Susanne in Belmopan

My New Blog is Up!

2010-07-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Guess what I have been doing during my first week in Madagascar, apart from watching football?
I have put up my new blog ,'suprisingly' called Dutch in Madagascar.

Click on www.dutchinmadagascar.blogspot.com

Thanks to all of you who have supported my blog, with comments and positive reactions. Please keep doing so!

Merci and see you in Tana!

Susanne

XXL Beer

2010-06-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

To make time pass quicker I traveled to Hamburg last weekend where my husband's new employer is located. He had been there since one week. Soleine and I took the train and enjoyed the fact that you can actually walk around in a train and enjoy the landscape, as compared to taking a plane. Apart from that, the trip from Holland to Germany took almost 8 hours, in the same time you can fly to Miami or further.

My first impression about Hamburg? What a surprisingly nice city and so huge - third city of Germany. The city center is built around a large lake, like in Geneva, and surrounded by lots of old buildings. There are plenty of smaller canals, such as in Amsterdam, aligned with old-style warehouses, while there are also many newly built, super modern areas, which made me think of Rotterdam. The new area called Hafencity (yes, English is also penetrating Germany, despite the Germans' fierce linguistic nationalism) is worth a visit, located at the Elbe, Germany's largest port. The only problem I had with Hamburg was the weather, I had not realized it's located much more North, compared to Belgium, and temperatures drop at least 10 degrees. A very good reason to find a proper German restaurant and order a solid 'wintery' meal of sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, with of course...Hamburg's national food item, not hamburgers but... wurst. Sausage in all colors, size and shapes can be bought at each street corner.
On our last night Germany happened to play against Australia for the World Cup. Of course we went to watch in the Kneipe, where everyone was wearing the national colors, cheering and drinking beers.
Whereas in the US I'm always amazed about t-shirt sizes, with small or medium being XXL to European standards, the same can be said for German beer sizes: half a liter is the smallest size, the normal size is one liter, I can't even imagine what XL or XXL must look (and feel) like. Heavy!
Prosit.

The Art of Waiting

2010-06-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Sigh!
Can you imagine, after the rush of packing, selling, throwing and giving away all our stuff in Belize, canceling all contracts and contacts, saying goodbye to all our wonderful friends, all in ONE BLOODY week, we are now still waiting to depart! Our new job was supposed to start June first.

It's the 11th of June now, and we're still in Belgium/Holland. Sigh again. We are 'preparing' ourselves for the stay in our new country....Madagascar. Happy as we are with our new posting, the 'preparation' time is way too long. Normally we just hop on the plane, as there usually is no time to sign contracts, no time to read about the history of whereabouts of the new country. This time we have more than 4 weeks to 'prepare'. Sigh. But what can you do to prepare? I've checked Google Earth to spot interesting neighborhoods in Antananarivo (I will take that house with that little blue spot!), I have watched Madagascar the movie several times, listened to a 2-hour lecture from a professor in Tropical Medicine about malaria and the risk of being bitten by a mad dog, or -Godforbid - a lemur!!, had my upper arms injected stiff with all kinds of tropical vaccines, I've sent my stool sample by mail (!- discretion guaranteed, unless the mailman knows what Biological Materials Category 2 are), have checked the United-Nations-in-Madagascar website and e-mailed the American School of Antananarivo. What else can I do? I am done with waiting, I want to take the plane and get settled. Find a house, purchase appliances, buy a car, make new friends, start a new hash and a new blog. I don't want to be here, I want to be there!

To Pack or Not to Pack?

2010-05-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

We have come to my least favorite part of our stay in Belize: packing up. I have done this already many times in my life so it's no big deal but still.
Packing means taking some really tough decisions and therefore I have one rule: if I have not used it during two years, I am not taking it. But this is so hard. Am I going to be able to wear that business suit which I have never worn in Belmopan, or not? Is our daughter ever going to make that puzzle again. I am going to use my onion chopper which has remained in its box for our whole stay here? I don't think so. I believe that there are two kinds of people in this world: the keepers and the throwers. The keepers keep everything...because they think 'you never know', and probably end up dead one day with their children having to take out 60 years of kept stuff. I am not a keeper. I am thrower, which mostly means giving away. There is always someone who can use it...

Bye Bye Belize...

2010-05-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

All good things come to an end. All not-so-good things too - I believe, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. It is true, our stint here in Belmopan has come to an end. We are leaving by the end of this week. So let me take some time to summarize our one-and-a-half year stay in this beautiful country.

What I will miss:

1. Our great fun friends, Belizeans as well as expatriates, with whom we have shared countless great moments: island trips, beach barbecues, theme parties ranging from 'Middle East' to 'Abba' at Belmopan Party Central, organized by Margarita Mena the number 1 party queen of Belmopan, beautiful hashes in the jungle, swimming at night etc. Unforgettable moments...

2. The astonishingly beautiful nature and blue skies every day.

3. The opportunity to get to know so many different cultures: the Maya culture, the Mennonites, especially those who live like in the middle ages with their horses and carriages, their beards and their traditional dresses. I find them so very fascinating but never had (or took?) the chance to get to know them better. The Garifuna's are also very interesting and colorful.

4. The easy-peasy character of Belmopan. Driving to school: 2 minutes, buying veggies at the market: 10 minutes, weekly groceries: 20 minutes, paying utility bills: 15 minutes. No traffic jams, no parking problems, just imagine how much quality time we had left to do other things.

What I will not miss:

1. Sandflies or fleas or whatever they are. We have had our share of itch here, though I must also say that when my sister was here for 10 days just this month, we did not experience any. You can just never tell when and where they'll pop up.

2. The Happy Clappy Jesus Loves You school (BCA). Again, I must say that Soleine had a good time there and she has learned a lot, probably much more than when she'd gone to pre-school in Europe. But why everything has to be with the bible and Jesus, I mean every song, every exercise, even maths, science, language...that is simply beyond me.

3. The Chinese supermarkets. I admit, without the Chinese supermarkets our kitchen cabinets would probably be empty, but I just dread to go into the filthy, dusty shops, with rats and what-not, having to pay your groceries to a totally disinterested and often lunch-eating cashier, and then begging NOT to have any plastic bags. They're good to buy plastic slippers, but perishables???

4. The weekly death toll in Belize. Literally every week we hear about someone being shot or killed in a traffic accident. The murder rate in Belize is 10 times higher than in the USA. The shootings most often happen in Belize city, but it affects our Belmopan community too, as it's always somebody's cousin's neighbor's (ex)wife. Just last week the son of the mayor, our neighbor, got shot in Belize city. He was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Very very sad.

5. Sundays in Belmopan. Yesterday was our last one...

My favorite places - in random order. Oh my, that is really difficult, there are too many!

Pooks Hill Lodge situated at the primary rain forest, I just love the jungle with its immensely high palm trees. I always felt like being on another planet.

Under water in the shark and sting ray alley and the Hol Chan Marine reserve, easy to reach either from Caye Caulker of San Pedro. Tumbling in the turquoise lukewarm water surrounded by the cutest little Nemo fish as well as real sharks and graceful rays is totally fantastic!

Under ground in the ATM or Actun Tunishil Muknal, cave. This is one of the best kept secrets of Belize It is so special that I am not sure if it will still exist in a few years, maybe they will close it off from the public. I hope not because it is the most adventurous 'attraction' I have ever done, both in terms of physical exercise- swimming, climbing - and in terms of beauty. The cave itself is extremely beautiful with its stalactites and stalagmites and the centuries-old artifacts are simply amazing. I can really recommend our guide: Carlos Panti - mobile 669 5552.

Tik'al National Park and Maya City, okay it is not in Belize but it's close enough. You will find a stunning combination of nature and culture. My tip: stay overnight in the park and do an Early Morning Bird trip, climb up the Maya heaven and watch, and listen, the jungle come to life.

That's it folks. I really enjoyed writing this blog, and I am grateful for the many comments I received which encouraged me to keep writing. A big thank you to Jack for helping me out with my English spelling.
I will start a new blog in my new country, so keep checking!

Star Treatment

2010-05-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hey, what is happening to our poor car? Well, no need to feel bad for it (or like the French say: for 'her' - a car is female). She is actually getting a star treatment!
It's one of those things that I never knew existed. I never had to know. Here in Belize many of the roads are unpaved, and on gravel road the wind screen of your car can easily be damaged by a pebble or a small stone. If you don't fix these small cracks or stars in the windscreen, they can become bigger and bigger and eventually the entire windscreen can burst, which is obviously a dangerous and costly affair. In Belize city there is a small repair shop that does these star treatments. They drill a tiny hole into the windshield, then put liquid glass in it and fill it it up through vacuum pressure. How clever is that? Our car enjoyed her star treatment!

Rainforest Remedies

2010-04-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to a meeting of the Belmopan International Women's Group. There was a guest lecturer by the name of Rosita Arvigo, an American doctor of naprapathy (yes, we learn something new every day), which is form of chiropractic, those doctors who crack bones or something.I was not very keen as I am not a big fan of alternative medicine, but Rosita immediately caught my interest. Rosita has worked for ten years with an 86-year old Mayan traditional healer who was reknowned for his ability to cure hopelessly ill patients. She has produced a book 'Sastun - My Apprenticeship with a Mayan Healer' about her experiences with this very wise, witty and womanizing man, It's a must-read, thoroughly amusing and highly interesting. Did you know that 80% of the plants and trees in the Belizean tropical forest can be used for something? Ranging from mosquito repellent to easing stomach cramps and high blood pressure, from calming frantically crying babies to contraception. It's amazing what nature gives us, though only a few people seem to know about it and use it. Why would that be? Perhaps it's laziness...it is quite hard work to collect the leaves, roots, and branches, chop them, dry them, conserve them; it's easier to mass produce pills. It's quicker to buy a can of chemical mosquito spray than to dry Jackass leaves, brew tea and rub yourself with it. Being a skeptic by nature and not suffering from any ailments that I know of, I decided to explore this bush thing anyhow. Together with my friend Linda I went to the Belmopan market. There we found Ms Janice Bain a true bush lady, behind her stall full of weird looking stuff. We bought the following:

1. The Wash Out: a combination of ginger root, pissabed flowers and bukut leaf, to be boiled in half a gallon of water. It is supposed to cleanse the body. It washes out acids, plaques, fats and what not. Janice warned us about the color and smell of stool, but I was 'brave' enough to try it out for you my dear blog readers. The tea tasted surprisingly good and was very refreshing. I did have to go to the bath room but was not in a hurry or anything. I won't go into too much detail about the odors and colors...but I will say that there were certain changes which could very well be the acids and the plaques. I did not check it...

2. Billy Web Energy and Immune Boost. Little small pieces of brown root, looking like wood. It is supposed to work as an energy drink, to be taken when feeling tired or sluggish. I brewed the tea and drank it half warm, as I fail to see how hot tea can give you a boost when it's 40 degrees Celsius. It tastes awful, bitter and 'woody', maybe I made it too strong. I waited for some effects and I must say: I did feel something running through my veins, and I felt a distinct energy peak, like drinking a Red Bull. The only thing is that you'll have to wash away the aftertaste with a glass of wine.

3. Jack Ass Bitter. So bitter that you must be a dumb fool to drink it. Hence the name. It can be used to prevent and soothe mosquito bites, simply by rubbing the leaves or by brewing it and rubbing your skin with the lotion. I tried it by rubbing leaves on my daughter's mosquito bites but she scratched as hard as always.

