Garifuna Day

Today (Friday 11/19) is Garifuna Landing Day, when they 1st arrived in Belize. The Garifuna people are the largest ethnic culture in Belize. There are also Mayans and Cajun Blacks. While Landing Day is celebrated all over the country Hopkins is considered the cultural center of the country. There was a recreation of the boat landing (I’m told that it is “attempted” by the same 4 drunken men every year) early this morning and later will be drumming, singing, dancing, storytelling, and mass quantities of food. And, as with every other holiday in Belize, copious amounts of alcohol. The celebration actually spans the weekend. There will be an international full house here at Kismet for that. Five people camping (from England) under the sea grape trees on the beach, 1 other person from England enjoying 1 of the rooms, French and Austrian couples, and 2 local friend of Tricia’s from San Ignacio. I actually met up with the French and Austrian couples waiting for the bus from Dangriga on Wednesday evening and escorted them here. All in all it should be an interesting and fun weekend. Bad thing is we had torrential rains last night until 9am this morning. Hopefully it won’t rain anymore today.

I got an email from our friend Zeppi on the 17th that was an invitation to go fishing on 12/9. He was here for a week in late March and we had a great time fishing together. He’s coming to Kismet for a another week and will be spending his birthday here (12/11). His brother Louie is supposed to be here late in November, driving a pickup/camper and will be parking here for a while. So I guess I know about when my next reef fishing trip will be… Can’t wait to see Zep again too! Last night Dwayne, the owner of Bread & Butter Caye, stayed at Kismet on his way back to the states. I’ve met him a few times and he’s a really nice guy. Anyway, he’s invited me out for a couple of days starting 1/9 to fish with him. Can’t wait!

Tricia bought a butane (they don’t use propane in Belize) hot water heater from a shop in Dangriga a few weeks ago and it’s finally been installed in the shower outside the cabana (the shower under the stars). It’s been a little tough taking showers now that the cooler weather is here because there’s not enough heat from the sun to warm the 2 cisterns up on the roof. I have to admit I’ve been hesitant about taking showers a time or two because I expected to come back with icicles hanging. Lord knows I’ve done plenty of the “cold water 2 step these past few weeks! But tonight I was able to take a hot shower for the 1st time and TRULY enjoyed it. She had originally planned to install it in the shower under the house but there wasn’t enough water pressure to turn the unit on. So the only time we won’t be taking showers is when it’s raining…

Kismet has had a nice bunch of guests of late. Matt and Angie, who left on the 16th; Ike and Charles, who are building an organic farm 2 miles into the jungle out around mile 28 on the Hummingbird Hwy and left on the 14th; and William, a Frenchman here to film Belizean cultural things, who is still here. They are all very interesting people. I spent a few hours talking to Ike about his venture. He is building their house and outbuildings right now and clearing the land. His dream is to open his farm up to Woofers (World Organization of Organic Farmers). Woofers are people who donate their time and energy to learn about organic farming and living off the land in return for food and lodging and Ike is well known for his teachings. There is a website that they all join and blog their thoughts on farms they did or didn’t enjoy, things they found interesting, and the like. He and Tricia have worked out a deal where the women who come will be hosed here at Kismet and have the use of a car and he and his group will start part of the farm here. I’ll get a plot too so I’ll finally have my garden plus learn about organics. The plan is to start sometime in March/April. He also hunts wild animals, among them pig, for his own food and I said I’d trade him fish for pig. So I’ll get to try something different.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we’re planning a traditional U.S. feast. I’m going ½ on the turkey with Tricia and of course will be cooking something to add to the menu. At this point she hasn’t invites anyone yet but Ron will be here, and maybe Barry, and she said she was going to invite Peter and his family plus a few other friends. I’m sure Peter’s kids will be asking where the rice and beans are! They will definitely not on the menu!

And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Fishing!!!

