November month end

Hi everyone! I hope you all are keeping warm! We are managing to keep very, very warm. (ha) The months are flying by. Christmas is just around the corner. And you wouldn't believe how hard it is to Christmas shop when it's 30 degrees ABOVE zero outside! We won't even mention the lack of stores. Oh well, we all have our crosses to bear, I guess.
So here are the pics and the low down for November. Hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed the month!

The locals call this a 'tourist tree' because it turns red and peels in the sun! Pretty fun. Belizeans are known for their great senses of humor. I don't know what it is really called.













In November we attended our first (and, hopefully, not last) baptism. It was interesting because Joshua (in the middle, if you need a hint) was baptized in the Sea.

The Belmopan youth and our Dangriga youth got together for some soccer, basketball, and a trip to the Mayan ruins. It was a very long day - especially for the leaders!














Kori turned 13! We had a fun party and then went horseback riding. Ernesto came with us and he and Kori went body surfing down the rapids. Kori got a little banged up but they sure had fun!















Last picture of the the month: I didn't know Rafe had a store in Belmopan. And a computer store at that!!

A Few of my Favorite Things

Not being nearly as talented as Julie Andrews (or whomever wrote the song, I guess) my list of favorite things doesn’t rhyme or flow like her raindrops on roses. It has been a fun list to compile, however, and I thought I’d share. So here it is, my favorite things about Belize (in random order).
We don’t get weather like you guys in Canada do. The weather varies from 30 – 33 degrees and rains usually at night or early morning during the rainy season. But sometimes, if we’ve been really good, at night, and I mean all night, we get an amazing, shake the walls, bright, loud thunder storm. Alfred thinks it’s funny because the thunder will wake him and he’ll be alone in bed. When he comes out to find me, he will find Brynn, Kori and me on the couch in front of our glass wall watching the storm. You can literally see the glass shake with each roll of thunder. That’s my favorite weather.
I have never been a morning person. (forgive the understatement) but here, my favorite time of day is the early morning. OK by early I mean 8:00ish but still … Especially if I need to go to town. Everyone is up and about making the most of the day before it gets too hot. People are washing clothes in buckets in their yards, or raking the sand in the yard (no grass here) or eating breakfast. The kids are playing carefully, trying to keep clean in their school uniforms. There is music everywhere. People are happy and smiling and everyone says hello or good morning. It is an amazing way to start the day!
Ask anyone that has been to Hopkins what they remember and they will almost always say something about how bad the sandflies are. They are really nasty. Consequently, my new favorite perfume is eau de Off!!
When people come to visit us, they often ask what they should see or what tours they should take. My favorite activity here has to be hiking in the jungle. It’s cheap which is a huge plus but more than that, it is exciting. The trails are not what we would call groomed. They are cleared. You may find that you have a choice between wading through the stream or trying to balance your way over it on the log that has been pushed across the banks. There will always be a ton of birds and, if you keep your eyes open, you will see lizards and snakes and, if you are really lucky, maybe a monkey or two.
Most of you know I’m mormon and those that don’t, should. A big part of the mormon sub-culture is food. So no favorites list would be complete with out that particular discussion. ‘New favorite food’ is an impossible category so we’re going to go with ‘new favorite foods!’ Rice ‘n beans tops the list. I love it!! I have tried every way I know how and every way I’ve been told how but I just can’t make it. Any time I get a chance, I order it when we are out. Also on this list would be fried plantain. I CAN make this and do at every opportunity. It is sweet and yummy and goes with anything. It is really good with rice ‘n beans. There are lots of ‘givens’ on this list and I won’t go into detail but, of course, most of the fruit is fantastic!
Just because it sounds so upper crust, I have to say that my favorite day of the week in Belize is Monday. That’s the day the cleaning ladies come.
So there it is: my non-complete, non-rhyming, can’t make a song out of it, list of favorite things. Maybe on some bored blog day, I’ll let you read my list of least favorite things. Something to look forward to!

