Electric Shower Head

This is the dreaded electric shower...

close up of wires...

How a gecko choses a magazine

After surveying his surroundings and climbing through the magazine rack he walked around on the Newsweek for a while before going back out the side door.  I don't think he was a fan of me taking so many pictures!

30 minutes or less...

On Tuesday Tom and I walked over to the Immigration Offices to renew our visitor's permits for another month.  Although there were a lot of people waiting in line to see about passports, job permits, residency and the like we were in and out of there in 30 minutes!!  No forms to fill out, just answered one question about where we were living, paid the fee, got our passports stamped and then he wrote us up in his huge log book.  We will have to do this each month we are here for the first year.  After that we can apply for residency and will be free to come and go without this monthly renewal.   

thought for today...

Even when life doesn't make sense we have a God we can trust.
~Pastor Jose, Belize

knock, knock!

Our neighbor's chickens came over the other day... they walked right up to our gate and "posed" for me!!

A child will lead them…

At church last Wednesday evening the youth pastor had a few of the younger girls helping him lead worship.  What a blessing it was to be ushered into God’s presence by these little ones.  They sang with heart and gusto and it truly thrilled our souls!

Fear and Faith-

In the house we are renting there is an electric heater on our shower.   I can see all of the wires and leads to it above the shower head. It is supposed to be an energy saving feature.  But quite honestly it frightens me.  For three weeks I chose not to use the shower.  I would heat water in the electric kettle, pour that water into the bathroom sink, wash off my body and shave from that water.  Me, the one who does not like camping has lived like a camper in our home.  

On Wednesday, I decided that I needed to face my fear.  

I had to tell myself that I didn’t believe that it was my destiny to die in that shower and that I could trust God enough to get in there.  Tom had been using it without getting fried and so could I.    All the while I showered I felt fearful.  Fear and faith coexisted for me in that space.  I remember during sales meetings my director would say that “fear and faith could not occupy the same space”.  I disagree.  Fear and faith can work together.  And when they co-mingle I believe it is called courage.  

For me personally courage is not about being fearless.  It is feeling the fear, calling out to God for help so that I can face it and moving on.

When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.  Psalm 138:3

I am not sure how long it will take to feel comfortable using that shower.  Just knowing that I had the courage to do it once means that I can do it again.  And I know that I can face whatever new challenges come my way.   

One day at a time.

the cost of being a foreigner

I walked over to Belize Telemedia Limited to set up phone service so that we could get internet at the house we are renting.  Everything was going great until the girl asked for ID and she found out that I didn't have a Belizean social security number.  She had to check with her supervisor to find out how to complete my transaction. 

It turns out that the cost of being a foreigner is a $250USD deposit.  The supervisor told me that the deposit would be refundable after 24 months of service if a good credit record is maintained.  So $334USD later I was able to walk out of there with a new modem and installation scheduled for Friday.

I guess buying a washing machine will have to wait another month!

Thought for today

“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not”.

~Thinkexist.com

Hurricane Season is in full swing...

We survived our first hurricane scare... Hurricane Matthew passed through and apparently we were in the eye.  Which meant that we had three solid days of rain.  No high winds where we are just the rain.  Since Sunday the sun peeks out every now and again and then more rain comes. 

Doing laundry in this weather has been hit and miss.  So much rain has fallen that there is standing water in the backyard.  However, when the sun does come out it is warm enough to dry things off pretty quickly.  Tom was able to hang out all the clothes and managed to get them all off the line about 5 minutes before the next rain fall came. 

I am not sure how frequent our updates will be... but I will update when I can and let you all know if we need to start building an ark!!

WiFi at the Bull Frog Inn

Tom and I are still walking over to the Bull Frog Inn to use WiFi.  We seem to be in good company there are usually several others here at the same time we are.  At first we would order dinner and do check our email, Facebook and what not.  Now we just order something to drink and try to get out of here as cheaply as we can.  We hope to have internet at home next month.  Things here are much more expensive than we anticipated.  But we are making our dollars stretch as far as we possibly can!

Take Back the Land Parade

Churches from Roaring Creek, Belmopan and a few other cities marched together as one body of believers to pray for the country, the people and to celebrate the 29th year of the independence of Belize. As floats, trucks and church buses began lining up around 6pm the Christian radio station was on hand doing a live broadcast to keep everyone abreast of the latest developments and by 7pm the parade was on its way to the first of five prayer stops.

The first stop was the police station where the Chairman of Roaring Creek opened the parade and gave safety instructions. Following that one of the local pastors gave the opening prayer for the marchers and for the country.

At each prayer stop a different pastor led the prayer. Several of the churches including ours, Shepherd's House had their worship teams on hand to keep the crowd pumped up with praise music all evening. At the main prayer stop the Mayor of Belmopan gave the churches a key to the city and prayed a prayer of blessing.

Due to the live radio coverage of the entire parade people were lined up along the entire parade route to watch and some even joined in the march behind various floats. Security officers and policeman were on foot, bicycles and horseback to keep the crowd under control.

