Tamales and Farewells

Friday
7.25.2008

Wow!  The last day in Central America.  All stories must end.  I actually got myself up at 5:45am.  It was hard, too, because I had to pack late last night after getting back from the Eks.  I didn't go to bed until midnight.

By 6:30am, though, I was in San Narciso, walking up to the Ek house.  The women let out a squeal of surprise, laughter, and delight to see me.  For the next two and a half hours I helped them make tamales.  They cooked me breakfast which I ate with Alfredo and his brother in law.  Delicious scrambled eggs with fresh avocado, black beans and pickled habaneros.  

At 9am I left to pick up the girls in Christo Rey, but before I left, Jesus, Sarge, a coach, his wife, and his son had piled in the car, too!  I hoped I could fit the girls in.  As we drove over the bumpy dirt road out of San Narciso we passed Alex Campos.  It was a gift to see him one last time.   In Christo Rey, Courtney and Abby sat in jump seats in the back of the car, and we had exactly enough seats for everyone.  It was a full house.  By 10:45am Zac and Mark and I were headed with all my luggage to the Corozal bus station.  The express bus came at 11:45am.  

While I waited for the bus I had another profound encounter with poverty, only hours before leaving Belize.  An elderly white man shuffled into the bus station and sat next to me.   He looked like he could be homeless, his fingernails were long and dirty, his clothes were soiled, and his skin was red and horribly flaking.  He smelled so bad, so sour, that I had difficulty talking to him.  He had a nice voice, though, and told me that he grew up in San Francisco.  He claimed that he had a house here in Corozal.  He also told me a wild story: how he drove across America in the 1960s, how his car broke down in Alabama, and how he eventually found himself crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge with the marchers following Martin Luther King, Jr. to Montgomery.

I just couldn't stand his odor and I had to sit outside and wait.  This strange kid walked past me and whispered to me to come around the corner.  It was really weird and disturbing.  I shooed hi away.  Finally the express bus came at 12:15pm.  I arrived at the airport around 2pm and left Belize at 4pm.  

I watched the swamps and jungle and ocean pass away far below me.  I was ready to come home.