August weather

We've been having some unusual weather that has just about put any activity on my part to a halt.  We've been expecting some rain as we've been having occasional clouds, lightning and thunder.  Darn, only a few drops have come down and have contributed to the humidity and heat.  It's been in the high 90's for all of August and my chubby body hasn't been responding well to the heat.  Sweating profusely isn't particularly attractive or comfortable.  This hot spell has also contributed to a water shortage.  Thankfully we can rely on Michael Waite of Snooty Fox to bring us 3000 gallons of water at a reasonable price.  Tonight, as my whining reached a crescendo level, we've gotten about an hour of drizzle.   So lovely.  Now my Kindle reading marathon will need to come to an end as my excuse for my laziness will have cooled off. 

Belize customs (duty) revisited

Wow, when I mentioned my frustration with the customs practices during a recent get-together I found out so much more.  Belize is struggling with poverty vs graft vs foolishly devised laws.  More friends had distressing tales of people in the US trying to help, but being stymied by customs.  I was told about a lady who collected a huge supply of books to bring down for the kids.  She found she would have to pay a substantial duty besides her shipping, so wasn't able to follow through. 

A Belizian friend has worked closely with a group from Pittsburgh through his church.   In past years they've come down to bring things to the villages and have been accompanied by Drs. who volunteer their services and bring medicines.  They can no longer afford to take their time, pay for their tickets to come and then be charged duty on all the supplies that they bring in.  This conversation included a concurrence from a member of Rotary who said that they've encountered the same situation.  They've been encouraging doctors and dentists to volunteer their time and services here in Belize, but find that they are discouraged and charged duty on anything they bring in.  They even had to pay duty on a container of wheelchairs that were donated.  

It makes me proud that Americans are opening their hearts to help this little country, but the message seems to be to just SEND MONEY.  Phooey on that.  It will just find it's way into someone's pocket rather than help the villagers who could so use the services and supplies.   

Belize customs (duty)

Ok, I'm going to rant.  When we entered Belize five years ago, we sucked it up and paid duty on all our possessions.  Even tho' we came in under the QRP (qualified retirement program) we wanted to expedite things.  Since our goods were part of a larger container we paid our part and moved on.  Belize has so few sources of income, they view expats as a rich well and draw as much as they can from it. 

Two of our friends have just found that the customs well has just gotten more greedy.  One person had several items shipped in with an invoice value of approximately $300 US.  Customs reviewed the order and charged over $1400 BZ. Part of that was a fee of approx. $400 as a punishment for not purchasing in Belize.  The fact that the items aren't produced or available in Belize had no bearing.  

Another acquaintance bro't in a container of used furniture and an old truck.  He'd paid $2,000 for the truck.  Customs assessed a duty of $6,000 on the truck.  He is being charged $12,000 duty on the shipment and $200/day storage at the port, even tho' the original agreement was to have the container bro't to San Ignacio accompanied by a Customs officer and opened here.  We seem to have almost no control on anything, least of all our checkbooks.  In an earlier discussion with a person in the Customs office, it was confirmed that there is an approved list of what charges should be, but it was admitted that we're at the whims of the particular officer on duty. 

The inconsistencies seem to prove that "Gringo's" are only viewed as a source of income, both for the Customs agency and/or the officer himself.  

My recommendation is to keep importation to a minimum and buy local furnishings.  

Ir's also been suggested to me that you get a more reasonable treatment at the southern port of Big Creek. 

Disclaimer - I have to admit that I didn't see the paperwork on the container brought in, but am going on what was described to me by another party.

Trip to Oregon

We need to return to Oregon once a year for Art's checkups with the VA.  The trips are a little expensive, but the care he's received from the Bend VA has been incredible.  We don't want to turn our backs on their continued attention.  

Last year my computer screen was damaged during the flight and I lost a strip on the left.  I learned to live with it, but was frustrating.  This year, when I got to our son's house, I turned it on and the screen looked like it was bleeding from the top and the bottom.  Then everything went haywire and I got fatal messages.  The end result was, it was fried.  I bo't a reconditioned HP and had them download my data.  The fellow told me there wasn't much to do since I didn't have any pictures!!!   WHAT?  I had files of photos.  He connected the hard drive to my new computer and he was right.  When it crashed it took all my photos with it.  Pooh!  It was too expensive for me to have him dig deeper into the hard drive to see if he could salvage some or all of them, so, with tears, I let them go.  Luckily, I have a lot of photos on my camera, but I know I've lost a lot.  The stupid thing is that I have a backup drive and I failed to back up before we left.  My fault.  

