Tuesday Day 4
March 19 2018
Hi Iowa! warm greetings from sunny Belize, today my day consisted of rising early to have breakfast at My Fathers House, then going to Grace Primary #2. My school group (Kenda, Tracy, and I ) got to meet our school kiddos today! we did our devotions, sang songs and did Q and A. They were fascinated when I told them how id never seen a wild iguana or what a snow storm was like. After leaving Grace #2 my team went to our work sight. My group's job is to replace/rebuild the roof on the church. So we stripped the roof of its thin broken layer of concrete, knocking coconuts and giant palm tree leaves off as we went. It was hard work in the sun, but after the first later of concrete was off, we felt pretty accomplished. After our time at the worksite I chose to go play softball with the kids, playing softball with the kids was the highlight of my day, just seeing them be happy to have our company and being able to connect with them really showed me the difference I could make with them, even for a short time. I may not be able to directly change their lives, but I did get to change their day, and help put a smile on their faces. - Mack L.
My group's job was digging the trench at the church for the new block fence to go in. Today we finished the last of the digging which is totally different than Iowa because this dirt is like you are digging at the landfill because of all of the trash they use for landfill. There were several spots of old cement that we couldn't get broken down with the pick ax so they brought us a jack hammer. Now I was totally excited about this because I have never used one of these so I was the first one to jump in line and give it a try. The sun makes the manual labor much worse on the body so we switch off with partners most of the time, plus we don't have many tools and must share what we have. After the trench was done we made rebar by hand tying the rerods together in the checker box shape. We made 4 of these panels to go down into the trench so tomorrow morning we will start out fresh and get the concrete mixed and poured so it will be set before church on Wednesday night. We had several children visiting us at the worksite after school today just to see what is going on and to chat and play with us. All and all it was a great day and we accomplished a lot of work. - Tracy Jensen
Hi Iowa I'm really missing all the snow there and rain. Here it pretty hot as a person that already gets hot easily it interesting. With starting out the day bright and early is a struggle somedays since the day before we worked so hard in so long to get up and do the same things once more. My group's job was grueling work from the day before we thought we had most windows big enough. As in they started when we took the original out then we sized the new ones and they were a lot bigger and you can't just cut those. So we had to take hammers and chisels and all we had to break it down. Which was a hammer vs concrete. We made sure to only take some windows out at a time (we didn't want to just leave holes in the house so only took the original windows out that had metal bars protecting around it). Today we were gonna do the first but it was still to small so once up and ready tomorrow about half of the house windows will be completely ready to go in. Then we will have to do the same process with the other remaining old windows. Since termites are a big problem down here in Belize most wood on the house is rotted so on the roof we have been taking some of the sides of it off(like gutters but wider). Today we got all of the old wood off and started putting the new wood on. We got about a full side done and half of the front. When I thought we were doing so well half our group goes to softball and our lead reminds the remaining of us left that we are actually behind where we should be. Which makes me worried a bit but ready to get up and work tomorrow. Even tho its hard work and so hot I know in the end this will be worth it. One house could make a difference in these peoples lives it feels small but for them its so not. - Allison Jensen
Hi everyone, I hope you are all having a wonderful spring break. I am so thrilled to be back in Belize and to see our Belizean friends. The weather has been hot and steamy here, but I am loving it. Shorts and sandals are definitely the life for me. Lol. The project my team and I are working on is a house for a lady with an 8 year old autistic boy and a 18 month old baby. Her name is Jasmine and she stopped by the house today to just look at all the work we were doing. I was so happy we got to meet her and hear a little about her story. The house we are fixing is actually her mothers house. Her mother died about a year ago and she had not been in the house since her mother passed because they were so close and it was too much for her. Jasmine is going through some personal things and she was forced to move out of the house she was living in and now had to move into her mothers house. The house was in bad shape. Termites are a very big problem here and this house was no exception. We tore out one of the walls yesterday and the termite poop just rained down all over us. There are active termite trails we just brushed off and went on working. It was so sad to see how much damage the termites have done. We had to remove so many boards because they were completely destroyed by the termites. The kitchen floor was rotted almost all the way through so we had to pull all of those boards up and replace them with stronger boards. We finished the kitchen floor today and it looks great. Today we hung wall board back up and tore off the back stairs and started to put new supports up so we can build the new stairs tomorrow. We still have a lot of work to do but it fills my heart with such joy to know Jasmine and her kids will have a better house to call home. I wish we had the time and resources to do more for her. She struggles a lot because there are not a lot of resources or help for her and her son who is autistic. She was telling us that she did a lot of research on line on how to help him because there is little services offered here in Belize. That makes me sad for her and him. She is an amazing mother and has worked so hard for him and she still manages to have a very positive up beat attitude and is so Godly in what she believes. Even though she struggles a lot she knows that God has a plan and believes He only gives her what she can handle and that there is a reason for struggles. She is an inspiration for me. I will be a little sad when we leave here on Sunday and I will be leaving a piece of my heart here. I love the hard work we do because I know it is serving God and that makes me proud. I hope everyone has a great spring break. I will see you all back in Iowa soon.