The parade was so large that it was ended early for safety reasons so everyone could park and get settled in for the flag raising ceremony followed by fireworks.  This evening was very exciting for Tom and I. We were amazed that something like this could even take place. The religious freedom here is refreshing for us. And we feel so blessed to be a part of the work that God is doing here in Belmopan!

The float built by our church, Shepherd's House.

 The worship team is warming up and checking their instruments for the parade.

Miss Carla trusted this rainbow as a sign that the parade would not get rained out.  And it was dry all night long!!

Tom drove the van that followed behind the float.  There were a few times during the evening when the marchers would get back on and have a snack or a drink of water before rejoining the march.

All lit up and ready to go!!

Shots of the crowd and some of the marchers... the sign says "United Proud Moving Forward We are Belize"

thirsty?

Water sold in bags is cheaper to buy than the water that is sold in bottles.  Just open one of the corners and take a drink!!

Market Day

Tom and I went over to the open market to see what treasures we could find. It was overwhelming to me. Seeing all of the fruits, vegetables, and housewares laid out on the ground on blankets or tarps was overwhelming for me. The markets in Russia were more organized and clean. I know that in time I will come to see this as normal and will be able to shop there along with everyone else. But, this being our first day I struggled to take it all in.

Wash day for baby dolls....

We noticed these baby dolls hanging by their hair from our neighbor's clothesline. These dollies must be well loved to have become part of the daily chores!

 

Tom and I were able to enjoy our first large celebration here in Belmopan.  The crowd was huge, the music was lively, and the food was tasty.   

Pastor Joe and his family were there and as we were walking over to the field, about a five minute walk from our house, he called out to Tom with a smile.  Later, as we were walking around looking at all of the booths with food and crafts I heard someone call my name,  It was a little girl named Alina.  It felt so good to be recognized by people already in such a large crowd.  

I found an article on line about the celebration from Caribbean News Now!

BELMOPAN, Belize -- It is said that it was the largest crowd ever seen in Belmopan, Belize's capital, as no less than 8,000 people packed the Governor General’s playing field on Sunday evening to witness colourful cultural presentations from Belize, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

Cuba also had an entertaining presentation.

The large crowd was mainly nationals from the six Central American countries and Mexico who now live in Belize.

The occasion marked the 200th independence anniversary of Mexico and the 100th anniversary of its revolution, as well as the 189th independence of the five Spanish speaking Central American countries.

Belize will celebrate its 29th independence anniversary from Britain on September 21.

The ambassadors of all the Central American countries were present and addressed the gathering in their native language -- Spanish. Belize Governor General, Sir Colville Young, was also present, but did not address the crowd, however Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Wilfred Elrington spoke on behalf of the Belize government.

He said, "This event provides a wonderful opportunity to bring everyone who now calls Belize their home closer together, thereby furthering the fusion of our people into the Belizean identity."

He added, "I see before me people of all colours and ethnic backgrounds, young and not so young alike, celebrating in harmony."

The crowd thoroughly enjoyed themselves and waved their national flags in appreciation, as their countrymen and women entertained the gathering with their rich cultural presentations.

It is understood that no less than 250 artistes came from Mexico and the six Central American countries for Sunday night's presentation.

Among the presentations were: The Belize Dance Company, The Traditional Ballet of Merida Mexico, the Wajshaquib Batz (which means Eight Threads or Eight Monkeys) of Guatemala, the Choreographic Group of El Salvador, and the Banda Cubana Group.

The evening's programme culminated with fireworks.

Pastor Joe's Birthday

Between all of the stops to pick everyone up for church who needed a ride (including Tom and I) Carla picked up a cake to celebrate Pastor Joe's 50th!

 The girls made sure everyone got something to drink and a piece of cake.

 Saskia with a bit of frosting on her fingers...

take time to smell the flowers...

First Sunday

The worship was great and we enjoyed getting to meet everyone.  It is going to take a while to put all the names with the faces but we are ready and willing to be a part of this church family!

time to unpack

Our street is named after a Mayan city... you can read about it here: http://www.southernbelize.com/lubaantun.html

We have two suitcases, a duffle bag and two back packs...

just taking a break after all of the running around we have been doing trying to get settled in here.

Time to fill up the closets and drawers in our bedroom!


We are so grateful to have a place to call home.  And we have two empty bedrooms ready and waiting for guests!!!

We have a house!

We chose this three bedroom, 2 bathroom house!  The owner, pictured, came down on her asking price by $200 a month just so that we could afford the rent.  God is so good!

Partial view of the front room... the livingroom/dining area/kitchen is one big open space.

View of the other side of the room.

kitchen area.. we have to get a stove and a fridge.



We  move in today and I will get more photos up when I can.  We won't have internet at the house for a while.  This is a three day holiday weekend here so not much will happen until Monday.  It is simply amazing how much we have accomplished this week.  We got here on Monday and already we have a place to truly call home.  And we are both excited that this morning will be the last one that we get dressed out of our suitcases!!