February 26, 2018 - Los Tambos
Here we are..................Monday again. We are in Los Tambos and what a beautiful day!! Blue sky, cool start 63 degrees going up to 90 degrees. 

Today is the day that we start making uniforms. We have 5 ladies that are ready to roll! It was fun to show them what the machines can do. One of the machines has a button hole foot that does a really great job. I wish I would have had a picture of their faces when they saw how fast the machine sews on buttons. Think about this...................4 years ago most of these women had never even used a sewing machine. 


Mr Joe is the cutting out the uniforms which is helping out a lot. We can see what is being used and how much waste there is.  This is in between his projects at the school.   

 Ms Magdalena showing the first uniform shirt finished. Looks nice and VERY professional. Only 98 more to go. Off to a slow start today with  machine problems and electrical problems. We were up and running by about 11:30. They are also sewing on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are looking for things to go better. 

This young man is modeling the second uniform shirt. Pressed and ready to be bagged.

THE FERRY IS FINALLY OPEN!!! That means much shorter trips to San Ignacio.

February 24th and 25th, The week end came and went with the usual things. Market, a stop at the sewing machine repair shop, clean house, cooking for the week and church on Sunday. The weather was beautiful!!

February 23rd off to Belmopan to have our passports stamped for the last time before we leave the country. The trip included a hair cut for me and the French Bakery for Joe.

February  22nd Buena Vista
The girls are working away on their bags. We will be taking pictures on the 27th. We wanted all of them to be finished.

Everybody working away. This is one of my favorite pictures. A young lady of 16 years is showing an older lady of 46 years how to make banding. We have a diverse group but we are leaning how to work together and help one another.



AS OF FRIDAY WE HAVE ONLY 5 MORE WEEKS TO GET ALL THE LESSONS IN. IT SEEMS LIKE WE JUST GOT HERE! 


 

February 17th and 18th 2018
The weekend went fast. 
Rain stopped and things are drying out a little.
Sunday we were even able to make it to church.
The weekend ended with a beautiful sunset.

February 19th, Monday - Los Tambos

We are measuring children for uniforms and working on some of the market bags. Look at all those beautiful faces. 

After measuring approximately 100 children they began making the patterns for the shirts.
In the area we are in there are no patterns. All clothes are made by 

hand designed patterns.

The teachers invited us for lunch and Ms Evelyn brought homemade soup and we brought pineapple cobbler and apple pie.

I really enjoyed the soup it was delicious. However I have to admit I almost freaked out when I saw a chicken foot in the bottom of my soup bowl! YES, I SAID A CHICKEN FOOT!  We have been here for almost two months and I've seen a lot of things but I certainly wasn't ready for that. Next time I'm bringing the soup.

We had a great day! Very busy but we did accomplish a lot.

February 20th, 2018 - Buena Vista

Here we are and all the bags are in the finishing stages! Everyone working hard so they can finish and start the next project.

The girls are learning new techniques and loving it.  I'm  so happy that we are able to spend the time with them to really make progress.

Joe here - - - - -I figured I should add something to this BLOG so everyone didn't think I've spent all my time at the beach.  Mark has no classes on Fridays so we have been trying for 4 weeks to get a Friday without rain so we could paint Ms Juanita's house. Finally last Friday gave us a break and we spent the day painting. House is on 8 foot stilts so everything was on ladders...The house was built about 10 years ago and has never had a coat of paint - first coat soaked in like a sponge and the second coat did the job!!  Finished midafternoon and got cleaned up just in time for the neighborhood grilling party at McBride's.

There were close to 25 neighborhood friends at the party and a good time was had by all.  LeRoy and Mark did the grilling honors and did a fine job. What a mess of beef and chicken we had along with cobbler, pie, cake and ice cream.  No one went away hungry.

The hi-lite of the evening was a guest appearance by none other than LBJ himself.   Not really - it was our buddy BOSS - - - Andrew a long time friend of FCPC missions.

Today - February 19, 2018 at 2:52PM a historic event occurred at Los Tambos School...

The wires were strung and the meter installed and power was connected to the school.  Smiles and laughter all over the campus. Mr. Joel did the honor of flipping the switch for the first light.

WHAT A DAY!!!  

BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR A LONG TIME!!!!

Also today Mr Pedro and I worked to get the concrete poured for the posts for the iron gate to be installed as part of the fence project. Been dodging raindrops for the past couple weeks and have not worked on the fence a lot.   Mr. Pedro used an old technique to assure both sides of the gate approx 18 feet apart were perfectly level.  We used a 20+ feet of tubing filled with water  - when the water level settles at both ends of the tubing - it's level.  That's what you do in the bush with no string level and no transom.  Pretty wise old man!!!

