Friday Again??

The weeks seem to fly by!!!

I can't believe its Friday again.....I'm so glad to have Sabbath here. We had a nice worship and followed that up with supper of homemade bread, chips & guacamole (avocados from addy's tree right beside our house), juicy watermelon, & pineapple cake! We are really blessed here with a fresh produce market. Keep in mind its outdoors and is nothing like our supermarket produce section but it supplies our needs. I have to go to market 2 times each week for all fruits and vegetables.

Mat went to Pine Ridge today with JunJun, Junior, Cliff, & Bobbi to start installing the solar panels. Chris got home from his 24 hour shift at about 11am. The girls and I did laundry, cleaned up and made food for today and tomorrow. The dogs even got their bath today!

I will post a few pictures of some of the activities that went on around here this past week.

The girls helped me make fresh squeezed tangerine & orange juice! YUM

Two days ago the kids said "Mom, come here and look!" Right out in front off our veranda this little boy climbed all the way up the coconut palm and started kicking down coconuts. I couldn't believe how well he did, but I was afraid for him if he was to fall.

This is one of the many birds that we see everyday. Usually, they are so fast that I can't snap a picture of them.

I had made a post about Aracari's and mentioned that they fly into our bathroom window and fawn over themselves in the reflection. Well, yesterday I was able to lean around the veranda and catch one still sitting there. They are so skittish! Looks funny, doesn't it? How they can teeter there and not fall?

Sabbath school is going good with more and more young people showing up. Then we lead out in Sabbath evening youth meetings which are actually for the entire church. Sunday and Monday I usually spend getting the new weeks kids radio program all lined up. I pick out a theme, then a story, songs, scripture, interesting facts, and safety or health tips. I really like doing it and I'm getting better at it each week. Wednesday I have 7 piano lessons, Thursday is radio program live over the air. Sunday is also kids night at the church.....Dennis & Stephanie show a bible movie and ask questions. I think at some point I will be doing that part of the time. We will see what all opens up. Right now we are without a vehicle so can't really go too far.

Happy Sabbath! 

Our Home

I finally got the nerve to post some pictures of our home here. Please keep in mind that I still have boxes here and there and haven't yet found a place for all things but we are definitely getting there. So here it is:

One of the views from our covered veranda.Both of the homes you see in this picture are occupied by Americans.

A better look at the veranda, we soon hope to have it all cleared off.

The only entry into the house and you can see it serves as piano room, pantry, storage, & entry way. You can see the stairs leading up to the roof/laundry room.

My kitchen......I just got to cook on my gas stove a couple days ago. I am really happy to be able to cook & eat here. We have no kitchen cabinets and probably won't have for many moons! That takes $$. The first door off the kitchen is the girl's room and the second is bathroom #2.

The main part of the house and the doors that lead to the veranda. My room is just beyond the hutch and the one further on the left is the computer/school/library/office room. Across the living room is the door to Mat's room. The ceilings are really high so it makes it feel bigger.

My gigantic laundry room/bike storage/chris' tool shed/exercise room/ extra storage. I have several laundry lines which you can see, I should have taken the picture yesterday when I had all my laundry out. My washer is just under the left side of the gazebo. The green tarp is what I cover the washer with when it rains.

Kids doing school work......they have a really big window for fresh air/light/ and beautiful views.

Chris figured our home was about 1000 square feet not counting the veranda or the roof.

Bella said that it was feeling more like home all the time. As we get more settled in I feel that way too. I can't say how good it feels to crawl into my own bed at night with my own pillow. I might have to rethink the cold shower deal now that the weather is nicer. We may get a hot water tank in Belmopan. Sounds funny, huh?

Perfect Weather!!

To all you fair weather friends and family I just thought I would let you know how awesome the temperatures have been the past 5 days or more.

Its a balmy 60 degrees when I get up at 5 in the morning and by 8 it had warmed to 64 in the shade. Sometimes I walk up to my laundry room (the roof) to get warmed up by the sunshine early in the morning. The day warms up to no more than 80 degrees and the humidity has dropped way off! I am having to use a little lotion again.

So if there are any of you afraid to visit us in the tropics because you don't like to much humidity or heat now is the time. Now up until the beginning of April will see really nice temperate weather! Hint, hint.

I took some pictures from my roof so that you all can see what I get to see everyday while I do laundry.

This is looking straight across the valley. Pastor Bill's house in the bottom rt. corner.

This direction is Spanish Lookout in the distance. Just over that knoll to the left is La Loma Luz Adventist Hospital.

This angle is looking east toward the coast!

The sunsets are so pretty here, everyday the sky is pink & purple as the sun drops behind the ridge line.

This view is looking over toward San Ignacio.

