Greetings from Belize. Here is a summary of a typical day so far.
6:30 wake up
7:00 breakfast (there about)
8:00 our harrowing drive through Belize city, our Vaseline slicked bus as we squeezed through city streets to get to the work site.
8:45 our site leader Harry coordinates our jobs with Manuel and we begin hauling blocks one by one up to the second floor with a pulley.
Some are laying block, some pointing, some mixing mortar, sorting wood, pulling out nails, hauling stone and rebar. Some have been spending time assisting in the class since this is government exam week.
We've been making great progress!
We stop for our lunch of rice and beans with a bit of coleslaw and either chicken or beef then back at it.
We work till around 4:30 when our bus comes to take us back through the tight streets of the city.
We bargain for the much needed shower and relax out on the porch and enjoy the breeze off the ocean which is only 30 feet in front of the house.
Our supper comes around 7:00.
We've had Buritos, Enchiladas, chicken, rice and beans. We chuckle at the plastic spoon we get with our lunch, no fork and no knife to eat rice, salad and meat. It's wonderful.
We appreciate it so much!
After our evening devotions we play games and head to bed.
We see such a huge contrast between things we aren't familiar with, the rich homes and the squatter homes where we work. The school is surrounded by a squatters village. All of them are built up on stilts since the area is a swamp. There is one faucet for several homes. They throw their garbage right out the window. Apparently it's "landfill". Laundry is all done by hand and hung out on rope or wire or whatever is handy. The children are wonderful! They are full of fun and love to spend their break times with us.
Tuesday we celebrated Hank's "special" birthday and on Wednesday we celebrated with Pete the precious new granddaughter born to Mike and Nicole.
Thursday we had turkey at lunch celebrating American Thanksgiving.
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