San Narciso: Day One

Monday

6.30.2008

Shortly after 6am I was up and exercising again. While we loaded up the cars I stepped in my first fire ant nest in flip flops. They move fast and suddenly are covering your feet. At 7:10am we piled into two cars (I rode Belizean style in the back of the pick up truck) and we sped south to San Narciso, 20 minutes away. We eventually broke into the hurricane shelter which also doubles as the community center. Sports Servants held its coaching seminars here last year. San Narciso is a small town of bout 3,000, the largest village in the north. Local P.E. teachers and soccer coaches eventually trickled in by 10am and we had a good group. I quickly found my groove videotaping and I learned the rhythm of the week.




Ismael,Osvaldo, Edan, and Evelio (Forgive the phontic spellings!) were four little urchins who by lunch time were climbing all over me. They really like cameras. These muchachos were irrestible.



On our way home around 3pm I again rode in the back of our pick up with Reid and with Jeremy. The landscape is flat, coastal, and I could easily scan the horizon left and right as it slipped away behind us. The rural landscape is a contradictory mix of clean homes and shacks. I couldn't believe that people live in a house and suddenly I would catch sight of a family of six happily loitering in the back yard. Children, dogs, and bicycles are everywhere. But as I scanned the landscape I saw an enormous mound, probably 40 feet tall, covered with trees and grass erupting from the flat fields of grass. I wanted to leap out of the truck, shovel in hand, and begin excavating the ruin.






This afternoon we are all rehydrating and re-mineralizing. Dinner, Belizean rice and beans hopefully, is at 6pm.

-AR