Sabbath School under a Pole Shed

Today we held youth class under a pole shed that someone owns for their animals. No animals are there right now so we scraped off one side to remove the animal left overs and held class there today. We could actually hear our own singing and talking to each other. Class only had 10 kids today because the adventist school was doing something special. We still had 2 new students in class.

The kids there really liked their lessons and activity sheets! We are so excited to see this happening!

You can see how far we are from the church and I looked at the rusted metal roofing and I believe we would have gotten wet had it rained. Lots of holes in the metal. Thankfully, no rain today!

The kids carry the church benches all the way over from the church and back each sabbath.

Cooler Weather

Praise the Lord, the weather has been temperate and actually feels nice!! The breeze has been blowing through our house and I love it.

We still have about 20 bees to get rid of but they aren't a bother now so Chris will take care of them soon.

He is pulling another shift tomorrow in Belize and this time he is riding in with Junior and riding the bus back out. He will also start working at the orphanage 1-2 days next week. This will be done on a trial basis to see if his skills are really needed there.

I have 6 piano students with a new one starting next week. Every Wednesday afternoon I will be doing lessons for them all and helping my kids with their other instruments.

We had a really nice visit with Terry & Wendy again a few days back and Rich helped Chris replace brakes on the truck. Seems like we just fix one thing and something else pops up with that little truck! I guess we should just be thankful for a vehicle.

Stephanie, her mother, and Jakob came to visit us this afternoon. Her mother is very nice and Jakob is such a little doll. He is so smart and very fast.....he shutdown my computer while he was here. He will be 2 in December.
Stephanie is about 6 months along with a baby girl due in January. She looks great!

The dogs really like this cooler weather too! They show much more signs of life and vigor. Rio loves getting to bark at all the strangers here!

Thats the update for now......until the next blogging, we are praying for our family and friends back home.

No Bridge?

I'm sure that most of you have heard of the horribe flooding in Central American Countries!

We have had our fair share of rain which made the river flood and overflow in spots. One spot is the low bridge between Santa Elena and San Ignacio.

The open market that I go to each week is directly across the river and behind those trees on the left.

Thankfully, there is another bridge that is high above the water.......but it is only a one lane bridge.

Our home is up on a hill so we are not in any danger of flooding or mud slides!

The kids, dogs, and I drove down to see the bridge and take a picture of it. The dogs really like to go with us, but they don't get much opportunity here.

This man was packing his horse up the road past our house. We thought it was funny to see the horse packing crates of glass coca cola bottles!

Battle of the Bees

WOW!!!

Out of no where came a hoard of BEES!!

Saturday afternoon they showed up in a fast and furious nest building frenzy. They are small black bees that tend to bite more than they sting. Yes, they do have stingers though.

Some of them even got inside the house but we managed to kill them. Thousands of bees were on the ceiling of my veranda and we needed to get rid of them. Bee spray was out, because all of our boxes keep the main doors open and all we have is the screen doors and I thought it might drift into the house.

Dennis showed up with a long lighter and some kind of paint cleaner spray. He TORCHED them with a flame and they fell in droves. Some began to swarm him and he came running to the door yelling "let me in!"

That got rid of about 2/3 of the intruders and last night we had to do something again to kill them all. So after digging and coming up empty handed with a long lighter. I taped 2 pencils together to gain length and then I taped 4 wooden matcheds to the end of that. Mat climbed the ladder and once he was in position with the can of hair spray, I lit his matches. He torched the bees again and they fell down and some flew away. Mat got one bite but it was gone in less than 2 hours.

So after all that I went out with my vaccuum and sucked up all the dead and stunned bees, thousands of them. Today there is a small amount, maybe 50 bees left that we will do in tonight. We also knocked the nest down last night that they had started.

I'm sure we will have more run in's with insects!!

Fortunately, this type of bee is not super aggressive!
They have been busy all day long working on the start of a new nest. Too bad for them that their fate awaits them after dark!

Youth Class

We have just formed a new youth class at church.....a couple weeks ago. Addy & I are the leaders and each Sabbath we have a couple more kids. Yesterday we had 14 and I had just enough lessons copied. I had just received the lessons by mail on last Friday.

The kids all seemed very happy to have them and participated in the bible study we had. The kids who have bibles shared with those who don't. Thats another problem some kids just don't own a bible. Next Sabbath I'm going to take extra bibles for those who don't have one.

We held youth class under 2 trees for the first couple weeks but we had to fight uneven ground with church pews and battle ants nests. This past Sabbath we put up our 10x10 shelter on part of the churches concrete slab outside. We had to hang 2 big beach towels on one side so the sun wouldn't beat down on the kids in between the down pours. Sorry to say even though they are interested we are being drowned out by the echoing adult class inside the church and/or the little kids class.

So we are going to ask around and see who owns the animal/hay shelter across from the church and ask if we can clean it up and use it.

As the weeks progress I expect the kids will open up more and more!
Please pray for this effort because this is an age group here that is caught up and lost to gangs and drugs.

