I can’t believe it, but on Thursday we hit the 30 day mark.  If you are not a resident of Belize and you stay longer than 30 days, you have to go to immigration and pay a fee and get your passport stamped.  Just as you might imagine, it’s not a fun process.  I was reminded a little bit of a trip to the DMV.  After we finally found it with a teeny tiny sign up on the second floor:

Then we had to find the way up there:

It’s a three step process.  First you speak to a person (DMV personality) who glares at you for staying 30 days and paying for the privilege.  Then she asks if the children are in school and, if so, where are their student visas.  Gulp.  You don’t actually have to have a student visa, particularly if you are only staying four months.  I knew this already, but they just ask these questions to make you nervous and be stressed.  After that person reluctantly decides you deserve to stay another 30 days and feed their economy with US $$$, she sends you down to another office to pay the fee.  At that office, the cashier glares at you when you hand them $100 bill for payment of the $100 fee.  She is mad that it is a US $100 bill instead of $200 in Belize dollars.  This makes zero sense since every single shop, vendor, bank, etc. uses US dollars interchangeably with Belizean.  Ah yes, this is the venue of no sense.  She walks around the office making a show of disapproval and acts like she is getting some sort of authorization to take my evil Ben Franklin, when I can clearly see that she doesn’t talk to anyone.  She comes back, prints out four pages, stamps them, hands them to me and tells me to go back to the immigration office with the pages.  I take them back and that woman, who acts like she has never seen me before, takes the four pages and fills them in, by hand, in duplicate (two per page, eight total).  She carefully tears each page in half and gives me half.  She keeps half.  She stamps and gives us our passports back.  I ask if we need to keep the pages in the passports.  “No.  Those are just receipts of payment.  You are due back October 20.”   Oh goody, can’t wait to see you again, mam.

I should mention that in each step, there is a long line of joyful people being raked over the same coals.  This is the only place in Belize that I have encountered anyone who is less than 100% friendly and welcoming.  Sooo looking forward to Oct 20.

On a cheerful note, we left the immigration office and went to the kids sailing lesson.  This is Iris getting the feel for handling an Optimist boat.  Isn’t it cute?

Every day, we drive past the Croc Pond, but we have yet to see a crocodile.  Until today!  Sam spotted one, but we couldn’t get it to come any closer for a photo.  Selfish croc.  He must have once worked for immigration.  That thing that looks like a stick in the water is our croc.

Just in case anyone thinks it’s all glamor and amour here in Belize…Here’s a reality check.  Since arriving, I have been plagued with the WORST athletes foot.  It doesn’t make any sense because I haven’t worn a pair of socks and shoes since I got here.  The good news is that the soaks in apple cider vinegar seem to be working (thanks Nurse Akopov).  The bad news is that I’ve gotten completely addicted to watching Gray’s Anatomy re-runs on Lifetime while soaking.

Ambergris Caye has ZERO recycling and they use styrofoam and plastic a TON.  I didn’t realize how much I had been converted to an “earth friendly” person, but I cringe every time I toss a plastic water bottle.  The exception, however, seems to be at the butcher, where they just throw raw meat into a sack.

OK, here’s some pretty stuff from the Independence Day parade yesterday.  To be honest, we didn’t actually SEE the parade.  It was WAY too hot and the parade that was supposed to start around 10am didn’t start until after 2 (that’s Belize for ya).  Sam saw a few of the people in costumes as they were lining up.

You gotta love the phone tucked into the teeny costume.  Priorities.

Saturday we took a full day sailing trip to Caye Caulker with a snorkel stop along the way.  It was a super fun day with lots of salt, sunscreen and soda.  Actually, “sailing” is a little misleading because, while we were ON a sailboat, we mostly motored, despite the fact that we had plenty of wind.  When I asked the captain about it, he explained that sailing would take us way too long because we would have to cut back and forth too much to stay in the wind.  Ah.  Learning.  Anyway, we felt authentic even it if wasn’t.

 

I knew Sam and Julia would not be far behind me when it came to learning to dive.  Yesterday they achieved their “Bubblemaker” status, which is the first step to becoming an open water diver.  They start off in the pool for some important first lessons (how to clear your mask and regulator if you get water in either) and then it’s off to the reef to see fish!  I was able to dive with them on their first dive.  Lucky me!  Gimer is a sweet and patient teacher.

Julia and Sam give the “OK” signal.  Another important lesson.

The pre-dive briefing:

and into the water they go…

Have I mentioned that I left our Go Pro back at the lake?  ARGHHHH.

