Hello from Belize! Jaguar Creek is amazing. We are literally in the jungle, surrounded by luscious jungle foliage and beautiful birds. After a long nights sleep, we woke up to an awesome mosquito net and lots of humidity. Once the workings of getting ready were done, we went to breakfast at about 8:30. From there we went to the vans and were headed to multiple churches. Of the 50 people, we split up at 4 different churches. The church I went to, Abby Begovich, was Church of God. It was pretty much just a house with benches and such in it. When we walked in there were many children singing and dancing. We actually did the hokey pokey! After singing, we introduced ourselves and Mark Curtis said a few words on sacrament. After that the worship leader told us that we were essentially witnessing Sunday School, that they do their bigger church service at night on Sundays. When the service was over, we got to interact a little bit with the kids and learn more about them. Since our service was just a Sunday School we got done a lot earlier than everybody else, so we got to sit in the van with the awesome humidity. We sat there for about an hour and a half but it gave Amy Scheuer and I a chance to talk more to the Maryville group. While Abby was having such a good time at the Church of God, I (Meredith Manning) went with another group of people, all from Farragut Pres, to the Belmopan Baptist Church. The service didn't start for an hour after we got there, so we wandered around the area for a while and Todd Thurman pointed out various native bird species to us. We then went into the church for worship, which sounds like a very different experience then the one Abby and the other churches had, as the service ran over 2 hours. They opened by asking where there visitors were from and so Todd introduced us, and they then asked for birthdays and consequently the entire congregation wished Kaylor Martin a happy 18th. Then, we sang a song and listened to the local youth participate in the hand bell choir, all of the time of which I at least felt like I stood out like a sore thumb being a white American among the natives. The pastor, who we later learned happens to be the principal of the school we are building the fence for this week gave an hour and a half to forty five minute sermon on nurturing your children. Then, to top it off, the church christened a baby of the congregation, who happened to be the only baby I have ever seen to wear a pinstripe suit. After that, though, what could be constituted in my opinion as one of the longest church services ever ended, and we returned to the other groups waiting for us at the van in order to go to the Mayan ruins. After the vans had met up we started on the journey to the Mayan Ruins. The roads of Belize had "Pedestrian Bridges" what in America we call speed bumps, about every couple of miles. On the ride there, we saw many different things in
Belize construing from people walking on the side of the road to people playing basketball on a horse. Along the way, we got a good look at the amount of poverty that is around the country of Belize, it appeared that most were lacking even the basics, including electricity and running water. Even the animals that we saw from the side of the road seemed to be severely malnourished. We finally reached the ruins and had to ferry across a river to get there. Since we had not estimated the church services to go that long it was about 3 o'clock by the time we had lunch at the Mayan Ruin site. After eating, we started the trek up the ruins. There was one main ruin which was about 183 feet high. The steps were very steep but everyone from Farragut made it to the top! The view from the top was spectacular. We could see all of the closest town from the top, and it was rumored that we were looking into Guatemala in one direction from the top, but Joanie Scheuer could not remember the area that it was specifically. Another great part apart from the view was the fact that there was a breeze. In a moment of brilliance, one of the New Providence kids, Troy, decided to throw a frisbee off the top of the Mayan Ruins, but fortunately, it did not hit anyone in the head and they were able to eventually retrieve the frisbee. Most youth from Farragut just sat at the top enjoying the breeze until it was finally time to go. Once back across the river, a couple of vendors were there selling lots of jewelry and purses. After the shopping was done, we finally headed home to Jaguar Creek. We had an excellent dinner, and then celebrated Kaylor's birthday with singing and a cake made by the women working in the kitchen, which happened to be rather delicious. Tomorrow we start the real work though, but all of the touring and relaxing has been wonderful; it really is like paradise down here! The only compliant that I (Meredith) has so far is that the bugs are rampant, I have been covered in bug spray and they are still biting. I have found bites on my face and in my hair. :( Farragut Pres will report back soon!
Abby Begovich and Meredith Manning
