Dave confidently declared last night that he would not be surprised if the system he assembled yesterday did not leak. Parse that double negative carefully. He was right. When we finally put pressure on the system in the crowded basement just before lunch, not a drop of water leaked from any of the joints. This is a significant departure from the first results in Georgetown. But then Dave did this system without my help. Now that we’ve got him fully trained, we’ll need to send him on some more installations!
We ate lunch today in the cafeteria along with about 35 high school aged kids who were volunteering in various capacities around the school and in the community; some were painting classrooms, while others were teaching local kids to swim(!) After lunch we shocked all the plumbing with chlorine, worked out a few pressure glitches in the kitchen, and trained Freddy and Jason, the local maintenance guys, how to run the system. We heard later that Freddy had run a Reverse Osmosis system for a resort hotel up the coast. I think he'll be able to handle this one.
After seeing Douglas off on the 3:30 ferry, we lounged for a while and then had a celebratory dinner at Wet Willie’s, a restaurant on a pier over the water about 200 yards up the beach. They had a special: 20 peel-and-eat shrimp for $10 Bz. We were joined by Mike Brown, an Australian Anglican and free spirit who is into sustainable energy and moved with his wife and young son to San Mateo from Cambodia two years ago. He claims they’re the only Caucasians living in San Mateo proper. Needless to say, it was an interesting conversation. I suspect we may be seeing more of Mike in the future.
We’re done with the work part of our trip. Tomorrow we snorkel. In spite of the early travel glitches and potential weather problems, it all came off with no major problems. We hit all of our targets. We made new friends and partners, we nurtured relationships with old friends and partners, and we provided clean water to more of God’s children in two distinct areas of Belize. God has been with us, and so have you. Thank you for your prayers and continued support.
- dan
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Northern Belize: Friday PM
Friday morning saw me trying to check out of the Bullfrog Inn. I needed to be on the road by 7AM to make it to Orange Walk in time for a 9AM meeting. At 6:50 the office/bar/restaurant was still locked up tight. I had been assured the night before that someone would be available for checkout in the morning. I knocked on the glass door and Emma abandoned her coffee making duties to let me in. When I asked for the 10% discount offered us when we reserved the room, she asked if I could wait until the regular desk clerk came in at 7:30. I said I couldn’t, and she called her cell phone to walk thru applying a 10% discount. Higher math must not be part of a tourism major in Belize. At 7:04 I was on the road, heading east on Western Highway, munching on a breakfast of Fig Newtons and trapped behind a panel truck full of agricultural workers.
I pulled up next to the New Life Presbyterian Pre and Primary School at 8:50 – way early by Belizean standards. Leogardo Catzim was sitting on the porch in front of the school, waiting for me. He introduced himself as a pastor in the Belizean Presbyterian Church with joint responsibilities with congregations in San Jose, San Pablo, and here at New Life. He ushered me in to see the water system they intended to transport to the San Pablo church. It was kinda nostalgic, seeing the inscription on the plywood panel dated February, 2003 when the system was first installed, and then updated August 17, 2009 when it was refurbished and converted to a Reverse Osmosis system by Pat Montgomery’s church from Cody, WY.
We met Ismael Vallejos as we left the building. He’s the in-country Director for Mac Kelton’s Belize Project (google it), a micro-entreprenurial support ministry in Northern Belize. Mac and I met last May and again in July in Franklin before a LWW meeting. He coerced me to enlist Dave in schlepping about 80 pounds of children’s books to Belize in our luggage. Ismael and Leogardo and I made our way to San Pablo, about 15 minutes north of Orange Walk, where we explored the church and promising places to put the water treatment system. We decided it could be done, and it would be best if Pat’s team returned to help move it and set it back up. We also agreed that it would be best if I could put them in contact with another team in southern Yucatan that was successfully operating a Reverse Osmosis system, so they could see how it’s done. I took two water samples, one at a well on site, and one from the community water supply. They were both extremely hard with high TDS. A RO system is definitely called for here.