One of our big concerns is leaving our three dogs here.  We're lucky to have Rene, who works for us a couple of days a week, and he will stay here at night while we're gone, to take care of the dogs and watch our place.  I made up 10 gallon zip bags of dog food for the freezer and bo't sacks of dry dog food for the pups and Bailey.  I still call the Setters pups, even tho' they're now 1 1/2 years old.  Shannon is so small and thin that I want to give her every advantage that I can.  I know that Rene is fairly attentive to the dogs, but it's not the same as our care.  It was upsetting when we came home to find that Shannon ran from us and then was nearly catatonic.  Rusty was excited to see us and, of course, our Bailey was just fine.  We tried to bring Shannon out of her mood with lots of love and reassurance, but for two days we had almost no response.  She would finally eat if I held the food right under her nose.  I supplemented their food with a bowl of milk to give her a little boost.  Rusty had also lost weight.  I researched online about separation anxiety and realized that that wasn't our problem.  I then checked out depression and bingo.  She had all the symptoms.  One article said to NOT give her extra attention that seemed as tho' we were rewarding her behavior.   She would follow me around, looking at me with intense, searching eyes.  It nearly broke my heart.  She didn't want to go off the veranda, but would lie down on or near my feet.  Finally on the third day, I was treating her as tho' nothing was wrong and she started to respond.  We were so excited to see her go down to chase the doves and play with Rusty.  What a relief.  Now if we can just put some weight on her.  She's actually built just like her mother, so we try not to worry too much.  

Our dogs have been such a blessing, offering unconditional love and protection here on our hill.   

Dog health problems

Bringing dogs to Belize is a decision to not make lightly, especially if one is an Akita.  Our sweet Bailey has had to go thru some real adjustments to survive here.  The obvious issue is one of big bugs and snakes.  This hasn't been a problem for us because we've cleared a large area of our acreage, which discourages snakes and the tarantulas are so shy, they remain hidden most of the day.  We expected Bailey to shed most of his extremely heavy undercoat when the hot, dry season approached.  Actually, the reverse seems to have happened.  He will shed as the heat starts and then his coat thickens up again.  As I've probably already posted, this seems to be much like the Arabs in the desert with their heavy wool wraps.  This may serve as an insulation.  Not sure because, at 10 years of age, Bailey is becoming much more lethargic.  I can't really belittle him, as I'm the same way.  We both get more tired and lazy all the time.

Fleas.  I've tried several different products for fleas on all three dogs.  Bailey doesn't seem to have much of a problem, maybe because they have trouble finding his skin.  They have imported a couple of new products, one call Spot shot (or something like that), which is worthless, and Barricade, which is supposed to be like Frontline, but also didn't work. We're now back to Frontline, which is a little expensive, with three dogs, but it isn't fair to them if it doesn't work.  The poor pups (Irish Setter, littermates) have been plagued with fleas.  They have no undercoat and long fine hair and I can see fleas having a field day, running around their stomachs.  I've tried all the above products, as well as giving them a bath with a strong flea soap, leaving a little residue to continue the fight.  Lasted about 4 days.  Whoop-dee-do.  We've sprayed under the house, but it's difficult to spray the whole acre fenced area.

Shannon, at 44 lbs is much smaller than her brother, but she is so energetic, that she burns off everything she eats, right away.  Rusty, at 65 lbs is much more laid back.  I worry about him as he seems to favor his right shoulder.  I think it's because he's still so young, but heavy and his legs are really long and thin.  Too much weight, too soon.   Both pups seem healthy and happy, so will just keep doing what we're doing, for now.

