Lex Quarterman, whose parents are missionaries in Ukraine, was not a stranger about the adventures of a trip like this:

Saturday, May 17th

A portion of a letter I wrote to my parents,

“Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m in Belize and I’m okay. We’ve just finished with our first full day here in Belize. It’s really hot! I
get tired so easily, because my body isn’t used to the heat and humidity. I’m reminded of Egypt. We’re having a good time. I feel a little awkward sometimes with my other team mates, but overall it’s going well.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is going to be a really hard day. We’re performing in 3 different churches. AHHH! It’s going to be rough and hot. Belize is beautiful. There’s lots of interesting animals and bugs and trees and plants. It kind of reminds me of the Ukrainian villages, just made out of concrete and really
different plant life. The same kind of “make whatever with whatever you have” mentality. You know? It really reminds me of our dacha. The same kind of village feel where everyone’s out and about all the time. It’s nice. It’s kind of weird how much American goods they have. In the store, they had like cheetos, gatorade, and all kinds of American stuff. They’re really expensive, but it surprised me so much. I was expecting them to have LESS American stuff, not more. It’s also interesting seeing the different ethnic groups. Belize has like 7 different ethnic groups. It’s kind of weird.

A few other things we did that day were we went to a fish farm and tried to install a solar panel, but had a lot of trouble. We also went into Corozal and did some shopping, and got to eat real bananas sitting on a dock to Corozal bay. We then went back to Patchakan, ate lunch at a delicious local restaurant, and went and helped the youth group out with their Children’s festival. Then, we had a short semi-successful performance for the kids. The music messed up during the performance of Becki’s piece “Faster.” Then, we went back to the clinic and rested. Overall, it was a great day.

Thursday, May 22nd

This day we had to get up and go to Cornerstone High School, where we performed in chapel? and taught workshops. It was a good feeling to teach the final workshop, although, by the end of those workshops, we were so exhausted; it was hard to keep going. The performances were fine. By the final days of performances, we all knew how to “roll with the punches.” We got to see Deanna’s high school. It was amazing. It was great to see where she came from. Then, on the way back, Omar stopped and cut us some sugar cane. We got to suck on fresh sugar cane. It was great. Unfortunately, a few of us didn’t quite understand the directions on how to suck on it, and chewed on it a little. But nobody was hurt. Then, we had an early snack at the Smith’s and got to eat ice cream, which is a delicacy in Belize, because it doesn’t stay ice cream very long.

We arrived at our final performance place. It was an outside pavilion in a small village. The village was
right on the New river. It was beautiful. Before our performance, we sat on the riverside and prayed. It
was a great time. Our performance went well. Becki, Grace, and I all shared our testimonies. It was a good of sharing with the young church. After our performance we got to have hot chocolate and
biscuits with the locals. It was really delicious. Then, we drove back to Patchakan and had a long
night’s rest, preparing for the day of fun to Lamanai.

Fin.

Deanna Smith will be featured in Friday’s article.