If it's Thursday, it must be more tutoring and building

Team-O Primo has settled into our routine: measuring and weighing the children, measuring and cutting the wood, measuring and sugar-coating our words (well, OK, not the last one). Tomorrow is a teacher work-day (they do them everywhere), so we need to finish up all the children-related activities. Thursday is also chapel, and if we have figured out how to work the "Flip" correctly, this blog should include a short video clip of the younger children in chapel.

Wednesday was a busy day, with great progress made on the children's medical record spreadsheets and updating them with this year's heights and weights.

Dirt is now apparently, well, dirt-cheap, so truck-loads of it have been showing up. Regrettably, there are plenty of shovels, so instead of a couple of workers and many supervisors, all of the dues-paying members of the Society of Strong Backs and Weak Minds have been able to reclaim some more swamp for the school.

After many design consultations, the maintenance walkway on the back side of the school was 90% completed and Wayne and Craig began applying the decking (drill hole, pound nail, drill hole, pound nail).

Holly continued to work with the dental team; she is amazed by the courage of the children, some of whom have extensive work done. Jan Lamb and Amy Duggins took the water taxi to Belize City to meet with the Bishop, Jan to report on her work and Amy to prepare the way for the St. Lukes youth group that arrives in June.

Since it was Wednesday, and we are Episcopalians steeped in ritual, we made the annual trek to Caliente for the Chicken Drop. No St. Lukers chose to play a starring role in the production this year, as Maggie Young did last year, but a raucous time was had by all. So far, our health has been generally good with only Mr. Bob suffering some ill effects one day (his new motto: No Lobster for the Bobster!).

The children continue to delight. I'll try to post some pictures in subsequent posts.

Photos from Belize

This will be a short post, with some pictures. In no particular order, you see:

1. Holly Hodges on the wooden boards where she leads children to the dental office. New meaning to "walk the plank."

2. Randy painting poles that are used to mark the school's boundary, while balancing on joists. Fortunately we do not have to take them into the swamp in the canoe and sink them to bedrock.

3. David standing by his welding success, which he has termed "The Gates of Hell" due to the difficulty involved. Although perhaps less artistic than Rodin's sculpture of the same name, based on what the Pentacostal preachers here in Belize say, David's gates are more successful at keeping people out.

4. Hope and Craig walking hand-in-hand to work in the morning and, in the distance, John and Jean doing likewise. The couple that slaves together, stays together. No one else would let me photograph them holding hands as, technically, they are not here with their spouses.

Getting to Work

It's day 2 at the School. Jan Lamb is serving as the back-up Francis (since Vernon and Francis are back in the States), greeting visitors, searching desperately for someone else to take charge of the bulletin boards, and generally keeping things on an even keel. A dental team is also here this week, so Holly Hodges is serving as the Angel of Dental Visitation, collecting the Appointed Ones from their classrooms and leading them to the Chair. Other work includes Hope, Amy, Bob and Jean unloading and storing the supplies we brought, applying color-coded labels to the spines of books in the library to make filing (and the correction of mis-filing) easier, providing 1-on-1 tutoring and, for Randy, painting poles that are being used to mark the boundaries of the school property.

We've also begun sorting the medical records for the students from last year, so that we can start the height and weight measurements for new and returning students and have the records sorted by classroom for next week's medical team.

Those with strong backs and weak minds have been relegated to moving sand, welding (Oh my God, they've given men from St. Luke's welding torches!!), moving lumber from across the road and, unfortunately, taking apart the beginnings of a maintenance walk-way that a group last week started but apparently did not do as instructed (I thought the February workers weren't supposed to be punished for the sins of the January workers; isn't that in Matthew or Mark, somewhere?). John Willard drew the short straw and had to crouch underneath a classroom in a nice layer of muck to cut off screws. John H-C stuck to taking apart the pieces of the walkway reachable from an upright and locked position, making mamby-pamby excuses about bad knees, the risk posed to a 6-footer if he has to contort his back, and general sissy-ness.

Craig, Van, David (the welder) and Wayne have been extending a porch off the back of the building that houses the kitchen. Mr. Bob kept his streak alive as the Most Famous Celebrity From St. Luke's by being hailed on the beach by a student who had graduated from Holy Cross last year and is now attending the high school on the island.

