We completed the installation of the filter system today . . . . and NO LEAKS!!  We have two faucets on the outside for the kids to use and one on the inside.  A pre-filter has been added to help clean things up before the final filter.  We also have added a shower at the request of Ms Lily.
  Tomorrow we plan to demonstrate the back-wash procedure to the teachers and the older students.  Our plan is to make the older students responsible for the periodic backwash.
   On Monday we will have a ribbon cutting ceremony as part of the morning assembly.  Ms. Lily will be the recipient of the first glass of water from the system.  We hope this is just the first step to filtered and purified water for the community.  What a great thing to be  part of!!

 This is Monday morning in our out
door work room at Rosanna's house.
It was a little chilly that morning. During the night we had rain so there was mud and water everywhere. We are helping Rosanna get her quilt ready to put together. I think she is in a hurry to use it. The wind was blowing and it was hard to keep the squares on the table but we did get a lot finished.

I have never felt so blessed and humbled and so in awe of God's hand in the lives of these beautiful people of the villages.

This is the dining room of Chad and Stephanie. They are suppliers for all chefs on the coast and in Belmopan. There are herbs and greens in this collection. They also sell chocolate ( excellent chocolate) It was a fun evening with Chad, Stephanie and their children. Do you notice a trend here? Really we do more than eat good food. 

 Stephanie prepared a large salad and some excellent chili. Dessert was samples of chocolate bars!

Here we are back sewing today at Buena Vista. The ladies are basting the small squares together to make the rows for their quilts.  We are hard a work to get finished before it is time for us to leave. 

 This young ladies name is Jenny. Jenny has never seen a sewing machine that runs on electric. Her first comment was that "it is just like magic" She has never seen anything other than a treadle machine that her grandmother used. Unfortunately we have had problems getting the machines we have ordered. We only have one machine right now for 8 ladies. There were suppose to be here when we arrived. No one seems to know what the hold up is. We are saying prayers that they will get them delivered before we leave. Jenny and the other ladies have never had an opportunity like this. They are overwhelmed with the generosity of people who don't even know them. Some of the ladies  were crying. I think I was one of them when I saw how they reacted. They were so appreciative.

Saturday afternoon, the guys hard at work remodeling the book shelf so the TV can fit. Job well done!

Sunday morning church with Carmen and Faye then off to Duck Run 1 to find Otillia. Two years
ago we gave Otillia a machine to use but when we came back this year she had moved away. A few days ago Otillia saw Mr. Joe at the Farmer's trading center and gave him her phone number so we
could come to visit and see all the things she had sewn! Wow it was so good to see her again and
see all that she has accomplished. We had the machine cleaned up and we will return it to her before
we leave. It is so good to see ladies making such good use of the machines. Otillia is now working at a restaurant in Duck Run called El Dorado,which is where we had lunch there yesterday. Great food!

This is the ferry near Duck Run .We didn't use the ferry but maybe next time.

Sunset last evening, we were on our way out to dinner with Carmen &Faye at their friends house. This picture was taken across the fence at the mission house. The blue house is inhabited with extremely noisy people. 

Hi there, sorry for the gap but we have been without internet for several days.

We spent Saturday morning in Belmopan looking for parts for our work tables. Unfortunately we had
no luck finding what we needed. There is a lot to be said for our Home Depot and Lowes.
We took Mark and Ira with us so we went through the market place and found some good looking pineapple for Mark to use for cobbler.
Carmen, Joe and Allen used the afternoon to work on a project to remake the book case so the TV would fit. Mission accomplished so we headed out for dinner with the group. Sisters Restaurant was the choice for the evening. Rice, beans and chicken was the choice for everyone. Very good meal.

We are now experiencing major delays downloading so we are back to problems again. Hope to blog in the morning.

Early out this morning. Breakfast at the Golden Corral. 

Great food, excellent coffee! 

Joe is having fry jacks with beans and I had a scrambled egg sandwich with fruit. The sandwich and

bowl of fruit were HUGE!

