Thursday Evening

We made it safely back to Belize City. It's been a truly great trip. Our students are terrific people and give so freely of themselves to help others.

On the way to Belize City, we stopped in Belmopan, the capital of Belize. We toured the U.S. Embassy and talked with department heads there. The ambassador was out of town, but we learned a lot about the work of the Embassy in Belize.

The Justice Administration team and a few others headed to tour the prison and talk with corrections officials there. They had a great experience. The prison system in Belize has come a long way and many improvements have been made.

The remainder of the group went to the Belize zoo. The baby jaguar was by far the favorite. He came right up to the fence and let everyone take pictures of him. The monkeys, birds, and tapir were other favorites. A beautiful zoo.

I just want to take a few minutes to praise and thank our students and faculty. They handled travel adversity, hot weather, bug bites, and long days of hard work in a gracious and thoughtful manner. We all shed a few tears from time to time and high fived each other at other times.

The caring additudes and enjoyment of serving others was evident in all that they took on. In addition to the planned work in the dental clinic, schools, and community; they played with children, talked with women, listened to the men, and really tried to develop relationships in the short time that we had in the village. It changed all of our lives. Service to others has a way of doing that. I loved spending time with each of our team. They are incredible people, and I'm happy to have the opportunity to work with them.

I'm very proud of all of the ISLP group, but I also want to talk the folks back home who sacrificed their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, and friends and family to travel to Belize for the week. You may have helped financially, taken on more responsibility at home, or with moral support, but they left knowing that people back home were thinking about them. We all appreciate that support.

I'll post more pictures later tonight and Dr. Jackson will add his comments. The blog will end with his comments. Thank you for reading it and keeping up with our journey. We'll be home soon.