I set my alarm clock for breakfast at 730...which I am coming to find out that there is Belizian time and nothing starts when it is supposed to. To my surprise I had a natural alarm clock....ROOSTERS!! and let me tell you...there are tons of them and they never stop. I dont think I will need my alarm clock at all while I am here.
I woke up and showered and had breakfast. Breakfast was again, excellent! We had refried beans....I never knew that was a breakfast food until now, eggs with some spices and cheese and lastly toast with jam. Marlin is a great cook and he also loves making drinks. He made us a blended coffee type drink ( think frappacino) and it was awesome!
After breakfast we went to the market, which takes place every saturday and consists of all the produce, clothes and any other thing that any person living here would need. All of their food is organic and made right here in belize, other than a few things they get at the very small grocery store. The market is HUGE. Saturdays are also BBQ days and people BBQ on the street and sell it for insanely cheap. For lunch I got a quarter of a chicken, coleslaw and a tortilla/ crape type thing for 5 dollars belize which equals about 2.50 american and it was delicious.
Today Ajai ( Asia , the other volunteer staying here) and marlin were planning on going to Guatemala and told me I was welcome to join I just had to split the gas and pay an entrance fee to get into the country. It was 11 for gas and 30 for entrance but that is Belize and american is 2 to 1 belize so in total it was 20 bucks basically which is not to bad. Gas here is really expensive its about 10-11 dollars per gallon belize, so about 5 dollars per gallon....and we complain about 3.50 when we are making a lot more money than the people here.
Guatemala is a much poorer country, we had to change our belize and US money into money what guatemala uses and the exchange rate was about 1 US dollar to 3.65 Q ( guatemalian money). We walked around and went into their market and shopping area. I was surprised at how many health clinics and pharmacies there were, where you could buy any type of medicine.Marlin told me about how he went to guatemala to get his root canal because its so much cheaper there. I bought a few things and just looked around a lot. I really enjoyed walking around their markets, its not like in mexico where everyone hassels you and begs you to buy from them. They dont say much other than hi and gracias...they only speak spanish there.
Me and ajia took the bus to the market and walked around until it started storming.The internet stopped working so we wondered over to the resturant that we have been “borrowing” the internet from to see what was going on and to get a drink or something. Ajia and I ended up sitting there for about 3 hours talking about anythiing and everything. We talked about how belizians percieve volunteers, about her culture and job and about my lifestyle. Its interesting to learning so much about many different people. I mean obviously I was going to learn about Belize and their culture and have an eye opening experience within their culture but I am learning so much from ajia too. We have very different backgrounds and discuss controversial topics and I think we tend to enlighten eachother a little. Its good conversation and I am glad she is here to hang out with.
Once we left Rolsons I hung out with the Robinsons for a bit and then dinner was ready. It was excellent!! I am starting to really like some new vegetables. We had chicken with a gravy type sauce and sauteed carrots, zuchinni, squash and cucumbers. Also a new favorite of mine is fresh avocado. Marlin made another awesome drink: homemade vanilla iced tea. I could get used to this cooking!I have started to notice already that sometimes, well most of the time the family doesnt eat the same thing that they make for us. These confuses me and makes me wonder why and also makes me wonder how the kids perceive this? They are old enough that they would take notice to this. I also noticed that they ate the same thing for lunch and dinner, very cheap rice and beans. I wonder if they cannot afford to cook for their whole family the way the cook for us? Now I am just reading a book a relaxing. Orientation is in the morning; I am excited to get to know the other volunteers better! Stay tuned for more!! Miss all of you!
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