Celebration

November 19 is a very important date, here in Belize, for two reasons: it is Kori's birthday and it is Garifuna settlement day. So we celebrated both! Garifuna settlement day (GSD) was to start on the beach in town at 6:30 am with a reenactment. In typical Belize style, we were there by 6:30 and the re-enactment started promptly at 9:00 am. It was quite a sight, though. Two dugout canoes came in to the bay and one of them 'docked' on the beach where one of the boatmen got out and read a list of the Garinagu on the boats and asked the 'governor' for permission to come into Belice. The governor initially says 'no' and the boatman returns to the boat ... but wait ... they are all tired and hungry so the boatman returns to the governor and begs on bended knee for permission to land. The governor relents and the boatmen come to shore. This re-enacts the events in the early 1800's when 2000 Garifuna people left St. Vincent and came to Belize (then Belice) to escape persecution. As the boatmen come ashore (in the re-enactment) to singing and drums, they parade to the church for morning mass. I should mention here that almost all of the Garifuna participants and not a few of the audience have been drinking all night and the mass is actually the end of the celebration for them rather than the beginning. Here are some pictures of the day:





Garifuna women and little girl in traditional dress headed for the beach.
















The drummers, dancers and singers provide background music for the re-enactment. The blue flag is the flag of Belize; the yellow and black is the Garifuna flag; the women are in traditional dress and the drums are still a big part of the culture here in Hopkins. They can be heard almost every night and definitely at every celebration and funeral.



Garifuna kids are so cute in traditional dress!! Also love the braids.

















These guys were coming to the end of their party. They are holding some of the symbols of Belize and the Garifuna: shakers; the garifuna flag and Belikin Beer! It was quite a party! Later we went horseback riding in the jungle to celebrate Kori's 13th birthday .... but that's a story for another blog.

Bad News

OK, it has happened. I swore it never would but it has. And now all of you will mock me just as I used to mock those like me. Yes, that's right, I have become a cold weather wimp!! It has been chilly here the past week or so. I have put away my shorts and pulled out the jeans. At night we sit in sweats cuddled up in blankets to watch movies. I even looked out today at the tourists around the pool and commented that it was really too cold to swim. What is the temperature, you ask? Well, I'm not sure I want to tell you. Suffice it to say that it has yet to fall below 22 at night and during the day it's at least 5 degrees warmer. I am hanging my head in shame. Yesterday we went snorkeling and I was actually huddled up with my arms across my body as I was snorkeling because I was so cold. I could only stay in for about 1/2 an hour. Then I went back to the boat, changed into my dry clothes and sat in the sun to warm up. I don't know the conversion but the water was reading a temperature of 85 degrees F. I can't even imagine the teasing I am going to take when we get back to Canada and I break out my parka at temperatures above zero. I feel somehow that I have failed my sturdy Canadian upbringing. Sorry this post is a little short. My fingers are turning blue and seizing up. I need to go turn off the fan above my head. Stay warm!

What I learned

There is truth to the saying “you learn something new every day.” I have been learning lots of new things and this past week has been stuffed full of learning experiences. Some of the more interesting things I have learned this week are:
1) The resorts are not allowed to shine lights on the sea at night. They can shine lights on the beach if the lights are behind something so that they don’t shine directly on the sea. This is important because the lights attract turtles and it messes them up and they get ‘blown off course’ so to speak.
2) Fishing at night yields many, many fish except on the new and full moons. Always stop fishing a couple of days before and after each as it is a waste of time.
3) This one seriously blew me away! Alfred came home chuckling the other day because his co-workers had been teasing him about being mormon in Belize. (Confused me too) Polygamy is totally legal and practiced in Belize. In fact, the prime minister has two wives complete with, now grown, kids. Wild, hey?
4) We took about 26 youth and 8 leaders to the mayan ruins for a youth activity on Saturday. The branch president had planned for 10 youth plus 5 leaders and rented a van that seated 15. We ended up traveling with the van, our Tahoe and a small car. I learned that, if you put 5 in the small car, the Tahoe will hold 8 plus the driver and the 15 passenger van will hold the remaining 20. Would never happen in Canada but is just par for the course in Belize. (I was terrified the whole trip we’d be in an accident)
5) The freakiest thing I learned this week was what a coconut bug is. I don’t know the real name but that’s what the locals call this guy.


