July 1 & 2, 2010

Never got around to blogging yesterday, so it's a two day catch-up.

In case you are wondering, it's still hot here in Belize. Although everyone is telling us this heat is unusual. Actually it's been semi-breezy the past two days and the breeze is nice and very welcome! Yesterday morning I went to town with Romalda to get some groceries (that meant going to the market, and three other grocery shops. Dale spent the morning with Albert and working on various things. In the afternoon Dale and I went back to town (we are staying in a village just north of town) and we stopped by to see some old acquaintances. Above is Clara, the lady who runs the copy shop. It was good to see her and her daughter again - renew aquaintances, catch up on life.

As you can see, the water level in Corozal Bay is really high - which might be a result of the storm Alex. We haven't seen water lapping over the sea wall like this before.

Last night, after a bowl of Romalda's delicious Chermole (black soup), we went to San Narciso where Dale attended the Thursday evening men's group and I spent the almost three hours visiting with Elsa P.. Dale enjoyed the time with the men - they were very interested in the book "Disciplines of a Godly Man" which Dale was introducing to them. And I enjoyed my visit with Elsa - she is such an encouragement to me.


This morning we went back to the high school. Elsa I. and I spent the morning getting into her bookkeeping program and starting the process of getting the schools books in order. We got a good start today and will continue working together every day next week. And Dale found out today that we are helping to move the school office into the third (and newest) building at the end of next week.

June 30, 2010

We were up at 5:30 am and headed to Cornerstone High School by 7:30. It was just like old times going down the Northern Highway to the school.
Today was "Registration Day" for the fall term. All families re-enrolling for this fall had to come to the school today with documentation from the bank that they had paid their first semester fees in full. Then they went through the process of getting a damage fee refund, getting their book list, a book report schedule, PE uniforms sized, and other information. Last stop was the library to pick out two or three books for summer reading and book reports. I helped Elsa with fee documentation and Dale helped in the library with checking out books.

Registration was over by 1:00 and we headed back to town for lunch. Pictured is Elsa and Chayo in the office getting ready for the day. We met some of the newer teachers on staff and reunited with the ones we knew from before.














Here is Dale helping out in the library














Alvaro & Elsa registering their son Aldier for 2nd Form..












And, if you look carefully, there is a hawk sitting on the goal post bar. He was watching us as Romalda and I were relaxing on their back porch this afternoon

Rice & beans and stew chicken for dinner! Yum!

June 29, 2010

Left Pittsburgh this morning at 6:15 am and arrived in Belize City at 10:30 am (12:30 pm EDT).
Had a smooth and easy trip down. We walked out of customs - and there was no one to greet us.
So I went looking into the airport and found Albert and Romalda and Brittany, who had run into
some friends and forgot that they were there to meet us.
I tapped Albert on the shoulder and brought him back to reality.
A couple shots of our decent into the Belize airport - lots of water left from the tropical storm Alex that passed through Belize City this past Saturday.

So glad to be here, so thankful for the safe trip! And very thankful for the faithful prayers of our brothers & sisters back home!

It's 97 in the house here - sweating is putting it mildly. Romalda is making beef stew for dinner. It will be an early night for bed.
Here's a picture of Dale and Albert cooling off in front of the fan. Notice Dale's new look.

June 21, 2010

Getting ready for another opportunity to encourage our friends in Belize....stay tuned.

July 27,2009

We made it back to Pittsburgh safely and on-time. Thank you for your prayers.

Our last full day in Belize was an adventure with the San Narciso Church.

We left San Narciso at 8:00 am, a bus full of 46 people, mostly children. We made several stops along the way picking people up, and arrived at Altun Ha (a Mayan ruin) at about 10:00 am. We were greeted by millions of mosquitos! So the first thing we all did was apply our bug spray!


We moved the food and everyone into this shelter where the mosquitos were even thicker.

We had about 35 minutes of worship - singing and Alvaro gave a devotional on Eph. 4:1-6 . After that some games - here we are doing tug of war.


After the games we toured the Mayan ruins and had a lot of fun climbing the temples.


Around noon we all gathered back in the mosquito shelter for lunch. Dale, Carla and I had to let several families share thier food with us - rice and beans, fried rice, fried chicken - all delicious. We certainly didn't go hungry.





After eating we packed up the bus and retraced our route for about 18 miles to this new ECO PARK - Croc-land. We headed for a shelter there in the park where we had our second worship service.
Dale gave the devotional and we did a lot of singing, and there was a very special time of sharing were several people stood up and thanked Dale and I for coming to Belize every year and for all we have done for them. It was very humbling because these people bless us much more than we think we ever bless them.


Alvaro gave a special thanks to our home church, FRPC for all they have done for his seminary education. It was all very special.





