I have never been more drained both mentally and emotionally in this way before. I skipped writing yesterday so I must go back and re-cap even though by now yesterday's events seem like a distant memory. We got up and ate breakfast with the crew from the Belize project at Tony's as has become tradition by now. I had re fried beans and scrambled eggs. our first appointment of the day was at the Minister of Education. A man named Mr. Kukul who is in charge of the curriculum for all of the public schools in the Corazol district and has the power to push the government to make our teaching workshops accredited. This would be instrumental as it would give the teachers additional incentive to attend in order to fulfill their hourly requirements for workshops. This man was the highest ranking official we had met with up to this point and neither of us had any idea how he was going to react to a proposal of this magnitude coming from two barely twenty something white guys from the United States. Just to imagine that two gringos were about to sit in front of a Belizean official was somewhat overwhelming. Surely this was appointed by the Lord. We sat in a small room across from a solid wooden desk on little wooden chairs so close that my knees touched the front of Mr. Kukul's desk. His manner was very deliberate and he never smiled as he pulled our proposal from a stack of official looking papers. He had been given the proposal by Zac during his last visit. Zac introduced me and I shook his hand. He proceeded to ask the spelling of my name as he penned it next to the other on the cover sheet of the proposal in order to attach some accountability to it's contents I assumed. In the background, the radio was playing and I could make out the inaugural prayer for the induction of the new President, Barack Obama. Mr. Kukul got right into the program skipping any small talk. He stated that he thought the program was good and the he wanted to support it. Clearly all of the preparation and leg work done by Zac and the other volunteers had given us some credibility. Zac began to explain how we would like to expand the pilot program in the San Narciso school to a handful of other schools in the Corazol region. He was very open to the idea and even gave us a list of schools he would like to see included. He also told us that he would need to get some kind of commitment from the other schools in order to recommend accreditation for the workshops. He then went down the list of schools and told us he would call ahead of our tentative meetings with the schools so the faculty would be expecting us when we arrived the next day. We thanked him for his time, shook his hand, and left his office. My pace out of the office was intentionally measured so as not to look too eager as internally I wanted to sprint out and shout at the top of my lungs to express the excitement I was feeling from this encounter. The meeting couldn't have been more successful by Zac and my measurements. In reality, I had done very little but listen and give the occasional encouraging word. But for me, the experience was invaluable. For the first time during the trip I felt as if I had enough understanding and grasp of the situation around me to jump in and actually help. Zac and I both drove away from the meeting with a renewed sense of purpose and hopeful excitement for what lay ahead of us.
When we arrived back to our room there was a note on the door from Jeremy, "I've gone walking into town until I find the first place that has hot coffee." After driving for a few minutes we found him wandering the streets of Corazol with a bag of bananas in his hand. We picked him up and all went to a little open air restaurant called Joe Mellon's'. Zac wanted me to try the rice and beans as it was a Belizean signature dish and said it was a must. I would find out later that my stomach would not agree with his opinion. We sat and ate chicken and rice and beans witha large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. In the states, when you order orange juice you usually get the crap made by Minute Maid and if you're lucky enough to get fresh squeezed, it only comes in a 4 oz. glass that is hardly enough to satisfy your craving. This was a huge glass goblet full of the real deal with a chunk of ice to keep it cool. Even though it had a few mysterious floaters skimming along the top, it was delicious and cool. It was the perfect cap on the morning's scenario.
After our meal and conversation, we dropped Jeremy back at the apartment and headed to our next meeting. It was with the head of the RC schools which I later discovered stood for Roman Catholic. Like much of the Latin American countries, the Roman Catholic church has enjoyed quite a strong hold in Belize. There are two types of schools in the country, those run by the government and those run by the Roman Catholic Church. It is very similar to the private and public school system in the U.S. Mr. Magana's office was located in a small musty office behind an elaborate Catholic Cathedral just off one of the main streets in Corazol. Inside, the walls were made of large hand chipped blocks painted white with a large antique safe on one wall with the words Ohio and United States stamped on the door just below the large dialed lock. He sat at a large wooden desk with a window to his back that was about seven feet off the floor. It allowed a steady stream of light from the outside to illuminate otherwise invisible dust particles floating through the air. The room reminded me of a scene from Escape from Alcatraz and I was in front of the warden awaiting my cell assignment. Despite the somewhat intimidating surroundings Mr. Magana was very warm and seemed genuine. We discussed the morning's meeting with Mr. Kukul and shared the conclusions from it. We shared the idea to expand the program to the surrounding schools which he too agreed with and assured us of his full support. It was sometime during this meeting that I had the ah-ha moment.
Out of nowhere i just suddenly knew what needed to be done and how the program needed to be structured. It was almost like a moment of clarity where my mind was free of anything that could cause it to be distracted and a laser beam of understanding was pulsed through my mind allowing it to see beyond the present and to know with absolute certainty the answer to a problem. Only the Lord could have revealed such an idea in my head so clearly and suddenly. When we left the meeting and got back to our blue Diahatsu, I began to share my plan with Zac. We would form a Belizean committee made up of one chosen representative from each school in the program. This committee would answer to one man whom we appointed to be the representative for Sports Servants in Belize, Jesus Ek. He was an obvious choice as he has been Sports Servants' number one supporter from the beginning and shares our vision for it's future. Jesus would be responsible for gathering the committee once a month in order to get feedback from the schools as well as help teach and communicate directives from the main Sports Servants headquarters in the U.S. He would also be able to communicate directly with us the needs of the schools and the children in the program. This way, a much needed line of communication and structure could be created to allow Sports Servants to be affective even when there is not a physical presence.
We immediately went back to the hotel Maya and began to writing out the business model and invitation letter. We decided the best way to deliver the information was to package the invitation to participate, curriculum sheet, and a commitment form along with a DVD of previous workshops. This form would be returned with either a yes or no on the commitment sheet to relay the school's intention to participate or not. These sheets would then be returned along with the name and contact information of a teacher representative to Jesus. Once all of the forms were filled out and returned, copies would be given to Mr. Kukul in order to give him incentive and proof that the schools were indeed interested in the project aiding the accreditation process for the workshops. We gathered all of the materials typed up and printed out on Zac's computer and filled manila folders with them. We would take them along to the school meetings tomorrow and deliver them with our proposal to the school's faculty.
It had been a long day of planning and I was exhausted but the schedule for tomorrow was even more gruelling. I was excited and felt a sense of worth for actually being of use for the first time since arriving. I was gearing up for the cold calls on schools we would be making in the morning and felt as if I had found why the Lord had brought me on this trip. My work in the United States aligned very well with our task here. We were essentially selling this program to complete strangers, people and a culture I was completely unfamiliar with. It was just another example of the Lord's faithfulness and strength giving me the means, boldness, and ability to go and do something I truly have no training for or would have previously thought possible. I ended the day with a feeling of peace as I was sure I had seen God move. Little did I know that He had much more planned for tomorrow.
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