I guess I must have more than 1 mouse living in my trailer with me. They do all look the same. I’m always very careful about cleaning up immediately following a meal, not leaving any food out of the fridge or the 2 cabinets that entirely sealed, and my garbage can tightly sealed for just that reason, and, of course, the numerous bugs that forever inhabit my surroundings. So far I’ve killed 3 using glue traps. I can’t find any real mouse traps, you know, the kind that you hear go snap when one of the little critters tries to make a meal of the bait. So I bought what all the grocery stores carry. Plastic trays with a gluey surface infused with a peanut butter smell. And I add a bit of the real thing so they are sure to get greedily hungry. The bad thing is that they get stuck to the glue on the plastic and squirm about, sticking various parts of their bodies to the tray, kind of like the old Mister Twister game where the players put a hand or foot on the color circle that the spinning arrow identifies, until I send them to mouse heaven. That can be hours. It’s not a very humane way to handle the problem. If it were a person the ACLU would be all over that form of execution. Personally I’d rather let the machine do the dirty deed. So, normal mouse traps are on my shopping list for my Christmas visit to the states. No telling how many I’ll have to send off the glue trap way until then. Everyone I’ve talked to says that I’ll never be mouse free as long as the weather is cool because they will gnaw their way into a place they think is warm and safe. Here I thought I had done a good job of sealing all the holes but it was just the hot weather that kept them outside. These guys have no fear either! I was sitting on my couch at the kitchen table watching a movie Thursday night (11/5) and saw one climbing over the stuff I have stored under my kitchen table, just 2 feet from me! I banged my hand on the table top and it went running. And I’ve seen them scurrying between my linen closet and bathroom which is only 10 feet away. So that means I’ll probably have guests until next February when the temperatures will head back into the high 90’s…

Fishing has been fun and on Thursday (11/11) a group of us took a trip to the reef for the big ones and caught 15! The group included Matt and Angie from Tennessee, who are staying at Kismet until next Friday; and, of course, Tricia and me. I’ve been catching the usual at the lagoon, nice eating size but nothing to write home about so I was looking forward to trolling for barracuda again. I hooked 6 different type of fish, and landed 5, starting with the 1st fish to be caught, a small needle nose gar, that went right back home. I also caught the 2nd fish which was a nice barracuda. Matt jumped right in and we started catching barracuda left and right. He had never been salt water fishing so it was cool to watch the fun he was having. My next surprise was a yellow snapper, a nice looking fish with a yellow strip down its side (I caught 2 of them and Matt caught 1 too). Next came a nice (see the pictures) mutton snapper. I didn’t know what I’d hooked and everyone was watching me fight it. It was making tremendous runs that I had trouble stopping. I’d also mentioned that it had been a long time since I’d caught a king mackerel. Don’t you know it, the next fish was a really nice 30 incher that gave me such a huge fight. In between those we caught a bunch of barracuda. I know I’m going to get some emails from you fellow fisherman but I hooked and almost landed a 5 foot, 20 pound barracuda. Everyone was in awe of that baby! Tricia struggled to get her camera out but missed the shot when our captain lifted the monster out of the water, it spit the hook, and he dropped it! I was heartbroken, as was everyone else. Some of our fishing was done in down pours. Matt and I were fine but Tricia and Angie were hugging each other to keep warm. Angie did try her hand at fishing though and hooked a barracuda that was too strong for her so Matt landed it for her. Toward the end of the day we went to Bread & Butter Caye for Matt and Angie to snorkel and for us all to have lunch. No one was home but since we know the owner, Dwayne, and caretaker King we are welcome to use the place. We no sooner got on land then I was fishing again and hooked and landed my biggest barracuda of the day, and for a few minutes the biggest fish of the day. While I was pulling it in I saw 4 other barracuda swimming around it, one bigger than the next. I gave my rod to Matt and he did hook and land the biggest of all the fish. It’s funny that we caught the biggest fish from dry land. I took my rod back and tossed another bait filled hook out that was immediately slammed by a fish! The 1st run was a full 50 yards straight out to sea. Then it jumped and we got a look at a really HUGE tarpon, easily 4 or 5 feet (hard to tell from that distance bit we all agree)! There was no way I was going to stop that baby! It had the line screaming off my reel and was headed straight out to sea. It jumped completely out of the water 2 more times. The 3rd time is when it broke my line and headed for deep water. I think all of us were cried when that happened. It was the biggest, heaviest, fish I’ve ever hooked. I’m still crying over the 2 that got away. After that Matt and Angie snorkeled and I couldn’t catch a thing. Soon we headed back to Kismet, in another downpour, and a fresh fish dinner. I filleted enough for dinner and by then it was dark and raining once again so I’ll have to do the rest in the morning. But we had a great time and Matt has some whopper fish stories to tell everyone when he gets home. I'll add more pictures on Facebook.

