Meals I ate while there...

We ate off the menu to first few days I was there with the Barb, Pat and David.  I had curry chicken that was spectacular.  (so good I had it for two meals)  I had warm chicken salad one day for lunch.  Breakfast was eggs, pancakes and bacon during those days.

Saturday, they feed the crew snacks when the arrived.  (PB and J sandwiches, fresh fruit, etc...)  Dinner was a pork chop.  Most sides were coconut rice, steamed veggies, a type of potato salad and cole slaw (neither of which were my favorite).  The rice and veggies were awesome!!!!

Sunday:  Lunch was stewed chicken.  It basically fell right off the bone.  Yummy!  Dinner was spaghetti noodles with white sauce.  There was a choice of chicken or shrimp.  I had chicken, but heard the shrimp was as awesome as the chicken pasta was.

Monday:  Lunch was brought to us at Santa Elena.  We had pork tacos.  Lots of yummies to put on them.  Homemade tortillas!  Mouth is watering!  Dinner was steak.  It was great!

Tuesday:  Lunch was brought to us again at Santa Elena.  We had BBQ.  This was very close to US BBQ.  Dinner was a fish and shrimp combo.  It was all great.  I am not too into sea food, but this fish was wonderful.

Wednesday:  Lunch was empanadas filled with fish or beans. The fish was very fishy, but the bean ones were great!  Dinner was baked chicken.

Thursday:  Lunch was a local dish called "reano" or black dinner.  It was a black bean soup base (without any beans just the juice), chicken on the bone and a hard boiled egg.  It was not a favorite of mine.  They did serve rice with it and that was good.  Dinner was lasagna and it was great!

Friday:  Lunch was at the restaurant in Guatemala.  Dinner was tangy chicken, which was wonderful.

Wednesday, they mentioned that pineapple upside down cake was the dessert for dinner.  I was so excited and the servers knew it.  They served me 2 pieces before anyone else.  It was superb!  I even told the cooks (via an interpreter) that is was as good as my moms!  :)

Things to ponder...

Will I have the opportunity to go back?

Fresh Key Lime Pie is awesome!!!!  Fresh pineapple upside down cake is even better!!!

Remember to open new items before crossing into a new country...

Do I really need half of the stuff I have?  Does it all make me happy?

My desire to be/live simply became magnified when I could put my important stuff in a fanny pack and survive all day!

Geckos are really cute and tarantulas are really UGLY!  (there was a tarantula near our restaurant one day and we found another at Tikal)

Rooming in Cabin 17 rocked!  We had a lot of fun and many laughs!

Coming back to reality is very difficult!  I still haven't left my house since entering it at 3:30am Sunday morning.  Hoping tomorrow will be the day!

Pepto before every meal made life very good while I was there.  HIGHLY recommend when food/water is in question.

God's hand was truly over us the whole trip!  Thankfully!  :)

A classroom is what you make of it... Focus on the content not on the presentation of it!

Did you know that McDonalds imports its beef from Guatemala!  They are grass feed (I witnessed it)!  :)  Interesting...

Travel day home to the US!

Our travel day was expected to be long...  We had our last yummy breakfast, packed up, said good-byes to the staff at Windy Hill Resort (BTW, if you are ever in the Cayo District I HIGHLY recommend them) and loaded the bus by 9am.  We left knowing there would be a wait at the airport.  The wait ended up being 3 hours as our drive was very uneventful, thankfully.  David had time to pick up the walkie-talkies (he was escorted by an officer) and we all just kinda hung out.  There are only 5 gates in the airport and they are all right in a very small space.  There were many travelers there, so it was tight quarters for sure.

Our flight out of Belize went really well.  There was bit of turbulence, but nothing I had experienced before.  I slept a lot because I took a Dramamine because just as I was getting on the flight my tummy felt yucky.

The customs, etc.... through Miami went ok.  We all made it through that without too much of an issue. (I got yelled at for having my phone out in a restricted area... such a rebel.  Actually never saw the sign.)  The Miami flight went well and we landed in Chicago at 10:10pm.  We got our luggage and waited quite a while for our hotel van to pick up the 15 of us.  We called ahead and were expecting a van just for us, but instead were filled to the brim (David and Jeff had to stand) due to many others jumping on it.

