A normal morning starts off at 5:30 a.m. We wake up to the chirping of birds outside our windows and the beautiful scene of nature to begin our personal time with God and prepare for the day ahead. Most of us share a bedroom with one of the MOVE students. Many of the MOVE students do not speak english, so it has been a fun challenge for each of us to practice communicating with our roommates in another language. After group worship we make our way to the mess hall a.k.a cafeteria for a hearty first meal which includes a variety of foods (beans, rice, bread, fruit, etc.) then disperse to our different work stations. Over this past week Soren, Gabriel, Robin, and Amanda M. have been doing construction and working on tresses. Miss Abby, Mrs. Hasse, Sunika, Lydia, Anella, and Mercy have been adding color to the campus with the bristles of their brushes. Mr. Mike and Matthew…well no one knows what they have been up to. The team that has been removing large rocks from the field includes Mr. Poljack, Riley, and Chantal. Miss Amanda has been working along side Tanzi painting one of the dorms and sewing curtains for the cafeteria.

This Thursday we drove into a village called Santa Martha. On the way we passed by hut-like houses often with only half a roof. Many of the villagers have their own plantain trees and chickens. Once we arrived at the church in Santa Martha there were already some Belizean women excited to attend our cooking class and crafts. Eventually, more women from the village came. Sunika, Soren, and Amanda M. demonstrated how to make artisan bread and a lentil soup, both of which the women participated in and enjoyed—even though the bread was slightly undercooked due to lack of time. One event that stood out to us from that night is when Amanda was practicing her Spanish on some of the younger children and she was trying to say un poquito (meaning a little) but, instead she said un pequito (meaning a birds beak) which we all had a good laugh over. The spanglish is real! After the cooking class was over Mercy, Alexis, and Chantal taught the women how to make flowers from paper. All in all it was a very tiring day, but we were (and still are!) excited to see how the Lord will use us during our time here in Belize.

– Amanda McCraw and Sunika Jojo