Well, in classic Sheraya fashion, I did not get this post finished before I left for the next mission trip… so here I sit in South Africa, writing about Belize! In a way, though, I’m really glad to have had this time and space to process a bit more – plus, going through training again and entering our new community has made me realize how much I’ve learned and grown from my time in Belize.

I’ll try to remember what all we did that last week and a half in-country – it was a lot, so please bear with me!

To sum it up, it was a week of lasts and goodbyes. They started on Monday, when after school we hurried home to go sell tamales with Mama E and our dear friend M. M was leaving on vacation and wouldn’t be back before we left, so it was our last night with her. It was a night filled with hugs and laughter, Monsters and at the very end, tears. We were so blessed to have such good times with M, who from the very beginning loved us so much – I lost track of the sheer number of pet names she called us!

Monday night was also a chance to say goodbye to the many taxi drivers I had become good friends with. The hours we spent talking are some of my favorite parts of the whole trip.

Tuesday was our last day at the primary school – the kids in my class were so sweet and all chipped in to get me a small gift and wrote a card. That class was also a major highlight of the trip for me – it was such a redemptive experience after having to miss a lot of class in the village. I adore them!

That night we went downtown to sell tamales for the last time – just for a few hours this time, because Mama had house church. H decided to stay downtown and meet up with the others on the team for an outreach event, while J and I went with Mama. I ended up kind of regretting it, because during the event H ended up experiencing healing that we had been praying for throughout the trip! When we woke up the next morning and heard the news, there was such celebration!

Wednesday was our last day at the preschool – we helped create a poster for some of their financial supporters. It was awesome to see the artwork we had created the weeks prior up on the wall already!

After we said goodbye to the preschool teachers, we headed to Sarita’s for a little going away party with the primary school teachers! It was so good to see them one last time – and trying the last couple of ice cream flavors on my list was a nice perk too!

Wednesday also happened to be the first day the rainy season finally kicked in! While we were initially really excited about the drop in temperature, we quickly realized that the rainy season is truly rainy – think maybe 4 15-minute breaks in 24 hours – and that nothing ever really dries at that rate. I think it rained every day afterwards for the rest of the trip!

The rain also meant that we weren’t really able to do our typical work on Thursday and Friday. Instead, Thursday morning we helped Mama make tamales and tried to record the process as much as possible.

Afterwards our new Pastor C and his wife picked us up and took us out for coffee, which was such a treat! We even got cheesecake, which was just scrumptious.

After we were finished, they took us to their campus and gave us a tour. It was a beautiful facility, and some of the group provided entertainment for the rest by trying to catch chickens!

Pastor C picked us up again a few hours later to attend a prayer meeting, which was also really good.

Friday morning we stayed home and rested, and Mama treated us to the most amazing fried tacos for lunch! They were so good that she made them again for dinner. This woman is just incredible – she rearranged her week so that we could have more time with her for our last weekend.

The team also made one last boba run! We had a lot of good convos and made some fond memories at that little place.

After dinner we went to church with Mama one last time. Saturday morning we headed to the market and checked off multiple items on our to-do list: getting pupusas with Mama, buying the last of our souvenirs, printing photos to give to our families, secretly buying a gift for Mama, and purchasing a printer for the school in the village! It was a big list, but we knocked it out!

We went home and rested for a little bit, then surprised Mama and took her out to eat later that afternoon at the fancy pizza place in town! She was so excited, and the pizza was so good!

Afterwards, we headed over to the other host home for a birthday party! It was so much fun, and it was really good to see the other family and say goodbye.

Sunday was our last full day in Belize. We started off the morning by trying out a sweet version of fryjacks with strawberry filling! They were so good, and even better, I finally got to use my can opener that I had accidentally brought along!

We then went to church, where the pastor asked some of us to help lead worship when the scheduled people didn’t show. It was a real privilege to sing with my teammates!

After church, Mama made us our favorite, fried chicken… The thought of it still makes me drool! I miss her cooking almost as much as I miss her!

That night we walked over to Mama’s church and anxiously waited while makeshift seats (aka cinder blocks and boards) were installed in the back of a van. Our destination: the village! The village church was having a children’s compaña, and Mama’s church attended. I had really been wanting to go back and see our first host family before we left Belize, and for a while it didn’t look like things would work out, but by the grace of God they did! It was the best of both worlds: we didn’t lose any time with Mama and we got to see our first host families again! Unfortunately the other house wasn’t able to join us, but we passed along hugs on their behalf.

