Success and other things!

Success on February 17th! I finally got my bank account open at Scotiabank. What an ordeal! The process is nothing as easy as it is opening one in a stateside bank. You can’t walk in, show a driver’s license, and walk out with a new account. Here you are required to provide 2 forms of picture id (drivers license and passport sufficed), a letter of reference from a non-family member (actually provided by my cousin Patrick Coyle as my former employer…and he made me write it!), one from your bank stating that you don’t bounce checks all over the place, a bill or receipt from either the telephone or electric company that has your Belizean address, AND since I’m a non-resident, something that shows the source of your money. My only real issues were the bill and the source of income. Because I don’t have a phone or electric hookup I had to provide a copy of a bill my trailer lot rental and a bill from the person billing you that had their address on it. So I had Tricia write up my 1st months land rental and she provided me with a copy of her BLT (telephone) bill. My source of income was the American Express Check receipts that I received when I purchased them, which I had already turned into cash by the way. Now that doesn’t really sound too hard but here’s the rub. On my very 1st visit to the bank I stepped up to the service counter and asked for the specific requirements for opening an account. We are talking about a fluent English speaking country here so there is absolutely no language barrier. I also told them exactly how much money I would be depositing. The customer service person told me of the 2 forms of id and the 2 reference letters and that was all I would need. Wrong answer! The 2nd visit brought the news of the billing/address verification. The 3rd was the money trail. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the bank wasn’t a 50 mile round trip journey each time and the one way drive is about 30-40 minutes. Another hiccup is that the bank hours are 8am to 2pm every day except Friday when they close at 3pm. Saturday is 9 to noon. Plus the only person responsible for new accounts takes lunch from noon to 1. Now lately I’m not generally known for being an early riser lately. Maybe 9-9:30. Breakfast, coffee and daily personals add another hour and figure another ½ hour for the drive. Now we’re talking 11am. So my window of opportunity each day is basically 1 hour. The real kicker is that all the businesses close from noon until 2:30 every day for siesta. That means that if you have any other chores to do in town you better get there early, what with the long ride and funky business hours. Maybe once I’m truly finally rested from the planning, driving, and unpacking my normal daily routine will find me rising with the sun again as I did the 1st few days in Belize. Or maybe not!

I do have another reason for sleeping in. You have no idea how much fun it is living here at Kismet. Besides Tricia and her, and now my, friends Ron (the hippy), Peter (the fisherman), and others who drop by every day (well they may miss a day once in a while), there are her guests from all over the world. The afternoon and evenings are spent talking, laughing, drinking, smoking and generally having a great time. It seems most of her clientele hail from Western Europe, with possibly a quarter (at least so far) from the U.S. and Canada. I’ve even had a chance to converse a time or 2 in my halting German that I still remember from high school. How cool is that?! There is another benefit (?) to her guests being from across the pond, at least for us guys, and until now I’ve only told Pat this, but the ladies can usually be found sunbathing topless. Oh my and with me being all alone! It’s really hard to not take advantage of the show! But I have to at least appear to be the world traveler that I am, and not pay attention, acting like it has been an everyday occurrence my entire life. I’ve gotten pretty good at it. More from necessity though but you know us guys…and sunglasses help! Really I’m not that much of a voyeur but I do love the look of a pretty lady.

I’ve rented by canoe twice this week already and have driven Ron into town twice. While my town trips were more for my benefit he throws gas money into my cup holder. I’ve told him not to the 1st times but he insists. No business from the guests yet though. But if this keeps up I stand to lessen my living costs substantially. I do kick back a few canoe rental dollars to Tricia though because they aren’t renting her kayak for their lagoon trips. One hand washes the other! So this month is turning out to be profitable. I’ve made about BZ$90 so far.

I’m going to really miss 3 of her frequent afternoon visitors when their holiday is over. Brent and Janet are a lovely couple from Edmonton Ontario and are staying at the “rich peoples resort” (as they call it) next door but hate the place. The only reason is that one of their relatives is a timeshare owner and they are using their weeks. Everyone is stuck up is their reasoning. They are staying there only because the owner is a member of their family and their holiday stay is free. But as Brent says, “Is anything ever free?”. They met Tricia their very 1st day in Hopkins and have become a fixture here. He’s a professional musician (guitar) and she a “traffic controller” for an oil company. Both are amazingly friendly and very funny. He brought his borrowed guitar over one afternoon and serenaded us with a few songs.
Bruce is a gentleman from Old Orchard Beach, Maine and is turning 61 the day he departs. He been here before and is already planning a trip back so his moving on won’t be as traumatic because I’ll see him in a few months. But still in all we’ve bonded closely. I tell everyone it’s because he looks so much like Santa and I still believe in him. And he does! Short and round with white hair and beard. He’s energetic and fun loving and we are constantly poking fun at each other. The foreigner guests don’t understand much of what we are laughing at and we try our best to translate. Some of it translates well and others not so well but they know that we are having fun and that’s all that counts. As a matter of fact Paul is even trying his hand at it and doing quite well. Brent and Jan leave l February 25th and Brice leaves February 26th.

