Has it REALLY been that long?

Wow! Has it really almost been a year since I made my last blog? Well, yes, especially since I forgot I started this blog. Call it old timers, sometimers, whatever, but MUCH has happened since my last post.

I became a grandmother AGAIN (#3), what a wonderful experience being there with our daughter as she gave birth and learned how to be a mommy for the first time! (sigh) I was in the states for 4 months, had it not been for all the activity of a new baby I would have slit my throat!! There were constant reminders everywhere why I love living in Belize. You see, after the novelty of being able to find anything you want anytime you want, eating all the foods you can't find in Belize, using all the modern conveniences found in an American home (takes about 2 weeks), the complexity and expense of living in America made me want to SCREAM! I so yearned for our simple life where instead of getting in the car, fighting traffic, searching for parking, battling the people in the store, standing in line, loading it all up, fighting the traffic back, unloading it all & putting it away, (UGH), here in Belize we just jump on the bike, ride around the corner to the local mom & pop vegetable stand or shop, only getting what you need for a day or so, fitting it in the bicycle basket & riding home! SIMPLICITY, I love it!

Our activities here in Belize are bountiful. Anyone who comes here and says, "I am so bored, there is nothing to do", well they just aren't trying. I have two land based major activities, Corozal Methodist Church & School & Corozal Women's Forum. Both often lead to a variety of other activities they expose me to.
At the last CWF meeting we learned all about Help Age. This is a minimally subsidized organization that provides services to the elderly in Corozal. They occupy a building courtesy of the town council that they are constantly fixing up & paying utilities for, they offer lots of activities on Tuesday & Thursday for the elderly and when they are not doing that they are delivering meals to shut ins. ALL THIS, they do with a meager $400 USD per month, ALL THIS with only 2 ladies and a couple volunteers. Needless to say I think I will be spending some time there and you will hear more about this in a later blog.

Corozal Methodist Church & School offers a wide variety of fun!  I help with the children's choir, participate in the Methodist Women's League. Have been asked to provide the Sunday message when the Reverend is gone, provide the devotional message for the school, which is really cool. The children gather in the sanctuary 3 times a week for singing, object lessons & a message. I love doing those. There is a sister church in a village south of here, Libertad Methodist Church & School. After giving devotions there twice they asked me to give the keynote address to the graduates. WHAT A PRIVILEGE & HONOR!!

Simply by getting involved in the community you can experience riches untold. So if you are thinking you want to live in Belize, please don't come here and try to build an outside world within this culture. Come here for the experience of being a part of THIS culture. Take the good with the bad, be willing to always look at things from the Belizean perspective and be HUMBLE!! For goodness sake learn skills of humility. There is nothing worse than flaunting wealth in front of those who struggle daily to provide for their families. Be self sufficient. I talk to people that think they want to live in Belize that are not physically fit for the lifestyle, have a host of medical conditions and they expect 1st world services in a developing country. There is no fast response for emergency services.The resources, trained manpower & equipment just is not here. I could go on about this but let's save it for another blog.

Gotta run, meeting with a lady that helps run a girls group called Girls Leading Our World. I'll let you know how that goes. I am hoping to make a connection between them & Help Age folks. Wish me luck!!

Choices, Part I

When you tell someone you live in a place like Belize, you can tell they get this vision of a 5 star resort from the raised eyebrows and sparkly eyes. Then you go on to say, "No, I LIVE in Belize, it's not the same as going on vacation in Belize (to the outsider anyway). But for many of us everyday is like being on vacation, especially if you are retired. We wake up to a beautiful tropical view of the bay, mostly because the sun has risen to an angle that penetrates your eyelids and says, "Rise & Shine Cupcake!"

Everyday offers choices in life. Living in Belize offers choices; Do I wash the clothes and hope they dry before the rain comes? No, we don't use a mechanical dryer, we use God's dryer, it's called the sun & a good breeze. Is there enough water in the rain water tanks or am I gonna have to shower using the well water that has a horrible sulfur smell? No, we don't have fancy filtering systems. More importantly, we have choices at how we look at or interact with the people & culture in which we live. Am I going to embrace this developing country and it's people without trying to recreate my culture within their culture or am I willing to embrace their culture and learn from them the simpler side of life. Shiny new cars are the exception, not the rule. The larger percentage walk or ride a bike. They play their music loud, in case their neighbor wants to enjoy it too. Not saying "good morning" when you pass someone on the street is considered impolite or in the evening it's "good night".

We do have conveniences you don't see in much of America anymore. Just about everything can be delivered. Bottled water, propane gas, even "fast food". Some people supplement their income by cooking food and going around on bicycle selling it. When we first moved there, my morning was filled with the sounds of the different vendors. Each one had a particular horn, bicycle ringer or call out phrase. I never quite figured out what this one man was saying, it sounded like "food for the poor", but in reality it was a Spanish phrase and he sold meat pies & pastries.

God has blessed me richly in the places we have lived and the opportunities provided.
In 2009 we downsized to the items we could pack on our truck & in our 22 foot sailboat and we still have too much "stuff". I look around and see children running barefoot and playing made-up outdoor games, while children in the USA spend hours in front of the television, plugged into electronic games or a computer.  I love the choice we made to simplify our life and live in a simplified culture. Yes I do enjoy the many conveniences when I visit the USA, but it's never very long before I long to return to Belize.

How can you simplify your life? Choose to go a whole day without being connected to a cell phone. Of course you would probably want to warn your family and friends as hysteria might ensue if they call you more than twice and you don't answer. Choose to look around and find the simple beauty in nature. God created such beautiful things and yet we spend little time enjoying it, like the intricacy of a spider spinning a web, the hard working efforts of an ant colony or the sounds of nature waking up in the morning untainted by vehicle traffic.


Life happens. Sometimes the things that happen in life are hard or painful, but we can choose how to respond to it. We can get angry or bitter or we can choose to look at it from a different perspective. "The car broke down, the toilet overflowed, the dishwasher is on the fritz", put anything in there that applies to your daily life. Then think about the family that doesn't have a car, or an indoor toilet or a dishwasher. They walk, bike or take a bus to work and they are thankful for having a job. Without a second thought they walk out back to use the outhouse, they wash dishes by hand and hang their clothes on a clothesline.


I heard a speaker use the phrase "Arrogant Entitlement", there is a lot of that in this world. "I was here first, I have been waiting the longest, I should have gotten that promotion". People are not always courteous, humble, patient, loving or kind, but you can be. Make a choice.