We got back to town tired but happy. I was up early the next morning to make a banana cake and finish packing, and Mama made some fryjacks too. Finally our bus arrived, and it was time to say some tearful goodbyes.

We loaded up and began the long trip home! First was a 90 minute ride to Belize City…

…then a several hour wait for our flight to Miami…

…then we rushed through customs and got our favorite US beverages before hopping on a flight to LaGuardia…

…then crashed on the floor overnight before our final flight to Chicago!

No matter how much I enjoy traveling, it’s always so good to see the ole stars and stripes again.

We caught another nap at the airport while we waited for the Costa Rica and South Africa teams to get in, then we all hopped on a bus and headed back to Michigan! It was so good to see the other teams again and hear their stories too.

The next couple days were spent debriefing our experience together. In short, it was hard but good – there was a lot to process! We got a lot of good time in together as a team too – a lot of laughs, a lot of hugs, and a lot of stories too.

One of my favorite parts of debrief was when Lauren surprised the team with the movie Twilight! It had been a bit of a running joke that we should watch it because J and I hadn’t seen it before, but we had never got around to it until debrief. We all nestled in to watch the first movie – which I agreed was hilariously bad. It wasn’t super late, so we decided we could probably watch the second movie. Long story short, J and I ended up finishing the fifth and final one at three-something in the morning! It was so worth it, especially since J and I had never gotten around to doing a “frate” together!

After 10 weeks of waking up to each other and spending every day together, it was suddenly our last morning together. We packed up our stuff for the last time, finished the last debrief session, then I said goodbye to the team as they went to the airport. I had a little extra time with L since I ended up riding back to Indiana with her, but before long we said our goodbyes too and I was back at my home sweet, dearly missed home.

Final Thoughts:

So many people have asked me since I got back how Belize was, which is incredibly hard to answer when you have to condense 10 weeks into a sentence so that you don’t talk the ear off of someone who was just trying to be polite. What I came up with was not particularly profound: “Belize was good – hard but good.” There were a lot of really hard things, like being sick multiple times, figuring out how to live daily life without consistent water or electricity, and wrestling with a side of Christianity I had never encountered before; but there were a lot of really good things too, like getting to bond with my host families even across a language barrier, become close with a team that was significantly younger than me, eat some really delicious food, meet and serve and be ministered to by some amazing people, and most importantly, meet my God in a way I hadn’t before. I learned that I can crack jokes in a different language, that I can befriend taxi drivers at a tamale stand and hang out with them all night, that I can talk to God for hours if I only set aside the time and space. I learned about how real the spiritual realm is and how evil evil actually is, but also how strong God is and how strong I can be if I just lean into Him and give myself to Him.

Though I’m not proud of my procrastination on writing this post, I’m really glad to be writing this from South Africa because I’ve seen just how much I learned from Belize. Yes, I had to go through some really hard times, but now I understand that those hard times showed me how to submit myself to others, to a culture very different from mine, and most importantly to the Lord. I’m so grateful for my team, my host families, and my time in Belize. Belize, siempre estás en mi corazon. Gloria a Dios!

Well, it’s official – we’re home safe and sound! There’s still 1.5 weeks that I haven’t covered on the blog, though, so I’ll try to wrap that up here soon!

Week 9 started off with a trip to Belmopan to renew our visas. We got there a little earlier this time, so the wait wasn’t as long, then afterwards went to the same food stand for lunch.

While we were there, I decided to try some lychee, which looked really funky but tasted pretty good!

Later that night, while Mama was out selling tortillas, J and H and I walked to our favorite tea place for some boba and good convos. We had a good time and caught this gem while there.

We also went to the store afterwards so H could buy a comal to make tortillas! I absolutely love how this sign is in Creole – it’s very fitting.

Tuesday we worked at the school, then hopped over to a local restaurant to call our host brother E from the village for his birthday! It was so good to talk to him and Mama L.

Afterwards we scrambled home so we could go with Mama to sell tamales. She had only made 50 that night so that she could sell out in time to go to house church that night. We made it just in the nick of time, and I was so glad we went! Even though it was all still in Spanish, it was a lot easier to understand what was going on because it was a much smaller space and people weren’t speaking into mikes. They even served ceviche afterwards, which I had been wanting to try for a while! I seized the opportunity too to get a family photo while we were all dressed up.

Wednesday we helped out at the preschool, mainly recreating some drawings of nursery rhymes.

Mama made us some delicious rice and beans with stewed chicken when we went home for lunch! It was so good.

