What do we do...

Plane tickets have been purchased, Tony's hotel and Pancho's rental vehicles reserved.  Logistics are the easiest part of planning a trip to Belize ...the hard part is What do we do?  The reason for mission trips around the world is to serve others and to show our love for them.  So its really important that we work in partnership with our Belizean partner (Mr Rafael Cob and Brother John Eustice) to plan projects that will have an immediate impact on the people we serve.  This year we will continue with our Computers in Schools program but we are improving some things.  We will implement more advanced laptop computers that are efficient and lower cost to maintain and support.  We will also provide some training for the schools on computer classes and how to fully leverage the computer lab.  We plan to implement three computer labs with 10 computers each in three villages (Chonox, Sarteneja and Buena Vista).  My second big focus for this year is to crack the nut on micro-loans.  I hope to get several small loan applications prior to June with the goal of loaning 2-4 loans for $500-$1000 BZE.  For perspective an individual could start a small village chicken farm with less $300-$400.  My hope is leverage the Kiva.com model as best we can to allow for a few folks to start creating commerce in their village.   While in Belize I will also invest time connecting with government agencies or local organizations that are involved in the micro-loan system.  My hope is to get our vision integrated into existing programs vs creating something new.  This one is harder to do but I want to simple "Get started" to learn and have an IMPACT!