Golden Corral is one of our favorite places to eat. This was a real treat!

Cool this morning about 65 degrees up to 80, very comfortable day.

LosTambos early morning sewing class.

 We finished up our aprons this morning then made kitchen hand towels to hang on the cupboard.

Here are the bashful ladies and their finished aprons.
They turned out very nice. 

They loved putting the pockets on. 

What a wonderful group of ladies. Fun Loving!!!!!

Surveying the situation..... appears all systems are a GO!!!.........

I Think????

Moving forward with the installation of the water filtration system. Total system installed safely in a closet with two new outside faucets for the kids to get clean water as they need.  Couple hours and we will be ready for testing.  Next week we plan to discuss they system operation and back-washing with the older students and teachers.  Everyone seems to be very excited about CLEAN water!!

The two ladies above are sporting some new reading glasses. Both had problem and now makes it

so much easier for them to read their Bible and sew. This is Tuesday morning at Rosanna's house.

Rafie was also very happy about receiving reading glasses. 

 

We started early this morning 1/26/17

.

The dew and the fog is so heavy in the morning that is sounds like it is raining when the moisture drips off the house. I walked to the car to load some things and I found this impression on the window. It seems that a bird must have not seen the car in the fog and smacked right into the window. By the way, the bird did live.

Class was great today, we finished up the embroidery and began cutting and organizing our fabrics for quilting. Below is everyone showing off their work. I didn't have anything to show so Ester let me help hold her work. They all did a beautiful job!! All are excited about beginning the new quilt project.  We limited the class to 8 ladies and we will have enrollment again next year. We ordered four machines which should be here tomorrow. Two ladies to one machine is a more manageable.

Recinos family has opened a little store near the school. Jesus was managing the store when we stopped for water. It's good to see her again.  Jessica's mom was there also relaxing and chatting. Nice to see both of them. Neither can come to sewing class because they work.

Comment from Joe - - -Just in case you didn't recognize me, I'm the tall one in the middle.

 We stopped by Miranda's after class today and caught up with Alesia at home working.  We found a dress that fit Veronica. Regardless of the look on her face she was very happy to get the dress. The rest of the family was gone. Maria was with her father at the hospital. He was just diagnosed with cancer.

Tomorrow we are back in Los Tambos to finish aprons and another small project. Saturday will be spent on several individual lessons.

 Rosanna's work room, under the blue sky in the jungle. She is up and running again!
Uncle Julio watched baby Julelesa while mom and dad worked. Great morning cool and
sunny. I told Rosanna that it was really nice and there were so few bugs..........then she informed me that was because of all the snakes...................EEEEEEEE.

 Rosanna is a close neighbor to Fatima. Fatima returned from the hospital after having surgery on Friday. She will be down in bed for 15 days. Please keep her in your prayers.  Her husband and children are taking good care of her.  This little guy is Fatima's guard parrot.

 Our sewing group in Buena Vista. we started with 5 now we have 6 for tomorrow. We started out stitching embroidery patterns.  They are very excited about all projects we have lined up for them. We have two ladies, one has 5 children and the other has 4 children. I told them they needed to learn to sew to keep the kids in clothes. They loved receiving the shorts and dresses from Grandma's PJs

 Joe  made several tables today for the girls and now he has everything in place to mount the water filter at the school. Joe and Sebastian are working on a solution to get a few more years out of the Palapa hut.  Leaks in the thatched roof have caused rotting in the support structure. Reinforcing this should gain a few years of life for the palapa.

The end of the day...............it was busy! It was a great day! We decided to cut the papaya we bought
 at the market on Friday. It was huge! This is a three family size papaya! We divided it up to share.

Sunday
January 22, 2017

Sunday morning at the Fusion Church. What an awesome sermon! Pastor David at his best!!!

Out to lunch then into San Ignacio for some shopping and back to the house.
Joe helped Carmen redesign a bed for incoming guests.

Now to relax and watch the Packer game.............maybe not so much for relaxing!!!
Go Pack!!