My big worry is still Bailey.  At 135 lbs and 10 years old, he's allowed to have some little problems.  We got him from the Humane Society in Bend, Oregon 5 years ago.  Shortly before we moved here he had a seizure, which was of short duration, but really scared us.  The vet there tho't it wasn't something to worry about, unless they continued.  After we moved here to the farm, he had another seizure.   I researched and found that a couple of preservatives that were in the dog food we were feeding were known to cause seizures.  We changed from Pedigree to  Alican,which is a Central American food and he's done really well until this week.  I was ready to holler at him as he was bumping into my printer table, when I look down and saw that he was seizing.  We talked to him and gave him loving and he slowly recovered.  Later in the day he seized again.  This has us concerned, but he seemed totally recovered the next day.  I know that there is anti-seizure medicine, but I hate to medicate him when he goes years without a problem.  The vets are unsure and say it could be canine epilepsy, but maybe not.  It's now been a couple of months since I started this posting and Bailey is doing well and seizure free, again. 

US tourists

Yesterday was Art's birthday, so today we decided to go to town and have an early dinner.  It's so hot right now that it was great to get into our air conditioned truck and just do something!  I have to say that the observation I'm about to make has been bothering me for quite some time.   We headed for one of our favorite places, Ko Ox Han Ah (Known to all of us as Hannah's).  There was a large group of young folks there who appeared to be either American or Canadian.  Altho' we were all there for some time and they all had to pass us as they left, not a one made eye contact or offered a smile.
 
I realize that we're both much older than most of the folks that we meet, so probably aren't on many folks' radar, but as we see Belizeans, we exchange smiles and usually some form of hello.  Over and over I find that when walking near U. S. tourists of almost any age, they look past or thru us and walk on.  I don't want anything from any of them, but this lack of friendliness and courtesy makes me sad.  I would love to be of help if needed, but feel that as "old" folks we're totally disregarded.  

I know I keep repeating this, but if we do sell here, I will truly miss the courtesy, kindness and genuine smiles of Belizeans.  So many want to be like Americans, but I pray that our lack of courtesy doesn't rub off on them.  
Blessings,

No sale, darn!

We're let down, but are pulling up our socks and continuing on.  We've been in negotiations with some folks who seemed a perfect fit for the farm.  With our one bedroom/one bath in the house, two bedrooms/one bath in the guest house and then the unfinished Mennonite house at the entrance and leaving the property turn key, we were excited about the prospect of going back to Oregon and spending time with family.  In the end, we couldn't agree on terms, so are starting over.  I'm sorry for them as they seem to think that building is going to be a breeze.  After all we've been thru and the ugly stories others have related, I can assure them it's not, but to each his own.  Anyway, we're still here, enjoying the beauty and comfort on our hill.  

Improved road

Nothing much going on right now at the farm.  Weather is great.  Cloudy, occasional light, very short rain.  This is a prelude to the hot, dry season ahead.  Just wanted to post a photo of a piece of the road improvement.  Doesn't look spectacular, unless you've spent time in Belize and have driven some of our roads.  Folks are calling it our "highway."  Wish all the roads were this solid.

You can see the improvements at the top.  The road is about 1/4 mile and took a lot of gravel and work.  We're just enjoying being able to go up and down with relative ease. 

Road, again!

The road up our hill has been a problem for several years, but this rainy season was the final straw.  We found ourselves virtually trapped up here and when we did go down, the huge ruts along with the mountain of black muck the was pushed up in the middle, were destroying the bottom of our truck.  We quit trying to use the old Trooper as the 4 wheel drive went out on it.  We've tried to keep our Toyota truck from becoming a "Belize" truck, but the elements seem to be winning.  We were able to get up and down most of the time, but no one else could or would even attempt it.  We finally cried "uncle" and decided it was cheaper to fix the road than repair the truck

We attempted to contact Victor, who put in the top part of our road when we built.  It turned out that he was spending the rainy season in California, so we contacted Henry, who was doing work for several friends and he agreed to help us.  Normally, it's best to wait until things dry out before attempting to repair a road, but our dilemma  needed drastic attention. 

It's extremely frustrating that there are other families on this road, but no one will contribute, but they keep trying to drive in the goo and succeed in making it totally impassable.  A neighbor has sold a lot and contracted to build an upscale house on it, but has been waiting for dry weather to do anything about the mess.  Her crew just spin their wheels and dig huge trenches.  Ok, ENOUGH!  I know that the neighborhood will think that we're rich Americans because we are spending to get this fixed, but that has to be their problem.  Little do they know that this is the last of our little fund.  Priorities.

