Pictures of Team One and Team Next

Photos from Team One's trip home

Now that both teams are home safely, here are a couple of interesting photos from Team One's trip home a week ago. The first (or possibly the second -- the blog seems to have its own ideas about where to position photos) shows our own Father Joe Hensley with the Rt. Reverend Philip Wright, Bishop of Belize. Team One attended a very impressive two-and-a-half hour service at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Baptist in Belize City prior to catching the plane to Miami. One of the many elements of this service was Joe's birthday blessing for Bishop Wright and for several members of the congregation, including one lady who was celebrating her 98th birthday. There were also several baptisms and a special blessing for everyone planning to travel (which obviously included us on Team One).

The second photo comes from the Miami airport. After we had cleared customs and gone to wait for the flight home, this incredibly frenetic insect suddenly showed up at our gate. For well over an hour, he entertained children and adults waiting for their flights, the airline people at the gate, and anyone else who happened to be walking by. The only thing that stopped him was an announcement that our flight would be departing from a different gate in another concourse.

Our Work is Done

We finished our work at Holy Cross today and bid farewell to our new friends - the children and teachers. It was hard to leave and we had many, many hugs - and some tears - before we started the walk back to our hotel. We were able to move along with several things Team 1 began as well as a few of our own projects. We think we managed to throw a number of starfish back into the sea and make a bit of a difference.
The Valentine's Fair at the school was great fun and raised a lot of money. There were games and prizes, food and a giant inflated slide. The entire Jacobi family did face-painting on MANY little faces.
We had a lovely dinner tonight and are bringing our time here in San Pedro to a close. Tomorrow we return to Belize City and then home on Sunday. Be ready -- we have taken loads of pictures and will be eager to share our stories.
Thank you from Team Next for the prayers and support from everyone at home. We have missed you but have known you were with us in spirit. We'll see you soon!

Happy Valentine's Day

Today was a very festive day at Holy Cross. Standard VI was in charge of cupcakes for the school. They baked, frosted, decorated and delivered over 400 cupcakes to children, teachers and volunteers. Earlier in the week, Maggie, Anne, and Jan helped each class decorate Valentine's bags which Joanne helped fill with treats. Everyone left this afternoon with a treat. And congratulations to Holy Cross's first football team who won their game this afternoon -- dressed in new uniforms.

The work is going well. Scott and Jim have just about finished the new bathroom -- all that's left is to install the toilet and sink. John W. , Peter, Nina and John C. have got the flooring just about done on a huge section of the new library/computer room. One of the Standard I teachers has been sick all week and Joyce has been their substitute. Clara has worked with an Infant I class: Sandra is in Standard II; and Jan has been all around. Pam and Jean have the dental clinic painted and ready for patients while Joanne unpacked, sorted and put away all the school supplies both teams brought. Anne, Peggy and Maggie have painted an amazing mural in Resurrection Hall around Miss Laura's office. And, in their spare time, Maggie and Peggy have had music with each class. Jan assisted with the older children's chapel this morning along with Deacon Tess, visiting from Canada. It has been very hot and we are pretty worn out at the end of each day. But, we get up the next morning, ready to go again.

Tonight we will celebrate Valentine's at Wild Mango's restaurant. A real treat!! Tomorrow there is a Valentine's fair at the school. We don't really know what to expect but will do what we can. There will be no classes but the construction will continue. Our week is rapidly drawing to an end. We have made many new friends at Holy Cross and will be sad to leave.

Something is not working in the transfer of pictures--- Team 1 wins the prize for best blog. We will try again tomorrow but will have terrific ones to bring home and share.

Tuesday

First day of work!

