Monday, March 25, 2013

Belize



Over spring break, I had the singular opportunity to travel to Belize with two phenomenal companions and 16 incredible students for a service immersion trip.  After the (treacherous!) drive from Belize City to Punta Gorda, we settled into the St. Peter Claver Parish guest house and prepared ourselves for the week's work.  Our charge would be to drive (two more treacherous hours each way - see picture above) to a small Mayan village on the Guatemalan border each day, where we would help the local people lay the foundation of a home for school teachers.  Teachers in this district are assigned to a village school and sometimes have to ride the bus or walk for hours to get to work if there is nowhere for them to stay in the village.  In fact, some of our students served as substitute teachers each day because teachers were unable to make it to work.  This home will eventually house 5 teachers, and we had the honor of literally breaking the ground at the site, which overlooked the village.  We had an amazing and reflective week, and we are now working to continue our service from the Rockhurst campus.