We left Chicago around 11:30.  We all were ready to get home but so tired.  We did stop at the Oasis to eat something and the only place open was McD's.  I had a palmagranite /blueberry smoothy.  I drifted in  and out of sleep from there until we hit the exit for Madison.  We dropped Barb off first and I was next.  I walked in around 3:30am....  Thank you Pat and David for driving us down there!  :)

Tikal or bust

June 21, 2013

It was a VERY early morning for us.  We had to be at breakfast by 6:30 and the bus loaded at 7:00.  I was nervous and excited to be crossing into Guatemala to visit these ancient ruins.  We boarded the bus and arrived at the border around 7:45.  Lots of guns and military standing around watching all the hustle and bustle of the day.  It was Friday, so there was still workers crossing over, school buses traveling through and large semis, as well.  Javier (Francisco) had the day off from Windy Hill so he joined us, as did 4 of the seminarians and our bus driver.  Javier took all of our passports and started the process to cross into Guatemala.  Did you know it costs $18.75 to leave Belize every time?

David was able to take care of the ipad at this border.  He ended up paying half of what the original note was going to charge.  He had it removed off his passport, because he was going into Guatemala so it left the country intact like they wanted.  We unwrapped it and opened the box before entering back into Guatemala.  We were never checked at customs for anything, so it was pretty easy.  Fr. Leo was so happy to receive the ipad!

They had 4 15 passenger vans and 1 SUV type vehicle for all of us. Pat, David, Javier and I loaded up in the SUV with Carlos as our driver.  We learned a lot about a lot of things on that trip!  The most important part was that I didn't get motion sick AT ALL!  :)

We stopped along the way to watch some women washing clothes in the Sulphur Lake.

woman washing laundry (photo credit: Wipperfurth)

 We also saw an All Spice  and a Chicle tree.  Did you know that All Spice really comes from an All Spice tree?  It smelled soooooo yummy!  The Chicle tree is what is used to make gum....  That was cool.  Carlos and Javier did a lot of talking in Spanish, but would eventually translate to English (or so we hoped...)

Sign for Tikal (photo credit: Schweigers)

Do you see me?  Kyle made sure I made it ok!  (I'm towards the bottom in the orange.)

Infront of a temple:  Pat and I looking a bit tired.  (photo credit: Schweigers)

The Lost City (photo credit: Schweigers)

Yes, we saw monkeys (right in the center of the pic) (photo credit: Schweigers)

On the way home we stopped at a gift shop/restaurant for a very LATE lunch.  (We had been forwarned to bring snacks, so we were prepared.)  The meal started with a very creamy veggie soup.  Everyone at the table thought it was great.  David mentioned several times that his sure had a kick to it. We all just kept saying that ours didn't and then really thought nothing more about it.  We ate the dinner and were chatting when Jason asked us if we tasted the hot sauce and if we did what did we think of it. We all thought our table had not been served the hot sauce so he brought us a bowl of "thick looking veggie soup".  It had the same texture and and color....  He ate an entire bowl of habenero "soup".  We laughed really hard at how silly we were for not even checking into it more when he kept commenting how spicy his was.  Still makes me giggle a lot to think about it.  :)

David must have felt lucky after that because as we pasted a checkpoint on the road home, Carlos pulled over so that he could get his pic taken with this young man.  There was another soldier who popped up from the ditch next to this little hut.  It freaked me out a bit....

David and Guatemalan military (this was a check point)  (photo credit: Schweigers)

Day Four at SEPS and a nursing home in Belize

June 20, 2013

This day started out with rain and no hope of clearing.  We were scheduled to have a going away assembly at the school at 9am.  When we arrived it had been raining pretty hard for quite some time.  The school is located at the bottom of a hill in the town.  The drainage down the way was blocked and most of the water was running hard into the front area of the school.

Some of the school parents found some two by fours and created bridges for us to walk on to cross over the raging water.  (It was A LOT of water!)  There were teachers walking around barefoot and they were busy making us bridges!  Spoiled, I think.  I was thankful though because I really didn't want wet yucky feet all morning.  (I would have dealt with it, but I was very grateful!)

