"Welcome to Belize" the signs at the airport said ? or at least I think that?s what they said, as the Tropical sun rebounding off the ?runway? left me blinded and tearful as my eyes adjusted on my exit from the plane. No one had told my body that it was the cool season as I felt my mouth go dry and a desire for fluids as dehydration seemed imminent. No, I hadn?t touched a drop of alcohol on the two and a half hour flight from Miami so it must have been the climate. Thirty minutes later I had got through immigration and customs (much faster than the hour and a half it had taken me in Miami the day before).

Teresa Egan, a friend of the Claretian Missionaries from England that I had met in Miami that morning, and I had arrived. Brother Denis and Fr Dominic were there at the Airport to meet us. The first order of the day was to get something to eat. Never let it be said that Denis and Dominic don?t know how to eat out in style. Within an hour of our meeting at the Airport we were comfortably seated at a table amid tyres and oil barrels eating sandwiches while chatting with car mechanics as the tyres on the truck were being changed and the vehicle?s balance restored.

A whistle stop tour of some of the shops in Belize City followed, which makes me no longer feel guilty of being able to get all my Christmas shopping done in Huntingdon in thirty minutes given that the range of goods is so much wider there than in this country?s capital. Having touched down at 12.30 by 4 o?clock I was making the customary visit to the Bishop of Belize that all visiting priests have to make. It was a very pleasant visit.

With the visit complete the time came to begin the trip out to the parish centre in Dangriga. And so two hours later, at 7 pm, we arrived to find a queue of people sitting in the dark near the church awaiting the arrival of the Deacon for baptism preparation classes. Dominic sprang into action opening a room getting ready to take over responsibility of the class to replace the missing deacon but soon rejoined us after the Deacon?s delayed arrival. Fr Chris appeared and welcomes and greetings were exchanged. What better moment than to partake in our quaint English custom of making a pot of tea!! I must say I was most impressed by the quality of the tea. No I don?t just mean that Fr Chris had been practising!! My experience of tea in America and Guatemala had always left me giving up drinking it because it was so inferior to our usual ?tipple?; already I knew this visit was to be different. Was it the tea or was it the quality of the dairy products produced by a local Mennonite community that allowed this tea to resemble my memories of the flavours of home?

Denis prepared some soup and omelette for those who were hungry. The rest of the evening was spent playing cards as I was reminded of the rules of canasta. In all modesty I will refrain from telling you who won, all I can say is that I wouldn?t have managed without Dominic?s help. Shortly after 10 I made my way to the room I was to use. Fr Chris had moved out of his room into a junk room downstairs and in a spirit of true Claretian hospitality had even gone so far as cleaning his room for me to use it.

Before moving on to describe the noises of the night let me say a little about the house. The house is the upper level of a two storey wooden building. There are three bedrooms and a kitchen/dining/sitting area. The bedrooms are entered from a four foot wide enclosed corridor that extends along the length of the building along which there are a couple of hammocks and a washing line. The house, which the present community have done much to improve and make habitable, is still in need of attention and given the weather conditions that prevail in this part of the world is probably not much longer for this world. Extensive damage has been done to the house through a succession of robberies that have taken place. The most recent of which resulted in Fr Chris? computer being stolen. Windows have been broken in Fr Chris? room from the times that the house has been broken into. This means that the screens and windows that let the breeze through and keep the mosquitoes out are not in place which brings me onto the music of the night.

The open windows, which allow the slight breeze to cool the sweat on ones body, allow also the sounds of the neighbourhood to attack ones ears. From a brood of hungry owls to people arguing the noise of Dangriga?s nightlife continues to be heard. The occasional mosquito attack also broke up the night and once in a while the sound of the Caribbean Sea can be heard as its waves lap against the shore just a few hundred yards away. Having got off to sleep at about midnight it was 5.30 in the morning as I was awoken by the sounds of life outside. In time for Mass at 6am I arose from my bed and made ready to go and join the community for Mass. Thirty-five people had gathered one of them being a visiting nun from Panama who had worked in Dangriga for over ten years before her departure 41 years ago. The Deacon preached on the significance of the end of the Church?s year and the coming of Advent next week.

