Vamos al monte!

Alice and I have packed up Everything. We ran into Belmopan and renewed my visa and bought trail mix and gassed up the truck. It's the most we have ever laughed together so far. When people from US laugh, I think we punctuate the laughter with "Oh..." - or maybe that's just my family. When Alice laughs, she punctuates her gasps of laughter with "Aye! Aye! Aye!" It makes me laugh all the harder. Sometimes she can't stop saying Aye, which is meant to be considered an ongoing laugh when you don't have the breath or diaphragm leeway to eek out another laugh.

It all had to do with the amazing number of speed bumps anywhere you drive in Belize (including the four highways). If you read about Belize online, you are sure to find stories about the many (many) unmarked speed bumps that will bottom out your rental car if you are not a careful driver.

Alice is a driver's lookout. She does it when David drives and when I drive. She checks right when you're turning left and cries out 'Clear" in a voice with lots of resonance that sometimes surprises me into stopping instead of proceeding ahead. And she calls out "Bump!" when you should slow to go over a speed bump. I'm so used to hearing "Bump" called out, it's almost become a standard conversation interjection like "mm hmm," so sometimes I almost miss the warning cries. We could not stop laughing about this on the way into town.

At the time, a Mennonite family was with us (We have a policy of not giving rides in the back of the truck since David is not with us. However, we are constantly making exceptions to our policy.) They were headed to the hospital and it was mostly women, so we obliged. The mother was in the front seat with a baby with us. She was intrigued by our laughter and conversation. Two teenagers and a kid were in the back. We dropped them at the hospital and prayed for the girl who was going in for I think what we would call terrible boils. I've heard a lot about problems with boils - from the missionary pastor's wife at church on Sunday, to Mennonites at the other church, to this family heading to the hospital. The hospital did not inspire my confidence. Having been sick on my last two international locations, I had had great empathy for them.

We ran our errands and on the way back, we stopped for batteries and grapefruit juice in nearby Spanish Lookout, where we ran into our next truck load. Alice's cousins. I don't know if it's one family or three but there were about 10 of them - three adults and the rest kids - and they wanted to come back to the house to visit while we packed up the truck for camping. Then we were to drop them off back home, halfway to Barton Creek. They had paid $40 Belize to take a taxi into Spanish Lookout to go to the dairy for ice cream. A big adventure out for all of the kids. So they climbed in. I think 10 might be the capacity of the back of a pickup. It seemed like one or two might bounce out on one of the rutted roads.

They had a riot - laughing and laughing as they were tossed around the bed of the truck and screaming like a carnival ride as we turned corners. (Not because of my driving!) Alice and I were laughing too because you couldn't not laugh along. They really loved the road to Alice's house which goes down into a pit (where there are always potholes full of mud to splash) and back up a steep incline with more potholes.

So God has blessed my day with more laughter than in quite a few months. I've had so much thoughtful time in Belize, which has been rich and transforming. But if today is the indication of days to come, God is offering a lot of lightheartedness to follow the sobriety and intensity of the days that have been.

Alice's dad has arrived to care for her animals. The truck is ready and tarped over because we are sure to drive in rain if not camp in rain all week. I should have amazing reports by the weekend on the jungle, magnificent mayan ruins, artifacts aloft in caves, the world's best watermelons (I'm predicting) and the adventures of Alicia and Susana in the very small and extraordinary country of Belize.

"Vamos al monte," Alice says. (Let's go to the bush!)