For those of you who are regular visitors to the blog, please accept my apologies! I think is the longest I've gone without posting - and hopefully I'll get back to writing here more often. Part of the reason for my lack of posts is that my life has settled into a bit of a routine, and it doesn't seem like there is much to talk about. Hopefully what follows here isn't too mundane!
I invested a lot of $ in getting my 17 yr old truck ready for the trip to Belize, and was grateful the truck and I made it without too many problems. A few weeks ago when I left work it would not start because the battery would not turn it over, and someone gave me a boost. Got home, and decided that my battery needed to be replaced. Got a battery, installed it, drove to work, and at the end of the day it barely turned the engine over. Hmmmm. Spent the next week or two disconnecting the battery every time I parked, and charging it with the battery charger I fortunately kept and brought with me. Finally took it to the local mechanic who specializes in electrical issues. He has no garage, but has a frame with tarp, a palm tree, and a small container (truck type) to hold tools and supplies. Told me he could fix it in a giffy. This was a Friday afternoon. When he took it apart it was clear my alternator was causing a short circuit and needed work. He replaced some elements - a surprise to me that he even had them, put it back in the truck and it still wasn't generating enough. This all took two to three hours, and during the last hour he revealed his role as a preacher of literal interpretation of the bible. A little hard for me to take, especially when he would stop working on the truck to make a point.
Since it didn't work right, we agreed I would take it home for the weekend, and bring it back Monday, and leave it with him for the day. I did, and he put another alternator in, and now it works fine. Why I've told you all this? The charge? $100 Belize, which is $50 US.
When I lived out in the country in Maine, especially before chain auto parts stores moved in, mechanics would take things like alternators apart and repair them. If this had happened in Portland (Maine), the mechanic would have replaced the alternator with a new or rebuilt one, probably for several hundred dollars, plus the labor cost for an hour @ $90. This is not an affluent culture here, and one of the results is a willingness to use things, particularly vehicles, until they are "used up". Re-use is the purest form of recycling, and things get re-used. You can't buy a can of soda or beer. Beer is only in refillable bottles, and although soda is available in plastic bottles, I think the vast majority is sold in refillable bottles. I buy soda water by the case (@ $2BZD/bottle), and mix it with a very small amount of lime, pineapple or grapefruit "squash". This is a concentrate sweetened with sucrose, produced here in Belize.
As a baker, I've been a bit frustrated that the small gas stove here in the apartment has an oven, and the control has numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. It has no thermostat. I was able to order one from the local grocery/hardware/homegoods store and measured the temps tonight. The dial doesn't go lower than 1 - which is 375 degrees! 2 is 400, 3 is 475 and 4 is 550 - so baking is going to be challenge. I'm very glad I brought my bread maker, because I've been making individual loaves of wheat or amadama bread for myself that are much better than the breads that are baked and sold locally. Speaking of food, I currently reading a fascinating book called "Home Cooking in the Global Village, Belizean food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists." It is a scholarly work that is a history of Belize and by extension a history of the British Empire and the Caribbean, with a focus on food.
When I sat down to write tonight what I really wanted to write about is the sky. We are moving into the rainy season, and if it remains like it has been for the last week or so, it is going to be wonderful. Unlike Portland (Maine) where a rainy spell means an overcast sky with no real definition of the clouds, here there are big cumulous clouds that boil up thousands of feet, and perhaps other clouds at lower levels. There is enough open blue sky that you can see them, and watch them change and grow. We had thunderstorms last night, and one passed nearby today, giving us the gift of a full double rainbow. These clouds give us some spectacular sunsets, which I've posted here before. It is especially neat to go to the roof of our house, where you are above the treeline, and can see the whole sky. It is almost as if you are in a huge puffy sculpture. Although photos only capture a small segment - I can't help myself, and take pictures almost daily. So I'll end this posting today with a selection of my cloud pictures.
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