And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Tricia is back and another tale of woe is me…

Tricia made her triumphal return to Kismet early Saturday afternoon (10/30). She’s been gone almost 2 months and it’s really good to have her home again. She flew into Cancun on Thursday, spent 1 night in Playa Del Carmen, took the bus to Corozal and spent the night with Ron, and then they drove back to Hopkins together on Saturday. She brought goodies for everyone too. I got a nice prison outfit, without any identifying labels that will be perfect on those buggy nights. Peter and family got cream rinses, shoe laces (very hard to find here), and other goodies.

My uninvited guest definitely WAS a mouse, was being the operative word. He or she is now in mouse heaven and I’ve blocked the hole in the bottom of the trailer so that I don’t get any guests that I don’t want. I’ve fixed my, and Kismet’s, electrical problems and had my jack handle repaired too so I can raise and lower my trailer again and I’m now in a level house again.

And my tale of woe… I finally lost my awning. Third time opening it here at Kismet was the charm. We had a massive thunderstorm between 4 and 5am on Friday 10/29 and we were hit with a microburst wind (directly downward blowing wind) and the 3 support bars folded and snapped causing it to collapse. I had it tied down very well so it would be ok in normal wind storm but not a microburst. So now, not only don’t I have my palapa overhead, but I have no awning shade either. The good thing is that it didn’t cause any tears in my outside walls. There isn’t any way to have it fixed either because they don’t sell or service RVs here and the import tax on having a new one shipped would be outrageous. I can use a couple of the original awning supports to hang tarps temporarily but I’ll have to have my palapa rebuilt at some point in time for more permanent shade.

I’m looking at this latest setback as just another test of my resolve to live semi-roughly out of the country, where things like repairs we could easily make in the states aren’t as readily available or even possible at all. My take on it is that there is always a work-around, like rebuilding the palapa roof that will serve the same purpose as the awning. As with the 2 blown tires several months ago, I planned for most incidents by having multiple replacement parts, like 2 spare tires for both the jeep and trailer and 6 or 7 heavy duty tarps. It’s all in the planning that you do when you decide to live in a 3rd world country. Contingencies and work-arounds for almost anything that can befall you have to be in your “what do I do if” book that you create for just such emergencies. I did all that pre-planning before I moved and am ready for most anything that can happen short of losing my trailer. I’m not getting too upset by the setbacks. I’d be lying if I said that some of the things that have happened didn’t upset me. I’m still human. But I know that I’m passing the test because things like this, which would have REALLY upset me in my former life, are now just a part of life and I accept them and move on.

Things have gotten back to normal in Hopkins since the storm a few days ago. Most cell (except for Smart which is what I have and is on again off again) and land line telephone service and electric are back to normal. A few roofs, including Peter’s, had minor damage and all have been repaired. The damaged roofs were all tin ones that the wind got under and lifted. Peter also lost 2 trees and a few other people lost some too. But thankfully no homes were blown off their stilts and no flooding in the village and there were no deaths attributed to hurricane anywhere in Belize. God was surely with us. I haven’t been able to resume my early morning canoe fishing though. The surf wasn’t bad during the storm but has been moderately heavy since. So it’s too rough to paddle in. Peter and the boys have had better luck now that the muddy water from the mountains has washed into the lagoon. The fish aren’t so skittish and are finding their way into everyone’s nets. Peter is still netting later than everyone else though and having better luck. Of course the full moon helped too. And we’ll have a ½ moon for another week. So he’s been making pretty good money.

And so, life goes on, without shade for a while, for the Fatboy in Belize… But I’m still happy and loving it! As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

We were spared the wrath of Hurricane Richard!

