Mind Games

The time has now come for me to begin to 'cut the apron strings' with Belize. In an attempt to begin this process, I am compiling a list of things I won't mind missing when I leave 'the Jewel'. Most of this list is in random order as they randomly flit through my mind. The exception to this rule is the first item on the list. The first item is first for a reason - it is truly the number one thing I will not mind missing about Belize.
#1 Doctor Flies!! I will not ever, ever miss doctor flies ... ever! In case you missed the blog on these horrible pests (and, mostly because I want to rant a little) I will tell you about them. Doctor flies are about the size of large houseflies but they are yellow. They bite! (surprise) I have actually never felt one bite me but other people swear they can feel them bite. What I feel is the INTENSE itching that immediately follows a bite. It itches so badly that it hurts. And then, just as your mind is processing the itch/pain and you look down at the bite, it begins to swell ... and swell ... and swell. Pretty soon the area that was bitten is twelve times it's normal size and the itch is threatening to put you, permanently, in the loony bin. If the bite was on a joint (ankle, knee, elbow, etc) the joint will be too swollen and itchy and sore to bend for the next three weeks. Nothing helps. I cannot think of any reason God created doctor flies except that he must enjoy watching us squirm for all the stress we put Him through on a daily basis.
OK. Now that that is over with, the rest of the list is in random order.
#2 The Hopkins Road. The road that takes the weary traveller from the Southern Highway into the village of Hopkins is about 4 1/2 miles long and it takes at least 15 -20 minutes to drive. The gravel parts of the road are basically just rocks dumped on the high part of the ground in the middle of the swamp. The rocks can be very large and very sharp. If you value your tires, you won't go over 30 - 40 km/hr. The rocks are broken up by the masses of potholes that litter the gravel in random and odd patterns so you can't miss them all no matter how hard you try. I hasten to let you know that part of the road is paved. So you get a break from the rocks. The paved part, though, has triple the potholes. In fact many of the potholes morph together into large, irregularly shaped mini ponds in the road. Once in a while someone decides to 'fix' the road and they come along and dump a bunch of gravel on the gravel part of the road and grade it. Then they pour the leftover gravel into the mega potholes on the paved part. This works great until the next hard rain. Personally, I think the road repair guys should be weathermen. The day after they 'fix' the road, you can count on a heavy rain shower. Always. Then the road is worse than before. Of course, we travel this road at least five times a week.
#3 Hurricanes. We were very lucky last year that the hurricanes that threatened Belize caused very little damage and only to small parts of the country. How, then can I say I won't miss hurricanes? Well, to be fair, the thing I will hate is running from hurricanes. I used to think those people who refused to leave their homes in the face of disaster were being ridiculous. Now I have great respect for those people. Imagine packing up three days worth of food and water trying to make all your personal treasures safe and then joining the mass migration of cars, buses, bikes and hikers on the trek over the mountains to find a safe haven in the hurricane shelters, strangers basements and suddenly, overpriced hotel rooms that everyone else is also staying in. Talk about a crowded, uncomfortable situation. No fun at all no matter which way you look at it but better than the hurricane, right? Absolutely. If the hurricane actually hits. Which it doesn't always do. And didn't do once last year despite the assurances from all quarters that two cat 5 hurricanes were going to hit us dead on. We ran from the first one. To a stranger's basement and sever discomfort for 24 hours. Dean headed north. We got nothing. Then Felix. Already I had become one of 'those' people. I refused to leave. Alfred insisted we would have to leave if Felix didn't turn. We had to leave 12 hours before he hit in order to get out safely. At almost exactly the 12 hour mark, Felix headed south. I have pictures of the girls swimming in our pool during the breeze that was Felix in Hopkins. I will not miss running from hurricanes.
Well, that's it. I can only come up with three. Maybe a little more thought will give me more. If I come up with anything good, I'll let you know. On the plus side, this means I had a great time living in Belize and that is way better than the alternative.

Tropical Storm Arthur

So, I guess as payback for the hurricanes of last year being a total bust, this year we have tropical storm Arthur. Arthur started yesterday. We were loving the storm; the thunder; the lightning: enjoying the thought of the Hopkins road being flooded for a day. Kind of like the thrill of a blizzard. Well, it ended up being a little more than we bargained for.
The rain and storm continued through the night and by morning we knew we needed to make a grocery run because food wouldn't be coming in for a few days for sure. I headed out and had Brynn with me to take pictures of the village. This is what we saw:

Pretty much every lot in Hopkins was totally flooded. Then we got to what we call, the junction. The junction is where the Hopkins road comes into town. Everyone was just standing in the junction watching the water come to town.
When we got back we noticed that there was lots more water than when we left. The news started coming in: 6 people dead on the Hummingbird highway; one drowned in Sittee River; 20 animals dead on one ranch; a cow dead on the road with a crocodile 'bite'; Belizean Dreams (our resort on the south end) totally flooded out. The guests from there and from Hamanasi resort started moving in - the refugees:

These are the human refugees wandering in down the path by our house. (It gives you a bit of an idea what kind of water we are in but I'll get to that. ) Michael, a friend of ours, was at Belizean Dreams during the exodus and he heard mewing under the office. He looked under and found two baby kittens and their dead mom. He crawled in through the water as far as he could go and the kittens swam out to him. Of course, Michael couldn't keep them so he brought them here. Now we have a box with this in it:


The white one is Meko and the other one is Flit. They are not our only animal refugees. We also have this hanging out on our deck:









Ok, OK, here are the pics you are probably waiting for. Here is what we are living in now:


This is the front. The gardens are not so pretty any more. The rest are of the back lot, the outbuildings and some of our friends and kids wandering around. On the plus side there was no real wind, we have lots of food and will be fine as long as we need to be. We are now living in the Caribbean Sea rather than beside it!

As of now, everyone is cuddled up in their respective villas watching a movie or playing games. What are my kids and their friends doing? They are swimming in the pool, of course. What else does one do in a tropical storm?