Belize Day 4

Over this past weekend, we had an opportunity to experience several aspects of the Belizian culture. On Staurday morning, we visited the market in San Ignacio, sampling many of fresh fruits that were available. So much better than in Canada.  That afternoon we visited the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. Unfortunately, earthquakes about a month ago damaged the highest levels of the main pyramids, so we were unable to climb to the top,. The view from there is supposedly amazing.  After working up a sweat climbing up and down ruins, we enjoyed a relaxing swim, before returning to base for supper. The evening was spent at a Dance performance in Belmopan, which featured two of the children of our hosts. We also brought with us 17 teenage girls from the village. We all really enjoyed it.

On Sunday, there was no chance to sleep in, as we were up and off to church by 8:30 in the morning.  After the service, we were off to more ruins, at Cahal Pech. The general consensus was that these were our favourite ruins, as there was so much more to explore and they seemed much more lived in.  The afternoon was spent exploring the caves at Blue Hole National Park, and swimming in the wonderfully cool water.  As the day came to a close, we returned to base and did some final preparations for the Kids Club that we will be running on Wednesday night.

Today we returned to old-fashioned hard work. Off to the work site at 8:30, began adding concrete to our foundation. Thankfully we were able to use a cement truck to lay the base, but making sure that it was level was still a lot of work. After laying the first layer of cinder block on our cement base, we stopped for lunch.  When we returned around 1:00, the concrete was mostly dry, and we began to build up further layers of cinder block, 5 layers in total, holding it together with more concrete that we now made using a mixer, rather than a truck.

At 3:30, half of the team headed back to clean up, so that they could be ready when the learning center opened at 4:30. The other half of the team remained at the work site until 4:00, finishing the day’s work and tidying the work site. After quick showers, they joined the others at the Learning Center. During the Library time that followed we read books to some of the children who attended, and played games or played on the playground with others.After a quick dinner we again returned to the Learning Center, which was then opened to teenages. Since they were done school for the year, we played games and just hung out with them.

We have truly experienced God’s power here. Over the weekend, Tash began to experience a reoccurance of an eye irritation, which left her eyes swollen and red, that she had previously experienced in South Africa.  But after prayer from team members, her eyes have been completely healed. God is truly great!