We found him when we stopped at the bakery on the way home from the ruins. He does bite and also flies. I kept thinking, if he flies into the car we will have a real girly, bug in the car experience!! I’m starting to wonder if we are living in the real Jurassic park.
Can’t wait to see what this new week holds!

Fruits

As I was buying fruits the other day, I realized how much our knowledge of said yummy things has increased. I thought someone should benefit from this knowledge besides us. After all, what is the point of being knowledgeable if you can't show off for others?
Many of the fruits we eat here are the same as the ones we enjoy at home. Apples, plumbs, peaches are all imported from California and are just the same as those at home. Almost no one here eats them, though, because, relatively speaking, they are way expensive. They are $1.00Bz each (that's 50 cents American or like nothing Canadian).
Some of the fruits look familiar until you bite into them. These definitely include pineapple and bananas. When you buy a 'fresh' pineapple at the local SaveOn, the taste, as you know, is lovely and sweet but quite acidic. Then you eat a pineapple lifesaver and think 'why do they taste like that? That's not how pineapple taste.' WRONG! That is how pineapple taste. Sweet and juicy and no acid to speak of at all. And they also cost between $1Bz and $3Bz each depending on the size (that's between 50 cents and $1.50 US or like nothing Canadian!) Bananas the same. They taste like banana flavoring. The ones at home have absolutely no taste in comparison. Banana's cost 8 for $1Bz (that's 50 cents US or like nothing Canadian - you get the idea) Oranges at 7 for $1Bz, look awful. They are green skinned and rotten looking. BUT peel them and they are the sweetest, juiciest oranges I have ever eaten. We squeeze them for juice and never add sugar.
A few of the fruits are sort of familiar looking. I've seen them at the local SaveOn but have never bought them because of the cost. Fitting squarely in this category are dragon fruit. They are pink skinned fruit about the size of a small apple and the skin kind of peels back in spiky 'petals'. Here they are $1Bz each. so we buy them and YUM! You cut them in half and eat them with a spoon like a kiwi. They even look sort of like a kiwi, if kiwis were fuchsia colored instead of green. The taste isn't as sweet as some other fruits but very pleasant and refreshing.
Then there are the weird looking, sounding, tasting fruits that seem to be unique to the Caribbean. Sapodilla looks like a kiwi on steroids. Cut it in half and eat it the same as a kiwi or dragon fruit. The meat is kind of a burnt orange color and the taste is strong and not really pleasant. It is a taste, though, that I could see getting used to if you eat it with like 1/2 a gallon of ice cream. Star fruit look like opaque green stars and are very sour but juicy. People like them as juice but they are so much work to make taste good that it's hardly worth it. Craboo, on the other hand have absolutely no redeeming qualities! They are small yellow fruits - about 1 inch in diameter - and they look appealing ... till you bite into one. Kori describes the taste as vomit flavoured sawdust and I'd say that's pretty accurate. The locals love them and eat them by the handfuls. If you get stuck on a bus with a lot of craboo-eating locals it is awful - craboo smell like they taste.
The one type of fruit that is conspicuous in its absence are berries. We so miss berries! Strawberry is almost every Belizian's favorite flavor because they just don't have any. Cravings for blueberries and raspberries are common occurrences in our house lately. I'm sure that when we get home it will take ... maybe forever before we get over missing the good, cheap fruit we are enjoying but the thought of a world devoid of craboo sounds like heaven!