Fat Tuesday arrived right on time. On Monday I asked the gang if they knew when Fat Tuesday was because I knew it was coming up but wasn’t sure when. No one knew. Then Tuesday morning, while having coffee and a piece of Tricia’s wonderful breakfast bread, a guy walked up with some flyers announcing a Mardi Gras party at the local pizza joint for that night. Too funny! Tricia’s dinner offering that day was shrimp or fish Creole in honor of the day. Delicious! I don’t generally eat at her table, saving room in here small kitchen eating area for her guests, but I made an exception because I didn’t have any seafood in my fridge to make my normal Fat Tuesday Crawfish Ettufee or Jambalaya. Being the gourmet chef that she is Tricia’s meals are always to die for. She bakes fresh bread every day which she serves at all the meals. You never know what kind of bread will come out of her oven. The breakfast offerings always contain some form of local fruit and often has nuts. Lunch and dinner breads are what you would find in any bakery, and better tasting.

That night found a group of us venturing off to Turtle Cove Restaurant and Inn to hear a pickup jazz band. The drummer is a local who ran into a bass guitarist from Edmonton 5 days before and they began practicing together. Two days later they met a guy from Amsterdam who plays trumpet and they started drawing a crowd when they practiced. Since Belize is a cultural backwater the news spread fast that there was entertainment available. Tricia, being a former jazz club/restaurant owner from NYC, jumped at the chance to hear some of her favorite music. They were quite good in fact. During a break between sets Brent and the bassist met and it turns out that he had seen Brent perform on a Canadian stage and told him that his teacher thought he was “God’s gift to the guitar”. We had all been talking recently about just how small a world it is and here was proof. Anyway they Brent him to sit in with them whenever he wanted. He hasn’t had the chance, or the desire to do it because he doesn’t have his guitar. The borrowed one is in pretty rough shape.

Poor Peter, who supports his wife and 5 children by fishing and selling his catch to the local restaurants, has been skunked lately. He says that it’s caused by the several close running cold fronts that have passed through these last couple of days. I haven’t had the chance to try my hand yet but know that I would have suffered a similar fate. Fishing here is a bit different from what I’ve enjoyed the past 12 years of visiting the Cays in Belize. The reef is much further off shore and instead of a 15 minute paddle it’s a 40 minute bat ride. But here the lagoon is the local fishing hole and everything running the shore can be caught there and to enormous size too. I’m looking forward to venturing out with him soon. Until then I’m still living off the larder I put up before leaving the states with the addition of fresh veggies and fruit from the local farmers market and a bit of meat from the grocers. I still haven’t had the time to plant my garden. Tricia is going to have one of her people clear a plot for me sometime in the next couple of days and all I’ll have to do is turn over the soil and plant the seeds.

One of the worst problems here is Belize is the lack of fresh water. While the bigger cities have a plentiful and clean supply the smaller villages either have none, and rely on captured rain water, or get the water from small water companies with very poor pumping and filtration methods. For us non-locals that makes the water undrinkable and we rely on bottled water for both drinking and non-boiled cooking. An additional problem in Hopkins though is the low water pressure. Since Kismet is at the very northern end of the pipeline there is nothing but a trickle at times and the pressure isn’t enough to get water to the 2nd floor. The other day Tricia had 13 guests checking in. Because of the lack of pressure one of the guests, Bruce and I spent a few hours filling 2 five gallon Crystal water jugs and hauling them up to the rooftop water cistern so that showers could be taken and toilets flushed without the new quests having to be told of the local situation. Hmmm, guests actually working to help the Inn owner. That is exactly the feel you get when you spend time here. You do anything you can to help that gracious lady! She makes you feel so at home and part of her family. Those of us who are friends can often be found lending a hand in the kitchen or serving beer and drinks from the fridge. For me this place truly is kismet (it means “meant to be”).

I have to mention a funny experience that Brent, Jan and I had on our way back from Dangriga today. We were on the Hummingbird Hwy headed back to Hopkins. Jan was in the front passenger seat and happened to look between the seat and console and saw a scorpion. I didn’t know what she was reacting so violently to until I looked down too and saw it crawl back under the seat. Of course I immediately pulled over and Jan could hardly wait for the car to stop to bail out! Brent of course was laughing hysterically when he heard what we had seen. But the scorpion had probably been afraid of Jan as she was of it and was nowhere to be found. We were right across the street from the gas station where I was headed to fill up so in we pulled. While the attendant was filling the tank Brent and I tried finding it but I figured that it had crawled back up into the seat. A few minutes later, while Jan and I were standing by the right side of the car I happened to look in and saw the scorpion on the move toward the door frame. I jerked the door open but he started toward the front door. I jerked that one open too and he dropped to the ground and sped away. He was pretty small but we were oh so glad to be ride of the unexpected hitch hiker. Brent kept jokingly poking fun at Jan all the way back. It’s just one of the things you have to watch for whenever you live in any warm climate. I know we have them in Orlando. But it was the 1st time I’ve ever found one of my very own.

Oh, by the way, I got my new cell phone today. It was the easiest thing I’ve done so far here and was in and out of the office in 10 minutes. My new number is 011-502-651-3091.

I think that I’m babbling now and don’t want you to be afraid of having to sit though a long diatribe on my new life experiences when I update my blog next so I’ll end for now. It’s just that my life has taken such a marvelous turn and I’m enjoying it so and want to share it with you. I guess the best I can hope for is that these new adventures slow down a bit so that I can spread the tale out over a longer period of time instead of dumping 3200 word essays on life on you every time I post…

Life’s a party and I’m here to dance!