Day 5 (Thursday)

For those of you reading that have been waiting on an update for our last day of work in Los Tombos, we appologize for the delay.  We got home late for dinner on Thursday and had to pack up to head out early Friday morning.

Thursday, we split into two teams for the morning.  One team stayed back at InHisWill and made 300 sandwiches for the community party.  Messy Bessy (Mary-Beth) kept all the sandwich makers laughing with her dance moves.  Next time you see her ask her to do the Iguana or Caterpillar for you!  You might never be the same.

The second team went into Los Tombos to finish up projects.  

After school let out, we had several families from the village come for a community party.  Each year at the community party, each grade in school has a quick performance.  This year the kids read poems and sang songs about God.  The older kids did a presentation on their findings from the water experiment we conducted with them.  We gave the teachers the gift bags that Mission Possible Kids and the M&Ms put together.  These teachers work very hard and we were excited to give them something to show our appreciation.  We then handed out food bags (also colored by the MPKs and M&Ms).  After eating, the Moms swarmed the dresses and shorts made by the Flannel Floozies.  They are always a BIG hit and this year did not disappoint.  Thank you Flannel Floozies!!!!!

We left Friday morning to head to Belize City and Caye Caulker.  We enjoyed our restful day full of swimming and snorkeling!  

Day 4

(Wednesday)

Today we made an unscheduled trip to the Spanish Lookout Medical Clinic after an unnamed team member fell victim to the world's nastiest fly bite. This was the first trip to the clinic our team has ever had to make, and we praise God that it was nothing worse. We also did some recon at the clinic. They were very helpful, and the visit (plus drugs) was cheap!

At the school, we worked hard to move huge rocks to fill the hole where we have layed the foundation for the new bathroom. After a morning of hard work, a friendly Belizean saw our work while driving past in a tractor with a front loader attachment (and with another friendly Belizean riding in the loader). He turned into the school and made short work of filling the hole. We were thankful for the help!

TODAY WAS BIKE DAY!!!!! Thank you for all if your bike donations!  

In the afternoon, a team of Tom, Greg, and Darby led another class on clean water. The students looked at the water samples they had collected and recorded what they saw after another day's time. Many were surprised at how many bacteria they could see. Each group then drew a picture and wrote a description that summarized what they learned. It was clear that they picked up a lot of what our team had said, and they know how to make sure their water is clean! This will be great for the community if the students can help pass these lessons along to their families.

Another team led by Johnny drained and cleaned the school's cistern, which is used to collect rainwater for drinking. The science experiement showed that this water was full of ecoli and Choliform bacteria, and there were frogs living inside. Our thorough cleaning should help ensure one of the main sources of water is healthy to drink and use.

Throughout the day, the team continued to deliver rice and beans to the houses of children in school at Los Tambos Government School. We are thrilled to report that we visited all the families on our list!

During the evening, we threw a party for Jessica, Daniel, Jasmine, and Joshua, the four high school graduates from Los Tambos that members of FCPC have sponsored. Many of their family members were able to attend, and they were extremely grateful for your help! Tere gave a speech, with Jessica's assistance, and Tom had a video slideshow that gave a history of the four graduates. Jessica graduated in the top three in her class, and Joshua graduated as valedictorian in THREE years. We are in awe of the dedication and faith these four have shown. They each gave speeches, and brought members of our team to tears.

Day 3

Day Three was another fun, productive and HOT day.  

Today we continued working on the toilet....Johnny was hard at work again today laying block.  We had a large number of Belizian helpers and workers join in to help.  

Darby, Tom, Greg, Andy and Reynaldo helped hang new white boards in the classroom.  The teachers were excited to get new, clean boards!  Greg and Andy are holding hands to show their happiness over the new white board.  

Two van loads of team members headed out again to deliver beans and rice.  We had a great time visiting with and praying for families.  They are always so incredibly thankful and gracious for our visits.

 

This afternoon we got to hand out gift bags to each student.  One thing we noticed was how the children glanced through the toys to find and read the letter before playing with the toys.  The kids LOVE reading letters and seeing pictures from each of you who compiled the bags.  This is a favorite activity to watch for many of our members becase it is almost like Christmas for them.  