4. The Hormone Check: last but not least, I bought a bottle of very dodgy looking stuff that is supposed to be a female Viagra, or a 'panty wetter' (not my words). It has wild yam and Chicoloco in it, whatever that maybe, and contains estrogen and progesterone. You can brew tea by soaking the pieces, up to five times. Needless to say that I am dying to try this one out! I did the first soak today... as my husband will be back tomorrow after two weeks of separation.. Curious as to its effects? Me too. More later.

The Best of Both Worlds

2010-04-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

We're back in Belize. That is, me and my daughter only, because Michel and his son Antoine are stuck in Miami since last Friday as a result of this ´phantom´ash cloud; who could ever have thought of a scenario like that? They were scheduled to fly back to Europe last week, Antoine had to start school again after Easter break, and Michel had to go back to see his mom and have business meetings that will determine our future. After five extra days in five different hotels in Miami Beach, suddenly South Beach is not so attractive anymore, very expensive. Guess who has to pay for it? We do!

As for Soleine and me, we are back in Belmopan, after five weeks . It's good to be back. Nothing has changed here in Belize since our departure, though it strikes me just how hot it is - always need a few days to adjust- and how dirty the road sides are. We are actually going to help clean up the Belize - Belmopan highway this Saturday, for Earth Day, so more on that later.

For the past five weeks we were in Europe and in the States, and this allowed me to compare these two continents. As usual while traveling I like to collect things. This time I collected 'things' that are, in my opinion, better in the US, and things that are better in Europe. Here's my list. Feel free to comment and add.

Things that are better in the States

The size of the roads and parking spaces. In Belgium I have to call Michel to come down three floors to park our car reversely in impossibly small parking spots while traffic is racing by.

Space shuttles. We went to the Kennedy Space Centre and were impressed by the US space program, seeing the shuttle that went to the moon 41 years ago...no way we would have pulled that off in Europe.

Free refills for coffee and soft drinks. Wish they'd do beers too. Also, the quality of coffee in the States has improved tremendously over the years (or has my taste deteriorated?).

People cleaning up their dogs' shit. We can all follow that good example.

Things that are better in Europe

Food and sizes of food portions. I find most food in the US rather terrible and the portions are insane, leading to incredible amounts of food being wasted and shocking numbers of fat people. Many are so huge that they do Disney World in rented scooters because they can't walk.

Inclusive pricing. If the menu reads that a meal costs 20 Euro, then you pay 20 Euro. The same goes for hotel rooms, rental cars and flights. In Europe the waiters do not add 18% (!!) to your bill for throwing your plastic food on your plastic table. I could not help but feel cheated all the time because of the hidden resort charges, parking fees, insurance costs, sales taxes and service costs.

Castles. True, Disney's castle is cute but need I say more?

Real smiles. Okay, people may not smile as much as in the States, maybe due to long hard winters and the fact that teeth-bleaching is uncommon, but when they smile, it's a real smile. Not the Time-Share Sales Guy Have a Great Day-smile (so fake).

Things that are better in Belize

The jungle! We went on a jungle trail in the Everglades. Ha ha, what a joke.An asphalted jungle trail? With garbage bins and warning signs?

Scenery. Likewise we crossed the Big Cypress park on 'one of America's most scenic highways', well...I can tell you that the highway from the Airport to Belmopan is more scenic, even despite the rubbish.

The Keys (Cayes). We drove all the way down the US 1 Highway to Key West. I reckon that must have been one of the most expensive highways in the States but it felt like being on any other highway...you hardly notice the keys. It's much more exciting to take a water taxi and explore Caye Caulker or Tobacco Caye.

Agree? Don't agree? Anything to add anyone? Of course the real morale of my story is that we are just lucky devils to be able to experience the best of both worlds, and even more!

Funky Town

2010-04-07T05:43:00.001-07:00

I remember my first time like it was yesterday. It was actually a few years ago, at the time I was living in Trinidad, and it was love at first sight. My first stay at South Beach, or SoBe, impressed me enough to mark the start of a life time long love relation with this fast, funky and fiery place. With its beautiful clean, white and wide beaches, its fancy Art Deco hotels and of course, its Show Off Boulevard better known as Ocean Drive. It’s the most “C&TBCn” kind of road I’ve ever seen, funkier than the Champs Elysees in Paris or Orchard Road in Singapore. Ocean Drive is one hundred percent about See and To Be Seen. But... you’ve got to have wheels. Preferably with fancy tire covers on a convertible sports car; Porches, Ferraris and Lotuses are plenty, but you can be equally cool on a bike, skate board or a pair of shiny roller skates.

It’s what I like most about South Beach: its relaxed yet energetic atmosphere. Everywhere you go you see active people. They follow Yoga classes on the beach, take their baby out jogging in its stroller, master the waves from underneath a mega kite or simply throw a Frisbee. We’re here for three days only, but we're all in for the game. When in Miami do as the Miamians, right? But by lack of wheels or a fancy kite we're taking the easy way out. We're running along Ocean Drive's walking path and the kids jump on the beach around their sand castle.Low tech but not 'low fun'. SoBe it.

Spoke Wound

2010-03-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Some words are simply untranslatable. Is that even a word? Untranslatable because the original word is so embedded in a certain context or culture that a literal translation would completely lose its meaning. The Dutch word 'spaakwond' is one of those, and to be honest, I'd never heard of it myself until 5 days ago. Literally it would be 'spoke wound'. Does that mean anything to you native English speakers?

A few days ago I went to visit my mom and dad in my home town Dongen in the south of Holland. Leaving our rental car in Belgium so my husband could easily go to the hospital every day, I took the train with my all-excited daughter Soleine. The total distance of 165 km, or just over 100 miles took me almost as long as the flight from Belize to Germany, but anyhow, after eight hours I was happy to see my brother at the train station.
He lends me a bicycle to get around in Dongen. It's an 'Omafiets' (literally: Granny bike), in English also referred to as a European City Bike, designed for mothers to take at least two children and three bags full of groceries. Like all children in Holland I grew up riding a bicycle daily, and although I have not biked in years, I get back my pedaling rhythm immediately. Soleine can not yet ride, which is actually a bit shameful for a 5-year old Dutch girl. The awful state of the roads in Belmopan is my only excuse for not teaching her properly.

Last Friday she hopped on the back of my bike and off we went. We've done it before, as have millions of mothers before me. But that bloody Friday it all went wrong. Soleine's left foot gets stuck in the back wheel, and it takes me a few seconds to realize what's going on when she starts squealing. Blood seeps through her sock and as I take a peek I nearly puke. Something white and rubbery is sticking out of her heel, and I realize it's serious. I feel terrible. Luckily, we are just near my mothers retirement home which has a Family Practice right next to it. The doctor can see us immediately. 'A spoke wound', he says (or spoke - ha ha), 'very common', and he knows exactly what to do. He checks the Achilles tendon, which turns out to be damaged but not ripped, and we have x-rays to ensure that the calcanues, or heel bone, has no fractures. He sews the wound with five big black stitches, prescribes some prophylactic antibiotics and reassures me that this happens very often in the Netherlands and that it's not my fault (...). Well, it doesn't feel that way but I know what to do now. As soon as she can walk again I will have to teach her how to ride a bike, for safety reasons and to keep her healthy. Because bicycling makes my country one of the most healthy ones in the world.

And Suddenly...

2010-03-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

...we're in the cold. It's hard to believe but we just traveled 20 hours to be plummeted back from 32 to 2°C. Two days ago we were swimming in the Macal River, it was at the same spot where just a week before more than 80 canoes passed on for La Ruta Maya River Challenge, the four-days, 175-miles long grueling paddling event for which Belize is famous.

Now we are in gray Belgium where the trees are not yet showing even a speck of green, where everyone is wearing long, dark coats and matching facial expressions. We're back to scarves, staticky hair, sniffles and lots of lip balm. We had to travel unexpectedly for family reasons, my mother-in-law is seriously ill.

My mother used to say that man travels by horse but the soul only follows on foot. It's true. Our spirits are still in Belize, which does not have anything in common with Belgium, apart from its first three letters.

Women's Month

2010-03-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

I have lived in quite a few countries but in none before is International Women’s day, on March 8, receiving so much attention as here in Belize. Not only do we celebrate on Women’s Day, the entire month of March is dedicated to women. There are activities ranging from free self-defense training to forums on Crime and Violence; from a 15% discount for women at the hardware store to Women in Art exhibitions.

The women’s month kicked off with the first-ever US Embassy Belize Women of the Year 2010 award ceremony. When political officer Kelly McCarthy received a request last year to nominate a Belizean for the US International Women of Courage award, she quickly realized that her embassy had no process for identifying outstanding women in Belize. One evening, after watching CNN’s heroes, she thought: hey why don’t we start something with nominations from the public. And so it began.

I recently attended the ceremony. I dressed up for the occasion as it felt a bit like going to the Oscars, and well, any occasion in Belmopan to dress up should be taken, because they are few…

And the nominees were - just to name some:

Jewel Quallo, for her work to promote sexual reproductive health and family planning as basic human rights
Beverly Swasey, as president of the cancer society in Belmopan
Carolyn Trench, the first and youngest women ever to head a governmental department
Kimberly Vasquez: the only screen writer and film producer in Belize, who often volunteers to teach creative writing to children
Phyllis Cayetano from Dangriga, always at the fore front to preserve Garifuna cultural customs and values
Margaret Bradley, a retired nurse but still tirelessly involved in voluntary counseling and testing of HIV positive people
Sonia Lenares: a retired teacher and principal who became the head of YWCA, protagonist to help out-of-school and at-risk girls
Phillipa who started the Emmanuel scholarship fund for deprivileged children, which she regularly complements with her own salary
Judy Krieg, better known as nurse Judy from Hopkins, who opened the House of Equity where she tirelessly provides health care 24 hours per day 7 days per week.

And the award went to:

Sonia Lenares. Her daughter had flown over from Miami for the occasion, lucky her. I remember when my mom received an honorable award from our Queen (!!) I was unable to fly over from Zimbabwe. Anyway, Sonia Lenares accepted the award with grace, in her brand new suit judging by the little plastic tag thing that was still on her sleeve (sorry – I’m a women, I can’t help noticing these things). .About her 18 year working with young women she said: "It's not a job, it's an honor". That truly deserves an award if you ask me. Hats off to all strong Belizean women who are examples to others!

And to Kathryn Bigelow, the first women director to win a real Oscar. Why did that have to take 82 years?

Green Costa Rica

2010-03-02T14:37:00.001-08:00

Costa Rica has been on my wish list for a long time. It just sounds so lovely, especially if your roll the R a little extra.

Two weeks ago we traveled to this amazing country for an 8-day holiday from Belize, with nothing more than a borrowed Lonely Planet guide book. Two easy one-hour TACA airline flights later (Wow, talk about service – TACA can teach a thing or two to American Airlines), we landed at Juan Santamaria Airport in San Jose. There we rented a small 4x4 car with a child seat and a GPS – the latter turned out to be worth every one of its 12 dollars a day – followed the perfect directions of the English-speaking GPS ‘turn right, keep left and go straight’, and arrived safely at a small hotel for the first night. Easy as ABC.