Today was the first day we got to work at the school. When two seperate groups went around to the classes a lot of the younger kids seemed to be very interested in my braces. One younger girl came up to me and said "You have rubbers bands on your teeth?" And the older kids (I say older when they were probaly aroung seven or eight) liked my red hair. Today Jan, my mom and I worked with six classes at different times on Valentine treat bags for Thursday. There is going to be a Valentines day party on Thursday and a fair on Friday. Mrs. Grace also told all the students that if they didn't do their homework that they didn't get to go to the fair. That would stink! It was very confusing for me when we passed out candy for each of the kids in the classes because each kid got three pink candycorns. Well some kids thought they could be sneaky and tell me "I no got any!" I would just look at them right in the eye and even if I didn't remember if I had given them some candy or not, I would find out becaus if they had taken some already they would smile really big. But if they hadn't gotten any they would look really sad and innocent. But at one point all the kids in one class swarmed around me and were yelling that they hadn't gotten any and were pulling at the bag of candy. Fourtunatly my mom came over and broke up the mob of angry and hungry children. It was also very sad when the children would try to sneak out of the classroom with a small sheet of stickers. And you have to know that these kids don't have a lot and every chance they got they would try to steal from eachother or from the school. (only stickers and markers though) Also, Pam painted the dental suite. It is a toothpaste blue (very appropriate) with a wavy texture. The guys started on the floor frame for the library and computer lab. My mom, Anne, John, Joanne, and I put up a parachute on the ceiling for color. Anne was dragged into a classroom and was left to teach the standard one class this afternoon. Clara also helped in the classroom. Nina helped with the floor framing and dishwashing. Sandra worked in the classroom and on dishwashing. With 400 students it is a lot of dishes to clean. Once the cooking ladies are done cooking and washing dishes, they are already started on another meal. They never get a moments rest! I don't know how they do it! All in all it was an excellent first day. Everyone is very tired and so am I!! OH! And we saw somthing you don't get tp see!!! Rain! There were actually PUDDLES! Seeing rain these days is like seeing and elephant walking down the street. So I think that was onw of the most exciting things. Well my fingers are hurting now so I think I will go. BlessingS to all and I will talk again soon. Bye!

Team Next Has Arrived

Team Next (we are not #2) arrived safely in San Pedro yesterday afternoon. John met us at the water taxi and helped us lug our suitcases to Ruby's. We had just about settled in when the rest of Team 1 returned from their final day of work at Holy Cross. All 33 of us had a great dinner with lively conversation. We shared Compline before ending a very long day -- Team Next had been on the move since about 3:00 AM.
Today has been leisurely -- some went to Lamanai; others snorkeled; many shopped; everyone relaxed. Team Next is adjusting to the heat, sand and ocean breeze while Team One packs and gets ready to head home. It has been great to "overlap" so we could share information and fun.
Team Next is eager to see what our tasks at the school will be. We anticipate continuing the work begun last week but there are some equipment issues that must be resolved first. We are also looking forward to being in the classrooms with the children.
Stay tuned -- we will keep you up to date as week 2 of the St. Luke's mission adventure continues -- pictures too!

Today was Team One's last workday. Francis greeted us at breakfast and took us for a walk through San Mateo, the swamp neighborhood where many of the children who attend school live (see accompanying picture). The story of San Mateo is too long for a blog, but ask any Belize Team member to share it with you. The children were still out of school due to the election holiday yesterday, so a lot of painting was undertaken, including a bright white to liven up the long porch off the cafeteria and various and sundry painting of doors, windows and random unpainted wood. Several more floor beams and joists were added and the stair masters and mistresses finished up the railing on the new set of stairs. Team One returned to be greeted by the arrival of Team Next, and all gathered on Ruby's upper deck. Jaritzy and her brother Jobe showed up with a huge card they had made for the departing St. Lukers, and to greet members of Team Next that they had met last year. Then all 31 members of both teams attended dinner together and held a compline service. Other pictures with this blog post include the stair masters and mistresses astride their creation, and the assembled members of Team One, along with the work grew of Freddy, Mr. G., and Fredo. Also shown is Holly presenting a huge rice pot to the kitchen women who fed us and 450 students each day, but lamented that they had only one pot for rice, so had to cook in batches. Not included (figured 4 pictures is plenty) is a picture of the members of the Mud Squad standing triumphantly upon the floor beams and girders atop the 24 piles they managed to sink to bedrock while simultaneously hiding the holes for the 21 piles still to go. Pray for a Bobcat mechanic and a skilled driver who won't sink it into the lagoon. The next blog will come from an intrepid member of Team Next.

Today is election day in Belize, which the citizens take very seriously, often traveling long distances to the places they are registered (shades of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem). As a consequence the school is closed both today and tomorrow, which is sad since we can't see the kids, but does mean we can work on things we couldn't with children around (like lots of painting). Holly, David, Bob and Gareth have been building a new set of stairs to serve as another exit in case of fire. Work continues on the floor joists for the library; we got 24 piles in, but progress was slow as we had to replace a pump and the bedrock has gotten too deep in places for us to place piles. Will have to wait for the pros to come up with a solution.

