Viking Funeral for a beloved husband on Caye Caulker from Minnesota
Mood:  crushed out
Now Playing: flutes playing Scottish funeral laments accompany Michael to his watery grave on the reef.
Topic: funeral service on Caye
We had to make a quick trip to Caye Caulker, Belize for to arrange for a funeral of Michael Femrite, husband of my daughter Diane Auxillou on the island. Michael had a restaurant for a few years and had been an aeronautical engineer in the states, but wanted out of the rat race. He spent 6 years on the island of Caye Caulker and died as a result of a freak kite surfing accident at his beach shack windsurf rental business. The story of his six years on Caye Caulker and his VIKING MEMORIAL SERVICE by the locals out on the Barrier Reef itself with a sailboat parade is here on this website.

https://falconview0.tripod.com/michaelfemritememorial

Life in Belize by a US retiree.
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: A typical story of Belize time, versus USA time frames.
Topic: Belize time is different
Rick is a US retiree from Colorado living in Corozal town on the Mexican border of Belize with his Social Security fixed income. He has fun! It's all in the attitude.
-----------------------------------------

A SLICE OF LIFE IN THE TROPICS of Northern Belize. -- Rick Zahniser, 24 May, 2005

Yesterday was an interesting day for me

First, a little scene setting. The Corozal School District decided,
about two weeks ago, that they would have a "Festival of Arts and
Music"
and began planning ahead. They decided to have it on Commonwealth Day
(May 23 -- yesterday) and started planning. They had a few meetings,
and
Brad Moore, my erstwhile sideman and teaching colleague, now in charge
of music at CCC (Corozal Community College) asked me to be a judge.
They had a judges meeting Friday, but forget to tell the judges (except
for me) and I was rehearsing, so I missed it. Brad said it was pretty
boring.

I already had some other things planned. for Monday. It is laundry
day,
and I did my customary two loads, hung up the dark load, and then
forgot
about the white load until it sat in the machine for three or four
hours. I hung it up, and brought in the dark load, which was already
dry. (It was a HOT HOT day.) Our praise/jazz musical group (which you
can see at http://belizenorth.com/levites.htm) was scheduled to
practice
at 3PM. I figured I'd quit early. However, they didn't show up until
a
little after 4, and the drums needed to be assembled because we used
them at a church the night before, so we really didn't get started
playing until almost 4:30. (This is pretty typical in Belize. Time is
just not as important here as it is in some other places.) So, after
one piece, I had to stop and take a shower and get dressed to be a
judge. As soon as I got in the shower I discovered a million ants
coming into the bathroom thru the hole in the wall where the right
faucet comes in. I got some bug spray and stemmed the tide of ants
long
enuf to take my shower. Ed (our sax man) said "That means it's going
to
rain, hard" and I realized that all of the little workers had been
carrying eggs, a sure sign of impending deluge. (They bring them in,
and try to place them up high in your house -- kinda hard, since I have
a cement roof/ceiling, but they are relentless.)

I was late getting to the show, but it didn't start until 5:30.(30
minutes late) There were 12 women judges and me. Most of them were
judging drama and dance, and Gail, a young Garifuna lady, and I were
judging the musical items. The stage was gaily decorated with spinners
and fake flowers, and the backdrop announced the festival in foot-high
gold letters -- perhaps the only billing that it got! In spite of the
lack of advanced billing, there were about 400 folks, mostly parents
and
friends, waiting to watch the show. We sang the national anthem, and a
pastor prayed, and the show was on.

The dancers were mostly outfitted in Kriol Outfits, gaily flowered, and
they were wonderful. One couple were dressed as Matador and Do?a, and
were superb (they ultimately won a Gold.) The skits were, as usual, in
Kriol, because that's what the kids speak everyday, but I noticed that
I
could understand a lot more of it than I could when I was teaching at
CCC in 2000-2001. The music was "pretty OK" but I had judging sheets
which let me assign points for the various aspects of the performance
and the judging was straight forward. After the show, the MC took me
to task for giving a Silver (instead of Gold) to a young man whom he
said "Won two Karaokes." Tonight I will explain the judging sheets to
him and point out that there are two judges, and we simply assign
points
to each performer.

