Goodbye from Belize...
Continuing my tour of Central
America I am flying to Nicaragua on Friday so it’s adios to my lovely little
home here. I love this country, I love, love, love this country you have no
idea. This country is so laid back its falling off the horizontal.
Belize is the olympic champion of
the "anything goes" mentality. Take for example the elections.
Everything that happens (or more irritatingly doesn’t happen) is "because
of the elections". Schools close early, kids go on field trips the country
takes a national holiday "because of elections". Not only that, but
they take the following day off "because its the day after elections;
trying to get any business done whatsoever is impossible, the stock response to
anything is
"call me after the
elections"
"what, Thursday?" [the
elections are held on a Wednesday]
"No, next Tuesday"
"??"
See, election day is a national
holiday, the day after the elections, of course, is also a national holiday
because 'it’s the day after elections’. Friday, obviously is Friday and the
Monday after the elections was also a random public holiday that nobody really
explained to me so basically Election Day is a week off. With a national
population of 250,000 that’s a long time to count those ballot papers.
Easter meanwhile, is a national
two week break. In fact even in the full throes of normal working hours, events,
meetings and social gatherings are automatically understood by all (except
foreigners) to be cancelled and disbanded if it’s raining. Basketball matches,
classes, meetings - many a luckless volunteer has turned up not realising that
the 3 minute shower of rain automatically meant the event was cancelled.
But for a relaxation style that
would make even Homer Simpson proud, take a wander past the local fire station.
At any given time, the fire-fighters (all 2 of them) can be found lounging in
front of the TV with an arm thrown over the back of the chair - which on closer
inspection turns out to be the front seat of a car,
On the one occasion that the
firefighters were called into action to quell a flaming house I was highly
amused to see them in action - now in all fairness they did put the fire out
(well done boys). But it was very difficult to tell who was a firefighter and who
was a civilian. Quite apart from the fact that the whole town had come out to
watch the blaze and many were lending a hand, nobody was in a uniform. One man wore
the fire trousers, another man wore a single glove, somebody else had the
luminous braces; it was difficult to tell if this was because the entire fire
crew share a uniform or that they simply didn’t have time to get dressed
because they were watching the soaps on TV!
On one journey we took to the
beach it turned out that the bus we were travelling was on fire too (these
things happen). None of us would have noticed but for the fact that the boys by
the road were shouting 'fire fire'. In true Belizean style we were all
perfectly relaxed and started to make our way out of the emergency exit which
was walled up with boxes, buckets and backpacks.
Seizing the occasion (certainly
not the need) a couple of American self-styled heroes declared "Calm,
everybody just Stay Calm' Don’t they understand?? This is BELIZE. We redefine calm. We practically had to wake people up to
get them off the bus! Tourists! tsk! ; )
There’s plenty that could be
learned from them this culture though. Common sense for one thing. Road rage
does not exist in this country - how refreshing. Why would the men swear at
each other out of car windows? What for? Why waste time heckling at the men
when you can heckle at the women instead?
"hey baby, hey
sweetheart"
"Sweetness you lookin so
fine"
"Hey snowflake want some
coffee with your cream"
In fact I’m going to suffer when
I’m back in the UK because there will be no one to say "morning
beautiful" to me every day. Sadly, we shouldn’t be too flattered because
the men are not exactly discriminating in their taste. On a night out at the
local jaunt a man said to our male friends "tell either of those girls Id
like to go out with them - either of them"
"ah, they’re with us actually"
"oh that’s ok tell them
anyway"
They have a liberal approach to
the concept of fidelity : )
Anyway .. back to the cars. A car
crash in the UK this would be a scene of road rage, storms of aggression, much
mobile phone flapping and an all round excuse for a good punch up. Not so in
Belize. At a cafe one day we were all woken from our 38 degree heat-induced
torpor by the sound of screeching tyres followed by a loud crunch. I went
outside to see one car firmly wedged into the back of another truck. The kids
in sitting in the back of the truck were watching with curiosity, the man who
caused the crash got out of his car, slowly scratched his chin, wandered round
surveying the damage (a few broken lights, the odd dent) and the man in the
front truck simply sat very calmly behind the wheel of his vehicle with an
expression that suggested he might be considering getting out of his car, but
then again he might not... By the time I’d been to the shops and returned, the
cars were still there and drawing a crowd but it was all very civilised. Your
car broke you fix it. Because in Belize cars are - *and this will sound a
little crazy* wait for it - cars. Not status symbols, not 'pride and joy' just
vehicles,moving tin pots with wheels to get you from A to B. S if they break, you just fix them. No sweat.
The man who lives across the
street from my home has an open house/open car policy. He, let’s anyone in the
house who wants to use his car. Same with his house. Need somewhere to stay? Sure
there’s a couple of rooms free at the back of the house. Go right ahead. At
first I thought it was some strange Rastafarian hippy commune, I then realised
that he was just a laid back guy from a family with a kind and common sense
approach to possessions.
But as laid back as they may be
they have a fierce national pride. Nowhere else have I ever seen such a mix of
ethnic cultures and tolerance, and the diversity of ethnic mix is a source of
national pride. Busses are always a colourful mix of Creole, Hispanic, Mayan,
Rasta, Mennonite and well pretty much anything else you can find all mixed
together. (But no matter what the composition of the passengers, the mammas are
always in charge; of the bus the passengers and the drivers).
They are a very proud country
(all 250,000 of them) a particular joy was the coverage in the national
newspaper of Belize’s anti war protests. The paper read
" with placards in their
hands about 18 persons, mostly men marched to the US embassy"
Eighteen.
Eighteen people held a
demonstration and it made the national newspaper. The photo was on the front
page! I love this country! I was particularly charmed by the last line of the
article "The demonstration, which began at 10am and finished at midday was
without confrontation or violence"
Like it. 18 adults behaved
themselves. (It is Belize, they probably went and had a drink with the US
embassy staff after they’d finished).
I will miss this little place, it
has become my home and I’ve really grown to love it, I made some great friends
here and I did an awesome project which went far better than I would ever have
imagined. But, my three months is up so it’s time to move on (sob!...) After
Nicaragua Ill spend a little time working my way up through El Sal and
Guatemala before flying out of Mexico. I am also you’ll be glad to know
conducting very thorough research for an alternative lonely planet guide -
instead of central America on a shoestring I think I’ll be writing
"central America, the hospital tour" I have Mexico and Belize ticked
off the list already. Alternatively I might write one of those worst case
scenario handbooks with handy hints such as "Diarrhoea - when disaster strikes
- what to do on a 12 hour night bus when there’s only one toilet between 60
passengers" Yeah I had fun in Mexico...you don’t want the details.
Well that’s all for now
Postcards may be lost in the
post.
Lots of love,
Catherine
