Rodeo.

  Near Georgeville, Belize
Sunday, April 29, 2007

We awoke early on Sunday April 29, 2007 and took our time making breakfast, eating breakfast and washing the dishes before we both sat down to relax until 9:00am when we were going to have our showers and get dressed for church. Geraldine went to the bathroom at 8:30am and on the way back to the van had the clever thought to ask Linda what time it was.

Tamisha ready for Church.

Dumbfounded by Linda's response of 9:30am, Geraldine rushed back to the van. We quickly showered and dressed in fifteen minutes and waited for Sandra to come out of the house. We did not have a watch on us, but it must have been near an hour when Sandra emerged and told us to hop into her truck. Geraldine got in the front with Graham and Linda's little one and a half year old daughter, Tamisha, while Michael climbed onto the truck bed with their son four year old son, Keenan. Then we were off to the Holiness Temple of God Pentecostal Church, ten minutes down the road in the small town of Esmeralda. We managed to catch the last ten minutes of the Bible Study before the morning service began.

Michael and Keenan rode in the back.

It was a different experience for both of us as the Pastor was very animated and walked up and down the aisle speaking directly to certain individuals at time and at other times cracking jokes. The topic of the sermon was Walking in the Light of God and the Pastor told stories of recent incidences and personal experiences, alongside stories from biblical times. Then it was time for some singing and Geraldine felt immediately at home as she opened the Hymnal and recognized a lot of the songs in the book. In her teenage years she used to sing with her Church Youth Group at an Old Folks Home and these songs all brought back memories of those special times. At the end of the service she enquired with the Pastor where she might be able to purchase this particular Hymnal, and was rather choked up when the Pastor said he would give it to her as a gift. Geraldine tried to offer money to the Pastor, but he would have none of it. It was a gift and that was final. It was a most generous and treasured gift.
 
Back at the ranch Sandra hurried into the house and came back out with two containers of food; one dish was barbequed chicken, while the other was barbequed pork. Both dishes came with a side of rice, beans, pasta salad, steamed vegetables and a tortilla. All this delicious food, combined with the heat of the day and our early morning, made us ready for a siesta. We pulled the bed out and closed our eyes for twenty minutes before Graham stopped by. He was taking the family, Linda, the kids, Grandma and Dennis, to the Agricultural Show in Belmopan and offered us to come along. Gladly we accepted, jumped out of bed, slapped on some sunscreen, grabbed our camera and were in the back of the Jeal's pick-up truck in no time.
 
The drive to Belmopan is only twenty minutes, but with the amount of speed bumps we had to drive over it felt like an hour had passed by. Graham later told us that Belizeans have nick-named the speed bumps to 'sleeping police officers'. This little tidbit may help us out during our travels as we have become rather annoyed with the frequency and size of the speed bumps. We are not irritated by the speed bumps themselves as we realize their significance in the protection the townsfolk, but we do have issues with the lack of signs indicating you are about to drive over an asphalt hill built into the road.
 

Belmopan Agricultural Show.

In an effort to make leaving easier, Graham decided to park on the side of the road right behind a traffic sign. The idea was to prevent anyone else from being able to park close enough to us to hinder our departure. The family was gathered and we headed to the fairgrounds entrance to pay our $5BZ per person admission fee. Michael claimed it felt like being back in Ontario where you could easily go to a fair every weekend, with the exception of the rodeo. There were vendors selling anything from cell phones, to jam, to Gatorade, to sunglasses,

Big Brahma Bull.

to furniture....you name it, you could get it. This was the last day of the three day fair so all of the vendors were offering their wares at a discounted rate which of course brought more locals than on any other day. The fair included a carnival midway with mechanical rides as well as livestock competitions and a livestock tent. We were both completely in awe of one Brahma Bull we saw. This bull was so massive that his head was as long as a grown mans leg from foot to thigh.
 
On our way past the Belikin vendor, we realized they were serving their beers in glasses that the customers could keep. What a great souvenir for us, plus we got to enjoy ice cold beer during the heat of the day. From there we meandered rows upon rows of stalls and weaved throughout the hordes of people. The kids were very well behaved and we assisted Linda and Graham in keeping an eye on them. Lucky little Keenan got several piggy back rides and Tamisha spent a lot of time cradled on Geraldine's hip.
 
On the way to the rodeo, we spotted a few smashed up cars and realized the demolition derby had been the day before. What fun it would have been to see that, but at least we got to see how demolished the cars really get. The winning car was still in the best shape, but the poor losers were crumpled messes of metal. Then it was time to some bull riding. Unfortunately they were on the last rider when we showed up, but it was still neat to watch. The bull was not a very large animal; however he sure knew how to buck. with the crowd cheering him on, the cowboy managed to stay on for the full eight seconds. Next it was time for the barrel racing.

Geraldine had fun in the horse barn.

For those that have been to the Calgary Stampede, or another North American rodeo, you would expect the horses to do a figure eight around two barrels, but that was not the case in Belmopan. The idea was simply to ride your horse to the other end of the arena, circle a barrel and ride back over the starting line as fast as possible. The females rode first and Linda was not impressed with the low turnout of Belizean woman. It was true, of all the female contestants there was only one Belizean and all the rest were Mennonites. Linda used to barrel race until her horse became ill, and now she was really contemplating becoming active again. Go Linda! Then the men were up to compete in the barrel racing. Again the Belizean men were outnumbered by the Mennonite men. Another thing that we noticed was that as long as the horse kept winning, he kept competing in more races. There was no rest time for the horse to cool down, it was simply go, go, go - win, win, win. Although we do not know much about horses, to us they appeared to be enjoying themselves equally as much as the cowboys.
 
The final event of the rodeo, which also symbolized the end of the festivities, was a wild horse race. Three groups of cowboys were handed each a thirty foot length of rope with a wild horse lassoed to the other end. On the mark, the horses were released from the gates and the cowboys had to control the animal enough to

Wild horse race.

get a makeshift saddle on. Once that was done, one member of the group had to mount the horse, attempt to ride the bucking animal to the other end of the arena, round a barrel and return to the start line. This was not an easy feat for any of the groups as the wild horses all wanted to stay together and huddle in a group. It almost looked like a strategy session where the animals were plotting ways to escape the raucous event. In the end, with a lot of pulling, hooting and hollering, the cowboys managed to get their horses across the line. Once over the line, the first team to remove the 'saddle' was proclaimed the winner. This frenzied race was most interesting to watch, especially when the horses all crossed the line and congregated in yet another circle not more than eight feet away from where we were peering through the fence.
 
By now it was just past 6:00pm and the sun was slowly starting to make its descent. We chatted about the days events as we strolled back to the truck. We could hardly believe our eyes when we realized our little trick of parking next to the sign had not worked. Another truck had decided to steal his way right next to the sign and within inches of our bumper. This would not have been so bad if the truck on the other side of us had parked more than a foot away. We were in a bit of a pickle however with some good directing from the group and some skilled manoeuvring on Graham's part, we were out on the street in a matter of minutes. As it usually does, the drive home went by more rapid then the drive down had. By the time we reached home the sun was all but a memory until the morning. We thanked our new friends for taking us along and wandered back to the van. It was only 6:30pm and we had no intention of actually going to sleep, however a short lay down sounded perfect, so we pulled out the bed. Apparently we must have been more tired than we thought as the darkness of sleep soon consumed both of us and we remained in peaceful slumber until the morning hours.

Photos:  http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=16xvaj2z.9w0q60hr&Uy=2kgppg&Ux=0