Banana Bank

Friday morning we had to pull ourselves out of bed early in the morning and force ourselves into the motions of heading to school. We started off the morning running behind, and I felt like I was behind all day. After Thursday’s crazy festivities and many hours of marching the kids were all dragging as well. We suffered through classes, getting as much work done as possible. Everyone was a bit short on patience- including myself.
After the long school day was through, Erica and I headed down to the southern district of Belize for a night away. Some of the other missionary interns, as well as some MKs, joined us. We drove down through Belmopan, the capital of Belize and into the Cayo District. We took the medical clinic’s van, and Erica and I were delegated to be backseat riders. The ride there was on quite rocky and bumpy roads, and we continued to fly up and down in our seats, banging our heads on the van ceiling multiple times. It was a beautiful drive though. It was neat watching the Belize terrain change as we drove by. Corozal District is relatively flat and very dry, yet as we headed down south, mountains rose from the horizon, and the terrain became more and more green. When we entered Cayo District the lush vegetation began as did the jungle of Belize. By the time we reached Banana Bank, in the heart of the jungle, the sun had set. We were staying in the middle of the jungle on the property of one of the missionary’s friends. When we piled out of the van we were greeted by the buzzing of mosquitoes and the hollering of monkeys. The husband and wife that own Banana Bank purchased the 8,000 acres over 25 years ago. Since then they have built cabañas for lodging, a dining hall and villas. They also have hundreds of free range horses that run on the property. We sat around a huge oak table and had dinner together, listening to the owners tell us stories of Belize”back in the day.”
Saturday morning we woke up early, as always, with the rising of the sun. We wandered all around the property and explored the art studio of the owner’s wife. She paints these amazing oil paintings of the people and animals of Belize. We also tried to get the monkeys hanging in the trees to come to us, but instead they would just stick out their tongues and scratch their read ends. The nature of Banana Bank was absolutely fascinating. There were parrots and peacocks throughout the property and even a jaguar (he was in a caged in area.) It was neat to wander around and listen to the different birds and animals screeching and hollering. The trees were amazing as well- huge mahoganies that several of us couldn’t even reach around. Banana Bank sits right on the Belize River- a mucky and extremely fast flowing body of water. They have a little ferry boat attached to a line that will ferry you across the river to the opposite bank. It was quite a neat little operation as the ferry worker was bailing water from the boat the whole way across.
We had an awesome family style breakfast and then saddled up horses to go riding. A Belizean named Eddy came along as our guide as well as his six year old son Little Eddy. J Little Eddy could stand up on top of his horse while riding, and was absolutely precious. His English was perfect, and he loved talking about his horses. We rode all through the jungle- though mud holes, river beds and fern forests. It was a beautiful ride! After two and a half hours of riding I literally stumbled out of the saddle. My legs felt like jelly, and they are quite sore this morning.
We left Banana Bank in the afternoon and headed to Belize City to pick up some dentists that are coming to the clinic for the week. We are all so excited because when dentists come we all get out teeth cleaned! It’s like Christmas!
As much fun as it is to get away it is still wonderful to come back to our little house in Corozal. We didn’t get back last night until around 10pm, and Erica and I were both just glad to be home. Back to the familiar sounds of the neighborhood dogs and chicken, to the smells of the meat market behind out house and to the pile of school work that needs to be graded. It’s comfortable here.