BUS RIDE

            On our last day at the school we went on a field trip to the Mayan Ruins with some of the children. On the way back all the kids started to sing a song, but it wasn’t a traditional bus song like “the wheels on the bus go round and round.” Their song was so much better. It went like this:

LEADER: “Kim, how’s your mind?”

KIM: “Made up!”

LEADER: “And your heart?”

KIM: “It’s set!”

LEADER: “And you’re going?”

KIM: “With Jesus all the way!”

ALL: “She’s got her mind made up and her heart is set and she’s going with Jesus all the way!”

And then the leader moved onto the next person until he asked every person on the bus, including the bus driver. It was a really great experience to see kids that young so committed to their faith and celebrating it with one another. They literally shouted it as loud as they could. This was one of the best times of the entire trip.

THE CLASSROOM

            While at the school in Belize, we each spent half of the day in a classroom and half of the day outside doing some kind of work. Alex and I were placed inside Mrs. Vernon’s standard one classroom. The one day the class was told to write sentences using the contractions they had just learned. Alex and I were to go around and help those who were struggling and check anyone who had finished. All the kids would call us from desk to desk asking for help or just wanting to talk. I was helping one girl spell restaurant when Mrs. Vernon called me aside. She told me that I was to help Francis write his sentences. Francis had lost his mother a few weeks ago and was really struggling. She told me I needed to be very patient because when he didn’t understand something he got extremely frustrated.

            I knelt down beside his desk and together we worked through his sentences. By the time the class had completed ten, we were still on his second sentence. The class was then released for recess. All of the Waynesburg students joined the kids to play. That day when I went out, Francis was right by my side the entire time. He was so desperate for love and attention.  Every time someone brought a camera around he wanted a picture together.

            Later Mrs. Vernon shared some other stories with Alex and I of hard times some children were having at home. I have so much respect for this woman and all teachers. She takes care of these children like they are her own. She pays for some of their lunches if they can’t afford it and is there when any of them need to talk. She often has to deal with bad situations all on her own. She told us that she tries not to bother Principal Betson with everything the children trust her with because Principal Betson has to take care of the entire school and the children trust her. This woman was much more than a teacher.

CRIME

ON PAPER

            We were given the opportunity to look at a Belize newspaper. Flipping through the pages filled me with an uneasy feeling. The story on the front page read “Jealous Husband Murders Wife.” Other stories continued with the theme of death, drugs, human trafficking, and other tragedy. A local woman burnt down a building with children by smoking pot outside. Another woman gave her daughter to an American in hopes that she would receive everything she could ever want and everything that she wouldn’t be able to provide her with. After a few days of an amazing life, her daughter was forced into sex trafficking. By no means do I think that the United States is crime free, but it was all still disheartening how much crime was there.

ON THE STREET

            As we rode our bus to dinner we were taking in as much of Belize as we could, just looking out the window at the passing buildings and people. We would stick our cameras out the windows and snap as many photos as possible, so we could keep these days with us forever. Our bus then came to a sudden stop. We saw a big crowd gathering on the street. A police truck pulled up in front of us. A man was trying to knife a woman. The police officers pulled him away. The man broke free from their grasp and chased the woman to the ground. Again the officers pulled him away, this time loading him into a police bus. All I could think was, was it really so bad that they needed police trucks and buses instead of cars?

ON THE FRONT PORCH

When I woke up, I grabbed my toothbrush and headed to the bathroom. Skip caught me on the way and redirected me to the front porch. That night someone had snuck up onto the front porch and stole our shoes that we left out to dry from a day’s work in the mud. Ten people’s shoes were gone.

CONCLUSION

            My old tennis shoes just went to someone who probably needs them much more than me. They left six pairs of shoes, which mean they might have only taken what they really need. Plus I will be able to embrace the culture and work in flip flops like some of the people of Belize do.  Bad things can have a positive influence on those that experience them. I realized how to be positive in a negative situation and that is something that I hope I take back with me to the United States. The crime in Belize probably isn’t as bad as I have interpreted, I just don’t know how to handle it. In any area there are precautions that must be taken. The gate to where we were staying was left unlocked. All that needed to be done to prevent theft from the porch was to lock the gate. I was being judgmental and really had no right to be.

TRUST

            Towards the end of the day, a man who had been working with us, Oscar, decided to show us one of his hobbies. What he did was take logs and carve different things with intricate detail. There were sharks, crosses, parrots, eagles, turtles, and many other awesome carvings. His children helped him unload everything onto a table to display. They gently unwrapped each thing, rubbed it clean, and placed it on the table. Slowly all of us gathered around to admire his handy work. He sold all of these carvings to earn some extra cash. We all picked up different pieces and asked their costs. Once we decided what we wanted to purchase we told him that we would come back tomorrow to buy them. He told us to just go ahead and take what we wanted and just bring the money tomorrow.

            I was shocked. People in the United States are never this trusting. The people of Belize are all so happy, friendly, and trusting. Why are we the way we are? We are always suspicious of each other, and this man who barely knew us had complete trust in us. This was amazing to me. Just to have met a man like this was a positive influence in my life.