Driving around in Costa Rica is fairly uncomplicated, especially with a GPS, although the roads are not great -very narrow, curvy and there are lots and lots of over-sized trucks. Mix these three ingredients and what do you get? Traffic jams… not those we get back home but endless files of buses, trucks and cars stuck on small mountain roads, unable to move an inch forward or backward. Once we were stuck for five hours, in the dark and we feared that our Daihatsu Bego was going to be our hotel room for the night.

What’s really superb about driving in Costa Rica however is that you really get to experience the amazing micro-climates in this country. We drove for hours through the jungly rain forest in the mist – we could only guess where the famous Arenal volcano was– then suddenly took one turn and were driving through a dry, desert-type landscape with cactus and cattle ranches. In 20 seconds the landscape and climate conditions changed drastically.

Same road

20 seconds later

Another interesting observation we made about Costa Rica, apart from the fact that it has no army, is its ‘greenness’ - its landscape as well as its efforts to promote sustainable and environmental-friendly tourism.
The highlight of our trip was a visit to the EARTH University. An amazing place in Guacímo, a small town in the middle of nowhere. With a grand entry of majestic bamboos that reminds of a five star resort, this private university provides full academic education to 400 students from 20 countries around the world, especially those from poor communities who, once selected, receive full scholarships. We were guided by Professor B.K. Singh, whom we had met before in Belize. The university is pretty self-sufficient; it has several income generating agri-businesses, such as banana plantations, a banana-waste paper factory (never knew you can make paper out of a banana stem), a dairy factory, a biogas project to generate their own energy and an export business for non chemical fertilizers and compost. A second source of income is a long list of private donors and sponsors.

Another unique feature of this university is that it combines agricultural academics with entrepreneurship. From day one the new students have to develop feasible business ideas that generate profits. This can be marketing organic cappuccino or making crafts from recycled materials. They can get a loan of up to 3,000 USD from the University bank to make their business ideas a reality. Students also have to do community service and international internships. As such they are very well prepared to become the envisaged ‘leaders and agents of change guided by the values of tolerance, respect and equality’.

At EARTH they also plant trees to offset your carbon footprints. Of course they recycle glass and paper and there is not a shred of plastic or Styrofoam in the gift shop or the canteen. To me it’s (ecological) heaven on EARTH!

See more on www.earth.ac.cr or www.earth-usa.org. Or watch my slide show with our private tour!!

A private tour on EARTH

2010-03-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

How to Set Up a Restaurant in Three Weeks (and Five Easy Steps)

2010-02-10T13:42:00.001-08:00

Question: What would you do if you were a foreigner living in Belize and you were working as the Food and Beverage Manager at a resort in a touristy place that is not doing very well, because - you know –, economic crisis and all that. Imagine you haven’t received your wages for months, the resort manager turns out to be a crook, and Christmas season is around the corner. You have a family and you really DO NOT want to leave the country. Well, what would you do?

It is the first of December 2009 and my Dutch friends Rob and Corrie, based in Hopkins, are checking their bank balance. With one quick mutual look they decide that if they want to survive, they will have to start their own place. But it has to be open by Christmas, because that is the peak of the high season. Is it possible to start a restaurant from scratch, in three weeks, in Belize?

It is.
Here's how they did it

Step 1: Find a suitable building.

Now there happens to be a huge sports bar building in Hopkins which has been empty since a few years. It is owned by some rich American fellow who apparently does not need any more money. The sales price he asks is no less than 1.2 million American dollars. Ha ha. Quickly my friends understood that the best way to find suitable venue in Hopkins is to obtain it themselves. They check out prefab wooden buildings from the Mennonites in Spanish Lookout, but they’re above their budget. Then they hear about two empty wooden cabins in Hopkins which were used as canteens for construction workers. They purchase them, cut them in two parts to fit on a trailer, plant them in front of their house, and glue them back together.

Step 2. Hire an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter...

and fire them almost immediately thereafter because there’s no way they’ll able to complete the work on time. My friends understand that they will have to get their hands dirty. With a little help from good friends and neighbors, and working non-stop from 6 am to 10 pm for fifteen straight days, they’re totally refurbishing the place. At the same time, they have to get their licenses in order. They’re submitting applications for the trade and liquor license at the village council and jump in their car to pick up a guy from the fire inspection office and a lady health inspector. Normally these inspection visits can take up to twenty days or more so you just have to help the system a little by providing transport. On the way, in the car, you can then dazzle them with your charm and talk about your good reputation.

Step 3. Traverse the country and hunt for restaurant furniture and equipment

My friends went to surplus stores, yard sales in San Ignacio, bought outdated stuff from US Import in Belize city, raided store rooms of friends and neighbors, and found curtains at the hardly-ever looked at bottom shelves at the Chinese stores. For decorations, it helps if you are a ‘hamster’ type who likes to keep old stuff. Sea glass bottles, rusty mugs and the side of a vintage vehicle can make great decorations.

Step 4. Involve your kid in the project

Rob and Corrie have an adopted son, TJ. They gave him the exclusive right to run a small gift shop at the restaurant. They drove to Guatemala to buy some arts and crafts, talked to local artists to display some of their work, printed TJ's business cards, and baptized the store Jeremia’s Giftshop.

Step 5. Buy ingredients

Arrange with Bowen and Bowen for delivery of beer and soft drinks, with Western Dairy to deliver fresh products, get wine from Premium Wines, talk to local fishermen for delivery of their fresh catch, and last but not least, develop a menu. Change the menu daily, based on what’s in the market and put together a 4-course menu for 49 Bz$. Serve meals like chicken sate with peanut sauce, Wiener schnitzel, coconut soup and freshly baked bread.

It is the 23rd of December, Rob’s birthday and the planned opening night. The restaurant is still closed. With a one-day delay Chef Rob’s Gourmet Café proudly opens on Christmas eve. The thirty or so places are immediately booked, and this goes on every night until now. Already the restaurant is number one on Tripadvisor, with reviews such as: “This little building contains some of the most wonderful food in Belize”, “Superb Dining at Reasonable Price”, “Wonderful Staff and Owners…”

I couldn’t agree more.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

2010-02-02T16:09:00.000-08:00

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...

Bag Lady

2010-01-27T12:25:00.001-08:00

Soon it will be exactly one year since I arrived in Belize- the 1st of February 2009.
I remember so well my arrival at the cute little Philip Goldson airport in the mid-day heat. I was exhausted after wrapping up my job in Sri Lanka, packing up the house, saying emotional good byes to friends and staff, and then making a 32-hour trip journey across the world.
Michel had already been here for a couple of months. He was renting an apartment as he did not dare to choose a house without the approval of his wife (very wise, darling).

Actually, he was not sure if I would want to live in Belmopan, being the small and rather boring town (oh sorry, city) it is. He thought that his cosmopolitan wife might prefer to live in Belize City. And so he drove me, straight from the airport, to Belize’s former capital for a sight seeing tour. It had just rained and the streets were clogged with water and dirt. I found Belize City a dump, even by developing country-standards.

The one-hour drive from Belize City to Belmopan was an enjoyable experience though, and upon arrival in Belmopan I was pleasantly surprised. It looked clean, with wide streets, and surrounded by green grass and parks. Okay, the three run-down buildings that make up the ‘down-town’ area did not impress me, but compared to Belize City (and to Sri Lanka) Belmopan felt like a haven of greenery, cleanliness, and peace.

This ‘clean feeling’ lasted until a couple of months ago. To be precise: until a lawn mowing tractor cut the grass besides the highway. Wow, was I mistaken! I tried to stop the tractor to get pictures of ‘before’ and ‘after’ trimming, but it was already on its way back, leaving all the rubbish, the Styrofoam boxes, and plastic bags exposed. Beauty dies where litter lies, I thought.

Solid waste management is an issue in Belize. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has recently approved an 11 million USD loan to strengthen the Solid Waste Management Authority. I hope it includes a component to educate people about littering. We’ll have to wait a few years to see the results.

In the meantime, I try to contribute to a clean environment by refusing to accept plastic bags, whether at the vegetable market or the Chinese supermarkets, where they try to put every piece of soap, loaf of bread, or tin of peeled tomatoes in a separate little bag.

I like to preach to the cashiers and clients, saying things like: ‘Did you know that it takes a hundred years before a bag like this disintegrates’? Mostly they stare at me as if I am from another planet.

Well, maybe I am. Maybe I am a strange white bag lady, the only one in Belmopan who brings her own shopping bags into the store. I don’t care. It is my mission. To be perfectly honest, I am proud to be a supermarket missionary. I just wish I was able to convert more souls

.

Kristine

2010-01-19T15:35:00.000-08:00

I met Kristine through my work with UNDP. Originally from Norway, she has lived all over the globe with her diplomat parents, and is now the assistant resident representative in Belize and thus the highest ranking UN employee in the country. With our European backgrounds and UN experiences in Asia and Africa we have quite a few things in common.

She cracks me up all the time as we share multi-cultural anecdotes. She’s brilliant at imitating accents and her stories make me laugh out loud, like the one about the Italian guy visiting Belize, asking for a Ristretto (rolling r) in a Belmopan café. ‘A what?’ the Belizean waitress asks, ‘A Ris-trrretto’, the Italian asks again, louder now, rolling his r a little longer. The waitress gives him a blank stare and looks to Kristine for an explanation. He repeats his order, louder yet, as he honestly can not imagine anyone on this planet not knowing what a Ristretto is.

Or the anecdote from some years ago about a French UN diplomat, her superior at the time, of whom she had asked a not-so-silly question, something like: How are we going to put this into practice? His answer: “Ben (pronounce Bah, French for well eh), use your brain!” Merci, so much for French diplomacy.

Another thing that expats like to share is freaky stories about snakes, bugs, and scorpions, so I related my experience about the freaky room in our house (see my blog post May 2009). She too has scorpions in her house, and a brave cat named Storm that defies them, or tries to at least.

She comes home from work one day and she sees something moving under the carpet in her living room, and the cat is meowing and making funny jumps at it. Wow, that is a big scorpion, she thinks, or perhaps a mouse, or, God forbid, a rat? From her bookshelf she takes (and I quote) ‘the only appropriate book for this kind of action, the fist-thick biography of Pol Pot’, and slams it on the bulge in the carpet. Disgusted, she carefully lifts the carpet to find…

...her mobile phone on vibrate.

Ha ha, good one Storm!

Winter in Belize

2010-01-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, it is not exactly snowing here like back home, but it is frigging cold for Belize standards. The cold front that is pestering Europe and the US has decided to come and harass us for a little while. I am supposed to be 'used' to the cold, but after 12 years in tropical countries I am shivering too. Here's today's update from the Belize Meteorology Service. (www.hydromet.gov.bz).
I can't really read that satellite picture where Belize is so small, but I am assuming that blue means 'cold' and red means 'hot' and I am not seeing any red in or near Belize. I also don't know why Belize is using Fahrenheit, being a British crown country, but all you have to do it subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit number, divide the answer by 9 and then multiply that answer by 5. So at the moment it is 68-32 = 36 /9 = 4 x 5 is 20. A child can do the laundry (as we say in Dutch), or a piece of cake...

Time..............................4 PM
Temperature......................68 F
Relative Humidity(%)...............77
Wind (kt)........................WS04
Pressure (hPa).................1022,0
Sky..............................Cloudy

The average late afternoon temperature in January is 79.2° F, so here we go again 79.2 - 32 = 47.2 / 9 is ehhh, long live on-line converters!

