The Mosquito Massacre

Oh.my.gosh.
 
Brace yourselves for this one.
(To my family, especially my sister Sarah, you are really going to get a kick out of this...)

Do I like insects?
No. 
Do I like insects that can FLY? 
Especially not. (if you know me very well then you definitely know my ridiculous fear of flying bugs getting trapped in my hair hahah. Don't judge.)

Well, near Corozal there are some Mayan ruins named Cerros. So we thought "Hey! Let's check this place out and maybe we can take one of our groups up here! We will explore! It will be fun! Yeah!"

Yeah???
NO.

First let me tell you, the drive out there was beautiful! It was about an hour on a long dirt road in the middle of the rainforest. Then we had to take our car across the river on this tiny little wooden "ferry" as they call it where two Belizean men cranked it the whole way across. All was well... life was good... I was justttt fine.

And then our car approached Cerros. We pulled up, we parked, and we opened the doors of the car.

You know the scene in the lion king, in the beginning where Scar sets Simba up for a stampede of hyenas? How it's all quiet and peaceful until suddenly a swarm of them come out of nowhere and attack him almost to death...

We were Simba. The mosquito's were the hyenas.

Except times, like, A HUNDRED. We opened the doors and next thing we knew a black wall of mosquito's swarmed straight into the car!! Naturally my first reaction was to scream like a little girl and run out of the car...little did I know it was WORSE outside. It was just Pastor Angel, Elizabeth, and I and the three of us frantically in a panic scrambled to find our bug spray in our bags while being literally swarmed, covered head to toe, by mosquito's.

While running in panicked circles doing what probably looked like the Irish Jig, I was screaming "What do we do?! Where do we go?! Get me out of here THEY ARE GETTING STUCK IN MY HAIR!!!" Pastor Angel (who is also running around swatting himself like crazy at this point while we are all screaming and spraying bug spray at the bugs like it was mase or something), points to the dock across the little forrest and yells "over there! The strong winds at the end of the dock will blow them away!" and so we ran...
Who would have known that Mosquitos can fly so fast? This was like Jumanji status running through the forest jumping hurdles of tree logs and coconuts with the mosquito's swarming us still following our every move no matter how fast we ran, a black cloud surrounded all three of us head to toe and they were buzzing so loudly in our ears!!! By now I am almost in tears because all I can think about are how many dead mosquito bodies will be tangled up in my hair tonight...I think that may have been the fastest 200 yards I've ever ran in my life.
At the end if the dock we were all panting, I'm practically crying and Elizabeth and I are repeating "NO NO NO WE ARE NOT BRINGING ANYONE HERE EVER LETS JUST LEAVE NOW PLEASE!"
 
So we prepared ourselves this time mentally, physically, and emotionally for the sprint back to the car. 

When we made it to the car (after blood sweat and tears, literally haha!) we opened the doors and the mosquito's filled the whole entire car. So I began screaming "I can't get into the car like that!!! I can't do this!" I am such a baby it's embarrassing. And Angel and Elizabeth were sitting in their bug swamped seats fighting the mosquito's for what seemed like their lives yelling "Get in the car Shannon!! Get in so we can drive away!!" I was shaking and freaking out and I finally got the courage to jump in this van full of what Pastor Angel later told his wife was probably at least 70-80 mosquito's. We had no other choice but to close the doors, blast the AC and drive away while swatting and killing them in every inch of the car as fast as we could. I was squealing and shrieking and we had shoes, napkins, and our own palms smacking every inch of window, seat, ceiling, and part of our body for a good  thirty minutes.  I felt like I was in Fear Factor competing for the final prize.
 
Anyways, you'll be glad to know that we finally made it home and crashed absolutely exhausted (as well as slightly traumatized) after our wonderful trip to Cerros.

I counted how many bites I had when we got here. Fifty one and counting!
 
Well at least I can thank the Lord that I have officially been humbled. I will never complain about an insect again.

Hope you don't have nightmares tonight,
Shannon


P.s.  (excuse the hat haha I put on Elizabeth's big protective sun hat over my curly ponytail so it stood up real tall!)


Elizabeth took this picture of me when we had almost finished killing all the mosquito's today.  This is pretty much how we were all feeling after that adventure.

 

On a more serious note...

Surprise! I am randomly able to get internet here for a bit this morning, so I wanted to share a story with you about last night. It is kind of long and a bit shocking/intense, but I simply retelling you exactly what I heard last night.

Yesterday, we arrived in Orange Walk at around 3:00pm and are staying in Pastor Angels house for the next two nights until we leave for our first trip in the Alta Mira village Sunday morning.

To finalize all the plans for this first trip, Elizabeth (one of the other interns), Pastor Angel, his wife Leonora, and I traveled to Alta Mira yesteray to meet with the pastor of Alta Mira Church, Pastor Ermilio Guerra. It was about a thirty minute drive (along what seemed to be the jungle!) and was very hot, the village is a small place with few houses and sugar cane fields, etc. When we arrived at Pastor Ermilios house, he welcomed us in and we met his whole family, except for his wife who was bathing at the time. Things in Belize are not planned out like they are in America, we do not call and tell him we are coming we just showed up at his house on a whim haha.

