Initial Evaluation and Assessment Report

So I suppose this is a good time to begin to assess how actually being here compares to our expectations before we left.

Belize itself; Certainly the south is more beautiful than I expected. We aren't as close to the mountains as I thought we would be, more in low hills on the edge of the coastal plain. As soon as you go a little away from a one of the villages to the west, you are in proper jungle that you would actually need a machete to make a path through. Despite this,  many villagers have "farms" or small cleared areas within the jungle on which they grow corn, cacao or some vegetables. Often these are an hour or more from their homes and are passed on through family succession.

Overall the towns are smaller than I expected with a looser layout to shops and businesses. Big Falls is just a spread out village really, with several small shops built into peoples' homes. There's a petrol station, a school, a clinic and at least 5 churches in addition to the Kingdom Hall that I've found so far. Punta Gorda, the main town in the South, is smaller than Cupar I think, but it has a mixture of casual touristy places and shops and businesses that serve the local area. It's on the coast (but no sandy beach, I'm afraid) and has a nice feel to it.

We only travelled through to two "cities" on the bus on the way down so I'll have to report about them another time.

Living Standards; You know before you come that things will be different, but it's always a bit of an adjustment when you get here. I think because Belize is relatively undeveloped and has a much lower population density than the rest of Central America, there's much more of a feel of being out in the wilds even in a village. The options of what to buy and what to do are more limited than I thought, but with the novelty factor still there that hasn't been a problem yet.

Air conditioning is a rarity here. No-one in Big Falls has it and only two banks and a couple of internet cafes have it in PG. Somehow you can always find an excuse to do something in the bank for a while! So you just have to use fans to try to cool down, with limited success.

Access to the internet is limited and slow we can share with our landlady next door but it's painful sometimes just to download a page. The internet cafes in PG are better but less convenient. That's the main reason I haven't attached any pictures yet, but I will do as soon as I can. 

Between writing this and getting to an internet cafe to publish it it has actually rained for two days, some of it VERY heavy so it has been much cooler. Today is more sunny again, which makes me happy but Tana less so!

Nature: Coming from Scotland, nothing can prepare you for just how much life there is here and how much you have to share your personal space with it! Some is delightful while others not so much. I plan to give you a zoological tour sometime so that can wait.....

Congregation; We are very touched with how hard the brothers have worked to look after us and include us. It has been much more than we expected. There are only about 30 publishers and we've met all of them already. Ashley is now assistant for Literature and Emily for Accounts! The pioneers and two special pioneers are willing to work with us and take us on their studies. Now we have a vehicle, we can start helping them out, too.

Now I've started I can see that there will need to be several more installments to this surprisingly in-depth assessment. More to follow...