Hurricane Richard is expected to cross the entire country of Belize from east to west, arriving sometime Sunday night/Monday morning, 10/24-25, before heading into southern Mexico and northern Guatemala. It is predicted to hit us as a category 1 storm with winds of 85mph. I’ve already decided to move my trailer back up onto the cemetery road early Sunday morning and have arranged the move with Landy, who moved me prior to TS Matthew. I’ll be in the same spot, some 4 feet higher than I sit at Kismet so that’s about 6 feet above sea level. I began my preparations around 1pm on Saturday to be ready for my move. Here’s a synopsis of my preparations for the storm and of the storm as it traveled past:

Saturday 10/23: The National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) has warned everyone living on the Cayes and in low lying areas (naming Hopkins) to begin preparations to move to the designated shelters on Sunday. At 10:30am, after our guests left I went to Thong’s Café for an ice coffee and the internet to check on the storm and the predictions for wind and rainfall that we can expect. They say we could get 15+ inches of rain so I made up my mind to move to higher ground. I met with Landy, who works at the Hopkins Bay Resort in the maintenance shop, to set a time for him to pull me up to the cemetery road. We decided on 7:30am. He needs to do it early because they will leave work at noon. Next I went to the store for a new 5 gallon bottle of Crystal water for drinking purposes. I keep it and it’s dispenser on the back center right side of my tab (easy to fill my drink bottles and it distributes the 40 pound weight over the table leg. Then I went and bought 4 gallons of gas for my generator. I already have a full tank (3 gallons good for 3-4 days) because I want to be sure that I have enough. The gas was US$5.75 a gallon. Back at Kismet I added air to my trailer tires, put the generator on my back travel deck, disconnected everything but my electric, and stored some my outdoor use things in the tool room so they don’t get water logged or float away. Inside I started lowering and weight distributing a couple of items. I was done by 4pm. I have to save my TV and VCR move (above my bed) for tomorrow because I leave that on the bed for travel. The rest of the day/night I gave to my normal activities of reading and watching “The Wire”. I started season 1 episode 1 last night (Friday) and will work my way through the end of season 5.

Sunday 10/24: The radio is telling us that Richard will come ashore right over Silkgrass/ Hopkins/Sittee River later tonight but that we will begin feeling the effects by 9am this morning. At 7:30am we could see the leading edge moving closer. At 8:30 the rain began but with light winds. Hopefully the extra 4 feet higher I will be will be enough to keep me above any flooding. Landy finally came for me at 11:15am and I was totally ready having moved my TV to the bed, filled my fresh water tank, disconnected the electric, and raised the 4 leveling jacks. He was late because his company sent him over to the new home construction site to board windows there. He normally isn’t involved in that but with the storm coming faster than originally anticipated they pulled him in. All we had left to do was raise the front of my trailer to receive the hitch ball on the back of his truck. The move went very easily and I’m perched on the far right hand side of the highest point of the road. Now it’s just a waiting game. The storm prediction now is for a category 2 and winds of 100mph, arriving between 5 and 6pm. With the increase in predicted wind I decided to move myself to the shelter at Holy Family catholic School on the south end. I packed up a few necessaries, plus my external hard drive with all my movies and settled in at the shelter around 2pm, well in advance of the storm. I thought that maybe, while the power was still on, I could keep the kids entertained by showing Disney movies. I started with “The Princess and the Frog” (2010) and had the kids sitting on the floor watching it. At 5pm things started happening almost as if on a switch. The wind rose to near 50mpm and a torrential downpour started. At 5:10pm we lost power and put an end to any more movies. By 6 the wind was blowing fiercely at somewhere around 80mph. The storm is now predicted to cross into Belize closer to Gales Point (15 miles north of Dangriga and 24 miles north of Hopkins), which is a blessing for us because the heaviest winds only extend out 15 miles, so we shouldn’t see the 100+ speeds. By 9pm things were looking much better, with the wind and rain both having slacked off. The wind was down to 40-45mph and the rain was moderate. The 2 NEMO people at the shelter made a driving inspection of the village to see what damaged had been caused around 9pm and made a special visit to my home for me and reported that it was ok. By 10pm it was calm enough for me to head home. I didn’t see any downed trees or home damage. My trailer was just the way I left it. We are without cell and land line phone service too. Thank God we were spared!

