You better Belize it Im here.

Okay. Belize is unbelizeable. (You knew that pun was coming....)

But seriously. I think I expected just a simple Latin culture, but that is nothing like what Belize really is. This is the most random mixture of peoples, cultures, and everything I have ever experienced! It feels like Africa and Jamaica and Mexico all rolled into one.  It's amazing and SO unique.

I flew to Texas and couldn't wait to board my flight to Belize. Does anyone else immediately start figuring out who would make it in a crash when they get on a plane and picking out who they would make an alliance with? Hashtag survivors. Anyways, as I was boarding, this very wealthy looking couple approached me and started talking to me about why I was going to Belize. She was loaded in jewels and he was sporting some expensive European shoes, but their smiles were real and their excitement as they started talking to me about Belize was contagious. I explained HELP International and what I was doing and as we started to board the plane, the woman reached out and grabbed me in a huge hug and said, "You must love what you do, because you are so so happy." It kind of caught me off guard. I've been told I seem happy before and many a person has hushed my overly loud laugh, but I have never thought about all the people around me that meet me trying to dissect why it is that I am so happy. I thought the whole plane ride about how lucky I am and counted all of my blessings and thought long and hard about why I really am happy. That's a different post altogether, but it made me wish I had had some pass a long cards instead of just my business cards with me to explain why I really am this happy.  I'm so grateful for my life and my opportunities and how I was raised and what I know.

Annnnywaaaays. Back to Belize. I flew into Belize city, figured out a taxi to take me to Belmopan and on to Dangriga and then found a taxi guy to take me and our country director Kristina and randomly the local LDS mission president's daughter south to Hopkin's beach! Here's a little map for frame of reference.

It was nice to start everything off with a fun weekend and the beach with amazing HELP leaders and volunteers. Our Belize team is incredible and I loved having them tell me all they have learned about Belize and the awesome projects they are working on. Hopkins has a lot of the Garifuna people who are Caribbean/West African decent. Seriously I felt like I was in so many places all at once. And the kids are so cute. Point in case:

 This bike babe killed me. She kept making the best faces of fear. But she WAS just riding on the handle bars of a bike holding on...
And the girl on the right and I bonded as I walked to the resort. Such a sweetie.

And we played on the beach with these kids too! The song I Love My Life keeps playing here and it's real. I love my Belizen life already. I  find out the name of all the taxi guys and whoever is closest to me and I just want to talk to everyone here and have them tell me everything about their country and where we could do the most good and what they love about Belize. 

 Such major culture and location crash in my head of what I thought Belize would be and what it is like. We stayed at the cutest cheapest hostel (run by a LATVIAN!!!!) and partied at a sweet resort just a mile down the beach.

We made our journey back to the location of the HELP team today - San Ignacio. It was a fun adventure of bargaining for taxis and bumpy bus rides and buying sliced mangos off the kids walking in and out of all of the people waiting in the bus depot. Maybe one of the buses was full and we convinced the conductor Edgar to squish us on anyways so we could make it home at a decent hour. Make friends with the conductor. Always. Even if it causes a slight scene. Edgar loved us :) 

We stopped by one of our partners when we changed buses in Belmopan. A place called King's Orphanage. It was fun to see the kids and their situation there and talk to the people and volunteers about that project. It was a ton of kids from all backgrounds and races, but they all pretty much get along I was told. I liked that. 

At one point a guy got on selling hot doughnuts.  Warm homemade doughnuts on a ghetto bus in Belize? So confusing, yet awesome. The guy came back to us and I watched the bus as the volunteers all bought them. One dollar Belize (50 cents converted to USD). "A steal!" say the Americans. And it's true when looking to our country and what we spend on food and things we really don't need everyday. There were tons of kids on the bus, but none of them fussed or reached out or begged for the doughnuts. It seemed like such a different scene than what would have happened in America if a doughnut man had walked onto an American bus full of kids. I wonder if many of them are aware of the family situation or if they are just very obedient and if they are trained not to ask for things. Granted, a couple more people bought a few I think, but it was humbling to think about everyone on that bus and wonder where they were coming from and where they were going and what their future held for them. It's days when I feel lucky like this that I really want to do the most good in the world.