We arrived last night and went to Mass this morning. It is police week this weekend so many of the police men were at the service this morning. We are having pizza for lunch and after heading to Orange Walk where we will be staying this week.

Today we went to San Jose Palmar R.C. School where we will be working all week! The school held an assembly just for us. The students sang the national anthem as they raised the flag. Then some of the students preformed to cultural dances that celebrated each culture of Belize.

One of the dances at the school ministry

After the assembly we split in to groups to work in the classrooms and to begin construction on a bathroom for the preschool. The groups who went to the classrooms acted out bible stories, made balloon animals, and played games!! It was an awesome day of school ministry !

This week we will be adding a bathroom to the preschool. Today we began with a bit of demolition and digging the hole! We made a lot of progress! This is a photo of where the bathroom is being built.

Today we were invited to attend the graduation ceremonies for the Preschool and standard six at the Primary School. The Preschoolers wore matching outfits and walked to the front in couples. They sang a few songs and then received their diplomas. It was very cute!!

There was a Mass held for the Primary School graduation. The kids and teachers participated in the Mass. After the ceremony each child received a scholarship to help pay for High School.

After graduation we ate lunch at the home of a student and then headed to the school to do some end of the year cleaning. We washed windows and doors. Many of us helped pull weeds while others worked on the Preschool bathroom.

This morning we visited Mayan site named Lamanai with a tour guide. He gave us a tour and told us about some of the history there. We saw three temples and were able to climb two of them! After the tour we had a picnic lunch before heading back to our home for the week!

Today we went to the school in the morning. It was their last day of school today so they had class parties. We spent the morning playing with the children in and outside of the classrooms! After lunch we split into teams some went on home visits while others stayed to work on the bathroom. We took turns mixing concrete and wheeling it over to the area where the bathroom is being constructed! We also attended Holy Hour and Mass in Orange Walk!

We had a packed last day in Belize! In the morning we had a social time with the teachers of the Primary School we worked with this week. The teachers shared with us and we were able to share our experiences and thanks with them. We had a short worship time before enjoying the food they had prepared for us. Before lunch, we walked through the village and prayed for the community. After lunch, we went to the market and got to experience what shopping is like in Belize. In the afternoon we were blessed with the opportunity to visit with patients in the Northern Regional Hospital. To finish off the week we had an amazing closing meeting in which we shared affirmations and highlights from our week of ministry.