Dedication of Buena Vista Community Resource Center

Across the street from the school is the new BV Community Resource Center.  It was about half way done when Dennis and I arrived here five months ago and now it is complete!  The building is divided into two parts, one is an open meeting room and the other a computer/library area.  It is a very nice building with a fence around it and bars on the windows for security.  It has also been designated as a hurricane shelter.

Official people.
A representative from the Ministry of Education.
His Excellency Hirimoto, Japanese Ambassador.
Rene Monterro, area Representative (like a senator)
Mrs. Roberta August school principal
Eddie De la Rosa, Buena Vista's mayor.

I think Mrs. Betty gave the best speech.

Hanging around taking pictures

In the computer lab area.
I always like the unposed candid shots better.
That is Mr. Mefi in the background.

I guessed at the names of the official people.  There were three heavy accents present during the ceremony, Spanish, English and Japanese. The Ambassador impressed us all with a little Spanish.  It is funny to hear Buenos Dios in a strong Japanese accent.  The teachers worked hard to prepare for the day and the students tried to behave while the teachers were busy.  Mr. Monterro proclaimed that the entire school could take the rest of the day off!  Mrs. Betty said that would probably happen.

Now for the good pictures!

Yeslin and I are laughing because she has a piece of tape stuck on her shirt.

Jamila, Davids stepdaughter

Marcelia, she is one of my "shadows"

Trouble
Jorge and Eliel

Trying to help the older girls with the juice, all done by hand.

Bunches of great students.  If you look right in the middle you will see
Delmi, Loren's sister.  She and Dennis are always joking together.

Cesar is on the left and Herlin is holding the flower.  The littlest guy, Noe, recited a poem
for the ceremony.  It was a tragic, twenty-five word poem about the
death of a butterfly.  He had the dramatic arm movement and everything.

Susana and Delmi joking with Dennis.

Another baby who really would rather I didn't hold him.

Delmi Campos

Albert, Mrs. Betty's son.

Delmi again, this time mom is watching.

The students will bring their baby siblings to us to show them off.
We don't mind at all!

The Ambassador guy from Japan.

We didn't get a picture of the Secty. of State from Japan, but we had a great conversation with him about our children and what they have in common.  We also talked about fruit grown in Japan.  Chit-Chat...

On a more cynical note, we noticed the roads were smoothed out and banners hung for Monterro before he arrived.  If that is what it takes to get the pot holes filled in I say invite the man over about once a month.

It was a pleasant morning in Buena Vista.

Love you guys!

Vicki

Vicki vs. the Army Ants

So, I walked out on the front porch to see how Dennis was doing.  He was working on the brakes on the Bronco.  I was greeted by masses of ants around the door, on the porch, coming up the steps and skampering behind the washer and dryer.

I think I said, "Aaaaaaahhh!" And then started stomping on ants.  I ran inside to get the ant spray because it looked like they were trying to come in through window screen.  As I started to spray I can hear Dennis telling me that they are army ants.  So I sprayed even more.  Then they started to fight back and bit my toes.  Man those little dudes really hurt when they are fighting for their lives. It was Vicki verses the Army Ants! Dennis got me to step off the porch and step away from the bug spray.  After getting a dozen or so off my legs I finally got to a place in the yard where there was no ants.  Army ants really hurt!!  And of course they were winning the battle.

Trail of ants.

On the porch.  These are the ones who lived.

Creepy!

These guys are headed for John's office.

This spider is over-the-top freaking out because it is surrounded by ants.  And if the
ants didn't get him then the birds did.

Dennis said that these are good ants.  Good ants?  Isn't that an oxymoron?  I found out that our place here at Bridge the Gap is on one of their migration routes.  They just show up once in a while and march on through eating any other insect or spider or critter that is in their path.  This made me think of an old black and white Tarzan episode.  Tarzan had to race through the jungle, swinging from vine to vine, in order to save the ridiculously stupid white hunters who had some how offended the natives.  So, the wild natives tied down the struggling hunters in the path of the army ants!  These hunters were defenseless against the onslaught of flesh eating ants bearing down on them.  Of course Tarzan leapt onto the scene just in time to free the ridiculously stupid white hunters from being devoured by the viscious ants!...(sorry had a "squirrel" ADHD moment).

Any way, two days later the ants showed up again down by the main building this time.  So I grabbed my Galaxy Tablet and filmed them.  Now I have my very first video production on Youtube.  It's called Vicki's Army Ants!  Not a very catchy title but I wanted it to be easy for people to find.  If you click on the link it will bring you to You Tube and you can see the new production!
http://youtu.be/ukFsIVZQxYY

To all of you who were rooting for the ants, I really do feel bad that I terminated so many of them.  I apologize.  But as a final note.  Today I was hanging up laundry and was stung by about ten tiny red ants.  I think they must be cousins.

Love you guys!

Vicki

Two Weekends in Belize

There are many fun things to do and beautiful places to go in Belize.  After four months of living here we finally got to see a little of the beauty that can be found here.

