Community Outreach

Belize Mission Outreach Dance Trip
Belmopan, Belize, Central America
April 1-9, 2006

MY AMAZING TRIP TO BELIZE
By Bethany Carlson

The First Day

Ok I am not really sure where to start, the trip was so amazing, and it is just hard to find the right way to explain. But I guess the best way to tell a story is to start at the beginning. So it is 2:30 AM, Friday March 31st, and my dad comes to wake me up so we can drive and get to the airport by 4:30-our flight left at 6:30. We are flying then we land in Dallas and we have to get on a little bus to get to our connection to Belize on time, so that was pretty cool, we met bunch of fly fishers. Then once we land in Belize the first thing you see is very dry and yellow grassland around the runway, not exactly what I was expecting on my first visit to a tropical country. Once we get out and to the sidewalk-after going through customs and wheeling all our luggage out- we meet for the first time Joe, Maureen, Christa, and Bethany Yeager, and Christa’s fiancé Andy, and I would guess it was about 80, 85 degrees out, it was so nice!! So we hop onto the tour bus we drove around in all week and drove to a restaurant called Cheers, with a tropical twist. Where we had a choice of rice and beans or beans and rice to go along with our meal-and yes they are different. We drive some more, every one from our company was pretty tired, having to be at the airport at 4 AM can do that to you, and finally we get to the Belmopan Hotel. Now keep in mind that the word hotel does not mean the same here as it does down there, but we didn’t really care, we were there, we were safe, we had air conditioning, hot running water, and a pool. After getting settled in we went over to the bar and Joe, our tour guide, driver, food recommender, and event scheduler, gave us a brief history of how he and his wife Maureen came to live down here, how they started Dramatic Force International, and of few things about life down there. One of the things I found pretty interesting was down in Belize, when a guy sees a girl that he thinks is pretty what guys in America would do is whistle or make a comment about how they look, but that’s not the case in Belize, down there when a guy likes you they hiss at you! I thought that was pretty random, but that’s just me. So after our first team meeting in Belize we went to bed, and still not realizing mentally that we were in Belize.

Day 2

The next day was Saturday of course, and the school’s busiest day, so we were expected to teach the classes that day right when we got there. I didn’t have to teach until about 1 o’clock so Bethany, not me and not the Bethany down there, the other Bethany on the team who was my roommate, taught because the class they offer most is ballet and that is the other Bethany’s forte. Almost the entire day that day we took each other’s classes and taught where we were needed, and since my forte is hip-hop, I taught a routine while Miss Jane taught the warm up. And that my friend was very very intimidating, almost all the kids in my class were my age or older, and the only other time I had taught, ever, was the dance team at my school so all the kids I had taught prier were younger and inexperienced, but that was not the case with the students in my class, most of them were, along with taking classes almost every day, were on the studio’s company Mosaic. But it was really fun; I learned a lot from teaching that week. Directly after my class was the modern class and company practice, so Debbie taught the modern and then Christa was going to finish teaching a dance she had started earlier. But the CD kept skipping so she ended up making up totally on the spot a modern dance that we were invited to be apart of. My company, along with Mosaic were supposed to perform the dance Christa taught us at a talent show Friday night and a open house at a local college, but a few of the company members did not show up on time, or at all, so we ended up taking their place in the shows and did two of our dances and a solo of Bethany’s instead of having them perform with us.

Day 3

The next day was Sunday so we went to church at the studio in the morning, then went to Sanignacio to go visit the Mayan ruins there. And that had to be one of my favorite things about this trip; I personally love history, so it was a great experience to see the ruins. The ruins were amazing; the buildings were so intricate, and it was amazing to think that an almost extinct race of people once walked and talked and carried about their lives right where we were standing. And our tour guide, also our driver Joe, knew so much about the buildings and how things worked back then, it was amazing. You would have thought Joe was a professional tour guide from all the things he knew about the ruins. He took us all around the ruins and we even went up on the very top of the ruins where the sacrifices would have occurred.
From up there you see for miles around, it was beautiful, even if the place we were standing on did have a fairly dark history. Monday we did a performance at the high school portion of Belize Christian Academy and then started to paint the studio in the morning.

