Back To Belize

It's Tuesday night as I write. Weather.com says its 47 degrees. In Belmopan, the capital of Belize, it's 73, On Thursday morning three of us, me, Dave Mullins, and Chuck Hadden, will be headed back to Belize. I can't wait. This will be Dave's second trip, Chuck's fourth, and my third. Our main goal this time is to make sure everything's in place for a water system installation in late April, but we'll be covering a lot of other ground as well. This is the third trip I've planned since 2005, and in many ways it's both the easiest and hardest. There are far fewer of us to worry about, but the agenda is far more fluid and open ended.

As in the past we intend to blog the experience as we go, and hope you'll follow along. Don't forget, you can also post comments so we can get a bit of feedback. This first entry will set the stage, introduce some additional players, and give you an idea of where we'll be when.

Come Thursday morning February 19, bright and early, we'll convene at the church, declare a quorum, and prevail upon Mary Mullins to take us to the airport. By mid-morning we'll be scanning the Atlanta airport looking for Pat Montgomery, pastor of 1st Presbyterian, Cody WY. He'll be our travelling companion for the rest of the trip. By early afternoon we'll be basking in the balmy Belizean air and scanning the arrivals area for Ray Hopkins, retired Political Science Professor from Swarthmore, and member of the Swarthmore Rotary. He should have our rental SUV and be ready to take us to our first destination.

In a little less detail, here's where we'll be spending the rest of our week:

• Thursday night finds us at the Advance Mission north of Dangriga about halfway down the Belizean coast. We met Ray Neu at the car rental place last March and when we mentioned water, he asked us to come for a visit.

• Friday night, the 20th, we'll be sleeping in the church at Mafredi, a small village about 17 miles inland from Punta Gorda in Southern Belize. Wil Howie and Tim Myrick met Mitch and Valerie Osborne at a LWW Appalachia meeting last November and they insisted we needed to visit their Hope Mission in Mafredi to explore the possibility of a water system.

• Saturday afternoon and evening is early R&R in Placencia which, according to Ray Hopkins is one of the prettiest beaches in Belize. We'll let you know.

• We hope to stop in at Jaguar Creek on Sunday to say hi to Matteo, even though Mark and Adrienne, our hosts from last year will have left for the States on Wednesday. We also plan to stop in Armenia and get a few pictures of the water tanks and laundry facility.

• By Sunday night we'll be in San Ignacio where we'll be based for most of the upcoming week. It's the largest town in West Central Belize. From here we'll be working on finalizing plans for a water system in Yalbac, a village about 20 miles north. We also hope to have time to visit our friends in Cristo Rey, south of San Ignacio and further discuss a future relationship and possible water system.
  

• On Friday February 27 we head back to Belize City to drop Ray at the airport. From there the remaining four of us head north to Orange Walk. We'll meet with the principal of the Presbyterian Day School Saturday morning with the hope of laying the groundwork for restarting the Living Waters system installed there in 2003.

• Finally on Sunday, March 1, it's back to Belize City and then back to the States.

Please visit this blog throughout our trip and keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We have high expectations for this trip, even as we have high anxiety about the many holes left to fill. We know that through God all things are possible.

Dan Terpstra for
the LWW Belize Team