Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Dec 31, 1999 Some Christmas ExperiencesI had quite a nice time over the Christmas holiday even though nothing topped the moon, caye, shrimp and Chardonnay of early in the week. Christmas Eve I went visiting with Therese and the kids to see her sister(fruitcake, cashew wine) and her mother (fruitcake, rum popo a yummy and potentially lethal eggnog) and then to their house to cook a little (get the scotch eggs ready, make the strata). Christmas day I spent with Tony and Therese and the kids. It was pretty typical. We opened presents and had breakfast. Tony and I played with Daniel's new games, the kids built grand, elaborate things out of their new Legos, Therese and I worked a crossword puzzle and cooked. Then we ate and cleaned up and then the day was over. We had turkey and ham, as did everyone who could afford it I gather. This is the only part that's traditional apparently. No one worries much about the side dishes, ours were turkey dressing, broccoli and rolls. Also I made lemon tarts and walnut tarts. I got some nice gifts and some silly ones. A hair barrette with an iguana on it, some body lotion and emery boards (which I had asked Santa for and received, even here in Belize!) and a coconut grater that is really a work of art. Also opened my presents from home, which my sister had cleverly sent along with me. All good and useful here. I was full up with children by the end of the day, however adorable. Three of T & T's and six more neighbors. Surprise! Christmas is noisy here. Children of all ages running around throwing strings of fire-crackers at each other. Big ones. Tony had to forbid them in the yard AND forbid them within 50 feet of his kids under any circumstances. No accidents that I observed, but it's a miracle. Oh, and the statue of Jesus got repaired and replaced in the church yard before Christmas. Not exactly a miracle, but nice. On Sunday, Laura and I went to Mile 25 on the Hummingbird Highway to visit Mike, the transplanted Oregon farmer. He has 40 acres (but no mule) in the rolling foothills of the Maya Mountains. Most of it is planted in citrus and pineapple. 7,000 pineapple plants make a beautiful field and since pineapples throw out 5 runners per plant, next year he's sure he'll have 35,000 pineapple plants. Who am I to have reservations? Much of the agricultural development here is experimental, attempting to find something more lucrative than citrus. Mr. Serano (my landlord) and Victor (Laura the winemaker's significant other), for example, both have farms close to town and are involved in some kind of pepper plant project sponsored by the government. And complain about it mightily because the guaranteed price is not good enough to do more than scrape by and the government takes 12-1/2% for research and evaluation. But I think that's the point of the experimental programs, to see if they pay. Apparently this one doesn't. And, of course, I'm not the one sweating away in the tropical sun planting and hoeing. Mike also has a good-sized truck garden and a variety of other plants and fruit trees plantain, banana, sapodilla, something called a mammi fruit (but I was wrong, no watermelon). He gave us samples of everything even close to ripe. I had fried plantain for breakfast today, prompting Therese to say "Breakfast? Oh, you Americans!" I guess it's a lunch food. Mike lives in a one-room cabin, just two years old, with an outhouse down the hill a ways and the shower under the house, on the ground level (up on stilts, as I described before). The view is magnificent, he got electricity last year and the bot flies are only bad in the heat of the day. It surely is a different way to approach life. Here I thought I was roughing it with no hot water. On Monday I went in to the office for a while and then was rewarded for my dedication. When I came out the "John Canoe" dancers were entertaining for the patrons of the little bar across the street (ABC Cool Spot). There were 3 drummers, 4 or 5 chanters and about 20 dancers. They just took over the street in front of the bar and any cars that came along stopped and the riders got out and watched the show. The dancers are all dressed alike, apparently as an Englishman named John Canoe. White shirt with green, pink or black ribbons criss-crossed like bandoleers, white knee-length shorts with 2" bands of little shells tied on at the knee. Elaborate headgear that in no way resembles a helmet or a tricorn, but who knows what those mad Englishmen wore out in the noonday sun? Most disconcerting, all the dancers wear a mask that is made out of pink mesh with blue eyes and a prissy little mustache. The dancing goes like this. The crowd makes a circle with the drummers/chanters on one side. The dancers line up on the other side of the ring and one-by-one dance into the center and then back to the end of the line. If the Punta was all in the hips, this one is all in the legs. Very, very rapid skittering, jumping movements, making the shell rattles sing but your feet never get far off the ground. This is apparently pretty intense, because the each dancer only lasts about 30 seconds. The very best dancer did some more elaborate steps, I'm pretty sure he was simulating a charge on a horse. For the tourists they have a speaker who explains the action, but for ABC Cool Spot, there wasn't one. A couple of days later, I saw the masks for sale in a shop (BZ$30) and there was also a pink and blond female mask, so I guess I didn't see the whole show. Might happen yet. I understood this was originally a training dance for warriors, but I don't know what the female masks have to do with it. Everyone has been very clear though that there are no female dancers, no matter what kind of mask they're wearing. Well, today is New Year's Eve and we're closing down a little
early. And shutting down the server and everything else except
the security system just in case the coming of the millennium
is a little rough. So I'll talk to you all next century. Stay
safe. |
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