Saturday

Saturday

On Saturday morning when we woke up it was pouring down rain! There’s some sort of tropical storm passing over Belize...we are definitely experiencing the beginning of hurricane season! This is the day that we were supposed to begin our kid’s camp, so we had to postpone it. Raffi said that the children may not come outside in the rain. So, we’ve postponed it to Monday and Tuesday. At first it was really hard for us to be okay with not beginning the camp on Saturday. We were all feeling a little disappointed because of all of the rain and all of the projects that need to be done. We’re trying to see that God has a plan for all of the rain and maybe he has a different plan for us and the work that we’ll accomplish this week.

Instead of beginning the kid’s camp on Saturday many people continued working on installing computers in two different schools. In the Cristo Rey Catholic school we had to finish putting formica on the tables and then connect all of the computers (10 will go in this school). In the Cristo Rey Presbyterian school we set up 5 computers and cleaned up the computer lab. We tried to connect to the internet, but their cords and wires didn’t seem to be the ones that we needed! Now we’ll wait for the BTL (internet company) technician to come help us out. Hopefully that will be soon! While many people were working to install the computers, Tamera continued helping Raffi use his new laptop. She took him to a place where they could get internet access and taught him about attaching a file to an email and how to Facebook chat! These are definitely two skills that he’ll use as he connects with people in the States regarding projects and mission trips!

After finishing up some work in one of the computer labs we took a little walk (about 2 blocks) to the Cristo Rey Tortilleria. This tortilleria is a small little company that makes and sells tortillas to the village and nearby villages. It is owned by several local women and has been in business for one year. Gayla, a Peace Corps volunteer has been helping these ladies increase their business and their business sense. The ladies showed us where they cook the corn, how they grind the corn, how they make the maseca (a corn meal like substance), and how the tortillas are put into the machine that cuts and cooks them. It was fascinating to see how these ladies make the tortillas so quickly using this machine! We had just come from eating lunch at Raffi and Desi’s house where Desi made tortillas for us using the same maseca, but she made them by hand and cooked them over a kind of open fire!! What a tedious process....but they sure were yummy!

After a wonderful snack of homemade chips and cheese sauce at the torilleria, some people got to work on putting up chicken wire around the outside corn cooking area. They have trouble keeping the random chickens in the community out of their corn! Flora, the owner of the tortilla factory was so happy after we put up the wire fencing! We weren’t able to completely finish because it started to get dark (it gets dark around 6:15 each night), so we’ll finish another day.

Speaking of Raffi and Desi, they are taking great care of us each day by feeding us the most delicious food! On Saturday we ate escaveche (not sure how to spell that!) soup. Basically it’s very flavorful chicken and onion soup. We had homemade tortillas with the soup and then amazingly delicious homemade lime pie afterwards.

On the way back to our hotel for the evening we stopped at Raffi’s church to visit a small festival/fundraiser. There we enjoyed talking with some of the villagers and learning about their lives. We also enjoyed some more wonderful Belizian food! We ate garnachas (fried tortillas with beans, onions, and cheese on top) and salbutas (fried tortillas with chicken, tomatoes, and cheese inside). The food was amazing and we felt thankful to be able to contribute financially to the church fundraiser! Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to sleep...what a busy day!

One thing that we’d really like to ask for prayer about is the weather! We know it’s tropical storm/hurricane season, but we ask that you pray it not rain so much! :) There are still several outside projects that we’d like to work on, but are unable to because of all of the rain. We’re okay if it rains a little or lightly, but sometimes the rain is monsoon like! It blows sideways and it’s difficult to work outside in conditions like this. We have a few other indoor projects we can do, but we really want to get the outside ones finished- screening on house windows, finishing the chicken wire at the tortilleria, and putting up some basketball backboards/nets.

Thanks for praying and for following us on our journey in Belize!

-Beth and the team :)