Belize Love!

We are in love with Belize!

Soda in a Bag!

Any place that sells a Coke also has a bottle opener attached to the wall. Grab your soda and pop the top at the door.

So why soda in a bag? You can save a whole quarter for leaving your glass bottle at the store. Bottles are re-used by manufacturers, so bottles are in demand. Who knows how long the bottle you drink from has been in circulation?

Brenna, Shelbi, Megan and Angela are giving soda in a bag a try - are we loving it?!

America has Arrived!

Our entire first wave team is here now (minus one) and we have now at least tripled the white population here in Belize. Ok, maybe that’s not totally accurate, but it certainly feels like it!

The participants were all pretty tired when they first arrived. They were happy to have a place to crash. Some had caught flights at 1 am – ouch!

This is me standing with a sign that says "Erika." I'm just being silly - we know Erika!

And here she is! Erika arrived a week and a half after the first volunteers. We are happy she's here.

Our team is excited to be here in Belize – and who wouldn’t be? This place is amazing and we are all excited to make an impact through our projects! Yippee!

Weekend R&R

Most of the team went on vacation this weekend – either to Caye Caulker or to Placencia Beach. Kyle and I were very content to stay here. The past few weeks have been fast-paced (and sometimes hectic) trying to get everything underway, and a few days with a quiet house was nice. :) We got some great R&R and feel charged up again.

This weekend Kyle searched for a dresser/armoire of sorts and came up with this:

I love it! It’s made of beautiful hardwood and nicely fits our wardrobes. It’s nice to not be living out of a suitcase. I could do it easily for a few weeks, but four months…that gets long for me.

We also found a good massage therapist – Bev is an ex-pat and has lived here with her husband for 6 years. She works out of a Indian doctor’s office that has air conditioning (a luxury here, believe me!) Although Bev is a great therapist, we definitely miss my friend, Karen, who is my massage therapist back in the States!

This is me standing in our room. I look a little burned. Maybe you can't see because I blend in with the door. :) With the sun always shining, I may look like this a few more times this summer.

Tetris!

And…it’s a perfect fit! We win!! I know, it seems like a lot of baggage, right? It’s not all ours…just mostly. My only defense is that we are in a third world country for 4 months. I can have almost all the comforts of home with this much packed along with us!

Palm Leaves, Dreadlocks and Agri!

Agri is the event of the year! Agri is short for Agriculture and is an alternate name for the national fair. Agri can basically be compared to a typical American State Fair.It’s hosted in the capital, Belmopan, and booths with palm leaf roofs cover acres of land downtown. Kyle and Megan had to travel back to Belize City to pick up some things we left at D’Nest Inn and they stopped at the fair to see the to do and meet with some humanitarian aid partners.

Look at this guy's dreads!!

To give you an idea of how anticipated this event is, there is a beauty salon that is run on the bottom floor of our house and the salon was packed for days. When I inquired if the owner of the salon was always this busy, she replied, “No, but this is Agri. Everyone is getting ready for it.” Locals get haircuts and dyes, brow waxes, and fingernails and toenails painted to prepare for this big event.

I got my haircut on Saturday, I guess in celebration of Agri (really, it just happened to coincide ).This is me with my new and shorter haircut, courtesy of Patricia the salon owner on the bottom floor of our house. I love it! It’s so cool as it’s off my neck and, bonus! I don’t have to do a thing to it – no brush, blowdryer or flat iron. Keep me here!!

Funny sign!

Kyle found Noni! We love Tahitian Noni and thought we'd give Belizean noni a try. And the verdict...it's delicious!

Ooooooold Belize

We were excited to visit a beach the 2nd day we were in Belize. We have seen so many pictures and were expecting something similar to Hawaii. We asked a local tour agency and they directed us to Cocombra Beach. We later found out that is the Creole pronunciation and we were told that we were seeking Cucumber Beach. Funny!

So you’re wondering why the title? Cucumber Beach is located in Old Belize – a place that was once “happening” but has obviously long since lost its luster. It was a bit eerie there – it felt like a ghost down and was more than a bit dilapidated.




Where are all the beautiful beaches? The pictures we've seen online had us set up for white sands and palm trees…and this is what we visited at Cucumber. Pretty sad!


Still, it was fun to see the yachts, the “Killer Zipline” which is still in operation (for $20 a ride), sailboats and some cool old signs.

Are we inside a whale's mouth? Who knows what used to take place here!

Here's a little tour of Old Belize:

Megan's artistic photos - they make the beach look good!

Goodbye, Old Belize! We probably won't be seeing you anytime soon. :)

S-l-o-w I-n-t-e-r-n-e-t....

Right now internet is painfully slow as I post this and since we don't have a hotel with internet right now, it'll be a while until I post lots of pics. But keep checking back! They'll be here soon.

It’s a jungle out there!

We live in a jungle! Truly!! We say in America that “It’s a jungle out there!” When they say “out there” are they referring to the trpoics? If so, I’m experiencing it now! It’s so amazing. A tropical breeze blows through my room that large open windows on 3 walls, the sun is shining and palms and other tall trees are swaying with the wind. In the distance I look out my window and see the tops of green trees stretching for miles.
I’m listening to “Enya: Carribean Blue” (come on now, who doesn’t love Enya?!) and somehow when I listened to this music in the US it always seemed to take me across a sea to some distant place. Yet now it seems totally fitting for the setting I’m in today. Perhaps this is the distant place I always imagined I was in. I feel quite at home here. Four months seems like it will just fly by.
I expected it to be unbearably hot and humid, but it is really quite pleasant now. Of course, we are heading into the “hot season.” We’ll see what I think in another month!
There was a beautiful breeze blowing on and off when we were in Belize (that’s how locals refer to Belize City). We asked if it was that way everywhere in the country, or just there near the ocean. We were told that it is always breezy everywhere. So far we’ve found that to be true.