Wildlife

We are almost ready to leave Belize now, in fact by the time I post this we may already be on our way. But I did promise earlier that I would write about the animal life round here so I'd better keep my promise (with the caveat that this is all based on limited information and you'd get more accuracy from Wikipedia!)

Scary animals - Depends on your point of view I suppose. I've sadly not seen any snakes at all while here although one brother had to kill a small boa which he found in his bedroom in the middle of the night! All the locals say there are plenty in the bush. We have seen quite a few tarantulas but I don't consider them scary, quite cute actually. And we've had several scorpions in the house, including one on our toilet seat! Scorpions do this trick of flattening themselves to the ground if they are scared so you think they have been squashed but you get a surprise if you try to pick them up! Their sting is no worse than a bee apparently. 

We also have bats in our attic which we hear squeaking and (I presume) rats up there which we hear scurrying during the night. Sometimes we even hear a fight between a bat and a rat, but we've no idea who wins. At least we normally have the fan on at night so that covers over the noise a bit. Obviously if we were here permanently we would do something about them!

Jaguars and pumas are rare and very seldom seen even by rangers. There are some crocodiles at the mouths of rivers but problems with humans are rare also.

Less scary - We see a lot of lizards - the ubiquitous geckos, which actually give off quite a loud birdlike chirp and leave annoying droppings in the house, Jesus lizards, the ones that run on their back legs and can skim over puddles, hence the name and iguanas from a few inches long up to two metres. In fact we shared some iguana tail for lunch on one of our preaching trips so there's at least one less than when we arrived.

Theres a lot of vulture-like birds referred to as "John crows" by the locals which hang around and deal with roadkill, and the slightly more attractive hummingbirds which came often to the tree in our front garden when it was in bloom and frequent the feeders which several brothers have out for them.

As for the other trademark Belizean animals- tapir, gibnut, spider and howler monkeys etc- I'm afraid the zoo was our only encounter with them.

Domestic  - Livestock live in and amongst the homes here. Chickens and ducks will wander freely through homes and we were often having to slow down to avoid free range pigs! Cows are fenced in and horses are usually tethered but sadly we've seen a few quite overworked ones. While it's nice to have animals wandering around the sound of cockerels literally all through the night can be quite wearing.

Insects - There are five main biting insects - mosquitos, red bugs, doctor, sand and botlas flies -which produce bites of various sizes and itchiness on various parts of the body. I'm not sure if I really want to talk about it! But actually down here is less bad for mosquitos and sandflies than other parts. You get used to a level of irritation but there are times when you've picked up a few too many and it beginds to drive you crazy. Being hot and sweaty doesn't help, either.

Ants almost deserve a category all of their own. They are everywhere! We have a leaf-cutters' nest near the house and a trail in front of our steps which often has a procession carrying their incredible loads. It seems that any rock you turn over has ants underneath it. Some of them bite but only a little. There are some nastier ones which we've kept well clear of fortunately. By keeping the house clean you can minimise the numbers coming in but it would be a full time job to be insect free. 

I really enjoy being so close to nature on the whole and it'll be strange to go back to home and its more "sterile" feel. Maybe we'll go over to the west and get some midge bites when we feel nostalgic!

Mennonites

We at long last went out to Pine Hill, the Mennonite village in our territory today. Mennonites are one of the religious groups that to some extent reject modern technology and live in a relatively isolated way. There is a wide range of views about how strictly they should do this, and in Belize it ranges from little more than an average fundamentalist in the UK to the more conservative Amish-like communities of which Pine Hill is one. Members have to agree not to use a phone or have a driving licence, for example.

Ever since we arrived we've regularly seen 
Mennonites riding in their horse and carts taking produce to the market or supplies back home. The men all have full beards and the women wear head coverings and blue dresses. They don't like having their pictures taken but we managed to sneak a few from a distance. 

 Bill Taylor, one of our elders, has helped them out quite a few times when they've had medical emergencies or otherwise needed help that they couldn't get from within their community, so they are quite happy to talk to him and us along with him. We went to one farm where only the girls were home but they were willing to show us around a bit and got a horse out to demonstrate their water pump made from old transmission parts. 

The community as a whole feels much like I imagine farmland a couple of hundred years ago felt. Everything is so quiet and settled, but you can hardly imagine how much work it must be on a daily basis. 

Mennonites have actually been behind an agricultural revolution in Belize over the past few decades and almost single-handedly introduced dairy and poultry farming here. They have a business acumen that makes them quite an influential group in the country, but that's particularly the more liberal groups in the North. Pine Hill just wants to be allowed to go about its life in relative peace. As always when you meet such different cultures, there's something to be learned from their simple lives and hard work. Doesn't mean I'd want to live there, though!

