Day 4 - My 30th Birthday!

According to the chalkboard at the resort, I must be celebrating my birthday everyday. However, today was my actual 30th birthday. It will definitely go down as one of the most memorable birthdays ever. As it should be right? I marked a new decade in my own style.

When we were planning this trip I was adament that I wanted to volunteer with Sustainable Harvest International on my birthday. Google them if you haven't already. They are an amazing organization that teaches farmers in Central America how to farm using sustainable farming practices. They offer Smaller World trips which are typically week long volunteering trips. They partner with our lodge, Cotton Tree in many ways. The Belize volunteers stay here, but SHI has also set up their demonstration organic garden on the Cotton Tree Lodge property. Its a great garden with an abundance of fruits and vegetables. They bring farmers here to teach them. The garden also provides much of the food for the lodge guests.

We woke up and had our normal breakfast. Eggs, ham, yogurt and the sort. I successfully got on Skype very early and was able to video call my parents and see Holden. He was very happy but a bit confused with the computer. I'm not sure if he was trying to eat the computer or see me, but it made me happy. He made all sorts of sounds for me. Josh was still in the room so he missed out. I took a few snapshots on Skype to show him how dapper our son looked in his polo shirt. We talked for a bit and then my parents had to get him ready for daycare.

We were told to be ready at 9 to be picked up. Right on time, Candido, with SHI showed up in the main lodge. He invited us to take a quick tour of the gardens with him to learn about their practices and how they set up the garden and work with CTL. He said that we would be helping with an organic garden at the local school today. This sounded really cool and we were excited. The tour was great. We learned about how they do natural "fertilizer" (lots of poop) and rotate their crops. A lot of the plants are outside the garden itself, too.

After the tour we jumped in the truck and headed into Punta Gorda to go the school. We pulled up to a very cute school. The Benedict RC (Roman Catholic) School. It is an elementary school. We were greeted by the principal, handed some tools and headed to the back to the gardens. While the SHI staff talked with the principal and teachers about what they wanted us to do that morning we watched as some other volunteers (not through SHI) played games with the kids. It was a special treat for the kids. The kids were adorable in their uniforms and running around playing.

A few minutes later we were shown our project. They wanted to till and prepare two new beds for the kids to plant. They were going to vote on what to plant. I think the options were cucumbers, onions or jalapenos. I'm pretty sure cucumbers won but I might be wrong. We got the beds done pretty quickly. Two of our guys plus two SHI guys. Becky and I were pros at using the machetes to cut up the clumps. The boys are obsessed with all the machetes down here. Seems like a dangerous obsession.

We were quite proud with how quickly we finished our project and were ready for our next assignment. About that time we were told the kids were coming over for their "garden session" with us. We weren't sure what we would be doing with them. Then we were told to grab some tools and follow the SHI staff. The theme of this day should be confusion. As we headed back to the truck the students lined up and in unison said, "Hi Mister. Hi Misses. Welcome to Benedict RC School." It was super cute.

We piled into the truck. Lots of bags in the back. What were these bags for? Candido (laughing) said we had to pick up the soil additive for the students. In the US pick up means go to the store. Not here in Belize. Yes, they literally had us PICK up the additive on my birthday.

The truck quickly came to a stop in the middle of a dirt road with nothing but lush jungle around us. Where were we were going. The other SHI guy grabbed a machete and told us to follow him. He started cutting away foilage and led us to a barbed wire fence. He apologized for the lack of a gate. What! They guys held the barbed wire apart and had us climb through it. Oh my word. I'm going to get arrested in Belize on my birthday.

The next part is why I will never forget this birthday. They had us spend 45 minutes climbing through tall grasses searching for cow poo and loading it into bags. I'm not kidding. The SHI thought this was hilarious. When I told them to put us to work I never imagined this is what they had in store. Candido's favorite phrase was "Rebecca! Poo! Poo here!" Then she would have to run and scoop it into his bag. I got lucky and was paired with Randy. We chose not to compete in the "which pair can scoop the most poo" game. We still got a lot though.

After we filled all our bags we piled the poop into the truck and delivered it back to the school. While we were gone one of the classes had chopped up the soil into small pieces. The SHI folks gave instructions to the teachers on adding the manure. They were big on not doing everything for the school, farmers, etc. Rather, they wanted to teach them how to do it themselves.

We were bummed we weren't given more to do. We told Candido we had blocked out the whole day for us so he said he would keep us busy. We headed over to a nearby restaurant for lunch. It was the restaurant where the SHI used to be located above. A guy from St. Lucia had moved to the area and opened a vegetarian and seafood restaurant. Apparently he is known all over for his cooking and is taken to other places around Central America to do teaching instruction. I must say it was probably the best meal we have had the whole trip. Some sort of spiced (almost like an Indian spice) shrimp. Rice wtih cabbage, onions, cilantro and carrots and vegetables. We all devoured it.

After lunch, Candido drove us around Punta Gorda and gave us our own personal tour. We saw where everything was. He even took us to the Fajina (pronounced liked fajita) Arts Center where the local Mayan women sell their arts. I picked up something for Nina's birthday and a little basket for my wedding rings at home. We tried to find these baskets we saw the folks using at the market but couldn't find them. We finally felt guilty for making Candido be our personal guide and headed back to the resort.

We got back around 3, got cleaned up a bit and then decided to take a kayak trip. No rest for us! We were smart and paddled upstram so we didn't get stuck. It was eerie how calm and quiet everything was. When we stopped paddling we could just hear the animals in the jungle. It was super cool. We went a good distance but didn't find any villages or anything. We must have gone the wrong direction for action. The sun was starting to set so we headed back to the resort. The cotton tree loomed over the jungle so we took some couples pictures with it in the background. Can't wait to see those on R&B's camera. Thank goodness for their camera.

The funniest part of the kayaking was that we decided to not wear our bathing suits but stay in our clothes. We weren't planning on swimming. What Becky and Josh didn't realize is that their kayaks had wholes in the bottom. Nice. They were both drenches as soon as they got in. Randy and I were quite wet too from the paddle splashing. One of the guys challenged us to a race back to the resort. Last one there had to go off the rope swing in their clothes. I think Randy lost because Josh and I tricked him into taking a photo of us downriver, but we all ended up in the river. We were already wet anyway. The other folks here I'm sure think we are nuts. Randy is still the only one who can successfully make a full swing. The rest of us drag through the water. I'm sure this will be Josh's mission for the rest of the week.

We were freezing by then and headed in for showers before dinner. I hurried to get back to the lodge to try and check my email before dinner. No service. Are you kidding me? I missed my skype call and was getting very frustrated. Of all days with no internet! Don't they know I'm waiting on an email. Josh messed with the phone that kept cutting out, calling cards, etc. and finally go through to my parents. We gave them my yahoo password and told them to keep checking. For some reason we could occasionally get emails on Josh's Outlook even when we couldn't log on to the internet. We told them to email it to him when it came through.

Dinner started and I was distracted. It was a so-so stew dinner. Josh ordered champagne. We all cheered my birthday. Josh gave me my present. While I was looking through it (a tour book a homemade trip brochure for London!) he disappeared. When he came back he whispered in my ear "It's a Girl." What? I asked him if he was joking and he said no. The internet popped on for just a second and he got the email from the agency. No other internet all night. Crazy. We were shocked and excited. Then the staff started signing happy birthday and brought a chocolate cake they had decorated for me with a candle burning. Everyone sang. It was all pretty amazing. The four of us capped the night off with a bonfire by the river and called it a night.

That's one different and amazing birthday!