Flooding

More flooding

Teachers walking in the rain (see the "bridge" to the right side?)

"Santa Claus" walking the bridge

The other bridge they made for us (photo credit for all the above: Wipperfurth)

Ms. Debby had arranged this assembly and we had a fantastic time.  Each person in our group was honored in some way.  Students made us cards and actually wrote letters to us in them...  We were given a Belizian flag, a book mark, a bandana with the school logo and a small cake with the words "thank you" on them.  
Pat, David, Barb, Lisa (who was unable to attend the trip) and I were presented with a pen and case with our names etched in them.  My heart couldn't begin to thank them enough.

We finished up the painting of the classroom numbers and situated money for the paint, etc we had purchased.  I even got to paint some numbers (free hand) above some of the doors.  Once that was done we said our sad good-byes and headed back to Windy Hill for lunch.

Kim painting room numbers (photo credit: Schweigers)

10-12 people went in the afternoon to visit a local nursing home.  I chose not to go as I was in desperate need to just sitting and taking a breath.  The people who went said is was an awesome opportunity and were thankful that they went.  I was really glad to a bit of a slower pace!

After dinner, we gathered up all the bibles and rosaries we brought and went to the church.  Jason had one more presentation scheduled and we weren't sure how many would attend as the rain was still coming down.  The church was PACKED!  Most of the bibles we brought were taken as were most of the rosaries.  We took some more pictures and cleaned up and headed back to Windy Hill for the night.

Day Three at SEPS...and hitting the town of San Ignacio

June 19, 2013

We were up and at 'em bright and early this morning!  Here is a little of Cabin 17 morning procedures...

Breakfast was at 7am Monday-Wednesday morning, so it would start off about 4am with the yellow bellied sap suckers knocking the heck out of our roof.  We found out that when they did this it would scare the bugs in the roof and they would eat them.  I am not kidding when I say it sounded like a machine gun going off over your head.  Depending on whose cabin they chose, the volume changed with location.  Along about 4:45 or 5, the other birds in the area (quite a variety) would start they "singing".  The alarm (which we really never needed) went off at 6.  Barb was first in the shower.  The shower head was interesting.  The water was heated in that part, so most mornings we didn't wait long enough to get a "warm" shower....  When Barb was done, I jumped in the bathroom.  When I walked out, Megan took her turn and last, Ellie would roll out of bed.  We were all ready by 6:55 and headed down for breakfast.  No one really cared too much about their "look" as the humidity, rain and heat truly determined the "look" of the day.  I said thank you many times to GOD for my curly hair!

We were supposed to have church with the entire school, but due to the rain the infants 1 and 2 (grades 1 and 2) did not attend.  We all pretty much squished under the tent.  The rain stopped and we were able to worship and praise God for all the things He has provided.  3/4 of the students are not Catholic, but they were respectful and participated throughout our worship time.  To have little kids sing songs of praise sure does my heart a bunch of good!  :)

David giving the homily (photo credit: Kiefers)

The infants 1 and 2 and standards 1 and 2 (grades 1-4) had their field day this morning after mass.  They loved all the activities and sure didn't want it to end.

The painting was finished and much of the computers were taken care of.  We headed back to Windy Hill for a late lunch.  After lunch many went into the town of San Ignacio to wander around.  I was able to hang out with a group and found a very cool cross.  The cross is made with the word Jesus and the 1st s makes the vertical part of the cross.  It is made of a type of wood that can not be exported from Belize because of the small amount of trees there are.  We headed back to Windy Hill in time for dinner.

Kim in San Ignacio (photo credit: Schweiger)

Pat and David in San Ignacio (photo credit: Schweiger)

After dinner, Jason (the chalk guy) created another awesome drawing for us.  The theme was Chasing the Lions.  (there is a book by that name)...  Now, Jason and Deacon David did not discuss prior to the trip what this night's topic would be, but Deacon David had a strong feeling that he should bring along these laminated quote pages.  He wasn't sure why he was supposed to bring them as they really had nothing to do with what he had planned for the evening.  When Jason started talking Deacon David's jaw dropped...  Pat ran back to their cabin to get the copies of the pages and the two just meshed together!  It gave me the goose bumps!  Chasing the Lions means to look at the difficulties in your life and use them in ways others never thought you might...

