We're here!

Greetings from Belize!
We had a fun evening starting Friday night with some folks in Kansas City and then even more in Houston as we made the trip down. Everyone is great!
We arrived in Belize City around 3:00 and sweet-talked our way through customs. As we made the drive out to Jaguar Creek we saw houses on stilts, citrus orchards, schools, hand-pumped wells, and some amazing countryside. It is striking how beautiful this place is, and yet how much poverty there is here.
It is exciting to be part of Pathlight and the work they are doing to empower the Belizean people to address challenges as they see fit. Pathlight provides scholarships to students, service projects to improve schools, and teacher training to help the local teachers (why we are here).
Education is a tremendous need here. About 15% of all students complete high school--largely because of the cost for education and the fact that if they are in school then they aren't able to provide income to their family.
Dinner tonight was delicious. We had seafood gumbo (and vegetable gumbo for the vegetarians) with watermelon and homemade breadsticks. And chocolate cake for dessert.
Needless to say we are quite exhausted and ready for bed, but we are hoping to hear the howling monkeys during the night...from a distance.
We will try to post a picture of our cabana tomorrow.