Next stop: Cornerstone Presbyterian High School. I drove to the school with their new science teacher, a young man who I guessed might have been in his early 20s. He was polite and curious; we talked water chemistry most of the way. He’s also a graduate of the High School. On arriving at the school we discovered that the principal was teaching a summer school class, so I took the opportunity to take another water sample, and take advantage of a teachable moment for the science teacher. Expecting numbers similar to San Pablo, I was surprised to find hardness and TDS within the range treatable by a standard water system similar to the one we installed at Yalbac.
A long conversation with Albert Zantingh, the principal, highlighted his concern for making sure his ~100 students stayed hydrated and his interest in developing a school lunch program. We talked about designing and building a kitchen that included space for a separate water treatment room; about doing a blind taste test on the water from the well to see if the community would be willing to buy and drink it, and about the possibility of creating a part time operator’s position that might partially fund a night watchman’s salary. He was intrigued but cautious about the possibilities, and definitely intended to proceed decently and in good order.
Ismael encouraged me to consider a quick dash up to Corazol, his home town, only 20 minutes further north. I was tempted; Corazol is the only major population center in Belize I haven’t visited yet. But I calculated that I had just about the right amount of time to make it back to Belize City to drop off the car and get to the water taxi for the late afternoon trip to Ambergris Caye to rejoin Dave and Douglas. Lunch was more Fig Newtons in the car as I sped south to Ladyville. I turned in the car and made it to the ferry terminal with 10 minutes to spare.
- dan
I pulled up next to the New Life Presbyterian Pre and Primary School at 8:50 – way early by Belizean standards. Leogardo Catzim was sitting on the porch in front of the school, waiting for me. He introduced himself as a pastor in the Belizean Presbyterian Church with joint responsibilities with congregations in San Jose, San Pablo, and here at New Life. He ushered me in to see the water system they intended to transport to the San Pablo church. It was kinda nostalgic, seeing the inscription on the plywood panel dated February, 2003 when the system was first installed, and then updated August 17, 2009 when it was refurbished and converted to a Reverse Osmosis system by Pat Montgomery’s church from Cody, WY.
We met Ismael Vallejos as we left the building. He’s the in-country Director for Mac Kelton’s Belize Project (google it), a micro-entreprenurial support ministry in Northern Belize. Mac and I met last May and again in July in Franklin before a LWW meeting. He coerced me to enlist Dave in schlepping about 80 pounds of children’s books to Belize in our luggage. Ismael and Leogardo and I made our way to San Pablo, about 15 minutes north of Orange Walk, where we explored the church and promising places to put the water treatment system. We decided it could be done, and it would be best if Pat’s team returned to help move it and set it back up. We also agreed that it would be best if I could put them in contact with another team in southern Yucatan that was successfully operating a Reverse Osmosis system, so they could see how it’s done. I took two water samples, one at a well on site, and one from the community water supply. They were both extremely hard with high TDS. A RO system is definitely called for here.
Next stop: Cornerstone Presbyterian High School. I drove to the school with their new science teacher, a young man who I guessed might have been in his early 20s. He was polite and curious; we talked water chemistry most of the way. He’s also a graduate of the High School. On arriving at the school we discovered that the principal was teaching a summer school class, so I took the opportunity to take another water sample, and take advantage of a teachable moment for the science teacher. Expecting numbers similar to San Pablo, I was surprised to find hardness and TDS within the range treatable by a standard water system similar to the one we installed at Yalbac.
A long conversation with Albert Zantingh, the principal, highlighted his concern for making sure his ~100 students stayed hydrated and his interest in developing a school lunch program. We talked about designing and building a kitchen that included space for a separate water treatment room; about doing a blind taste test on the water from the well to see if the community would be willing to buy and drink it, and about the possibility of creating a part time operator’s position that might partially fund a night watchman’s salary. He was intrigued but cautious about the possibilities, and definitely intended to proceed decently and in good order.
Ismael encouraged me to consider a quick dash up to Corazol, his home town, only 20 minutes further north. I was tempted; Corazol is the only major population center in Belize I haven’t visited yet. But I calculated that I had just about the right amount of time to make it back to Belize City to drop off the car and get to the water taxi for the late afternoon trip to Ambergris Caye to rejoin Dave and Douglas. Lunch was more Fig Newtons in the car as I sped south to Ladyville. I turned in the car and made it to the ferry terminal with 10 minutes to spare.
