Once again Holy Cross were blessed by the presence of teams of
volunteers over the summer. Some were new teams, here for the first
time, while others were those who had partnered with us for many years.
It was a wonderful time as old friendships were renewed, new friendships
made and people from all over the USA came together with a common
purpose of helping the children of Belize.
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| New railing gets a coat of paint |
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| The inspiring mural for our K-2nd graders |
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| Local children loving VBS |
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| Local boy loving the music and attention |
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| Now that's a large tank! |
If you are interested in sending a volunteer team over the coming year - such a spring break or summer or even mid year, please contact us at volunteerbelize@gmail.com to find out more information. There is always something for you to do.
The infant and middle school had so much fun this week when Amalia and her friend Emily from Nature Explorers International came to teach.
Nature Explores is a one week nature education week designed to introduce children to the natural world and through interest and excitement. You can find out more about them here.
Day one kicked off with with seeds, where the humble bean took center stage. Most of our kids eat beans every day of their life, but for the first time many realized there were actually baby bean plants inside.
Day two was invertebrates, with spiders, butterflies and starfish. Once again the kids simply loved doing the
craft projects and many a butterfly and starfish was presented for inspection on the way home from school and seen all around town. There was a spider in a jar to be inspected with great interested and several kids came back the next day talking excitedly about the spiders they had seen at home. Even I was seeing more spiders than usual that day!
Day three was vertebrates and focused on sea turtles. Here children studied the "Sea Turtle Wheel of Trouble" and learned about the various threats sea turtles faced. They read a story about a sea turtle that felt sick after eating a plastic bag and many children said they would stop throwing bags in the water and tell their friends to stop too (a real issue here).
Day four looked at birds and included a field trip to the nearby swamp to observe the behaviors of birds - feeding, flying, flocking, preening and I cannot remember the rest. This time of year we see many migrating birds so the students had a lot to look at. Even pigeons on a roof top were suddenly transformed to fascinatingly interesting and drew shouts of excitement.
The last day was mammals and the students had a lot of fun learning all about monkeys and their important role in spreading seeds as well as making fun monkey masks. Kids had so much fun with the art and craft and talked about the masks all day. Some of the local kids not in school even followed Amalia and Emily home to ask to make masks!
The teachers also had a wonderful week with the guest teachers in the classroom. All enjoyed learning more about nature themselves and several even said they were inspired by the teaching techniques and look forward to incorporating them into their classrooms in the future.
So a huge thank you to Nature Explorers for including Holy Cross Anglican School on your schedule. We wish you all the best for the rest of your time in Belize. If you'd like to see more photos, you can find them here, with more stories here.
Know someone who does something similar - get them in touch with Holy Cross School!
March 5,2010
Dear Friends of Holy Cross Anglican School, I am happy to share the following article written by recent volunteer Dr. Eric Fee. Holy Cross is so thankful for the many volunteers and mission teams who share their time, talents and treasure with the children of Holy Cross. We are also incredibly thankful for each of you! Your prayers, financial contributions, gifts of school supplies, shoes, back packs, teaching aids and books are a blessing to all of us. With your continuing support Holy Cross will continue to be a beacon of light, love and learning to the disadvantaged little ones of San Mateo. Many thanks and Blessings, Francis
Our Church at Work
In January 2010, Cindy Lee Hall and I traveled to Belize, Central America. We boarded a ferry for a bumpy 2 hour ride across the beautiful Caribbean Sea from Belize City to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. Our final destination was the tiny village of San Mateo that had been built upon unwanted government swamp land by the hearty people of this welcoming country.
The purpose of our visit was to work with the students and teachers of the Holy Cross Anglican School (www.holycrossbelize.org). Literally, this school has been created like a seed sprouting from the ground! And, it continues to grow with the support of the San Mateo community and the worldwide parishioners of the Anglican/Episcopal church. For those of you who have contributed to this ministry (www.hcefoundation.org) I assure you your monies are being put to great use.
In addition as a family physician, I explored the health care needs of the school and surrounding community. Despite the lack of abundant health care that we are accustomed to in the USA, the Belizean healthcare providers and people make excellent use of their limited resources.
This island does not have a hospital or emergency room or urgent care. The ability to transfuse blood, provide intravenous fluids, perform surgery or obtain a CT scan does not exist. We sadly learned of 2 children who had recently died from infections stemming from simple cuts due to the lack of appropriate antibiotics. In the face of this harsh reality, you quickly learn to appreciate the gifts bestowed upon us at home.
