Peter, the Quiet One

About 12 hours after our arrival here last month we had the privilege of meeting Peter. This quiet, very shy, boy of 14 years approached us and asked us if we wanted to buy "bread buns" from his mother who was selling them out of her house across the street from us. We purchased a half dozen warm delicious buns and thus began our relationship. Peter rarely says more than a few sentences and his shyness can easily be seen in his eyes, as he holds his gaze down often. Peter lives with his mom, step dad, and 4 siblings, one of whom is severely handicapped (2 other siblings have grown and are out of the house). Being 14, Peter is finished with his education (many children do not finish beyond 8th grade). Yet, he is unable to read or write. Peter certainly is not a "normal" child, as you would have it. His step dad explains, "Peter is just a dummy." When he would attend school, he would hide in the bushes, run home for lunch and then return only to hide in the bushes once more. When you live in a country with no special education, this is what happens--your future becomes even more bleak. But, his parents say that he is gifted in the kitchen and perhaps, this will help to pave a future for him.

As we currently have 4 house guests--staff members of a group called Catholic Missions Trip--the house has been a bit more lively than usual. Peter stopped by today, selling bread pudding, a bit curious of all the activity. As he returned with the bread pudding that we purchased Andy invited him into the kitchen to help with dinner. Andy showed Peter how to squeeze limes with a juicer to make limeade. He also showed Peter how to make spaghetti, of which Peter says that he has had only once before. Since he helped with the dinner preparations, we invited Peter to stay for dinner and he quietly agreed. Just as we were setting the table, Peter shot off and said he had to finish selling bread pudding for his mother and would be back at 7. A few minutes after we all sat down to eat Peter showed up again, peering his head around the corner of the top steps. We asked, no insisted, that he sit to eat with us. He timidly sat next to me (Julie) at the long table and we began to serve him up--garlic bread, sauteed vegetables, and spaghetti. He asked for a large serving of spaghetti, something I found to be very normal for a 14 year old boy. Then he began to eat. When I watched Peter eat, it was almost a bit awkward--he would have a bite here a bite there but nothing you would expect from a hungry teenager. (It was also very apparent that he had no familiarity with how to eat spaghetti). All the while, Peter sat quietly as the rest of us had a discussion about some of our favorite foods from the States. Then it was time to serve up dessert, Peter's mom's bread pudding with some caramel sauce we'd made. Peter wanted dessert on his plate but it was strange, he still had most of his food still on his plate (except the seconds of garlic bread which he'd already eaten). Something tells me that in all his silence, Peter was very happy there, he was enjoying this moment. Still, I couldn't quite figure out why he wasn't eating very much, and so slowly. As the meal ended many of us jumped up to clear our plates and the table. And then I watched Peter--he was taking the leftovers from his plate and putting them into a bowl which he'd used to bring over the bread pudding in. And then I realized what he was doing, Peter was taking his food home to his family.

Not acknowledging that of course, it was confirmed when I asked him if he wanted me to put more food in his bowl and he quietly said 'yes.' We gave him all that was left of the vegetables and spaghetti and went into the kitchen to give him more leftover pasta from our refrigerator. Fortunately, Peter left with a large bowl of food, to which he was very gracious.

Our hearts ache for all the Peters of the world--the gentle spirit, quiet personality, and generous and sharing heart. If only we could feed them every night. Thank you Peter for enriching our lives today.

just added: Peter graciously agreed to let me photograph him from our veranda.  That is his house in the background (the chalkboard lists what things his mom is selling that day).

Sarah's Report after visiting a Mayan Funeral

Sarah and Andy accompanied Fr. Perl into the village of San Pedro Columbia while he conducted a funeral Mass.  It is rare for the priest to travel to the villages for this, but the funeral was for the mother-in-law of a church catechist.  Catechists are lay ministers trained by the church to lead prayer services and perform other church functions in the villages.  Sarah will tell you about this and more in her first internet news debut.  Enjoy!

Our House is a very very very fine house...

...with two cats in the yard (and some dogs, and a couple of lizards, and some roosters, bats, and some giant cockroaches.
  So now that we're a little bit settled I wanted to tell you a bit around our home.  We basically live in a two family flat on the second floor.  We've learned quickly that this is a good thing as we tend to catch quite a bit more breeze up here (that and the 1st floor seems to smell very musty because of the rain).  Space wise, it's not bad as we have about as much space as we did at our house back in the States (less the basement).
   We've got a living room, kitchen, eat in area, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a veranda.  The veranda has quickly become the choice spot for playing, drying clothes, and sitting.  We hope to get a hammock soon as the choices for seating appear to be limited to resin chair or hammock.
   The house came furnished but we would definitely consider it to be sparsely furnished as you can see from the pictures (the bookshelf in the living room photo was made by Andy from some reclaimed wood and the blue tubs are luggage we brought with us).  Still, as I'd mentioned before, our apartment is obviously one of the nicer homes around.
   One of the things we are quickly learning about living in a 3rd world country, with limited resources, is that things often don't work (or work regularly).  Blackouts are common (in which we lose both electricity and water) as are what we like to call "water outs" in which we lose just water.  Between that and the regularly non-functioning bathrooms (neither has worked fully since we've lived here), we've quickly developed the family motto, "don't let it brew if you don't have to"--you never know when the toilet will stop working.
   It's not about the lack of effort to maintain things, it's really just the inability to do so as the caretaker (who also works another job) has been working many hours to try to keep our house up.  Our plumbing has broken pieces which have been hard to come by along with the fact that it lacks proper ventilation for it to really work  well.  In fact, many things around here seem to be jerry rigged--as can be noticed in the random holes in the walls, and the wires that poke in and out of the house with no apparent rhyme or reason.  Our master bedroom has a wire that goes from the top corner of our room, across our wall, and out our bedroom window to who knows where.
   Another thing you might notice in the photos of our house are the bars on the windows.  While the town feels relatively safe, theft and burglary seem to be an issue here.  Nearly every house has bars on their windows.  We try to be positive and look at it as a way of preventing small kids from falling out the window.  Plus, several of our windows have missing or broken screens so we like to think that it also keeps some birds and bats out.  Our entire yard has a fence and gate around it as well for added security.
   In spite of the nuances, we are working to make our house a home.  The country here is absolutely beautiful--the birds are beautiful, coconut trees and mango trees abound, we live just minutes from the rain forest, blocks from the ocean, and can see the Maya Mountains from our kitchen window.  It really is a blessing to be here.
Here is our mailing address should you wish to contact us:
The Kuhnert Family
St. Peter Claver Church
P.O. Box 25
Punta Gorda, Belize
Central America