Giving Thanks in Belize

by Cally Curtis, UMVIM Individual Volunteer posted to Belize

October 30, 2006
Buttonwood Bay
Belize City, Belize


Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this finds you well and your hearts full of praise in this season of Thanksgiving. In October, throughout the world, I think, the sunlight must be as gold, the clouds as huge and white, and the skies as blue and beautiful everywhere. Here, it is quite a magnificent show, for sure.

Every day in Belize City I pass stalls or bicycle carts full of produce - bananas, papaya, pineapple, sugarcane and other exotic fruits I'm only now discovering. The Mayan family at the fruit and vegetable stand at the corner of my street are up before dawn and there after dark. I saw them already working at 4:30 am last Saturday morning when I was up to catch the bus for a school trip to Chetumal.

October is the time of celebrating the harvest here. I've never seen services more moving or humbling. At every church, one "Lord's Day" (or Sunday) is set aside for giving thanks for the harvest. The first of the three services is for the boys, the second for the girls, and the last for the youth, choir, men's and women's groups and other organizations within the church.

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