Temptation

Standing in front of the sparkling clean freezer-case, I was faced with a
dilemma. Is $19 BZ too much to pay for a pint of Ben and Jerry's? Before I
tell you how I answered that very important question, let me explain how
amazing it is to be in the big city.

Belize City, a bustling metropolis of 35,000 people, has so much to offer.
Besides the only two fully functioning traffic lights in the country, Belize
City is also home to the only movie theatre, casino, put-put course (which
is now a bar), Indian restaurant, and grocery store that accepts debit
cards. I have wireless internet in my hotel room and I can buy soy milk and
shredded mini-wheats at the grocery store. All amazing things, but it is
all a matter of what a person is willing to pay for such luxuries.

So, back to the freezer case at the 2nd fanciest grocery store in the
country. $19BZ can buy a lot of things in this little country: 4 plates of
BBQ chicken, a bus ticket to Punta Gorda, a water-taxi to Caye Caulker, 57
tacos, 4 hours on the internet, and apparently one pint of Vermont's finest
ice cream. But I just couldn't do it, even though Chunky Monkey and Phish
Food did everything in their power to convince me that $8.50 US was a good
deal. So I said no and moved on. A mistake, perhaps, but some principles
just can't be compromised, no matter how tasty the temptation.

My shower and Me

A rain poncho for a curtain and plenty of room to dance.

A group of 2nd Year Volunteers

Our numbers diminished, the hardy (at least those who showed up for the
picture) are left standing.

A lesson from the classics

  Here's a quote that I picked up from Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, writing):

"What good it would have done me at that time to have been tossed into the storms of an uncertain struggling life, and to have been taught by rough and bitter experience to long for the calm amidst which I now repind."

Thanks Jane, you have thus summed up pretty well why, those many years ago when I signed up for all of this.  I have to remind myself of that urge, which Jane so Britishly portrayed, to leave the comfortable and seek the difficult.  Even on good or great or even outstanding days, which seem to be the norm nowadays, I find myself at some point or another gazing wistfully into space, conjuring up some image of easy, American life.  Maybe I'm checking the internet and notice that the temperature is 65° and sunny in Spokane, WA.  This seems unfathomable.  I can honestly no longer recall what it feels like to stand in full sunshine without breaking into a sweat and retreating as quickly as possible into shade.  Side-note: I do not, nor will I ever develop a tan while I am in Belize. The thought of baking myself under a tortuous sun seems damned absurd.  So what I am trying to say is that 65° and sunny sounds really good right about now and can't wait to be away from this heat.

Another instigator of Washington State whimsy is doing dishes.  I will never, once I'm done, complain about dishes again.  As it stands, after each meal I stack my dishes into a plastic strainer and carry them through my muddy yard to my water pipe, which releases its flow at about 24 inches above the dirt.  I utilize pot or large container for the soapy water and balance a strainer on some rocks while I assume a squatting position to avoid bending in half while I soap, scrub, and rinse each dish, getting splashed by dish water and muddy back splash in the meanwhile.  I carefully stack the clean dishes back into the strainer and balance it on my hip as I make my way back into the house.  I can not accurately convey how much this sucks.  I repeat this routine on average twice a day, have been for a year now, because even the slightest delay in attending to my dishes would attract the attention of the thousands of blood-thirsty ants that stand waiting, in case the smallest morsel of food should drop to the floor.

And those are just two examples of the daily reminders of how much easier my life once was, and will surely be again someday.  But Jane Eyre was right, what it has done me indeed to be tossed right here where I am.  My experience, often rough and occasionally bitter has taught me a thing or two.  So, back to those storms of a perfectly uncertain life I go.