Howling Monkey, Tarantulas and Crocodiles Oh My!

The last week of the month we went to the base in Belmophan (Roaring Creek to be specific) which is about an hour 30 or so from Belize city (unless you take the bus like us which stops at every driveway with a person by it along the way) which in that case makes it closer to 3 hours. We took the water taxi to and from Belize city as well which was about an hour 30 ride as well. Not as fast as the flight but cheaper for sure. There is a DTS running at the same time there as well so we spent the week of lectures with the DTS joining together learning with them. It is in the interior so the base was much more like a camp then ours (see the photos at the end). It is waterlocked on three sides by different creeks that intersect together. Totally a jungle setting though. The first night we were there they took us down to the creek (it was also really hot when we first got there) where we were later informed the crocidiles live (about 50 ft up from where we were). Lets just say that didn't go over to well, haha. We also were introduced to the howler monkeys that night. I was envisioning some sort of orangatang looking thing that had a high pitched squeal sort of noise. They are nothing like that! It is a deep and creepy voice in a totally Jason meets Freddy kind of way. We also had the pleasure of spending the week watching for tarantula holes, little did I know they live in holes in the ground waiting for something to fall down there. Or like the guys in our group ventured to find out if you poke them out with a stick. The guys had a blast holding them, the girls definately didnt go there, we avoided at all cost. We officially had arrived in the jungle! Our speaker for the week was Jason Andrews a local from Roaring Creek, who spoke on the Character and Nature of God. There are so many aspects to him I dont really even know how we fit it into such a short time. Most of the week we spent talking about God's love and what it means for him to love us in a full and life breathing way. The amazing thing is that God is love, it all comes from that and it all goes to that. He is LOVE! Although the lectures were good one of the really highlights was spending time with the other DTS students and getting to know them, four of which were from Belize. Every morning for breakfast and every evening for dinner Marcella and myself would go to the kitchen to make the meals with one of the girls from Belize, Renika. We had such a good time just enjoying each others company and learning about cooking from each other, and some really awesome converstations just being honest with each other. I just love how Dad does that, binding us each together with one common thread, so it doesnt matter your background, your history, your origin, you have something in common. It was just such a sweet time of being with my sisters. It was an interesting and hard week, but in the end it really helped us as a team to bond together and trust each other. The bridge in the middle picture was so scary, it was a cable suspended bridge with these wood slats that totally werent stable at all. Rene actually broke half of one. There was totally a spot too that had like slots way spaced out. sooooo scary!