The Belize Zoo

Dave and I arrived home on Tuesday evening from California, and I had to go to work on Wednesday morning.  The children at the Centre are accustomed to "white people" coming to the Centre, leaving and never returning.  They were very doubtful that I would return when I left, though I told them that I would come back.  I would have shown up on Wednesday morning on a gurney, if necessary, as I try to build trust in these children who have little reason to trust.  And what a welcome I received!  Children screeching and running to hug me, with the amazed exclamation:  "You came back!"

Dave had a relief pilot, who had been living at the house and caring for the cats, while we were in California.  Craig Newman, a pilot for Delta who a few years ago was here as the Wings of Hope pilot, continued to be willing to fly the air ambulance.  (I'd add that he and Maddy had a special relationship; she chose to sleep with him even after we came home!)  Meanwhile, Yvette Burks was preparing for the Gift of Life project the next weekend, which brings in cardiologists from the U.S. to examine children here with heart defects.  Two young women were here early to do a little sight-seeing, so we used the opportunity to drive them out to the Belize Zoo, of which we have heard rave reviews.

After a brief time at the Centre, Dave, Chelsea and Mary picked me up, and we drove out to the Zoo.  The day was overcast, so fairly cool, making it a pleasant walk through the jungle.  The Zoo is known for having rescued animals who were injured or needed rescuing for another reason.  Dave and I met Sharon Matola, the founding director, at a Rotary meeting (you may recall the baby croc, Rosie, was there, too).  Fortunately, Ms. Matola was out feeding some of the animals and conferring with staff.  We were able to say "hello" and enjoy watching the animals eager to eat!

Here are some pictures of our day at the Zoo!

Chelsea and Mary 

A Tapir, the national animal

Jungle foliage

A Toucan

A children's book and educational campaign has been written about the Jaguar

Sleepy Jaguar

We returned to Belize City in pouring rain, and picked Yvette up to go to the Hour Bar and then to dinner.  I love the Hour Bar for its location, but the barometer was sharply dropping, which apparently brings out the sandflies.  I was eaten alive in a matter of a few minutes!  (I quit counting at 50 bites on one leg as I sat with ice packs on my swollen legs and feet; my doctor doesn't have a lot of sympathy as she is equally allergic to the bites!)  

Craig took us to the Radisson for dinner before he left, though I think we owed him more than vice versa.  We had never been there to eat!  Fun!  He was off to Georgia to spend the balance of his vacation with family.  We are so grateful that he was here to take over so that we could go to the wedding!

The Wedding!

What a wonderful wedding!  The celebration was one to never forget!

I left Belize on August 6th, arriving in San Francisco after 11:00 PM.  Getting through customs in Dallas was a breeze, as we were the only flight there.

On Wednesday morning, I walked across the street from the Hilton Garden Inn in San Mateo to a strip mall where I began my intensive shopping race!  With Starbucks and Target, I made a good start on getting things to take back to Belize.  Jeremy arrived with a trunk full of boxes, all things that we had ordered to take back as well.  Fortunately, Amazon uses a lot of packaging that was unnecessary for us, or we would have had to buy more suitcases!

Jeremy, who lent me the "Green Monster" (my name for his neon green Mustang), and I went to Saint Michael's Alley in Palo Alto for lunch.  It was a special time, just the two of us, catching up.  After taking Jeremy to work, I went on to Stanford Mall and found a dress to wear to the wedding!  Whew!

On Thursday morning, I went to Jeremy's dentist.  Right down the street were Nordstrom's Rack, Burlington, and Ross, so I was set for the afternoon!  I was in high gear as I bought shoes for the wedding and scouted clothes that Dave would need for the wedding and to take to Belize.  A very successful afternoon!

Judi Simpson, Dave's sister, arrived on Friday morning.  I had to return to Stanford Shopping Mall, but we somehow miscalculated our timing, so we had to have lunch at McDonalds.  There is something so wrong about a McDonalds being at Stanford Shopping Mall and worse that we ate there!

