update numero uno

Greetings from the birthplace of the mosquito,

I hope this tiding finds you well! I am here, in Belize City, Belize where it is hot, hot, hot...City life is not unlike my experience in Boston, however: bad drivers, strange accents, and of course, a dirty ocean. As I have attempted to navigate my way over the course of the past ten days here, I have made some keen observations, which I would like to share:

1.) In Kriol (the kriol spelling of creole), "right now" means "hold on" - for example, if you are on the phone and you need to grab a pen to write down a number, you say to the person, "right now." does this make sense? apparently, yes, it does. If you're ever in a Belizean doctor's office with a sick roommate and the nurse says "right now, right now," as if it's an emergency, you may have to wait two hours. Hmmm...I guess that's not that different than the States...

2.) People love to guess where I'm from. I'll be riding my bike down the street and people will just be shouting out states and random cities that I haven't heard of since fourth grade geography - how does someone in Belize know of Whitefish, Montana?

3.) There is one traffic light in the whole city. Enough said.

4.) Especially when they are trying to guess where I am from, the people here are very friendly. There are certainly some dicey neighborhoods around these parts (I'm sorry, mom - we live in one of them...people even steal our trees out of yard! i mean, come on! and apparently, underwear is a hot item off the laundry line), but even so, people are friendly...For example, there is a guy who lives next door to us who wakes us up every morning banging on his car - now, this man owns an old Chrysler with no wheels, with a smashed windshield, and with two and a half doors...but he still bangs away at it with an old hammer. In a passing conversation, I asked him about said car, and his smiling response: "da caa di fi mi fren, but he's shiit outta luk" ("the car was my friend's but he's S.O.L.). See, he was a friendly thief...

5.) I have had the chance to visit the homeless shelter "out of town" (which actually means "downtown" - another one that will throw you for a loop), and while it is essentially just a big park where people can come to get free food, it is a fun place to hang out. I am pleased to say that I won my first game of dominoes ever, albeit against Emilio, who is blind, and Sr. Puerco, who is 80 years old...either way, I won.

6.) Lastly, I had an interesting interaction with some Mormon volunteers yesterday...I was on a four day homestay with a family nearby and upon passing the Latter Day Saint's church, we noticed a free eye-checking clinic. The daughter of the family I was staying with thought it would be best if we went and got our eyes checked - and so we did. The over-enthusiastic volunteers there took our forms (as we tried to stuff our laughter) and after we were both diagnosed with 20/20 vision - which is weird, because I don't have 20/20 vision - they gave us a balloon (seriously) and we left. As we were leaving, I thanked the volunteer who gave me the orange poodle balloon and asked her where they were from - her response: "the United States!" with a huge grin. I was like, "duh," but didn't pursue the conversation...I guess I already fit in here?

Okay, I suppose that's all for now. After just ten days into this experience, two years seems like a long time. But as a little girl at church yelled at the end of the homily the other night, "We are too blessed to be stressed!" and I agree wholeheartedly. I am far too blessed to be stressed.

Much love and peace,
Molly