Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Nov 30, 1999 Wrapping Up the 19thSome interesting things to tell about the Thanksgiving trip to Mexico to visit Carol, so I'll just do a quick wrap up on 19th festivities and hope for time to write more later today or tomorrow. After drumming until dawn on the night of the 18th-19th, then reenacting the landing party, then marching in the parade, everyone was apparently pretty tired. So when I went looking for drumming and dancing again the night of the 19th, I didn't find any (it might have started later, but I was home in bed by midnight). Instead, I bought a chicken tamale. You may recall that I have been buying these banana-leaf-wrapped tamales nearly every week from a woman on the street with very tasty results. Well, this time I lost the game of "chicken roulette." Every time before I've had a nice little piece of a thigh or a breast inside my tamale. It always has the bones, which makes it a little awkward, but other than that, very good. Well THIS time I got a whole piece of chicken and it was the neck. I could *not* eat this. When I reported this at work, the staff laughed at me and said, "Oh, you're lucky you didn't get a FOOT." This sounds so scary that I'm afraid my days of chicken roulette are over for a while. So I went to the Chinese restaurant and had chicken curry chow mien. No bones. When I came out, there was a whole sound system set up on the street corner and a band playing away and some teens and pre-teens dancing. After a while, I figured out that this was a Christian music rally. Several different groups played and sang. Some were great, some were dreadful, all were pretty young. A nice mixture of traditional spirituals and revival songs, southern Baptist style (This Train, Deep in My Heart, Old Rugged Cross), modern rip-offs with new words put to them (Stand by The Man), cheers and shouting enthusiasm (Give me a J... give me an E ... give me an S ... ) and original pieces. One real crowd pleaser was a sort of hokey-pokey style song and dance that starts with "Wave One Foot If You Love My Jesus" and ends eventually with a very energetic "Jump Around If You Love My Jesus." The silliest one, though, was "I Think Jesus Is A Sweetie." A sweetie here is a little piece of candy. I assume they were using the term figuratively. In any case, I thought it was trying just a bit too hard. Partying continued through the week-end, but I pretty much retired. Oh, and we went to a resort on Sunday to do part of the photo shoot etc. that was supposed to have happened earlier in the week, but Therese and Tony ended up mostly working on straightening out the client relationship. I sat around the pool and watched the kids swim. One small tragedy, not really an aftermath, but one of those juxtapositions in time that makes you wonder. Remember I told you the statue of Jesus in the churchyard (suffering the little children) got re-painted for the festivities. Well, last Wednesday, in the middle of the afternoon, some guy in a pick-up ran into the statue and knocked it off the pedestal. Mr. Serano said it had been there since well before he was born. The statue is gone and the pedestal is in three pieces. I haven't found anyone who knows what's happening, but I'm hoping it wasn't too badly damaged and is in the process of being repaired. So much around here is held together with wire and rope and ingenious repairs, surely they'll come up with something. I hope you're all well. I could use a note or two again. Haven't
heard from much of anybody but my sister (not that I don't appreciate
it).
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