Lanes Humanitarian Trip to Belize!

I really wanted Lane to go on a humanitarian trip.

Mostly to give him a taste of being away from home before

he serves a mission.

A little humility gained on the side would be an added bonus, if possible!
(Sometimes for teenagers it's hard to know the world outside of your own, and

assume life is dandy no matter where you live).

He wasn't opposed to the idea, and actually had 

some friends planning to the same thing the

Summer before their senior year!

HXP is a wonderful organization!!
It aligns with the principles, vision, and values of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

However, HXP is not sponsored or endorsed by them.

It is open to all faiths willing to follow that code of conduct, 

which I loved!

Their mission:

TO CHANGE LIVES THROUGH SUSTAINABLE SERVICE. 

This goes for the "Builder" (youth volunteer) and to the

country/organization that they serve. 

It is quite a process to get accepted, as it has become VERY 

popular!

We were crossing our fingers he would get placed

after submitting his top 20 places of choice.

Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, to name a few. 

The next morning I received an email saying he didn't get in!
I was devastated!!!

We were able to resubmit, and luckily he was placed

in the Orange Walk, Belize trip!

Which was on his original list.

We just picked a different date that wasn't as popular and got in!

Dropping him off for his red eye flight to Miami, 

where he would meet up with his group.

I was nervous sending him on his own!

I thought about flying with him to Miami, but flights

were PRICEY!! 

I figured he would have to figure this out at some point in his life,

so I said many silent prayers that he would manage ok.

Which, he did no problem.

 

He didn't know that I slipped an air tag in his suitcase!

I was up ALL night checking the location like a hawk!!

I also learned a trick that you can text your flight # to yourself

and it gives you detailed information about that flight, so cool!!

He made it to Miami!

There are more details I am not giving,
 but I was nervous to send him the night before.

SO thankful he made it without delays.

It sure was a gamble he didn't have hiccups and miss that connecting flight with his group!

Funny side note-
 He joined the wrong group at first!
 And was even in their picture!

Glad he wasn't halfway to Guatemala before figuring it out!!

Part of HXP is no phones the whole trip.

He sent his last text to me before turning it in for 3 weeks!!

It was surprisingly harder than I thought it would be to not

have the ability to check in on him!

I only had the Instagram account I could follow with updates and pictures 

they posted.

I LOVED that they were forced to unplug and socialize.

Lane said it wasn't a big deal.

They were kept plenty busy!

Lane didn't bring a camera, so every picture is what I screenshot from Instagram!

Still following the air tag!

Another thing I loved about HXP is that they DO NOT allow you to 

come with a friend, sibling, cousin...

They want you fully committed to making new friends and getting out of your

comfort zone, YESSS!!!

In his group were mostly people from Utah.

One other girl was from AZ, but lives in Prescott.

Boston, TN, Texas, Idaho.

So a somewhat diverse group!

A month before the trip they were able to chat on 

Group-me to get to know each other better!

The first 2 days were more playful.

Getting them settled and acclimated before the real work began!

Lane purposely picked Belize so he could do 

more water excursions vs hiking and site seeing

like other trips had to offer!

Boarding a sailboat.

 

Each group had a boy and girl group leader.

This is one of them, Isaac.

I guess you dangle the fish, and then much bigger fish jump up and snatch it!

Side note- Lane isn't much with words and description, so I am going off

of the info from social media!!

They got to know the ward members very well!

At the end of each work day, they would visit members homes in the

evening, play games at the church building and such. 

He got to pass the Sacrament the first Sunday!

This picture made me teary.

A glimpse of him serving others as a missionary in the near future!

Prepping for their first work day.

Decorating their hard hats is an HXP rite of passage, I guess!

They split them into groups or committees.

Game crew in the house!

Every day they rode in this old school bus to the jobsite.

Their project was building a new classroom for a school.

Lane was the 2nd group to come in.

They continued where the 1st group ended before leaving.

This I took from the first group.

In my opinion, they had it the hardest.

They started from scratch, digging and digging the footings.

Talk about back breaking labor!

Lanes group ready to get started!

Lanes group filled in the footings, poured the foundation, and started 

laying the block walls.

He told me the first group was pretty far behind where they 

should have been before they left.

Their group caught them up and even put them 2 weeks ahead of schedule!

We were told not to send them with nice clothes.
 They would get trashed

and most likely thrown away at the end.

They were not wrong.

These kids WORKED HARD and were muddy messes at the

end of each day!

So much wheelbarrowing.

Playing some type of cultural fire ball game!

On the weekends they played!!

They tubed a famous river and and cave,  then got to zip line!

Church antics. 

More hard work!
I have to hand it to the girls,
I don't think I would have survived!

It is nasty humid and hot in Belize, especially in the June heat.

They experienced torrential down pours that did not

slow them down!

In fact, there was a big hurricane brewing that was threating to 

send them home early.

Luckily, that didn't happen and they were able to stay the whole time!

Visiting the Maya ruins. 

I am so glad he was able to help pour the concrete!
This wasn't his first time, as he has worked with Casey before.

I bet he will never take for granted concrete trucks ever again!

Working in the relentless rain. 

They got to sign their names in the concrete!!!

What they accomplished in the 3 weeks they were there.

I took this from the 4th and final group.

The finished classroom.

I am sure there are students inside as we speak.

Enjoying the last moments together as a more bonded group.

Learning how to make tortillas and salsa by a ward member.

They made it back to Florida and spent the night an in airbnb 

HXP has for a few months.

They did an early morning temple trip in

the Ft. Lauderdale temple.

And then the airport drop-off.

And they got back their phones!!

My first call was Lane asking me to transfer money...welcome home!

Most of them had about 5 hours to kill before their flights,

so they hunkered down and played games and chatted until

they slowly went their separate ways. 

Tracking him all the way home!

Back home to us in a Belize shirt!

He had nothing but amazing things to say about his experience.

I am excited for Rusty to go in a few years!