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.

January 16, 2017
The journey has begun! 

 Delta Flight out of Nashville on Wednesday,
January 18th 5:15am from Nashville into Atlanta then on to Belize arriving at 12:10pm.

Commissioning service yesterday.
Thank you to Max and the congregation for the send off. We have such a supportive church, Sunday school class and friends. We appreciate all of the help through gifts of sewing notions, money, support and prayers.  We are blessed.

This is a quilt layout for one of the quilts we will be making in Buena Vista. Thank you
Bess, Bev and Linda 



The plan is to finish packing tonight. Leaving for Nashville tomorrow about 1:00pm.