Day gift... so here it is! Hope you like it. Enjoy!

Poison & Wine (Civil Wars Cover) by mannyg