Team home safely and thankful

By Monday noon, 10 members of the Belize mission team were safely home. Dvera Hadden-Ford picked up her daughter Ellie at the Knoxville airport around 11 a.m., and Herb drove everyone else home. On Sunday Teresa declared the mission trip successful, based on her husband Ray's criteria for Boy Scout outings--no broken bones, no trips to the hospital. Our team had bug bites but no Medevac flights.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. Thanks to you we built relationships as well as tables in Belize. Thanks to your prayers we had a safe visit and returned safely. Even the travel insurance industry owes you big time!

Five stuck in Atlanta

BELIZE TEAM UPDATE: As far as this blogger knows, all members of the Belize team, except the Haddens and a Krause, arrived safely in Knoxville on Sunday night. The remaining five were on a flight booked last November. You would think Delta-Alaska Airlines had plenty of weeks to get our plane ready for a 9:10 p.m. flight from Atlanta to Knoxville on March 17. But no, the pilot couldn't get an engine started after taxiing a long way down the runway. So the plane taxied all the way back and dropped off the passengers at the gate, allowing them to eat yogurt and watch a CNN special on tar sands. A half hour later, the flight was canceled. Five members of the Belize team were stuck in Atlanta. They were given vouchers for a Holiday Inn stay and a new flight on Monday morning. The Haddens got a suite in the hotel. The blogger asked for a room next to the Haddens. So she got an equally large room to herself--what she called the suite spot. It was much more luxurious than the cabin in the jungle. "I could get used to this," she said. The only problem was that she had to sleep in her clothes. There ain't nothing sweet about that.--ck

Church blogger patted down on her birthday

An FPCOR blogger was patted down on St. Pat's Day. It happened at the Atlanta airport Sunday. TSA reported that they wanted to help Carolyn celebrate her 68th birthday, but they didn't know any other way to give her the special attention she deserved than to pat her down. For an extra special treat a TSA hand inspector wiped her palms, read the lines, and predicted that the Belize team would arrive home safely. Carolyn wanted to thank TSA for the special treatment on her birthday, but she tends to feel insecure around security, so she said nothing. But she felt good about the whole experience. Even the body scan was OK because it didn't FEEL invasive and she saw herself as one of the Frozen Chosen trying to do a jumping jack. She declared to Mary: "The tourists have won."

Final Boarding Call

 Sunday morning - A quick post to let everyone back home know all is well (so far).
I board in 10 minutes from Philip Goldston International Airport to Houston and then back home late tonight. Everyone else is flying Delta an hour later thru Atlanta.
We finished the trip last night on a high note, with all of us chartering a sailboat for a sunset cruise, followed by Happy Birthday Brownies for Carolyn.
We're all looking forward to being back home and sharing our adventures face-to-face.
See you Wednesday if not sooner.
- d

Not yet "boated" off the island

Today is our last full day in Belize. Our Wifi here at the Conch Shell Inn on the Ambergris Caye is much more reliable than the satellite service at Jaguar Creek. That's my excuse for late posts. This morning after our devotionals and breakfast on the beach, Dan led the group on a half-mile walk to the Holy Cross Anglican School for first through eighth graders. We met Mr. Freddy, who gave us a tour of the school, which has 450 students, making it the second largest school on the island. We saw the cafeteria and two classrooms with kids. They were attending Saturday school to prepare for a major test. He then showed us the Living Waters system that Dave Mullins, Douglas Flores, and Dan installed inside the school last August. Dan pointed out the pipe that brings sometimes unreliable, chlorinated city water into the school and the pipe that carries rainwater collected in a tank to the LWW system. Inside two vertical blue cylinders next to the wall are carbon membrane filters of different sizes to filter out particles and some bacteria. Ultraviolet light is beamed into the relatively clean water to kill the remaining bacteria and viruses, or at least disable them so they cannot reproduce. But there's a problem. The Belize health department told Douglas that the school would be shut down if the rainwater was not chlorinated before being used by the school. So the Belize unit of Water Missions International (for whom Flores works) will eventually install a chlorinator that will be inserted into the delivery pipe. Dan expressed surprise that the health department called for a chlorine level of 2-3 ppm (parts per million) since 4 ppm is the maximum allowable level in the U.S., and the LWW-treated water is perfectly safe to drink without chlorine. Also it tastes better; many people don't like to drink chlorinated water. Hmmm. Is it possible that the local water vendors don't like the competition? Who knows? In 2003 Bowen & Bowen, which distributes Crystal bottled water, donated a half million dollars to the prime minister's campaign. In Belize the politics of water may be colliding with church efforts to bring clean, less expensive water to poor Belizeans in small villages. May God help us combat this social injustice.--ck