Henry decided to put some material he's digging from a hill in Santa Elena.  It's huge rocks with a minimum of dirt.  He's using a backhoe to dig out the black goo and dumping the rock on the road.  It's not pretty like some folks like, where they put down white rocks that look nice, but when the rains hit, they become buried in the mud.  We were impressed by his diligence by using the backhoe, instead of a grader, he was able to continually pile the rocks on the roadbed, rather than having them pushed to the side with a grader.  

After he had dumped 4 loads of rock and leveled it out, I had an irate call from the woman at the bottom of the hill.  Her boys had buried the front end of her big Ford diesel truck in the new road.  She was adamant that everything we did was horrible.  I finally went down in the pickup and saw what had happened.  These young fellows don't have a clue how to drive and he'd tried to drive thru a pile of the black goo and had buried the front end with the back up in the air.  I had a tow chain and pulled him out, telling him that he's much better off sticking to the new rock.  Duh!  A couple of days later I got a call from her, thanking me for pulling them out and telling me that the new road was looking great.  Wow!

Anyway, Henry took about a week to slowly dump 14 loads of rock at 14 years per load.  We had to call a halt to the work as the funds were running out, but boy did we get a lot for our money.  He had to put most of the work at the bottom of the hill, but was able to address the couple of muddy spots up closer to the farm.  Hopefully, before the next rainy season we can get Henry back up to do a little more work, but we now have one of the best local roads in the country.  Anyone should be able to get up without four-wheel drive and Henry was able to bring up a full load of chippings which we'll use to build walkable paths around the house.  

It doesn't seem right that this track up to our place is a 60' government road, but they don't do anything, even to the main roads.  It's all political here.  When an election is coming, they tell the folks that they'll fix the roads if they win.  Hah!  Then nothing substantial happens.  They might bring a grader in and then drop a few loads of marl on the road, but the first rain brings back all the potholes.  Our road, with it's solid base of large rocks, should stay passable during the worst of the rains. 

Not much happening at the farm

I've been pretty quiet for a couple of reasons.  The first is that we've had rain almost constantly for over three months.  Coupled with unusually cold temperatures has made it really miserable.  Every year since we moved here, when the cool weather hits, I dig our warmer clothes out of the suitcase where they reside, under our bed most of the year.  We'd wear them for a few days and then I had to wash and pack them up again.  WELL, this year I've been wearing fleece vests and a jacket and a neck scarf for nearly three months.  When it rains here it doesn't usually mess around, It rains a lot and the ground literally gets like a sponge.  We step outside and the mush comes up to our ankles.  Once again, our road is a slippery, slide of  black goo.  It seems there's little we can do except read and pray that it lets up soon.

The second reason is that I've been under the weather with a really sore back and neck.  I had numb fingers and generally felt crumby.  What else to do when stuck up here but look on the internet for a diagnosis.  Dumb!  I really scared myself with everything from heart trouble to MS.  I've been so healthy all of my life, so had difficulty fathoming being ill.  I finally got my self to the Dr. and found that I'm so very lucky to be my age and have a very strong heart and lungs.  It's just an accumulation of not enough exercise and taking care of myself.  I went to a massage therapist who helped some, but then my sciatic acted up.  This has been a very painful, relentless problem, but I have been so lucky to find the most wonderful lady in Benque who does chiropractic massage.  Wow, what a blessing.  She trained as a chiropractor in Guatemala and has certificates in several different techniques as well. I have to thank dear Dona Alicia for relieving my sciatic distress and helping me to walk comfortably again. 

Happy Holidays in Belize

This is the time of the year that I miss the US.  Living in the northwest, we often had snow for Christmas.  For the last ten years we lived in our beautiful log home in the mountains.  Art, as a professional Santa, would be gone from before Thanksgiving until the day after Christmas.  He'd try to leave Christmas morning to get home the next day.  It was about and 18 hour drive from Santa Monica to Central Oregon.  Anyway, I had a lovely time decorating our home both inside and outside.  I love the lights. 