"What??", you may say. "SIXTY EIGHT whole degrees (or TWENTY), that is like summer where I am from. True...so let me stop winging and show you this picture of Thomas, a friend's son. I can tell you that he has never in his life wore gloves nor a wooly. That's how cold it is here at the moment!

All Inclusive Prison?

2010-01-05T09:05:00.001-08:00

During the Christmas break we went to Mexico. Yes, we occasionally need to escape the smallness of Belmopan, to keep breathing, so to say. We drove to Chetumal just across the border and from there straight to Cancun; beach and party paradise! With between 2 and 4 million visitors per year – depending on the year and the guidebook you consult – Cancun is the first tourist destination of Mexico, just multiply this by an average of 1,000 USD expenditure per person and you can smell the bucks…

Situated on a small strip of land packed with 4 and 5-star resorts, it reminds one of Las Vegas but with turquoise beaches and no casinos. It was my first time in an all-inclusive, not counting the times I was conducting workshops hosted at beach hotels in St Lucia or Sri Lanka. The food was great and from all corners of the globe, (well, compared to Belmopan), the cocktails and wines flowed continuously, we played tennis and mini golf, swam in all of the five pools, including the ‘adults-only’ pool when Soleine was playing in the kid’s club, went to the movies and the gym. The only things not included were the on-demand porn movies and spa treatments. Fair enough.

With friendly staff, a la carte restaurants and a spacious room we had nothing to complain about. So why were we both oh-so-very happy to leave? Okay, firstly we felt as if we were staying on a different planet, like the fat people in Pixar’s Wall-E movie, and the ‘living in a golden cage’ image also pops up; but that was not it.

It was the relief of being away from all the other all-inclusive guests. With the risk of sounding snobby, I would advise that you not go to a 5-star all-inclusive place to meet nice people. The guests are loud, rude and complaining. They pile their plates with endless heaps of food that no one could finish in one sitting, order multiple drinks from the eight bars without finishing any; they don’t greet you nor do they thank the waiters, and these people are not even Russian! I met some Dutch people who were nice enough but I had to listen to a never ending list of complaints about mosquitoes, heat, and dust bunnies under the beds. After three nights I too felt irritable and intolerant. It seems this kind of hotel brings out the worst in people - the greedy and demanding beast that hides in all of us.

That summarizes our stay in the 5-star hotel in Cancun: you get the good stuff for a fair price, - good food, 24 hour(s) drinks, sports, and entertainment for the kids – but you have to live with the obnoxious people, including yourself. Truly All inclusive. "Grand Parnassus 5-star hotel or luxery prison"?

By the way, we did not ONLY go to Cancun, we also visited the old colonial cities of Merida, Izumal and Valladolid. See my slide show pictures below.

Colonial Mexico Slide Show

2010-01-04T21:48:00.001-08:00

Christmas in Belize

2009-12-16T14:45:00.000-08:00

While most Americans and Europeans are rushing to the stores and supermarkets to do their Christmas shopping, it is quiet in Belize. Here we don’t get stressed out over what to buy for our children - who already have boxes full of Barbies, video games, and Lego building bricks. Brodies supermarket has stocked its freezer with a dozen turkeys and has put five new games on the shelves. At the Chinese supermarket you can actually buy a dusty plastic Christmas tree that even comes with a string of lights. The Chinese, I feel, are in it for the money, not for the Christmas cheer. My mailbox is empty, as usual. The restaurants don’t seem to care about decorations, not counting those that are still there from last year. Love FM is playing some Christmas songs on the radio but not frequently.

Personally, I don't mind at all. I am not a big fan of Christmas, and I hate the overemphasis on food and gifts. I have put up a small tree for our daughter and we are enjoying the efforts some Belmopan residents have made to light up their houses and yards. The whole idea of Christmas shopping in Belmopan is actually funny, unless you want to ask Santa for a bottle of gas, or a mattress...

So I had kind of given up on the idea of Christmas in Belize, until I went to the Actun Tunichil Muknal or ATM cave, a 40,000-year old Maya cave. Wow, what a special place, better than any archeological museum you can ever imagine. After two hours of swimming, climbing and crawling through narrow cracks in the pitch dark with Carlos our guide, we arrived at 'the cathedral', a sacred place where thousands of years ago Mayan priests did their rituals and human sacrifices. There, deep down in the Mayan underground, I saw the most beautiful Christmas scene ever. Doesn't it look like a nativity group? Amazing hey!

If you forget for a minute that there are also the 1400-year old remains of a teenage sacrifice victim who is believed to be clubbed and left for dead, you can actually feel the peace in that cave.

And on that note I wish you all a peaceful Christmas and an Amazing 2010!

Wednesday Wobble

2009-12-15T14:55:00.001-08:00

Every Wednesday at 6 pm we gather at the Wing Stop Bar, which has the coldest beer and best lemon-pepper wings in town. That's the best I can say about this bar, because their toilets without doors, scruffy picnic tables and 'stick-your-hand-in-the tank-to-make-it-flush-' toilets are not really an add on.
We gather there to run, walk or wobble around the Belmopan ring road, about 3 miles or 4,5 km. I usually run -which makes me feel so good that I have really earned my beer and wings. Last week however, I walked, together with the British High Commissioner Pat Ashworth. Belize is the only constituent nation of the Commonwealth of Nations in the region, they obviously have a High Commission.

Pat speaks a little Dutch from his time in The Hague, and he makes it sound all funny and freaky. Perhaps it really does. We spoke about what people eat in Belize for Christmas. 'Turkey and ham', he said and I reminded him of the Dutch word for turkey: Kalkoen (Kalkoon). That sounds like Cancun, so we thought how to call a kalkoen in Cancun. He then asked me if I knew how a turkey is called in Turkey. Hmmm, interesting question. Türkey? I suggested. He said it's 'hindi'. So we wondered what a turkey in Hindi is. We did not know, but in Portuguese - a language we both speak - it's Peru, where did that come from? But before we could think about turkeys in Peru we were back at the Wing Stop Bar.

There we noticed the construction of a new building, in the heart of Belmopan's "shopping area" next to the two most popular Chinese supermarkets. We could not help wondering what it would become. We thought of (hoped for) the following:

1) a Drive Inn Movie Theater
2) a MacDonald's
3) a Kentucky Fried Turkey

What? We can't dream? It's Christmas season after all...

Rovers, Cocaobeans and Smelly Toilets

2009-12-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

For my work reviewing projects supported by the United Nations (UN) I went to Toledo, a district in the south of Belize. I went with my friend Carmen from New York and Barbara, the wife of the new American ambassador. Toledo is the least developed district of Belize, a bit like 'the slow kid in class'. For example only 1 out of 4 households has access to a sewer system, against more than half country-wide; adult literacy is 62% (77% country-wide) and the under 5 mortality rate is 1.5 times higher than the national average. Toledo is covered with pristine tropical rain forests and its population is largely made up of Mopan and Kekchi Mayas living in over 30 villages. This combination of lush green vegetation and Mayan houses makes it absolutely scenic...like a front page picture of National Geographic.

The UN supports the district in many ways; UNICEF assists with early-childhood development activities and upgrades of school toilets, UNDP has agricultural and environmental protection programs and PAHO/WHO supports the local hospitals with outreach programs on nutrition, child measurements and promotion of breast-feeding.

We left the district with mixed feelings; impressed by a program named Roving Caregivers, where young Maya women are trained to become informal caregivers or rovers to young children who do not have access to daycare. The rover goes to the homes of the Maya mothers to play with the children and teach the parents about parenting and child development. We were equally impressed by Ya'axche Conservation Trust, which manages large areas of protected nature reserve and assists farmers with sustainable livelihood such as organic cacao and coffee beans. The least impressed we were by the WASH project; for water, sanitation and hygiene in schools. Though highly relevant, the project started but was not complete, leaving many school principals frustrated about their sanitary facilities and more importantly, leaving entire classes with smelly toilets, unused washing buildings and broken water fountains.

Why are these results so mixed? There a plenty factors contributing to both failure and success. Poor planning, lack of ownership of projects, political instability and staff turn-over within UN agencies, are definitely spoilers. Proper monitoring and selection of intervention partners are enablers. My conclusion is that implementing social projects in developing countries is a bit like life itself...you win some, you lose some.

La Isla Bonita

2009-11-27T16:02:00.001-08:00

"Last night I dreamt of San Pedro...it all seemed like yesterday not far away...
Tropical the island breeze, all of nature wild and free, this is where I long to be, la isla bonita..."

Who doesn't know this 1987 Madonna song ? Last weekend we finally went to San Pedro, on the largest and most touristy island on the Belize coast. I was told that Madonna's song was based on San Pedro here in Belize, and the island makes good use of world-famous song..."Come to San Pedro, la Isla Bonita"...you can hear it and see it in advertisements and on sign boards all over the place.

I stayed at a beautiful resort Porto Fino, owned by Jan and Sandra. He is Dutch, she is Belgian, a well-known combination to us! They have a daughter the same age as Soleine. Captain Jan picked me up with his boat and Sandra welcomed me with a rum punch decorated with red hibiscus flowers. It is a picture perfect place, green sea, white sand, wavy palm trees.

Later on I read that Madonna had actually never heard of San Pedro Belize when she wrote that song. In an interview she said: " "I don't know where San Pedro is, at that point I was not a person who went on vacation to beautiful islands".

Well, that is tough luck for Madonna. I assume that by now she is 'that kind of person', and I really recommend that she go to San Pedro and Porto Fino!

Blackman Eddy

2009-11-18T09:32:00.001-08:00

For my work as a consultant for the UNDP I visited some villages in Belize to talk about Village Council governance, elections and challenges in managing a small village in Belize. There are 193 rural villages in Belize and their population represents 49% of the total, which amounts to approximately 160,000 people; same as a mid-size town in the US. Some places however, only have a population of 25 families. I can write about the difficulties of village governance in Belize; for example that they have little income except from the liquor license money they can collect, usually not more than a couple of thousand dollars per year. This is barely enough to pay for cleaning of some of the public properties, such as cemeteries and sports fields.
Other villages have no bar hence, no income. Village council work is unpaid, only the chairperson receives a 50Bz$ stipend per month (25 USD). It's not easy for a benevolent council to achieve something for their community. But I was most struck by the names of some of the villages. I reckon that each country has its share of funny village names. In Holland we have 'Boerenhol' which can be translated as Farmer's Ass, and Sexbierum, which makes me think of something with beer and sex.

In Belize we have Blackman Eddy, Doublehead Cabbage, More Tomorrow, Duck Run, Tea Kettle, Fire Burn, Silk Grass, Trial Farm, Indian Church, and Crique Jute. I will leave it to your imagination to think about the origin of these names. I just like the idea of getting in my car in the morning and saying to my husband: Bye honey, I am off to Blackman Eddy...

How expensive is Belize?

2009-11-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

Is Belize an expensive country for an expatriate? That question obviously does not have a singular answer. It depends on a number of factors, and with the risk of sounding like a Belizean politician who never gives a straight answer I will try to shed some light on the issue of the cost of living for expatriates in Belize (all prices in US$). In no particular order, I would say it depends on the following factors:

Where you live: On the islands like San Pedro and Caye Caulker all prices are at least 20% higher than on the mainland.
Your life style and budget: Being an American diplomat working for Uncle Sam who is willing to pay $5,000 for your monthly house rental is not the same as being a retired couple with a modest pension. A decent mid-sized house can be rented for one tenth this amount, between $500 and $1,000. If you leave your air-conditioning on day and night you’ll have a bill of over $1,000 at the end of the month. We pay around $125 per month for electricity, using mainly fans and one hour max of AC per day.
The countries to which you’re comparing The Belize dollar is linked to the US dollar 2:1 and with the high-valued Euro, Europeans find it cheaper than most Americans. For sure Belize is more expensive than its neighboring countries, Mexico and Guatemala.