Belizeans and those serving the church's ministry are working feverishly to overcome these challenges. Holy Cross Anglican School is growing both in its physical plant and student population. A community health center with a domestic violence safe house and student health center is moving from the planning stages to the groundbreaking ceremony.
We plan to return to Belize on an ongoing basis as part of the Episcopal church's ministry throughout the world. And, we thank God for giving us the ability to do so.
Eric C. Fee
I would like to share part of an email I recieved today from C who I met recently through our friends at Changes in Latitudes, and brought to the school for a tour.
After walking through San Mateo and spending time with the kids, C asked how she could help from stateside and I told her about a playland that needs fundraising help to get it here for the kids to have a dry place to play close to home - she was very enthusiastic about the idea and is going to start the ball rolling. More to come on that project in the near future.
I recently had the pleasure of receiving a tour (by tacogirl Laurie and Shuffles from Changes In Latitude) of the Holy Cross School. While there I deposited a bag of school supplies and some clothing I had brought from the US.
The tour of the school and its grounds overwhelmed me as a huge range of emotions swept over me. I was heart-struck by the physical conditions of San Mato area. I had not mentally prepared myself to enter the thick of the extreme poverty stricken area, nor do I know if any preparation would have eased the intense feelings. Even though friends at home comment on my living simply and modestly I was suddenly plagued with guilt and feelings of selfishness in regards to all I have and own in the states. I knew this one visit would have an impact on me forever and my desire to help multiplied many times over during the course of the tour.
I was so moved by the wonderment of the children. Regardless of the conditions surrounding the school, the overcrowded un air conditioned classrooms, despite the dust and the heat and the mere helplessness I thought they may somewhat be feeling I was just simply marveled by these “happy-smiling” children. Many of them greeted us with an exuberant hello and several gave hugs and kisses. I’ve only once experienced the constant greetings of such jovial spirits and that was while doing an internship as a nursing student in a pediatric cancer ward. What is it that sustains children in such an atmosphere that would literally crush the spirit of many grown adults? Is it the innocence or the true ability to thoroughly appreciate the mere blessings they are privy to? I guess I’ll never know and thus my amazement of the children will always be present.
Now back stateside I am continuing my efforts of helping the children of Holy Cross through attempts at starting some fund raising campaign for a playground project. I will be presenting ideas to the committees of two different churches this week.
To read more about C's remarkable story please visit tacogirlblog
Kids watching their friends play sports - by C
Enjoying photo shoot - by C
Kids love having their picture taken - by C
Smiling faces - by C
The crowd grows as more kids want in on the photo shoot - by C
C peeking out from a crowd of kids
Maureen and Tracy here on vacation tool time to visit San Mateo area and the school. They brought a big suiutcase full of usefull school supplies. On their tour, Maureen and Tracy got to see learn more about the school and the neighbourhood and enjoyed meeting some of the kids. While there we got to meet a nice group from the states.
Students and faculty from Gainesville State College in Georgia are visiting HC School and participating in a study abroad class entitled "Socio-cultural Perspectives on Diversity," which aims to teach future teachers how to ensure that all students from all backgrounds are respected and educated in a loving environment.
All 20 students are education majors at Gainesville State College. The students are being led by three faculty members, Dr. Carlise Womack Wynne, Dr. Diane Cook, and Mrs. Valley Rogers. The three professors are working in collaboration with the teachers and staff at Holy Cross to allow GSC students to observe in classrooms and offer teacher training seminars for both GSC and Holy Cross participants. Workshops include Developmental Psychology, Active Learning, and Classroom Management. This is the first visit in what will hopefully be a long collaboration between Gainesville and Holy Cross.
Francis and Vernon oriented the students on Sunday evening with a tour of the school and community. The students from Georgia are so fortunate to be allowed to come and learn and work with the faculty and staff at Holy Cross. Students have been able to work in various faculty and staff roles at the school. Holy Cross was a gracious and welcoming host to our volunteers and the experience that GSC students gained while in Belize was priceless. Gainesville State could not have asked for a more practical and beneficial host school.
Donations
Training session
Donation from Johnston United methodist Church
Sign by Shuffles
Well, it's been a mere 9 days since I've returned from my retreat to San Pedro. I wish I could say I was settling in but it just isn't the case. The first few days were spent dealing with the culture shock of being back in the states and now dealing with the emotions of being homesick for Ambergris Caye.
I had a conversation with my son the other day and he is trying to understand how I could be 'homesick' while here at home. Needless to say I don't completely understand it myself which in turn makes it difficult to explain.