- dan
Friday, August 10, 2012
San Mateo
After a productive day meeting with folks in the Orange Walk area, I
rejoined Dave and Douglas on Ambergris Caye. Dave made good progress
today and has pictures to prove it. Here's a few of them.
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| First impressions of San Mateo, just across the bridge from the resort town of San Pedro. |
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| First impressions of the room in which the water system will be installed. |
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| Another view, showing the water board on the back wall under the stairs. |
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| And a view from the other side of the bridge. The restaurant (Wet Willie's) where Dave and Douglas had lunch. |
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| It's all in a day's work. Tomorrow we'll see if it holds water! |
Thursday, August 09, 2012
God’s Time: Thursday PM
After waiting over an hour for Mr. Sho to return from Belmopan, I went back to the shop and asked where he was. The young Guatemalan girl pointed to the ceiling and said “He’s home”. I was vaguely aware that this was Mr. Sho’s shop and that he lived above it. I was also surprised that they hadn’t informed him I was looking for him or that he hadn’t come looking for me. I asked for his cell number and gave him a call. He answered but we had a terrible connection. I finally got him to understand who I was and that I was waiting for him. He finally got me to understand that he was (still) in Belmopan at the hospital with a friend. He promised to return to Armenia as soon as possible. I felt terrible. 10 minutes later he pulled up in his pickup and took me to his “new” house about a half mile off Hummingbird Highway. This one, like the other one was above a small shop.
He apologized for forgetting our meeting and explained that he’d taken a friend to the hospital in Belmopan and when we finished he would return to Belmopan to take him to the hospital in Belize City. I felt pretty sheepish about being so “American” about “Belize Time” just half an hour ago. God’s lessons come when least expected.
We had a good conversation about the possibility of (yet) a(nother) well in Armenia, and started laying plans to build a consortium of churches in Armenia to administer a joint water ministry as a “missional business” – run like a business with a goal to provide as much safe water as cheaply as possible to as many people as possible, with profits turned back into benefiting the community. Who knows if it’ll ever happen, but it’s exciting to contemplate.
I left Mr. Sho just in time to arrive at Jaguar Creek for lunch with 79 teachers who are attending a teacher training workshop sponsored by Pathlight. The lasagna was spicy in a Caribbean-kind-of way, and delicious. After lunch I had the opportunity to talk with Brian Watson and Marin Rosado, Principal and Vice Principal of Armenia school. We worked through the logistics on the whiteboards we’re providing to his classrooms, and discussed possible projects for us to do next spring when we return on a church-wide mission trip.
To finish off the trifecta, Estevan Peck, Principal of St Margarets RC school was also attending the workshop. He told me he was leaving to catch a bus back to St Margaret so he would be in time for our meeting at 2PM. I said that was silly and I’d give him a ride. We made it back to St Margarets in time, but the other participants never showed up. Between us Estevan and I plotted out a strategy for the next two years to bring clean water to the students and families of the school. That plan started last spring when we challenged them to build a pad for a water tank. They did it. Now the ball’s in our court to provide the tank as promised. As soon as it’s in place, the government has promised to install guttering, to fill the tank with rainwater, and Rotary (thru Sheree and Aki) have provided buckets with 0.1 micron Sawyer (google it) filters as a short term solution for clean water. Once we can prove this stage works, we can expand the system and add a water treatment and bottling facility.
I may have been impatient this morning about Belize Time, but I learned a lot during the rest of the day about God’s Time. Today was very worthwhile and productive.
- dan
He apologized for forgetting our meeting and explained that he’d taken a friend to the hospital in Belmopan and when we finished he would return to Belmopan to take him to the hospital in Belize City. I felt pretty sheepish about being so “American” about “Belize Time” just half an hour ago. God’s lessons come when least expected.
We had a good conversation about the possibility of (yet) a(nother) well in Armenia, and started laying plans to build a consortium of churches in Armenia to administer a joint water ministry as a “missional business” – run like a business with a goal to provide as much safe water as cheaply as possible to as many people as possible, with profits turned back into benefiting the community. Who knows if it’ll ever happen, but it’s exciting to contemplate.