Monday 10/25: We still don’t have electricity in the village. Peter came by at 7am. He has some minor roof damage and lost 2 trees. He said he didn’t see anything but some thatch roof damage on his ride down to Kismet. Kismet had small puddles in Tricia’s apartment and 1 bedroom of the upper guest room because their windows couldn’t be completely closed. There was absolutely no flooding on the property and no surf damage to the beach. The power is still out a 9am and I’ve powered up my generator so I can continue this. I’ll go see Landy after I have my breakfast and schedule my move back home. Fishing in the lagoon later on today!

Tuesday 10/26: The electricity came back on in the village around noon and cell service by 2pm. Plus it’s moving day. Landy moved me back to Kismet around 5:30pm but I’m not completely set up yet. While cranking my hitch off of the back of Landy’s truck something in the handle snapped and we weren’t able to raise my trailer off the ball. After trying unsuccessfully to fix it I decided that we’d have to use my floor jack to get me unhitched. I leveled it out as best I could. Trouble with that is that, even after deploying the leveling jacks, I can’t get the jack out and I’m 2” high in the front. That doesn’t seem like an awful lot but you definitely notice it when you are walking back and forth in my trailer. I turned out the problem is that the jack handle has a gear mounted on it that had 2 tiny posts that kept the gear locked in place. When you crank the handle that gear turns another that cranks the jackpost up and down. They both sheared off so that the gear just sat there. So now I have to wait until I find someone with a portable welding machine weld that gear on so I can level my trailer. I’ll also have to find someone with 2 jacks so I can jack up the front of my trailer so I can remove the floor jack so I can use the trailer leveler again. I also have to take a trip into Dangriga on Wednesday so I can buy a covered outdoor electrical outlet to plug my electric into. During the storm something hit the one that was there and shattered it. I plugged my trailer power cord inside one of the rooms until I can fix that. But…I’m back home again at Kismet.

Normal Stuff: Peter may have prevented a possible fire last night (Tuesday 10/26) when he asked me to come take a look at a circuit breaker that kept popping in the tool room. The tool room lights, electrical outlets and the water pump are all on that circuit. He pointed out where he had seen sparks near the water pump and then reset the breaker. As soon as he did sparks started jumping in a 4ft piece of the wire and then started to burn. I had him shut the breaker again and the flame went out in a few seconds. Had he left it on, and the pump kicked on, the place may have burned down and taken my trailer with it since I’m parked so close, 6 feet from a thatched overhang. So tomorrow I’ll replace that piece of wire and check the run that feeds it for more breaks. The wiring in the entire building is a nightmare and if this was the U.S. and an inspector does his thing he/she would immediately condemn the place as unsafe. The plumbing isn’t much better…

I got a delicious gift on Saturday the 23rd. I had just finished dinner and was watching episode 3 of “The Wire” when I hear one of Peter’s daughters call my name. Going to the door I found her standing there with a platter containing 6 Caribbean sweet rolls that Myra had just made. I told her to tell Myra thank you and I love her! I had one while it was hot and have bagged the rest for eating with orange marmalade…my very favorite! I used another for my hamburger dinner on Sunday before heading for the shelter and 1 for my chicken salad sandwich at the shelter. Absolutely delicious!

I found out that I have an unexpected house guest. It’s either a lizard or a mouse. I think it’s a mouse though as I found some droppings in my bathroom that look like they came from a rodent. I was sitting on my couch watching an episode of “The Wire” and happened to look back in the direction of my bedroom. I saw something dart out from under my linen closet door and run into the bathroom. I guess I’ll have to add a mouse trap to my shopping list and take a trip under my trailer to see where it got in and close the hole so I don’t have any more unwanted quests. It’s my 1st but Tricia seems to have a few of them. They may have been driven in by the storm.

I’m going to have trailer company sometime in November. Zeppi’s brother-in-law Louie is dragging a trailer down to South America (Uruguay I think) and will park at Kismet for a month before heading out. You remember my fishing buddy Zeppi who stayed at kismet in April. He lives in north Jersey. I’m not sure where Louie will park it. We’ll have to machete out a spot for him I guess.

And life goes safely on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Praying for the best, preparing for the worst with TS Richard.