Placencia

Here is a video made by an American brother and sister (as I am sure you can tell) of their one month stay in Placencia. They have really fallen in love with the place and are making plans to return. Maybe you can see why from the location.

Placencia is the only place within reach of us that is set up to cater to western style tourists. It has a great beach and good places to eat and drink. Partly because of this it gets more witnesses coming to stay for a while so the cong. has a more lively feel. So it's been refreshing for us, especially Emily, to be able to go there sometimes. I gave the talk there a couple of weeks ago and we stayed the night before in a house literally right on the beach! And it has the best ice cream shop in Belize! I think Big Falls is a more beautiful place and the ministry is better down here, though Placencia is still great, but it has been nice to pamper ourselves sometimes.

Bush Trips

Definitely one of the highlights of our stay was going to the congregations in San Antonio and San Jose last Sunday. They are in a Mopan Maya area, but people speak enough English to allow visiting speakers to come. There are only 3 Mopan congregations in the whole world so it'll be a while before they get the Watchtower in their language. They read the paragraphs in English and answer in Mopan. 

San Antonio Kingdom Hall

Rice, beans and stew chicken for a small army

We were made to feel very welcome and had lunch with the Cho family, whose story appears in the 2010 yearbook, page 235/6, along with a group of brothers and studies that had travelled from the other Mopan cong. further north for a visit. 

Since the Chos have a lot of family in San Jose, they wanted to come to their meeting 

as did the visitors so we ended up with 23 people in two pickups driving the 45 mins

on jungle roads to the afternoon meeting. 

Talk about bringing your own audience! San Jose has no electricity and is one of the 

most unspoiled villages in Belize. After a 

while here you get used to being in a part of the world that's quite different from our own, but that trip really emphasised to us what a privilege it is to be able to experience both being here and having a brotherhood that is so welcoming to strangers from such different cultures. One moment you are in a hammock relaxing after lunch then you have to use the hole-in-the-ground toilet and you remember that this is the Jungle! 

San Jose Kingdom Hall

Standing room only

The friendly Mayans

Out of the truck and onwards on foot

 We also had a preaching trip to the village of Crique Sarco yesterday. It's a Kekchi village in a neighbouring congregation's territory so they asked for some of our local brothers to help, and our truck was required for the hour and a half of driving on very poor roads. It was uncomfortable for me driving but I can't imagine what it must have been like for those in the back. The road stops at an unfinished bridge which you walk over and then into the village itself. We had a good time in the ministry and had enough time for a quick swim in the river before the long drive home. 

Definitely wouldn't get a car across here

Trips

Our visas only allow for a stay of 30 days in Belize so we thought we'd make a couple of trips out of the country. The first was north into Mexico, just into the border city of Chetumal. It's a much more normal city by our standards, with a shopping mall, McDonalds and even a cinema! The combination of all these things brought much delight to Tana and the girls (shame both the films we saw were rubbish, but Tana insists that it's as much about the "cinema experience". She tries that at home as well).

Travelling up there ended up being a bit more complex than we expected, but several local brothers helped us out, including Reggie Trapp, who drove us over the border and came back to pick us up. Those who are in a position to help certainly go out of their way to do so.

Lunch in Livingston

Tana and I also took a boat trip south into the Guatemalan town of Livingston (some what different to its Scottish namesake) which is a mixture of Central American Spanish and Garifuna people. It's a bit more touristy than most of Belize so it's nice to just enjoy relaxing and souvenir shopping.

A Tapir - The National Animal of Belize

 Closer to home, we went to visit Belize zoo, which although small is worth a visit because it only has animals that are native here. That includes jaguar and puma, as well as tapir and several scarily large bird species.

 Between there and home is the Blue Hole National Park- not the very famous Blue Hole in the ocean but an area of natural springs and caves in the hills. More swimming and a walk to explore St. Herman's cave. What I forgot to mention is that everywhere you swim you end up being nibbled by curious little fish, which is alarming at first but quite cute when you've been reassured that there's no piranhas nearby!

From the inside of St Herman's cave

Routine

We've had a settled couple of weeks since my last update, so I thought I should let you know what our routine is like here;

Obviously most of our week revolves round the ministry. There are groups every day except Friday and we are at most of them. Tana and I take a Tuesday off to do our study, some housework and to go into town (Punta Gorda, half an hour away) to get some shopping , and on Friday we try to do something all together like visiting a town a bit further away or a beach or even both! Recreational opportunites are a bit limited. There are no cinemas in Belize and shopping is about essentials rather than leisure, so mostly it's a case of finding somewhere to get something to eat and having a walk or a swim in a river or perhaps the Caribbean. Tough life, eh? Most of the more touristy areas are further north and out of reach for a day trip. We've been invited out a few times and have had some round to ours so we are getting to know the congregation quite well.