Antelope Falls

This is the hike I have been studiously avoiding. I keep telling people I'm not in good enough shape yet. Brynn found the loophole! She asked that we go on the hike as her birthday party. So on Saturday we did it. And even having done it I can still say I'm not in good enough shape for that hike! It starts out reasonably and, thankfully, it wasn't too hot. Brynn is in the lead and all of a sudden she jumps backward with a "holy crap!!!" Of course we are all right behind her and there is a small pile up while we all try to adjust to the change in direction. Seems she almost stepped on this:

Green tree snake. It was about 5 or more feet long. Note the pretty blue tongue. It's a totally harmless snake and we were fortunate to see one. Very cool! I had heard that the trail was quite steep and at one point there would be a rope to help with the climb. So when we got to the rope I was totally thrilled! It wasn't too bad for steep and we were almost there.
Yah, right! Turns out this was just the beginning. We stopped half way up to enjoy a rest, a snack and the view.

Now, I want you to notice how far we are from the top! By now, I am drenched through with sweat and almost out of water and totally out of reserve energy. I am still, however, a Mom and this was Brynn's birthday party. So, I sucked it up and continued on. Turns out we had just finished the easy part of the hike! The rest was almost straight up with very little in the line of trail. Sometimes we were literally hanging off the side of the mountain. Then we got to the view point. WOW!! The picture doesn't do it justice. We could see the Sea and our house! Amazing!

But the hike wasn't done yet. We were now headed for the real payoff!!

A swim in the pool! Way cool! In more ways than one. There were lots of cleaner fish in the pool and they sucked on our skin looking for bits of dirt and bugs to eat. It was a bit of a shock when they started but we quickly got used to it and it was fun. Then we had to trek back down. It's way steeper going down! How does that work? I guess getting us up the mountain wasn't enough for Brynn because she decided to give us all a heart attack on the way down. She tripped. Luckily her martial arts training kicked in and she managed to roll. Unluckily she was going so fast she couldn't stop rolling and was headed off the path and really DOWN the mountain. Kori caught her just as she hit the edge of the path. I made everyone stop while I learned how to breathe again! After that the biggest thing of interest was this ant hill:

The ants are about 1 inch long. Everything grows bigger in Belize!

Halloween Ghosts

Last night we were visited by two of the Halloween ghosts. Appropriate, don’t you think? The first of our ‘spirited’ visitors was the ghost of Halloween past. He showed up early in the afternoon as we reminisced about past Halloween costumes and activities. We talked about our favorite costumes of years past and last year’s trick or treating as we thought about you all out in the frozen north. Brynn and Kori were especially animated as they remembered last year. They set out together in the typical Halloween weather just after supper. As they went from house to house, they forgot to pay attention to where they were going and eventually realized they were lost – in Heritage Hills. (don’t laugh, they are definitely their mother’s daughters) Being teenagers, they decided to just keep trick or treating until they recognized something and could find their way home. After some time, they had enough candy in their pillowcases that the weight of them was starting to cause problems and besides that, they had lost all feeling in their toes. That was when they reevaluated their priorities, quit trick or treating and began to concentrate on finding their way home. To make a very long story somewhat shorter, they eventually got home, totally frozen and the first thing they did was get out the scale and weigh their bags. Each had over 20 pounds of candy!
Back to yesterday. At about 4:30 in the afternoon, the ghost of Halloween present showed up in the form of two little girls. The girls (about 8 years old) were shyly standing at the bottom of our steps trying to decide what to do. They were both dressed in their play clothes but one of them still had on her school uniform shirt. I opened the door and said hello whereupon they whispered ‘trick or treat?’. I excitedly handed them each one of the little treat bags I had prepared. Each of the girls shook my hand, thanked me and wished me a happy Halloween. All told we had about 17 kids come to our door last night. They were all dressed in shorts and t-shirts because it was about 29 degrees out (ha ha). Only one had what might pass as a costume. He was wearing a home made mask. None of them had even a grocery bag for candy. There are very, very few people in the village who could afford to give out candy. I’m sure each of the kids went home with less than 20 candies let alone 20 pounds of candy. But they were all laughing and having fun which was the important part for them.
The ghost of Halloween future didn’t pop in yesterday but I wonder what he would have shown us. Part of me hopes he would show me a time when the kids of this village would be able to leave their houses on Halloween night with bags and take for granted the bags would be full by the time they returned home. And part of me hopes they never lose the joy they found in the little things last night. Maybe they will manage to hold onto both?