But let me tell you about the prices I am paying here and you can reach your own conclusion. Tuesdays and Fridays are market days here in Belmopan city. Defying the heat, I take my big shopping bag, load it with the fruits and vegetables available - which usually means oranges, grapefruit, pineapples, papayas, water melons, carrots, cucumbers, spinach and tomatoes, and I pay around $12 - no hassle, no cheating, no bargaining like in some other countries where prices double as soon as they see gringos. Then I go on to the bakery to buy two loaves of brown bread, $2.25 each, followed by a visit to the meat shop: chicken breast and ground beef for $3.50 per package. From there I proceed to the supermarket. There are two types of supermarkets: Belizean-owned shops like Brodies, and Chinese supermarkets. I found that Brodies is usually somewhat more expensive though not on all products, but it is clean and air-conditioned. This cannot be said about the Chinese supermarkets, where I witnessed two school girls stepping on a rat’s tail last week. I don’t know who squealed louder, the girls or the rat. The Chinese seemed unimpressed.

There are rumors that Chinese shopkeepers shut down their freezers at night to save on electricity, which is obviously a disaster for frozen food. I don’t know if that is true; we have not been sick here at all, but I do know that they sell medium-sized Head & Shoulders shampoo which has been diluted with water for $6.25. That said, Chinese supermarkets are indispensable in Belize because they are always open, have a good variety of goods and a high turnover, but cleanliness is definitely not their forte. I shop at both Brodies and the Chinese stores because by now I know what to buy where. Depending on my mood and my wallet, I pay between $50 and $100 for my weekly groceries for my family of three, although I usually have to pop in a couple of additional times during the week because I always forget to buy stuff.

Most food items are imported, and for international brands we pay through the nose: Yoplait yoghurt, Loreal shampoo, Tide washing detergent, Lay’s chips, Ziplock bags are expensive, but you can also opt for Mennonite yoghurt, White Rain Shampoo, Blanca Nieves washing powder, Marie Sharp’s chips and No-Brand bags, and spend half or less. I reckon that around 95% of consumer goods are imported, yet good-value local products include citrus, pineapple, coconut, vegetables, dairy such as ice cream, white cheese and (slightly sour) yoghurt, chicken, sausages, ground beef, and tortillas. You can also get good basic wooden furniture like my beautiful multi-colored mahogany dining table that I got for 125 bucks in the market. In fact I bought most of my furniture and kitchen appliances in Belize, new or second hand, and succeeded pretty well in creating a home in which I feel comfortable. The only challenge was to find a good sofa; most are bulky and ugly with horrible big flower patterns from Courts furniture shop. I ended up having one made right here in Belmopan. I downloaded a picture from ikea.com, bought some fabric and 5 days later we were sitting on a pretty good couch for $420. All in all our move-in has cost us around $4,500 including all electrical appliances because all those we had were 220 volt and with different plugs, thus not worth bringing over. Americans will not have that problem because Belize uses 110 volts 60 Hz, as they do in the U.S., so your appliances will work fine here.

Some other interesting prices are: Repairing and changing a tire: $8, color and highlight my hair with a hair cut and a blow dry all together for $50, a pedicure $12, ‘high-speed’ internet (quotation marks intended) costs us $55 per month, school fee at the semi-international pre-school is $185 per month and a yard mowing and cleaning is around $17. I recently had a crown replaced by a renowned dentist in Belize city and paid $175. For more detailed prices you may want to go to www.belizefirst.com/cost.html

Very importantly, for a beer in a bar we pay $1.75 D. It’s only $1.50 at happy hour or when ordering ten or more, something we have personally introduced here in Belmopan, which we call the Bucket concept. I am talking about Belikin beer, the Belizean beer that comes in sturdy 10 oz. dark brown bottles, so heavy that it is impossible to feel if they’re full or empty. I did not like its taste in the beginning but I have acquired it by now. So, beer drinkers can easily survive here. Wine lovers will have to dig deep into their pockets, as a simple bottle of wine will easily cost $15, and I am not even talking about a good bottle of wine. Rum, on the other hand, is cheap, the same price as a bottle of wine but for an XXL size bottle of One Barrel, the local rum which has won several awards. What can I say, when in Rome do as the Romans, right?

All in all, I personally find the cost of living here in Belmopan, Belize quite reasonable, but I must say that, while we live well by Belize standards, we still have to watch our spending. I never use my credit card here, the main reason being that our cards have been copied several times here. I only found this out when my bank statements suddenly showed purchases of Apple computers and Nike shoes from Los Angeles and New York which I am sure I never bought. Luckily my bank noticed the suspicious purchases and I was able to recuperate the amounts. I do not recommend credit card use here in Belize and there are ATMs across the country so you may as well use your debit card.

The other reason my credit card stays in my purse is basically that there’s not that much opportunity to really spend. I have not bought any clothes, shoes, toys, hand bags, CDs, books, jewelry, movie tickets, make-up or electronic gadgets since I arrived here.

In that respect Belize is savers paradise. No shops, no malls; no temptations. How’s that for saving on the cost of living!?

Rhythm of the Rain

2009-11-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

Imagine the sound of pouring rice in a cup. Zzzzsshhhh, a little bit of rice first, then more. Then it's as if someone slowly turns up the volume knob, the sound becomes louder. I am talking about rain. Sometimes it rains so hard here that you can't hear the TV anymore and subtitles come in handy. That would be volume 7 on the rain knob, but it gets louder, to 8 and 9. Now we can't hear each other anymore, even if we're shouting. And just as you think that the volume knob is turned on max...there is still an extra notch 11, even 12. The sound is literally deafening, until suddenly it stops. In less than 3 seconds the volume is turned back from 12 to 0. Complete silence. It's very interesting to listen to, I wonder if the Cascades were inspired by Belizean rain when they wrote their famous song Rhythm of the rain...

Three times Three

2009-10-28T16:10:00.001-07:00

I made an interesting discovery last night. Ask a general random person to put up three fingers and you will most likely see the three middle fingers. But ask a German and you will see the thumb, index and middle finger. And when you ask a Belizean lady you 'll get the pinky, the ring and middle finger. Can anyone explain this? And why is the middle finger the lucky one?

Cultural Confusion

2009-10-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

It was Soleine’s birthday this weekend. She had three birthday celebrations, not bad for a 5-year old, hey? The first one was at school; Soleine going around in class with home-made cupcakes with green icing on them, resulting in 17 kids collectively going home with green noses. Then there was a flower party at our home, with eight of her best friends dressed in pretty flowers (strictly girls…), looking for hidden flowers in the field, in honor of Queen Dahlia Sunflower. And finally, we had a mini-party at the hash, with 12 hash kids banging on a piñata. Pardon?

Let me explain. Although Belize is an English-speaking country and a former British colony, the Latin influences are obvious, considering that it is surrounded by Latin American countries. One Latin American tradition is the birthday piñata. A piñata is a paper maché kind of figurine, prettily decorated, that you hang from the ceiling. It can be a cute pink doll, or a truck, or a rabbit or Dora the Explorer (very popular here). I had bought a yellow chicklet with blue flowers in her hair which Soleine immediately baptized ‘Chika’. That’s cute, you may think, but that’s only one part of the piñata. The second part is a stick, in our case the stick of a broom which had conveniently ‘died’ the same week. So what are the kids going to do with the stick and Chika?

Well, they are actually going to beat the crap out of her. Try to chop of her beak, hit a hole in her head, poke the stick between her eyes, slash of the cute little chicken legs. Who thought that a birthday surprise could turn so vicious? But the kids -boys and girls alike - actually love it. Each child gets a go with the stick, and they beat, and beat and beat, until… all the sweets fall out. Because that’s the trick, it’s basically a candy machine but with more fun than just putting a coin in it. Twelve kids beating the hell out of Chika, until…until…until…nothing. Some 85 hits later, one of the mothers carefully asks me if I had not forgotten to put any sweets in it. What??? I had to put the candy in it myself?? Oh my God, I did not know, I thought I had bought the thing ready-made…filled with sweets. As it turns out there is a little hole in the piñata’s head where you have to put the candies yourself. You should have seen the kids faces when they finally realized that Chika was empty! Oops, silly Europeans. Well, I better hide for a little while. That’s why I am now on my way to Paris.

Meeting Indy

2009-10-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

When I was young my family used to play a board game called Wildlife Adventure. Players would go on global expeditions on the board to locate rare and endangered species of animals. To rescue them you could buy them, like monopoly but with animals. Each continent had its own amazing creatures. In North-America you could locate the Californian condor, in Africa the ring-tailed lemur, in Australia the hairy-nosed wombat, Asia had the Arabian oryx and in Latin America there was the mountain tapir.

I reckon that while playing this game sometime in the eighties I first heard the word 'Belize'. Because that's where the mountain tapir was located and it was one of the most valuable beasts on the board! As a child I was fascinated by its picture on the game card... I could not imagine that a creature like that really exists.

But it does! His name is Indy and he lives at the Belize Zoo. He is a handsome little tapir. In Belize they also call them ‘mountain cows’, but to me he looks more like a cross between a pig and an elephant (sorry Indy!). My daughter Soleine got to feed him his bottle...how cool is that.

The zoo in Belize is a gem. It was set up and is run by Sharon, an American lady who came to Belize some years ago to shoot a wildlife documentary. Something happened and the project had to be canceled, leaving her with a troop of rescued, semi-tame animals. What to do? Set up a zoo. Sharon is now the proud 'mother' of about twenty different species, all endemic to Belize.

We met Indy the Tapir, Brutus the Crocodile, Junior Buddy the Jaguar, the only jaguar in the world who can do somersaults, Panama the Harpy Eagle who likes to fly up close o you just to say hi (and scare the shit out of you), Polly the speaking Parrot who says in his squeaky voice: 'I am a parrot, my girlfriend works in a bar’ (seriously!!!) and many more.

They have all been rescued from the illegal pet trade or captivity as this zoo has never taken any animal from the wild. It is an impressive conservation achievement and a great educational opportunity to meet Indy and his friends. It’s like killing two birds with one stone…but that would not be an appropriate expression in this animal-friendly story, would it now?

How to become Ambassador

2009-09-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

The advantage of living in 'the smallest capital in the world' is that we quickly got to know people connected to the inner circles of Belmopan. Sometimes we receive an official envelope with a pretty golden seal: an invitation to a diplomatic party. We are not diplomats (never aspired to be) but we do kind of represent the European Union. That is how we got invited to a reception to welcome the new American ambassador to Belize: Mr Thummalapally. Surprising name? Not an Anglophone name in any case. Indeed, he is not like the usual Ambassador-type: white, Anglo-Saxon, middle-aged. The new US Ambassador in Belize is the first Indian-American ambassador ever! How did that happen? Vinai Thummalapally is a university friend and former room-mate of President Obama. He and his wife were major fund-raisers in Obama's campaign. And good friends get to be rewarded; with a nice job in a cute country like Belize. Although he has no diplomatic experience, which he graciously acknowledged during his speech at the reception, he promised to learn quickly. Frankly, I don't think it is that difficult!

