Breakfast in Town
Yesterday morning Shirlee, Sue, Aimee, and I had a meeting with Miguel from the Cancer Society to discuss blood drives. Since Miguel was accommodating as to when and where we could meet and us Red Cross girls are all about the food we decided on Boogies Belly for breakfast.
Aside from the excitement of our meeting and breakfast, I was anticipating a yummy treat. Aimee had called in an order for lobster meat pies for the two of us. Unless you special order they are only available on Saturdays. The pies are double the price of a regular meat pie at $3 BZD each but worth every penny.
As we stood in line to order our food, a few people were eyeballing our 14 lobster pies in the case and wishing it was their special order instead. I was not surprised, they are delicious.
Working Together
Since we both have one of the same major goals (to keep our countries blood supply strong) it was only natural that we form a deeper relationship between the San Pedro Cancer Society and the San Pedro Belize Red Cross in regards to blood drives.
All of us went into the meeting with an open mind. We all believe there is always something new to learn, especially since the Cancer Society has been doing blood drives longer than the Red Cross has. The information Miguel gave us was a real eyeopener and oddly enough something none of us had considered before. As hard as we work on our quarterly blood drives to build a supply, we never really thought about the shelf life.
Just because we have collected x amount of pints in our Ambergris Caye reserve, it does not mean there is blood there if our Blood Bank supply has all expired. Blood has approximately 36 days at refrigerated temperatures. With that in mind, Miguel impressed upon us how easy it would be for the country to have very little or no blood, given the expiry and usage.
For me, that brought a whole new level of understanding and importance to our work.
I am really glad that we are growing our relationship with Miguel and the Cancer Society stronger. It was great to share our marketing ideas with him, collaborate on a rare blood types list, and brainstorm how we could all work smarter not harder. By teaming up to grow the blood supply countrywide and sharing our information with each other, I have no doubt we will surpass our goals and help many people in the process. I am also grateful to Belize Blood services for their continued help. We always look forward to seeing their smiling faces.
Stay tuned for details on our upcoming October Blood drive.
Reader Review
Sometimes my readers enjoy sharing their experiences to help other travelers make smart and easy decisions.
The review below was sent in by Anu who I met at the big Caribbean Villas 4th of July party. He was supposed to be on standby to Costa Rica but the travel gods rerouted him to Belize and the Mayan Princess Hotel instead. When he was not diving, we hung out a lot. I was cart sitting at the time so I got to show him around the island and take him to some places to eat that serve yummy food. Sometimes I picked him up at his hotel and I was reminded of how much I like that place as a good central location. (I have stayed there before. Click through to Mayan Princess Party to read my write-up and see more pictures.)
“Located in the heart of San Pedro, the Mayan Princess is the perfect place to stay if you want nightlife, restaurants, and scuba dive shops at your doorstep. The rooms were very reasonably priced given the excellent location. There are water taxi ports to Belize City within 50 ft and all of the rooms have balconies which face the beach/reef. The exterior and entry did not look too impressive, but the rooms were spacious and clean. My room was equipped with a kitchenette, which was a pleasant surprise. The wifi reception was decent and the front desk staff was helpful. For the $, I would recommend the Mayan Princess to anyone who wants to be within walking distance to a plethora of dive shops and restaurants.”
A. Anand