Judi and I went to Mission Bay Works in South San Jose where Jonattan works.  He gave us a tour of the facility, which serves developmentally delayed adults.  What a creative, progressive program!  Very fun to see!

Jonattan took us to his favorite salon, where he and I had pedicures and I had a manicure--with flowers painted on toes and fingers!  The three of us then met Jeremy and Greg Sharp, my brother, at the Blackbird in San Jose for dinner.

On Saturday morning, Dave, Judi and I went walking on San Francisco Bay.  What a pretty place in cool weather!  Nathan and Megan arrived in the afternoon, as well as Jeremy and Jonattan with the Honda Element filled to the brim with wedding decorations.

In the afternoon, the wedding party began arriving for the 4:00 PM rehearsal.  Rob Rojanasathit, a friend of Jeremy from Johns Hopkins University, presided over the rehearsal.

After the rehearsal, people enjoyed greeting one another in the lobby before heading to the rehearsal dinner at Little Sichuan Restaurant in San Mateo.  To my excited surprise, Debbie and Chuck Real arrived to join us!  It was great fun talking.  The restaurant was not prepared for our big group, though they had confirmed our reservation, so things moved very slowly.  Amusingly, a table of people was seated in our room, and they looked a little like they had no idea what had happened to them!  We were a jovial group!

On Sunday morning, more guests arrived, including Stan and Candace McKenzie from Seattle.  We had brunch while Jonattan and his friends were busy decorating the wedding room and the reception hall.  Jonattan went to a wholesale flower mart, and he designed all of the bouquets that we carried and wore, as well as the flowers on the tables.  He had candles and hanging lights.  It was really a spectacular room (which I snapped a photo of before all began).

Guests for the wedding began arriving, sipping on wine in the lobby before the event began.  The San Mateo Hilton Garden Inn, which employs a number of friends of Jonattan, was an absolutely wonderful, welcoming place!  The staff bent over backward to have things perfect for us, essentially shutting down their operation for Sunday evening as Jeremy and Jonattan's big group took over the space.

The Best Man and Mom

Megan Daley-Brown and parents, Bill and Kathy Daley

Jonattan, Nathan and Greg Sharp

Soon the music began and the very large wedding party began entering.  The music was wonderful, but I don't remember all of it.  I do know that Jonattan walked in with his brother, Richard Chua, to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, which produced tears in Jonattan and a few others!  But I smiled throughout the ceremony, just thrilled that the day could happen!

Jeremy seats his parents

Rob brings a moment of humor to the vows

Vows being recited

Following the wedding, the guests gathered again in the lobby for drinks and conversation while pictures were being taken.  And the photo booth was in operation!

Stan McKenzie, the Daleys, and Nathan

Judi Simpson, Debbie & Chuck Real, and Greg Sharp

The photo booth in action!

The party moved to the beautiful reception room.  Jeremy and Jonattan thought that a certain percentage of people invited would be unable to come.  To their astonishment and delight, almost everyone came!  (Quite an honor to the couple!)  The room was packed with tables, as was the patio.  Nathan introduced the wedding party and the grooms, who arrived to cheers!

The toasts began, with Nathan giving a moving toast of his brother's courage and of Nathan's pleasure that Jeremy has found his partner for life.  He had many in the room in tears!  Others, including Richard, Dave, a high school friend of Jeremy, and a forsaken ex-romantic love gave moving or hilarious toasts as well!  And the wine at our tables, from Jeremy's collection, was wonderful with which to toast!

The wedding combined U.S., Filipino and Chinese traditions.  The gifts came in the form of a money tree, decorated with red Chinese envelopes!  The food was wonderful complete with a whole roasted pig!

Roasted pig!

Dinner and bouquet

Reception dinner

Time for the first dance!  And then the dance with the mothers!  Since Jonattan's mother is in the Philippines and could not attend, he chose Candace McKenzie, Jeremy's godmother and a close friend to the two of them, to be his stand-in "mom."