On Sunday, we had a joint worship service at Ruby's led by a group from St. Anne's Episcopal Church, located near St. Paul, MN. Jan Lamb served as deacon; pictures accompanying this post are from the service. Monday evening we read Compline before heading to dinner.

The hard work continues to be rewarded with wonderful meals. Last night was lobster burritos at Waraguma, home of the best papusas on the island (as Jan Lamb can tell you, papusas are Salvadoran corn meal pancakes typically filled with meat and cheese).

Jan Lamb's apartment continues to be a popular destination due to her refrigerator and internet connection. We trust that the constant parade of different men to her apartment isn't raising eyebrows with the neighbors.

Internet access has been a bit spotty, but we'll update this blog as time and the Belize telephone monopoly allow, and as the Spirit moves us. Comments are welcome. All posts are the sole responsibility of the blogger and are not to be construed as official or sanctioned views of St. Luke's, the Belize Mission Teams or the blogger's ordained spouse, who is too far away to keep him in line.

Team-O Primo Arrives

The first wave of St. Lukers arrived safely on Ambergris Caye today and were met by Jan Lamb who was nursing a Belikin at the Tackle Box. After settling into Ruby's and resting up, the group went out for a nice seafood dinner (see photo), then walked Jan back to her apartment so we could check the progress of the winter weather back in North Carolina. Plans for tomorrow include some folks visiting the Mayan ruins at Lamanii. Holly Hodges arrives from Texas tomorrow, completing Team-O Primo's line up.

Team Two prepares to leave

Team 2 closed out a great week at Holy Cross with the Valentine's festival today. There were games, food, music and lots of children. After our final delicious lunch prepared by Ms. Rosalea and her crew, we said our farewells and headed back to Ruby's. Some folks shopped;others napped. We soaked in the last of the tropical sun. Dinner was at the Sunset Grill -- a lovely way to end a great week. We will catch the morning water taxi after breakfast to begin the journey back to Durham, to family and homes. We are so thankful to John and Jean for all the pre-trip organization, to Terrie and Debbie for the preparations that made our medical screenings smooth, to Peter for being the Team 2 leader, and to each member of this team for working together, playing together and praying together. Thank you too to everyone at St. Luke's and beyond who came with us in spirit. We are already talking about our next trip to San Pedro and Holy Cross.

Farewell from San Pedro ..... and Ruby's.

Another busy day....

Wednesday night found most of the team watching the Duke - UNC game. Barbara and Wilbur were the lone -- but very happy -- Carolina fans. It was a friendly rivalry with lots of cheers and laughing. Some of the group just went home happier than others did.

The final day of our medical screenings was a busy one. Dr. Peter, Dr. Jim and Nurse Joyce began the day at the Polyclinic seeing both well and sick babies. They joined the rest of the team at the school for more screening. Joanne took the height and weight of 3 more classes of children; Barbara and Clara did even more vision checks today with a few new referrals. Deacon Jan conducted 2 Chapel services and assisted the older students with their service. How wonderful to hear the children singing and praying together. As Sandra continued to videotape as many aspects of Holy Cross life as possible, she had a private tour of San Mateo. Wilbur worked with Jason on the shelves for the computer lab, and they are almost finished. There will be even more great storage when these shelves are finished.

We had more time with individual children today, meeting new friends, renewing old friendships in a day filled with hugs and bright smiles. Students worked today on preparations for their booths at the Valentine's Festival, including Standard VI's traditional cupcake sale. The festival will include health screenings for adults and will give us a new view of the school and community.

More Screenings Today

     We did even more screenings today. We have seen all the children in 9 classes along with more sick or hurt children.  Then we saw children of teachers and the teachers themselves.  Jim has gone to San Mateo again today to make home visits for mothers and babies.  As we worked with the older children, we reconnected today with more who we have met on past trips. The smiles when they recognize our faces or remember our names are so wonderful.

     Our doctors will be at the Polyclinic tomorrow so our screenings will take on a different flavor. It promises to be another day of adventure at Holy Cross!

     At Clara's birthday dinner celebration last night at Wild Mangos, we were treated to a visit from Terrie and Van.  They are enjoying their vacation but wanted to get the scoop on the school.

     No pictues tonight and a short post since we'll have an early dinner so that we can watch the Duke/Carolina game.  We have a big screen TV reserved on the condition that we buy plenty of Belikin.  No problem, mon.  It will be interesting as we are a "mixed" group.  

       Peace.