When we came to Belize, we realized that, living off-grid, electricity would be at a premium, so we left all our decorations in storage at our son's house.  Oh how I miss them - the decorations and the family.  Christmas here is almost a non-event.  I guess in town some folks decorate, but here in the village and out where we are, it's just the same as every other day.  I know within their homes they make their special foods (boyos out of pigs heads or chicken with the bones and all.  Sorry, but ick).  Some of the Adventists even work on Christmas day. 

The thing that I find truly confusing and upsetting is that they play extremely loud music that has nothing to do with Christmas and shoot off fireworks for EVERY holiday.  We are so lucky to live a little more remotely so we're not impacted by all the noise.  Our friends, Diane and David haven't been able to sleep for several nights and weren't able to hear the dialogue on their TV during the New Year's programming due to the noise.  They live in the village and are both nervous wrecks right now.  They've lived here for several years, but now regret building near the river with locals around them because of the lack of consideration by the villagers.  This is definitely a recurring theme throughout the country from what I hear. 

Oh well, we're still blessed to have been together, in relatively good health to celebrate Christmas with friends and to face another new year.  I pray it's a wonderful year for all of us.  Blessings

Bailey's escape

Since we're not doing any building, our lives seem to center on the weather and our road, and the dogs.  With two growing pups it's easy to overlook some of Bailey's signals.  Being an Akita, he's quiet, but extremely opinionated.  We were disappointed, but not surprised that he hasn't been thrilled with the addition of two energetic pups to the family.  He's never aggressive with them, but doesn't tolerate their attentions. 

When we came to Belize, over four years ago, we drove from Oregon to Bullet Tree in our Toyota Tundra.  Bailey was in heaven and loved every minute of the trip.  We bo't this truck specifically so he'd have a comfortable ride.  Now, four years later, we rarely have occasion to take any of the dogs in the truck.  Well, Bailey never forgets and boy did he make it plain.  All of the dogs needed their rabies shots and a general checkup, so we started by loading the pups in the truck and taking them to see Dr. Isabelle and her wonderful interns.  They're so caring and thorough.  Afterwards we stopped to see Peggy at her restaurant and the pups layed down next to us just to show that Irish Setters can have manners.  The next day we loaded Bailey in and repeated our trip.  It's always interesting to see the affect our 135# boy has on others.  He's so quiet, but huge. 

OK, so we've done our best to make things equal, right?  Wrong.  We put the fence collars on the pups first thing each day, but Bailey rarely goes off the veranda unless we take him down with a leash for a walk so we don't usually put the collar on him.  A couple of days after our vet trip, Bailey wandered down off the veranda,  stopped by the truck, looked up at us and calmly walked up the driveway, thru the gate and headed down the road.  It was so obvious that he was mad at us about letting the pups in HIS truck.  If he could talk in human words, he'd have been swearing big time.  Art headed after him, calling his name and I tried to head him off.  Two points.  1 - When he doesn't want to come, Bailey is deaf and just keeps going.  2- Art and I are neither young or very athletic, so our dashing is more of a pathetic toddle, so we didn't stand a chance of catching him.  He veered off down a track thru a neighboring plot.  I went back and got the old Trooper and followed him, worried both about him and Art's stamina. 

Our property is surrounded by bush and this area is owned by a man from El Salvador who doesn't speak English and we don't speak Spanish.  There had also been some problem between this fellow and another neighbor over land rights, so I was intimidated when he approached the Trooper with his machete.  I did my best to try to indicate that we were just trying to find our dog.  Thankfully, just then, Art came out of the bush and Bailey appeared several feet away.  I hoped that this gentleman got the picture.  Darn Bailey, he just looked over his shoulder at us and went back into the bush.   Besides all the critters that are in the bush who can do you harm, Bailey had on his regular collar, which can catch on every vine and bush.  We were so upset, but had no choice but to return home and hope that he'd find his way back.  It was getting dark, so I made food noises (dropping kibble into his metal dish) and eventually he strolled back in and came up the stairs.  I guess he showed us. 

Now, if he's near the truck and the pups come close, he sits by the door, as if to say, it's mine and you're not going.