We spoke for a while to Barbara Thummalapally at the reception, and found her extremely friendly and engaging. She told us she could hardly believe her ears when they received a phone call from the president in April this year. After a long process of vetting and checking whether there were perhaps any secret stock accounts or arrests warrants in India (or whatever the secret service is checking when you become ambassador) they were appointed. Mum and Dad flew to Belmopan from Hyderabad, they're very proud of course. Not everyone in India feels the same as some of the internet fora show, but that is mostly jealousy and tribal pettiness.

Personally, it got me thinking...how things can happen. Perhaps one of my former school friends will one day be Prime Minister. Not likely but not impossible...who knows? Would I accept a nomination as Dutch ambassador to some country? Why not?
What about you?

Parade Party Time

2009-09-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

On this blog I already commented on the similarities and the differences between Belgium and Belize. The two countries do not have much in common, yet they are virtual neighbors in any country drop-down list. What does Belize have in common with Holland? They share their colors: - red, white and blue, as well a tradition of carnival and parades.

Yesterday during independence day in Belmopan we went to see the parade. The parade was nice enough, with about 30 floats and lots of happy people. For an hour or so I felt as if I were in Dongen, my home town. Only the sun reminded me of the fact that I was actually standing on the other side of the globe.

Tossed Salad

2009-09-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

September is a festive month for Belize. It is hot as hell, but that does not seem to keep most Belizeans from parties and parades. This year, Belize celebrates 28 years of independence. That is not that long (or well, it reminds me how old I am). In the sixties, when colonialism was on the retreat throughout the world, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago became the first Caribbean countries to gain independence. Actually, Belize had gained self-government from the British government in '61, but still had to wait 20 years because of a land claim from neighboring Guatemala. It threatened to use force against Belize if it did not settle the claim first. What this claim was exactly about and how it was solved is a too long story for this blog, but anyone who has a look at the long, straight border between Guatemala and Belize will understand that this is not a natural border.
What I like a lot about Belize is its motto, which is celebrated everywhere in September: "Diverse Origins, Common Aspirations". And it is true, Belize's population is as diverse as the fish in its ocean, with many colours, languages and cultures represented. In Soleine's class the kids are making a collage...they're cutting pictures of men, women, and children of all colours: African origin Garifuna, Maya and Hispanics, Chinese and Taiwanese, the Mennonites and other whites, the Indians and settlers from the Middle-East. When I was studying anthropology in the early nineties this was referred to as a melting pot, as if all these cultures and traditions were melted into one big pot. Now we know better...the cultures live side by side, but are definitely not mixed into one dish. Rather, they co-exist while keeping their own culture, values, and traditions. Someone had therefore invented the term 'tossed salad' rather than melting pot. Imagine leaves of Iceberg, Lolla rossa, Rocket, Romaine and Butterhead mixed in one bowl but without losing their colour and distinct taste. However, one quick look on Wikepedia also taught me that tossed salad is now slang for some kind of gay sex. Hmmm I guess someone will have to invent a new term to replace melting pot. Mixed salad maybe? Any takers?

Back to Belize, Back to Work

2009-08-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

Six weeks in Europe have gone by in a flash. Caught up with 17 brothers and sisters (including those in-law), 22 nephews and nieces, 4 parents and more than 100 friends in five countries (Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany). I also gained at least 4 kilos, drank 12 different kinds of beer in over 30 bars and ate in more than 20 restaurants. Shopped in even more shops; buying 120 kilo of stuff packed over 5 suitcases. In short: had a great time but now I’m a little tired…

It is good to be back in Belize. With an 8-hour jet-lag and a need to readjust to the heat, it will take me a few days to get back into normal life rhythm. Not for Soleine, she has started school today. She is now in K-5; the second year of Kindergarten. She is happy to find her ‘old’ friends again. Michel has gone back to the everlasting fight to get things done in his EU project to support the sugar-sector. I am updating my blog and my inbox, taking it easy today because today is my last ‘lazy’ day…On the first of September I am starting to work. Yea!

I have found this perfect consultancy assignment, right up my alley. I am going to do an MTR for UNDAF as well as the M&E for the UNDP CPAP and AWP. Ha! Can you still follow me? In normal (non-UN) language: I am going to facilitate a mid-term review of a common program implemented by four United Nations agencies here in Belize. And I am going to measure the progress of the UNDP country program for Belize. The UNDP together with the government of Belize has set out to achieve certain goals such as to reduce poverty and to stop the spread of HIV/Aids. I am going to help them to find out how successful they are. I will be developing a system to collect the right information, quantitative (for example the current percentage of mother-to-child HIV/Aids transmission) but also qualitative (for example how micro-credits have improved the lives of women entrepreneurs). I will have to work with various ministries and organizations such as the Statistical Institute of Belize, NGOs working in development and all kinds of others. I will get to know a lot of people. It is a four-month job and the best thing is I can do it from home and with flexible hours. What more could I want?

Home sweet Home

2009-07-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

My 'To Do in Holland' list was getting longer and longer in the past few weeks. Buy 'drop' (salty liquorice, which we Dutch consider a delicacy while the rest of the world finds it gross), renew my insurance, buy Dutch-language books for Soleine, get a new bank card, go for medical checks, buy souvenirs for housekeeper and my neighbors. I am counting down the days. Three more nights and we're flying...home! For six weeks, wow, that is the longest home leave we have ever had.

Only now Soleine realizes that the Netherlands is actually another country, far away. The country where Opa and Oma are living, where little children ride bicycles, where people walk on sidewalks and where Sinterklaas (sort of cousin of Santa Claus) arrives. For me it is the country where my family and friends live. And where I enjoy the luxury of having choice: the countless restaurants, book shops, toy shops, shops where you can buy leather shoes in stead of plastic sandals and good yet cheap wine in any supermarket! But most of all I look forward to seeing my parents, my brothers and sisters and friends. As the youngest of six, I get along with all of them, and although I only see them about once a year, I am probably the one who has the most contact with all of them. Everyone is always busy busy busy...

For Soleine I find it very important that she stays in touch with her Dutch and French speaking cousins and that she can be with Papy and Mamy. She still confounds Belgium and Holland but she is as excited as I am. Yet, although we have a nice apartment in Belgium, I do not really consider it home. And to be honest, after a few weeks I am usually ready to go back, because it does feel like being a visitor. In English they say Home is where the heart is. For me, it is more Home is where my life is.

So will I be happy to go back to Belmopan after six weeks? I will let you know!

The American Way

2009-07-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

I have named my blog Dutch in

Belize

but sometimes I feel I am the only Dutch person in

Belize

. I know this is not true, and tomorrow I am meeting with a guy called Joop, so he is definitely Dutch. Occasionally I get to speak my language (Dutch) with Paul, Michel’s Belgian colleague or with Elsie Alpuche who immigrated to

Belize

ten years ago, but I haven’t met any other Dutchies here, nor Germans or French for that matter. There are very few Europeans, apart from some Brits, but they don’t really consider themselves Europeans. While in Asia and Africa there’s a lot of European influence, here I can clearly feel the American impact. How?

Firstly there is the particular preference for all things large. Fridges, cars, behinds…if you can afford it… get a big one. Secondly, there is the accent. Soleine learned her first English in Sri Lanka, When she was thirsty she would ask for ‘wo-teh’ while now she says ‘wah-der’. She also says ‘awesome’ and ‘you guys’. Then there are miles, ounces, cups, yards, inches, feet, 110 volts and thin plugs with tiny pins.

Our house came with some convenient gadgets which I consider American:

a spacious walk-in closet (fantastic),
a Jacuzzi in the bathtub (nice but rarely used),
a dish washer (not used)
an ‘insinkerator ‘(a noisy but handy thing in the sink drain that grinds waste before it goes into the septic tank)
remote controls for fans and lights (really pointless unless you’re in wheelchair)
smoke alarms and panic buttons (we’re not using the alarm system).

Americans like gadgets and security stuff. You should see how they live here. There is a humongous American embassy in Belmopan, amazing for such a small country as Belize, and the American staff live in a highly secured compound guarded by over 55 security guards, which is probably more than the number of residents. Once inside you feel like you are in a completely different world. Elegant houses, perfectly maintained lawns and sports facilities. When I first visited with Soleine she asked me if we could once stay at this hotel. The homes are dark and cool inside, with central a/c all day as if they don’t have to pay their own electricity bills, and everyone has gadgets. Giant gas barbecues, special beer coolers on wheels, espresso makers, yoghurt machines, ice cream makers, fitness equipment, fancy kids toys, 20-gear bicycles, computers and TVs in every room (always on). I can imagine that it is very tempting to stay there all the time.

When I moved to Zimbabwe from Mozambique in 1999, people remarked that living in Harare was Africa for beginners’ (how things have changed since!). I think the same can be said for living at an American compound: Living abroad for beginners… '

Heroine

2009-06-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I blogged that the sun was the main reason we enjoy living abroad. I was lying, I must admit. Probably the biggest enjoyment is the quality of our life here. To a great extent this is contributed to by Silvia. Silvia is our helper. Personally I despise the word ‘maid’ or, even worse, the French term ‘la bonne’ and coming from Holland, one of the flattest countries in the world (both geologically and hierarchically), I prefer the term helper.

I was born with a peculiar form of indolence. I would not call it outright laziness, more like a gift for avoiding unpleasant chores. Such as: cleaning, cooking, washing, ironing, in short all domestic tasks. I can confirm what my brother told me years ago: nothing in life gets you hooked so quickly as the absence of domestic tasks.

Back to Silvia. She went to the bank last week to fetch some money to make a deposit for a piece of land she had bought. She is walking to the deposit office, a bottle of coke in her hand, as suddenly two guys jump out of a tree and grab her purse. She doesn’t let go but one guy hits her in the face and brings a broken bottle near her throat. Then she remembers her own empty coke bottle; she quickly slams is against the wall and with all her strength whacks him on the head until blood spurts out.

A woman who has witnessed it has gone to the police station, 300 meters (imagine!) down the walk way. De police find Silvia with a cut on her nose and only the straps of her purse on her shoulder. But she is not yet defeated! She has recognized the guys from when she worked at the American Embassy. They once were waiters at a cocktail party. And because the one chap had to go to the hospital for sutures, the police are able to catch them quickly. The next day they are locked away in a bare cell with no toilet at the Belmopan police station. Good job…End of story?

Not in the least. It has just started. Silvia has lost her 250 US dollars, and she wants it back. The police want her to testify. If you have read my previous post - The Country Where Everyone Knows Everyone – you’ll understand that she is scared. She has filed an official statement, three copies on authorized paper with all the right stamps. She has paid a judge to hear her statement. He will now have to decide if there will be a public court case. If she has to testify I will go with her. Because she is so brave, she is my heroine. There is such a word as heroism but I could not find the female version so I will invent it today: heroine-ism.

My First Time Ever...

2009-06-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

Today I did something for the very first time ever. I felt very shy about it, even though (or maybe especially as?) I was on my own. Afraid of being caught, I had closed the curtains and even locked the door. Despite my reluctance I did it anyway and boy, did I feel good afterward. Okay, I was tired and sweaty but the physical relaxation that flowed through my body was worth the embarrassment.