After mass it was time for breakfast which for me consisted of some fresh grapefruit, a cup of tea, still surprisingly good and some toast covered in marmalade ?made in the UK at No 2 The Towers?. After breakfast a tour took place of the parish office where I had an opportunity to check on my emails. After morning prayer at 7.30 am the day seems like its well and truly on its way. I began to compose my thoughts until the arrival of Fabian Cayetano the Assistant local manager for the Catholic Schools in the area. I met with him to begin to make arrangements for the workshops that are planned for next week. A little background on the schools. The local schools manager (Fr Chris) is responsible for running 13 schools in the area with responsibility for 4,500 pupils taught by 150 teachers. Responsibility involves not only the supervision of the school teachers and the administration of their wages but also the responsibility for the properties and committees that maintain them. In the coming year just one of the schools Holy Ghost, Dangriga needs to be rebuilt because the forty-ear old structure has been eaten away by the salt breeze. In dangerous need of repair the present building needs to be demolished with a 32 classroom building at a projected cost of Bz $2,000,000.00 (not counting furnishings) while promises of some 60% of the building costs has been made there is still a further $800,000 (approximately ?230,000) has to be found not counting furnishings etc. Similar though smaller projects, are also deemed necessary by other schools. Having heard about these projects that take up Fr Chris and Fabian?s time we began to talk about the workshops and what I hoped to achieve in animating the teachers to explore their goals, responsibilities and hopes. A quick visit to Sacred Heart School showed me the space I?d be working in for one of the three two-day workshops to be undertaken. The large breeze block building, usually divided into two or three classrooms by partitions, will be cleared to provide space for the 50 or so teachers to meet.

Lunch, which due to the problem with the gas cylinder oven, consisted of cold hot dog sausages, some ham and some cold vegetables and salad. The luxury of the day appeared on the table when Fr Chris produced a tub of chocolate ice cream: yet another dairy product of the local Mennonite community.

A quick trip to the bank preceded a trip to Holy Ghost School where another of the workshops is to take place. This is the two storey building that money is needed to rebuild. The three present structures have all been identified as unsound with a maximum of 5 years usage advised though this depends on repairs being made. In some places the concrete has been eaten away by the salt breeze and the steel girders are disintegrating. I?m sure a school building in England would have been condemned on health and safety grounds. Here the classes continue to be given by the 25 teachers that run this school for over 700 pupils.

Having been here for a mere 24 hours the thing that strikes me is the overwhelming complexity of the work that needs to be done. It has been easy to sit at home for the last twelve months frustrated at the lack of information that the team sends us. In just the first day I realise how difficult it is to convey the challenges and difficulties that present themselves in a way that makes sense to us at home. Caught up in the rhythm of life here there is much to be done, yet the lack of resources, to even maintain that which is here, creates a pressure that I?m sure sees time slipping away and intentions of keeping in touch with us at home lost to the endless demands that present themselves. Just the experience this first morning of trying to meet while people arrive calling out for attention highlights the difficulties of managing ones time and accomplishing all that is expected. There is much good work to be accomplished here but more resourcing of personnel and materials are obviously needed. Having been here 22 hours I will take leave of this report and return to it in a few days as I continue to reflect on the experiences that come my way.

As I lie swinging in one of the hammocks, (beneath the drying clothes) placed along the corridor outside the bedrooms it is 1.15 on Friday afternoon. The children have just begun to quieten down on their return to the classroom after their lunch break. The location of the house in many ways symbolises the reality of the lives of the Claretian Missionaries here. The house is surrounded on all sides by buildings related to Sacred Heart Primary School. I can hear the murmur of classes reciting prayers and their times tables. The work of the missionaries seems steeped in the programmes of education that the Parish Priest is responsible for. Here a Catholic school is not a school for members of the Catholic Faith, rather it is a school run by the Catholic Church for all the children in the village or town. In this area of Belize (approximately 80 miles by 30 miles) the Catholic Church is responsible for a third of all primary schools.