Packing up tonight for departure at 8:00am, out to Spanish Lookout. Devotions and class with
Rosanna in the morning and the Buena Vista sewing group at 1:00.

Saturday
January 21, 2017

Coffee on the porch this morning! Very foggy, watching the birds. Time to start the day.
Joe going shopping in Spanish Look Out and Linda cleaning machines.

The watermelon man came by the Learning Center and of course we

had to buy one. 

We unloaded all the machines at the Learning Center and the cleaning began. We have one machine that is beyond repair but that still leaves us with 7 used machines. We still have 3 machines that will need to be cleaned. That will be another day.

Friday
January 20, 2017
The day began going to Belmopan. to see Hannah 'Gonzales compete in a reading competition for
the Cayo District.  Hannah won two previous contests in order to qualify.

 Hannah before she read.

Mrs. P,   Hannah and Ms Evelyn

Reading through the competition material

    Hannah didn't win but she did receive a certificate for qualifying and a gift certificate.  

    All of the children did a great job! Glad I wasn't a judge. 

Thursday
January 19, 2017

Rosanna's husband is a farmer here he is showing off one of the

radishes he grew! That was huge! We haven't eaten any radishes yet but I think we might give it a try. They said to cook them and eat them
with tortillas. They eat all the food they grow and sell the rest at market.

Monday morning we will spend some time with Rosanna and her husband to show them a way to weave a simple rug.

Finished up at Roseanna's and moved on to Buena Vista to see Mefi and our new building.






BUENA VISTA - COMMUNITY CENTER

This room will be our new sewing room in
Buena Vista. It is a secure building that will provide plenty of space. We are excited to begin setting up on Monday afternoon. We will be organizing all of the sewing supplies that everyone had donated. We also will be building a work table to use for layout and cutting patterns.
The new sewing machines should be in by next week.Things don't always move as fast as we would like in Belize.  Lots of work before we can sew. If you look at the ceiling you will see lights AND ceiling fans. We will also be able to use irons.
Occasionally they will need  to move our machines etc. into the computer room. Norma(lady in charge of sewing room) and a teacher will do the moving.

This is the computer training room which is a separate and a secure room.

Thursday
January 19, 2017

Out to LosTambos checking in with everyone. We visited with Ms Lily making plans for the upcoming week.
Ms Lily is proudly displaying the new award that was presented to the school. The LosTambos Government School Best Overall performance for PSE exam 2016. Wonderful progress for everyone, students and teachers. The teachers work very hard to prepare the children for many competitions.

 Then on to Rosanna's house to see how her sewing machine is working and look at projects finished.
Rosanna did a very good job until the hurricane came and wiped out their solar power and the invertor.  She also gave birth to a bouncing baby
girl who is now 7 months old. A lot happens when you haven't been around for two years. Below is one of the dresses that she made before the power went out.

Rosanna has 4 children and wants to be able to make the uniforms for her daughters. We will check out the machine, get a new invertor and spend some time working with the patterns for the uniforms. It is so good to see someone
putting the machines to good use. Rosanna's husband is interested in sewing also. He took a pair of shorts apart and sewed them back together to make them smaller.






We both had to have pictures with the baby! She is beautiful and such a happy
little thing. Joe is thinking he can have her as a donor for a hair transplant.

January 18, 2017
We are in Belize ..................Uneventful flight ..........Thank you Jesus!
We left for the airport this morning at 2:30am, checked in with no
problems. Arrived in Belize early to beautiful blue skies.
Picked up the car and headed for Cheers where we met Carmen and Faye for lunch.

Arrived at the mission house organized all our
projects and then had supper. Mrs. Juanita fixed beans, rice and chicken for Mr Carmen's welcome home. This is Carmen's first trip back in a year and a half. He is doing really well. Sure is good to see him and get one of those Carmen hugs!!!!

January 17, 2017
PACKING, PACKING AND MORE PACKING

We have two totes and 2 duffel bags. Trying to keep the weight under 50lbs is
very difficult. We are able to take a lot of large pieces of fabric that were
donated.