Susanne in Belmopan: Your Tax Dollars at Work

The Curse of Belize

Belize is a stunningly beautiful country, but it has one curse. Can you guess?

◘ Mosquitos

◘ Humidity

◘ Traffic Jams

◘ Greenhouse gasses

◘ Botlas

The answer is 5) botlas, which is Creol for bottle-ass (don't ask me why). They are mega tiny little flies, you can't see, hear or feel them at the time. Only a day later you will notice the spots. They itch like the devil and only very slowly recede (between 7 and 10 days). They're everywhere in Belize; in sand, grass, near water and even the most hard-core repellents (Deep Woods) and long pants and sleeves will not fully protect. I use Benadryl gel to relieve the itch but mostly just wait and sit it out.

Pinky House

As any 4-year old, Soleine gets pretty bored when we travel long hours in the car. But now we have a game. The first one to spot a specific object gets points. As follows:
- a pink house = 10 points
- a horse = 5 points
- a tractor = 10 points
- a pair of shoes hanging from power line = 20 points

A regular trip from Belmopan to Belize can score about 100 points, to San Ignacio 150 points because more horses and tractors. Soleine usually wins. When we'll be in Belgium or Holland this summer we'll have to change the rules, There aren't many pinky houses (as Soleine calls them) there, right?

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Your Tax Dollars at Work

It's official now. Our street can no longer be called Mount Mossey. It has to re-baptized to Mount Messy. Or Mt Muddy. It is worse than ever. This morning, the garbage truck - the only one in Belmopan - got stuck in the mud right in front of our house. It sat down like a moody, fat elephant with its arse in the mud, not showing the slightest intention to get up. Sure enough, after 10 minutes a bowser truck came to its rescue, and got stuck too. Then a tractor arrives on scene. The tractor is now pulling out the bowser truck which is pulling out the garbage truck. Guess what. Yep, tractor stuck too. Another car from the city council arrives. I doubt whether there has even been so much entertainment in our street, but it fails to get a grip on the tractor.

Finally, a bulldozer arrives, lifts the rear of the garbage truck and pushes it out of the sticky mud. It also manages to pull out the tractor, which now pulls out the bowser truck. Can you still follow me? It does not matter, only that the entire operation took six hours, left a garbage stench in our house, damaged the neighbors driveway, and turned the end of our street into an inaccessible, slippery mud pool.

All this because the roads are not maintained here in Belmopan. I'd vote for some of those EU millions for the construction of roads in Belize to be relocated to our street. But the EU money, as we personally know very well, does not come with strings attached, but with ROPES - as one clever Belize politician once remarked. That's why we have to rely on the city council. Ha! At least 'your tax dollars' have entertained us for six hours...