I am working on staying focused on the fact that I have been truly blessed with my experiences of Belize so far and not get caught up in being greedy and wanting more...... not sure how well this plan is working for me (ha ha).
My visit to the Holy Cross School was heart touching.
Next week I will be attending a quarterly committee meeting at my church and I will be bring some ideas to the table regarding raising monies for the Holy Cross School. I have a couple different ideas and will keep you posted as to how things develop.
Peaceful blessings
Cindy
I was reading Inspiration Sandwich, one of my Sark books yesterday and I came across the piece below, I thought it was worth posting in the school blog. For those of you planning to make a visit to Ambergris Caye and have time to visit the school on your trip, it is a very worthwhile experience. There is a lot to be learned from enjoying the company of the kids here on the island.
Follow a child – Taken from the book Inspiration Sandwich by Sark.
A child’s world is made up of spirit and miracles. We sometimes think that children should follow us, listen to us, become like us.
Follow a child closely for an hour. Not to teach or to discipline but to learn and to laugh.
My friend Edie and I were talking in the phone, when her two children Meridith and Clairborne interrupted us with their shrieks and giggles. Edie said “Oh my God. They are stomping on Ritz crackers in their bare feet. Remember how good that felt? I can’t watch. I don’t want to stop them, but I can’t watch.”
She went into another room, and we continued our conversation. Her willingness to allow the Ritz cracker stomping led me to write: “How to Really Love a child.”
My Eight year old friend Stephanie comes over to draw on my walls and read my newest writings. This particular day, I I felt angry at a friend and decided to ask Stephanie’s advice.
“What do you do when you’re really mad at a friend?” I asked.
She thought for a moment.
“Oh, that! Well. Usually you wait until one person forgets, and then that one calls up the other one and says “ Do you want to play?”
Holy Cross kids cleaning up the beach near the cut
It was certainly an eye opener for me. The first thing I noticed was that the children were so friendly. They welcomed their foreigner visitor and were the most polite children I had ever seen.
In the classroom, I could hear scuffling of books and papers and saying shhhhhhh, because, of course I am assuming, they have that much respect for Vernon. I also noticed that this school is modest in it's appearance, but seems to be teaching things school in North America could learn a thing or two from. I read the writing on the wall myself. Instead of your everyday graffiti, instead it said , Love your family and Help the sick.
I chatted with Vernon with length and took and walk through San Mateo. I learned of some of the difficulties these hardworking families deal with. I learned how much the community is benefiting from the school and how they would like to to expand, to increase career opportunities for these children to work towards, and judging from their behaviour, they certainly have the discipline and motivation to financially EXCEL in any part of the world.
I hope that I will be able to return year after and see the school grow. Thank you for a wonderful tour, and I am thankful for all the hard work, effort, and love you put into your school. May you be blessed with tonnes of abundance, and goodwill.
Joanne from Canada
Toy
Vernon Joanne
Our friend Dick's folks are in town and had asked me to bring them to the school so they could drop off their donations. I already had some other stuff from message boarders who came to town bearing valentines treats.
We are getting ready for the big Valentines fair on Friday February 15th 9 am - 2 pm. There will be food for sale and you are all invited to the party - limbo, sac races and lots of fun make it a perfect time to visit the school and see the kids in action. I think DB's son Ryan will be baking some scones, those alone are worth the trip.
Suitcase full of donations - Miss Grace principle Janet and John
Group picture
Valentines donations from all over
Candy
John John Janet - middle John is helping build new library and pc lab with his mission group
Girls watching the new library / computer lab get built
Miss Rosalie and her crew serving up some healthy fruit snacks
Tyra and Denvan
Emily
Emily says Peace all
Janet John Jaymin
Denise and I went up tp the school today so she could volunteer to do arts and crafts with the kids a couple of times a week - we came up with the idea to make things that they can use in drama and putting on plays.
While there we did part of the tour and met another really nice couple who was looking to see how they could do something with the school.
If you want to add a new experience to your vacation I highly recomend you make plans to drop by the school and see the kids. - they are a great bunch.
Anyone arriving before Valentines that has room to bring candy it would be greatly appreciated. I am also looking for people interested to speak at career day Monday Feb 25th. DCG is the first volunteer for that.
To see more pictures go to tacogirl's blog
Heading to gym class by the sea
Bikes - extra parts might be usefull
Actual main access road north
Cleaning a path
Area marked for playground
Touring the school with Francis
Kids are learning good things
Picture time
Vernon takes over tour
Kids in class
Goofing around
Off to gym class