After school, we went to the local pizza place for some team time and our final Bible study of Ephesians. The food was really good, but I was struggling emotionally and mentally with our study – really it was a continuation of some struggles with the content being taught in the churches there. I continued to struggle with it that evening, and emotions were exacerbated by not being able to get ahold of anybody back home. Thankfully H and J noticed I wasn’t doing great and really comforted me that night.

Thursday we were back at our church build site! We started off by shoveling as much of a huge pile of sand as we could inside the structure, then mixing up some more concrete. J and I got pretty covered in it, as we were lifting buckets of concrete up to pour into a column. We also made a friend of one of the local hardware store staff, and he was kind enough to bring over his shofar and play it for us! I have never heard of a shofar before, but apparently it’s an instrument typically made out of a ram or antelope horn and has been used for celebrations and announcements by the Jewish people for centuries.

We took the afternoon to rest up, as it was going to be a busy night! After dark, we first went to a Breakthrough Group at one of the churches we were attending, where we played a game and heard a lesson.

Afterwards, we taxied into town to a house of the other host family to hold a vigil! I had missed our vigil the previous week because I was sick, so I was pretty excited (and honestly nervous) to experience one for the first time! It was better than I could have expected – just a night full of prayer with breaks for coffee and pumpkin cake. I never knew that I could pray for hours at a time and still have more to say! I got to encounter the Lord in such a sweet way and experienced some emotional healing that had been truly over a decade in the making. We ended up turning in about 3 in the morning, truly worn out from a long day. But what a beautiful experience it was! I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

We slept in a good bit the next morning, then returned home around noon or so. Our house arrived home to a delicious fried chicken lunch prepared by Mama E – I can assure you, she makes the best fried chicken I’ve ever had!

After lunch we got ready to travel to Spanish Lookout! Spanish Lookout is a large, mostly Mennonite community that’s home to the locally famous Western Dairies, maker of our beloved chocolate Ideals. My first host family from the village had planned on going out last week there, but that was the week I had gotten sick. Getting to visit definitely helped to redeem that really difficult week.

We were picked up by some friends, and we crowded into the back of their truck with our dear friend M. We got really lucky with the rain – it cleared up just before we headed out!

Our first stop was a little Mennonite store, where I was so excited to find a coconut pie! Second we stopped at the Western Dairies store to get ice cream and some pizza. I tried their caboo flavor, which was honestly just okay, but I tried a bite of the Oreo, and I think I can safely say it was the best Oreo ice cream I’ve ever had!

We stopped at a large store to browse before leaving. It was probably the closest thing I had seen to a Walmart the whole time I was in Belize, and it had about the highest concentration of white people I had seen on the trip, which was a strange feeling. While I was glad I got to experience Spanish Lookout, it was definitely an unusual mishmash of cultures – I couldn’t get over seeing silos next to palm trees!

We headed back at our favorite time of day, the late afternoon/early evening when the sun makes everything golden and beautiful. As much as it was fun to experience the town, I think we enjoyed the drive there and back as much (if not more than) the time there. It’s amazing the love these two women have for us, and have had since the day we met them.

The sunset that night was beautiful – just the lightest pink tinting the clouds. This was the view from our house.

Saturday we continued our tradition of going to the market and going shopping for tamale groceries and eating pupusas afterwards! J also got a great deal on a beautiful hammock. We got hit with a bit of rain, but las niñas made sure the groceries were safe!

We did laundry when we got home, which was much needed, evidenced by me wearing my towel as a skirt for a few hours because everything else was in the wash.

We rested up that afternoon to prepare for attending a vigil at Mama’s church that evening. It went until three in the morning, but thankfully we only stayed until one – two late night vigils in three days is a lot!

Sunday morning we attended church at a new location. We had hoped to go there from the beginning of our time in Santa Elena, but the pastor had been out of town for the last several weeks. I’m so glad we got to go for the little time we did, though – while it was still very different from my church experiences in the States, for me it was the most edifying and positive church experience I’d had in Belize by far. The pastor and his wife were so kind and welcoming to us and took the time to learn our names, which I so appreciated!

After church, we went over to the house of a woman from Mama’s church who had invited us over for coffee. J and H went to our other church that evening, but I was pretty pooped, so I stayed home.

Well, that wraps up week 9! I’ll try to get the final posts done soon. Thanks for reading!

Welcome back! Thanks for reading, and thanks even more for keeping our team and families in your prayers!

