Week 5 S.P. Island Belize

Week 5

We have a couple visiting from Cayo sign language congregation, they brought the little deaf sister in the middle. They came to give us a little help. It's been nice to have their support. We had a great time preparing answers in ASL for Wt. Great encouragement for my student Yosselin on the right.

Having a great time inviting all the deaf on the island to the memorial of Jesus death! This was our silly moment! 

Yosselin and Sarita and Shari inviting a deaf man to memorial. He only signs a little, mostly uses home sign language. His brother is deaf as well.

Deaf brother Avi inviting other young deaf man Jorge to the memorial. Jorge and Avi both work cleaning the beaches of seaweed and trash for resorts and housing communites. It's hard work. But they do it to get by. 

Darin & the other hearing brother are waiting for Avi in the cart. Cars & trucks are not permitted to be imported to the island unless you need it for work or can prove its for health reasons. So golf carts are the way most get around, except us poor folk who walk or ride bikes! ;)

These are some of the friends interested in learning more ASL. They've been joining us in our Wt study groups. They all made their first comment at today's abbreviated Wt study! The reason we had it abbreviated is that today we were able to go to the KH to watch a streaming download of the Branch Visit for Central America. This is the first year they've had it translated into English and available for the English and Kriol and sign congregations to enjoy. 

Shari and I took turns interpreting the talks and Darin was the chairman. The English congregation is sitting to the right of us. To prepare for this Shari, Darin and I went to the Kriol congregation branch visit the day before, to listen and make an outline of what needed to be interpreted. Then we went to our place to discuss how to translate the ideas accurately and clearly, using The scriptures, Watchtowers and songs that we already have translated into ASL. Some scriptures we do not have in ASL & we needed to figure out how to sign them. All together probably 7 hours of prep. Today with Jah's help we felt like it was a success. Well worth all the effort! 

When the branch visit ended it started to rain, pouring really. So we waited it out in the Kingdom Hall, not just because we were on bikes but also because Darin is carrying a TV in his bag...Haha, we needed it for the broadcast. We made it home in true Belizian fashion!

Week 4 San Pedro

JW.ORG advertising the answers to life's questions in ASL!

Cart Witnessing! Early morning. Boys have signed up to Auxilery! 

Exploring the island of San Pedro, south, on Bicycles!

Darin is tempting the crocs to show themselves!

Date night! Wine shop in town has a tasting night when they offer wine and cheese pairings! A little relaxation. Just me and my guy....til the crowd showed up. Oh well. It was really tasty. I'm still working off that cheese tho!

Dboss & I along with Shari, interpreted the March program on TV.jw.org for the deaf! Both of our students were there. They said they really enjoyed it! Guess we did alright!

 

No place feels like home til we bust out the homemade salsa. It's a real crowd pleaser, even here in Belize! 

Week 3 Belize

This is how we get to meetings! Cycling in our dress clothes, about 10 min or so. Or walk but that's about 20 min or so. Darin is speeding past our deaf bro who walks to meeting!

Service groups! We all ended up at the cute coffee shop with Aircon! 

 

Dboss conducting Wt via the IPad do to technical glitches, but we still had great supoort in commenting, including some new ones!

Relaxing beach Day at Ramon's 

Dboss is snorkeling holding the seaweed out so the fish will swim up to him & nibble on it.

I entered the water with snorkel mask on, under coercion. I stared under water at the bizillion fish beneath the stairs only to hurry back up the ladder. Don't worry Sis I went back in a couple days later and swam around, ignoring still, the fish swimming in my proximity!

Martini happy hour and large plate of ceviche with conch and shrimp. It was delicious! Live music too! We had fun with these girls who are really trying to make us feel welcome!

Service with some vacationers. They met and married in Australia. She's from Botswana and he's from Melbourne. They currently live in New York and attend the hall Brad & Brit worked on in Manhattan! Super nice couple! Wish they could've stayed longer.

More adventures to come.....

San Pedro Belize week 2

We were asked to have a local sister clean for us while we are staying in the apt, since the other couple living here had been having her come. Normally I'd not go for this, I do my own cleaning! But I aquiessed and was so glad I did. The local sister came and said she'd just lost her regular job because she was sick for two weeks. So this job & cleaning for the other sisters was her only income. I was glad we could support each other!

Darin & sister Shari did last minute interpreting. They did awesome! ASL technical glitches as always!

Out in service near my bible students house. Just before this pic, a snake startled us as it came across the road. I asked the local bro, "does that snake bite?" He said "ya but it won't kill you, only give you fever!" "All the same I think I'll avoid it!" Lol 😂

Showing videos to deaf students children. Caleb and Sophia are popular everywhere we go!

I think this neighborhood gives Manila a run for its money w regard to trash!! They literally use trash as "fill" to build houses on.....

It made me look forward to the new system when Jehovahs kingdom will truly provide adequate housing for all, no more poverty, no more ruining the earth. Paradise!!

Dboss & I soaking up the Aircon at a local watering hole, not drinking water 😜, blogging & enjoying life!

Week 1 San Pedro Belize

darin & I arrived safely!

We have a beautiful area around the apartment, it's been great weather. We sit outside w our coffee & tea and bug spray! Read our bible reading and check JW.org in beautiful surroundings.

We got up at 4:30AM Saturday to go to the ASL assembly. We took a golf cart to the ferry 2 hours across the ocean to the mainland then a taxi to the assembly hall. What an adventure! 137 in attendance many deaf came.

Me & a bible student on the ferry.

Assembly time

These two did a great job interpreting for the CO. They filled in at the last minute!

Goodbye Belize

We had such a great time in Service in Belize

So much fun hanging with the family, and experiencing their new life. It was wonderful. We will miss them!

Doing the Invitation work for regional convention, English & Spanish

The little sister on the right was too shy to work w us in the beginning of the morning. But by the end we were friends.

Crazy Uncle Dan took us on a rainy day to a village called Monkey River! 

We had to drive 1 hour on the hwy, 1 hour on a mud clay road, and wait an hour in the rain for a boat to ferry us across the river to the village. But we placed lots of mags, tracts, and showed Caleb videos to the local kids!

Where the sign language group meets! Darin and I were asked to help interpret the Kriol talk and Wt study!

Morgan & Jaden are so big now! Such good kids! 

Grampa gave a little speech after family dinner about how proud he and Grama are of their family that has 40active publishes, 16 in full time service and a whole bunch of elders! It was so nice!

Costa Rica, Nica

Costa Rica Playa Danta

KH in San Juan Nicaragua 

Making new friends in Nica. One of the sisters serves in the English congregation in San Juan where we visited 2 years ago. The others serve in an English group in Costa Rica

Paddle Boarding in Costa Rica