I'm a cowboy, baby! - 10/10/06

So, what happened with the indentured labor, you may be asking yourself? Yes, I was auctioned off and forced to work for my student's father - who also happened to be one of the members of the school board. So much for a restful Saturday! It was supposed to be tomorrow, but he moved it up one week.

It was a hard day on the ranch in Belize, but now I know what a farmer's life is actually like here in Blue Creek. It was an incredibly educational experience - the teacher has now become the student. We went to his ranch where the horses were kept to mount up.

I would like to take this opportunity to quickly describe my last experience on a horse. I was ten. The horse wasn't trained. I was at a ranch in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The horse was a jerk and hated kids. As we rode off, the horse thought it would be a funny little joke to take off at full gallop toward the freeway with a kid screaming like a little girl on its back. I didn't think it was quite as funny. I tried to pull back on the reins with all of the strength and authority of a ten-year-old, but you can imagine how effective that was. I'm sure the horse felt only a little tickle against its neck. It wasn't until two ranch hands rode up on either side of me and grabbed the reins that the horse even thought about slowing down.

So, we got to go horseback riding on Saturday! They asked me, "Do you want to ride Lightning, Clown, Pochorro, or Male Horse?"
"What's the difference?"
"Lightning was a race horse and likes to take off sometimes, but can go really fast, Clown isn't broken in completely (how exciting!), Pochorro is about 3 feet tall, slow, lazy, and old, and Male Horse is short but obedient."
"I'll take Male Horse."

I got on the horse and learned an important lesson you can't get from an after-school special and that they didn't clearly explain to me before I got on. When you squeeze the horse with your legs, he goes forward, when you pull on the reins, he stops, and if you keep pulling, he backs up. I got on, and was worried about falling off, so I squeezed him tightly with my legs. That told him to move fast, but I didn't know that. So I'm yanking on the reins, trying to get him to stop lunging forward, and the horse is getting mixed signals from me so it's getting stressed, then I'm getting stressed, and their ranch hand is getting stressed because he's still holdng the lead at this point. Finally, Ernest, my student, told me to relax my legs. DUH!

That was the only excitement, the horse was great from then on. We rode around his land, toward the edge of rainforest canopy, around small, lush rolling hills with streams running throughout, and through the pastures where the jungle growth was already trying to reclaim the grassland. The scenery was stunning.

Afterward, we went to Circle R, the local rice mill/feed shop for coke with all the other cowboys. We drank soda, then toured around a bit, then went home for a heavy lunch. We were going to go fishing, but were rained out, so we drove around some more - out toward Three Corners, where the borders of Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize all come together. We were about three miles from there before we turned around, went to the store for some ice cream, and then sat around and talked with some other farmers again. Man, was I pooped! Being a cowboy is hard work.

That evening, Melissa and I were invited back to their house for a big barbecue. It was such a relaxing day! And now I finally know how hard the cowboys and farmers work around here. Whew! I'm tired again just thinking about it.

Monday brought about the daily grind again, but I am still loving my job and I think my kids are just great. We're having a good quarter so far. And, Melissa and I have Sirius again! I couldn't be any more excited about that (thank you Lynda!). Now we can listen to news about home, and stay updated on music and the shallow, meaningless entertainment news that defines our culture and that we all love and enjoy. Yay America! *waving flag*

Anyway, I miss so many of you. I would love to hear a comment from you or an email or something like that. Before Christmas we should have the internet at home and can communicate regularly with everyone again. Until then, let me know how your lives are! Love you tons and I'll talk at ya soon!