Paget's Belize Journal

The Preliminary Trip - It Begins - First days - A tourist trip - Flying, sand crabs - San Pedro 1 - San Pedro 2 - Braids, snakes, dogs - Leaving Dangriga The Actual Stay - Help for library - Books; departure - Arrival; weather - Sensations, housing - Security, more housing - Security, snorkeling - Dock activities - Day-to-day life 1 - Day-to-day life 2 - The Quadrille - The apartment! - Cleaning and culture - Hurricane Irene - Too much reality - Hopkins Village 1 - Hopkins Village 2 - Weather - Minimum wage - Transportation - Food Experiments - The Brits; furniture - Meeting and greeting - Night noise, Settlement Day - Dragonflies! - More noise - A good 19th - Wrapping up the 19th - Traveling to Mexico - Thanksgiving in Mexico - Cockscomb Basin - A Belizean week-end - Tobacco Caye - Is it really Christmas? - This is the life - Christmas wishes - Headwear - Christmas Experiences - Lottery - Caye Caulker haircut - Caye Caulker 2 - Geckos - Red Bank - The last few days		Jun 21, 1999 Braids, Snakes and Dogs Good morning, Well, I'm not sure the Caribbean braids are an unqualified success. They're certainly cooler, but I have to be very careful and wear my hat all the time in order not to get a checkered sunburn on my scalp. Tony and Therese's 5-year-old daughter said my hair looked beautiful, but the staff comments went ­ something, something "many plat" something, something "young gel" (this is in Creole which has just enough recognizable words that you can't ignore it altogether). I doubt if this means the hairdo made me a perfect 10. I'm starting to pack up and organize for my departure to Belize City tomorrow (Tuesday) and then the trip home Wednesday. My biggest problem is trying to figure out how to tip. There are dozens of staff people at the resort and you don't tip meal-by-meal if you are a resort resident. So ­ I guess it's leave an envelope for the dining room kitchen staff and for the housekeeping staff, but then what about the security, grounds and maintenance folks who are so entertaining in the early morning (I'm getting up at 6:00, don't know why)? An example or two: -- last Thursday Obedio, a Honduran who does most of the raking and disposal of coconut shells and so forth paced around in a semiagitated state until Jobe, the head of daytime security, arrived. He had found a "combola" in the tree. This turns out to be a smallish boa constrictor, but tough. They got it out of the tree with a stick, then Jobe took off his shirt and carried it around for all to admire. A fine figure of a man and a fine figure of a snake ­ I've got pictures. Saturday night there were there were few guests, so Sunday morning the night security dog pack got to have a swim and stay up "late," i.e., not be put back in the cage until after 7:00 am. And boy, were they delighted to see me when I came down for coffee. So delighted that they played a show-off game tossing around a baby bird they had found on the ground and crunching it up and nuzzling me with bloody muzzles. The staff found this hilarious. And I wasn't really upset as I would have been if a dog from my neighborhood had done something similar (or my grand-dog LeGuin, who never would). In some ways, it's good that I can adjust to different circumstances, different realities and different cultural values I guess. I mean, that *is* a major point in this adventure. But it's also disturbing to think that I might just as easily become indifferent to things that are now important to me-an erosion of values. Well, it's something to guard against. Time for me to get back to work. Tony wants me to look at and revise a press release about a small business merger they're involved in. Now writing speeches is my least favorite thing to do, and press releases are a close second. But hey, gotta re-pay my trip to San Pedro somehow. Final installment tomorrow if I get a chance. If not, a wrap up when I get back. Next