Great ending to an awesome day!

Day Two at SEPS... rain and all!

June 18, 2013

We were served another fantastic breakfast.  Every morning we received a fresh bowl of fruit... YUMMY stuff!  We were on the bus and ready to head to SEPS for the day.

The field day team gathered the standards 3-5 (grades 5-8) and took them out front to play a variety of field day type games.  Now let me tell you, it literally sprinkled until we got off the bus that morning.  We were concerned with what we would do if we had rain all morning.  GOD was at work because as soon as we got there, the skies cleared and things "dried" up.  (So humid it is hard to dry completely.)   The field day team planned all sorts of activities.  We left all of the supplies there so they could continue to use them in the PE activities.  We brought frisbees, a parachute, bases for kick ball games, American footballs and footballs (soccer balls), gunny sacks for running relays and plastic eggs with spoons to also run relays.  The students had a blast!  :)  The interaction amongst our members and those kids was something I can't begin to describe.  Smiles EVERYWHERE!

While that was happening, Andrew and Chris were hard at work in the computer lab.   They did such a great job with the setup SEPS had.  I am always amazed at the things one can do to improve those old machines.  :)  The paint team finished up the cafeteria and put primer on the wall outside the school.  Danielle started painting room numbers above the classrooms.

Windy Hill brought us another fantastic meal!  Some of the kids hung around and chatted with us.  Once lunch was over and the students came back to school, the children's ministry team moved into the infant 1 and 2 and the standard 1 and 2 rooms.  (grades 1-4)  They read bible stories from the Veggie Tales bibles we purchased for each classroom and made sun catchers.  The little ones ate up all the time spent with them.  They loved having our "big kids" in the rooms and hanging on them.  Piggy back rides were quite popular!

James being a monkey bar (photo credit: Wipperfurth)

Once we cleaned everything up, we headed back to Windy Hill in the.... (wait for it) RAIN!  Yes, it started as we climbed on the bus!  Crazy!!! If people don't think there is a GOD I sure wish they had been on this trip.

We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed a great session.  The topic was on God's plan for our lives.  It was about the "dealing" with the cards we have been dealt.  There were some very deep small group discussions and lots of hugs.

Day One at Santa Elena Primary School

June 17, 2013

This was such a whirlwind of a day so here is goes! :)

Singing a song for us

We loaded the buses after yet another awesome breakfast buffet.  We arrived at Santa Elena Primary School (SEPS) at 8:50 or so.  They had an assembly prepared for us that we attended in the back of the school under a tent.  (Thankfully we had the tent due to all the rain we had throughout the 3 days there. We were expecting heat, not rain!)

Saying the Belize Allegiance 

The assembly was wonderful.  They sang some songs and we presented them with the soccer balls, uniforms and money.  They are so gracious and thankful for the time and effort spent.  The kids went CRAZY for the soccer balls and were excited to see the jerseys!  When this event was over about 25 of us met with individual families.  In most cases, I would say that many made some truly lasting relationships by visiting with these kids and their families.  The families were chosen because through "Change for Belize" the students had their lunch provided for the year.  It was a way for the families to make connections with our group and it worked out wonderfully!




Windy Hill brought us our lunch (yummy guacamole, pico de gallo, homemade tortillas) at the school.  It was very tasty.  Many students stuck around and chatted with us while we ate.  They either walk home to eat lunch, parents bring them their lunch, or they can get food at the small cafeteria on campus.  One of the most interesting things I saw was the packaging for a kool-aid type substance.  The juice came in a baggie similar to like a bag of chips or something.  It was see through.  They ripped off a corner and drank it.  Some water came that way as well.

After lunch, our children's ministry team set out work with the Standard 3-5 students (grades 5-8).  They did a human knot activity and then made rosaries that we brought with us.  3/4 of the school is not Catholic, but the school is run by Catholics.  Very interesting concept.  The teachers have to be Catholic, but are employed by the government....  The students really liked the hands-on project and even more enjoyed the time that was spent with them by our group.  Began the children's ministry session with a drawing from Jason.

