Day Two: Just Chillin'

Friday night, everyone slept like a rock, we were all so tired from traveling. Personally, I had tried to read some of my devotional book in my bunk before falling asleep. I just made it through the introduction before my eyes shut by themselves. I didn't even bother to get out of my bunk to put the books away, I just left them beside me all night and hoped they wouldn't fall on Lisa who was sleeping on the bunk below mine.

In the morning, we found out that the girls' shower wasn't working. For some reason, we couldn't get any water out of the shower head, so we all had to use the guys' shower off the kitchen. In addition to water problems, the air conditioning units in the main room and the kitchen weren't working properly. One would only blow warm air, and the other didn't have any working controls, so George and Paul left to try and find some "new" units.

Hardly anything you find in Belize is new, and almost everything needs some kind of maintenance tweaking. Darren was pressed into service as the maintenance-man all day, fixing shower heads, beds, and drills to fix other things. When we finally did have the new A/C units, most of the guys helped to install them while everyone else was hanging out with the girls playing cards and volley ball.

The finding of the A/C units was pretty miraculous. When George and Paul left, they searched up and down the Hummingbird Highway for shops that had working appliances. The shops that they found open didn't have what they were looking for, and most of the other shops were closing for the weekend. Finally, when they had driven all the way out to Dangriga they found a shop that was open called Harry's Paint. When they asked the shop keeper about A/C units, the man took them into the very back of a trailer behind the store, where they keep extra appliances and store various odds and ends. In the very bottom of a pile of microwaves and other appliances, were two air conditioners of the exact dimensions we needed. They plugged them in to make sure that they ran properly, and then loaded them into the van to take back to Hosanna House. Meanwhile, the power had been out in the whole compound for the better part of their adventure. Thankfully lunch only involved making sandwiches, so cooking wasn't an issue.

After lunch, most of the team members went up to the house to spend time with the girls. The women in the group had a nail-painting party, and some of the guys good-naturedly joined in. Of course, they took their nail polish off right away, but it made the girls happy that they participated.

A good bit of the afternoon was spent just hanging out and trying to stay cool. Some of the team members who had come down before spent the afternoon becoming re-acquainted with the girls they had known on their previous trips. A few were worried about how previous relationships with the girls would carry over, if they would open up quickly to us about their lives or if they would be more reticent. I think they were pleasantly surprised by their reception.

The youngest four kids on the team have quickly hit it off with the younger Hosanna House crew. We hardly ever see Connor, Dillon, Jennifer, and Caleb. They're often out looking for exotic bugs, finding their own adventures and playing games with Renaldo, Mikie, and Isaiah.

When we're all just sitting around together, the girls seem somewhat withdrawn but when we involve them in games and activities, they seem to open up. They love to laugh and joke with each other, and Heads Up Seven Up is one of their favorite games to play.

On Sunday we're going to the local church, Light of the Valley. George is preaching the sermon, and the rest of the adults are in charge of the Sunday School classes. We got word that the pastor of the church is in the hospital with a serious infection, please keep him in your prayers.