About Belize

I should finish the cheese sauce that I am making for my lentil coriander lasagna tonight. And I should also clean the kitchen from making cookies with the girls yesterday, and then of course there is also the situation of my desk which has blown up since Dave took over it a couple days ago. Scanning massive amount of paperwork and looking through past years of business reports trying to make sense of all the numbers. I might be crazy, but our last accountant did some WEIRD things with our quarterly reports. I swear I could have done a better job with the numbers…and then someone can pay me $175 an hour. Sweet! And you know I am worth every penny. My mom used to say that no one could afford me. I think she was trying to make me feel better when my second year out of college I was still below the poverty line. Ah well, here’s to being young and poor.

SO, while I do have other things to do, I thought I would finally write up a little note about our trip to Belize, yea that was over 6 weeks ago. But, we’ve been busy.

I think in some ways it is hard to sum up how the trip was. It was very different from every other mission trip I have ever been on for many reasons. The first reason is that we went alone, as a family. We were not with a team, so there was not that crazy, energy, excited that bounces off everyone. I think that is not a bad thing, and it is not always realistic to life. Like, when do you ever spend every waking moment with 6 other individuals for a week, doing something that is purposeful in a unique environment? It is just not reality. I do a lot of really unique and purposeful things everyday (good grief, I am a Mom) and I rarely do them with 6-10 other people who are pumped to be there. It might be fun if I did…but actually after day 3 I would probably be irritated.

So, in some ways for me, while we were in fact in another country, what I did everyday was not any different than what I do everyday. Of course, I do not normally spend hours smothering my children in sun block, Burt’s Bees (insect repellent), and powder before we walk outside to sweat to death, and swat off mosquitoes. I know, you think I am speaking of August in Atlanta, but I assure you…Atlanta has nothing on Belize. There were definitely adventures to be had…like staring into the refrigerator and trying to figure out how to make meals from scratch with only 2 pans and a cook top. Things got really creative and that was loads of fun.

The clinic in Patchakan is on a great piece of land, probably a couple acres on the main road in the village. Behind the clinic there is a lot of green space and shade and two little house, one blue and one yellow. We stayed in the blue house which had a screened in porch, 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and nice kitchen/living room area. It was had 2 working fans. Nice. I LOVE fans. The girls and I spent most of our mornings in the house, or out in the yard chasing the random cats and chickens, or being chased by some rabid geese. When it got too hot or we were tired of the mosquitoes it was back inside to read, play blocks, or play on cushions and mattresses. The nice thing is the girls were so young they are pretty good travelers. They knew we were in Belize, but it did not really affect our routine. I keep saying, goodness having two girls this age is hard no matter if I am in Atlanta or in Belize, so I might as well go to Belize!

Dave began working in the clinic in the morning. He was able to do a lot of preventative work, which he was really happy about. It’s a bummer to go somewhere and only pull out people’s teeth. It was encouraging to know that these folks actually want their teeth and that there is a chance to help educate them on better cleaning practices. The clinic services a mostly Mayan population which while not destitute were certainly too poor to go to a dentist in town. It is kind of the same idea as non-profit health clinics here in the states, like Good Samaritan. The clinic is Christian and is run by Belizean staff. They have a chaplain, an administrator, nurses, the whole works. We took our lunches with the clinic staff which was fun for me and the girls. Annelise LOVED the clinic administrator, Pamela, and called her “Lalela”. Everyday after lunch Pamela would take Annelise outside to pet the cat and play. It was a nice break for all of us. Hadleigh was too shy to go most days.

Since the clinic was yards away from our house, and because there was only one dental chair Dave had a light schedule and was able to come back to the house between patients to check on us. He was always finished at 4 and then we had the rest of the evening to ourselves.

We had a special blessing while we were in Patchakan. Two other teams of folks were also in the village with MTW that week. One team from Houston, and one from Yazoo City, MS were there to do some light construction work and then they ran a Vacation Bible School in the afternoon. The church was 4 blocks away from the clinic, so in the afternoon I walked the girls down to the church to participate in the VBS. It was great fun for them to have some time to interact with the Belizean children. This was one of the things that we desire for them, and it was awesome to see how the Lord worked out some of these little details for us. What a blessing. By the end of the week, even Hadleigh had made a couple of friends. On the last day they walked hand in hand into the church for the last song and prayer. What fun!

The final blessing for me was that the MTW missionaries and the clinic staff seemed to truly understand why we would want to come as a family and really encouraged us in our desire to continue these trips. Sometimes I think we were crazy to go to Belize with our girls, but when I look at the big picture I know what the Lord has put on our hearts, and so we must continue to work toward that. It was just nice for me to have people affirm us, and encourage us to continue. It is important, and valuable. We want to experience God’s church all throughout God’s world and we want to do it as a family. And that is not weird, although sometime I think it is.

We were blessed and challenged by the believers in Patchakan, and I look forward to going back soon. Maybe when it is not so hot! Thanks to everyone who made it possible.