Map of Villages in Belize

Please enjoy this map of southern Belize's Toledo District. This year the team will visit the following villages:

Sunday Wood
San Benito Poite
Corazon
Punta Gorda Town
San Antonio
San Marcos
Blue Creek
Santa Teresa
San Lucas
Otoxha

More pics for Day 4 and 5

Day 4 and 5, Jan. 6-7

Day 4 and 5 were days spent in the villages. We worked with the children on arts and crafts projects...making "googly people" and had them draw and color their favorite things about Belize, and we had the older kids write letters to the students back in St. Louis telling them about life in Belize. We also brought them sidewalk chalk and bubbles and they had a great time playing with them. We also took pictures of each kid with our digital cameras and printed the pictures so each child could keep a photo of themselves...this is the first time many of the children have ever seen a picture of themselves....some don't even have mirrors and had no idea what they looked like!

The kids in our village loved to pick us flowers (which are gorgeous there)...they made me a "wedding bouquet" and asked that I come back to Belize and get married in the village...so sweet!

At lunch, Joanne and I visited one of the homes of the villagers, and the mother invited us over for lunch the next day (quite an honor)...as we were accepting the invite...her young son came into the house carrying a dead bird of some sorts and his mom took the bird and put it on the table. Later, one of the teachers told us it was a pigeon...and likely our lunch the next day! They boys of the village will set up traps to catch birds for meals.

The Doherty family made the very long trek to the villages of Delores and Oxtahas, which we spent time in last year. Delores had started an organic garden and the kids maintained the garden and did much of the farming. In Oxtahas....the school children were still using the rain gauge we had brought them last year....we were impressed.

The construction team worked on the foundation of the church, and poured concrete and added two layers of cinder block to the foundation.

Anne Schappe, a nurse, and Rebecca, a doctor, spent some time at the Health Clinic...it was only four rooms, and the most high tech machine they had there was an EKG machine. They seen 35 patients in 6 hours. The doctors at the clinic are from the US and are on a rotation program.

In our village, we visited a house with a corn mill where members of the village ground fresh boiled corn to make massa for their tortillas.

On Wednesday evening, we were invited to Dorla's home. Dorla runs the socio-economic group in Belize. She made us a lovely meal of fish balls, Kahune stew, tamales, fresh tortillas and split pea tortilla soup...it was a feast. We also had cashew wine...and even the wine drinkers of the group (Carol!) were not big fans...it had a strange taste, but we tried it!

When returning the the convent, we noticed another unexpected visitor on the front steps of the convent...this time it was a snake, not a tarantula...and yes, I screamed again! It was black with yellow stripes and scary!

Also on Wednesday, Fr. Dick presented us with solidarity rings...they are made from the kahune nut and are worn on the ring finger on the right hand as a sign of compassion for the poor.

More pics from Day 3

Day 3 of 2009 Trip

Monday, January 5 was day 3 of our trip and our first day to visit the villages where we would spend our week.

The day started on an interesting note for my roommate Joanne and me...we were getting ready that morning and had a surprise guest outside of our window in our room...a tarantula the size of a hand (not kidding!). We did what most girls would do...we screamed, then we took our camera and took photos of the furry little thing. Then, Dave, another team member came to the rescue and tapped on the window until the tarantula fell to the ground. The rest of the trip Joanne and I checked every nook of our room for spiders!

I was still feeling quite sick on Monday, so I stayed behind at the convent while the rest of the group headed out...but they came back with some great stories...here are a few:

• The corn crops are planted in the shape of a cross, so that God will bless the crops...pretty good planning!

• The construction team who worked to build a church in one of the villages had some pretty strong rain showers and had to wear their ponchos and even wait out the rain in the van. Then had to dig a trench to drain water the foundation of the church.

• Several of our team members visited villages to vaccinate pigs to de-worm them...some of these pigs weighed 250-400 lbs!

• And much of the team spent time at schools in the villages meeting and working with the children. Some of our team went to a village called Blue Creek where they are lucky enough to have minimal electricity and two computers...this is a larger village and not so remote. Other team members visited San Lucas, where our team has been several times. A funny story about some of the children here...when they learned Fr. Don was a priest...they were very amazed and impressed and asked him if he knows how to sing the "Holy, Holy, Holy"...very cute. And, the last village we worked with was Santa Teresa, another village we have previously worked in...one of the students quickly took to Joanne and brought her tropical flowers from the village.

The drive to the villages can be pretty bumpy because the roads are not paved...so Mike got a little creative and used a volleyball we brought for the kids to keep his head from hitting the ceiling of the van. As you drive through the villages, you will often see women doing their laundry, dishes and even bathing in a nearby river or stream.

I stayed at the convent and stuffed hygiene bags all day to bring to the schools later in the week. The bags were stuffed with the items many of you donated. A big huge THANKS!

Later that evening, we went into Punta Gorda to make a few phone calls and update the blog....and I finally got to call and talk to my Doug.

Later in the evening, we packed suitcases full of supplies to take to the villages.