Anyways we were sitting there talking with the family and finally his wife walks out and sees us. She walked over and looked at me and Elizabeth, smiled really big and gave us both a huge hug! I was a little caught off guard and then, to our surprise, she looked at Ermilio and said "I have seen them before. I know both of them already." Elizabeth and I looked at each other like uhhhh....okay? And the look of confusion must have been pretty clear because Ermilio said, "girls, before we begin talking business, I need to tell you a story. I must tell you our story."

Their story, in the words of Pastor Ermilio:

"I work construction far away and one day I got called to come home, something had happened to my wife, it was an emergency. So I rode my bicylce fast as I could home. My wife had never had any health problems ever, but she had simply fallen unconsious for no reason and was not waking up. I fell to my knees and cried out to God and we rushed her to the nearest hospital, where they did all they could but pronounced her dead. For fourty five minutes, she had been pronounced dead, and suddenly she began to breath again. It was a miracle! But although she was breathing, she never woke up and was officially in a coma.

My wife stayed in a coma for twenty three days. They sent her home with me to die and I didn't know what to do. I laid her down in our home to die when suddenly, she sat up, looked at me and spoke. "What are all of these people doing here?!" she said with confusion. I was in shock! She was awake!! I scrambled to find the words to say and simply replied "My wife! what people??" She said "All of the Americans in the house. They are everywhere, they are walking around and staying in out attic. Where did they come from?" and then she passed back out and was in her coma again for the folowing weeks. No Americans had ever come to our village or church before.

And then, two weeks after she said that, I got a call saying a group from America wanted to come to mission work at our church. They came, they stayed in our house, slept in our attic, and while they were here my wife awoke again with a smile and said 'I have seen them before. I know them.' (at this point Elizabeth and I both have goosebumps...)

She stayed in her coma for weeks. Doctor after doctor traveled here to see her and they did countless of tests on her at hospitals. No idea what was wrong. One day she woke and said "when is the service today? take me to the service." I was shocked again and because it was a Wednesday, I told her "we do not have church today dear" but she replied "take me to the service!" and fell back into her coma. So I called my pastor friend at a church further away and found out they have Wednesday service, so we went. I wheelchaired her there unconsious, and in the middle of the service she woke up, STOOD UP, and walked to a perfetly healthy and normal woman and said "the Lord says to get ready" and passed back out, falling to the floor. That woman dedicated her life to Christ that night. She died two weeks later.

Eventaully, with time, my wife woke up for good and began to get healthier and healthier. Sometimes she had these visions and they always came true. I will tell you more about them later. I truly believe God shows my wife things. It had been a few years that she has been healthy with no more problems, and I have not heard her talk of one of these visions in years... until today. Earlier today, she looked at me and said "who are those two girls?" ... I replied "what girls? there is no one here" and she said "there are two young women. They are in our house, here to help us." I did not know what she was talking about. And tonight, you two arrived. And that is why when she saw you, she smiled so big and gave you a hug. She has seen you before, she already knows you. God is intentional. You are here for a purpose." -Pastor Ermilio Guerra

Woah.

We De Goen? Me Name Da Shannon...

I AM HERE!

I already absolutely LOVE it.

And I am now learning to speak Creol.

Or “Kriol,” as they spell it in Belize. (Which explains the weird subject line of this post… “We de goen” means what’s happening/what’s up? And “Me name da Shannon” means my name is Shannon. I feel so cool.

Anyways, wow. The past four days have been soooo crazy/hectic but exciting! My travels went well and at 2:25pm Monday afternoon, I arrived in BELIZE! Some of the Belizean Thirst Missions staff, Luda and Perla, and one other intern, Elizabeth from North Carolina, were there to greet me. We waited for the last intern, Kelly from California, to arrive and then were off to Caye Caulker Island via a water taxi along the Caribbean sea!

Each day on Caye Caulker has consisted of lots of training/meetings with staff on the roof of our hotel, with a beautiful view. Want to see?

 We have a bit of free time in between meetings to explore and enjoy the Island. The weather has been HOTTTTT. The food has been so delicious. I have never consumed so much orange juice in my life. In fact here is a picture of Jose and me, one of the staff members (he's from Honduras) with my giant bottle of freshly squeeze O.J…he kept joking around and pretending to take it from me haha! 

 Well clearly, I have not had to sacrifice much yet. :) But hey I suppose we deserve a little paradise for these three days seeing as the next nine weeks are going to be very challenging and hard in many ways once we actually start the trips! Yayyyyy.

