Still Alive!

 Here we are in  Belize on day number 8 and still alive.  We arrived on Saturday the 3rd of September and our flight went extremely well.  We made it through customs with no problems whatsoever and had a wonderful stay at a hotel in Cancun Mexico.  Our shuttle from there to Belize was long but good.  Jerrold, a native Belizean picked us up and we stopped somewhere in Mexico to pick up his 4 year daughter Saphire and wife Shyean to go back to Belize with us.  Come to find out they are Christians and use there shuttle and site seeing business as a ministry also and Shyean is involved with a Christain School here in Belize.
     Well as good as the trip was, things got difficult from there.  When we got to the propery we found that it was hotter than we expected.  It has been reaching 100 degrees plus some days and I have never swet this much in my life.  When I say swet I mean swet.  It looks as if I just stepped out of the shower with my clothes on and you never dry all day.  Your hair stays soaked, your clothes are all soaked and you never dry all day.  To make matters worse, we didn't get our truck with all our basic needs on it from the states.  We have been sleeping on a thin foam mattress (Our back are killing us) have no real means of cooking aside from a makeshift outdoor fireplace, no refridgeration, had no shower for the firts 3 days as our water comes from a plastic 1300 gal cistern that is on a tower beside the house that catches rain water from the roof and did not have enough in it to run the shower.  So we stank!  Thank goodness we did have a toilet that worked.  On the third day here I got extremely sick with vomiting and diarrea.  I could not eat and could hardly keep water down. 
     On day 5 my back went out which usually means that I end up in bed for 4 or 5 day until it comes out of it.  We prayed and I put on my back brace and went back to work. God is so good, I proceeded to move rocks, plant banana, jack banana and plantain trees, bush hog for several hours etc and my back is still good. 
     The work is very hard and long days right now as we are trying to get the orchard back into shape.  It has been vacant for several years and has grown into a jungle.  There are fruits here that I have never heard of that are incredible.  We also found out that if you have heat stroke coming on just pick a lime ( or buy one if you are in the states) and squeeze the juice into some water and drink it.  It is amazing how it refreshes you and alleviates the heat stroke symtems.  It is really nice to be out working and just reach over and grab an orange or grapefruit and just have a snack on the go.  Cool.
     OK, now one might think that it is horibble down here by what I have so far  written but beside that fact that we have nothing so far (oh by the way I forgot to mention that the truck arrived late last night! Praise God a bed and pillows tonight) and I got sick and things have been difficult WE LOVE IT.  When we got to our house (which is 9 feet in the air) and saw the view of the mountains from our front porch we fell in love with the place again. We live in a place called Blackman Eddy which is west of Belmopan the capitol of Belize.  The three mile road to the place is like a logging road in Maine.  You wonder if you will ever make it but it is well worth the trip.  There is a menonite community further down our road and they are very friendly people.  One of them, Walter Riesen stopped in to meet the new neighbors and invited us to his farm.  He and his family where the first Menonites to settle here back in the 50s and most of them have the last name of Reisen around here.  They go by constantly on their horse and buggies doing business in Spanish Lookout which is another Menonite community about 15 minutes away by car that is. There is quite a contrast between the two Menonite communities.  The one here at Barton Creek is just what you expect of them.  Very simple life with not modern convieniences.  The one in Spanish Lookout however is ultra modern.  They have better homes than many in the states and own all the businesses there. They even have an electronics and cell phone store over there.  All are very friendly.
     The other people here are  a mix.  There are blacks, Hispanics, Oriental, Mayans, Guatamalans etc.  The man we have hired to work with us, is from Guatamala and speaks very little english.  Praise God Anna and I took three years of Spanish in high school and are amazed how much is coming back to us.  He is a young man of 25 years old with a wife and two kids.  When he got paid this week he did not show up for work the next day and we wondered why.  Well we found out that he had no more food for his family and walked as he has and cannot afford a car.  He also got some work boots so he could work for us easier.  He was so proud of his new simple rubber boots.  I noticed he had something on his wrist and couldn't figure out what it was at first.  I finally saw that it was a childs watch.  It is a cartoon donkeys head and I wanted to laugh at first that a grown man would wear such a watch but he was so proud of it.  I lay in bed tonight which it is about 3 am and I am sitting on our deck in my boxers typing this and I started to cry thinking about Hosea (our worker) and how thankful he is for his watch and boots and how much we in the states take the little things in life for granted.  These are things we just think that we deserve and even toss them in the trash when we want a better style.  Down here we have had to learn (even in just 8 days) the value of clean drinking water and what it means to be without some of the things that we have taken for granted all our lives.  Oh that we could be so thankfull for the small things in life as Hosea is.  I think God delayed our truck (which at one point we didn't even know if we were going to get it as the man driving it down throught Mexico was robbed at gunpoint and we had't heard wether they took the truck and all the contents or just robbed him of his money) so that we could have more appreciation for what these people face each day.
     God has really been helping us to adapt here.  I no longer am soaked from swet all day long and do not feel sick from the heat which tells me that I am beginning to adapt to it.  I was out all day, which means I am pretty red now, working and my hair and clothes were all dry well pretty much.
     I could go on for hours telling of our adventures in our short time here but I do not want to lose your interest.  Even with all the hardships we have faced, which really isn't that bad,  we love it here and know that we are right where God wants us.  Please pray for us for physical, financial and spiritual blessings.  We miss you all and hope that some day you all can come down and experience it for yourselves.  oh, and by the way, the bugs, spiders, and snakes are not as bad as you think Cyndil and Derek.  I have seen one trantuala but otherwise nothing else and I have been roaming through tall grasses, jungle and orchards.  They are more afraid of us than we are of them.  
More to follow as I can.  Love you all.  Zach