The weather has been wonderful these past 2 weeks. Maybe it’s to make up for the tropical storm and 2 near misses. Days around 90, nights around 70 (nice sleeping weather), sunny skies, not much wind, and not too many bugs. We had about 10 minutes of rain on Saturday but nothing since. I wish it would stay like this forever! Now that I’ve said that we’ll get a hurricane…

And now for the hurricane I mentioned above! Belize and I are now making preparations for the arrival of Tropical Storm Richard on Sunday. I’m at Thong’s Café using the internet to try and get rainfall predictions so I can make plans to move to my high water spot if I need to. I’ll need to buy a couple of gallons of gas for my generator and a new 5 gallon bottle of drinking water to replace what I’ve just emptied through normal usage. I’ve plenty of food, plus I keep a hurricane larder of canned food in a plastic storage bin on the right side of my bed. At the moment it’s sunny and bright but we’ve had a period of windy rain this morning. I’m sure this is just the calm before the storm. This will be our 4th storm warning with Alex (the day Dave arrived), Karl, and Matthew the last 3 storms. We’ve been lucky so far and I hope our luck isn’t running out. The TV news outlets will broadcast out fate and I’ll update this after the storm passes with how we made out.

We’ve had 3 guests at Kismet since Wednesday and they left today (a scheduled departure) for their homes in Humble TX (near Houston). Two of the ladies, Sheila and Denise are frequent visitors and will be back in late November and both are wonderful people. Sheila brought her son Kenny with her and it’s his 1st time in Belize. More on him later. Denise and Sheila both work for Continental Air Lines and Sheila plans to retire in February and spend a couple weeks each month here in Hopkins.

Since the fishing has been so poor at the mouth of the lagoon I took a canoe trip into it this morning (Saturday 10/16) at 6am to try my luck. Well it was my lucky day! I went about a ½ mile in to where there is a canal that stretches out through the savannah to Hopkins Road (about a ½ mile further on). I’d fished there before and had a bit of luck. This morning though things went my way. Three catfish, 2 snook, 2 snapper went on my stringer, and my 1st brown stingray. What a fight he gave! It was actually pulling my canoe and anchor (well not so much an anchor as a gallon jug filled with wet sand) around the canal. Too cool! It was 16” across and about 3-1/2 feet long. I wasn’t sure if it was edible though so I threw it back (and they aren’t). Hey! I’m up for eating anything new! I gave the 2 snook to Peter and will have the snapper for Sunday dinner. The catfish are in the freezer with my last catch and will make a good southern fried dinner later in the week. Since then I’ve been taking my canoe out every morning and doing quite well, catching lots of snapper and catfish. On Wednesday afternoon I got a new fishing buddy. Kenny brought his fishing pole with him so I invited him fishing in the morning. Needless to say he jumped at the chance. We had a great time, coming back with 6 nice snapper and I got another catfish. He and I had the snapper for dinner that night. Nothing like fresh caught fish on the grill! Peter has been fishing later at night lately, around 8:30pm and doing pretty well each night with a mix of stone bass and snook. Tuesday (10/19) night he netted close to 40 pounds and I managed to catch a couple small drum. Wednesday he netted around 25 pounds. Thursday was another 25 pounds but Friday was a bust with only about 8 pounds. Hopefully things on the fishing front are turning around after the storm. We need some cloudier water to get the fish close to shore for his net. It’s a tough way to support a wife and 5 kids!

Trish had to extend her stay in the states. Steve called her and told her he was having a medical problem and asked that she come out to LA to help him. Not the best reason for an extended stay but you do what you have to for friends. She’s due home now on Wednesday 10/27.

And life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Ron and other things

