a taste of England

Spent a weekend down in Stann Creek district, primarily to deliver a workshop on developing children and youth work (Maggie delivered it; I wrote things on paper). However, we took the opportunity for a spot of sight seeing. We were first given a tour around Dangriga, by two standard six students, one of whom could muster the most perfect Received Pronunciation accent, which we really should have recorded; I felt like I had a sat nav, only better!!!

We then popped down to Hopkins, a small village by the sea along an unpaved road, and spent a night there to give Maggie some time off and me some more sightseeing opportunity. It turned out it was 'English pub night', since its management was an English lady, so we had Fish and Chips and I had a can of Strongbow (I felt I couldn't pass by the chance of cider, however rubbish)! What with the election chat, it was a positively English evening. Except the lovely heat, the hot sea breeze and the pool...

On Sunday morning the English lady gave us a tour of the much more upmarket places next door, which were truly beautiful. She told me I now have the perfect location for my honeymoon; guess I just need a groom and some money, then...

The drive back took us through mountains, so I now have itchy feet for some walking!

on the merits or otherwise of paul scholes as a holding midfielder

this isn't about football, I promise! More about cultural heritage (which happens, just sometimes, to be football).

As mentioned, I spent the weekend on caye caulker, and hanging out in a hostel, met various travellers. Where I was staying seemed to have a majority of mainland Europeans and Australians, but I also met some English guys (and girls, but mostly guys) with whom I fairly promptly entered into a discussion about football. In fact, I was mostly listening, but did make at least one intelligent comment (well, I was complimented for it, but men can compliment you for knowing the names of any player beyond beckham, so this doesn't say much). Anyway, it was very refreshing to talk about football- and not just to talk about football, but to talk about football to blokes from Hull over a beer.

Which I claim, by a stretch of the imagination, to be something to do with cultural heritage.

ooooooh heaven is a place on earth

and it's called caye caulker

(sorry to be blasphemous)

Anyway, I took a few days off for a trip out to caye caulker, which I have heard much raving about, and didn't believe could be as good as promised. However, despite loving to insist I'm an inland girl really, and prefer rocks and mountains and waterfalls and mountain streams to islands... I may be addicted. the island is a few miles long, and mostly narrower than one mile. It is three minutes on a boat from the barrier reef, and in every way wonderful. It's quite a travellers hideout but there's still a strong local presence with churches and a school, and in my experience, just really welcoming. Went snorkelling, saw stingrays and at least one nurse shark (which collided with my leg) and a barracuda (I think). Watched the sunset, twice. Swam in the sea. Read a lot. Met random travellers. Got the wanderlust!

lovely.

Whether the weather be hot...

Or whether the weather be...hot.

I am unbelievably relieved today that the seemingly unbearable heat of the last few days (I've been mooching around like a particularly grumpy sloth), we have had a HYOWGE storm and the humidity at least has given way. Our thermometer still reads 29 but I feel positively cool.

Loving it

x

ketchup

Prepare to be AMAZED:-

I may be cured of my ketchup phobia. I am happily munching at burgers and sandwiches with red sauce known as 'ketchup' within them (I can't say I positively like it, but it's OK).

In my defence (I am unwilling to accept that I have been making a fuss about nothing for nearly two decades) it is not Heinz tomato ketchup and is, by all accounts, very different. It is much thinner for one thing. So my Issues with Heinz tomato ketchup remain; it remains to be seen whether they have lessened.

In any case, the necessity of being polite does away with many of one's dislikes; I can now cope with coleslaw (although again, Belizean coleslaw, which is different from English coleslaw.)

praise choruses

I apologise if this post is exclusive. It relies on, among other things, some emotional relationship to 'shine jesus shine', whatever this relationship may be. In my case is is a relationship akin to that shared with parents (love, memories, nostalgia, embarrassment, tradition and irritation. To name but a few.)

Praise choruses make up a big part of worship here, whether in school devotions or Sunday services, and generally there is enough variety in them, and they are sung in a sufficiently vibrant and worshipful manner, that they avoid the 'embarrassment' (lets have a song for the CHILDREN) and 'irritation' (turn around with me, we've only been doing it for an hour) stages and are genuinely conducive to worship.

Yet 'tradition' does become a sticking point.

What do you do when no-one does special claps at all between the "shine on me's" (either the northern[?] clapclap-clapclap, OR the southern[?] clapclapclap-clap)?

What do you do when no-one joins you in "nyene kwenkos"ing in siyahamba.
(or indeed, when it is introduced as 'sighahamba', and, when corrected, excused with a 'I don't speak French'. But that could happen to any individual. It just made me laugh.)

What do you do when "Our God is a Good God" is no longer a song of trying to sing thirty plus goods (occasionally with a whole different song being sung by the other half of your choir, courtesy of MIB.)? And what do you do when you've already launched confidentally into the version you know in conflict with thirty schoolchildren singing the version THEY know, all because you were so excited to find a song you (thought) you knew?

What do you do when "Cast your burdens" has an added (and misleading for the younguns who it may well lead to consider Jesus as merely Superman) verse which goes 'super super, super super super, super super super, supernatural power?

There are also occasional choruses with theologically dubious words; such as one which declares "I wish I had a great big box to put the devil in, I'd take him out and stamp him down and put him back again. I wish I had a GREAT BIG box to put my Saviour in. I'd take him out and MWAH MWAH MWAH and share him with my friends." I am VERY glad to say this is the exception rather than the rule, and actually is generally confined to the classroom and not church! Most of them are very good, and I might post the lyrics of some of my favourites at a later date.

Meanwhile, here is the congregation at Corozal doing actions to 'I looked down the road and I wondered, how far I am from God? So I buckled up my shoes and I started to run, my journey back to God. And now I am happy rejoicing, rejoicing in the Lord.'

Storms

I am developing my theory, that you can tell a lot about a person by what they do in a rainstorm.

It's actually the dry season here at the moment, but it's not the kind of area where dry season implies no rain ever, or wet season implies constant rain. On Friday night I went to dinner with some American Jesuit volunteers living in the city, having met only one of them. I had a really good evening, but shortly after dinner the power started going out, making regular flashes of lightning in the distant sky more obvious. Discussions in the dark revealed, to my delight, that I am not the only person in the city who wants to run around the streets whenever it starts raining. However, I decided it would be smart to go home before the rain got really heavy, so I departed, and arrived home just in time (but stood in the pouring rain for a while anyway!)

As if this wasn't enough, I spent yesterday night at Corozal, a town near the Mexican border, where the Methodist Children and Youth Commission were leading a service this AM. And we had yet another fantastic storm (I use the word 'fantastic'; it was bordering on being alarming.) Lightning in the distance over the sea kept me entertained for a long while after the rain had passed.



But then I was sociable and went and watched a movie.