Belize Red Cross, Caliente and Bingo

Since moving to San Pedro in Belize I have volunteered at several events.  It has been a great way to meet other people living in Belize while also helping out the community.  Friday I attended my second meeting with the Belize Red Cross.  Lily Bowman, director general and several other Belize Red Cross members came over from the mainland to talk about bringing back a branch of the Red Cross to the Cayes.  There use to be a branch office here in San Pedro, but it is no longer here and no one really knows what happened to it either.  So we are currently working to re-open the Belize Red Cross on the island of San Pedro.

The Belize Red Cross (BRC) does a huge range of things across the country and are mostly known for their response in a disaster.  However there’s lots of other things that they do when there isn’t an emergency going on:  read more.

If anyone either locally or globally would like to get involved with the Belize Red Cross please drop me an email.  Thanks again to the Belize Red Cross for reaching out to San Pedro and to everyone else who came to the meeting yesterday.  Don't forget to join the Belize Red Cross facebook page.

Friday night we went with friends Gigi and Paula to check out Caliente, a restaurant located on the beach.  On Friday nights they have half price margaritas and taco specials. The food was really good and the margaritas weren't bad either.

Me, Bill, Gigi and Paula.

Having some fun, yaya!!

After eating dinner at Caliente's we went over to check out bingo at the San Pedro Lions Club.  This seems to be the Friday night place to be in town.  Every Friday night they have bingo games starting at about 7:00pm until 9 or 10pm.  The place was packed with adults, children and dogs and everyone seemed to be having a great time. 

He was calling out the bingo numbers.

Check out this high tech bingo board.

 

Where else could a kid go and play bingo with his dog at his side?

Everyone was anxiously waiting for their number to be called. 

She told me she wins bingo every weekend.

"Bingo" we have a winner!

Paula playing with the babies.

She was steady selling bingo cards.

Stephanie was selling chances to win a milk cake and 6 pack of cokes for $1.00BZ.  I told her I would take diet cokes and that I would be waiting for her to call me on Monday to deliver my cake. 

A few belikins and bingo

Bingo pooped him out.

Lots of happy people.

Here is Jan Brown with Marco Gonzalez Maya Reserve Site verifying another bingo.

 

The San Pedro Lions Club sells BBQ chicken plates every weekend and makes some of the best desserts.  The orange cake is to die for.

SAGA Humane Society Italian Cook-off

SAGA Italian Cook-Off

This restaurant tends to change its name a lot.  It was Playa the last time we were here in 2010. 

Last night we went to the February SAGA Humane Society Italian cook-off hosted by Ristorante DiCaprio which is located on the beach in San Pedro.  For $10.00BZ ($5.00US) you could sample all of the dishes and vote for a winner. 

Here were a list of the entries. 

Cindy was dishing out the yummy food.

Alice was serving the lentil salad.

This was my favorite, the Stuffed Italian Sausage.

Mark and Jonathan were selling raffle tickets.  I told Mark to draw my name and he did!  Lucky Me. 

I won $50.00US to spend at the Buena Vista Restaurant at Captain Morgan's Resort on the beach.

You can buy a really cute SAGA calendar, I have one. 

Jewelry was also for sale to help raise money for SAGA.

It was time to tell the winners for the Italian food cook-off.  Lori Purdy won 3rd place with her Italian Summer Lentil Salad.

DiCaprio's Restaurant won 2nd place for the lasagna. 

The Stuffed Italian Sausage won first place.

I look forward to next months cook-off.

Everyone was having a great time and all the food that was prepared was wonderful.

Last Day of Carnaval Ended with More Painting, Dancing and Egg Throwing.

These kids were seriously covered in some  paint.

Tuesday  was the last day of Carnaval so Bill, our friend Gigi and I headed back downtown to join in on the fun again.  There were more comparsas dancers dancing in the street. 

They were dressed in Maya costumes.  Bill asked if he could join them next year.

The Maya dancers had some fabulous costumes.

This one was my favorite, love the peacock feather headdress.

It was some messy fun, but these kids were loving it.

This guy was re-filling his paint bottle.

He was protecting his hair from paint.  I hear it is kind of hard to get out of your hair.

Even a few gringos managed to get in on the paint fun.  She was not very happy with her husband.

One brave little guy gave me a nice high five of yellow paint.

We will just call him "Blue Man".

Later in the evening the crowds were getting bigger and the dancing was getting wilder.  These cross-dressing dancers were something to see.  I feel certain the stores in San Pedro are having a balloon shortage today.

Two of my little friends somehow managed to be out during Carnaval and didn't get any paint on them.

He told me he didn't have any paint.

My sweet little friend here was having to work.  She was selling her mother's banana bread.  We bought some from her. 

There will be some cleaning up today I am sure. 

Thanks for a great 2012 Carnaval, see ya next year.