Free Sunday

St. Luke's folks were all over San Pedro today...walking, biking, golf carting. It was a totally free day until 5:00. Dr. Jim went to the school to meet with Kim, a social worker here from Univ of Mississippi he worked with last year; Dr. Peter and Sandra biked to up north of the bridge; Clara Joyce, Ron and Kathy rented a golf cart and headed north and south; Bob and Ginny shopped; Jean and John walked up north and everyone relaxed for the rest of the day. We gathered at 5 and headed to Jan's place for a Super Bowl Party! It was quite the success! Great time had by all. Home early enough to be rested for tomorrow! Be sure to check out the blog entry on Saturday by Team 2. It follow's John H-C's return home entry!

Adios from Team-O Primo

We enjoyed our time in San Pedro. Attached is a picture of 2 motley crews: Team-O Primo and the Holy Cross Anglican School soccer team. Good Luck to the Team 2 Crew!

Team 2 - On Their Own!

Saturday was a great day for Team 2 (and a few holdovers from Team 1). After good-byes to Team 1 members returning today, all but Jean, Joanne, Jan, Ron and Kathy headed for the for John's favorite sail boat for a day of sailing, snorkeling and relaxing. Turns out the Captain of the boat found it stuck on the reef and he got it off and has repaired it and now takes groups out for day and multiple day trips. One of his kids or grandkids goes to Holy Cross so he gave them a really great rate.

Nothing like a day of sailing to bring you all together!

They had a tremendous lunch and snorkeled in the Coral Gardens area, a new one for all. They caught a baracuda--but that wasn't lunch! All had a grand time.

Ron and Kathy headed out at 7:00 for the day trip to Lamanai. They had a super time and saw monkeys etc while there. Came back weary after their boat, bus, and more boat rides, but very enthused and happy. The rum punch on the way back might have had something to do with it!

Jean, Joanne and Jan headed for Caye Caulker for a trip down memory lane and a visit to the Sandbox! Caye Caulker was where we had out first Belize adventure in 2002 building houses for an Episcopal Relief and Development Project. First stop was the fruit with yogurt and granola breakfast at the Sandbox. Has not changed at all, except the staff. None of the familiar faces. Daisy's looks just the same...even with the same coat of paint on it! Our houses look great..they're holding up very well. The one by the gas company had a swing set beside it and looked great. No foul odors so the septic must be working well also!! The shopping is about the same. Mr. Chocolate was there this time and we had a good conversation about the Manatee Conservation Area. Walked down to the split and it looks just the same. They're finally finishing up the hotel building that was boarded up all those years ago. Back to the Sandbox for conch fritters and then the water taxi home.

Great day had by all. Carumbas for dinner and the first of many birthday celebrations for Clara.

Week One nears an end

Today is the last day of work at the School for Week One. It is also the hottest day we have had. Since the children are away, we've done some painting in the "lunch porch" along with some outside painting. Our maintenance deck over the swamp continues to grow; we returned this morning to find the pros had extended the framing around the side of the building and were headed around another corner. We are suspicious that the old "bait and switch" is being used to have us build the Holy Cross Fishing Pier. Craig and Wayne extended the decking as far as prudence would allow, plus 3 additional boards. Fortunately, we heard no splahes.





Holly, wielding the circular saw, and David did various repairs around the school. Jean and Hope have been continuing to work on the student records in the library. We are confident that we will have done all that we can in advance of the Medical Team.





Holy Cross' soccer team plays the catholic school this afternoon at 3 and we plan to knock off early to watch the rivalry and cheer as only St. Luke's Mission Team members with a Bit o' Belikin in the belly can ("We don't care if you have the Pope, when you play Holy Cross, you've got no hope"). The internet is having a little trouble uploading pictures right now, but if I get a chance later, I'll post some pictures of the team at work, a picture of one of the students who walked hand in hand with Van to school one day has been added to a previous post.





We are looking forward to the arrival of the Week 2 Crew; from among their ranks will come the next blogger.

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.