My mind has been
wandering lately, dreaming of the time when I will be reunited with my Girls
and having a family celebration and I haven’t been up on writing…sometimes life
gets so hard you wonder, who wants to know about your measly little problems compared
to the big issues of Boston’s bombing or how there isn’t a budget or how people
are being shot and killed for nothing….but then something struck me today and I
think I need to voice it….
My nephew (I love him dearly) was posting on how he had to
wait in line for 20 minutes for a part and how it was such a pain, to which a
friend of his commiserated and piped in about getting a part for a garden tool
that he needed to work on his garden….I was thinking about this for a long time
because I do not want to come off as critical but here it is in a nutshell….YOU
ARE LUCKY…..The people in Belize recycle because they have to, they have no
choice. …If something breaks usually the expats that are my friends and I sit
and look at each other and shake our heads…we know what comes next….First, let
us see if they have something here that we can make do with to create a “part”
that will work, or recycle something else that’s broken and see if that will
work…if that doesn't work then they have to figure out who and when is someone
going to Mexico and can they get the part without paying a fortune in customs,
if that doesn't worry you too much you could order the part from the States, it
usually takes (when you pay priority mail) 3-4 weeks without it….
And as far as the garden tool my nephews friend was
complaining about, YOU ARE LUCKY…..most Belize ans here have one tool, I've seen
them do amazing things with the machete…. I've seen them take down whole palm
trees (large ones) a piece at a time, “chop” the lawn (Mowers are really
expensive here), trim the bush, and sow the garden with a Machete……
I got up from reading this and went to do my wash….American
Washers cost upwards of $2000 Bz so rather than buying that initially I started
with a wash board…that was hard but exhilarating as I looked at the fresh
laundry and knew it was clean…But I now have a “Chinese” washer….you put the
wash in, fill it up with a hose and the machine with agitate it for you, of
course, it only goes one way as compared to the washers in the States that go
both ways, so every once in awhile I pull the wash up down, then you drain all the soapy water out,
as you drain you are also spraying your clothes to make sure you get all the
soap out , then you can put it in the spinner part (separate from the washing
container) and spin out all the soap, then you put it in the washer part again,
but this time your doing a rinse cycle, drain, spray, spin and hang….it takes
time….time for me to stand over the thing and do all this stuff….Thank God it isn't broken and I don’t need a new part…..
I know I picked this life, I knew it wasn't going to be easy….The
week before last my husband talked to his sister and of all the questions she
might have had the only one she asked was what do we do for fun?....Most people
probably think we are down here drinking cervesa’s and spending our days
sitting around but Charlie and I have developed a bit of a work routine,
Charlie more so than I….(I cheat and have Facebook up on the side as I am
writing or researching…or even painting) but we rarely do “fun” things…..we are
more about living this life and trying to better our community, perhaps too
much so…..
But I have to say
this for the people of Belize; they do work hard (when they work! LOL) and
there may be times you run into a bad person, but I feel that is the same for
any country or group of people….there are always ways that life could be
improved….Too many people in the States do not realize how hard life can
be. These people have given me a sense
of patience in dealing with issues, sometimes their stoicism is just the way
they handle life’s ups and downs and how you have to roll with the punches, I
just know that I am looking forward to a visit to the States, but I think I
will probably be glad to come back……