I left Mr. Sho just in time to arrive at Jaguar Creek for lunch with 79 teachers who are attending a teacher training workshop sponsored by Pathlight. The lasagna was spicy in a Caribbean-kind-of way, and delicious. After lunch I had the opportunity to talk with Brian Watson and Marin Rosado, Principal and Vice Principal of Armenia school. We worked through the logistics on the whiteboards we’re providing to his classrooms, and discussed possible projects for us to do next spring when we return on a church-wide mission trip.
To finish off the trifecta, Estevan Peck, Principal of St Margarets RC school was also attending the workshop. He told me he was leaving to catch a bus back to St Margaret so he would be in time for our meeting at 2PM. I said that was silly and I’d give him a ride. We made it back to St Margarets in time, but the other participants never showed up. Between us Estevan and I plotted out a strategy for the next two years to bring clean water to the students and families of the school. That plan started last spring when we challenged them to build a pad for a water tank. They did it. Now the ball’s in our court to provide the tank as promised. As soon as it’s in place, the government has promised to install guttering, to fill the tank with rainwater, and Rotary (thru Sheree and Aki) have provided buckets with 0.1 micron Sawyer (google it) filters as a short term solution for clean water. Once we can prove this stage works, we can expand the system and add a water treatment and bottling facility.
I may have been impatient this morning about Belize Time, but I learned a lot during the rest of the day about God’s Time. Today was very worthwhile and productive.
- dan
Belize Time: Thursday AM
Dave and I met in the lobby of the Bullfrog Inn this morning at 7 for breakfast. We reviewed plans and options for today and the rest of the week, waiting for a call from Douglas Flores to figure out what would happen next. Douglas called around 7:50 and reported that the ferries to San Pedro, Ambergris were running and he was planning to be on the 10:30 ferry with Dave and gear. He said he’d meet us in about 20 minutes. Since I didn’t need to be in Armenia until 9, I figured I’d wait with Dave to make sure the handoff went without hitch. Douglas showed up around 8:45, apologizing for being late. I grinned and said “Belize time”. He looked sheepish and said he usually tried to be early.
I believe him.
I headed off toward Armenia, figuring I’d be about 15 – 20 minutes late for my 9:00 meeting with Orestes Sho, the village chair. I thought “Belize Time”. I arrived a little earlier than I expected, but still about 10 minutes later than scheduled. I wandered around the community center and our 2005 laundry building, now apparently abandoned Peace Corps lodging, thinking he might be doing the same. Everything was locked up tight. I walked down to the shop on the corner and asked if they new where Mr. Sho was. The oriental girl at the counter looked puzzled and glanced at the Guatemalan girl stocking shelves. She said “He means Oris” (their nickname for Orestes). I redirected my question to her and she said “He’s not here” “Do you know where he is?” “He went to Belmopan” “When will he be back?” “Oh, a few minutes” “OK, I’ll hang around. Tell him someone’s looking for him.” Belize time.
I walked around the school, checking out the new second story on the big classroom building. It’s all framed up and ready for roofing. I took a closer look at our water tanks from 2008. They’re full to overflowing. I pulled out my computer and sat on the steps of the Community Center to compose this blog entry. It’s now 10:20. I guess I’ll head back to the shop and let them know I’ll try again later this afternoon.
Belize time.
- dan
I believe him.
I headed off toward Armenia, figuring I’d be about 15 – 20 minutes late for my 9:00 meeting with Orestes Sho, the village chair. I thought “Belize Time”. I arrived a little earlier than I expected, but still about 10 minutes later than scheduled. I wandered around the community center and our 2005 laundry building, now apparently abandoned Peace Corps lodging, thinking he might be doing the same. Everything was locked up tight. I walked down to the shop on the corner and asked if they new where Mr. Sho was. The oriental girl at the counter looked puzzled and glanced at the Guatemalan girl stocking shelves. She said “He means Oris” (their nickname for Orestes). I redirected my question to her and she said “He’s not here” “Do you know where he is?” “He went to Belmopan” “When will he be back?” “Oh, a few minutes” “OK, I’ll hang around. Tell him someone’s looking for him.” Belize time.
I walked around the school, checking out the new second story on the big classroom building. It’s all framed up and ready for roofing. I took a closer look at our water tanks from 2008. They’re full to overflowing. I pulled out my computer and sat on the steps of the Community Center to compose this blog entry. It’s now 10:20. I guess I’ll head back to the shop and let them know I’ll try again later this afternoon.