From wildlife to a wild ride

Dale, Chuck, Mary, and Carolyn rose at 5:45 a.m. and drove to nearby Blue Hole National Park for a birdwatching walk with a guide and bird expert married to a Jaguar Creek staffer. Equipped with binoculars, we saw hummingbirds, orioles, tanagers, robins, warblers, hawks, a toucan, and a social flycatcher. We walked to the Blue Hole, which is a sinkhole flooded by a tributary. Seven of us left Jaguar Creek at 9:30 this morning to head for the airport. On the way we drove through Armenia and continued along the road. We noted that many of the small houses are built from concrete blocks with or without stucco or from wood. Most houses have either thatched roofs or corrugated metal roofs. Our next stop was the Art Box, where we bought some presents. Then we enjoyed a visit to the Belize Zoo, which is still directed by founder and environmental activist Sharon Matola. (Read "The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw" by Bruce Bartow to learn about her.) Hannah drove Anne, Ashley, Caleb, Carolyn, Ellie, and Teresa to Cheers for lunch. Then we headed for the airport and got a driver for the van at the car rental place to drive us through congested Belize City to the water taxi port. We took a water taxi across the Caribbean Sea to Ambergris Caye, an almost two-hour ride that was quite noisy. We were joined by Dan, Chuck, Dale, and Mary. We ate at the Blue Hole Grill and stayed at the Conch Shell Inn, close to where the water taxi docked.--ck

Completion of two missions Thursday

Hannah's Gang of Four--Anne, Ellie, Ashley, and Caleb--completed building and painting 12 tables for kids, with the help of Jaguar Creek staffer Abraham. Table colors are green, orange, yellow, and purple. Similar colors ended up on the arms and legs of the Gang. School Principal Brian Watson, formerly of Colorado, sat on a table after its plywood top was nailed, screwed, and glued to the four legs. Wearing his quality assurance hat, he approved the construction job. At 11:30 some 400 students walked outside the two-story green school for an assembly. They lined up and stood quietly when Brian raised his hand (they raised their hands, too). Brian expressed his gratitude to Hannah and her Gang of Four, who were asked to stand in front of the assembly at an elevated level. Kids in their green uniforms brought large hand-made cards to the FPC team. Each illustrated card was signed by all the pupils in a class. Each little Belizean bringing a gift hugged the FPCer receiving it. Ashley said the hug was the highlight of her day. The FPC group also watched boys' and girls' soccer matches between the Armenia school teams and teams from a Belize City school. The Armenia school girls' team won easily and the boys' team lost by a shootout.

Dale held her third clinic in three days. She saw 15 patients at the clinic in the Armenia Development Center and 26 at the dilapidated but partially painted clinic in St. Margaret.
The indoor lavender paint had no noticeable odor. Mary signed up patients and took weight and temperature measurements. Teresa played pharmacist and again enjoyed having Elvis, the motorcyclist, as her Spanish translator. Carolyn, deemed recovered enough to work for rather than sign up for Dale's clinic, resumed her role as the Mean American. She pricked brown fingers and drew red blood drops for blood sugar measurements. Her patients smiled forgivingly at her if their results were below 160 when she said, "Buenos." She also learned to take blood pressure measurements with a sphygmomanometer, making her homesick for the automatic BP machine. Dale reported that she saw a lot of diabetics and patients afflicted with fungus. Teresa said the Mennonite couple, who have family in  Tennessee, paid her with bags of lettuce and cauliflower.

