Cacao Fest!!

Friday was my last day of being 22! The end of my Golden Year, hahaha. But it was also the start of Cacao Fest, which is this big weekend of fun in PG where there is lots of cacao from the local plants (lots of chocolate!!) and tons of other fun things!

I had to go to our COMPAR workshop during the day, which was long and I was so excited for the night that I couldn't focus. We spent a lot of time doing children's songs and making crafts and all that sort of stuff. It was nice, but I was mentally tapped out after that week! I got a ride home and stopped by St Benedict's school to see Michelle, but she was gone. I ended up meeting Tonya's teacher who is Pablo's son from San Martin (the family Matt stayed with). I had a good talk with him-- he's a smart guy. And, once again, Belize is such a small world! ah! haha.
I ran home and got ready for Cacao Fest because Christine got a bunch of us to work the night's Wine and Chocolate event! We all me up at Christine's and I was able to borrow a Q'echi top to wear--looking very native. It was about ten gringos walking down the street to Cacao Fest dressed in Q'echi tops..... we were totally integrated! lol. It was an awesome night! We were allowed to eat and drink anything we wanted!!! There was so much chocolate!!!!! I was in HEAVEN!!! hahaha. They also had little samples of cacao rum, which was delicious.... it was like candy juice! haha maybe? lol They also had regular food like hummus and dips and all types of stuff.... amazing! I started off working as a server-type person and ended up working in the bar, serving the wine. We were serving Chilean wine, lol, which was weird, but fine. The bar was slammed though! Because wine was all we had and people were drinking fast! But it was fun... my Olive Garden expertise was put to good use! hahahaha. I met a lot of prominent locals and also a lot of tourists. A guy from a newspaper in Dangriga took my picture pouring wine, I guess I looked classy in my Q'echi blouse, hahaha. Then a newspaper even came up to interview me! They asked me about the wines and if they were from Belize, and I told them "We actually only have Chilean wines....we are uh... focusing more on the cacao tonight!" hahaha I'm pretty sure it was a really dumb interview.... who knows if it made it to the big show! hahaha Once it was close to the end of the night, I took time to enjoy the food and drinks and great music! There was the flutist from Benque (he's nationally known) who played like EVERY song on his flute. I took a video of him playing "Heal the World" by Michael Jackson! AMAZING! We danced and hung out, and even though the party was supposed to end at 10, people didn't start leavin til almost 11...Some guy even sang happy birthday to me! (& he was an awesome singer!) Iit was such a good night!