The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

Today is truly sad knowing that this will be the last full day that we’ll spend here. I have really become accustomed to living here, so to speak. I really like the vibe of the city here. It’s got great food, great people and it’s an all around full place to be. The weather was just perfect today. We had made plans to meet up later with Kelley but first I was to take Rebeca shopping for jeans.

We had a quick breakfast and headed back into town around 5th and Market. The Gap proved to be a bad choice, having both rude people working there and a bad selection of jeans. From there we headed to Macy’s where things did not improve. Finally we gave up on the jeans and went back to Chinatown to grab some post cards and other trinkets before coming back to Tracy and Lauren’s.

Rebeca had made plans with her cousin Roger to see the cliffs along Highway 1. She left at 2:00 and the rest of us made our way out of the house for some fresh air. After picking up Kelley, Lauren took me to see the Castro District as well as a bunch of other sights that ended with us going down Lombard Street. It’s such a funny thing. It is a really crooked street but it’s also very short. We received a call from Tina and we headed that way.

I had another nice chance to sit down and talk with Tina again, who had some very concise information about our family. I got to learn so much from her on this trip. I learned that there were many people who never left Belize, but stayed there. I have come to realize that my family is much larger than I first thought. I look forward to making contact and hopefully meeting some of these people.

I said my final good-byes to Tina and Anthony. We came back to the house, where Rebeca had returned. We took Kelley home and headed for the movies. It was sad to say good-bye to Kelley. I realized that despite the years that we’ve spent apart she and I have so much in common. If there’s one thing that this trip has done for me is it has shown me how great my family is. I have felt starved of a sense of family for years. This trip has given me some of that back. We ended this evening with a final movie outing to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Man, I don’t wanna leave…