Small Business Struggles in Belize
NOTICE: I have amended this from the original post, as the issue has been resolved honourably with the Facebook page in question. However I think it is good to leave it up in some form, so that people become more…
Category Living in Belize
Hard-Work and Hammocks: Belize Work Culture
Some visitors to Belize may leave with the illusion that many of its residents are, shall we say, under-worked. Stores that close for two-hour lunch breaks, people lounging around in hammocks in the middle of the day, people that extend…
A Chronology of Muddy Walks
Things have moved on…I have graduated from daily chicken bus runs to the Belizean “Banana Belt” to monthly muddy walks to Machakilha Mayan village, and our drum school has been promoted from a small, cluttered spare bedroom in a rented…
Observations from A Belizean Bus
I spend four hours a day, five days a week sitting on a Belizean bus on the commute between my home town of Punta Gorda and the “banana belt” villages where I work. If it wasn’t for my finely honed…
Belize time – I’ll do it right now….
Since moving to Belize, if I need something done urgently, and someone tells me they’ll do it “right now”, I get an uncanny sinking feeling in my stomach. In Belize time, “right now” can be roughly translated as meaning “at…
What’s in a name?
Considering the name of my husband, I feel an entry on the general inventiveness of Belizean names is apt. There is no McDonald’s restaurant in Belize (in fact there are no chains at all), and so Ray has not suffered…
Black man lay the pipe: Belize race relations
“Spanish man build the house, Chiney man cook the food, White man pay the bills, Black man lay de pipe!” Immortal words from a song of Belizean punta rock super star, Supa G. “Hey, Blondie!” I keep walking, aware of…
From Brixton ‘Bananas’ to PG Plantain
The first time I ate a plantain was when I lived in Brixton, London, five minutes’ walk away from Electric Avenue market. I had bought a large banana, but it didn’t want to peel properly, and it was a weird…
Mundian to Bach Ke (Ronald McDonald vs. Punjabi MC)
I have a terrible singing voice. I love to sing, but only in private when (I think) nobody is listening. Ray has a good overall singing voice and a great Garifuna singing voice: Garifuna songs don’t require you to be…
How to shake your arse (Belize style)
Go to any bar with live music at night in Belize, and you will witness the dominant form of Belizean dancing, which like the dominant form of Belizean music (Punta rock), originates from traditional Garifuna culture. That is, it involves…