The other day as me and Todd rode home on our bikes from Hopkins on the Southern Highway,*racing against the sun, as that movie so justly titled it, we had a strange realization…. we had been hanging out all day with people that we knew. People we know here in Belize. We were thinking how strange it is that we actually have a legitimate life here and we KNOW people. We started out stopping at the bar off the highway as you drive thru silk grass to talk to Todd’s coworkers. At the bar we ran into a retired doctor that we know, Rich, that lives in Hopkins and he took our packs for us in his truck so we didn’t have to ride with them. As soon as we pulled into Hopkins we ran into our Peace Corps friend Christine who was sitting down to lunch. Then we rode passed Rich’s place and got our bags. Then we went to our Mormon Canadian friends resort house to do our laundry. We sat and talked to them for a while and then went and found our peace corps friends in town and had dinner. We ordered pizza from Hopkins Beach Club and when we picked it up it was Denroy who was working and who now knows us personally and asked us how we were doing. All the while as we rode our bikes and hung out in town we were waving at people whose shops we have stopped in or who have given us rides when we were hitch hiking. On our way out on the dirt road out of Hopkins, the driver of the Hopkins Bay van honked and waved. It was our friend Ernesto who we met hitch hiking and now several times since and who we now hang out with on occasion with the Canadians. Then the driver of the bus honked because he is from silk grass and we are usually on his 5 o clock bus leaving Dangriga. I guess what it comes down to is that all along we were expecting to live here, but we weren’t really expecting to have LIVES here. Suddenly it’s like we really live here. Weird.
*Racing against the Sun or whatever it is called, is a feature family film. anyone remember it?
