This time 10 years ago all 7 of us were well established, living in Belize. The 3 girls were enrolled in school. Our first son, at 4, was living his best life enjoying preschool, while both boys enjoyed exploring & playing carefree with their Mayan friends in our neighborhood. Andy had wrapped up teacher trainings on literacy & math, before diving into individual teacher evaluations throughout the district. By this point, I was working alongside Andy to bring arts into the classroom while he engaged with the teachers.
Now, 10 years later, a lot has changed. Punta Gorda, Belize has changed so much, the best of which is grocery stores that have doubled & tripled in size (think now, the size of an Aldi vs previously, the size of 7-11). Smart phones are in every area, vehicles have doubled in numbers, the highway to Guatemala has been built (only on the Belize side, it ends at the border with a dirt road). Best of all, Camp Creative has enjoyed serving children with the arts for 10 years--taking only a break in 2020 for Covid. It has grown to be the largest, and truly one of the best camp programs in the entire country. It is also one of the only successful volunteer programs that works with BOTH American volunteers & Belizean volunteers. It is a true team effort, and unique among volunteer programs for this model.
This year, feeling the need to reconnect with the community & culture again on a deeper level, we plan to return as a family for an extended visit this summer. We also feel this is a good way to keep in touch with the true needs of the community's children, even on an artistic level. Additionally, our sons remember very little of the area & as they are now in middle school and soon, high school, they need to know more about a place that has become such an important part of our family's lives.
A plan to return for a 10 year anniversary trip has been in the works for a couple of years, but there is still SOOOO much planning to be done--especially since flights have doubled in the last couple of months (thanks Russia)! Part of the plan is also to stay significantly longer, so we have found 2 furnished 1 bdrm apartments so squeeze our family into, as well as a long term vehicle rental. All of this while still planning for the actual camp, and handling the details of our American volunteers' travel.
Now comes the best part: with an extended visit & a lot of us travelling, comes the opportunity to host a second Camp Creative! This has been a long time dream of mine & it finally gets to come to fruition. We've always been able to reach out to the nearly 2000 children living in the town of Punta Gorda. What we haven't been able to do, until now, is reach out to some of the nearly 14,000 children living in the villages surrounding Punta Gorda. These communities are generally indigenous, and significantly more isolated. Service groups do often come out & visit schools in a village, but there are dozens of villages in the district, so they are vastly underserved. Our second camp will be just 2 weeks after the first camp (with a little R&R squeezed in between).
We could not be more excited to share these upcoming experiences with you. The projects are (mostly) planned, a 'wish list' is coming together, and details are fitting together nicely. You can still support our efforts by checking out the list of needed items. Most importantly, we ask for your prayers as we continue to prepare for such a long visit & a double camp. It will be busy, exhausting, probably a little frustrating, but most of all fun! I feel so lucky that God has chosen us for this mission.
Our planned camp dates are June 26-July 1 in Punta Gorda & July 11-15 in Big Falls village (about 30 minutes outside of town). If you'd like to see how things are running day to day at camp, I'd encourage you to look at our facebook page, Kuhnert Family Mission to Belize. It is a public page & can be viewed by facebook users & non-facebook users alike. We try to add new pictures of camp each day as it's running.
Thanks as always, for so much positive support, it means so much to us, but also to the children & teachers in Belize that benefit so much from it.
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