Conch Shells & Lobster

This afternoon our landlord, Roger, came over to give me a conch shell.  He is a fisherman and I had asked him the last time he went out what they did with the conch shells after they harvested the conch from them.   Conch is used in a lot of the recipes here, cerviche is a huge favorite… I am in love with conch shells, I think they are gorgeous with the creamy mother of pearl pink inside to the rough gyrations of colors on the outside and the horny tips they use for protection…to me it’s one of life’s great master pieces… I will include a picture of it on the blog…

As we went over and were talking to them and I am stumbling through my Spanish  (Roger’s wife Lolita’s English is as good as my Spanish so we can communicate very well)  and talking amongst ourselves we started to have a conversation with them and were talking to each other and Lolita spotted me talking to Charlie in Spanish and stated that he must be getting better at understanding Spanish….he said yes, he was picking it up here and there and it was then that she looked at me and said that he understood what I had said to him although he doesn’t speak Spanish.  Charlie was explaining to her that when we worked together in our office he never really had to say much, that we would communicate without saying much to each other….this is true, after being in an office together we had gotten good at reading each other’s thoughts without saying much…but to now do it in Spanish??

I had gotten a big compliment earlier this week from the Zapatoria in Corozal.  I came up to him and asked him if he had repaired my husband’s shoes and was describing Charlie to him and doing it all in Spanish (without even realizing it!) and my friend Donna was with me.  She just stared at me and then Benny (the Zapatoria or Shoe repairman) asked her in English how long she had been here.  Now, Donna got her residency about 3 months ago and has lived here for more than two years.  She answered him and then he looked at her and asked her when she was going to learn Spanish as well as I had….It was funny but until he said that I had not realized I was even talking to him in Spanish…I then told him I tried and that I had taken Spanish in high school….He looked at me and smiled and said even though it was supposed to be an English speaking country he was glad I was trying and that I spoke pretty well…hooray, maybe I will learn this language well enough some day to understand all the “signals” the Belizeans give each other.  You gotta hand it to them, they have learned both languages and switch back and forth fluently….

The nice thing about having a fisherman as a neighbor is that we had been doing some neighborly things for them and they paid us back today in abundance. ( at least in my humble opinion!)  Roger pulled out his chest with his catch and I got to see Conch, Crab legs (yes Emily, crab legs) Lobster, fish and octopus…..he told us to take what we wanted.  I made Charlie take some conch because I know how much he enjoyed a conch chowder that a friend of ours made here…he said it was very similar to the New England clam chowder and we took home some lobster…just because!!!

It kind of made my day though. Little things mean a lot more here than they did in the states.  Our truck is broke down again (fuel pump AGAIN) and although our mechanic  is a nice guy and a good mechanic (everyone speaks wonderfully of him, both gringos and Belizeans alike) it is a hassle.  But we are fortunate to have a bus line here.  A great many Women ride the bus while their husbands have the family vehicle (if there is a family vehicle) and I can imagine how hard it is to schedule doing something like going to the market when the kids come home for lunch generally…and the time is tight for anyone to fit in…so I like to give the people here rides if I know them and it doesn't hurt me too much…I might see someone from the village walking through the bush on the way to Corozal and will pick them up.  It’s hard sometimes to imagine a life without electricity but some of these people do not have electricity, they get by pretty well.  The majority of the Mayans still cook outside over an open fire and I can tell you that it makes sense to a certain extent because beans take forever to cook inside!

Think about your life as you know it, would it be so hard to live without electricity?  How well prepared would you be for survival without have that cable of power?  Is this a simple necessity and how well would you like to live on necessity only versus wants?