On Jan. 11, 2014 some friends of ours from Fountain of Life Church got married and we did some photography for them.  We didn't know when we volunteered to shoot the wedding that it was going to be in Placencia.  That, it turns out was kind of a bonus and a really good excuse to travel around Belize.  Placencia is on the Carribean and about a three hour drive from Blackman Eddy.  It really isn't that far, but the roads are so bad that it just takes a long time when you are playing "Dodge the Pot Hole" most of the way there.

Placencia is a very interesting mix of extreme wealth and evident poverty.  The mansions and resorts that you can see from the road were extravagant to say the least.  One resort had a gate which  had a fountain running down it and at night there were flames just in front that lit up the water.  I thought that if my Grandma Blackwell was still alive she would stay at that one.  But, you know that we did not stay at that one or any other one that was even close.  Dennis and I stayed at The Manatee Inn.  It was the cheapest we could find.  

The Manatee Inn in Placencia, Belize.

We had an upstairs corner room which was fine because we were the only ones in the building anyway.  Even the owners were gone for the weekend.  I think that was a good thing because you can see through the walls and I'm sure that it would have been weird to have people walking by the room in the middle of the night.  As it turned out it was a quiet place to stay and we were blessed with cool weather.  In the picture above, I am facing toward the ocean but you can't see it because there are two rows of houses in the way.  There is a wonderfull sidewalk that goes on for quite a while between the houses, inns, and shops that brings you down to the main dock.  Sunday morning we went for a walk and had good coffee and pasteries!  The whole trip was worth that couple of hours.  

Sunday morning was our first walk on a Carribean Beach.  

Many "beach people" have a rule that you must touch the water whenever you are at the beach.  I can
say that I have touched the Carribean.

Another good Dennis picture.

On the dock in Placencia.  A very nicely designed dock and quite pretty.

On the way home we stopped to explore.   That bridge has about 2 feet of space on each side of the car.  It could
have been a walking bridge.  There is about four of them on the way.  Another unknown rule, whenever
one stops at a creek to just look around, you must bring home a rock.  I got one for Tony, my brother.

The wedding was for Darrell and Kayla.  He comes from a Mennonite family and she is from the states.  The ceremony was on the beach at The Mission Resort.  There was about two hundred people and the food was made by Darrell's family.  Mennonite food is very, very good.

This guy was in charge of the pier.  He even did a little
photo-bomb fly-by in the middle of the wedding.

We were amazed at how wonderful the lighting was on
the beach, even after the sun went down.  It was a great wedding!

The next weekend we went to Black Rock.  Marvin and Emily said they would show us where Marvin gets his carving slate.  They originally lived in Buena Vista but recently moved to her parents home in Succotz.  Succotz is the village across the river from Xiunantunich. (The really big Mayan ruin that we have visited with our mission team last year.)  We met them by the ferry but we didn't go across.  We went down the road a few miles and ended up driving down a gravel road into the mountains.  Of course the road was rough but the journey was worth it.

A waterfall on the side of the road.

The water was beautiful.  Off to the side was a part
of the falls that came bubbling up from underneath the rocks.
Belize has many underground waterways.

This is Marvin's digging spot.  He climbs up the hillside and digs out
the slate that he later carves.  This slate is all over the place.  We would pay
a good amount at Lowe's for this stuff.

This creek was lined with a calcium deposit of some sort.  The entire creek, all the way to
the river was like this.  The water here has heavy amounts of mineral deposits in it.  It's
not a good idea to drink it very often.

I love this picture.  Can't you imagine little fairies jumping from one to the other.
Now come on, have a little imagination here!

Marvin, Emily and the three boys.  The oldest
one is named Alvin but I can't remember the other two.

This is Alvin in deep contemplation.  Of course he went across it!

Yeah, he is biting his foot...because he can.

You can actually see the butterflies eye in this.  There is also
an ant looking up at the butterfly.

I make it a habit to get a picture of Dennis taking pictures.  You would
never know he's around otherwise, he is always on the
other side of the camera.

The trusty Bronco!  On the other side is an autograph from
one of the Buena Vista kids.  It says Justin Galindo.

This flower is actually about an inch across.

Marvin calls this Deer Hoof and Emily calls it Butterfly wings.
They grew up in different villages.

This is where the water is coming up from underground.

Marvin and his family.

This was a special treat for the boys.  They don't leave the
village very often.

Cool picture of the Bronco.

Notice the Blues Clues shirt.

Yes, he actually fell asleep leaning like this.  He didn't even wake up when I took the picture.
I really like this picture.  And, no he is not wearing a seat belt.

At the end of the day we dropped them back off at Emily's families house.  This is her dad.
The words are Mayan for Place of Flowers.
This is just across the street from the ferry to Xiunantuniche.

We had a wonderful day with Marvin and his family.  He is a good guy who is trying to be the best father and husband to his family.  We felt like grandparents.  We look forward to more time spent with them.

Even with all this going on I still am missing my family back home.  We love you guys and hope to be home for a visit soon.

Love you guys!