Half-way

The Sunday before last marked the halfway point of our time in Belize. This has triggered a certain amount of reflection on my part, and Amy and I have talked at length about what we've experienced and what we and the boys will take away from our time here.

A toast to the halfway mark!

Over the past five months, we've seen beautiful animals in their natural habitats--spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks, lobsters, octopus, reef fish, toucans, parrots, frigate birds, tree frogs, snakes, lizards, and many, many others. We've all made new friends, with people from all over the world. The boys have adapted to a new school. Liam learned to sail, and Lochlan has become a confident swimmer and snorkeler. We've seen Mayan ruins in Mexico and Guatemala, learned how to drum from a Garifuna man in Punta Gorda, made chocolate with a Mayan farmer, held wild boa constrictors on the beach of a tiny tropical island, and fed jaguars and ocelots their evening meal. Amy started volunteering at a local clinic and has learned to give injections, draw blood, and deliver babies. I've managed to keep my Seattle-based business running from thousands of miles away, and have been fortunate enough to still have time for the occasional day of fun in the sun during the middle of the week.

But there have been many, many challenges. The climate and tropical storms took some getting used  to. The whole process of "getting things done" is radically different here than it is back home. Despite the English-speaking population, there are still communication issues that we deal with regularly. There is way too much drama happening between certain portions of the sizable expat community here in San Pedro. But I think the most persistent and difficult challenge, especially for the boys, is homesickness.

In five months, we will move back to Seattle, return to our old house, and resume our normal lives. Yes, we are having amazing experiences and are very happy with our decision to move here, but we are simultaneously looking forward to returning to our dear friends, wonderful neighbors, fantastic public schools, and Seattle's first-world infrastructure.

However, when we consider what our "normal" Seattle lives consist of, we realized that it won't actually feel that normal, at least not at first. To a surprising degree, we have adapted to the unique climatic and cultural conditions of this tiny Central American nation.

Things that seem normal now:

Golf carts
People drinking beer as they drive their golf carts
People drinking beer (and various other alcoholic drinks) EVERYWHERE
Loads of unsupervised kids
A ubiquitous "go slow, no worries" attitude
Geckos, geckos everywhere
Iguanas staring at us as we work out at the gym
Cockroaches, scorpions, mosquitoes, sand flies
Sand, all over the floor, all the time
Not wearing shoes or socks
Riding our bikes on the beach
Riding bikes without a helmet
Crocodiles in the backyard
Buying our produce off a boat from Spanish speaking Mennonites
Lake-sized puddles in the middle of every dirt road every time it rains
Bats
Lightning bugs
Frigate birds, ospreys, spoonbills, parrots, grackles
Sailing on crystal clear blue water
Sending the kids to the bar to order (non-alcoholic) drinks for themselves, and putting it on our tab
Having a tab at the bar
Soca music blasting everywhere
Parades, for every holiday, or sometimes for no apparent reason at all
Waiting in line for over an hour to deposit money in the bank
Random power outages
Having to visit 4 or more stores to do the week's shopping
The lack of many familiar foods
Very friendly people everywhere
Having to add 15 minutes to every trip outside the house in order to chat with people along the way
Stray dogs
Beautiful sunsets
Hammocks
Belikin (more bottle than beer!)
Sweating
Having our drinking water delivered by a wagon pulled by a tractor
The unique ways people transport themselves, their children, and various large objects

Over the next four months we will have four sets of visitors, and undoubtedly the time will fly by. There are still many places in Belize we want to see, and we are in the early stages of planning a tour through Central America. We are going to make the most of the time we have left.
 
We are surely in for some culture shock when we get back to Seattle, but I'm sure all of us--especially the boys--will adapt to the familiarity of Seattle even more quickly than we've assimilated to the strangeness of Belize.