Enough

 

I misunderstood something before coming to Belize. 

 

I understood that the ladies in the village would make us breakfast and lunch, but I had the assumption that it would be sandwiches or something simple that we could eat on the work site.

 

I was so wrong! 

 

We have had full Belizean meals for breakfast and lunch each day this week. 

 

I have had the privilege of working in the kitchen with the ladies, and they have taken me under their wings and showed me how to make some things. 

 

For all of you feminists out there, don’t fret. I have not been in the kitchen because a woman’s place is in the kitchen. I chose to be in the kitchen because I was genuinely interested in how to make tamales and then I felt at home there.

 

I could’ve been on the construction site with the men. I realized on Monday that I am more handy and adept at using construction tools than I thought, but for some reason, being on the construction site isn’t where I feel like I was supposed to be this week.

 

I was supposed to be with the ladies in the kitchen, or painting shutters at the church. 

 

I was supposed to listen to and laugh and cry with the pastor’s wife.

 

I was supposed to put two primer coats on the front and back of at least 70 shutters. 

 

The physical work that I have done will never be seen. It will be painted over. And at one point in my life, I would’ve thought that work futile and meaningless. 

 

But here, in Belize, surrounded by kind, hospitable people who work together for the good of the village, I don’t feel like my work is meaningless. 

 

It is one step of making a house that will hold life safe and secure. 

 

It is one part of a whole that I will never see but that will remain for many years to come. 

 

And here, in Belize, that is enough. 

 

Amen.