Blog entry June 20, 2009

Today we left Pine Ridge Cabin and drove to Xunantunich, aka “Stone Maiden,” which is an old Mayan city. We were able to climb to the top of one of the largest stone structures, something that is believed to be a castle. There were lots of Mayan structures but most were buried under earth, because it turns out that Mayans bury their cities before they abandon them so that no one can find them.

After Xunantunich we drove to as small Belizean town called La Democracia to see the area where we will build a small dining hall for our next community service project. We played football (soccer) and basketball with the children who went to the school and had a lot of fun. Belizean kids are amazing at the sports.

Ms. Arita is a local woman who has given up her job teaching at the school to cook food for the kids who go there. The town has very little money and some of the students often do not bring food to eat at school and are also undernourished at home. Ms. Arita now volunteers to make the students meals to eat at lunchtime.

We are now sharing the Monkey Bay cabins with some British university students, whom we hope we will not annoy at night by talking a lot. We also hope they won’t annoy us. Tomorrow we will start to build the dining hall at the school, which is also called La Democracia. We’re looking forward to completing the dining hall and going to Tobacco Caye for sun (if it ever comes out), snorkeling, and relaxation.

Written by Anya Fasolyak and Nick Barpoulis.