Hopkins Weekend

After checking the Dopplar radar, I decided that I was going to have to postpone my Tobacco Caye weekend because it looked like a huge storm was heading our way. And I was right. Later in the afternoon, I met Nicola- a girl travelling from England who was done with med school and volunteering as a traveling doctor. She had spent time in South America and was starting a month's work on Monday (today) down in Punta Gorda. She was going down to Hopkins and I decided to join her. After a huge storm on Friday night, and inbetween storms on Saturday morning, we boarded the bus to Hopkins. The weather caught back up with us about half way there (~1hour trip). The windows on the bus hardly kept out any of the rain, so we all got soaked anyway. It slowed to a sprinkle just in time for us to dash into the Funky Dodo- the new hostel that a German couple started 6 months ago. Nicola and I waited for the rain to stop and it did right around noon. So with guide book in hand, we set out to see what all this tiny town had to offer. Basically it's just a road that follows the coast for ~3miles. We had some juice at the Thongs (flip-flops) Cafe and headed south.  We found out that a lot of the shops and craft stores in the book were already closed, but So Much Hemp was still there. This was a school bus tuned into this womans home/hemp store. She made bug repellant and wrinkle cream and sunscreen all out of hemp extracts and other things. If the tiny bottles wouldnt have been US$10 a piece, I probably would have gotten some. It smelled nice and I hate normal bugrepellant. AFter taking a few pictures of her bus we headed back north. Stopping in at a woodcraft store (everything way to big to take back) and an Authentic Belize Crafts store - where Nicola said that she'd seen the same things for half the price in Guatemala...
As we went further north we decided to stop in at Lebeha, a drumming school and place where live music happened most nights- according to the guide. We met the teacher and he insisted on giving us a lesson in Garifuna drumming. We thought it was just for fun, but everytime we cracked up laughing because we sounded so bad, he would tell us to be more serious! haha... still hilarious. We had a proper hour long lesson where he quizzed us on all the different types before we could leave. He said that there would definitely be drumming there tonight and that we should come back.
We ate dinner at a traditional Garifuna dinner. I had bundiga- graded green banana seasoned and boiled in coconut milk (they're sort of like dumpling consistancy) served with a whole fried fish. Absolutely delicious, but it was a horrible grey color- dont worry i took pictures :) After dinner we wandered back up to Lebeha, but there was no one there. It was 9:30, so we guessed nothing would be going on. Walking home we passed another place that the guide described as the place to be after dark in Hopkins called the King Conch Bar, but it was empty too... So we headed back and read and get some sleep.
Sunday morning Nicola had to catch and early bus, and I decided to get my hair braided! So now i have 'singles' as they're called, not cornrows. It hurt and took 3 hours, but I like it. Feels a lot cooler and is easy to manage. Dont worry they wont be dreadlocks when I get back! Sunday marked my 20th day here, so I'm over half way!

The clinic was calm today, but tomorrow morning the Doctor gets in and the madness begins :)