Monday morning got off to a bit of a rough start. Our youngest brother E, who had been sick the few previous days, reached a 105 degree fever that would just not respond to medication, so our parents took him into town to go to the doctor. He’s doing a lot better now, praise God! Unfortunately the bug (I’m convinced it’s a strain of the flu) has made its way around the family, and I’m currently fighting it – this past week was my turn to have a 105 degree fever! Feeling better now, but we would really appreciate continued prayers for health for our team.

It was a welcome distraction, then, to get to go to Big Rock Falls in the afternoon with the team. It’s a beautiful spot, located in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. The pools that the water flows into are deep enough that you can do a little cliff-jumping if you so choose, which I did! Honestly, I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t think I’d do it again – the stress of trying to hit a good place to enter the water and the pain from entering the water pretty spectacularly (read: flop) detracted from the experience for me. I got by far the biggest bruises I’ve ever had! Nonetheless, it was still a great afternoon with a lot of bonding time with the team.

I think my favorite picture of the day, though, was this one!

We came home to company over, which was fun! We had a good time talking and joking before we excused ourselves for some much needed catch up time with family back home.

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day – normally we would be working in the school, but MK and I decided to stay home and watch E so that Mama L could go to work. He was feeling considerably better already, which was great! We had missed that mischievous smile – if not all the shenanigans usually preceded by that smile…

Wednesday was a fun day because we got to experience a parade for Independence Day! The holiday itself wasn’t until Thursday, but it was organized largely by the school I think, so the kids all marched in it and then got the rest of the day off. It was lots of fun!

The rest of the team had followed the parade over to our house, where they stopped and hung out for a while, so we got some team time in – plus Mr. E, of course!

One of my favorite moments of the week was that night when Mama mixed up a concoction of instant coffee, egg, and cornstarch for some DYI skincare! Us girls had such fun with it, giggling the whole time about how ridiculous we looked and joking about how Papa would respond when he came home and saw us. I have no idea if it did anything for our skin, but we at least got a great memory out of it!

Since there was no school on Thursday, MK and I decided to pay Miss S a visit and see how she and the puppies were doing. (They’re all doing great!) We happened to be there just in time to see her newest member of the family, Miss Sophia the kitten! Absolutely precious. One of Miss S’s friends had rescued her but couldn’t keep her, so Miss S volunteered to take her in. She’s definitely got her hands pretty full – at least the puppies are pretty low maintenance right now!–

I also taught J how to make a friendship bracelet using one I had started on Sunday, and he picked it up so quickly! You can hardly tell where I stopped and he started. Talented guy, especially in the creative arts!

Friday was a great day. We helped our family with clearing out the old tomato field in the morning, then after lunch we piled in a truck to go to Barton Creek. There we put on life jackets and piled into canoes. Our destination? A cave!

C, who’s related to the other host family, acted as our tour guide and expertly guided us through. It was so interesting – he told us all about how the Mayans thought that the rain gods could be accessed through the cave and how they would offer sacrifices in the cave. There was even a skull left behind from a human sacrifice, propped up where we could see it! There were also tons of really interesting formations in the cave, some that we really had to duck around to pass by. We paddled about a kilometer in, then got out and swam a little, then paddled out.

After we exited the cave, we spent several hours playing in the water! I enjoyed taking my canoe up the river a little ways, and there was a little more cliff jumping for those strong enough to straddle some vines. And of course there was chicken fighting! We had a lot of fun.

Afterwards we rushed back, grabbed church clothes and ate dinner quickly so that we could go to the church for the worship night we were putting on! As it turned out, nobody really showed up, but we were okay with that because it meant we got time to worship as a group!

Saturday morning I got up early to help Mama make tortillas, then we went over to the church to help prep for some food sales they were doing that night as a fundraiser. Afterwards, though, I had a pretty bad headache and wasn’t feeling great, so I went back to bed for most of the morning. I did get up and about that afternoon and caught this picture of Papa shaving, which I thought was really fun!

That night we had a nearby church come and visit our church, which was pretty cool! The other pastor preached, and while I was kind of in agony due to my headache, it was really amazing to see two people give their lives to the Lord that night, including our pastor’s son!

Sunday morning MK and I stayed home from church and listened to her service back home, which was a nice change of pace! I tried to take it easy most of the day, as I still wasn’t feeling great. We did walk over to the other girls’ house around dinner to get some pizza – my first pizza in Belize!! It definitely had some strange toppings – pineapple, carrots, peppers, and broccoli – but it still tasted pretty good!

Well friends, that makes another week – thanks for tuning in! I’m sorry this last post was pretty late – I’ll try to have the next one up soon! Much love!!