You Gotta Belize It

 Being your Hands and Feet to a Nation in Need

Recent trips into the villages included delivering books to the schools. A few North American educators had worked with their local communities to donate new and gently used books for the schools we serve. Their hope was to provide some great children’s literature to brighten the eyes of these young learners and share their love and support to area schools. And that they did!

Driving about twenty five miles out from Jaguar Creek is a small village named Cotton Tree. Cotton Tree’s 2500 people are primarily from the Kriol culture, one of about five major culture groups in Belize. The Kriol people are direct descendants of African slaves and the British colonists. They survive mostly through very small family farms and manual labor jobs. Approximately 350 students in this village attend St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School. A primary school in Belize has eight grades and for many this will be the completion of their education.  As with many of the village schools, the resources are scarce and what they do have is often “tief” by outsiders. On this particular day, the principal was replacing the PVC pipes that had been taken over the weekend from the bathrooms.

Late that morning, we arrived to see the children all working hard in their classrooms. After dropping off multiple boxes of books in the office, we requested to deliver some of the books to the children in Infant 1, the youngest grade. With encouragement, we arrived at the busy classroom. At first the children were a bit unsure about us, but with their teacher’s guidance, they accepted the books that were placed in their hands. The room got really quiet as the children opened their books, flipping through and looking at the eye-catching pictures. They were drawn in and for a number of minutes you could hear a pin drop. Can you imagine 30 five and six year olds quiet for even a moment?

Then the rumbling started, they tapped their friends’ shoulder to share what they were seeing; dinosaurs, airplanes, kids kicking balls… some getting out of their seats showing their teacher and other students in the classroom. Their eyes were lighting up and they were trading books, sharing books and enjoying the time together. The teacher was reading a story with a couple of students. They listened to her name the objects in the pictures and they could not take their eyes off the pages. It was a great experience, sort of had that Christmas morning feel!

Later, this caring and supportive teacher took me aside and thanked our PathLight donors for sharing the books with her class. She shared that she had never gone to a PathLight Teacher Training Conference (coming up in a couple weeks) but was so pleased she had been chosen to go this year by her administrator. She shared that she is looking forward to developing a strong relationship with us and desires so much, to learn as much as she can to support the children in her care. That is what PathLight and the work I have been called to do is all about: Bringing hope to teachers and students through faith and learning.

Please consider being a part of this great opportunity to serve the world around us. Your donation allows me to serve here and to be your hands and feet to the teachers and children of Belize.