Tomorrow we are leaving the Jaguar Creek Mission and Conference Center. We will miss the jungle music, especially the birds. The howler monkeys were less appreciated; they sounded like a monster gasping for breath in the middle of the night! The food here was wonderful, and the Belizean staff members were gracious, kind, and accommodating. Carolyn especially appreciated the elevated boardwalk that allowed her to walk comfortably without causing discomfort to the snakes in the grass below.--ck

Elementary, Mr. Watson

Thursday- I met this morning with Brian Watson, principal of the Armenia Government Elementary School. By his count, he has 404 students in his charge. They call him Sir Brian or Mr. Watson, and they always say please if they expect to get anywhere with him. We first met Brian when he was principal of La Gracia Elementary near Yalbac where we installed our first water system. We were surprised and delighted when we discovered that he had been transferred to Armenia. He was impressive in La Gracia and he's impressive in Armenia.
A year ago, Peggy met with Brian and asked what he needed. He said white boards. We raised $600 from you, the congregation, and began exploring white board quality and shipping options. Ultimately we decided it was better to trust Brian to know what he needed and to purchase them in country. We transferred the funds to Brian last fall and waited to hear what he did with them.
This morning Brian apologetically explained to me that he and Marin Rosado, his vice principal, had spent a good deal of time researching white board quality, both in various retail outlets and other schools. They ultimately decided to build their own. We sent them money expecting to finance two 4x8 foot white boards. Instead, he and Mr. Rosado built one 4x12 white board and installed it in a new classroom. They have money left to build two more for classrooms that don't yet have windows.
I asked him how we could help with additional white boards. By way of answer, he told me a story. He explained that the second floor of the school was scheduled to be built eventually by the government. There were no immediate plans or funds available and he needed the classroom space. He went to his parents and said we need to build it. Many said it's a government school, that's the government's job. He said you're the government; you elected them, you pay their salaries through your taxes, you have the power to build the second floor of this building. He found funding for materials from a variety of sources, and got the community to do much of the work on weekends alongside him. It's almost finished, and lacking only windows and doors for one more classroom and several offices. He said the estimates came in at $16,000 Belize for the rest of the materials. He told his parents that if they could raise $8,000 of that, he had an American donor who would match it. The fund-raising thermometer outside his office currently stands just below the $8,000 mark. He says there are a number of pledges still out.
I asked the obvious question: would a dollar match work for white boards? He answered with an emphatic yes. He says it's critical to get buy-in from his teachers and parents, even if it'll take longer. I asked how many and how much. He did some quick calculations: 11 boards at $400 Bz each is $4400; divide by two for your share is $2200 Bz, or $1100 US. Doing things indecently and out-of-order, I committed our congregation to that amount on the spot. He said don't hold your breath, we need to recover from our building drive. I said we'd wait to hear from him. He promised: you will. And he grinned.
- dan

Elvis, you rock

Wednesday, March 13. Carolyn, one of the members of the medical team, woke up with the Jaguar Creek runs (just as the Roane Staters had earlier in the week). So she decided to stay in the cabin and finish a book about Belize, walk around, convalesce, and blog, so she wouldn't be declared a slacker. Hannah drove the medical team to the dilapidated but spacious medical clinic in the village of St. Margaret. She registered 43 patients, mostly adults; Dale saw 15 in the morning and 28 in the afternoon. Mary and Hannah handled getting the vitals--height, weight, temperature, pulse, respiratory, blood pressure and glucose measurements. Hannah also drove the table team to the elementary school in Armenia. At the clinic, "pharmacist" Teresa was pleased with her translator, Elvis, 16. She said, "Elvis, you rock," breaking down cultural barriers. The team learned that two female students from Texas Tech and Virginia Tech and three men had obtained permission from Miss Lillie, a community leader in St. Margaret, to install windows in and paint the clinic, which has four large rooms and a bathroom that needs a lot of work. (Apparently, they represented a group that wants to "adopt" the clinic.) They painted it on Tuesday and returned to apply paint today. Teresa, who had persuaded a representative of the Ministry of Health that our medical team was providing a good service, also negotiated with the college students to hold off their painting till Thursday morning, even though the FPC team will hold a half-day clinic there in the afternoon. Will the fresh paint be a problem for the medical team and patients? Stay tuned to the next blog. Speaking of painting, the team of Anne, Hannah, Caleb, Ashley, and Ellie spent today painting the nine tables they completed with help from Jaguar Creek staffer Abraham. They will apply a second coat, build and paint three more tables, and distribute the tables to the preschool and elementary school in Armenia on Thursday. We can't wait to see how much paint they get on their hands and old clothes. Some observations: March is one of the months of the dry season in Belize, but we have had heavy rain here on Monday night, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday morning. That's good for Belize villages because they need the Caves Branch River water for washing clothes. Belizeans drink bottled water but it is terribly expensive for these low-income, poverty-stricken people. That's why the FPC team is striving to build relationships here and install Living Waters for World systems to make collected rainwater safe to drink and inexpensive. In Belize a few control the wealth and many have little. However, like the country folks who have lived near the Smokies, the Belizeans we are seeing are poor but, with the jungle and Maya mountains, they live in a rich natural environment and have close relationships with each other.--Carolyn

