Unstuck Belize - The Beginning

Mired down by personal, spiritual and professional issues, Kim Bartling headed for a sandy beach in January and unstuck herself. Now she hopes  16 University of Sioux Falls students will have equally life-changeing experiences. Seven weeks after Barling returned from the Central American country of Belize, the theatre professor and the students will create a playground for the schoolchildren; in addition, she would like to teach them drama and athletics.

The kids at Holy Cross Anglican School on Ambergris Caye won't be the only ones to benefit.
"I fully expect our students will be the people who are changed forever and will want to continue to do this type of traveling," Bartling says. "I'm fully expecting our students will walk away so much richer than any type of monetary things we can bring down and truly wanting to live the mission of the university, serving the world and God."

Belize, once known as British Honduras, is 25 miles long and 1 mile wide. It has three streets. Front Street offers white sand beaches and lavish hotels. Middle Street offers cafes and shops. But Back Street's dwellings are where it is revealed how desperately poor most Belizeans really are.  Despite that, Bartling awoke every morning to the sound of laughter - children, often riding three on a bicycle, elatedly heading off to school.

When Bartling returned to USF, she attended a Tuesday morning chapel service and asked to speak. Normally reserved about her faith, she found herself wanting to share her experience. And she proposed returning during the college's spring break in mid-March.  "I'm so proud of the University of Sioux Falls for saying, yes, we'll support you in doing this," Bartling says. "Our mission is like Gandhi's, to be the change you want to see in the world."

Bartling put out the call for students to go with her and ended up with 18 volunteers, not just from her department but from across the campus.  Anne Wentworth, a 21-year-old junior from Stickney, expected to spend spring break traveling with the USF choir on a concert tour to Chicago, Iowa and Wisconsin. But the communications and theater major woke up about a week ago, knowing her spring break travels would take her even farther.  "I woke up, and I'm like 'I'm going to go to Belize because I feel called,' " Wentworth says.  Wentworth, who has taken on roles as varied as Cinderella and a 60-year-old woman, had to tell her choir director, David DeHoogh-Kliewiter, about her change in plans.

He was disappointed but supportive, she says. "He said, 'OK, we pray blessings on your mission trip' and released me to go," Wentworth says.

Colin Koth, also a 21-year-old junior, had traveled to Guatemala on a mission trip with Linwood Wesleyan Church while in high school.  Earlier this month he was in Geneva, Ohio, participating in the NAIA indoor track and field meet. He won the men's 400 there. But a small corner of his mind was mulling over the possibility of going to Belize, and he spoke with Bartling by phone several times.  When he returned, he knew he was going to Belize.  "The thing is, you go down there expecting to make a difference for those people," Koth says. "I found this out in Guatemala. You learn a lot from them. You learn how they love life, each moment of every day."

The USF students will play sports with the kids, most of whom can't afford things such as soccer balls and softballs. They also will perform this year's USF children's play, "Page to Stage," which adapted kids' books such as "The Stinky Cheese Man" and "Olivia Forms a Band."  "We want to show them you can make a play out of anything," Wentworth says. "You don't need expensive things or a stage or curtains or a script. You just need ideas."

The USF students fly out on March 18 and 19. The days until then will be spent raising necessary funds. It will cost about $3,000 to put together the playground, Bartling says. Students are responsible for raising the $950 each plane ticket will cost.  USF's campus ministries has agreed to pay for the cost of extra luggage, which will be filled with the items donated for the Belizean children.  "It sounds cliched to say we're going to grow," Koth says, "but we will."

-  Jill Callison's columns   Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, SD     3/10/211