Tidbits & Oddities

Hormigas. Ants. There seem to be about 3+ types here. There are fire ants which are small, red, climb upon you unnoticed until they sting you viciously and thus leave a hurt on you for a while. There are black ants which come in a variety of sizes. The bigger they are the more avoided they should be, basically. And there are worker ants. These are tiny little ants that tickle when they crawl on you; then clean the floors, counter, table of anything and everything that could possibly be consumable and useful for the colony; and then work all day, from sunup to sundown. Luckily though they do sleep, hopefully in their little ant caves, meaning I don’t have to sleep with them. During the day though there are constant highways of worker ants running through my house. Sometimes going from one door to the other. They’re highly interested in the cat food (Mogley doesn’t seem to mind) and recently in my garbage bag that I hang on the door. I don’t know what they’re finding in there. I throw all my food scraps outside to biodegrade.

Basura. Garbage. Apparently the Town Council of Benque funds a truck to go around and pick up people’s trash. So from my neighbourhood, they pick up on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the morning – sometime. People bag, box or in any other way place their garbage outside of the house, in a bin or hang it on a fence. If you put it on the ground, consider it dog food. Tuesday morning I took two plastic grocery bags full of trash (not bad for a couple weeks) and hung it on my fence. The problem with this is that my fence is across a little foot bridge because I live on the other side of a moat. They didn’t pick it up Tuesday. So this morning, I went across my street, asked for some bananas from my neighbour who has a little shack (2 for a shilling or 25cents) and also asked her, “Que necesito hacer con mi basura a enviar lo con el camion?” In English: “What do I need to do with my trash to send it with the truck?” She told me in many words – that I more or less understood – that I did it right. Hang it on the fence. They’ll get it. I came home from lunch and the trash was gone. Successful. Nice that I don’t have to pay for it either.

Almuerzo. Lunch. Cena. Dinner. Desayuna. Breakfast. Yesterday for lunch I had a piece of chocolate and half of a sprite. This was because I was out of cash and food. So I went to Cayo, got a bit of each of those items, and returned home to cook. I boiled two chicken legs in one pot. In another I warmed up chopped eggplant, sweet pepper (aka bell pepper), tomato, & basil (thanks Travis!). From the boiled chicken I saved some broth. For dinner then I had chicken, tortilla, cheese and veggies. A strange meal when put together but it was delicious. For lunch today then I used much of the same veggies plus garlic, onion and carrot and made a soup + some rice that was left over from a few days ago. Delicious again! Man, I’m getting good at this. Its a bit of work, I must say to shop, prepare, cook, eat and clean after every meal. Usually for one and usually alone. I need to make some friends and feed people. Otherwise this will get boring quickly.
Something that is NOT boring... The Russian Circus! Yeah, I’ve never been but I’m assuming its miles of entertainment. So the Russian Circus is in Belize. I think they’re stationed in Belmopan until December 10th. Which is today. Maybe longer, I don’t know. But let me tell you a rumour I’ve heard: If you bring a dog with you they will give you a $10 discount off your ticket. I don’t know how much tickets are but that’s a great deal in Belize. A dog? You might ask. Yes, any dog. There are plenty running the streets. Bothering neighbours; getting into your garbage; scaring you and your children as they bark and chase you for a moment, before you turn around to face them and they go running like they’ve been beaten. Which may be true. The Circus in turn takes the dog you’ve kindly led to them and feeds it to the lions. When we were having this conversation, I was appalled. Someone else mentioned that she sees plenty of dogs that should probably be put down. They’re not very highly valued or taken care of here after all. Some, but mostly not. No way in hell I’d lead a stray dog to the circus for lion bait. No gracias.

Speaking of Hell. (And religion.) I live in front of a Pentecostal Church and the shutters from my bedroom face them directly. Did my landlady mention this to me when I was considering and then paying rent on the house? No. Instead my attention was pointed to the nice bars and secure house, the tiled floors, the ceiling fans, the two bedrooms with built in closets. But not the church. No, some other Benque folks pointed the fact out to me the weekend before I moved in. Determined to be happy in the house I’d chosen though, I went ahead, moved my stuff in and prepared myself for what this church was going to give me. A lot of noise. That’s what I get from them: a lot of singing, off key; guitar and keyboard music, sporadic, usually without melody and always off key; and lots and lots and lots of screaming. Into a microphone. For a church building smaller than my house with the amount of people you’d find in a Chinese store around lunch time. Why do you need a microphone Mr Preacher? I can hear you just fine and I’m not even in the building. Why do you need to scream to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost? If you’ve invited them to be present with you tonight, I’m sure they’re here and you’re giving all of us a headache. In trying to find a positive aspect of having the church as neighbours, I thought, “Hey I’ll see what I can understand from here and practice Spanish comprehension.” This works sometimes. I hear Glorio a dios... Glory to God. Jesus... Jesus... and that’s about it. The rest, while I try to understand it, I wonder if it’s even Spanish. They’re Pentecostal, which means surely they could be speaking in tongues, in Spanish, in which case, I might as well put in the IPod, crank some tunes and wait for their 90 minute church service to be over. I am happy at least that there is some religious diversity in Benque and that people have a place to practice their religion. Just wishing that I didn’t have to be so close to them, every single service. Maybe they'll find closeness with the Lord and eventually be able to speak to him in quiet tones of peace and serenity. Ojala.