Chris L
Hi Iowa! warm greetings from sunny Belize, today my day consisted of rising early to have breakfast at My Fathers House, then going to Grace Primary #2. My school group (Kenda, Tracy, and I ) got to meet our school kiddos today! we did our devotions, sang songs and did Q and A. They were fascinated when I told them how id never seen a wild iguana or what a snow storm was like. After leaving Grace #2 my team went to our work sight. My group's job is to replace/rebuild the roof on the church. So we stripped the roof of its thin broken layer of concrete, knocking coconuts and giant palm tree leaves off as we went. It was hard work in the sun, but after the first later of concrete was off, we felt pretty accomplished. After our time at the worksite I chose to go play softball with the kids, playing softball with the kids was the highlight of my day, just seeing them be happy to have our company and being able to connect with them really showed me the difference I could make with them, even for a short time. I may not be able to directly change their lives, but I did get to change their day, and help put a smile on their faces. - Mack L.
My group's job was digging the trench at the church for the new block fence to go in. Today we finished the last of the digging which is totally different than Iowa because this dirt is like you are digging at the landfill because of all of the trash they use for landfill. There were several spots of old cement that we couldn't get broken down with the pick ax so they brought us a jack hammer. Now I was totally excited about this because I have never used one of these so I was the first one to jump in line and give it a try. The sun makes the manual labor much worse on the body so we switch off with partners most of the time, plus we don't have many tools and must share what we have. After the trench was done we made rebar by hand tying the rerods together in the checker box shape. We made 4 of these panels to go down into the trench so tomorrow morning we will start out fresh and get the concrete mixed and poured so it will be set before church on Wednesday night. We had several children visiting us at the worksite after school today just to see what is going on and to chat and play with us. All and all it was a great day and we accomplished a lot of work. - Tracy Jensen
Hi Iowa I'm really missing all the snow there and rain. Here it pretty hot as a person that already gets hot easily it interesting. With starting out the day bright and early is a struggle somedays since the day before we worked so hard in so long to get up and do the same things once more. My group's job was grueling work from the day before we thought we had most windows big enough. As in they started when we took the original out then we sized the new ones and they were a lot bigger and you can't just cut those. So we had to take hammers and chisels and all we had to break it down. Which was a hammer vs concrete. We made sure to only take some windows out at a time (we didn't want to just leave holes in the house so only took the original windows out that had metal bars protecting around it). Today we were gonna do the first but it was still to small so once up and ready tomorrow about half of the house windows will be completely ready to go in. Then we will have to do the same process with the other remaining old windows. Since termites are a big problem down here in Belize most wood on the house is rotted so on the roof we have been taking some of the sides of it off(like gutters but wider). Today we got all of the old wood off and started putting the new wood on. We got about a full side done and half of the front. When I thought we were doing so well half our group goes to softball and our lead reminds the remaining of us left that we are actually behind where we should be. Which makes me worried a bit but ready to get up and work tomorrow. Even tho its hard work and so hot I know in the end this will be worth it. One house could make a difference in these peoples lives it feels small but for them its so not. - Allison Jensen
Hi everyone, I hope you are all having a wonderful spring break. I am so thrilled to be back in Belize and to see our Belizean friends. The weather has been hot and steamy here, but I am loving it. Shorts and sandals are definitely the life for me. Lol. The project my team and I are working on is a house for a lady with an 8 year old autistic boy and a 18 month old baby. Her name is Jasmine and she stopped by the house today to just look at all the work we were doing. I was so happy we got to meet her and hear a little about her story. The house we are fixing is actually her mothers house. Her mother died about a year ago and she had not been in the house since her mother passed because they were so close and it was too much for her. Jasmine is going through some personal things and she was forced to move out of the house she was living in and now had to move into her mothers house. The house was in bad shape. Termites are a very big problem here and this house was no exception. We tore out one of the walls yesterday and the termite poop just rained down all over us. There are active termite trails we just brushed off and went on working. It was so sad to see how much damage the termites have done. We had to remove so many boards because they were completely destroyed by the termites. The kitchen floor was rotted almost all the way through so we had to pull all of those boards up and replace them with stronger boards. We finished the kitchen floor today and it looks great. Today we hung wall board back up and tore off the back stairs and started to put new supports up so we can build the new stairs tomorrow. We still have a lot of work to do but it fills my heart with such joy to know Jasmine and her kids will have a better house to call home. I wish we had the time and resources to do more for her. She struggles a lot because there are not a lot of resources or help for her and her son who is autistic. She was telling us that she did a lot of research on line on how to help him because there is little services offered here in Belize. That makes me sad for her and him. She is an amazing mother and has worked so hard for him and she still manages to have a very positive up beat attitude and is so Godly in what she believes. Even though she struggles a lot she knows that God has a plan and believes He only gives her what she can handle and that there is a reason for struggles. She is an inspiration for me. I will be a little sad when we leave here on Sunday and I will be leaving a piece of my heart here. I love the hard work we do because I know it is serving God and that makes me proud. I hope everyone has a great spring break. I will see you all back in Iowa soon.
Chris L
Comments
Post a Comment