I traveled to Belize from July 9th
to July 23rd 2007. I was in Orange Walk Town, in the northern area
of Belize where Nancy Marshall currently lives. I stayed with Nancy Marshall
for 2 weeks. Nancy picked me up at the airport in Belize City a 2 hour drive
from her house. The first week we had several relaxing times and prepared for deaf
Vacation Bible School the next week.
Every Sunday, Nancy Marshall has a
deaf church service in her house. Nancy drives about 3 hours one way to pick up
the deaf children to come to the church in her house. It’s amazing that Nancy
has a big van to pick up the children. A new van arrived while I was there. We
had the church service in her house, and provided lunch afterwards. We prepared
the most typical food in Belize: chicken, rice, and beans. After church on
every Sunday, Nancy drives the children back home, and its 3 hours of driving
again. That sums up 6 hours of driving every Sunday. Nancy’s house is a little
crowded with not enough tables for lunch for all of the 22 deaf children. They
don’t have enough Bibles for all the children to be able to read together. Some
of the children don’t know much American Sign Language. They would love to get
American Sign Language books to learn more.
Deaf Vacation Bible School was only
in the mornings for 5 days. I used the fundraising money to buy meals during
VBS for the children, to pay for a trip to the zoo, a trip to the public
swimming pool, crafts for VBS and snacks. We had about 11 deaf children come to
VBS. 4 of the children stayed at Nancy’s house for the week because they live
too far away. Nancy taught the children Bible stories, and I taught them crafts
that were related to the Bible stories. During the VBS week, the kids learned
the Bible verses everyday in Sign Language. We gave prizes if they remembered
the verses.
I bought the game, Dutch Blitz for the children. I
taught them how to play and they fell in love with the game. In Belize, there
are few options of games, but the deaf children love to play games and puzzles.
It’s amazing to me that some of the children never went to the zoo before. It
was overwhelming to see them so excited to go.