Cast out from Eden
Trip Start
Dec 01, 2009
1
7
14
Trip End
Apr 03, 2010
Punta Gorda, Toledo, Belize
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Halfway through the cigarette, the intern coordinator Rachel, shows up outside the cabin, saying:
"ok, yeah, it definitely smells like cigarettes over here."
"You could smell my cigarette?"
"Yeah, we were in the kitchen and we can smell it. It's really strong."
We look over the edge to see her standing there, and she continues:
"I hate to be the one to do this, but I'm going to have to tell this to Chris and it's up to him to decide what to do about this."
She walked away, and almost immediately hear comes Chris, shouting:
"Get out! You are hereby evicted! Please pack your bags and leave immediately!"
"Dude, are you serious? It was just a cigarette?"
"No, it is not just a cigarette. I made MMRF's smoking policy very clear on the first day, and you sat there and nodded in agreement, and then proceeded to disrespect me! It was one thing when I found out that you'd been sneaking off to the edge of the property to smoke. I thought, 'well at least he's not doing it in one of my buildings'. But now you are clearly disrespecting MMRF and my wishes, and I will not tolerate that. I made my feelings about smoking clear, and that I think that people that smoke are stupid, and so now you're gone..."
"Come on man, I'm sorry"
"LA LA LA LA LA - not listening! Pack up your stuff and leave! I'll go write up your bill for the week and have it ready for you"
Wow, wtf just happened? Yeah, we were already thinking about leaving and wondering how to broach the subject, but this is not how we planned to go out. Jesse gets his things packed first, and heads to the kitchen to talk to Chris. As I approach, there is a very unprofessional discussion about money going on, in front of all the interns, who are more than happy to chime in to back Chris up. To keep the situation from getting uglier, Jesse pays the movie, and returns to his bags. As I walked up, Chris turns to me and says,
"I'm so sorry Reba, this isn't your fault. I like you a lot, I was
really excited to get to learn more about you and your PC experiences.
I'd be happy to let you stay, but Jesse has to go. I like you both a
lot."
"Thanks, but I'm going with him."
"Well, if you stay until tomorrow, I can give you a ride into town and you can meet up with him..."
"Thanks, but I really have to go with him."
"Well, can I give you a ride in the dory to the village and you can meet him there?"
"No thanks, I really have to go with him."
"Well, can I give you a ride across the river with your bags?"
So, we both get to the other side of the river, after two separate dory rides, and Chris repeats 'how much he likes us both and that if we want to return after a month or so, we should right him. He'd be happy to have us.'
And I see for the first time, what the hike to the village looks like, and why I should have taken him up on his second to last offer.
We stood at the bottom of a steep, muddy, narrow gully leading up the side of the shady (thank god) and thickly forested mountain. Nothing about it resembled a path. I don't think that saying a 45 deg. angle would be stretching the truth. With easily 50 lbs on our backs, another probably another 15 on our fronts, we started the slippery ascent up. To add to our burden, Jesse also had a bag of wet [read: sopping wet] laundry occupying one of his hands. I've never felt closer to dying in my life, and the top of the mountain was nowhere in sight. I kept falling further and further back, legs shaking, huffing wildly, face red and head getting light. Jesse waited for me, and grabbed one of my backpacks to lighten my load. It took probably 30 minutes to get to the top, which felt like it was never going to come. Jesse made it there first, and came back to help me after dropping his bags. We were both winded and muscles shaking, when we reached the top, and Jesse informed me that we weren't even halfway to the village. Two miles up and down a mucky, un-navigable (without 4 wheel drive) road through the foot hills to the village of San Pedro Columbia, under the glaring mid-day heat of a tropical sun, with barely any water left, where we were to catch a bus to PG. Holy shit, I thought we were never going to make it.
But we did...and then sat for two hours in the shade of the grocery store waiting for the bus to carry us out of this nightmare. News came on the radio in the grocery store that a boy was hit by the one of the James Line buses. We weren't terribly surprised, after our own JL experiences.
It showed up and we dragged ourselves to the bus, broken and exhausted, and still reeling from the events of the morning. The ride to PG was mostly silent, punctuated occasionally with the conversations of the farmers, and the radio playing a mix of Brian Adams and Whitney Houston.
We were planning to stay at MMRF for several months. We got dropped off at the top of the hill near Nature's Way - less than a week later. There was one burning question on our mind's that we were both too scared to answer-
"what the hell do we do now?"
