It’s already Thursday, and I think I have yet to blog about my service experiences, so here it is.
While here, my typical day during the week starts out at Mercy Kitchen, a soup kitchen that serves the elderly breakfast and lunch. In the early mornings I would help prep the food in the kitchen and also talk to some of the elderly people who come to the kitchen to eat. The first day I met a woman named Miss Gloria, who is 79 years old and walks a pretty good distance every day to eat and hang out at the shelter. While we were talking she mentioned that the following day she was supposed to go to the City Council because they’re trying to demo her house. She lives alone with her dog, and her house suffered major damage due to an earthquake awhile back and she can’t afford to fix it. Basically a portion of her house cracked and is caving in, and she’s lived like that for years. If they take her home, she has nowhere to go. It’s terrible.
After that I went along with a couple guys from the Kitchen to deliver meals to the elderly folks that can’t make it to the Kitchen. The Kitchen delivers to the same 39 people every day, Monday through Friday. Going along I was able to see much of the city on the south side. We met folks who lived in pretty decent conditions, and others who were barely surviving in the worst conditions. There was a woman who lived in the basement of a house, in a room that was about the size of a supply closet and had no water or electricity. Her neighbors upstairs have to bring her water so she can bathe and have something to drink. And yet even in her circumstance, you ask her how she’s doing, and her response is that she’s not so bad, and thanks to the Lord she’s still here. And that was a similar response we got all across the board. The people’s faith in God is so strong here that even in the worst of the worst conditions, they believe and have accepted that it is God’s will that they are in this position, but He has brought them this far and for that they are thankful.
In the afternoons I’d end up at the YWCA and work with either young girls (13-19) or little toddlers/preschool kiddies. Yesterday Bev, Mariza and I taught a class on sex education. Awesome right? Haha, more like AWKWARD. But the presentation actually went really well. The girls were really receptive and many participated in the discussion, which was opposite of what we thought was going to happen. Teen pregnancy is pretty high in Belize, but it was good to know that the girls were listening to what we were saying and asking the right questions. After the class, Bev and I went over to the daycare and played with babies and toddlers. They were some of the cutest kids ever! Boogers, sweaty palms and all. So so cute!!
There’s so many things I’ve learned from this trip: Belize, its people, its culture, and even more the strength, resilience, and spirit of the human heart. It’s truly humbling.
I could go on and on, but it’ll have to wait until we meet in person.
This has been such an awesome experience for all of us. To have this opportunity to serve the community here in Belize has been a privilege. Lord willing, I hope to do something like this every year, Belize or elsewhere.
Til next post,
Di
Sidenote: The food here has been amazing. Please note that my next post shall strictly be about food in Belize. This goes out to all you food lovers out there. ;-)
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