That afternoon we went to a place called Marla’s House of Hope, a refuge for sexually abused kids and teens. The house was one of my favorite experiences while we were there, too. The kids there were so nice friendly; they went crazy when we showed them the stickers we had brought them, they immediately set to tricking out their toy hummer. But one of the hardest things about being there and being around those kids, who were from age two to ages fifteen or sixteen. These kids had gone through so much and some of them were my age! And probably the worst thing about going to Marla’s was literally minutes before we arrived, one of the girls had received a phone call saying that her brother had just been murdered. She was crying almost the entire time we were there, it was heartbreaking. Murder had never hit me that close to home before, and it was really sad to see this girl that had been sexually abused and then find out her brother had been murdered, it was really hard. But the whole experience of being there and making those kids as happy as we did was very rewarding.

Day 4

On Tuesday we just painted and taught classes, nothing really big went on.

Day 5

Wednesday was our day off, so we went to Homenosi, a beautiful beach side resort in the south of Belize. The beach was beautiful and almost completely rock-free, unlike the beaches here. We had lunch then spent the rest of the day swimming, sunbathing and catching a jellyfish or two. Wednesday was perfect.

Day 6

Thursday I taught my second class ever, but these kids were ages seven to about eleven
or twelve, so it was way less intimidating.

Day 7

Friday was kind of hectic, in the morning did a performance for the primary school portion of Belize Christian Academy, then went to the property that they are going to build a new studio on. So we started to pray and bless the foundation for the building, and Len (Debbie’s husband) started to pray down finances from heaven, then Miss Debbie thought it would a be a good idea to dance in the “studio”, but keep in mind, this was just dirt, roots, and rocks at this point. We did one of our dances to a song called “Blessed Be the Name”; just as we were dancing a car pulled up, and it was one of Joe’s friends (but then again he seemed to know some one every where we went in Belize) and they talked for a little while about the studio and things, and then the friend of Joe’s took out his wallet and wrote a check for 1,700 dollars Belize-about 850 dollars U.S.-to help fund the construction of the building. That was amazing; I had rarely ever seen God work as quickly as he did that day. But the rest of the day was not quite as exciting, really nothing worth mentioning.

Day 8

Saturday was not quite as hot as Friday but it was still pretty hot. In the morning we painted the studio then I taught my first class all by myself! That was a great experience. That night we went over to the Yeager’s house and had pizza and watched the video of our benefit concert to get down to Belize and then watched one of their recitals which was absolutely amazing. The choreography was beautiful; every-thing about it was amazing. After watching the movies we were exhausted so we went back to our hotel.

The Last Day

The next morning, our last day there, we went to their church and performed two more dances, stayed for the rest of the service and then left for the airport. It was so sad leaving that place I remember crying almost all the way to the airport-at least an hour drive. When we got to the airport we still about an hour before our flight left so we went to a restaurant in the airport and sat and talked for a while, then the truly sad part came actually: leaving this amazing country. On this flight only two of us had seats by each other, I was not one of them. Sitting alone wasn’t bad, actually it was kind of exciting I always have to sit with my parents when I fly so being by myself was kind of fun, it made me feel very grown up. Ok so blah blah blah the flight; we landed in Dallas went through customs while Len-the team leader-was singing the most depressing song about the rapture and how a lady turned over to see that her husband was gone and stuff like that. Nothing really special happened in that airport, oh, except we met another group of missionaries that also live in the Seattle area, but they had like 20 people to our six. Then after a seemingly never ending flight we finally landed in Seattle at about 12:30 AM, not everyone’s peak performing hours. I was met by my mom, while my dad was pulling the car around to avoid paying for parking. I said my goodbyes to the people I had spent every waking hour with for the last 10 days and went home for a well deserved sleep. And I guess that’s about it. Going to Belize was one of the best, if not the best, experience of my life. I will never forget it. It was perfect; no fights, no problems whatsoever, and the best part is I got a tan! No well that’s not the best part, but I am pretty excited about the dark skin on my arms now. To tell you guys the truth I didn’t really want to come back, I loved it so much down there, I will always treasure Belize.