Tennessee Volunteers

At our medical team's clinic at Armenia, we benefited from having three volunteers from Roane State Community College in the morning. Call us the Tennessee Volunteers in Armenia. Sue, an RSCC occupational therapy teacher, served as a Spanish translator. Roane State students Kayla and Jessica took and recorded weight, height, pulse, and blood pressure measurements. Mary, who registered patients in the morning, and Carolyn took over their jobs in the afternoon. Carolyn pricked fingers, transferred blood drops to test strips in a glucometer, and recorded measurements of blood glucose. Only one of the 55 patients we saw today had a high glucose level; Dale determined the reading was due to the woman patient taking Prednisone. Teresa served as pharmacist, and Dale saw the patients, including many cute children and babies. Filberta of Armenia served as Dale's translator. She can speak Creole, Kekchi, Mayan, Spanish, and English, of course. The clinic is in the preschool building. Hannah, who drove the van, took the medical and table-building teams to Armenia, both in the morning and afternoon. Anne, an industrial engineer, organized the table builders into an assembly line. She, Ellie, Caleb, Hannah, and Ashley, working with Abner and Abraham, completed eight tables and part of the ninth. They worked in one unfinished room of the new second story of Armenia elementary school; kids were in classrooms on most of the second floor. (Martin told me that the school has 1000 kids and Armenia has a population of 4000.)
Caleb played soccer with the boys during two recesses. He also helped the medical team by     moving heavy tables and carrying the bulky medical supplies suitcase. After sanding tables, Hannah visited the preschool and registered patients at the medical clinic in the afternoon. It was a successful day.
-Carolyn

Power Brokers

Mike Bowen
On our first trip to Belize in 2005, we discovered Belikin beer. On following trips we discovered Bowen and Bowen, purveyors of Belikin, Guiness, Coca Cola products and Crystal water. Basically, if you drink it and it isn’t a milk product or a fruit juice, Bowen and Bowen makes it. Founded by patriarch Barry, B & B is a business dynasty in Belize. In addition to drinkables, they grow coffee, farm raise shrimp, make a line of hot sauces, and run a resort in the middle of the jungle near the village of Gallon Jug.
Barry, a Belizean senator much of his adult life, and a private pilot, died in a plane crash several years ago. His estate was divided amongst his kids, several of whom were called back from the States to take on roles of responsibility in the company.
Today Chuck and Mac Kelton and I had lunch with Michael Bowen, Barry’s son and President / CEO of Bowen and Bowen. Joining us was David Vasquez, a Regional Sales Manager. How this came about is a long story worth telling at another time. We had no idea what to expect, and neither (I guess) did he. Michael was younger than I anticipated; probably late 30s. He and David were also both much more open and personable than I had hoped. We had an interesting and wide-ranging lunch discussion, covering a wide range of topics. They even included water! David and Chuck got involved in a detailed discussion about communities that we should investigate for water needs between Belmopan and Jaguar Creek; Mike and I discussed access to their water labs in Ladyville, and whether B&B could help us buy water bottles. Mac and David worked on getting Crystal to provide water for the clients at Jacob’s Farm.
All in all, it was a worthwhile and enjoyable encounter. And, I hope, the beginning of a long and beneficial relationship.
- dan

