Belize day 1--arrival

(This was supposed to be posted Saturday, 12 March, but the internet was down)

Amazingly enough, we actually left on time (or close enough for A&M UMC time. The trip down to the airport was uneventful, although we had some troubles at first figuring out where we could get out of the vans at the airport. Check-in went remarkably smooth, and most of us breezed through airport security (only a couple were stopped for the more intensive searches).





And then we were on the plane.

Best thing about the flight? Anna K's expression when we were taking off. She's never flown before, and her excitement and wonder as our wheels left the ground was something to behold. :)

We did run into a spot of bother when we landed in Belize--Lauren had her camera confiscated. She had some Pringles chips and she shared them with Laurinda, who promptly made a duck's beak out of them. Lauren took a picture, not realizing that it wasn't allowed, and a police officer immediately swooped down and took it from her. Lauren was really calm about it, but Laurinda freaked out a bit. He just examined the pictures, deleted the one from the airport, and gave the camera back.

We all made it through customs without any problems, except for Ellley, who had her bags searched. And then we were on our way to Camalote Camp.




First, though, we stopped for lunch. By the time we got to the restaurant, it was about 2:30pm--after leaving the church at 6:00am, this made for some very hungry folks. The food was great, but you could tell it had been a long day already, as evidenced by the people falling asleep at the table.

Another hour drive brought us to Camalote camp, which is just beautiful. Everyone immediately ran to the hammocks (not me though, I was so tired I was afraid that I'd never be able to drag myself out of there).




We moved into our rooms, hung out a bit, watched Alex W. Make a friend (Tyrone, the son of our cook. He's 12, loves football, knows the names of all of the plants at the camp, and is willing to talk to us about his country). We also watched a few teenagers fall out of their hammocks, hung out a bit more, ate dinner (amazing how those boys could eat a full meal again so soon after finishing off a late lunch!), met the pastor of the church, had a short organizational meeting and worship and went to bed.

This is such an amazing group of people. I didn't hear any complaints all day, just a lot of enthusiasm and wonder. I can't wait to see how God works through us through the next week.