A Crazy Week

On Monday we left Otoxha to attend our biweekly meetings in Bella Vista and had decided to pack our stuff in  hopes of spending the night in the office. We were right smack in the middle of feeling so incredibly homesick and exhausted. We got down to the office and wrote up our report for the two weeks that had passed and waited for everyone else to get there. The meeting was supposed to start at  9 and at around 9:30 we had a feeling something was up. Finally our project leader Pantaleon showed up and it turns out the meeting had been canceled but we never got the message. Anyways Pantaleon agreed that we could stay the night.It was much needed.The next morning we got up and went to the bus stop but as we were approaching we saw the bus we needed drive by without us. This was the last bus that would get us where we needed to be in order to take the next bus up to Otoxha in time. So we had yet another night to be rejuvenated.There really isn't much to do in Bella Vista and this forced us to take naps and read and organize our plans for the rest of the week. Really we just needed a little time to be allowed to grieve. Its hard to be in Otoxha and rest because we always feel like we should be doing something so it was actually nice to be able to sleep and cry free from guilt. Wednesday morning we awoke feeling a thousand times better and ready to get back to work. We had created a new list of things to work on, strategies to try out, etc.We made the bus and took the long journey back up to our village. We arrived and cooked up lunch and cleaned a little. As we finished  eating we heard a car pull up and a man's voice. We were very surprised to find Pantaleon there at our door. He came in and explained that the office had called him and told him that our Visas expired that day. We were surprised and went to find our passports to check as we were almost positive we had until the 10th of June. It turns out he was right- it said 01, not 10. We had literally been there for no more then an hour and we were packing up our stuff to leave again. We didn't have time to make it all the way to PG in time so he called and made an agreement with the imigration officer. Once again we went to the office in Bella Vista to stay the night so we could back to PG in the morning and get our visas extended. The next morning our checks were supposed to be delivered early so that we pay the extension fee. However, the person who was supposed to bring them had car troubles and then the person that signs the checks was gone, and so on. Needless to say we didn't get the checks until after 11 and therefor didn't make it to PG until 1:30. Once we were there and arrived at the immigration office we had to sit and wait for the officer to arrive. Even immigration moves in Belize time. We didn't finish the whole process until almost 3, long after the bus to Otoxha left. So, once again, we took the bus back to Bella Vista to spend yet another night in the office. The next morning we woke up early and took the bus back to PG. We decided to wait until 2 to take the school bus instead of 12 for the regular bus so we get all of our supplies and stuff taken care in hopes of not having to come back down for  our regular Monday trip. We got our food and water and some things we needed for the project and took the bus to the dump where we would find the school bus. We sat and waited but saw no school buses driving by. This is very unusual compared to the constant flow of them that we normally see. We finally asked someone and it turns out that yesterday was a half day. We couldn't believe it. We had no other choice but to make our way back to Bella Vista again. So here we are 6 days later, in PG waiting for the bus once again. This time we will be sure to make it there plenty early. We left Otoxha at the beginning of the week feeling rundown, low on energy motivation and are now returning eager to get back to our village and back to work! What a crazy week indeed.