Week One - Grateful

One Week! I've been in Belize one week. Suddenly today I thought to be grateful. It's been a partly overwhelming whirlwind - adjusting to living with people at all, and the rustic surrounds. The house is on solar energy so we use electricity only when it has been sunny. This is the rainy season, so that is not all of the time. There's also a generator used once a day to pump water into buckets in the house. Otherwise we carry water up from down below. The only source of water is rain collected in 10-foot wide, one story high tanks. The house is set on 10-foot concrete pillars, so we are high up. There are drains in the house for graywater, which goes out into the garden, but for bathrooms we use commodes, which pails we carry out several times a day to bury in a compost bed. Bathing too is out of a bucket. So, rustic. These details alone take a lot of time everyday.

I'm in the middle of a 7-day juicing cleanse. Days 2 and 3 were terrible. I felt very sick - which is supposed to happen. For the most part I sequester myself in my room. I don't have the energy for anything more. (I now recall to your mind the water hauling and compost burying in my weakened state...)

I am learning lessons of jungle living. Don't leave your towel on the line. It's not going to dry anyway in the humid air. I was fighting to go to sleep against the mad bird who lives on the tin roof and bams the metal and scolds me for sleeping "Aw! Aw!" he says with great disappointment. And I remembered two towels on the line on the back porch. I didn't care and slept in spite of the bird. This morning I shook the towels off as I took them from the line. But the tiny (or teensy would be appropriate here) ants each clung to a loop in the fabric and hung on like they were parasailing. I flopped the towels on the end of the bed and within minutes saw the error of my ways. Not the bed! I cried. I don't know how long I'll have to regret that. I have killed only about 7. (Not to say I have let any live - I have found only 7). Maybe most did not survive parasailing.

Belize is mounting into a wonderful adventure. I will tell you more when I am Grateful to be through this fast...

love Susan