Monday

We met at the airport at 4:15 am on Saturday morning to begin our adventure!  After a stop in Houston to catch up with our teammates from San Francisco and Seattle, we were on our way to Belize!  June must be a big month for groups traveling to Belize, we have never seen the airport so crowded.  Our bags all arrived promptly, and, as usual, Ann charmed the Customs folks into only charging us $15 total for the 23 bags we brought into the country,

We made a stop at Amigos Restaurant on our way down to Punta Gorda, and despite hitting some pretty heavy rain, still made it to the Nazareth Retreat Center in just about five hours.  Since most of the drive was in daylight, we were able to enjoy the beautiful countryside.

 

On Sunday morning we headed to Mass at St Joseph church in the village of Jacintoville. Father Frank Schmidt said Mass, he is originally from Washington, MO.  Most of the prayers and songs were in the Mayan language of Kekchi.  The gospel was the story of St John the Baptist, and Father Schmidt's advice to us ws to go out and make a difference! Perfect words to start the week.  After Mass, one of the men from Jacintoville invited all 13 of us home with him to share dinner.  We hope that he asked his wife first since she was making chicken caldo and homemade tortillas.  The dinner was delicious. We then headed up to the Lodge at Big Falls to check it out for future trips. The little cabanas are hidden back in the forest and it would be a great place to stay.  Our next stop was back in Punta Gorda at the graduation ceremony for the University of Belize.  Donnisio Sho, an assistant to Dorla Bowman at Socio-economic Outreach was getting his Associate Degree in Agriculture. Some of us have worked with Donnision various projects.  The ceremony was nice and we were happy to share in Donnisio's big day. He will be continuing his education in Taiwan! He earned a scholarship to pursue his education.

 

First thing Monday morning we headed into town to pick up some paint for the school in Santa Teresa.  In typical Belize fashion, this involved stopping at three hardware stores, two of which were not yet open, and then winding up back at the first store!  We hit the road for Santa Teresa and were thrilled to discover that a large part of the road had been paved since the last time most of us were here.  The men of the village were working hard, along with the older students, to get all of the walls scrubbed and ready for paint.  Children are the same everywhere, kids, water, what  mess! 

We broke out the hand puppets and led the children in a rousing rendition of Old McDonald had a Farm!  For some reason, Farmer McDonald has a frog on his farm, but the kids didn't seem to question that.  Kathy and Judy helped the little kids make their own sock puppets, complete with bow ties and flower accents.  The bigger kids made beaded crosses, despite a few false starts (by the adults, the kids did great!)  At lunch time, we were invited to lunch at the home of Ofelia Sam.  Ofelia is one of our scholarship students and has just completed her third year of high school.  She showed us her report card and was proud to report that she is ranked fourth in a class of 20 students. Her mother cooked us a delicious lunch of chicken caldo and tortillas. 

Meanwhile the guys made a trip back into PG to get more paint and some wood to repair the outer doors of the school.  In the afternoon all of the students in Santa Teresa had their health and hygiene lessons and practiced their tooth brushing.  Sam, Donna and Ann went down to San Lucas and spent the afternoon playing badminton, volleyball and soccer with the kids.  They caught a ride with Mauricio and while they were getting ready to go, a woman was walking up the road carrying a tiny little baby and asking for a ride to the doctor. We came to discover that the baby was only a week old (delivered by C Section!) and she had walked over five miles to the health clinic only to find out that the doctor was not available. Talk about one tough lady!

All in all, a fabulous and exhausting day!  It is HOT and humid, but we are happy and having a ball. More tomorrow!

The Mission Continues!

We are excited about expanding the All Saints Belize Mission project to include a new trip this month! A group of thirteen volunteers (seven returning teammates and six newbies), from as far away as Seattle and San Francisco, head to Belize on Saturday, June 23.

We will be working mostly in the village of Santa Teresa. It will be the last week of school for the children before their summer break, so we have lots of fun activities including some hands on science lessons and lots of arts and crafts. Of course we will be reviewing hand washing and tooth-brushing as well. We had a generous donation of a volleyball net, balls, and a parachute, so we will incorporate plenty of PE time into each day. We may spend an afternoon or two in the nearby village of San Lucas, the principal there heard we were coming and requested that we spend a little time with his students.

Our construction crew will be painting the school, inside and out, at Santa Teresa. They will also have the opportunity to do some work on the Senior Center in Punta Gorda that is being built by the Pallotine Sisters (they run the retreat center where we stay).  There is also the possibility of building some pig pens to help support the Socio-Economic Outreach Program.