Whit and I have been having fun when the children are in school, too.

The view from my seat:

The girls wearing the white dresses are local high school students.  Can you imagine a US high school girl wearing this?

Today the children had mommy for breakfast. Well, actually, they had Mamey, which is pronounced “mommy” in English or “may may” in Spanish. This is all according to Esperanza, the woman from whom I buy my fruits and vegetables each day.

Any time I see something I don’t recognize, I ask her what it is and, sometimes (to my children’s chagrin), I buy it. Here is a Mamey:

It is unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. It sort of has the consistency of a baked sweet potato, but is much sweeter with a slight melon-y flavor. Sam choked his down. Iris ate one bite and Julia refused to try it. I tried it plain, with lime, with salt and in a smoothie. The smoothie is the way to go. I probably won’t buy another. There are rumors that the seed, boiled in water, has hallucinagenic properties. Intriguing…

Yesterday was the ladies sailing club.  I finally had the nerve to bring my phone out on the boat.  Here are some of the ladies:

Julia and Sam have their first sailing lesson today, so praying that will go well.

Whit and I went diving together today for the first time.  Hopefully, we will get our waterproof camera soon, but here are some out of the water pics.  You will see our friends Buzz and Gimer who have guided us on several dives and snorkel adventures.  See the sharks all around the boat!  They are very friendly!

Sharks!

The other morning we experienced our first “brown out.” There was a storm in the night that must have blown out a transformer or something.  All our lights were dim and we had no water!  When we left for school, we saw where all the water was!

Today I met some moms from Iris’s class for lunch. We ate at El Fogon,  a popular place we’ve been meaning to try but haven’t since it’s not on the water, and therefore, HOT. It was, indeed, HOT, but the food was delicious.  I finally saw something on the menu I’d been looking for: Gibnut Stew. For you southerners, I think this is basically mulligan stew. Here is a picture of a Gibnut:

Yep, it’s a rodent. Blech.

No, I did not order it. I had the chicken curry (or so they say???).  At least they do cook basically right in front of you.  This was my view from my seat:

I may do two posts today because I was finally brave (foolish?) enough to take my phone on my sailing outing.

elizabeth, does the Gibnut stew remind you of that restaurant in Vietnam and us wondering what the “special” actually was?

You know you’ve reached an island state of mind when your children fight over who gets to eat the leftover broccoli for their vegetable with dinner.  San Pedro has a lot to offer. Vegetables are not on the list. Basically, you can have all of the onions, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers you want, but beyond that, it’s dicey.  I regularly (daily) go to three markets. Sometimes there will be a carrot or two and I snatch them up. Sometimes there will be lettuce.  On VERY special days, there will be broccoli!!! Today was one of those days!

There was ONE head and I got it!

After that exciting shopping find, I treated myself to lunch at Kevin’s chicken stand.

Amazing jerk chicken, slaw and homemade tortillas.

 

Or certifiable, not sure.

Yesterday I got certified as a PADI Open Water Diver.  I did five days of online coursework and three days of diving in the pool and ocean.  It was amazing.  I’m only disappointed I didn’t have my waterproof camera (conveniently left back in Atlanta) to take pictures of some of the amazing things I saw down under the sea.  I can’t believe I haven’t done this sooner.  Well, of course I can, when have I had eight days to do a class???

Julia and I started with a “try dive” in the pool to see if we liked the feeling of breathing underwater.  We both loved it, but Julia hasn’t quite gotten motivated to start her online coursework.  She does have school and all…

I started my course on Thursday with a guy named Steve from Boulder, CO.  I wondered how it would go when he got a terrible nosebleed the very first time he put on his mask.  All I could think about was “blood in the water attracts sharks!”

Whit was very patient to look after the children for me while I was off diving.  It was especially nice since the children had an unexpected day off from school on Friday.  We did get to take Friday afternoon and go snorkeling.  It was quite the adventure as we had a very curious green sea turtle that gave Julia a little nip on her leg!  Rats, where was that camera when you needed it???

I’m sorry I’ve gotten a little behind in posting. We do have busy days here in paradise. I’ve been continuing my Wednesday sailing group. I still can’t take my phone out on the little boat, but here is a pic from a safe dry distance!

 

I have also been working through my open water diving certification. Since I have the same water issue with my phone, here is photo of inside of diving place.

The children got the fun news yesterday afternoon that school would be canceled Friday because the ministry of health is coming to spray for mosquitoes! I guess that’s the Belizean version of a snow day? Anyway, we celebrated by going north on the island to a fun restaurant over the water.