On to Belize

My church has been installing water filtration systems in Nicaragua for several years, but with the impending civil war there and the closure of the U.S. Embassy, we can't go back til things settle down.   This change makes me sad and I feel that we are letting our partners in Kukra Hill, Pearl Lagoon, and Orinoco down, but WE CAN'T GO, go we looked elsewhere for another mission field.

Parts of the system which are brought into the country.

Filtration system

We were contacted in early August by a Presbyterian church in Bowling Green, KY about their Living Waters trip to Armenia, Belize.  The felt the need for an experienced 102 (health and hygiene teacher) to assist their two trained 102  members.  I agreed to join the group in Belize with the proviso that a member of my Arlington team could travel with us and that we'd take a day or 2 to scout around for a place for my church to install later.

I usually take a couple of months organizing and creating teaching supplies for the 3 days of classes during the install.  This time I had approx 20 days to get it all together.  The "Kentucky" teachers (really from Florida, but that's another story for another day) were contacted and agreed to make 50 copies of various sheets from the notebook.  I got the rest of the stuff organized and packed.

A few interesting tidbits about Belize--
*They moved their capital city from Belize City (on the Caribbean coast) to Belmopan in the interior of the country, cuz Belize City kept being demolished by tropical storms.
*Every small village has numerous speed bumps to keep car traffic at a slow speed.
*The cities of Belize City and Belmopan have lots of traffic circles (roundabouts).
*Almost every meal we had in the 8 days we were here included beans and rice.
*There is a difference between "beans and rice"  and "rice and beans"  Beans and rice are served mixed together-- Rice and beans are served separately. (or maybe I have that backwards??)
*For those who care, the national beer of Belize is "Belekin"  I was traveling with a number of beer drinkers.

Our accommodations in Belmopan  (The Bull Frog Inn) were outstanding, compared to what we'd experienced in Nicaragua.  (except for the Mercedes in Managua)  We had A/C, hot water, restaurant on site (food VERY expensive and service VERY slow, but it was available- and we had choices)  with maid service every day. 

The one drawback was the fact that we were locked out of the lobby/restaurant area until 7am.    For those needing/wanting coffee earlier than 7, they were up a creek.

Armenia is a small community of about 1500 with a "government" school of about 350 students.  Our filtration facility was to benefit the entire community, but especially the school.

Kids playing the week before school begins

They have governmental health services- with a doctor coming to the community twice a month and a nurse coming once a month.  We taught our classes in the health services building which had a main room with 3 exam rooms off the main room and 2 bathrooms (partially functional)

 Our 3  students were local health care workers who assist when the dr and nurse come.  We were expecting 6 students.





We taught our classes in the morning and met again in the afternoon for the ladies we'd taught in the morning to practice teaching what they'd learned.

Norma, Odilia, Laura (one of us), Filiberta

Adding hand prints to banner to be left in Armenia

 Didn't always work out that way.

We taught Friday (with Thursday for organizing our supplies) , Saturday and Sunday.  The ladies asked to come on Sunday, it didn't seem to be important for them to be in worship, so we forged ahead.

Community library where we met to paint hand prints on banners.