Good Morning Sunshine!

Well, we found out why it is called the rainy season here yesterday! It rained intermittently during the day – cooling things down, including us. In these pictures you can see the mist rising from the jungle during a brief interval of no rain.

It was an awe inspiring sight and the photos do not do it justice. Later in the evening, the rain truly began to come down, giving new meaning to buckets of rain! It rained quite a while, and we had to go into town to get gas and some supplies; on the road were blue crabs crossing and frogs hopping! It was quite a display of “rain dancing!” Later in the night, the rains came down in sheets once again – it is no wonder that Belizean wildflowers are the exotics that we purchase from the florist shop. Here is a picture of Landan going to great lengths for a wild orchid.

We got a great deal of work done on the playground fence building project, completing the setting of posts and framing; and, then beginning the picket work. Here are several pictures of our work in progress.
Great minds at work!

All hands on deck!

Moving materials = hard work!

So much to do... so little time!

Playground before, with materials, and at the end of day 1. (framing done and pickets begun)

Ben and Landan ending the day and Miles and Landan going to the house.

There is still a lot of cutting of pickets left to do and three gates to be done; so, today we hope to get into the steady rhythm of producing and installing pickets. We woke to sunshine after the rain; tree limbs and bushes were completely still; birds, lizards and frogs create a cacophony of sounds; it is God’s good morning to us. We pray the breeze will come to help with the steamy heat from yesterday’s rain watering – please put that on your list, as the 90% humidity makes 85 to 90 degrees a boiling cauldron here without a breeze to break it up.
Shara worked on packing up the library yesterday as the rest of us worked at the playground. She ferreted out boxes, bags and containers everywhere she could find them to get the books put away for the summer and hurricane season. We ended up buying heavy duty trash bags last night for her to be able to continue her work today – how easily we forget what a resource we have at home with 24/7 super stores to meet our every need in the moment. Here, the resource is where necessity is the birthing of creativity!
We look forward to a day of hard work and the opportunity to visit with children and teachers that go to and from class before the end of school and graduation of 8th graders on Wednesday. The children are becoming more accustomed to us and will talk a little bit now. The teachers are all so young and seem very happy in the work they do each day. We miss seeing the little ones who graduated on Sunday; it is much quieter without their smiling faces and exuberant laughter.
We received more emails this morning from our wonderful prayer warriors at home – we cannot thank you enough for sending them. Your words are at once an energizing force to begin each day and a healing balm as we reflect at dusk. They are spoken and received with much love.
Patricia and the Team