We planned our activities for the week and then recently found out that school will not be in session in Santa Teresa on Friday because of an end of the year teacher meeting.  Daily change of plans are pretty much typical on a trip to Belize!  So on Friday we will be running an Arts and Crafts Camp for 50 or so children at St. Peter Claver School in Punta Gorda.

Take a look at the map below.  If you find Punta Gorda, that is the main town near where we will be.  Go a little north and west to find Forest Home.  The Nazareth Retreat Center is in Forest Home.  The dark red road is the paved road, the smaller roads are dirt.  Follow the main road NW to Dump (yes that is the name of the town!) and continue towards San Antonio.  Head SW through Blue Creek, then through Jordan to get to Santa Teresa.  This ride will take around 90 minutes each day. 

We hope to update this blog each day while we are in Belize.  So keep checking back to hear about our adventure! 

Time to Awaken

Mayan leader speaks about 2012:

http://www.fwii.net/profiles/blogs/mayan-elder-speaks-about-the

"We need to work together for peace, and balance with the other side. We need to take care of the Earth that feeds and shelters us. We need to put our entire mind and heart into pursuing unity and unity now, to confront the other side and preserve life...Now is the time to awaken and take action. Everyone is needed. You are not here for no reason. Everyone who is here now has an important purpose. This is a hard but a special time. We have the opportunity for growth, but we must be ready for this moment in history."

27 pictures for you

Hopefully these pictures will speak volumes of our trip to Belize.
We all were touched by the love, compassion and energy the Mayan
villages shared with us and each other.

You have been sent 27 pictures.

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These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

You better Belize It

Ann had asked everyone to pack their sense of humor in addition to teamwork skills and lots of supplies. This group certainly used all of the above!

A story to sample some of the humor experienced:

Trying to visit the Directer of Human Health Services, Mr. Vernon:

In the villages dogs were everywhere, roaming in and out of schools, in everyone's homes and even at church. So we became very used to dogs around.
As Ann, Jill and Rose walked on to Mr. Vernon's walled porch in the city they paid no attention to a sleeping, chained pit bull dog at the opening. Unfortunately Mr. Vernon's sister had died that morning and there were black ribbons on the front door. Though they had been assured by a neighbor he was home no one answered, so the ladies prepared to leave the porch. Jill stepped right over the Dog's chain and Ann looked at the dog as she passed him and said "oh I think that is a guard dog" - she must have reminded him of his job because on cue the dog stood up, started barked and growling and leaping toward them. Ann and Jill made it safely through the gate but Rose was now stuck on the porch. If one knows Rose one knows that our little, short, spunky Sicilian does not climb walls since she entered her 7th decade. Thank goodness there was a plastic chair on the porch. As Jill 'distracted' the dog Rose climbed the chair and Ann carried her over the wall to safety.
You better Belize it!

Sent from my iPhone

Be the Heart and Hands of God

Being on the beach of the Caribbean Sea allowed all of us time to rest, relax and process our thoughts and feelings.
Mass on the beach Sat. evening was a great culminating celebration. Dorla- the leader of the Socio Economic Group and Mario a villager from Santa Theresa joined us.
'Here I am Lord' as a responsorial psalm connected our experience to the readings of the day.
As Judy traveled from village to village with her instruments she taught all the children the song "Be the Heart and Hands of God" which we used as our recessional song. San Lucas made a paper quilt to hang in the classroom with each child's hand outline and their name. Corazon students adopted the 'keep a pinch and pass it on' philosophy by holding their thumb and forefinger together and touching Carolyn's arm each day. Otaxha put the philosophy into action as Karen brought supplies to an elderly man who lived next to the school. Our construction team used their hands to build the bookshelves at Corazon's library as well as helped Punta Gorda's Pallontine Sisters continue their dream of building a community center for the elderly.

Sunday was a day to create our own experiences. Some chose a day in the hammocks and lounge chairs on the beach, others continued their shopping therapy, a group took a tour in the jungle on Monkey River to see and hear the holler monkeys, and our fearless organizer Ann set up a time for sailing and snorkeling.

An early wake up call on Monday will bring us back to all of our loved ones by Monday evening.

Sent from my iPhone

A day to rest and relax

This morning we had a more leisurely time to share breakfast and thank the Pallotine sisters for their hospitality. After a group picture we loaded onto the bus for a one hour ride to the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi which took us to the beautiful beach front motel on Placencia