What did I do? Aerobics in my living room while watching Fit TV! Do you know Fit TV? It is a non-stop parade of fitness kings, yoga gurus and pumped up Pilates princesses in tight pants and pink mini-tops showing off their muscled tummies, screaming to the TV- audience as if they were a bunch of teenagers in a self-esteem workshop … “You’re doing great, keep going, feel your power, gr-r-r-r-reat job”.

There are no sports clubs in Belmopan, at least not that I am aware of. I went a couple of times to the En Croix Christian dance school run by Youth With A Mission (they abbreviate themselves as Y-WAM, how cool is that?) but they closed last week for a long summer holiday. There is aqua-gym for ladies but I feel I haven’t quite reached the stage where I have to do things in the water while I can still do them on the floor.

So, unless you want to work out in a non-air-conditioned gym club with a handful of big black bodybuilders where you can smell the wafts of sweat and testosterone even when driving by, there seems no other option than Fit TV.

Thus this morning I rolled up the Indian floor rug in my living room, rolled out my gym mat, put on my sweat pants and followed the warm up moves of Sharon Mann, four-time Canadian Aerobics Champion. Just as I get warmed up, there is a commercial break. Come on guys…you can’t do this. This is good for public health…why can’t this be on public TV without commercials? Anyway, Sharon, who is wearing her hair in two ‘cute’ little pigtails for the occasion, is so enthusiastic that I can’t let her down. I try to follow her but it is not easy. Just when I get the hang of one step, she goes onto the next one. And on and on and on. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if I don’t follow exactly, nobody is watching me. When it is time to stretch, I almost lose two fingers in my ceiling fan. But you know what, if I don’t have too many muscle aches, I think I might do it again tomorrow! Behind the closed curtains...

The Country where Everyone Knows Everyone

2009-06-15T13:11:00.001-07:00

Antoine, Michel’s son, came to visit us for the first time in Belize over Easter. When we drove back the 80 kilometers from the airport to Belmopan, I was carefully studying his face to see his first reaction to our new country. He kept quiet during the first 40 kilometers, and next he asked: “Papa, where are the houses? Where are the people?”

It’s true and especially remarkable to us coming from crowded Sri Lanka that Belize has only 300,000 people and consists mainly of jungle. With a meager 12 persons per square kilometer, Belize is among the countries with the lowest population density in the world (bottom of the list is Greenland with less than one person per km² and on top is Macao with more than 18,000 people per km²). We all know the problems associated with overpopulation in poor countries: the poverty, the pollution, horrible traffic situations, overstretched use of resources, devastating natural disasters… but have you ever thought about the opposite? Countries like Belize with low population and low GDP have their own set of problems.

Evidently, the key problem lies in the use of resources. Take infrastructure. Belize has only two major roads (‘highways’) which are sufficient to connect all the cities and towns. The other roads are dirt tracks. Now there is money available from the EU to build new roads, but is it worthwhile to construct an expensive tarred road if only 20 cars are using it each day? In Belmopan, new cafés and restaurants open regularly but many disappear as quickly as they pop up for lack of clients. At Brodies, the only air-conditioned supermarket, I am often the sole customer; I don’t know how they survive. My friend Edna, a pediatrician at the Belmopan hospital, has an agonizing dilemma; should they purchase an expensive neonatal intensive care unit when they average only 30 babies delivered per month, most of whom are healthy? It is difficult to develop an underpopulated country, simply because there are too few people to utilize available resources.

But that is not the only challenge Belize as a low population country is facing. Recently, a twelve-year old boy accidentally witnessed a brutal assassination by a drug lord. Terrified, he did not want to testify. The Belize police came to his house over and over to pressure him into testifying. A few days later he was found murdered. Obviously, everyone saw the police at the boy’s house, but nobody could protect him. Witness protection, undercover police, officers in plain clothes; these concepts may have very well prevented this boy from being killed. But these things simply don’t work in a country where everyone knows each other.

The flip side of this is perhaps the consolation that it is practically impossible for prisoners to escape and disappear because everyone knows who they are...

Sugar beats Banana in EU football

2009-06-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, our friend Tony organized the first ever EU football tournament on the occasion of EU day here in Belmopan. Yes, there is such a thing as EU day, it is called Schuman day named after some French guy who considers himself a founding father of the EU. It is normally celebrated on the 9th of May but because of the swine flu break out in nearby Mexico it had to be postponed. Anyway, EU day is probably only celebrated outside of Europe and I am pretty sure that 99% of Europeans have never heard of it, which can probably also be said for the European Anthem, Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
There are four EU-funded programs here in Belize: one for the sugar sector (ours), one to support the banana sector, a rural development project, and a government support project. Each project formed a mixed football team, with the rule that at any time at least four women had to be on the pitch. I was ready to play but I am terribly bad and when I saw the five girls in our team, all working for the Sugarcane Farmers Association, I humbly gave up my place to let them play. The first match ended in penalties with a close victory for the Sugar team, which then had to face the dreaded Banana team in the final. And what a final it was! It had all the ingredients of a breathtaking, nerve-wracking, nail-biting grand finale: a send-off, a penalty, an 18-meter free kick and a last minute goal, scored by...Michel! My own little sugar daddy...

Weather Quiz

2009-06-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

Dutch people like to talk a lot about the weather. When I was still studying anthropology in Amsterdam, I read a study by an Indian anthropologist researching a small village just off the Dutch coast. One of the things he found peculiar with the Dutch was their preoccupation with the weather. They can not stop talking about it. One of the easy explanations the Dutch people offered him was the fact that the weather is so unpredictable in Holland, and therefore you can talk about it all the time. But that would be the same for Germany or Denmark, and the anthropologist found that Germans and Danish would not constantly refer to the weather. So hmmm, what could be the reason for this Dutch obsession? After long and hard thinking, his final conclusion was that it had to do with control. Dutch people like to have control over things. They are well organized and tidy people, and they have a place for everything. Bread goes in the bread box, tools in a tool box, and dirty laundry in a basket. (Sometimes I wonder if I am really Dutch). Everything is done according to rules and regulations. And because we can not control the weather, we need to talk about it often... Here in Belize the weather is not very predictable either. Although it is hot most days, there are storms, rain, thunder, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, droughts you name it. Belizeans do not talk about the weather often, why should they? It is boring and you can't change it anyway.

(photo @ Belize Tropical Educational Centre)

Shocking

2009-05-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

Woke up last night in the middle of the night because of some funny sounds in the bedroom. Our bed is dancing on its four legs, the windows are shaking and my dream-catcher is swinging frantically above my head. What is going on? Am I dreaming? Must be. I poke my husband who gets up to go to the bathroom. The shocks last, a few minutes but I still can not determine whether I am dreaming or not. Next morning, I ask my husband. He can not remember anything. Then I hear about the earthquake in Honduras and the tsunami alert for the Caribbean countries. Wow, so I was definitely NOT dreaming. A real earthquake in my bedroom. Truly shocking!

Sweet Deal?

2009-05-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

The reason why we are living here in Belize is a sweet one. Michel is working as a consultant for the European Union to support the Belize sugar sector. For many years, the EU and the so-called ACP-countries (African, Caribbean and Pacific countries) have had a mutually beneficial relationship established in the sugar protocol. This agreement, which dates back from the seventies, stipulated a guaranteed access to the European market of fixed quantities of sugar cane for a certain minimum price. Sugar accounts for 60% of Belize’s agricultural production so you’ll know how important it is for this small country.

You will also understand that this is a kind of protection measure and that not everyone is happy with that. Other sugar-producing members of the World Trade Organization, such as Brazil and India, as well European sugar beet producing countries, saw their sugar prices decline and started to complain. This has lead to the ending of the EU-ACP sugar protocol in 2006. As a kind of compensation, the EU waived its magic wand, did a little hocus pocus and voila.., there was 48 million euros to upgrade the Belize sugar sector, which is known to have one of the lowest levels of efficiency in the world while the price per ton had been slashed by 36%.

It is Michel’s job to advise the Ministry of Agriculture on how best to spend that money. Part of it has to be invested in infrastructure (roads, equipment) and part for improving production methods and diversification. There are about 6,000 cane farmers in northern Belize, and as you can imagine, they don’t all have their nose in the same direction (as we say in Dutch). When I had just arrived here in February, the cane farmers were on strike and rioting against the police. One farmer even got shot dead! In this peaceful country?

The same can be said for the Ministry people, and other sugar stakeholders. They all have different ideas on how to spend the money. They all know what the other should do. Combine all of the above with a general Caribbean attitude of all talk and little action and you have a guy coming home in the evening answering my question ‘How was your day, honey?’ with the usual: useless. Not so sweet after all. But he does not give up easily so we’ll see what happens in a few months. To be continued.

Feather or Dot?

2009-05-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned it a few times before; Belmopan is not exactly the centre of the world and there is not much excitement here. We don’t even have traffic lights. Not that those are exciting, it’s just to illustrate the scope of this capital. Anyway, in places like this you have to create your own fun and luckily for us, we are pretty good at that. We have revived the Belize Hash House Harriers (you can check it out at www.belizeh3.org) and Michael has set up a thing called ‘Belmopan Bravo’. It’s a weekly get-together TGIF idea, every Friday in a different place. In Sri Lanka we had Colombo Charlie, same idea, go for happy hour with a group of friends. This first time we proposed it here, a few weeks ago, we were five people, now there are twenty to thirty people weekly! A nice mixture of Belizeans, Europeans and Americans. It is supposed to be a 6 to 8 pm thing, but we never reach home before 11 pm and that is because we have to drop off our baby sitter.

Last weekend we had a party. It was hosted by Richard, a colleague, at our house. He had thought of a theme: Indian, and he had made a couple of curries with yellow rice. It was a costume party, which the British call a Fancy Dress but that only created confusion as the Americans thought they had to dress in an evening gown. For Micheal and me it was easy because coming from Sri Lanka I have a pretty sari and he has his Bollywood party costume. For other guests it was less obvious however, as people started to ask: what do you mean by Indian? American native Indian or Indian from India? In other words: do I wear feathers or a dot on my front? It did not matter, I just replied: come in whatever you look most sexy. And interestingly (and understandably), most Americans and Belizeans came with the feathers while the Europeans wore the dot. And that is how we ended up having a party with pretty girls in sari’s, sensual Zen masters, a cool-looking Indian casino worker, an American ambassador with feathers and finger paint on his cheeks and even Ghandi himself appeared in his self-made diaper made of white towels. Who says you need to go to bars and clubs to have fun?

Freaky

2009-05-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

One of the major reasons we enjoy living abroad is of course: the sun. It is just easier to wake up in the mornings when the sun peeks through your curtains, when you can wear cute sandals without having to worry about socks and when your face is tanned.

Of course we sometimes complain that it is too hot but I am careful with what I wish for. However, there is one serious down side to the hot tropical climates we have been living in for the past fifteen years. With heat comes humidity, and with that comes…bugs. Roaches, mosquitos, flies, fleas, ants whatever... I thought I was used to it by now. Until…

…on the very first day we stayed in our newly rented house, we had two ladies giving it a good clean up. They found a tiny bright green frog in the store room, screamed and then ran away from it. They said it was a poisonous frog and that it could spit in your eyes and make you blind. I found that hard to imagine from such a tiny thing that looked like a Haribo gummi candy. But am I going to disbelieve these Belizean women? No way, so we took it seriously and approached the empty room with utmost care.

