Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Oct 8, 1999 A Place to Live, Hooray!My househunting efforts have been successful and I will be moving into an apartment in the next few days! I'm a little apprehensive, it's been cozy and safe and quiet at Pelican, but I think the timing is about right. I know how to buy groceries and water and spatulas. And I'm desperate for more vegetables in my diet than I can easily get out of the kitchen here. But 90% of the people I know are Pelican staff. And it has been delicious being the privileged guest, almost the "pet" guest. "Good Morning, Miss Paget, we have baked flour tortillas for breakfast, just the way you like them." "Good Afternoon, Miss Paget, did you find a house today? Did you look again at the house of Ernest's uncle? It's very convenient, you know." "Good Evening, Miss Paget, will you be walking on the dock before dinner or would you like to eat now?" "Hello, Miss Paget, would you like to join Miss Alice on the verandah for a beer?" And knowing the names of (almost) everyone and (surely) being admired and envied by the other guests. A very civilized (I actually should say civilised) interlude. But on to the new. My apartment is the second story of a fairly new building. In the downstairs is the office of the only lawyer in town, Antoinette Moore (Lawyer Moore). The building is at one end of the main commercial street, Commerce Street, and is owned by an older gentleman named Claudio Serano, who lives in the building next door. The rent is BZ $350/month (US $175), probably a little higher than it would be for a Belizean, or more likely a Garifuna. But Lawyer Moore says he's an excellent landlord. It has two very small bedrooms and a living room, bath and kitchen. AND a tiny little balcony that looks out over the street. Maybe big enough for a short hammock or two chairs. And the balcony has a view of the ocean. Not a very expansive view, but enough to rest your eyes. There's also a closet. A closet is pretty unusual in houses here and the fact that there is one seems to be an indication that Mr. Serano anticipated occasionally renting to outsiders. Actually some of the places I looked at had big, semi-built-in wardrobes, part of the British heritage I presume. The apartment is about 300 sq. ft, maybe a bit more. The floors are very smoothly finished concrete, there are screens on ALL the windows and a security gate on the door. There is a kitchen sink in a cupboard unit and a cupboard in the bathroom, which also has a shower, sink and toilet. Just about perfect. As expected, there is no stove, refrigerator, curtains, or hot water. I will probably buy a two-burner counter-top stove and use an ice chest for cooling. At least for a while. I haven't figured out how to get ice yet, although my best source of advice at Pelican--the night manager and desk clerk, Alton--says that people sell it out of their homes (?!) for a "shilling" a bag. (A shilling is 25 cents Belize, 12.5 cents US. It will also buy 2 little bananas.) He advises that I will need about 4 bags a day and that I should not use the ice from the ice factory because that is for the fishermen to use to ice down the catch. I think this means that it might not be consumable, but it could mean that I'm not allowed to buy it. Maybe it's a co-op or something. Many things are a puzzlement. And as of mid-afternoon they haven't turned on the electricity even though it was promised for this morning. The national electrical utility is in the process of being privatized and a strike is threatened but like a good, selfish American, I have been hoping it doesn't happen until after I have been taken care. But then Jobe told me that if there is a strike, there might not be any electricity at all. I guess if the electricity stays on, we're fine, but if we have an outage, there's no one to fix it. Middle management is said to be not worth much, but has been guaranteed a good deal in the transition and the worker bees have not. Thus, the strike discussions, not quite a "threat" yet. But I gather there's no such thing as a "strike vote," or it's already been taken. News is hard for me to decipher sometimes. Jobe also ventured the opinion that it was a shame Belize didn't deal with such crises as some of our neighbors do, -- have the military take care of things while the workers were out. I allowed as how this absolutely negated the value of the right to strike. Jobe seemed dubious. We may or may not continue this conversation this evening. This will be all for a few days. Columbus Day is a big holiday
here so the office will not be open and I will be busy scrubbing
and settling in and getting to know my neighbors and so forth.
I already know that I will be watching television with one of
them whether I want to or not. But if I choose the other bedroom
and keep the shutters closed on that side, it might not be too
bad. Stay well. |
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