Team wrap-up

Thursday nights dinner was catered again by Albert. Albert is also the guy who did dinner the first night and is working as the contractor on the construction sight. We had more shrimp. YEAH!!!

While eating we shared stories from the week.

We have 3 team members that have been working with the special education department at the school. Basically the jist is that the special ed kids are all mostly physically handicapped and don't get to do art projects becuase of that. So when it comes time to show off what they have done this year, they have nothing to show. This year however, will be different. THey all made paper mache "creatures from the sea" and got to pain them too. All of the kids helped one another to finish their projects, pitching in when they were done with theirs. Our team has shown the kids , the teachers, the parents, and the community that even these children can do art projects and should not be forgotten. Yeah, for changing thinking.

A couple of our drs and nurses went to other villages to see patients. t hey met a nurse there who has (I think) 4 c hildren. She was very proud of the fact that she has purchased a house and can pay her mortgage. She makes just enough for her house payment and food. She works from 8-8, five days a week and makes 400 Belize per month (thats 200 American). She spends 8 weeks with a relative in Illinois babysitting for extra money to get through the year.

There was also a doctor from Cuba who is making 4,000/year Belize (2,000 American) and is unable to fratenize with the people of the village due to Cuban spies who will report back to Cuba and she would be deported. I can not imagine how lonely life for a single woman, unable to associate with the locals, living in fear of being deported must be. When the Cubans come here to work as physicians, they turn over their passports to the goverment until they are ready to return home. I believe that this is to prevent them from going through Mexico and into the US.

The ambulance driver in the village is a local guy who has not had a day off in 5yrs. Last year he did 350 ambulance runs. Boy and some of our ambulance people think that they have it bad.


Makes me really grateful for waht I have back home.

On this trip we have all been touched in some way by somebody. Likewise we have all touched the people that we have worked with, the patients that we have served, the locals that we have associated with at the hospital, and the children with whom we have been blessed to have cross our paths. I hope that we have ministered to them as much as they have ministered to me. It will be a long time before I forget their shining faces, smiling eyes, and happy greetings. In fact I hope that I never forget any of it. (except maybe the spider in the bathroom him I can forget).