Discovering Possibilities

The last post was about the opening of St Ann's School - starting small with a handful of children in a borrowed building, and all sorts of uncertainties about where we go from here.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the size of the need and the meagreness of the resources. I think God must have been listening, because we have been encouraged and challenged by what came next.

We were due some time away, and had decided to spend a few days on Ambergris Caye - the most populated of the offshore islands. Some friends heard we were going, and since they live on the island, they invited us to visit, and to see their new school - now in its third year. Wow.

We knew Holy Cross School existed (see link for their blog) - but were completely unprepared for what we found there. The school opened two years ago on September 4th, 2006 in three temporary buildings. They planned big from the beginning, aiming for a Chapel, 8 classrooms, a library/computer room, a kitchen and cafeteria, bathroom facilities, school office, principals house and a Special Education unit. The school now has 500 children, with many more wanting to attend. They serve the desperately poor community of San Mateo, in the north of San Pedro - a community that basically lives on a swamp. Time for some photographs...

WARNING: you will not find these pictures of San Pedro in your average tourist brochures.

Sorry Shrek, but living in a swamp is no fun. Especially as our local guides assured us that things are sometimes far worse than this: the wooden walkways through the swamp were all above the water level while we were there. During tidal and storm surges, the water comes much higher.

There is no proper road through San Mateo. There is electricity if you can afford it, but no sewage system - and the swamp water therefore harbours all sorts of pathogens. This led to the death of a little girl recently after her cut foot became infected and she didn't receive effective treatment in time. Yet half a mile down the road, there are beachfront condos for sale for "only" US $800,000.

How do you bring change and hope to places like this? Education and the opportunity it brings is certainly part of the answer. And the school has a very spiritual ethos - the children are delightful. They are actually happy to be at school!

But without the energy and enterprise of places like Holy Cross, many of the children in places like this would be left on the margins of society. Instead, they have a school where everyone gets fed, and through the new computer lab, everyone will have access to the world. The plan is to use it for evening community classes too. Let's hope that this can generate a little income for this incredibly courageous and full-of-faith project.


So this short 'break' turned into a real networking and ministering opportunity and we are still processing the reality of the situation and what our response should be. We are inspired by the energy of our friends who are pouring their time and energy and funds and love into this needy community. We are also daunted by the need to make decisions about where exactly we channel our energy (such as it is) during our time here.

St Ann's Primary School opens!

About a month ago, work started on digging the foundations for the new St Ann's primary school. August is the beginning of the mini-dry season so avoiding the worst weather - barring a hurricane of course! The school is being built on land owned by the Diocese, next to the Bishop Desmond Smith Memorial Centre - which is home to Malcolm's "Anglican Theological Institute" and also houses the Diocesan Hurricane centre. So it's also very close to St. Ann's Church.

The decision to start building, and to open the school, was in many ways an act of faith. There is some funding from the Diocese, some from the local Church, and money towards the next stage of the building is promised by the "Social Investment Fund". Beyond that, we are relying on external sponsors and local decisions, and we'll be launching a major fundraising appeal over the next month.
The hope is that we will be ready to open at least part of a school building by September 2009. Meanwhile, we are making the best we can of our temporary home. It isn't easy, as many of the things we would take for granted in the UK just aren't here. We don't even have a blackboard yet! But our new staff are enthusiastic and committed, and we are confident they will do the very best they can.

Meanwhile the school opened for the new term today 1st September. It was a very gentle beginning: by lunchtime we only had a few children. We hope the numbers increase steadily through the week. We have space for up to 50 Infants, and really need to attract enough children if the school is to be viable. The Ministry of Education and the City Council are sure the school is needed - all the other schools in Belmopan are over subscribed. Some classes are full to overflowing, and we know that last year some children were unable to attend school because of the lack of room.

We have advertised in the local press / TV and via strategically placed posters, and now we are relying on word-of-mouth to get the news around that we are open. At the moment the few pupils we have are enjoying a very generous staff-student ratio!
We are able to use some of the resources Malcolm had in place. He has a small office in the building, with a computer (he says: 'a very old computer!') and is happy for our new teachers to use that when he isn't there. We've also been given some books and teaching materials by the Diocese.

We've got chairs and tables (though many of them are rather big for our smallest children), paper and pens, and some reading books. But there is so much we don't have. The teachers are aiming to make a lot of resources themselves.

And, sadly, some aspects of Belizean culture don't help. Bureaucracy here can be a real test of patience! For instance, you might think it would be straightforward to open a bank account for the new school. As the local manager and the headteacher, we thought this would be easy: ask to open an account, show the letter from the Diocese saying who we were and what we were doing, provide ID and signatures ... but no. The person at the bank looked up the rules, and the rules say we need a letter from the School Board. As yet the school doesn't even have a postal address or phone line (difficult without a completed building!) and the school board is the diocesan Education Board. But the bank person would not even discuss it. The bank rules say: letter. No letter, no account. So that was our lunch hour!

Meanwhile, the workers continue to make progress on the foundations. Floor level for the new school is planned to be a foot or so above ground level, which seems to be normal here. When the storms and tempests come, you want some protection from floodwater and storm surges in the town drains. On Ruth's ever-expanding To Do list is a trip to the City Council to find out about laying new footpaths so we don't all end up in 6" water when it rains!!

If you want to know more, do get in touch. We'd love to hear from you, especially if you know a school we could 'twin' with or would like to support us financially. Every little helps!

Thanks for reading.