Andrew and Chris worked tirelessly in the computer lab.  They were able to get 10 computers more up-to-date and hope to get some more done in the near future.  (Andrew would like to go back for another week sometime this summer!)

Andrew

Chris and Andrew

The paint team completed painting the bathroom building and began work on the cafeteria.

This is the cafeteria... too small for very many to eat it.  Sure looks great now!  (photo credit:  Wipperfurth)

We also realized that we would have the opportunity to paint an outside wall they wanted done.  Going into it, we weren't sure if we would be able to do everything they wanted, but in the end we did beyond anything they could imagine.  We employed 3 local painters and George to help us.

George (photo credit: Schweiger)

George's 6 kids attend the school and he wanted to work with us for nothing.

George's wife and 6 kids with 3 of our young adults (photo credit: Wipperfurth)

 We are still working out what we can do to help him in the future.  He was found to be extremely knowledgeable in all areas of construction.  We did give his family a ride (in the bus) to their home twice during out stay.

Painting bathroom building

We left there tired, exhausted and happy!  :)  Everyone felt like they had been moved in ways that are unexplainable.  We swam a bit and then had a yummy dinner.

Our evening session was spectacular!  Jason did a chalk drawing and a talk for us.  He moved so many people.  We also met in our small group.  I had all former moms (mom's of former students) in my group, so that was very cool to have time with them.

Very overwhelmed, but ready to do it again in the morning!  :)

Human knot activity

Students at SEPS

Checking out the new soccer balls

New uniforms

Soccer balls and uniforms

Presenting Change for Belize

Human knot

Happy Father's Day! Schweigers arrive!

June 16, 2013

We got up to our first buffet breakfast.  They had it ready and waiting when we came down to the Black Orchid (name of the restaurant).  We loaded up the bus and headed for church at Sacred Hearts.  Fr. Lorenzo led mass with Deacon David assisting.  The little altar server was precious.  This must have been some type of children's mass as they led the prayers of the faithful and the readings for the day.  During church our first big rain came through.  It was very loud and had a huge downpour with it.  The sun was shining by the time we were all done taking pics and were ready to leave.

Here is the little altar server boy!

Fr. Lorenzo, David and the altar server

The whole group (I am hidden in the back)

Fr. Lorenzo and his mom, Josephine with Tom and Ellen

Pat and David with Fr. Lorenzo and his mom Josephine

Hendricksons, Kim, Fr. Lorenzo and his mom

Lunch was great and the Schweiger's arrived just in time to eat with us.  Then we met in our "teams" to make sure we were ready to go for Monday morning.  We re-loaded the bus and went back for mass in the evening.  Fr. Leo led mass and Deacon David assisted again.  After mass, Jason (the Chalk Guy) led us in prayer and then preformed a great  chalk drawing for the group.  It was a very prayerful experience!  The people loved it and the crowd was pretty large.

Jason's drawing

We got back to Windy Hill, took a dip in the pool to cool off and went to bed.  BTW, Cabin 17 is the best around, just ask Cabin 13!  :)  (inside little humor)

gives you an idea of the pool

The day they all arrived (minus the Schweigers)

June 15, 2013

We got up and had another fantastic breakfast!  Fr. Lorenzo met us after breakfast and took us back to Sacred Hearts church.  He showed us where he lived.  MY goodness the beauty was in the eye of the beholder.  It was rather primitive, but a HOME not just a place to live.  I hope that if we go back we can work on their kitchen a bit.  It has a lot of rotting wood and places that need some work.  They have a great view of the whole town of San Ignacio and we were able to see it from the attic space.  There were gecko up in the attic!  :)

This leads me to sharing about Fr. Leo and Fr. Lorenzo's new adventures.  Fr. Leo is soon leaving Sacred Hearts church as the pastor.  He has become the leader of the new seminary in San Ignacio.  This is the only (and brand new) seminary in all of Belize.  He is excited but overwhelmed with this new responsibility.  The seminarians (many spent time with us when we went to Tikal) will have 2 years in this school and then move to the US and go to school in St. Louis, Missouri to complete 6 years of school.  The school in St. Louis is helping get the whole seminary set up in Belize.