Belize time.
- dan
Diane: Thursday AM
One aspect of Belize that Chuck has been eager but unable to sample is Garifuna culture. My understanding is that the Garifuna (ga-rif-oo-na) are the product of the African slave trade. Escapees of slave shipwrecks, they found their way to the Belizean coast near present-day Dangriga in Stann Creek. There they developed a unique subculture of music and rhythms and language that still persists today.
Georgetown is a Garifuna village. One story I heard is that it was established by the government in the ‘70s as a Garifuna relocation settlement after a hurricane wiped out a village near the coast.
Diane is Garifuna, and a citizen of Georgetown. She stands about four foot ten and is of indeterminate age. I’m a lousy guesser, but she could be anywhere from 18 to 30 by my reckoning. She was at the water building by the time we arrived Wednesday morning. She had a half gallon open container with a café au lait colored liquid she said was coffee for the painters. I never saw anyone drink it.
Diane was voluble, curious and opinionated. She wanted to know everything we were doing and why. She had her hands on everything she could touch and was eager to be given tasks to help out. She offered suggestions on everything from how many layers of Teflon tape to use on our joints to how tight to crank our fittings to why we had leaks in our glue joints and what we should do about it. I found her to be a delight.
She told us where we should go for lunch and why we should bring our church back to Georgetown to worship with her church and their 15 year old pastor. She occasionally lapsed into a delightful sing-song speech pattern that sounded nothing like any language I was familiar with. When I asked, she grinned and said it was the Garifuna language spoken by her mom and dad at home.
As we were preparing to lock up for lunch, after essentially rebuilding the entire system from Tuesday and eliminating all our leaks (except one tiny one by the trash filter) I watched as she policed the site, picking up a collection of our cast of valves and unions and couplings. I thought she was just helping us clean up until I saw her bicycle away as we were leaving with a plastic bag full of our castoffs on her handlebars.
- dan
Georgetown is a Garifuna village. One story I heard is that it was established by the government in the ‘70s as a Garifuna relocation settlement after a hurricane wiped out a village near the coast.
Diane is Garifuna, and a citizen of Georgetown. She stands about four foot ten and is of indeterminate age. I’m a lousy guesser, but she could be anywhere from 18 to 30 by my reckoning. She was at the water building by the time we arrived Wednesday morning. She had a half gallon open container with a café au lait colored liquid she said was coffee for the painters. I never saw anyone drink it.
Diane was voluble, curious and opinionated. She wanted to know everything we were doing and why. She had her hands on everything she could touch and was eager to be given tasks to help out. She offered suggestions on everything from how many layers of Teflon tape to use on our joints to how tight to crank our fittings to why we had leaks in our glue joints and what we should do about it. I found her to be a delight.
She told us where we should go for lunch and why we should bring our church back to Georgetown to worship with her church and their 15 year old pastor. She occasionally lapsed into a delightful sing-song speech pattern that sounded nothing like any language I was familiar with. When I asked, she grinned and said it was the Garifuna language spoken by her mom and dad at home.
As we were preparing to lock up for lunch, after essentially rebuilding the entire system from Tuesday and eliminating all our leaks (except one tiny one by the trash filter) I watched as she policed the site, picking up a collection of our cast of valves and unions and couplings. I thought she was just helping us clean up until I saw her bicycle away as we were leaving with a plastic bag full of our castoffs on her handlebars.
- dan
Georgetown
We finished up at Georgetown yesterday and made our way to Belmopan, where we actually have decent internet. I loaded some of Dave's pictures to my computer and thought I'd share a few.
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| Typical stilted housing in Georgetown, a Garifuna community in the Stann Creek District of southern Belize. You drive about two miles down a dirt road from Southern Highway and pass a concrete sign welcoming you to Georgetown. Then there's about a mile of nicely paved road bracketed by houses like this. |
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| The Roman Catholic school where we are partnering with Water Missions Belize to provide clean water and flush toilets. The water building is just visible to the right of the photo. The school serves about 120 students. |
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| The completed water board. Right to left: 50 micron trash filter, 5 micron "Big Blue", 0.5 micron "Big Blue", UV sterilizer. Later WMI Belize will install a bucket washing and filling station to the far left. |
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| I watch as Douglas Flores samples the treated water. Somebody had to be the guinea pig! Rich Sutton stands by, ready to fill a water bottle. Douglas and Rich both agreed that water from our system tastes better than water from their system at the technical high school a few miles away. Both use the same water source. We don't have an explanation yet. |
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Moving On: Wednesday AM
It rained all night last night. It came in waves and sometimes
it was pretty heavy. There wasn’t much wind to speak of, and this morning
things look calm with a leaden sky and light drizzle.