First dance

Dance with the moms

And finally, cutting the cake and throwing the flowers!  

Everyone had a joyful celebration, sharing this most important landmark for Jeremy and Jonattan, for our families, and for our society, moving in a direction of acceptance of the love and commitment of all people who choose to marry!  A gay affair, indeed!

I want to thank Candace for taking pictures with my camera, which I haven't even figured out how to use!  I thought she did a great job!

Lizard Breath

There is Maddy on the hunt for a very small lizard which is on the window shade!  The week has been full of hunting for the girls!  And their skill is improving!  One evening, a very small lizard (we're talking 1-1/2 inches long and 1/4-1/2 inch wide) made its way into the house, right in front of both cats!  Maddy moved remarkably fast for a big girl, caught the lizard and swallowed it whole instantly!  I am sure that it wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her!  Izzie has had her share as well.  This small lizard in the kitchen has not yet been captured, but is still on the loose in the downstairs area.  There is a larger version upstairs, but I haven't seen it in a few days.  I've had to relax and become accustomed to their company, and I am just hoping that they are eating mosquitos!  So far the lizards have not caused any gastrointestinal issues for the cats, but I am always a little cautious when they come to bed with us with lizard breath!

Last week seems to have been fairly uneventful.  This week is proving to be a little more interesting.  On Monday I took a child to the clinic for a check to get a refill of her psychotropic medication.  To say that she resisted is putting it mildly, and it took a staff member and me (along with a friend of the child to help calm her--which did not work) to make it into see the psych. nurse!  I may have stated in an earlier blog that we have had no psychiatrist in the country.  Well, that has changed, thankfully!  And when we arrived and were ushered into the office quickly (due to loud profanity coming from the child), we were greeted by a psych. nurse and Dr. Kimball!  I was just glad that he was able to observe the child in her behavior that has us so concerned, and he did change her medication.  But more interesting to me was that he arrived in Belize from the Philippines just two weeks ago!  I really liked him and shared that Jonattan is from the Philippines and that Jeremy and Jonattan are planning a trip there this year.  He was very nice, easy to talk with, and helpful with his knowledge and ability to prescribe appropriately!  A win for all of us (if the child will swallow the medication).

On Tuesday Dave was told that he would be likely flying a patient to Merida, Mexico.  To fly internationally, especially into Mexico from the South, takes lots of study and coordination.  From the south, one can only enter Mexico by air at two airports, even including med-vac planes.  This creates something of a problem if the issue is urgent, which is why they more often go to Guatemala City.  But as it turned out, he never heard back from the people wanting to go, so I guess it was hurry-up-and-prepare for nothing.  This happens fairly often.  Today, though, he is off to some new airport here in Belize.  He was looking for some information in the file cabinet before running out the door--I think for a clue as to where he was going!  I'm hoping he finds the airport and a patient and then finds his way home this afternoon!

Meanwhile, we are getting very excited about going to the wedding next week.  I will have a very busy day before I depart, as the Florida volunteers will be here to discuss and revise and improve our ICU reward system.  I will only have one afternoon with them!  The program is going really well, and I think that it has injected some positive energy and spirit into the place!  But the way we started is costing us a fortune, since so many are participating (which is great).  We will change to a "store" of rewards so that the children can trade in ICU's for small items that they "buy."  Here is a picture of the wall that the Florida volunteers painted with some Belizeans helping them in the creation!

The weather has been hot with no significant rain.  We escaped to the sometimes air-conditioned car one day to go on an errand, which we extended to include a little side trip through a neighborhood in which a friend of mine is buying a house.  It is such a pretty area, with canals behind many of the homes.  The canals could have crocodiles, but my friend hasn't seen any behind her home!

And finally, we have walked by the Sea some and worked out at the Radisson, last night with the general manager who is fun!  (At least he knows we use the gym after giving us a deal!)  Anyway, a sailboat was going by last night at sunset.  Here's a picture!