Belize: We're Home

Well, we're home.

Exhausted.

Deeply, deeply satisfied.

Full.

And yet, haunted by not having done enough.

Sort of like this picture of the Community Playground about half an hour from completion.

I have so much to tell, but not enough time to do that tonight. Even so, the images are all jumbled and tangled with words that simply fail.

So, here are a few pictures - just to give you a feel for what we've experienced. There will, God willing, also be videos.

You'll probably see these pictures again but in the midst of some story-telling. These are a few from the Wellness Clinic we ran in the Community Center.

This is one month old Vivien and there's her mother in the background with her brother, Gideon, age 2. If this doesn't absolutely melt your heart, I don't know what will.

We had hoped to work with the local doctor, but he wasn't able to join us. So, we simply did what Public Health Nurses have been doing for hundreds of years: education, prevention, and early intervention.

We made a few house calls on folks who were too old to make the trek to the clinic. This is a 93 year old woman who had had a stroke, with her son, who is a very brittle diabetic, and his daughter.

I wish I had been able to take a better picture of this amazing Mayan woman. She must have been stunningly beautiful as a young woman. Her beauty in her old age was still breathtaking.

This family is so completely devoted to their 85 year old father who has had a stoke and 83 year old mother who has Parkinson's Disease that it is nothing short of jaw-dropping inspiration.

There will be more stories, more images, in the days to come.

But, for now, this will have to do.

Meanwhile, we're catching up on what's been happening in the world - in our personal families . . .the blistering heat in Northern New Jersey . . .the deaths of Lady Bird Johnson and Letty Russell . . . carcinogens in toothpaste manufactured in China and now in shrimp caught in Asian waters . . the Gerber baby cereal recall . . . another cop shot in New York City . . .the various machinations in the ongoing and unfolding drama in the Anglican Communion. . .

It all seems so insignificant compared to what we've just experienced. Of course, it's not, but our experience in a remote mountain village in Belize does help to put some things into perspective.

Which, of course, is what happens on a mission trip.

I suspect we'll be re-living this trip for many years to come. Stay tuned.