rest of Easter weekend...

Easter Sunday: began at 4:45am! Oh Boy! It was the City Council sunrise service, which was an interesting mix of all the churches and denominations in Belmopan and also the City Council, making it an awkward mesh of church and politics. There were a LOT of gringo missionaries there and it was a basic repeat of the same 20 words during the whole 2 1/2 hour long service! It was a lot to handle. Matt, Dan, & I were so uncomfortable! But we did get to meet the mayor of Belmopan, because Matt's house sister is on the Village Council. After church I got dropped off at home just in time to attend Easter Mass at the Catholic church with Alana. As is the Belizean way, we were about 15 minutes late, taking a slow stroll into town for church. The mass was standard Catholic mass with a Hispanic feel in some areas. It was cool and familiar, so I enjoyed it. And Alana was so excited to have me with her so it was nice. Also, I ran into Nate & Michele, two other volunteers, in mass! So that was fantastic!
   Alana & I got home from church around 9:30 and the day was just beginning but I had been up for so long! I hung around and ate a little--because my host mom is always feeding me!-- before calling my parents for Easter. I talked to them for a good 45 minutes & all of San Martin knew by the end of the convo. The "shoosh" (which is gossip) travels so fast! Except it was that I spent 3 hours on the phone today. Oy!
    Around 12pm we headed over to Mr Cal's, our LCF (language & cultural facilitator). He had us over for an Easter lunch that was amazing. We had chicken caldo, rice & beens, corn tortillas, bananas, oranges, & ice cream! (which my host mom had also given me ice cream on the WAY to his house! haha) It was so good! We just relaxed in his hammocks and stuffed our faces, enjoying some separation time from our host families. It was a great break and was much needed by us 3.
   As is always the case, as soon as I got back from stuffing my face at Mr Cal's, my host mom had lunch ready at home. We had fish caldo.... which was a full fish in my broth!!! It had the fins, the eyeballs, the scales, & everything! Eek! It was so weird to eat!!! Crazy! Another day of 2 lunches.... jeez!
    The rest of Easter I just hung out w/my host family. I watched them play PS2 and talked with my host mom, trying to learn Mopan here & there. The only really weird thing I've noticed about my host mom is that she is constantly using her metal hair clip as a Qtip....it weirds me out! hahaha

Easter Monday: Was our last day of vacation before classes started! Which we 3 were excited about because it was getting tiring to be at home with our host families ALL day! Mr Cal decided to take us to the river for our last day off so we were stoked! We thought we were going to the same Belmopan river, but he surprised us and took us down the Hummingbird Highway out past Armenia somewhere (I forget the name of the place/river). It was beautiful! Just the drive there alone, which was about an hour in the back of Mr Cal's pickup truck, was gorgeous! Just jungle and random little villages. Armenia is also such a pretty and quaint little villages. It was similar looking to San Martin, I thought. The river was full of children swimming, women washing, and people bathing. It was so nice. We swam forever! It was SO nice!  On the way home, Mr. Cal took us to Blue Hole, a national reserve. It was amazing! It's a whole jungle of different plants and trees and paths and down at the bottom is a small lagoon. The water is SO blue! Bright blue from limestone deposits! It's beautiful! We swam in the blue part and then explored the other side, where there was a scary cave! We weren't prepared with flashlights, so we didn't explore to much.While we swam, Mr Cal's wife bathed. Apparently there are tons of caves and places to explore around there as well. Maybe I'll go back to explore....
  We drove home in the amazing back of Mr Cal's truck... best place ever! Then I hung out with my host family for awhile, helping cook and wash and such. That evening, I went over to watch Bernardo play soccer with Dino. We went to the UB field right by our house, but they were wrapping up to move to a field in Belmopan. I decided to go with them, so we walked all the way there. On the way back between one field and another, we stopped home to grab extra water and such and I totally walked in on my host mom naked! It was so awkward! I think she was about to shower and normally doesn't mind being naked around her family, BUT so awkward! I tried to pretend I was texting and she ran to the other room and put on a towel. My life is so weird.... So anyway, we walked to the field and it was about 45 minutes to get there. There were 2 other teams playing, so we kicked around for half an hour before Bernardo's team played. It was fun to kick the ball around and hang out w/Dino. And then Michele & Nate met me there b/c they were on a walk! American interactions are great!!! I get all excited! hahaha We stayed for Nardo's whole match and they won 2-1... it was a pretty awesome game. We walked back & it was almost ten by the time we got home. I think my host mom and Sofia were kinda mad at me for hanging out with the boys.... Apparently it means you are a whore in Mayan culture.....fantastic! I got home and ate, dealt with some cockroaches, ran over to Matt's to watch the end of Apocalypto with Dan and his family, and then went to bed.... Phew! Exhausting holiday weekend!