In the foreground of this picture, taken at Sports Day (more to follow), is the picture of a young woman from Florida (note hat), one of about 30 volunteers who came from Dunedin First Presbyterian Church to volunteer at Dorothy Menzies Child Care Centre. The group exemplifies the best in missionary work!
About three years ago, a group came from this church to volunteer for a week or two and were struck by the needs and delighted with the children, so they have spent their time since then raising money and returning to the Centre annually to make a big difference in the infrastructure and operation of the program. This year about 30 people came from Florida. A group went to work building cabinets for the new girls' dorm and painting and decorating the inside and outside of the dormitory building. Others held a week-long day camp functioning on site with music, arts and crafts, etc. Meanwhile, a math camp, in conjunction with a church school, was held with several of our residents participating.
The volunteers also researched on several prior fact-finding trips what might be done to improve the disciplinary program at the Centre. Taking a key from Trinity School, which is just around the corner and where many of our children attend school, the volunteers put together a token economy to reward positive behavior. The program, "ICU" (as in I See You), is one that is used at the school. On two days, the volunteers presented a workshop/training to provide staff with the structure of the program and tools with which to implement it. The volunteers used the system while at the Centre, and the children were excited to be participating. The children received their recognition for a job well done on Thursday evening and had an ice cream party to celebrate! Our intention is to see that the program is being used on Monday by staff (without our mentors, sadly) and have a staff meeting on Wednesday to check in with people on how well it is going. Keeping track of all of the ICU slips filled out by staff and for staff (they, too, have an incentive program for implementing this) has fallen to me! I didn't want the staff to be burdened by the task...I'd rather they be cheering acts of Honesty, Kindness, Respect and Responsibility. I might add that the group from Florida brought computers for use by the children and staff, clothes, toys and goodies for staff (lotion, etc.)! And some of the volunteers will return in one month to monitor the program that they have begun. I want to acknowledge them for the completeness of their mission...finding out the needs of the community, networking with the community to create a program that can work, donating time and money and goods over the long run (not just a week here or there) and monitoring the success or bumps in the road to assure that what they put in place will really make a positive difference in the Centre. And NO proselytizing! Just humble, hard work! Kudos!
On Friday a Sports Day was put on by the Belize Department of Human Development for all of the children in centres throughout Belize. I cannot believe how well it was organized in such short period of time! At the last minute, they had to change the location to a field house in Belmopan as this week has seen daily rain. The above picture is of the children playing games in the field house while showers fell off and on outside. The social workers and staff of the department were in charge of all of the activities and the wonderful food that we had--barbequed chicken, beans, coleslaw, tortillas, plus slushies, hot dogs on sticks, nachos, popcorn and cupcakes! I was sure that children would be sick on the way home! A couple of jumping houses were available for young children. A trampoline and face-painting were there; outdoor races were put on with prizes for the winners! Each program within the state was introduced, and each performed a song for the group. Only one accident happened that needed medical attention, and it would be a little girl who had been clinging to me, overwhelmed by the number of people. I had finally engaged her in an activity with the little kids and had left...and she fell, splitting open her forehead to the tune of about 3 stitches. She returned and ate a hearty lunch and would have played a lot more, but I thought she needed to be out of the sun and drinking water, so I spent the afternoon with her in toe. Such a cutie! We also have a new little guy who has spent most of his 2 years on his own, so he just goes at full speed at all times.with no concern for boundaries! It literally took a village to keep an eye on him, and at one point, I saw him "escape" into the caretaker's basement, with a volunteer running as fast as she could to retrieve him! We travelled on two buses for the hour-and-a-half trip, making for a very long day. But it was great fun for the children!
The children wore shirts in bright colors, and the staff wore yellow. It made for a colorful party!
Dave had a dramatic week, as well. He was called to Placencia in the south to pick up a burn victim, a young man who was burned over 90% of his body when a butane tank blew up. He was conscious on his trip to Belize City, but there is no burn center in Belize. There is a fund, which Yvette Burks, Dave's boss, oversees, that is typically used to raise funds quickly for children badly burned so that they can be swiftly moved to a burn center in the United States. She was able to activate her network, and immediately received pledges of money, enough to hire a jet to transfer him from Belize to Augusta, GA where she had found a hospital and doctor willing to accept him. He was able to leave here in a record 36 hours (with Yvette walking the 4th of July fill-in staff at the US Embassy on how to pave the way for him to get into the US without a visa), and we know that he made it to the hospital! Amazing work on Yvette's part and with the cooperation of many, many people. The 28-year-old man has a wonderful reputation of being a hard worker, and he was married in February to a woman, who is a social worker from Texas. So...if anyone is inclined to donate to the fund that is trying to pay for as much of this as possible, let me know! It was a fairly traumatic experience for Dave, and only one of the two or three flights that he had that day.
And finally, we had a concert behind our house! The Belize Jaguars Football team (think soccer) went to Portland, OR for the Gold Cup tournament. This is the first time that the team has made it to a Gold Cup tournament, and with the sponsorship of a Ministry head and Mayor of Belize City, a fund-raising concert was held at the ITVET field, just outside our house! I was disappointed by what I thought was a poor turn-out, but so many of the best artists of Belize performed! It was a wonderful concert, seen by me through opera glasses (ok...my big binoculars) and inescapably heard through the windows! Fabulous music, and with some of the tutelage of my teenager friends here, I knew who some of the groups were!
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