Jacob's Farm

Chuck and I headed north from the airport yesterday and arrived at Tony's Resort Inn on the bay in Corozal at about 2:30. We immediately met Mac Kelton of the Belize Project in the parking lot. After a quick lunch, we wasted little time before taking a trip to Jacob's Farm. This is an alcohol rehab work program that the Belize Project is nursing into life. I don't know how it got its name, but I think there's a story behind it. I first met the director, Ismael, last August. He tells me that so far about 60 men have come through the work program at the farm. One of the activities on the farm has been an attempt to raise tilapia for market. It's been a frustrating learning experience so far, with limited results. Our goal was to test the water from a solar powered well, for possible use as drinking and cooking water for the farm. We ended up frustrated as well. Our TDS (total dissolved solids) numbers were a very reasonable 150 ppm or so. But when we tried to titrate for hardness, we couldn't find the end point. It seemed like we'd discovered infinite hardness. Finally after squirting several droppers full of titrant into the solution we forced a color change, but had totally lost track of how much we'd added. We were confused. It's a chemical impossibility for hardness to be dramatically higher than TDS. After we got back to the hotel, I turned the bathroom into a wet lab and started testing tap water and Crystal bottled water. I needed to prove we weren't crazy and defend our honor as upstanding experimentalists. As expected, the Crystal tested near 0 for both hardness and TDS. The tap water was about 800 for TDS, and about 700 for hardness. That's pretty high, but not surprising for what we know about the area. Convinced that our measurement technique was good, I emailed Living Waters hoping someone might have an explanation for our weird numbers in the field and went to bed with no answer. By morning someone had suggested that I hadn't noticed the little blinking '10x' warning on my TDS meter telling me to multiply the reading by 10. Chuck suggested we test the seawater in the bay to prove that it worked. Sure enough, the meter read 433 and the warning was blinking. Seawater has a TDS over 4330! Returning to the farm Monday morning, we repeated our tests. We duplicated our TDS readings of 160, and yes, the warning was blinking. TDS was really around 1600 ppm -- extremely high. We diluted a water sample fivefold with Crystal water and measured hardness at 370, which meant 1850 ppm, also extremely high. We had solved our water puzzle, but didn't like the answer. We told Mac that it wasn't feasible to treat that water. After googling around later today, we also discovered that the water was probably way too hard for the tilapia farms too. A good thing to know but not a positive result. Mac was grateful for the information, even though he's not sure what to do with it yet. So grateful that he treated us to dinner! - dan

Day of preparation

It's a holiday in Belize today, but the FPC team endured high heat and humidity and then celebrated a day of accomplishment. Anne, Caleb, Ashley, and Ellie got a great start on making nine tables for the Armenia preschool. They measured pieces of wood, and Abraham on the Jaguar Creek staff cut the wood with a power saw. The FPC team sanded all the cut pieces. Tomorrow they will learn how to build a table. By Thursday they will have built nine tables for preschool kids in Armenia, and they will have a new capability to add to their skill set. They are building relationships with each other and younger kids. For example, Caleb played soccer with two young Belizean girls. The multigenerational FPCers eat and pray together. We all cooled off together in Jaguar Creek--the real creek, not the lodge and collection of cabins, three of which are our temporary homes. The medical team--Dale, Teresa, Mary, and Carolyn--traveled with Tono to the village of Armenia, where Dale picked up a package of medical supplies she had sent. Then Mary drove the van in the opposite direction to St. Margaret. On the way we crossed Caves Branch River and noticed women washing clothes in the stream polluted with animal waste and pesticides. We saw an orange plantation, probably owned by an American company. Also grown in the jungle area are lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, mango, and papaya trees. We saw the part of the Maya Mountains that resemble a Sleeping Giant. At St. Margaret we noted that the water tank that the FPC team had installed was hooked up to the gutter to collect rainwater and that the school's second story was almost complete. We picked up Miss Lillie (Lilian Galdelmanus), who knows the community well as a member of the PTA and cook for the school. She took us to the building that is designed to be a clinic. The clinic has a waiting room with benches, a blood draw chair, and an exam table in three different rooms. We will work there Wednesday. In the afternoon the medical team counted pills and practiced drawing a drop of blood from each other. No, we're not blood sisters yet. Dale was teaching us how to take blood glucose measurements.