Later that day my guy wanted to see if froggy was still there and he found a black spider keeping it company. Now this was getting interesting. A frog and a spider in an otherwise totally empty room? Is this a new fable of La Fontaine? Later that evening he took another peek into the store room, and to his big surprise the frog and spider had been joined by a scorpion! Really true, all on the same day in the same room! What is this? Some kind of plot to say that we are (not) welcome in this house? A scorpion? I have never had those in my house… those fellows are a little dangerous aren’t they?

We have baptized that store room the Freaky Room. I will forever be careful when I go in there, and will never go near it with bare feet. We’re still enjoying the sun but have yet to learn to accept all creatures that come along with it. If you decide to visit us I promise you you won’t have to sleep in the Freaky Room. Unless you like scorpions…

Viva Mexico?

2009-04-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

We’re going to Mexico! Michel has to go for work to Orange Walk and Corozal, two cities in the sugar belt of Belize close to the Mexican border. We’re going to do some shopping in Chetumal, where many Belizians go because it is much cheaper. Belize is an expensive country…a small bottle of beer in the supermarket costs 3,50 Belizian dollars (or 1,75 USD) and a loaf of brown bread is 2,50 USD. Buy anything slightly luxurious and we pay through the nose like 5,50 USD for 10 slices of turkey ham, 6 American dollars for half a liter of plain yoghurt or for a bottle of shampoo.

I am excited to see Mexico and am even wearing a dress for the occasion. And a pair of high heels! I imagine Mexico to be a little more urbanized and stylish than Belmopan, where everyone always wears jeans and plastic slippers. Belmopan is very dusty and low-key and nobody seems to care much about looks. In a way that’s cool, but sometimes I just miss dressing up and hearing the clickety-clack of my heels on the street.

Upon exiting Belize we have to pay an exit tax. Ridiculous. Arriving at the Mexican border the border officers just keep waiving us through. Before we know it we have crossed the border and are on a 4-lane high way to Chetumal. Shouldn’t we have registered ourselves to get an entry stamp in our passports? Too late. Around 6 pm on Friday we drive into Chetumal, and because I am expecting (or hoping) to see Latin or Spanish looking buildings with white verandahs and lovely small plaza’s with orange trees, I am disappointed. It is not pretty… just like Belize's towns…low, square shoe-box type houses, electricity cables hanging everywhere and plenty of Chinese shops with cheap clothes. The city centre is comprisesd of one street and the beach boulevard is dark and deserted. The first thing I do at the hotel is exchange my dress for a pair of jeans. We find a restaurant that serves excellent steak and Margaritas so at least we feel a bit like being abroad.

The next morning we go the shopping mall where shops are good (especially the Liverpool department store) and prices are cheap, compared to Belize. We resist Soleine’s begging to go to MacDonalds and enjoy a small restaurant with local food. Then I start feeling sick, my stomach is upset and I am weak in the knees.

On the way out of Mexico we have to pay tourist tax which we did not pay when entering, and we have a car accident because some Rasta-man, totally stoned and wasted, decides to pull up out right in front of us on the high way in his jeep. We damage our car and the man is very apologetic: he tells us at least 25 times how sorry he is and that he loves us. The police arrive, surprisingly fast, and they ask us if we want the Rasta man (who introduces himself as Mr. Too Tall from Crooked Tree, can you believe it) to be taken to station for alcohol testing. We just want to get a police report for the insurance and get out of there. Back home the swine-flu thing is all over the news and I am even thinking I might have caught something as my body feels weird returning from Mexico. What a trip! I don’t think we’ll go back to Chetumal again. Okay, shopping may be much cheaper but add up the cost of the trip, the exit tax, the entry tax, the hotel and the car accident and the Swine flu stress and I don’t think we have saved any money on turkey ham or beer. And what is the point if nobody wears a dress and clickety-clack shoes anyway?

Stuff

2009-04-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

Our container has arrived in the port of Belize city. Yeah yeah yeah! After traveling at sea for almost three months - from Colombo to Singapore to Hongkong to Panama to Jamaica – our 88 boxes should arrive in our new house in Belmopan TODAY!

Everyone who has ever shipped stuff must know this feeling… I always consider it the best day since arriving the new country. Knowing Belize as an easy-going country, we’re expecting the container to be released and brought to our house the same day. But, from experience we also know not have expectations and to apply the ‘first see then believe’ principle.

Funny enough, I have half forgotten what’s in it. Apart from two princess dresses of which my daughter constantly reminds me, my newly acquired mega-painting from Sanjeewa Kumara and my salad spinner I can’t say I miss much. Having been here for three months, I have bought all there is to buy in Belmopan, which includes essentials such as beds and plates but of course not books, CDs, toys nor pictures, just to name a few items.

But, I must say it is actually kind of nice to have a tidy house without clutter. For the first time in my expat life I wonder if it is worth it to constantly travel with all your stuff and to pay large sums of money for the shipments (which, mind you, we have to pay ourselves).

Eventually, the container came four days after its arrival in the country. A customs officer was present at our house when we unsealed it. Out came our 88 boxes with the forgotten items – according to what the Sri Lankan packers had written on them, such as: cresmas deceracion, helmuts, ormanents, pientings and ladies axeceseres. Add to that Soleine’s books in three languages, family photos, pretty bed sheets and my Abba CDs and the answer to the question: is it worth the time and money to take your personal stuff when you regularly travel half the world, becomes easy:- without a doubt!

Belmopan Slide Show

2009-04-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Belmopan has been the capital of Belize since 20 years or so. Before it was Belize city, which makes more sense because it is much bigger though still small. The Belize government and many of the embassies shifted to Belmopan because of the hurricanes and floads affecting Belize city. Belmopan basically consist of one road, named the ring road. There are 12,000 inhabitants in this town...it's even smaller than my home town in the Netherlands which I managed to escape on the day I turned 18. Sorry to say but Belmopan is boring and dusty. And I mean that literally and figuratively. There are no shops (unless you consider Chinese supermarkets as shops), no good restaurants, there is no cinema or theatre. Being in Belmopan feels like living back in the fifties. The good part is that the people are really friendly, strangers greet eachother when they pass in their cars, you can leave your car unlocked with the key in it. I find it hard to preserve my good habits of locking doors and putting seat belts. It is easy to do your shopping here because you simply buy what is available. Having limited choice is acutally convenient I have noticed.

Apart from a few colorful trees such as the Flamboyants, Golden shower and Jakaranda's there isn't much beauty in Belmopan. Nobody makes any effort to please the eye here. Restaurants and bars consist of wooden picnic tables and tasteless overdue Christmas decorations. You will understand that we have to make all the fun ourselves here in this hole. But we're pretty good at that...

Women's Fun

2009-04-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

Fresh in Belmopan, I learn that there is such a thing as the ‘Belmopan International Women’s Group’. There happens to be a meeting at the Mexican Embassy the first week of my arrival. I go and I am surprised by the number of 50 or so women present. It was a lunch meeting and everyone had brought a dish so the large table was full with sandwiches, dips, cakes and what not. Each woman is wearing a name tag, the American way. I sit down, look around and listen. There are announcements about how to register as a member, about how to attract visitors the website (suggestion: putting recipes!), how money has been spent for a sick child and then there is a draw. You can buy a ticket and win a lamp made by one of the women. Then everyone attacks the lunch table and leaves.

I am not impressed but have learned not to judge too quickly. After all, there is very little to do here in Belmopan so every initiative should be supported.

The second meeting takes place at the huge fancy house of one of the most important families in Belmopan. Again there is a good turn-out with a mixture of women in terms of age and nationality. I did not bring a name tag and learn that we have to pay a fine if without tag. A symbolic one but still..I am beginning to feel uncomfortable. The meetings starts and I feel even more uneasy. I decide not to buy a ticket for the monthly draw.

Why I am feeling so misplaced? Because I am one of the younger women? Because I consider myself a professional women and do not want to be part of housewives / spouse clubs? Then one woman stands up and complains that the meetings always take place during day time. ‘I am wórking you know...’ she says with such an air of ‘I am better than you’ that I feel like slapping her. I shamefully recall that I probably used to say the same thing when I was working in Sri Lanka…

There is also a men’s club in Belmopan. They go out on trips; kayaking in caves or diving in the blue hole. They have ideas for poker evenings, car rally’s and spicy dinner parties. They drink Belikin beer, talk shit and have fun. Like men do. Then I realize why I am not at ease with the ‘women’s thing. It has nothing to do with working or not…it’s about having fun. The women’s group just doesn’t have fun. Not my kind of fun at least.

Guests and Fresh Fish

2009-03-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

We’re having visitors! I find it always exciting when people take the time and effort to come and see your new country. I realize it is not for everybody to just leave your life for a while and hop on a plane like we do all the time. Especially when it involves a journey of almost 2 days and multiple airplanes. So I was happy to welcome my brother in law and his wife and daughter from Belgium. Soleine was all excited to have a room mate, even though she did not remember her 10 year old cousin Sarah at all.

They arrived with 6 suitcases stuffed with children’s shoes, liver pate and Belgian chocolate. Seriously, at least 10 kilo’s of the finest Belgian Leonidas pralines have been ‘smuggled’ into Belize. Upon their return, the family exported 10 liters of hot pepper sauce for their friends in Belgium. That’s fair trade…don’t you think?

One of the nice things about having guest is that it’s a great opportunity to see the country. We all know that those who live in a country know it the least. How many French have climbed the Eiffel tower, how many Dutch have seen the colorful tulips in the Keukenhof or looked at Rembrandt’s Nachtwacht? How many Americans have climbed down the great Canyon or gone up the Empire State Building? Exactly!

For almost three weeks we explored Belize. And have not been disappointed. Creepy jungle trails ending in bright blue rock pools, climbing Maya temples to enjoy 360 degrees views, lazing in a hammock on Placencia beach…Belize is surely a beautiful place.

Good as it is to have guests, I am also always secretly happy when they leave. In Dutch we have a saying where we compare guests to fresh fish...you know what they have in common? The both only stay good for a few days, then they start smelling. Ouch…that is not a nice. My dear brother and sister in law…it was great having you. To all future visitors: don’t take it personally!

Happy Clappy School

2009-03-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a little about my daughter. She is four (going on ten). In Sri Lanka she used to go to a preschool named Stepping Stones, a great school for little people.

As soon as we arrived in Belmopan, I inquired about schools. Many people pointed to BCA, supposedly the best and only 'international' school in Belmopan. So, on our first Thursday we went to check it out..me being as excited as Soleine.

My first impression was okay from the outside. A dozen small wooden buildings on stilts, one for each class, painted white, looking like a cute holiday village. Inside though, the classroom was very small and not half as neat as Stepping Stones in Colombo. Old plastic toys, wobbly furniture and awfully dirty and ripped floor covers.

BCA stands for Belize Christian Academy. That was my second uneasiness. It is a very Christian school: with crucifixes in its logo, God in its overall objective and compulsory clapping to Jesus on Fridays. It's just not my thing. I find that schools should not be involved in preaching one single religion only. But according to the Belize government, all schools are required to have a religious affiliation.

To be very honest: I was disappointed. Was this the best school of Belmopan? Then I met Soleine's teacher. She is Chantelle, and she is a star. I respect anyone who can keep 14 toddlers busy from 8.30 to 15.30, but if you can keep them busy in a meaningful and fun way, you're a super star! So I asked myself: what is most important for a 4 year old: proper facilities or a proper facilitator? And, will the religious 'brain washing' have a permanent effect on her 4-year old psyche?

What do you believe?