Yesterday was fun at the school as we had both ash wednesday services (ask Joe about the Banana Lady sermon) with the imposition of ashes, plus the school held a goodbye ceremony for us, involving lots of thank you cards, hugs and one class shouting out in unison, "We love you, Mr. Bob." Some of us enjoyed watching the Duke-UNC game last night; others, not so much.

Team Next joins us tomorrow and we are eager to share our stories and turn over the hard work!

Tuesday was another busy day at Holy Cross School. Several people have been working in the classrooms, with (among others) Mr. Bob teaching geometry, Holly working in the Special Ed class, Roxane and Gareth helping children perfect their letters in their workbooks, and Father Joe clowning for the children (who give as good as they get). Others were out working in the mud and muck again, continuing to sink piles to support the new library (18 down and 27 to go). Every time a pile reaches bedrock, the muck marauders let out a cheer or grunt as if a successful hunt had been concluded. Mark is handy with the chain saw and is finishing off the piles after they are sunk to the bedrock so they will be ready to receive the floor joists. Gretchen is repairing furniture and Randy is painting all the places the kids can't reach. Elections in Belize are on Thursday (and I guess several elections are concluding in the US today) so the kids will be off school; and perhaps Friday as well, since many people are registered to vote off the island and probably won't get back until the weekend. Not exactly sure what the 2 main political parties, the PUP and UDP stand for, but it seems to be taken very seriously. More tomorrow ...

Monday

No pictures to post today, but will try to add some tomorrow. Today was our first day of work at the school, which spanned the gamet of washing dishes after the 420+ students ate lunch to decorating classrooms to playing games and helping in the classrooms to repairing furniture to starting to build the school's first library. The latter involved several of our party slopping around in the muck, trying (and sometimes succeeding) in sinking big, heavy 6 x 6 piles in holes we dug that kept filling up with water. (OK, so we played with big blocks in the sand: but it WAS hard). We even got to play with power tools. We began the day by visiting all the classrooms and introducing ourselves. Suspect the children were most amazed that Craig was the biggest nurse they had ever seen (and a MAN!), that women could grow up to be lawyers (Joan, or "Miss Juanita," as she is known here) and priests (that other John's wife), and that Father Joe could balance brooms on his chin and chairs on his fingers (Note to 2009 teams: you will probably be building a "time out" room for all the kids who try to emulate Father Joe!). The walk back to the hotel was interesting as part of "Carnival" in Belize involves roving bands of adolescents with bottles filled with paint who thrown the paint on one another and perhaps (we feared) on unsuspecting passers-by. We tried to project a muscular Christianity and were unscathed. If the Motrin kicks in, we should be back working bright and early tomorrow morning.

Sunday

Team 1 attended church this morning with many people from the school and community; about 140 in all. Joe celebrated (from the West Indies Prayer Book) and Roxane preached. Assuming everything works again, photos of the service will accompany this post. After the service and lunch, people split up for various activities, including using bicycles and golf carts to explore the Caye. Tomorrow the work begins in earnest.

Team 1 has arrived safely in San Pedro

The 17 members of Team 1 checked into Ruby's Hotel on Friday. Today (Saturday) we began with a brief worship service, had breakfast, then scattered, with various members going to snorkel, scuba dive, visit the Mayan site of Lamani or just relax. Several of us walked to Holy Cross school to see what had changed since our visit a year ago and check out what we would be working on. The school has expanded significantly, with several new buildings. Our work site (shown in a photo on this blog if I am successful at loading it) is bare ground (well, some ground, some mangrove swamp). So we will have to start by sinking posts to the bedrock below. On our walk back, we ran into one of the families we were closest too last year: Jaritzy and her siblings and some of their friends. We were overjoyed to see each other and (again, if successful) there is an accompanying photo of Joe Hensley performing a little clowning for them.

Team 1 is getting ready to go!

It's now January 26, so in less than a week Team 1 will be in Belize. I'm sure we will have already walked up to the school, to see how it has changed in the year since many of us first visited it.

Just to make sure they're in this blog somewhere, here are two links to additional information about Holy Cross Anglican School:

• The school's own website.


• A blog dedicated to the school.

Look for more posts and some pictures starting in February.

- Bob Moore