Hannah & Jun's Birthdays

Hannah had her 13th birthday yesterday and Jun turned 12 today. My Grandmother also has a birthday today!!

We had chili spaghetti for dinner and homemade ice cream cake!!

She liked all her gifts and I'm sure over the next few days she will be prancing around in her new clothes.





Daily Visitors

A couple pictures of our daily visitors!!



Hot Weather

Whew!

The last couple days have been hot, sunny days again.

A cool midday reprieve in the shower is definitely needed. The funny thing is that even the locals say "its hot!"

Brother Ken is back in the hospital with a broken femur. Poor man.

We are making slow progress with the settling in bit.....seems like there are many other things and activities keeping us busy. Well, as Dennis says "everything takes longer in Belize." So maybe we'll be unpacked and settled by November??

Meanwhiled we are shimmying around boxes and stepping over things. I almost have washer use, hopefully by tomorrow. I am able to use our toilet in our bathroom but nothing else yet. We have 2 windows with curtains so far.....so we have to be careful because the neighbors house looks right into our main living space.

Wendy came out to see us (hooray) and we were so happy to see her and Aden. Her friend Ross was down from the states and brought her by. Aden is growing so much and he always loves to see the kids. Now that we are well again we will be seeing a lot more of them.

We heard from Rich and Kris Friday evening....they were going to come out Sabbath, but ended up not coming. Kris just got back from her trip to the states. So hopefully, we will see more of them too?

Lots to do with the mission group here.....Grandma is cooking and I'm baking bread or buns and making dessert for everyday. Addy has asked me to bake lots of banana cake tomorrow because she is inviting her sisters over because of the holiday. They will eat lunch with us and play volley ball or soccer. 

I will also be working on Hannah's birthday cake tomorrow and prepping for her birthday dinner on Tuesday. She will be an official teenager and she is really glad to be turning 13.

We had Sabbath school under the trees in front of the church. We had 13 kids there and it was nice, they don't like to speak out but I think with time they will get more involved. Rain came pouring down so thankfully we had put up a little 10X10 shelter. Try to fit 3 church pews and a couple camp chairs under that! The rain was coming in so we had to keep cramming together in the center. We managed to stay dry so I think we will put up the shelter every Sabbath.

Chris will most likely be going in for another 24 hour shift with the ambulance tomorrow evening. He has been promised lots of action since it is a Holiday and Tuesday being the day after they will stay busy.

Dennis took the mission group to Cayo Twist (non-dairy ice cream) and he took my kids too. They have been helping set up tables and chairs and clean up the kitchen before the group arrived so I guess he wanted to treat them too.

This week we will have to go and renew our visas in order to stay in the country. I guess its not much they mainly just want the money part.

Brother Ken

Brother Ken is 82 years old and has dementia. Susan, his wife, and Ken live out at seven mile and have a ministry there. Susan is in her early 60's and suffers from seizures and can't really use her left hand for much.
I have been on the phone quite a bit with Susan this past week over the progressing disease that her husband has. Things were getting out of hand and he was getting way worse. She can't care for him alone!
Her usually town day came around on Tuesday and she went to Spanish lookout and her to San Ignacio to do her errands.
She stopped by to see us and received a phone call that her husband was missing for 2 hours and couln't be found.
We all prayed and Susan left to head home with her helper, Rudy. They looked for him and asked for help looking for Ken and the Menonites searched all night in the rain. Ken was found lying on the ground about 22 hours after he left. He was alive but according to the folks that found him, barely. They carried him out in a hammock and took him directly to hospital. Believe it or not, he was hypothermic because of lying in the mud and rain all night. Apparently he had fallen and couldn't get up again. To top it off he had bee stings, ant bites and other insect bites all over his body.
We drove up to the hospital to see him and he didn't look good at all. The doctor on shift was so nonchalant about it. Finally, they got him on IV antibiotics and he awoke last night and talked and was awake this morning eating! Thank God that he didn't die out in the bush. He was about 2 miles from his home is very rugged terrain.
I talked with Susan this afternoon and she said he was doing better. We continue to pray because we aren't sure if his body is just rallying for a day or so or if he will truly recover.
Ken told his wife this morning that he saw Jesus........
He is a very godly man when in his right mind. Ken is a very smart man, he was an architect, I believe.
So the past couple of days have also included this terrible scenario of not knowing or thinking he might not be alive.

Daily Routine

So much busy activity has been happening around here but it seems like I usually just kind of mention the overview.

I have been getting up at 5:30 am to help get breakfast ready at Addy's. (I have a stove but no gas yet)
We have to cook from scratch something for breakfast. Homemade tortillas & beans, oatmeal, homemade bread, fresh biscuits, potatoes, johnny cakes, homemade banana bread, scrambled tofu, and a wide variety of fresh fruits.

