Thursday

Despite the forecast of a rainy day, we had another HOT, sunny, jam-packed, wonderful day.

Sydney and Kristen should be asking for substitute teacher pay from the Ministry of Education since they basically took over the classroom of the principal/teacher who was absent again due to her injured foot. Despite the craziness, they were able to finish PenPal letters and make foam crosses with the Our Father. They made bracelets using special beads that change colors in sunlight. It was fun to see how excited the children were when their beads changed. They also did some amazing face painting, including several full face tiger paint jobs.
Four picnic table are totally finished (including paint) and two more should be ready to go by tomorrow. After sharing tools all week between Santa Elena and Santa Cruz (about a 10 minute drive in between), we discovered last night that Lee, the owner of Tranquility Lodge where we are staying, has tools we can borrow. Typical way things work in Belize!

In Pueblo Viejo the students finished PenPal letters and finished their clay beaded necklaces. Dawn and Kathy made beautiful tissue paper butterflies with the younger kids. Judy taught the students the song "Go Make a Difference" which they will sing at their graduation next week. They added a bit of choreography to help make their celebration extra special.
As Dawn was walking from one classroom to another, she noticed a dog with its nose in the bag of lunches. She ran over to shoo the dog and it took off running carrying the whole bag of lunches! We wish we had a video of her running after the dog! The dog eventually dropped the bag but had apparently eaten several sandwiches, plastic wrap and all! Good thing our teachers were invited to lunch in the home of the principal, Stephen.

In Santa Cruz Tessa, Elizabeth and Barb also finished PenPal letters, worked on foam crosses and made acrostic poems using their names. They had fun teaching the younger girls how to bump a volleyball.

Another group headed down the long bumpy road to Otoxha. Holly and Margie presented another Women's Health discussion. About 35 women showed up, plus a few more peeking in through the window! They were joined by some pharmacy school interns from the U.S. working at Hillside Clinic.
Anita and Alli tagged along to visit "their kids." Lots of hugs and smiles. They did a quick art project with all of the students.
Ann, Roy and Abbe met with Mr Manuel, the principal, to get the information we need to help solve the ongoing water issue. Roy took a GPS reading to find the highest elevation point for locating the system.
From there the group drive to San Lucas for more Women's Health discussions and a quick school visit. As soon as we got out of the van we heard many loud shouts of "Miss Alli, Miss Alli!" Despite the 90+ degree heat and 90% humidity, Alli joined in a wicked soccer game during their hour long PE class.
Ann, Roy and Abbe worked with people to be sure they are correctly cleaning the bucket filtration systems our group brought last year. The systems need to be back flushed once a week and some families have be bad about doing this vitally important step. Roy was handed one bucket to flush and as he took it apart he realized the bucket had sat unused for so long that there were flies and maggots in the filter (ewwwwwwww!). He cleaned out the filter,and then to prove to the family that the water was really safe, he drank a big cup of the freshly filtered water! Go Roy!

Quite of the day is a funny story. As we stopped to drop of something at Corazon Creek High School a man asked if we had supplies to repair his broken glasses. We used our MacGuiver type skills, a red pipe cleaner (actually part of the uterus model) and white medical tape to get the glasses repaired!

We're a little sad that it's the end of the week😕