Day 2 Friday

You can view a map of Belize at http://www.progressoheights.com/location/belize_map.jpg . “Click” on the map and it will zoom in; we are working in the very northernmost tip in Corozal town (which is located in the District of the same name).
To read all of these e-mails, log on to www.rmcmission.blogspot.com.


Here is what happened on Friday.

Let’s start with a report on our accommodations. The school vacated a couple of their classrooms and we have moved in – guys in one room, girls in the other. They are nicely finished with ceramic tile, plaster and paint. Last night was quite cool according to Belizian standards; a few girls even reported getting cold!

There is not a water heater anywhere in the entire building, so we have to heat all the water for washing dishes. And yes, the showers are all cold. But Belize “cold” and Colorado “cold” are very different. We have discovered that if you feel that the shower is cold, it is because you have not been in there long enough. It’s kinda like diving into a swimming pool: at first it takes your breath away, but after a few minutes it actually feels nice and refreshing. Even so, “warm showers” will be on everybody’s list of things that they are thankful for back home.

And speaking about our bathroom situation, we cannot flush any paper at all down the commodes or they plug up. Every toilet in Belize has a trash can beside it for…well, use your imagination. That is something that we are all having to get used to. ‘Nuf said about that.

First thing this morning we toured “our” building. The local Conference has put a lot of work and money into the building, and there has been an incredible amount of progress made in the past year. When we left it last year, there were 3 classrooms that needed the walls finished to the top, about 18 pillars to be poured, and about 6 window headers to be poured. All that was finished, and they poured the entire roof on the building, and put up two staircases - one in front and one in back – plastered the interior and exterior of all 7 upstairs classrooms, and a lot more. The end is now in sight!

Today was our first day of work. As with almost every mission trip, the first day “at work” is mostly getting things arranged, purchase materials, figuring out what all needs to be done, etc. Yes, that is typical, but this trip seemed to be a little worse than most. It took us most of the day to get thing arranged to where we could do our first bit of work. In former years, we have had one really BIG job – like laying hundreds of block; a different dynamic this year is that our work is more varied and it looks like going to be physically lighter. A lot of our job is going to be painting, and trim work.

One of our jobs is to finish a “one-day church”. It starts life as just some metal uprights and a roof. The plan was for us to build block walls, set windows and doors, etc. In order to do that, the concrete floor was to be poured and dry before we arrived. It wasn’t. So our first job is to mix and pour the concrete stage and floor. It was lunch time when the mixer finally arrived, and by the end of today we had poured the stage at one end of the church; the rest will wait until Sunday.

While we were waiting for the mixer to arrive, almost everybody pitched in and helped with the painting. By quitting time there was one classroom with the first coat 100% done, a second classroom with about 80% done, a third classroom with about 75% done, and 2 guys that had 2 coats from head to toe.

The kitchen crew got a very late start as well. It was 11:30 before that crew got on the road to town to do the shopping for the weekend – fresh fruit, bakery, several grocery stores, bus fuel, tortilla factory, and a few more stops. There is no one grocery store that carries everything we need in the quantities that we need. So it might take us 2 or 3 stops just to round up enough milk for breakfast.

After supper the “family groups” each went their own way and had worship together. A “family group” is 5 or 6 kids that are led by a student leader. They spend a good bit of time together, on the job site, evening worships, etc. Whenever we travel together we simply ask each of the 5 group leaders to account for their 5 or 6 kids, and it makes things a lot easier for the sponsors. Our group leaders are Sneha Schrestha, Moses Arevalo, Melysa LeFore, Alex Plank, Nik LeFore, and Kyle Wearner – all students at Campion Academy. They are learning leadership skills while they make a meaningful contribution to managing the logistics of the trip. Our girls “dean” is Ashley Groeneweg, and boys “dean” is J C Lynch.

A few years ago, sending out these e-mails was the only source of info that parents and friends had with the kids. Now, most of the kids have cell phones with at least text message capacity. And Facebook is their medium of choice for posting messages. Times are a-changing.