Where do we stay?

Our team stays at a place called Ruby's, just a block from the San Pedro airport.  (The airport just gets a few small prop planes per day.  We don't notice any airport noise.)  Ruby's accommodations are clean, safe, and sparse:

Here's the view when you look out the front of Ruby's (The blue building is a Roman Catholic primary school, and the airport is just behind it.):

And here's what you see from the back deck of Ruby's:

And here's what is next door to Ruby's. Yum!

Here, I'm drinking a cup of local Belizian "choffee."  It's chocolate nibs and hot water in a french press.  It was good, but chocolate tea is even better-- the shells of the cocoa bean are steeped in hot water. Delicious!

Where exactly are we?

St. Luke's will again have two weeks of mission work at Holy Cross Anglican School in San Mateo in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye in Belize.  Because I flew Southwest Airlines and their flight arrives in the evening, I arrived a day before the rest of the team.  I have never been to Belize before, and was mightily confused about whether I was going to San Pedro or San Mateo!  When Jan arrived, she was able to help me figure out where in the world I was.

We are in Belize, the country south of Mexico and east of Guatemala:

We are on the island of Ambergris Caye, an island 28 miles long and 3 blocks (yes, blocks. Not miles.) wide, which provides 30% of the Belize GDP because of their tourism activity.  You can see Ambergris Caye on the above map in the water near the top right of Belize--a tiny portion of the country--especially when you know 1/3 of the country's income comes from this island.  

Near the bottom of the island, you can see the city of San Pedro.  It has about 16,000 residents, many restaurants, and hosts the airport for many resorts.  

San Mateo is something like a neighborhood or suburb of San Pedro.  The island was split in half many years ago when a hurricane ripped through and created a river between the north and the south.  San Mateo is in the north, and its 1,600 residents had not even basic roads, electricity, etc until just a few years ago.  Here is more information about San Mateo.  Holy Cross Anglican School is the center of community of activity in San Mateo.

Now I know where I am, and I hope you do, too.

                                       Helen Svoboda-Barber

Friday at the School

During our Thursday evening devotions an incredible and quite unusual rainbow appeared.  We were all amazed. Here is a picture Jim Short took.

On Friday no classes were held because Holy Cross School held a Valentine Fair with games, tattoos, movies and food.  There were lots of adults and children and loud Caribbean music.  The pictures say it all.

Thursday at the School and in San Mateo

Jim and Elizabeth Short  and Joyce Avery comprise our health team.  Joyce keeps track of every student’s height and weight and refers any who have health problems to Dr. Jim.  In addition to tending to medical problems at the school, Jim and Elizabeth go out into the San Mateo Community to visit families with preschool children. There are two volunteer social worker working with Holy Cross School and the community of San Mateo who refer medical problems to our health team.

Last night and today it was all things Lenten.  Last night was Carnival in San Pedro.  Music was loud and blaring while young people squirted paint on each other and men cross dressed. It's the custom to throw raw eggs at each other, and it is especially effective if the eggs have been buried in warm sand  for a few days to make them rotten. We walked up the park where all this was happening and saw some of the Holy Cross students having a good time.

Today, Ash Wednesday, the festivities were over.  Miriam and Jan led the Ash Wednesday service for the younger kids in the cafeteria.  Hundreds of students and teachers received ashes. In the afternoon five of us took the water taxi to Cay Cauker, a nearby island, and enjoyed walking around the town.


Carnival pictures:



Ashe Wednesday Service at Holy Cross



Classroom furniture at Holy Cross School

February 9 in Belize

We learned how to post pictures so here they are!

Happy students with Elaine

Jan and Miriam celebrating the Eucharist in Standard VI classroom 

 

Team Two enjoying a great dinner - lots of sea food, coconut rice and beans

 

San Mateo where the students live. Notice that there is now a road.

 Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Belize Team Week Two is off and running!!

Team Two is a group of 8 adventurous people working at the school in various capacities. Jim and Elizabeth Short are out in the community of San Mateo visiting families with preschool children and assessing their health while the rest of us are at the school doing whatever needs to be done.  Meanwhile Joyce Avery continues collecting the height and weight of each student at the school.  Nancy Williams and Elaine Scagnelli are working with the children and teachers in 2 Standard III classes, fifth grade in the USA. Miriam and Norine from St. Andrews in Haw River are working in Infant I, first grade in USA. There is plenty to do here and Jan Lamb, with all her Holy Cross experience, can do almost anything and she does.

It's not all work and no play here for us in San Pedro.  On Saturday we had planned to sail to a great snorkeling place inside the barrier reef, but the weather did not cooperate. It rained all day and the temperature was in the high 60's.  So, we put our rain gear on and walked all around San Pedro looking at the sights and visiting the crafts at the farmer's market. It cleared up on Sunday but the temperature did not improve. We started off with breakfast at Estelle's where we enjoyed fry jacks, unbelievable fried bread with jelly. At 2:00 we walked to the school where Miriam (a priest) and Jan celebrated the Eucharist for the community of San Mateo and the students of Holy Cross. Since there is no Anglican priest on the island of Ambergris Caye, celebrating the Eucharist is a rarity and thus especially appreciated.

We have pictures to share but haven't found a way to get them from our phones to the blog.  Mike Henry from Week One knew how to create a blog, but none of us in Week Two has ever done it before. We are trying to figure it out because we know you want to keep up with our adventure in Belieze in Central America and pictures are worth a thousand words. Be patient with us.