Episcopal Relief and Development Conference

Last weekend the Episcopal Relief and Development diocesan coordinators from all over the US held their annual network meeting in Belize. This is the first time they have ever met outside of the US, but they wanted to see first-hand some of the projects supported by ERD. When I first learned they would be here in Belize, I invited our Diocese of North Carolina coordinator to come to Holy Cross. He accepted that invitation by getting me an invitation to attend the conference. We were delighted to have Reid Joyner, the Diocesan Coordinator for NC, visit Holy Cross on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. He observed some classes, attended chapel services and met many of the children. We flew together to Belize City on Thursday afternoon. Our 15 minute flight was quite interesting as an attractive young woman was sitting in the co-pilot's seat (it's not unusual for someone to travel in that seat). She flirted and jabbered with him the entire flight, even showing him pictures on her digital camera! From where I was sitting, he was trying very hard to ignore her. We did arrive safely so I guess he was able to focus on the right things while we were airborne.

The conference was very well planned, and the agenda was packed. The weekend began with Eucharist at St. John's Cathedral, the oldest Anglican building in Central America. The Bishop of the Diocese of Belize celebrated, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Colorado and the ERD Board was the preacher. I love that cathedral and was so happy to worship there once again.

On Friday morning we boarded buses and left Belize City to visit some of the Anglican schools. One project of ERD is the HIV/AIDS curriculum in the Anglican schools. It's a serious problem here, and ERD is hoping to save lives through education. My group travelled first to Flower's Bank, a very small rural community. St. Stephens School has only 3 classrooms and 3 teachers. One teacher is also the principal, and another is the lay minister to the church community there. The school was bright and cheery; the children had prepared a special dance to welcome us; and we were welcomed into their classrooms to observe a lesson on HIV/AIDS. Sadly this school has only a poorly constructed outhouse and no clean drinking water. There are plans and some donations toward improving this but not until next school year.

Our next stop was All Saints School in Belize City which is a stark contrast to Flower's Bank. The school is quite large; we visited the 9 classes of Standard IV-VI. They too were having lessons on HIV/AIDS prevention. They will also be participating in ERD's school garden program. The beds are ready to be planted. Back at the hotel, there were sessions on various program aspects of ERD -- the Nets for Life campaign, Disaster Preparedness in the US, and ERD's work with disaster recovery particularly now in Haiti. We were priveleged to hear a moving presentation about the earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath, given by an Episcopal priest who is native of Haiti, was in the midst of the quake itself, and now is helping his Haitian brothers and sisters rebuild.

On Saturday, our focus was on small business owners who have been recipients of ERD's micro-loan program - the Belize Enterprise for Sustainable Technology. We first visited Mr. Alan Jones who is a very talented woodcarver. As a side, he is also the Justice of the Peace for the Lucky Strike community.

From there, we went way down a very narrow dirt road (in a chartered bus) to the farm belonging to Ms. Julia Gonzalez, the Female Farmer of 2010 for Belize. She has a lovely greenhouse full of bell peppers as well as small fields of tomatoes, onions and melons. Her home has no electricity -- the power poles end a few hundred yards before her property and the lines don't stretch to the end of the poles. Our next stop was at Altun Ha, the Mayan ruins. Ms. Lorie Wallace runs one of the on-site gift shops. We did some souvenir shopping, sampled cashew wine (ugh), and had lunch at the foot of one of the temples. On the way back to Belize City, we stopped at Ms. Cherrymae Galvez's roadside grocery store and fast food establishment. St.Luker's -- we have passed this store many times; you would recognize it. And now I know she was able to start this business with the help of ERD. The conference concluded with a banquet Saturday night featuring entertainment by school children from the area, from tiny preschoolers to talented dancers from St. John's College. I am so greatful for this wonderful opportunity to meet ERD coordinators from 67 dioceses in the US, to learn so much about the work of ERD, to see new places, and to learn about successful business women and men.