Today, the last Friday of the month, is payday for all 150 teachers employed by the Parish. For the last few days, in between meetings relating to construction of new classrooms, healing rifts that have developed in communities because of the different cultural backgrounds the people come from, Fr Chris has been responsible for preparing all the cheques, making sure that all the required deductions are made, and then making sure there is sufficient money in the bank to cover the monthly wage bill of approximately ?80,000.00. This at least is met by the government and does not give rise to any anxiety as to where the money will come from to be able to honour the teachers? paycheques. Things are not so clear-cut with respect to that which is required for the buildings and resources that are needed for the teaching to take place. So far I have seen two schools in desperate need of new buildings. Over the next few years, millions of Belizean dollars are going to be required if the children are going to be offered a safe environment in which they can study. Parents and teachers together are trying to animate the community to work so that sufficient temporary structures are completed to ensure that there is at least a classroom for each group of children. Bella Vista?s village school was built for 150 children six years ago. On the day it opened over 200 children turned up to register. There are at present 825 children on role and a waiting list of over 35 other children ready to start immediately. Temporary Huts and church buildings are just some of the places that have to be utilised so that these children can even have the possibility of a basic education.

This afternoon there are meetings taking place with representatives of the teachers who have responsibility for sports education and who are responsible for organising a national girls and boys football tournament. Following that there is another meeting with teachers responsible for the development of Religious Education Programmes used throughout the country. All of this takes place within the context of a day that begins most mornings at 6 am with Mass.

This weekend I will celebrate Mass in the town while Fr Chris and Fr Dominic will be in the villages ? imagine a couple of priests in Buckden being responsible for the all the main towns between Huntingdon and London and you get some idea of what level of organisation is required to animate the schools and parishes! A lot of time is spent on the road. In addition, they are responsible for the preparation and training of catechists and community leaders, the promotion of youth ministry and also the renewal and improvement of the liturgy. All of this takes place of course in a culture where nothing happens quickly.

As I lie here in the midday heat (which everyone tells me is cool) it strikes me that the importance of being here, really is rooted in the need for the good news of God?s love to be proclaimed. The people?s sense of self worth and self-esteem is low. The people themselves say how they cannot be trusted and that they need to be treated with care. Just this morning one of the visiting nuns told us that she would be praying for the Team, that she knew how difficult it was to work here. ?You must love the people here, but be careful and don?t trust them because they will steal everything and they will turn on you. Like they did with the priest that they killed years ago with machetes out on the Cayes.? An ominous warning and yet it does reflect the reality facing those working here in Belize. It is clear that the approach that they are taking is built upon trying to motivate and empower the people so they can take responsibility for their own growth and projects they wish to develop is not popular. Money is no longer being handed out as has happened in the past. This has not made the present Team the most popular of people but it is challenging the people of the parish to recognise a different type of church which is not paternalistic in the utter dependence upon Father as has apparently marked the vision of church that has previously prevailed.

Breaking the structures in which everything was doled out with no expectations being placed on the people does not mean that not much is required by the missionaries for their work. Resources (financial and material) are still required so that necessary services can be provided. These are not always the type of resources that prompt the ?Kodak? moments we so often want to see. For instance:

• Funding for a person to assist Fr Chris so that the Teachers and Schools are better managed
• A new roof on a ?shed? or ?classroom hut?
• Chairs and desks
• Books
• Office equipment so that more materials can be generated

How can we help? By continuing what we are already doing.

How can we deepen our knowledge of the reality of life for our missionaries in Belize?

In what ways can we support our missionaries through finance, materials and personnel to collaborate in helping our brothers and sisters?

It was questions like this that I hope to put to Chris, Dennis and Dominic so that we might better understand what we can do to help them. Now, as I take a break with recording these reflections, I hear the children singing the 12 days of Christmas, and what their true love gave to them. It prompts me to reflect that if we truly love these people as God challenges us to do ?What are we prepared to give them not just on the first or twelfth day of Christmas but every day of their lives??