To wake up in Belize is something you need to experience in order to fully appreciate God's ever-present hand on a trip like this! An early awakening this morning, when the rain came down in buckets making a tremendous noise on the tin roof. The country already covered in water, received another load. But rains subsided, and we could continue our dreams.
We were treated to a breakfast that Golden Griddle would be jealous of...after morning devos we were all in the van for shortly after 8am to be at the school for opening assembly. Due to the rain this was the first day of school for the week.
About 160 kids, dressed in school uniforms, sang their songs of praise to God, and proudly sang their national anthem, first in english, and also in their native language, which is Spanish.We were able to join in singing praises to our heavenly Father with "This is the day" but we're forced to just listen when they proceded to sing it in Spanish. Believe me when is say it sounds way cooler in Spanish! We were then welcomed to the school by the vice principal and were referred to as special visitors from Canada. He then invited our team leader to introduce the team members. Mark proceded to explain that even though it took two planes to cross many miles and borders we are all "special" brothers and sisters in Christ.
From the assembly we went to our different classrooms and watched the students and teachers and met our concrete mixing brothers, enjoying the enthusiasm of all of them!
A busy day with all kinds of activities, which meant mixing concrete for some of the men, and doing some tutoring and teaching for the others. Even the dogs are free to come in and get educated!
It was a very humid day because of the rains, and kids as well as adults, were urged to drink.
We all loved interacting with the students, and had a lot to ask the teachers, admiring their inventiveness, with so few supplies.
They really would love to be able to chose from a wishlist for their classrooms!!
The day went fast, cement was poured in both the classroom and the hall by lunch. We were free to mingle in the classrooms for the afternoon and some of the team even took part in chicken observation and a church recon roadtrip! After Mark rounded up his team we realized we were one member short...George was so busy singing and interacting with some of the little girls that it wasn't until we started to pull away and the little girls said we were leaving without him that he decided to come with!
Going "home " is quite an experience here. No speedlimits in this country!!!. And instead of traffic signs, or stoplights, they simply have roadbumps. You are forced to slow down and basically stop or risk losing the undercarriage of your vehicle. Anky is so impressed with these speedbumps that we started referring to our trips by the # of them it takes before we reach our destinations...Btw it's 15 to Conception from our motel!
Everybody WILL stop at any intersection, pedestrian crossing or while entering a village, not risking being thrown out of the vehicle!
How effective, inventive and done at very low cost, since there is gravel everywhere!
Showering with cold water is no problem, and after the evening meal, we talked and discussed, how we humbly have to serve others, living the way Christ himself showed us.
Our first day
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