After a tour of the crocodiles, we spent about 90 minutes at the swimming pool.


It was a perfect day!


We left the Eco Park around 5:00 for Belize City where we spent the night at the Best Western before heading out of Belize in the morning.


What a blessing these people are to us! We are so grateful for the opportunity to spend another July with them.





Dios te bendiga!

July 25, 2009

This last day in Corozal Town has been a busy one for us - and still will be. We were awakened at 5:40 am by some one weed-wacking right outside our bedroom window. Once we were up we had breakfast and started packing up for our trip home.



We spent last evening with Chayo and Amy. They will begin working at Cornerstone next week when Summer School begins. They are moving into our house as soon as we vacate it.
Please keep them in your prayers. This move back to Belize will be a big adjustment for them - especially Amy. Her parents (MTW) missionaries will be here for 2 more years, so at least Amy will have her mom nearby.



Back to this morning - about 9:30 Loli & Viany stopped by with Abdiel and Viany's mom (in picture) to say goodbye. We enjoyed visiting with them for a while and then a couple of former students of ours came by to see us - Herminio and Antonio Loza. They both graduated from Cornerstone last year and have spent a year working in the cane fields and for the papaya industry to earn enough money to continue their
education. Herminio, standing next to me, wants
to be a doctor! Antonio wants to pursue IT. It was so good to see them!

We had an invitation from Elsa and Tito to go to Patchakan for lunch, and they served us rellano - Dale's favorite. Elsa is in the picture dividing up the chicken and rellano into bowls while her cute little daughter Kristine looks on. We enjoyed our lunch, stopped by and saw Yadira (another teacher friend) and hurried back to town because we had to take a friend to catch a boat to San Pedro. We saw a couple manatee in the bay while we were there waiting for the boat - first time for me, Dale has seen them there before.


Late afternoon Albert & Romalda stopped by to say goodbye and ended up staying for dinner.
Nehru and his wife Norma were making us BBQ
chicken for dinner - so we all sat around our table

and had a wonderful time of fellowship and singing together. They all have just left, it's now 7:15 and we need to finish up our packing and cleaning up the house because we leave here in just twelve hours for a day of worship, fellowship, and fun with our San Narciso church family.


Tomorrow night we will be in Belize City and then fly out Monday morning - back to Pittsburgh. Pray for our last day here with our Belizean friends and for our safety as we travel to Altun Ha (by school bus) with the SanNarciso congregation, then on to Belize City to fly home on Monday.

Our next blog will probably not be before we arrive back home in Pittsburgh.

July 24, 2009

Friday already! Where has the week gone?
Here is a picture of Dale next to Ryan (the boy who he is helping with a sermon). Ryan has prepared his rough draft and he and Dale need to go over it, probably this afternoon.

The other night a group of boys were playing American football between Carla's and our houses, right in the middle of the road. They seemed to be having a lot of fun!

Yesterday I went to Chetumal, Mexico with Albert and Romalda, and Gary and Anita. We had a long day, but really enjoyed our time together. I have a Sam's card, so I was able to get them in to the Sam's Club and they were able to get some things at much more reasonable cost than they can in Belize. Anita bought two gallon-sized containers of Metamucil for the clinic. (She said they go through it like koolaid and was happy to find that quantity at such a reasonable price.)

The only problem with shopping in Chetumal is that at the end of the day we have to carry everything we've purchased through customs - which means getting out of the vehicle at the boarder,
grabbing all the bags, walking through the customs/immigration building, (hoping they don charge you customs for anything) and then putting everything back in the car. Yesterday we came through with the two gallons of Metamucil, two pillows, 8 boxes of cereal, 8 cartons of boxed milk, some yogurt, and all the little things we had purchased. Our arms were full and they let us pass with no problemo.

The two ladies in the picture are Anita and Esther (the lady Cydney lived with when she was in Belize back in 2000) We ran into Esther at the boarder going into Mexico and also in this department store downtown.

I took the bus picture is to show you how the buses in Mexico look like insects. Albert told me they are pure luxury to ride - smooth, and very comfy inside.

After we arrived home around 7:30 pm, we had to go to Patchakan for the wake of the 12 year old boy, Jonathan, who had died on Wednesday. They still don't know for sure what led to his death, but it involved a hammock and his neck had been broken. When we arrived at the house, there were over 150 people sitting in rows of chairs singing and listening to sermons being preached by elders in the church and Alvaro. It is so, so sad to see such a young, healthy life snuffed out. This child was active in the Presbyterian church in Patchakan, helped with the mission church in Chaibe, and had many friends.

Please keep this family in prayer. They are in shock. The funeral is today, but we decided not to go back to Patchakan for that. We are trying to wrap up a few project before we need to start packing for our trip home.