Ron made his triumphant return to Hopkins 6 hours after I wrote that he should be here in the next day or 2. He actually did leave 2 weeks before but, because of Tropical Storm Matthew and other heavy rains, he was forced to spend days in several locations because of flooding and bridges that had been washed away. That happened mainly between Tampico and Veracruz. He was also “taken” by Mexican police to the tune of US$400 or so for various “traffic violations”. So he was pretty broke until he got to the Belize border and could hit an ATM (Belize bank ATMs don’t have the fancy Visa logo on them so they are only good in-country). After the internet I went to the lagoon to fish and told Peter of the Ron related emails that I’d received and that he should be here in the next day or 2. Peter said. “Better yet he’ll be here tonight because I just talked to him.” Ron drove directly to Kismet to let Peter and I know he was home. He arrived in a beat up 1982 Mazda pickup that was carrying far over the estimated load capacity of the truck. To counterbalance the load in the back he actually stored some very heavy steel tools under the hood to keep the front wheels in contact with the road. So we all sat and talked for an hour about his trip and how he almost became part of the Mexican highway system when he nearly drove into a car sized pot hole. Remember my recounting looking into several on my recent trip to Houston to see if there were any cars or small trucks in the bottom of the craters I passed? He did however bend a rim and flatten a tire as he swerved to miss it. He said there were 6 cars just passed the hole that had blown multiple tires because they weren’t quick enough to see it. After a while Ron said he was hungry so we headed to Rainbow Chinese because he said he’d been jonesing for “good fried chicken” the whole time he was home in Nebraska. That boy has definitely turned Belizean if that’s all he was dreaming of! Fried chicken dinners come start at BZ$6 (1 piece) and go to BZ$10 (1/2 chicken) and he bought the biggest. He’s normally a light eater so it was funny to see him attacking the portion he ordered. And he finished it too! He spent the night at Kismet and Thursday morning Peter and I followed him home and helped unpack his treasures. Good thing he stayed at Kismet too because he couldn’t unlock his door and had to break in. Breaking into a home in the dead of night anywhere, even your own, is risky because you never know when a neighbor is looking out the window and calls the cops. Since there are no addresses here in Hopkins no one has ID that shows where they live. AND the constable in Hopkins is new so he and Ron have never met. I’m sure it would have gotten straightened out after a while but it’s not something you want to be dealing with at midnight. We’re glad he’s home now and he says he is feels no need to ever go back to the states. He jokingly told his ex-wife not to die because he wouldn’t be there for the funeral. (They are on very friendly terms. She actually takes care of his U.S. finances and wire transfers his social security check to his Belizean bank.)

I’ve booked my Christmas trip to Orlando. I’ll be headed there on December 21 and return to Belize on January 2nd. It’s all the time allowed by government regulation n order to keep following the Visa process to gain residency status. You aren’t allowed to be out of the country for more than 13 consecutive days. And since I want to restart the process, delayed by my Mexican fiasco with my brother Dave in July, I need to follow the rules. You can apply for residency after 1 year of entering the country. So, I’m looking forward to my shortened holiday with my kids with great anticipation!

We had a cold front pass through today (wow it’s down to 75 instead of 90!) so I thought it would be a good day to make a big pot of chicken soup. I’ve had a hankering for soup since Ron mentioned that he made a pork neck bone soup the other day. So I biked to Middle Store and picked out a whole chicken. I normally only buy breasts or thigh/leg portions but I though a while one would be better in the pot to make my starter stock. On opening the package I decided that I’d only need half as the whole was too big for my pot, even though I picked the smallest chicken I could find. The neck was still attached so I cut that off. Anyway I went to the backside and started pulling out the “extra” meat they normally stuff in. Out came the gizzard, heart, and liver. And what to my surprise…both feet! Not something you find in U.S. chicken packages! Thinking about my wives and the reaction they would have had to finding the feet inside made me laugh. I’d have been picking the feet, and the chicken, off the floor followed by trying to calm them down. In Belize you can walk into almost any grocery story and find whole 5 gallon paint type buckets filled with chicken feet and pig ears for sale. They are a regular staple here with red beans and rice. I’ve never had them before…I don’t think. I never ask what’s in a dish. I learned that when I was in Asia. Just eat it and, if you like it, eat more. If not then beg off saying you are full so as not to offend the cook. Anyway, into the pot the feet went. I figured that, if nothing else, they would add flavor, along with the spices. After simmering the chicken for 2 hours I added all the necessary veggies and simmered it some more. I also add egg noodles just before it finished. I love chicken soup! Actually I love any home made soup. I’ve made ham and pea, veggie (with beef stock), and 4bean soup since I’ve been here. It’s good for a couple of meals and is just…plain…good! As for the feet, they were just fat and most of it cooked off. No taste really so 2 of the 4 dogs ate them.

And life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Just in! News about Ron.

Great news! I got an email that said Ron crossed into Mexico at Brownsville last Friday. He should be here any day now. It sure will be good to see that boy again!