St.Luke's in Belize: Tuesday February 18,2014

Tuesday February 18,2014

God has been very kind to our team so far. We have had temperatures in the 80's, low humidity and beautiful blue skies. We awoke this morning to a beautiful sunrise I have been told. I would not know because my eyes are hardly open that early. The walkers headed out and the golf car riders chugged on in our awful cart to arrive for breakfast on time. We all got our assignments and headed off to work

Dr. Jim headed out to San Mateo early, they like to go before it gets too hot. Stephanie and Sandra went with him this morning. They made several home visits. This was the first time for Stephanie to go inside one of the homes there. Although she sort of knew what to expect, she said that she was shocked and had a hard time absorbing all that she saw. The abject poverty of some of these people is something that is difficult to comprehend, but when you go into the homes and meet the people of the community they welcome you with smiles and true appreciation. They visited a pair of two year old twins today that Dr.Jim has been visiting since they were born. As always, people come looking for Dr. Jim when they hear he is in the neighborhood. His compassion and concern for the people of San Mateo is well known and his yearly visits are always looked forward to.

Dr.Jim's Outdoor Clinic

He looks a little nervous

She is checking out Dr. Jim's scope

Bob and Scott had a very interesting day in the bike shop. After some negotiations they got a list of some deserving kids to get the bikes repaired or tuned up.They also got an apprentice, one of the older kids from the school. One little boy brought his bike in for repair. The guys weren't sure that it was going to be possible to do much for the bike as it was in horrible condition. The bike broke when they tried to work on it and Bob and Scott were worried about what to do. The little boy was expecting his repaired back back as soon as school ended for the day. So Bob and the apprentice headed to a bike shop in San Pedro. There they negotiated a bargain for a "new, used bike",since there were no parts to fix the boy's bike. When the boy came after school to pick up his bike, he saw the mess that was his old bike and looked pretty sad. The guys explained to him that they had some problems trying to fix his bike. They asked if he wanted his old bike back or this "new, old bike". Needless to say, he accepted the new bike without a second thought. Scott and Bob felt pretty good about the outcome of them breaking the kid's bike. I think it's true when we say God will provide! I will try to get a picture of the boy with his bike.

A little meeting about the bicycle repair work

Little guy got his bike repaired

Scott with one of the repaired bikes and it's owner

Test ride for one of the repairs

Timothy has become the official afternoon dishwasher with the kitchen staff. She and Pam have spent a lot of time in there and the kitchen staff love them for their work. Kristen saw a lot of children that the teachers had asked to be seen. A few kids had to be referred to specialists. Kristen also was checking blood sugars of the adult staff and taught them how to check their sugar levels at home. Some of us went back to the classrooms to assist the teachers again. Adam worked on the playground equipment and the job was completed. Kathy and Ginny were still working on computer projects and will always be eternally grateful to Mike. He helped them whenever they had issues which was very often. He is our computer lab hero. He and Mr. Aaron repaired and put the printer back together, the teachers are thrilled! Afternoon brought both Dr.Peter and Dr. Jim seeing patients at Holy Cross. We all had a very full day today and were rewarded with a wonderful dinner at Fogon. Pam had taken everyone's order in advance to help speed things up with such a large party and then Joyce took the order for Key Lime Pie, so good! Back to Ruby's where some of us had to listen to a group of young people party and talk about some things that we would rather not have heard until the wee hours of the morning.