I got my schedule and it is really exciting. I will be leading seven mission trips, all in different towns/villages with one week off in between. Some of the staff and I are possibly going to take a trip to Guatemala or Mexico on that week and again on another day later in the summer because technically we “have” to leave the country and return two times this summer, since our passport is only a 30-day visa! So I suppose if I HAVE to…

_

My schedule is as follows in this order: Date ~ Church we are serving in Belize (construction, VBS, teaching @ local school, etc. ) ~ Church teaming with us from the U.S. and state they are from:

June 10-16:  Alta Mira Church ~ Corozal ~North Shore Fellowship, Tennessee.

June 17-23: MCA Church ~ San Luis Village ~ Christ Evan. Pre Church, Texas.

June 25-July 4: Libertad Church ~ Northern Belize ~ Christ Covenant Pres. Church, Texas.

July 12-19: Buen Pastor Church ~ Orange Walk ~ John Knox Presbyterian Church, Seattle. WOOOH SO EXCITED!!!  (This is my home church for those of you who don’t know!)

July 20-26: Tabernacle Bautista Church ~ Belmopan (central Belize, this is the capital) ~ Destiny Church, Virginia

July 28-Aug. 4: Yo Creek Church ~ City not on my schedule yet, oops! ~ Cornerstone Church, Missouri

Aug.3-9: Chapel School and Church ~ Near Orange Walk I think?  Also not on sched. yet ~ First Presbyterian Church, Wisconsin.

And there you have it, my summer in a nutshell. So awesome. More details will come later, there is a TON of work and planning behind the scenes that goes into each trip. I am going to be a busy busy girl. But it is worth it. Tomorrow we are leaving Caye Caulker and heading to Orange Walk to prepare for the first group arriving Sunday. No more hotels or A/C from here on out for me. Now it will be sleeping on the floors of churches, schools, host homes, etc.! (Except for one day/night in between every trip we go back to the Caye to prepare and plan for the following trip arriving that next day)… 

For now I am off to go hang out with the Spanish speaking Belizean pastors para practicar mi espanol. I am already getting so much better at it. They told me I am 99% fluent which was a major compliment for me! But my Creol on the other hand…let’s just say they laugh at everything I attempt to say.  

Wish me luck and pray for health & safety for the whole group please! Thanks so much for reading and feel free to keep leaving comments, they make me very happy. Mucho mucho mucho love to you all!

Go Slow, (the motto of this Island, you see it everywhere!)

-Shannon

p.s. Two things

1. If you want me to send you a postcard message me your address on facebook please!

2. If you would like to send me anything, which would be oh so kind of you, my address on the Caye where I end every week is:

Pasero Street

P.O. Box 80

Caye Caulker

Belize Central America (you can just put Belize, C.A.)

GRACIAS! I'll be posting again probably the 16th after my first trip. Prayers por favor.

Adios Seattle!!!

At 11:30pm tonight, in approximately 4 hours, I will be taking off in a plane on my way to BELIZE!

 Finally... I've been waiting for this day for months. :) So as I am sitting here procrastinating on last minute packing as usual, I thought I would post some final thoughts before I leave.

1. The last few week have left me slightly overwhelmed and amazed at all the people who support me in my life. To my wonderful friends, family, and co-workers who have stayed by my side this last year: thank you for everything. I could NOT have gotten here without you! 

2. I haven't been able to stop thinking about all the people I will meet while I am in Belize. Especially the cute little kiddos. Since I will be staying in many villages/towns there are going to be a lot new faces and there is nothing I love more than learning about how each person in this world is completely unique in their own way. Everyone has their own story, family, friends, struggles, passions... and I hope that I am inspired by every single one of them!

3. I have been oddly at peace this final week leading up to the trip. I think it is because of the service I went to at Mosaic church last Sunday (thank you R.J.!). It was all about living a life free from fear. If you know me at all, you know that fear is something I struggle with a lot. The pastor said many times "Do not be afraid, He is with you always. God never promised us that life would be easy, but His promise is that He will be with us at all times." I need to remember that while this trip will be extremely hard at times, I am not going for my own pleasure and comfort; I am going to serve. And I will do it with a loving heart because even if I am unhappy/sick/uncomfortable at times, I know that my only true comfort is in Jesus. And that is something that's far beyond any happiness I can find on this Earth. :)

Anyways, I guess my last words before I get ready to leave are from a quote that I absolutely love, and what I want to strive to be more like in my life:

"You have not lived a perfect day unless you have done something for somebody who will never be able to pay you back."

Adios Seattle, I'll see you in ten weeks!

-Shannon

p.s. I will be posting in Belize about once a week I think, so check back here when you can. :) Much love!

And the journey almost begins...

Hi family and friends!

In the last few weeks many of you have asked if I am keeping some sort of blog during my travels in Belize this summer... and I figured, why not?!  So here it is! You can sign up with your email account to get posts sent to you, or just check here every once in a while: mysummerinbelize.blogspot.com/. I will also be linking this page through facebook so you can find my posts on there too if we are friends. I am so excited for this amazing opportunity and cannot wait to share my experiences with all of you! I will only have internet access about once a week so won't be posting too often, but I'll do what I can. :)
Thanks for caring!

With love from Seattle (for now),
Shannon

P.s... 6 days!! Wooh!