Friday February 16, 2018 - Unitedville 

In His Will Preschool

This is one of our favorite parts of the trip. We distribute shorts and dresses and quilts for the children. The shorts and dresses are made by Grandma's PJs. The quilts are made by Joe's 93 old Aunt Gladys and his 95 year old Uncle Larry. Wonderful people who just love to make quilts for the little ones. They have made quilts that have been sent all over the world. We have been distributing their quilts in Belize for about 5 years. 

 Lots of cuteness in these pictures.
And lots of God working from a far. Knowing the time and love that goes in to making each of these items and being able to see the reaction of the children first hand is a very humbling experience and such a blessing that we get to be the ones who deliver it. 

 They were all ready to take a nap after everything was given out.

Thank you all who put your time into making this happen for the children! 

Thursday February 15, 2018 - Buena Vista

A beautiful day! Looking forward to finishing the Market bags.

Arrive early and everyone one came in and then we found out there was no electricity in the building or in the town. No one knew why but it is a little hard to sew without it. The girls worked on cutting out the finial pieces of their bags. The pictured below is the only bag that is finished. Enna did a great job. The quality of her sewing has improved greatly. I am excited to see the others finish on Tuesday. Power was still off when I left not sure that it is back on.

We returned home and did some of the house hold chores. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and the wind is blowing! Perfect day to hang towels on the line.

 February 14th Wednesday.
Trip to Belize City on the bus.
Purpose to purchase fabrics for the school uniforms. 
We left Unitedville at 8:15am.
We made it to Belize City about 10:30. The bus was nice. Definitely
not a new bus but it was clean. On the ride over we stopped at least 10 times to pick up passengers. You can add Belize City to the list of cities I NEVER want to drive in.
Streets are narrow, bumper to bumper traffic, people double parking lots of horns honking. Whew! I just closed my eyes thought it might be easier if I don't watch.  The bus terminal is a locked and guarded area. Similar to prison however meant to keep the bad guys out. 

Joe and his helper packing up the

fabrics we purchased.  A taxi picked us up  and back to the bus terminal. 

This bad boy here is our ride home. This is the EXPRESS bus! Our packages loaded in the back and we are off again. Out of lock up and on the road. This driver was MOVING! We made a few stops but we made great time. Again, me with my eyes closed! This guy passed everything in sight. Back in Unitedville about 3:00pm and headed home with a stop at the Spelling Bee in Duck Run #1. We had two children from LosTambos School competing. Unfortunately both of the children were eliminated in the fourth round.

Monday February 12, 2018

This the way the day started.......................a very large bolt in the tire. The light came on for low pressure in the tire. Shopped at

Farmer's trading Center came back out and it was FLAT! If you have to have a flat tire..........good place to have it. On level ground and it is NOT raining!! Thank you God!

Joe changed it out and we were on our way. We even had time to stop for coffee and still on time for class!  Oh forgot to tell you that the bolt was 3 1/2 inches long.

I think someone's vehicle is about to fall apart.

The young ladies pictured are the beautiful daughters of Rosanna and Raphael. They have another little sister at home name Jullianne.

Momma Rosanna is pregnant with another child and is on bed rest until the baby comes in 5 months. Please keep this family in your prayers. Rosanna is one of our sewing ladies. She has the jungle sewing room that we work in every year. 

Beautiful blue skies on Monday!

A good day to sew!

Rose -  LosTambos 

We photographed some of the decked out dresses that she made last week. I'll bet you've never seen trim used like that!

Tuesday February 13, 2018   Today was rain................and
more rain!!! Rain started sometime during the night and still raining this morning. 
I don't think I have ever seen 3 people use one poncho.

We had a great day in the sewing room. The ladies are doing such a good job on their bags. They are taking their time and doing so much better. We were so busy today this was the only picture I took. I took this on my lunch break when I was standing in the doorway eating my peanut butter tortilla.

Wednesday February 14, 2018. This will be an adventure day. We are going with Ms Evelyn to Belize City so we can purchase the fabrics for the school uniforms. Oh yes did I mention that we are taking the bus. It could be interesting.  I hope we are back in time for our Ash Wednesday Service. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good morning! Happy Tuesday!   Ooppps where did Sunday and Monday go?

Sunday was not as we planned, no church water still on the bridge.

We worked on a few projects for classes and then went for a ride to do see if the bridge was open AND IT WAS!  Whoohoo! We celebrated by having Valenine's Day early. We went to supper at Orange Restaurant. Great food!

