Birthday Week!
Where to start,
where to start….? Well, I will start
with Sarah. I got home last Monday
night, and Sarah informed me that she had some things back home that she needed
to take care of. I was torn with pride
for the adventure that she is about to go on, but sad because--she's my
friend….like a tug-a-war of happiness vs. sadness. We decided to take off for Punta Gorda to
finish up the research for the project with WIN Belize before Sarah and Vanessa
left. We left on the 5:30 am bus on
Wednesday morning. So. Early. It worked out because we were able to make it
to the connecting 6:30 bus in Belmopan, which was suppose to be
"Express" but it wasn't. When
we got to Dangringa, I ran inside to get some breakfast. Sarah decided to run to the bathroom, and I
got back to the bus just in time for it to start moving. I jumped off, ran to the bathroom, yelled at
Sarah to hurry, then ran back to the bus and begged the driver to wait… he kept
going but then stopped and waited. From
there, we continued on down the coast to Punta Gorda.
I love, love, loved
Punta Gorda. Loved Punta Gorda. There was just a different feeling
there. We stopped to talk to the Fahina
Woman's Group. Ok, this deserves it's
own section:
Fahina Woman's Group
This is a group of
women that produce hand-made local
crafts. Then, there is a representative
from each village that brings the products to the store. All the products are labeled, and the women
receive the proceeds from the sales.
They can also sell their products separately. The crafts are beautiful, the shop was
colorful, and the women were friendly. I
thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience.
I was fascinated
with the women's group in general. They
elect a representative to go to the monthly meetings, and then they decide who
will watch the shop. The woman said that she didn't enjoy it. When we asked her why she does it, she said
that she was voted and it is her responsibility to the tribe. She doesn't even get paid. We pointed out that she can point people to
her products and she said that she would rather be home with her daughter. When she was appointed, she was single, and
didn't mind going to the shop every day, but now she didn't want to
travel. I was just impressed with her
devotion to her village. I felt a lot
more cohesion in the group. I
appreciated it.
Birthday Dinner
Did I mention that
this was on my birthday? Well, now is
the time to segue into Birthday. For
lunch, we had a wrap from a Snack Shack and it was so yummy. We got a burrito, but the tortilla had
flavoring in it. I liked it! We went over to the ocean since we finished
up the rest of our appointments, and swam in the ocean. That night, we went and changed to go out to
dinner. The Belize Book recommended a
restaurant, so we got there at 6, and they told us to come back at 7. When we came back, the cooks were smoking
weed and said that they decided not to open the kitchen today. Sad day.
We went and picked up some Quesadillas, which we wanted to eat on the
dock, but decided that it would probably be safer to eat it at the house
since...we were 3 girls in a strange town and our hostel was on a bit of a
secluded road. We sat, read, and
ate. Sarah also got me some tres leches,
which wasn't really that good. The cake
had a hint of nutmeg and the frosting had lime in it. Strange flavors to mix together…
Scorpion
That night, mom
called me as we were settling into bed.
Right when the phone rang, I saw a scorpion. The first thing that I said to my mom was,
"OH. MY. GOSH. There's a scorpion
in Vanessa's bed. Do I have to tell
her? Mom said no. When Sarah came in, I pointed it out to her,
and she thought that it was a crab. I
may have let her think that it was a crab, but it was in vain--and Vanessa
could tell what it was. The only thing
going through my head was, "If it stings us, I don't know where to go for
Medical Help." None of us would
sleep on the top bunks (as if that would have anything to do with where the
scorpion was. Vanessa slept on a plastic
chair. Sarah slept on the other bed, but
climbed in with me at about 3:00 am (ZION's 2012 Shout Out!) so that Vanessa could take her bed. Did I mention that we slept with the lights
on. The next morning, I found out that
the scorpions are not poisonous, but they do hurt. They only sting you if you step on them--they
never seek you out. This would have been
good to know the night before!
Sweet, Beautiful, Chocolate
I realized the next
day that I was the only one to get a good night sleep with the looming
scorpion. Boy, oh boy… I slept
well. Sarah and I got up to go meet the
Cotton Tree Chocolate Company. It was
super yummy. We talked to the manager
about how everything was structured. It
was a bit disappointing only because it was so typically American in
style--even the manager was American.
Still, after the interview, she gave us a tour of the chocolate
factory. Sweet, beautiful, chocolate factory. I loved it.
I love chocolate, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that I
loved the shop. I also came to the
realization that it is possible for me to someday have a chocolate factory in
my garage or kitchen. Can you picture
that… a chocolate factory IN MY HOUSE!?!?!?!!!!
Life tile. Just wait. Here's the process:
THE PROCESS!!
Step 1: Toast
Chocolate
Step 2: Smash chocolate beans
Step 3: Use blow dryer to separate the shells from
the nibs.
Step 4: Put the nibs in a juicer. It will then come out at chocolate
liquor. Put some of this into a machine
that pulls out the oils from the chocolate (I'm trying to figure out how to get
this part--I'm certain that there is a kitchen aid attachment).
Step 5: Put it in the big machine (this is the other
hard part) that grinds it down to smooth chocolate perfection for several
days. It has a big stone that crushes
it.
Step 6: Put it into molds and eat it, or just eat
it.
See how easy it is
to make chocolate? Plus, I am now
friends with the people that sell the chocolate beans, so I can get them any
time! I actually went directly to the
market to get some chocolate fruit, so that I cam make the chocolate nibs. (this is as far as I can get with my current
machinery)
TCGA - aka MORE CHOCOLATE
After that meeting,
we went to the Toledo Chocolate Growers
Association. This is another
SUPER COOL ORGANIZATION. They were
really well organized and renewed my faith!
The organization buys all the chocolate from the farmers and then sells
it to big organization. This helps the
local Maya farmer keep their culture and way of life and Kraft is happy to get
large quantities of cocoa beans. THe
organization also provides training on how help the crop be better. I really enjoyed interviewing them and
learning--they provide a direct benefit for the services provided. It was fascinating!
We then went to the
dock again and laid out/swam while waiting for the bus back up the coast. Before boarding, we grabbed another burrito
from the Snack Shack--this time with a cilantro burrito. Yum!
SO GOOD! And we got lucky and had a direct shot all the way back to San
Ignacio with great connectors. When we
got back to the Cayo, Sarah and I decided to tie dye some shirts so that we
could 'fit in' with the 'local' Americans.
Why is it that Americans feel they can go TOTALLY hippy when the get
south of the boarder. I'm probably not
one to talk--I've loved living in REI gear for the majority of the summer.
Oh, I almost forgot--
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| Yup, the little girl is playing with a mouse trap. |
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