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 - More 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		Oct 1, 1999 Housing Styles and Security A few of you have expressed some interest in the security measures that are in place here, presumably because of my mention both of the issue of security bars on houses and the night security man at Pelican Beach . For Dangriga in general, it appears that neighbors look out for each other and it is desirable to be in a neighborhood, just like in the US, where at least one person in the immediate area is home all day. But also, because the houses have no windows, just rotating shutter panels and sometimes screens, it's entirely easy to get in. So most people who have anything at all to steal put up cast-iron security bars. Some of them look like old-west hoosegow bars, but many are fancy and are painted in colors to match the trim of the house. The houses themselves are either wooden or cement, often raised up on legs about 3/4 of a story with the laundry, lounging, beer-drinking and chicken-raising section open to the air underneath the sleeping and living area. Usually the bars are on the windows only and the door itself is a locking wooden door. Often the doors have bars also that are swung and locked into place when no one is home (or at the office or store or whatever). The doors are more likely to have bars if they are on the ground floor -- the modern building style. It is logical to assume that anyone who has built living space on the ground floor of a cement building, which absorbs heat all day and holds it all night also has provided an air conditioner, but, alas, this is not always true. As to the night security man at Pelican Beach, he is really the negotiator for the pack of security dogs, an Irish setter, three weimaraners, 2 black Labs and a mongrel -- all of them noisy, territorial and intact males -- and one sweet female Lab. They work all night, roaming the grounds from 9:00 pm or so to about 6:30 in the morning, then have their morning swim and supper and are shut up for the day. Their names as far as I can tell are Yellow (the setter!?), Blackie (the female) and Hey!, Hi!, Wha! Hyut! etc -- other plosives that they seem to answer to individually. But maybe not. Additional information about security measures etc. later. Next