Sharks and smiles

Today was quite the experience for all of us.  After we had finished breakfast this morning we all grabbed our towels and swimsuits and headed out to go snorkeling. We all headed out through the town to the boating dock and hopped on. The boat ride was quite long, you could begin to see Belize City slowly disappear in the distance.  As we progressed the water changed to such a clear blue. Once we got off our boat we hopped on another boat in San Pedro where the tour guide brought us to our destination.

 Once he parked the boat and started to give us our lesson he stopped and said "look to the right side of the boat there's a shark" everyone one rushed over to the right side of the boat to look.  After our lesson people started lining up one by one to get set up to start the adventure!  Some people were kinda nervous about going snorkeling especially Tasha after seeing that shark, but Megan gave her the confidence to get in the water and told her "Tash if you don't do this you’re going to regret it!"  A couple other people were nervous as well our leader Cor and Alicia but they both went out of their comfort zone as well and got in that water.

 Once we all emerged in the water and followed our tour guide our adventure had begun. The coral reef was so beautiful and breath-taking, on top of that all the fish that we saw as well. We saw an eel she appeared to look a little scary and we also saw a barracuda and a shark! When the tour guide has spotted the shark Tasha clung to Keaton and Alicia they were both there to keep her safe after the shark had gone away Keaton gave Tasha a thumbs up.  

 Sion was our photographer for our underwater adventure.  He captured many great pictures of some of fish and sting rays.  But while he was filming a shark Pastor Daryl came along and accidentally kicked the camera and Sion, with the whole thing caught on tape!  After checking out the coral reef we all hopped into the boat and we went to our next location to swim with the sharks and stingrays. This was an amazing experience the tour guide grabbed a shark and held it so people could touch it.  Everyone was rushing in to touch the shark Keaton, Megan, and Sion also Tasha did staying on the boat she didn't feel like swimming with the sharks but the tour guide brought it to the side of the boat for her to touch. It was a great experience swimming with the sharks they were very calm as well as the sting rays.

 After our water adventure was over we all hopped back in the boat and went for some lunch and talked about the experience. After lunch we all hopped back on the boat and headed back to Belize City. When we arrived back everyone relaxed and enjoyed our last dinner here in Belize which was really nice. When we were all finished we all gathered in the living room with Pastor Betson and Carolyn.  We had a special gift to present to them, Alicia has been working very hard on a beautiful quilt for them.

 A couple days before we presented it Alicia had found out how much Carolyn loved quilts which turned out to be perfect. When the gift had been presented Carolyn tried very hard to hold back her tears she loved it same with Pastor Betson. They had the biggest smiles on their face holding it and checking it all out, they kept saying how beautiful it was. After that Pastor Betson made his way around the room giving out his wonderful hugs as always as a thank-you.

 It's hard to believe all our work is done here. It was quite the experience and I'm sure life changing for some of us as well. Getting to bond with the kids and see the joy and relationships that are at the school is amazing. I'm sure we are all going to miss working at the school and bonding with the kids, as well as our bosses Manuel, Omar, and Luciano. I'm sure we will all miss the nice warm weather and the ocean. But most of all everyone will miss Pastor Betson with that huge smile that could light up the world and hug that could change your whole day around.  All of us will miss getting those hugs, as well as his favourite saying "God is good, All the time; all the time God is good!"

 I'm not sure if all of us are ready to come back home to cold weather, but one thing for sure we are all ready to see our families!

See you all when we get back!

The Barrie Belize HANDS team

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