Today is my eldest son Richard’s 31st birthday and I want to wish him a very happy birthday and send him my love. I’ll be calling him later today.
We were surprised to hear there were missionary doctors/nurses from Florence SC in Dangriga the last week of July so we went to visit them. We actually took Tricia to there because the Dangriga Hospital wouldn't give her the cortisone shot for her bursitis. We figured they would help, and they did. I was sitting next to her when the nurse was taking her info and then she asked me if I had any complaints. I said I couldn't get my BP meds in Belize. She asked what I took and when I told her she said, "Oh we have those and we can give you 90 days worth.” Come to find out they come to Dangriga every 90 days. It was the 1st time any of us had heard that. So it looks like we’ll be back there in October and we’ll have a constant supply of the meds we take and for FREE. We all submitted to having our vitals checked. All of our BPs were high, Tricia because of the upsetment at the hospital and Conan because we were in Dangriga. Conan’s only med request was though was for a deworming pill, and he got that. It’s a big problem here, especially in Hopkins, because of the poorly sanitized drinking water. Along with the shot Tricia got a big bag of pain meds and vitamins. So anyway I got into a conversation with Dr. Ed and he asked what I did for a living before retiring. When I told him he said they were breaking ground on a permanent clinic in Dangriga. I jumped on the chance to help them with their electrical and communications wiring and hook up. He said they had to hire some locals but wanted help from someone who actually knew what they were doing. They should be ready for me in the Dec/Jan timeframe…
Conan finally fixed the boat starter motor and we got the boat in the water and spent the night out on Bread&Butter Cayes Wed/Thurs (7/27-28). Didn’t catch much, but the locals said they weren’t either so we didn’t feel too bad. I got a keeper size jack and grunt for the cooler. Conan spent a good bit of time snorkeling and spearing and I tried it too. It was fun but not nearly as much fun as reeling them in on a rod and reel. We did have an adventurous night though. Huge thunderstorm that flooded both of our tents. He couldn’t sleep after waking up wet but I passed right back out. We did have fun though. And we completely ruined a prop by slamming into 3 coral heads on our way back to Bread&Butter from fishing. We were headed west, into the sun, and you couldn’t see anything in the water. Thank God he had a spare prop, although not nearly as good as the one we just ruined. But it got us back to Kismet. Anyway, Conan swapped props by jumping overboard. I was his “surgical nurse”, slapping tools into his hand and corralling washers, nuts, and the like to make sure nothing fell into the water. A day or 2 later he bought a new prop at Uncle Harry’s Paint. He was chartered by a few Kismet guests for a snorkeling trip but within a mile if Kismet he threw that prop. It must have been an older prop that was subject to heat/cold changes and the resin inside, which holds the prop together, cracked out. In the mile or 2 or 3 that he went he used 5 gallons of gas (at US$5.80 a gallon). Harry gave him a full refund for that one. So now the bottomless money pit is back on shore until a new prop can be found. We did get in 2 or 3 offshore bottom fishing trips before putting the boat to bed but only caught small stuff. So it’s back to fishing the lagoon from shore, where we aren’t catching anything of size. Fishing is dismal right now for everyone and the village is having to eat more chicken feet and pigs ears than they normally do.
We had 3 very nice Holland guests, a mom, her 11 year old son, and her boyfriend staying a Kismet for the past week of so and I got to initiate another youngster to fishing. When he heard that I fished everyday his eyes lit up and he asked if he could come. You know me...I want everyone to enjoy what I love. Well he caught 2 small snappers that night and was a very happy Dutchman! Conan and I tool him out in the boat the next morning but he got seasick pretty quickly. He tried to endure it but we ended up bringing him back in. He was one of the nicest, and most intelligent kids we've every encountered. Very wise for his young years. And he's a world traveler, having been to several countries in Asia as well as Central America and Europe. They left today for Honduras.
Sheila came back to Belize on July 31st and I met her down in Punta Gorda (Belize) to help her move into her rental house. We got her car registered and did some minor grocery shopping on Tuesday (8/2). The rest of the week was just lounging about, reading, watching movies, and just generally relaxing. On Friday (8/4) we headed to Hopkins and Kismet for more of the same, only on the beach, and to celebrate her birthday on Saturday. Tricia served a very nice lobster dinner and baked one of her famous chocolate rum cakes. Other than that it’s been a rather quiet visit for Sheila. We did have a dismaying event happen though. One of our Canadian friends, Makayla (she’s in her 60’s), who was staying at another small Hopkins inn, was assaulted in her room at knife point. She was punched on both sides of her face and choked as well. His attempt at rape wasn’t successful though. He stole her laptop but got little else because she refused to give him her purse or lockbox key. We were over there as soon as we heard and took her to the Dangriga Police station and the hospital after their investigation at the inn. She checked out fine and moved into Kismet where she’s been resting. We’re sure it was a crack head and also sure that it is someone familiar with that inn because of the demand for the lockbox key. Not many of the places have one (Kismet does). So we have word out to find out who he is because we don’t hold out much hope for the police solving it. We hate when we hear of crime happening anywhere in the village but, as would you, hate even more when it happens to one of our friends. Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it and find the guy.