It didn’t rain much yesterday. At least not as much as we
expected. The cloud cover kept it a little cooler, but as Dave said at the end
of the day, the humidity felt like we’d been swimming.
The water system went together about as expected, and by the
end of the day we were ready to pressure test. As Rich Sutton plumbed us into
the local water supply he noticed he had no pressure, in spite of the 60 lbs
I’d measured at the school earlier in the day. As we investigated we discovered
a broken joint right at grade level and water gushing four feet into the air.
After some required triage, we finally put pressure on our system, only to
discover one unglued joint (Dave) and about a half dozen leaky threaded
fittings. That seemed like a good time to wrap it up for the day.
Today we return to repair and rebuild what’s necessary, and
then we’ll make some water and train Rich on the system. Maybe Dave will take
some pictures of Georgetown we can post. We hope to be moving on around
mid-day. Tonight we head to Belmopan and possibly dinner with friends Sheree
and Aki. Tomorrow is a question mark
We haven’t yet heard how badly Ambergris Caye was affected
by the hurricane. That will have a big impact on tomorrow’s schedule. I’m
planning to spend some time in Armenia and St Margaret, but Dave was scheduled
to head to the island for system #2. But then, the Living Waters watchword is:
flexible and creative. We’re putting that into practice this week.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Precipitation: Tuesday AM
Woke this morning to a steady drizzle. Harbinger of things
to come, I expect. Don’t know the details on Ernesto, because I was never able
to find the Belizean news channel Dave claims he found last night. But Ernesto
is coming. Belizeans seem to be taking it seriously, but calmly. This far south
not much has changed, but reports are that Belize City is making evacuation
plans in case it escalates to a category 2. Glad I brought my work boots. Wish
I brought my rain poncho…
We’re Here
As of right now, here is the Dolphin Motel in Independence
Village, Stann Creek District, Belize. I know that because there’s a white
sheet of paper tacked to the back of my door that says “Dolphin Motel”, along
with important phone numbers, like the police and fire department, 3 medical
clinics and 6 taxi drivers (by first name). That’s the only way I know, because
there’s no sign on the road; none on the building. The registration desk is the
counter at the gas station next door. The room is a 14 by 14 foot white stucco box
with one bright yellow wall. Less, actually if you subtract off the 3 x 8 bathroom.
No internet; no phone .But it’s clean and well maintained and has an
air-conditioner. And it’s $25 a night. It’ll do.
Our trip to Belize was totally uneventful today. We stopped
for lunch around 1 PM at Cheers, a mission trip hangout just past the Belize
Zoo. There we made phone contact with Rich Sutton, our host for the Georgetown
project. As we were eating, Dave glanced up and said “That looks like Aki
Fukai” (our good friend from San Ignacio Rotary). He had just delivered a kid
with a kidney problem to the airport for treatment in the States. After warm
welcomes and a little small talk, we agreed to try to meet for dinner, Ernesto
willing, in Belmopan on Wednesday.
After lunch we headed down Hummingbird Highway toward
Dangriga and then Independence. We stopped at Jaguar Creek to say hi. As we
turned in on the narrow gravel road we spotted a van headed toward us. We
pulled to the side to let it pass and discovered it was Adrienne Parcher,
proprietress of Jaguar Creek, with a full load of teachers from the States who
were participating in a teacher training workshop. Thanks to Ernesto, the
government cancelled all the teacher workshops across the country at noon so teachers
and principals could batten down the hatches at their schools and get them
ready to serve as hurricane shelters. On Adrienne’s invitation, we joined them
for ice cream in St. Margaret’s and had a good but brief conversation. We may
connect again later in the week.
