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