Helping the Community and Connecting

1/9/23 – 1/10/23

DAYS 3 and 4: We split up into four and five separate groups both days to make the most of our time and get the greatest outreach. We will be doing this for the remainder of the week.

Volunteers handed out flip-flops/school supplies, did construction on Hicatee Church, took down the water tower in Otoxha, built and played foosball tables, educated children with language arts, math, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) projects with trees, religion, arts and crafts, and writing letters to pen pals.

We spent two days handing

out 218+ flip-flops and school supplies at St. Mark’s R.C. School and Our Lady of Sorrows R.C School. It was so rewarding to watch the children pick out their color flip-flops (They call them slippers.) and to see the big smiles on their faces when they received supplies.

Another crew worked on building the church in Hicatee, using the solar panels and other supplies they purchased at the hardware store. This church has been seven years in the making, so it’s really great we are able to help them get closer to completion.

We worked with a local crew to take down the water tower so they could move it to another location. It was so fascinating to see how they got it down using a pulley effect with rope and logs.

Something really fun we did was construct foosball tables with the kids; teaching them how to use a screwdriver for the first time. Then, of course, they got to play them.

Another fun and educational project we did with the children was writing letters to pen pals. We have children’s handwritten letters from kids at All Saints Parish, along with their picture. Each student replied to a letter and included a Polaroid photo of themselves. They also got to take home a picture. Some of the kids told us they had not taken a picture since the last one we took of them three years ago!

An interesting note on photos… Some of the kids LOVE to be in front of camera, and others hide from it and don’t like their picture taken at all.

Some of us were invited into villager’s homes for lunch. It was such a generous offer to enjoy a home-cooked meal. I have heard so many great things about how delicious the cho cho chicken soup was, in addition to the scrambled eggs. I can personally vouch for the calhoun cabbage soup. It was absolutely amazing!!

It feels really great to be in Belize, volunteering, helping the community, and making personal connections with both the children and locals.

Please keep posted for future blogs.

*Written by Alison Masson