Directionally challenged team arrives safely

After arriving at the airport at Belize at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, the Belize team, reveling in the 85-degree air, rented a van and car. Chuck and Dan drove the car north to Corzol to meet with representatives of 13 Presbyterian churches that have grammar schools. Their mission is to determine whether the churches are interested in arranging for the FPCOR team to install Living Waters for the World systems to provide clean drinking water. Meanwhile, on this beautiful sunny day, Hannah drove the van on a long Sunday afternoon drive all over Belize. Sitting in the front seat, Caleb had the job of warning her about upcoming speed bumps. Anne, Dale, Hannah, and Mary tried to remember the location of the turn that would get us on the unmarked Western Highway. As a result of wrong guesses, we ended up going the wrong way and ended up in Belize City, much to the delight of rookies Caleb, Carolyn, and Teresa. The latter two were excited about the Rotary signs. Once we turned at a cell tower, we were on the right road. We saw lots of flat land with grass and scrub. Occasionally we saw rundown shacks and abandoned cars that made us homesick for Clinton Highway--for a few seconds. After we passed Belmopan, we stopped at Cheers at 2:30 and ate tamales, burritos, and hamburgers. Eventually we saw the Maya Mountains and lots of pine and palm trees and an orange grove. We passed through Armenia and saw the school. By 4:30 we ended up at Jaguar Creek deep in the jungle. Along the way we saw horses, hawks, free-range chickens, a large iguana, orchard orioles, a tarantula, and the top of the food chain--the mosquito. We had a delicious dinner and did our devotionals, making up for cutting church in the morning. During orientation, when our roof was occasionally bombed by dropping figs, we were told that we might hear howling monkeys at night. One pleasant surprise was meeting another group of Tennesseans staying at Jaguar Creek--from Roane State. They made banana pudding that we ate for dessert before the monkeys could get it. Now, that's something they could howl about.

Belize Mission Trip Goals (Mar. 10-16, 2013)

Belize Mission Trip March 10-16 Eleven church members, friends, and a staffer will fly to Belize on Sunday, March 10, to advance our Living Waters for the World (LWW) mission, provide a medical clinic for three days, and construct tables for two schools in Armenia. Members of the mission team are Anne Backus, Caleb Bost, Teresa Brittain, Dale, Chuck, Ashley, and Ellie Hadden, Carolyn Krause, Mary Mullins, and Dan Terpstra. Hannah Norris, FPC director for youth & children’s ministries, is the team leader. The mission team will be staying at Jaguar Creek, about six miles from our adopted village of Armenia. Chuck and Dan will meet with folks in Corzol associated with Water Mission International and Belize Presbyterian water projects. The team will also explore with Jaguar Creek a proposal to install an LWW system there and perhaps make it a center for teaching Belizeans how to install and maintain LWW systems elsewhere. In another water project, sterilizer tubes will be delivered to the Octavia Waight nursing home, where the Belize team from our church helped install an LWW system. Dale, a nurse practitioner with the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge, will hold a medical clinic for three days—two in Armenia and one in the village of St. Margaret. Mary, Teresa, and Carolyn will assist her in distributing medicine to those in need. Hannah, Anne, Caleb, Ashley, and Ellie will build and paint tables for the preschool and elementary school in Armenia.

Mission Accomplished: Saturday PM

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

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

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.

First impressions of San Mateo, just across the bridge from the resort town of San Pedro.

First impressions of the room in which the water system will be installed.

Another view, showing the water board on the back wall under the stairs.

And a view from the other side of the bridge. The restaurant (Wet Willie's) where Dave and Douglas had lunch.

It's all in a day's work. Tomorrow we'll see if it holds water!

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

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