Our Continued Mission

1/11/23

DAY 5: Thankfully the pouring rain this morning stopped just in time for us to head out. We had three crews going to three different places to continue our efforts.

We did arts and crafts with the kids at St. Mark’s R.C. School in Otoxha. We had a different project for each grade, including creating a house with construction paper, drawing a house and painting it with water colors, drawing and coloring animals on blank puzzles, and painting cardboard masks.

We also guided the kids on how to make a colorful beaded rosary that they could personalize and take home, with a second rosary we brought that was handmade by the ladies at All Saints.

Father Bob conducted mass twice today, once at 10:30 AM in Machakil and later that afternoon in Dolores. They handed out additional flip-flops after mass in Machakil.

The Belizeans are very polite and grateful for our help. Many of us were offered lunch in the villagers’ homes. Our team was offered three today! The principal told me they had these village visits planned for a year, so that’s why we had three lunches on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Caldo was still a hit, and the black refried beans, scrambled eggs, and flour tortilla was amazing!

The construction workers at the Hicatee Church were fed Gibnut (AKA Royal Rat) stew for lunch and they liked it! The nickname came from Queen Elizabeth. Supposedly she had it in Belize and enjoyed it. Pop, who is a construction worker on the church, had to walk four miles into the jungle at night to catch one so it was fresh for the caldo.

STEM had some fun projects at Dolores. They created an apple tree using a Jenga game and popsicle sticks, did a learning exercise with magnetic alphabet letters and popsicle sticks, and made a peace tree from pipe cleaners.

We asked the kids “How can you bring peace to yourself, the family, community, and the world?” They wrote down their answers and attached them to the peace tree.

Stand out moments:

Dolores – It was heartwarming to see the principal’s son working so hard to help finish the foosball table so it could be enjoyed even sooner.

St. Mark’s – Stanley (Teacher at St. Mark’s) went above and beyond for us after a suitcase mishap. Without hesitation, he jumped on his motorcycle with the “wrong” suitcase and drove to Dolores to pick up the “right” suitcase. We could not have accomplished what we did today without him. And to top it off, he absolutely refused to accept any gas money. He said, “I am happy to do it.”

The construction crew was very successful updating and fixing playgrounds at both San Lucas and Corazon.

Please keep posted for future blogs.

Thank you for reading!

*Written by Alison Masson