After breakfast we clean up, start laundry, and then her kids are off to school and mine start their school lessons here! So I unpack, hang out clothes, help the kids, correct their work, clean up the floor, straighten up what needs it. About 10 am I have to start thinking about lunch to have time to prepare food. Today we did beans and rice with a big cabbage salad but that was after I made a big batch of homemade cookies and oat wheat bread.

Next, I took down all 4 loads of laundry from the line, helped Chris get a lunch packed, trimmed his hair up, bathed the dogs, cleaned up my kitchen, swept the outside steps, corrected more school work, started getting ready for the kids radio program, gathered some facts from the computer, did kids radio until 5 pm., moved some furniture around, unpacked some more boxes, vacuumed the rug, had supper of bread and mangoes followed by cookies, did some more cleaning and unpacking, got the kids into the shower, watched a dvd and sent them off to bed by 9 pm.

There is so much work here just to live, hand washing dishes, hanging laundry out, water & power conservation, cooking from scratch (premade food is so expensive), tiles floors show everything so daily maintenance has to be done. The soil here is a white clay that is hard to clean off things. I know we will get used to it all and once we are done unpacking that will really help.

That was just a peak into what today was like and everyday is busy, busy! The kids really like to play volleyball or soccer in the afternoons, but thats when the bugs seem to emerge for the night activity. Several neighborhood kids will show up to play.

Last night we attended a very nice prayer meeting. So uplifting to worship together and shouldn't we give more time to the Lord?
We have family worship everyday and personal study time but it seems that the majority of the day is spent toiling. Are we giving glory and thanks for all things from God?

Unpacking

We have spent this week trying to unpack and get things organized. Well, I wouln't say we are very orderly yet but it is coming. We have eliminated so many boxes only to turn around and have just as many to open.

The breakables were packed so well that we actually didn't have very many in each box.......so that made for more boxes.

All the beds are together, the ceiling fans up, lights work, some pictures hung, shelving put together, clothing hung up or put in dressers, the computer is up and running, the water is know working, one bathroom is useable now, & the floor is being kept clean!

Today we had a gentleman come to convert the gas stove to the butane here. I hung out laundry up on the roof today for the first time. The sun was HOT again and the breeze was blowing so the clothing dried fast.  Except it was really hot hanging them out.

Our cool weather reprieve has left and today was another scorcher, I got sunburned giving the dogs a bath outside! The heat seems to lessen the humidity some but the heat makes you sweat too!

Chris is on his first 24 hour shift....he took 2 extra changes of clothing to counter act the sweat! The kids all pitched in and we packed him a cooler of food, water, and gatorade!

Things are starting to feel like home.....but this is Belize and getting certain tasks accomplished just takes lots of time!

Aracari's!

I keep forgetting to mention our personal resident tropical birds! There are many types but we seem to have 3 regular visitors.
Three aracari's like to sit in the tree right off one side of our house. Right out Mat's bedroom window about 5 feet away.
What they really like is to fly into the bathroom window, girl's window, or Mat's window and sit on the sill. We figured out that they like to see there reflections in the glass and they tap the glass with their beaks.
These birds have yellow, red, and green on the their chests with funny little designs on their beaks. We really enjoy them and when we get settled we will put some banana out for them on the veranda.
When I locate my camera I will take some up close pictures of them and post them on the blog.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that they wake Chris up every morning between 5:30 and 6:00 am. He has been sleeping over at our house ever since we brought our things to make sure no one bothers our stuff thats on the veranda.

Moving In

We did finally get our things last Thursday and have been busy Friday and today trying to unpack and get situated. So far we have had to fight the loads of rain and try to keep our boxes dry!

The customs man finally relented and lowered the price he was going to charge us which was nice but it still wasn't cheap to ship it down and import it. I get charged for every single pound of our items. So a large load really gets to adding up.

Praise the Lord that we did get our things though, and that the man didn't detain us any longer. Most of our things are unscathed but it seems the ones that did take a beating really look bad. I'm surprised at what made it and what didn't. None of my lamps survived the trip.

I have the library/office room organized good enough that the kids are starting school in the morning.....they have mixed feelings about it! They know that I will be making them do lots of make up work.

Most of us are feeling better with some residual symptoms hanging on. The coughs are finally subsiding which is nice so we can sleep at night.

The dogs were so happy when the living room area rug went down! They sniffed it and laid down and went to sleep (I think they were already tired of laying on tile.) The kids found the box of doggie toys so they were having fun showing the dogs each toy and letting them sniff it.

Hannah was so happy to see her own pillow and fell asleep on it right away. Isabel was happy to find her box of clothes and picked out some clean never-worn in Belize clothes to put on. Mathew was really happy to start unpacking and he really got excited when he found the energy bars!

I'm glad with each box we empty and Chris has been slowly getting the beds put together.

Thank you for all the prayers!