Anyway, you want to know about the ministry, I presume. Most groups are at 8 30 which reflects the fact that everything starts early here. Only some of the villages have electricity so I suppose they make more use of daylight. Groups sizes vary from 4 or 5 to around 15 at most. Either we will all have calls and studies to do or most of us will. If we are going a little distance, we make up car parties like we would do at home to go to the same area.

First call consists of approaching a house and calling a greeting if someone hasn't seen you already (houses are half-open in construction or they keep their windows and doors open). There's no need to come up with a clever introduction or anything. People are quite happy to see Witnesses and to learn about the bible. Virtually everyone speaks English (I've only met two or three that don't), but their levels of fluency and ability to understand a Scottish accent vary! They will listen as you read scriptures and will gladly take literature. Although most of them speak Kekchi as a first language (Kriol, a corrupted English, is next most common with just a few Spanish) many can't read it since they are only taught to read at English at school. We have some literature in Kekchi, but it's a more Guatemalan style of the language so some of the locals don't like it.

So it's no problem at all spending a couple of hours talking to half a dozen people or so who will invite you sit down, some times on a plastic chair or sometimes an upturned bucket. They, especially the men it seems, will often be lying in a hammock. I haven't conducted a study while in a hammock myself yet, but Emily and Ashley have. Tough life again!

The challenge is firstly assessing and adapting to their level of English and education in general, including taking local lifestyles into account (for instance it's no use comparing the Bible to a letter since none of them will ever have received one), then persevering through the frustrations of finding them at home again and in a position to study. They have a slower pace of life and don't really seem to be that bothered about a routine. If you make an appointment quite often you will go back to find that they have gone into town or are at the river doing their washing or in the case of men are away to their farms. Because they are all religious anyway it's hard to sort out who has a real interest in learning and who just enjoy talking about it. That being said, we all have several studies who are serious and enjoy what they are learning. One of mine came to the meeting on Sunday with his wife so that was encouraging.

It's quite a thing to be spending time with people who are so positive about the Bible and who really enjoy the magazines. We're glad we are able to be here even if it's just for a little time.

I hear you've been having hot weather in Scotland, that's good. Rainy season hasn't been too much of a problem yet. We get rain almost every night and occasionally in the day, but it's still just as hot! We also get thunder and lightning almost daily, which is fun. Beasties and bites are still a part of life but they are honestly not as bad as I feared they could get, so far anyway, but writing this just makes me start to notice all my itches!

Busy Week

Sorry that it's been a while since I posted anything. We've been busy entertaining our visitors from home. I hope Mark and Sarah are back safely now. At least you'll get better quality pictures from them!

We had a busy and enjoyable week together with them and Richard. We had avoided doing some of the local touristy things until they arrived, so it was the first time doing them for us too and they managed to get out quite a bit in the ministry with us as well.

Last Monday we took a trip to a nearby cacao farm and were shown how to make our own chocolate by hand using traditional Mayan tools. There was much enthusiasm for this, especially with the female contingent of our group. It's surprising how simple chocolate is if made by hand. You just have to roast the beans, remove the husks and grind till the cocoa butter starts to melt and you get a paste. Add sugar to taste and that's it! The owner told us that the oldest types of cacao are more mild tasting than those grown commercially because the big companies want a stronger and more bitter bean so that they can add more fillers and save money. Certainly although the chocolate we ended up with was around 85% it was a lot smoother tasting than 70% stuff you buy at home. We had a meal of chocolate chicken while we were there to round things off.

At the end of the week, along with Andy and Leticia Baker from the congregation, we took a boat out to Sapodilla Caye and spent a night on what can only be described as a desert island on the barrier reef. We each had a little shack looking out over the sea. Ours was in front of a shallow bay where a large ray (sting, manta or spotted, I'm not sure) would come and flap around several times a day. The water was your classic clear blue and the  snorkeling

 on the reef was excellent. And then on the way back, to top things off, we encountered a pod of dolphins that came and played with us for about 20 minutes, jumping out of the water, racing the bow of the boat and generally being charming. Quite an unforgettable experience! It shows up the weakness of digital cameras though. Because there is a delay between pressing the button and the picture actually being taken we mostly got photos of post-dolphin ripples! Andy got some video so I might ask him for a link of he puts any of it online. And you'll have to see what Mark was able to get on his camera.

So it was really enjoyable to have guests for the week, but it felt a bit strange to see them getting ready to go home and us not to be joining them. Homesickness has affected each of us at some time but we are managing. It helps when you have things you have to do here so you feel like you are needed.

Shame about Andy Murray by the way. Now we'll have to find someone else to be disappointed in! We watched most of the match on a repeat on Mexican/Guatemalan satellite TV in a sister's thatched house with chickens and various other animals wandering in and out whilst eating homemade burritos. Not quite the traditional Wimbledon experience!