About Belize and PG

I thought I would give you some background information on the country of Belize and specifically the area where we will visit:

Belize is in Central America, bordering Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea It has a population of 275,000 – about the size of Massachusetts. About half of the Country is Catholic, and English is the primary language. We fly into Belize City (popular for tourists) then we drive about 5 hours to a town called Punta Gorda (also called PG) in the Toledo District of Belize. PG has about 5,000 people and the Toledo District is the poorest and most isolated district…often called “The Forgotten District”.

PG is an ethnic mix of people with Garifuna, Creole, East Indian, Mayan and Mestizo (Spanish-speaking natives). The villages we visit are almost all Mayan and they speak in two different dialects…Kekchi and Mopan. There are 32 villages in this region of Belize, this year we will visit four villages. The villages are very conservative, so we will wear scrubs mostly during our trip – this shows we are there to work and serve, and part of a group – not rich tourists. Scrubs also are comfortable, lightweight and pack well.

We will work on the construction of a new church in Midway Village. And we will also work at schools in three villages names Blue Creek, Santa Teresa and San Lucas. I will personally be working at Santa Teresa. We have a few medical professionals on our team and they will work for a few days in the Hillside Health Clinic in PG.

We will be staying with the Pallotien sisters at the Nazareth Convent, and Fr. Dick Perl, a mission priest (from Missouri) who has been serving in Belize for the past 15 years will assist our team while we are there.

I checked the weather in Belize this morning and it is suppossed to be 85-degrees tomorrow when we arrive! We will try and bring back the warm weather with us!