4 Weddings and a Funeral (alright so really it was 2 Confirmations and a wedding)

     Today was a great day!  A really great day.  Great days are the best when they come when you're least expecting them and I certainly wasn't expecting today to be such a great day but it sure was.
     Today was the 3rd day of my monthly "food for the poor" run.  The first day is always spent packing rice, beans, and flour into 5lb bags.  This week we packed 1000 lbs of food and were short handed so the task was left mostly to myself and one other Jesuit Volunteer (JVI).  Anyway, I digress.  So today was the 2nd day of our drive out to the villages to deliver 15lb of food to elderly recipients.  We just had 2 villages to deliver to today but they each are about an hour away and an hour apart from each other so it typically takes all day.  I have always enjoyed our food delivery days but to be honest, the last few months of delivery have just been long, hot and dusty and we haven't gotten much opportunity to visit with the recipients in the recent months--the part of the service that really makes it worthwhile to me.
    Today, was very different.  Myself and two JVI's got an early start and headed out, first to San Jose and then on to Santa Cruz village.  After making a few deliveries, we stopped by the church in San Jose.  It was now about 10:30 am and mass was just ending.  Today was a special day as the Standard V students were celebrating the sacrament of Confirmation.  The celebration of Confirmation here is similar to the Catholic celebration of First Communion in the U.S.  The boys all wear black pants, a white shirt, and a black tie and the girls look absolutely stunning in their elaborate white dresses and veils.  They looked gorgeous and it was such a treat to see them dressed up and looking so beautiful.  The bishop of Belize, along with a priest friend, and a JVI, who normally comes with us on our food runs, were all in attendance and we stuck around to say "hello" to them before they head out to celebrate Confirmation in another village (the 15th in 6 days).  Before we knew it, the 3 of us were being invited to a luncheon celebration for one of the newly Confirmed boys.  The best part, it was barbecue!  Even better, it was barbecue pork--of which I've had a personal craving for the past couple of months--and Belizean pork happens to be the best and most flavorful I've ever had.  I've had lunch as a guest in a Mayan home a half dozen or so times--almost always caldo and otherwise stewed chicken so barbecue was a true break from the norm.  Every time I'm a guest, it always brings about a slightly uncomfortable feeling as I sit in a large open room with all eyes on 'the white people' as everyone sits quietly and only the occasional chatter is heard.  Mayans are incredibly hospitable but they are notoriously shy and quiet.  Today was very different.  Mr. Felipe and his family were outgoing and many spoke English.  On top of the ice cold Guatemalan soda and the finger licking good bbq and tortillas, it was a really nice visit (though if you haven't figured it out yet, food makes me happy).  We felt welcomed and comfortable and able to contribute to some conversation and stayed for quite a while.   Bellies full, off we went to finish our deliveries.  We stopped at the next thatched house down the road and dropped off the food.  Before we even got back in the car, while one of the JVI's found himself engaged in a conversation with a young man from town, the other JVI and I were approached by a villager and invited to have a luncheon celebration with her family and their newly confirmed relative.  Of course this time we regretfully declined--though seconds of bbq might have been nice--but we did stop to chat for a while and enjoyed meeting her sisters and nephew.  Her grandmother used to be a recipient of our food and I wanted to be sure to offer our condolences on her passing as she had been one of the nicest and most gracious of recipients that we've ever visited and this was the first time I'd spoken with a relative since her passing in November.
     We dropped off food at a few more houses, gave a ride to a mother and her two small children, and went on to the next village.   Of course some of the real excitement along the way came when we stopped to look at the Fer-de-lance snake that was slithering across the road.  I'm pretty sure the Mayan woman riding in the car thought we were crazy when we stopped to get a closer look but hey, it's not every day you get a chance to spot one of Belize's most deadly snakes in the wild--and for what it's worth, I do hope it is the only time I ever spot Belize's deadliest snake in the wild.  Still, it was pretty cool to see.
    We arrived at Santa Cruz by about 1 o'clock or so and since it has just 3 houses that receive food deliveries it is the shorter of the two trips.  Often times we are in and out in about 15-20 minutes.  Today, we first dropped off food at Angelina Choc's house.  She is thin but lively and loves to talk with Kathleen, the outgoing JVI who always makes her arrival known at the Choc house with song.  Today Angelina was there with 3 of her daughters and they loved the conversation and talking to us about their lives.   One of her daughters was proud to show us a jipijapa basket that she had been working on weaving.  She explained to us that it takes her about 3 months to weave a basket in her spare time.  She then hopes to sell the basket in town for between $25 and $35.  Her, like many Mayans, survive on subsistence farming (farming only enough to eat) and selling baskets is her only source of income.  Imagine earning about $10/month and using that to cover additional groceries and staples, along with clothing, and any medical assistance needed throughout the year.  These women were so sweet and happy and were such a pleasure to visit with.  They even allowed us to take their photo--something I rarely feel comfortable asking of a Mayan. While we chatted away, the other JVI dropped off food at the 2nd recipient's house and so we decided to all go to the 3rd, and final, house together.

JVI,  Angelina, and her 3 daughters with jipijapa basket and firewood

     When we arrived at the last house we were greeted by 3 sisters, all nieces of the woman who lives there.  They had just arrived from the Orange Walk District, a largely Mestizo area in the north.  Because they had moved away from the village years ago, they all spoke English as their main language and so they were easy to converse with.  The woman of the house was wearing a traditional Mopan skirt and was shirtless but the 3 sisters all had on Western clothing as they hadn't resided in a Mopan village in years.  It seemed to be an interesting merge of two worlds as Albina, one of the sisters, told us about her house with a/c (yes I said real actual a/c) and how her daughter had her own room at home with a regular bed.  This night would be the little girl's first time sleeping in a hammock in a one room, dirt floor, thatched roof, Mayan hut.  After conversing for a while we discovered that they were all in town for the celebration of their cousin's wedding this Sunday.  After telling us this they then actually invited us to the wedding.  We smiled and nodded assuming it was one of those "you should come" kind of statements.  We realized the invitation was sincere when they enthusiastically asked us before we left "so, are you coming on Sunday?"  As grateful as I was to be invited to a Mayan wedding, I knew that catching a ride back out to the village on a Sunday morning would be next to impossible and so I regretfully declined.  After spending over an hour in the village, we wished the groom-to-be well and headed home.
     Normally, when we make our "food for the poor" deliveries in Santa Cruz and San Jose it takes about 4-5 hours from start to finish.  Today's trip took almost 7 hours.  How could spending almost 3 extra hours doing my job make for such a great day?  These last few months have admittedly been a bit rough at times and both Andy and I often find ourselves focusing on our work--things that need to get accomplished, appointments that need to be made, business that needs to be tended to.  That's not to say that those are not all important things and essential to our mission here.  Yet it's the real 'people factor' that make it all so worthwhile.  Thinking back over the years, are most of our fondest memories something we accomplished, or someone we shared it with?  Taking the time to really connect with other people can be both rewarding to me and rewarding to those with which I'm connecting.  I'd rather "waste" 3 hours getting to know some of the people I serve than I would just getting my job done and not making a single connection along the way.  And because of that, today was a great day!
     Accomplishing the task at hand is important but taking the time to stop and make a real human connection--to touch or be touched by those connections--is vital to our time on this earth.  I hope that I remember that the next time I've got "work" to do.