We had another great day at VBS.  The kids have gotten so excited this year about singing songs and COLORING.  They learned more about the creation story and colored prayer boxes.  

Day Two

Day two was a very busy and productive day. The whole team went to Los Tambos to begin many projects. 

Two teams left to deliver beans, rice and other goodies to the familes in the village.  To hold up to our van tradition, Kelley's van (including Robin, Mark and Darby) got very stuck in wet mud.  While it was Kelley who was driving the van, ROBIN was the one giving orders for where to drive.  In true Belize fashion, it started POURING as soon as they got out of the van to try and push it out.  After several minutes of unsuccessful pushing, a very kind man in the village came with a truck to pull them out.  Andy's van (Lyn, Kristen, Mary-Beth and Natalie) managed to stay out of the mud and returned from delivering much cleaner.  All in all, we had a productive day delivering the rice and beans.

Back at the school, the stronger of the crew began work on the bathroom.  Johnny spent the majority of the day workng hard on this project along with help from Gramps (John), Tere, Jack, Mark and LYN!  They layed 4 rows of blocks before the downpoor.  

Also at the school, Tom, Greg and Darby conducted a water science experiement with the older students to show them the difference between clean and dirty water.  They took samples of several different forms of water around the school and will observe it again after 2 days to determine the amount of bateria.  

It is also worth noting that Jack spent most of the day on the roof of the school "fixing" and "patching" it up.  It was rather funny hearing the kids come up to the other team members pointing and calling him "monkey monkey."  

Last but not least, we had one of the best VBS days we have ever had in Belize. Mary-Beth and Kristen did a wonderful job leading songs.  We had a cabana full of kids singing joyfully (especially to their favorite song: Father Abraham).  After Lyn told the story of creation, we gave the kids snack and divided them up into groups for a small lesson on serving God through loving others.  We also gave them crayons to color a creation picture.  They LOVED coloring.  It was the best craft we have ever done.  They were ALL (boys and girls) completely focused and eager to show their careful and neat coloring. 

We came back for one of our favorite dinners: stewed chicken and rice....

Then for desert tonight, we had a bat fly into the dining room.  Carmen got a huge laugh out of watching the women scream and hide.  EVENTUALLY the men decided help and came to the rescue.  The mouse killer (aka Johnny) is now known as the bat killer!!!

We made it!!!

We made it!  

It has been pretty cloudy and unusually cool at moments....HOWEVER with 97% humidity, we are certainly still 'glowing' with a glow that we only have in Belize.  

The last few years, we flew into Belize on a Sunday and were unabe to attend a worship service.  Since we flew in on Saturday this year, we were all excited to go back to a familiar church in San Ignacio.  Despite his resistance, the whole congregation helped Jack celebrate his18th birthday by singing to him (and possibly embarrassing him a little).  

After church, we ate lunch and recharged.  We split up into two teams.  The first team left to go into Los Tambos to take family pictures for the families in the village.  Around 24 families showed to up in their best-dressed clothes.  It was laughable seeing Kelley try to herd the families into position and convince them to smile for the photo.  While Kelley took the pictures, the other team members helped entertain the kids at Los Tambos.  They were very excited to see everyone and even welcomed Greg back after many years by running up to him and calling him "stinky Greg," or "stinky dog."   

The next team went to graduation to see Jasmin, Jessica and Daniel.  Jessica was recognized for having high honors all four years.  Each of them had several family members there to support them.  Joshua graduated before the team arrived and was Valedictorian of his class.  It is a blessing to see more students succeed.   We saw Emerson (last year's graduate) at graduation and he is now working as a salesman in San Ignacio.  A huge thanks to those at FCPC who help sponsor these kids!  

Currently, Mary-Beth and Kristen are having a little too much fun listening to our VBS music.   Mary-Beth is helping initiate our newest team member Kristen by teaching her some interesting dance moves.  

Jessica and Daniel with their families after graduating:

Jasmin with her family after graduating:

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Jessica and Jasmin with last year's graduate Emerson (also Jasmin's brother):