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| We're ready. |
One was a picture of some mangos I had cut up to bring to a group brunch.
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| They were delicious. |
And three were various dogs we have dog-sat over the last
two months that I sent to their owners to show their contented dog enjoying our
awesome dog hospitality.
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| Malty... |
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| Gerti... |
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| ...and Leif. All perfect house guests. |
I know what you’re thinking.
You’ve been in Belize for the last two months, and all you have to show
for it are whisky, fruit, and dogs???
Where are the beaches and palm trees?
Where are the spelunking adventures in the jungle? Alas, while most of my blog posts have been
about our fun explorations, the majority of our actual time here has been spent
doing decidedly less adventurous things.
Our weekdays are spent at the office (either in the embassy or, in
Andrew’s case, at our house). Weekends
are often spent at friends’ houses having a potluck or game night. Or in our own house watching movies and
enjoying the air conditioning. Especially
now that we’ve been here a year and a half and have covered a large portion of
this country, our weekends are pretty low key and spent close to home.
Now, lest you think that my weekdays at the office are dull,
let me assure you that dealing with Americans in a foreign country is anything
but. Americans have ways of getting
themselves into all sorts of predicaments that (they think) require the assistance
of the federal government. Aside from
the daily, run-of-the-mill problems (arrests and subsequent incarcerations, medical
emergencies, and passports that have been lost or stolen the day before their
flight home), there are the Americans who have more, shall we say, interesting issues. Like the couple that locked themselves out of
their hotel room and were stuck on their balcony. Did they call the front desk? Did they yell down to other people on the
property? No. These enterprising Americans called the U.S.
embassy for assistance. Send in the
choppers! We must go rescue them! Or like the gentleman who needed a new
passport, but when informed that he had an active arrest warrant back in the
U.S. and the only passport he would be able to get was a one-way trip back to
the States, stated he could not go back because the police in his home state
were crooks who had “killed his pet raccoon.”
Let me also give you a bit of advice based on numerous observations: If or when you are over 85 years of age,
please reconsider your decision to go scuba diving or hiking through the jungle
in 100 degree heat. Maybe reconsider
your decision to go to Belize… period.
The “hospitals” here are BYOB – bring your own blood. Not kidding.
Need a transfusion? Call your
friends to come on down.
All that is to say that, as with anything shiny and new, the
shininess and newness wear off after a while.
Now Belize seems a little less exotic and more like a well-worn
t-shirt. But there are still some
corners of this country that we have yet to investigate, and there are a few
spots we want to make sure to visit again. So our adventures are not yet over, and there will be future blog posts to document our discoveries. In the meantime, this post is just a reality
check for you to know that it’s not all rum drinks and sand in our toes. At least not all the time.