Fr. Lorenzo is leaving Sacred Hearts and moving to the Orange Walk area.  He is very sad by this move as he will not only be leaving his parish family, but his mom.  She is precious and I am happy to say I finally got to meet her!  :)

The priest who will be stepping into Fr. Lorenzo's shoes is Fr. Selvin Garcia.  We met him when Fr. Lorenzo came to the US.  Fr. Selvin was a priest in Beaver Dam at the time.  God sure works in mysterious ways.  It seemed he cleared out all the connections we were making, but then we realized we had met and knew Fr. Selvin.  Pretty cool feeling!

Fr. Lorenzo took us back to Windy Hill in time for lunch and then the big group arrived.  They were met at the airport by the bus company "Butt's Up" (a tubing term) and the driver Raphael.  They all had smiles on their faces, but sure were tired.  It was good to see and hear that they all made it safely.

We had our first big dinner, a swim and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Day of getting things ready...

June 14, 2013

We got up and had a fantastic breakfast.  They served a variety of breakfast foods, but I had eggs, bacon and toast.  The pancakes were awesome and I did have those when they were available.  The fresh fruit served every morning was awesome.  Pineapple, watermelon, cantelope, mango, papaya (didn't care for either of those) were tremendous!

The restaurant... (makes my mouth water to see this picture)

We "acquired transportation" from an employee at Windy Hill and went into Santa Elena Primary School.  This was our first exposure and MY GOODNESS was it amazing!  The students were so welcoming and the faculty was overly helpful.  Miss Debby (vice-principal) and Mr. Medina (principal) showed us around.  They explained their needs and concerns and we were able to get a grasp on what our goals should be.  Mr. Medina took us back to Windy Hill so we could eat lunch there.

My partner in crime (Ms. Debby) and I (photo credit: Schweigers)

Little ones came to chat with us.  Not sure what I was doing.

The grotto that Change For Belize helped fund.

Transportation was so interesting.  David told us not to worry about it, but that he would take care of that part....  All you had to do was ask and be patient and a ride always became available.  Trying to transport 4 of us was never an issue, either.

We had lunch (I had hot chicken salad, awesome) and then went to San Ignacio to the church where Fr.  Leo and Fr. Lorenzo lived and worked.  Fr. Lorenzo met us there and we toured the church.  I met the sacristan there, Mr. Chun (at least that is how he pronounced it, his first name was Damascus) and he shared much of his life story with me while the others looked around with Fr. Lorenzo.

Mr. Chun

While were were there a group of high school girls and their teachers showed up.  They were from an All-girls Catholic high school in Dallas.  We visited with them a bit and told them of our plans and they talked about making arrangements to attend masses with us and the chalk guy presentations.  (more on that later)

Fr. Lorenzo took us to the "lumber store" (very small and very limited) and then to the phone store.  Buying a track phone in the US and then getting a new SIM card in Belize will be the way to go from now on.  My Iphone became a HUGE problem and I ended up being charged well over $600 and cut off from my internet use.  I had checked through 3 different venues before I left about my phone and all three gave me bad information.  I have a complaint into ATT and will hopefully have all of it erased from my bill before too long.

Fr. Lorenzo drove us around

Fr. Lorenzo took us back to Windy Hill and we swam for a bit and then cleaned up for a late dinner.  Fr. Leo and a couple friend of Pat and David's was supposed to meet us at 7 for dinner.  We entertained Fr. Leo from 7 until 9:30 when the others arrived.  This was a great evening!  I learned that Louis (the husband in the couple) has attended OSU during the summers to earn his graduate degree.  My uncle Kenny did a similar program to earn his masters, so it was cool to hear this.  He was a Poke.  We shared our love of cheese fries and Stillwater.  It was fun.  Rosieo (the wife) and I love to watch NCIS with GIBBS!  I will always think of her when I sit down to watch that show.  Made some real connection for future employment as a teacher in Belize, IF I ever wanted to head that direction.

Fr. Lorenzo with Barb, Pat and David in the church's office

front of church

Back of church

right front of church

David at the altar