We finally made it to Georgetown about 4:30. We turned off
the paved Southern Highway and drove about two miles on a rough but well
maintained gravel road. The village consists of a string of ramshackle wooden
houses lining the road for about a mile. At the far end is a two story concrete
block building housing the Georgetown RC primary school. Behind the school is a
new block building housing eight flush toilets: four each for the boys and
girls. One end of this building is the water room. That’s where we’ll be
hanging out tomorrow.
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Pray Harder!
I'm sitting in a room at the Wyndham Garden Inn about 5 miles south of the Atlanta airport. Dave's in a room across the hall. Compliments of Delta Airlines. I might be at the swimming pool, but my suit and most of my clothes are in my other suitcase -- the one still in Delta's possession. I might be in Belize, but the people at Pinnacle Air apparently put too much fuel in our plane this morning and took an hour figuring out what to do about it. By the time we landed in Atlanta, our flight to Belize was already taking off. Delta only has one flight a day to Belize. We weren't on it.
Dave joked last week about praying that we avoid hurricanes during our trip to Belize this week. It looks like those prayers may have been answered, since Ernesto looks like he won't make it to hurricane status. That's the good news. The bad news is that he keeps drifting southward, closer to where we'll be working on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you want to follow along at home, go to Google Maps and find Independence, Toledo District, Belize. Then follow the track of Ernesto and see if they intersect. Then pray that they don't.
Since we won't make it to Independence until Monday afternoon, we'll likely be spending all of Tuesday and Wednesday installing the water treatment system at the Georgetown Primary School, not far from Independence. I won't be making my planned four hour drive up the coast to Orange Walk with Ernesto coming ashore on Wednesday. Of course, working conditions in Georgetown on Wednesday may also be less than optimal.
On Thursday Dave heads to San Mateo on Ambergris Caye to begin work on a second water system at Holy Cross Anglican School. You can learn more about this school and the water project at:
http://holycrossbelize.blogspot.com/2012/08/rainwater-harvesting-at-holy-cross.html. As of right now, we aren't mentioned on this blog. Hopefully we can change that by the end of the week. If you've got a little time, google "san mateo ambergris". You may be shocked by what you see. I know I was. Pray for the children of San Mateo.
I'll be joining Dave on Friday afternoon, after a visit to Orange Walk, where there are plans to move a water system from a primary school to a church, and possible plans for another water system at Cornerstone Presbyterian High School north of town.
God willing, Dave and I will tie up loose ends on San Mateo on Saturday. We should have plenty of rainwater to treat, thanks to Ernesto. We'll celebrate and worship with the community on Sunday, and if all goes well, we'll be back home next Monday night.
Pray for us. Pray Hard. Pray Harder...
- dan
Dave joked last week about praying that we avoid hurricanes during our trip to Belize this week. It looks like those prayers may have been answered, since Ernesto looks like he won't make it to hurricane status. That's the good news. The bad news is that he keeps drifting southward, closer to where we'll be working on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you want to follow along at home, go to Google Maps and find Independence, Toledo District, Belize. Then follow the track of Ernesto and see if they intersect. Then pray that they don't.
Since we won't make it to Independence until Monday afternoon, we'll likely be spending all of Tuesday and Wednesday installing the water treatment system at the Georgetown Primary School, not far from Independence. I won't be making my planned four hour drive up the coast to Orange Walk with Ernesto coming ashore on Wednesday. Of course, working conditions in Georgetown on Wednesday may also be less than optimal.
On Thursday Dave heads to San Mateo on Ambergris Caye to begin work on a second water system at Holy Cross Anglican School. You can learn more about this school and the water project at:
http://holycrossbelize.blogspot.com/2012/08/rainwater-harvesting-at-holy-cross.html. As of right now, we aren't mentioned on this blog. Hopefully we can change that by the end of the week. If you've got a little time, google "san mateo ambergris". You may be shocked by what you see. I know I was. Pray for the children of San Mateo.
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| The new water tank at Holy Cross School, San Mateo |
God willing, Dave and I will tie up loose ends on San Mateo on Saturday. We should have plenty of rainwater to treat, thanks to Ernesto. We'll celebrate and worship with the community on Sunday, and if all goes well, we'll be back home next Monday night.
Pray for us. Pray Hard. Pray Harder...
- dan
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