Monday in Los Tambos February 12th. Great day! But a busy day! No electricity yet. Still on the generator.  I found it is very difficult to run 7 machines and one iron.  The ladies are finishing their bags. The exciting thing for the day was they learned how to make band. Now they want to put it on everything!

Hopefully we have the computer back today.

On to Buena Vista today.
So blessed to have all these wonderful ladies in our lives!

February 10th, we are missing a few days.

On Wednesday we were back in Los Tambos, still no electricity but also no rain. We are very close to finishing our bags. 

Wednesday bad rains during the evening, then all night. Thursday no work for Joe. I thought I would put another day in at Buena Vista however there was an emergency meeting being held in our sewing room due to the severe storms so we headed home.

Friday still bad, most roads impassable and schools have been canceled. The river reached 6 ft and rising. The locals just take all of this in stride. 
We stayed in and off the roads and made tortillas and spaghetti sauce. 

Saturday still raining, not going to market the bridge is flooded and the alternate route has wash outs. Spent some time in Spanish Lookout today. Rain stopped late morning. Beautiful blue skies. The river is dropping, the last check at 5:30, water was at 2 feet.  No rain tonight means church tomorrow.

We are thinking that our computer does not like the rain either. It is back in the shop again we are hoping he can fix it. Sorry for no pictures but as I said we are having computer issues we hope this is resolved on Monday.

Some pictures are being posted on Face Book. 

Ladies working on bags in Los Tambos.

February 5, 2018 - Monday - So this is LosTambos

Here we are working on our Designer Market Bags

Lots of pieces to cut and everyone working away.  Our weather is beautiful, temperature in the low 80s with a really nice breeze.
Still no electricity so we are running the generator again. In the background you see 6 plus sewing machines. All of these are refurbished machines donated by Dave at Sewing Machines etc.  

This little one comes to class but she isn't very attentive.

The mom sets her up in the hammock and usually that is the last you hear. 

Everyone helps rock her. If she cries too loud then I have to pick her up. 

The market bag project is a project that helps them realize how important it is to cut your fabrics correctly. This project is more complicated than anything they have made so far. Good in helping determine what they need work on.




February 6th, 2018 - Tuesday - Buena Vista

 Some are smiling.............some not so much. The lesson #1 in cutting   Tres pulgadas es tres pulgadas.................means 3" is 3".
They were cutting squares, some were 3"x 3", others were
 2 1/2" x 3" all sorts of variables in between. We went through found the ones that where correct and replaced all the others. Important lesson in cutting Tres pulagadas es tres pulgadas. 

Lilian decided to do this the smart way. IN A CHAIR. By the end
of the day everyone had finished cutting and started sewing their pieces together. 

Lilian was in our class last year and she struggled a lot. She is blind in one eye and bad vision in the other. She came for the first class and not for the second and I was afraid she quit but she was back the following week. She knows very little English but some how we communicate. I give her a lot of credit for sticking with it.

Lilian inspires me. She has every reason in the world to get up, hateful and mad at the world but she doesn't, she has chosen God who gives her the strength to deal with things in her life. Always with the BIG smile. 

February 1, 2018 Thursday Buena Vista
Today we were utilizing scrap fabrics. We do not waste anything. Our plan is in place to make our designer market bags. So the cutting began today 144 pieces 3"x 3". Our bag will have a quilted front and solid back.  Pictures to follow when we are finished.

February 2, 2018 Friday Belmopan
Today was our day to spend in Belmopan at the immigration office
to check in, pay money and have our passport stamped for another 30 days so we can go back and do that again next month.
We had dinner with Carmen and Faye which was a celebration of
LeRoy's birthday and our anniversary. Long day so it was a short
night.

February 3, 2018 Saturday -  Of course market day, laundry day and cleaning day. We had more rain..................bridge was clear but the water was rising so we headed to San Iganacio with no stops. To the market and home, water was just underneath the bridge when we came back through. The ferry has been down for over a week. Water level is still to high to open. 

You can see the water marks on the trees behind the red car.

Bought our produce and took off.

If we get caught on the other side of the bridge when the water rises it is an hour plus ride home on roads that make Los Tambos roads look like a freeway. Also a lot closer to Guatemala then what

we like to be.

February 4, 2018 Sunday - Out for church at 7:00a.m. Lunch at Clarissa Falls which is over near the Guatemalan border. They have great food, lots of fresh fruit and fruit juices. Still celebrating 
26 years.Then headed home to relax and get ready for Monday.