Belize Adventures

Monday, December 03, 2007

Another List

I feel like I have been writing lots of lists lately. Sorry for you, here's another one!

We had community night last night and we were given a piece of paper, pens, and the instructions to finish the sentence "Belize is..."

For community night, we could only draw pictures to depict our answers. Yeah. I'm a terrible artist. After community night, I went to my room and wrote out all the thoughts that were swimming about in my head. I wanted to keep writing and writing. I think I could (and will) keep adding to this list in the months to come, but here it is as I wrote it last night.

Belize is…………..

  • St Martin’s, faith, growth
  • Rice & beans or beans & rice
  • Hugs from children
  • Community
  • Laying on a hammock
  • Smelly, dirty, full of garbage
  • Ms. Cherry, Jamila, Sal, Ms. Blanche, Ms. Althea, Ms. Loretta, Ms. Ruth
  • Mr. P, Mr. Bowen, Beto, Fonso, Abel, Castro, Pops, Flav, Mr. Lizama, Glenroy
  • Relaxing on the PG veranda
  • Loud
  • Hopping in the back of a pick up
  • 8 bananas for a dollar
  • The sound of Ms. Gweny methodically macheting the dirt next door
  • Giving and receiving, but mostly receiving
  • 2 jars of Peanut Butter every week
  • Beating the Garifuna drum at church
  • The palm tree outside my window
  • Coffee every morning
  • Biking everywhere
  • Miss, please fi wah shilling
  • Music blaring from buildings, cars, homes
  • Ms. Ruth bringing me food & Ms. Cherry always feeding me
  • Running on Princess Margaret
  • Eating dinner together at 6:30 every night
  • Washing clothes by hand and hanging them to dry
  • A trillion mosquitoes
  • Lots of oh heck, cribbage, and spades
  • Visiting people in their homes
  • Smiling faces, happiness
  • Sweating all the time
  • Crabs scuttling across the street
  • Paddling a dory from the Guatemalan border to Belize City
  • Books books books
  • Hailing everyone you know
  • Love
  • Armies of ants in the kitchen, my bedroom, the bathroom
  • Singing & dancing to garifuna music in the office
  • $1 plantain chips bought through the window of the James Bus
  • Football games starting 4 hours late
  • Potholes, rain, puddles, bad roads, and dirt specks all over my clothes
  • Laughing a lot
  • Questioning my privilege
  • Hurting
  • Traditions, stories, lore
  • Grinning all day when I get to wear long sleeves
  • Gibnut, armadillo, and iguana served over rice
  • Hudut, cowfoot soup, stew beans & tortillas, escebeche, black dinner, relleno, ceviche
  • The dead cat in the backpack on our corner
  • Shacks, board houses, cement houses
  • Begging the minister for fill
  • Denying Jesus at the door
  • Pigtail buckets
  • Check-ins at BTL park
  • Throwing our compost over the veranda
  • Cat calls and hisses
  • Wooden buildings rotten, leaning, and on the verge of collapse
  • Roaches, roaches, and more roaches
  • Drinking our rain water
  • Beautiful
  • Hearing the songs from church while sitting in our living room
  • Backpacks full of vegetables from the market
  • Letting go
  • Reading 3 month old Newsweeks
  • Bed chats
  • Leaving for work 5 minutes after I am supposed to be there
  • Flooded streets
  • Phone calls on your birthday
  • Black cake, white cake, rum po-po and turkey dinner for Christmas
  • Chacos every day
  • Speaking Kriol very poorly
  • Our solidarity rings
  • Morning cries of “Dorla, Dorla”, “Tamales, Ducunu, Tamales, Ducunu” “Meat pie, meat pie, hot meat pie”
  • Playing feech with the guys at the shelter
  • Disappointments
  • Awkward
  • Feeling unable
  • Children in uniforms
  • Sometimes knowing the answer, most often, not
  • Running out the back door with Jam to watch a parade
  • Living without because I have a choice next to my neighbors who live without because they have no choice
  • My first ever road races
  • The happy truck
  • Calendars on the walls
  • Family, of all sorts
  • Singing along to the guitar
  • Silence
  • Prayer
  • Grace