About an hour into the show, it started to rain. Now the CCC
auditorium
is targeted as a Hurricane Shelter, but they have never put sides on
it!
So it is a 400 x 400 steel framework, with a 20 foot Zinc (tin)
ceiling,
and a cafeteria and storage along the right side. The wind was blowing
from the open left side, and people began to move their chairs in
toward
the cafeteria. Brad moved the left-hand PA speaker, which was getting
soaked. Eventually we moved the judges' tables to the right, The
stage
was wet, which affected the blocking. The rain turned into a typical
"Torrential Rain," pounding the tin roof so that we could hardly talk
to
each other, much less hear the performers. Brad turned up the sound
and
we continued until about 7:30 PM when we turned in our judging sheets,
and they figured the winners for the night. Occasionally, these
torrential rains turn the area surrounding the auditorium into a lake,
but this is the first real rain we have had in six months, and the dry
earth soaked it up.

In the course of the performance, the lights went out a couple of times
-- each a frightening episode with gasps and screams -- but they came
back on right away.

I had left Los Levites to lock up my place, and I came home to find all
my louvers shut up tight, and Ernie (the killer kitty) safe inside.
Thank goodness they were there to close the place up -- otherwise
everything would have been soaked. As was my load of laundry -- still
on the line. Five minutes after I got home, the power went off, and
stayed off for about an hour and a half. I went to bed and woke up
about one-thirty in the morning. Wide awake and hungry, I checked my
e-mail, had a "smoothie" -- made with frozen papaya chunks and fresh
milk -- and Ernie and I went back to bed.

This morning, I brought in my whites, spun them dry, and hung them out
in the bright bright day, which promises to be hot, hot, hot.

There will be two more nights of judging, and I hope that it won't
rain. But I can only count on one thing. They will start late.

Senor Reek
Looking forward to two more nights of "El Maestro de la Musica en
Corozal."
Copyright, Sr_ric, 2005. All rights reserved.
Permission granted by e-mail, May 2005.

Escape the rat race and move to Belize!
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Another fed up gringo contemplates moving to Belize for peace and fun.
Topic: Where to find sanity !

Taken from the Belize Culture Listserve May 15, 2005
------------------------------


Herndon, Va.: Okay, that's it, I give up. I've gotten so depressed lately from reading the paper and listening to the news that I'm ready to
leave, to move. I'm young (mid-20s), a female and liberal, so I thought of Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland - but they're so cold. You guys travel a lot. Any
suggestions for where I should be looking relocating to? Thanks!

KC Summers: Hmm, how about Belize? There's a great expat community down there (mostly Brits and Americans) of folks who can't take it here for one
reason or another. They certainly seem happy -- and with fabulous warm weather, great water sports and a lively bar scene, what's not to like?
It's changing fast though, as people are discovering it and buying up land and building houses.

How about it clickters -- any other recommendations for poor fed-up Herndon?


2.
Fedup again:: Thanks for the Belize tip. Does no one else have any suggestions? Also, how would I go about planning for something like this?
Would I talk to a travel agent? Or are there people who specialize in this sort of thing? Thanks!;

KC Summers: Wow, you're really serious! Okay, first of all, and this might sound obvious, go for a visit first. You might not even like it!
Second, do some reading. There's a guy named Lan Sluder who knows everything there is to know about Belize and has written a guidebook specifically for
prospective expats -- I forget the title, check Amazon.com. Read and heed, so you know what you're getting into.

No other suggestions for poor Fedup? Cmon folks, she's desperate!

Retiree lives a full life in Corozal, Belize.
Mood:  special
Now Playing: retired Rick from Colorad, plays music and teaches youngsters in his Northern Belize town.
Topic: retirement and music
" Well, the other night I judged a 'battle of the bands' at the Corozal Civic Center, and got a long ovation for my service teaching music at CCC and supporting the young musicians of Corozal. You wouldn't know anything about that, but I have the love and respect of several hundred Corozalenos already."

This is an excerpt on a debate in the Belize Culture Listserve from Rick with another diehard disinformation person for the current ruling PUP controlling government. Rick lives in Corozal in the North of Belize. It is drier up there than where I am in Hillview, Cayo District, with about 60 inches a year in Corozal, the cane farming belt. Rick taught Corozal Community College and is currently teaching music as a sideline and playing in bands as a guitarist. At 69 years old, living off a fixed social security income from Colorado in the USA, I'd say he is living a full life in retirement and having loads of fun. He has a website called Corozal North with lots of information for other would be retirees in Belize.

Wining and Dining competition TASTEFEST at Caye Caulker
Mood:  amorous
Now Playing: The Caye Caulker annual Wining and Dining TASTEFEST competition, In May, 2005
Topic: Tastefest at Caye Caulker
FROM CHANNEL 7 NEWS RELEASE

Caye Caulker's Weekend of Wining and Tasting

In the battle for supremacy between the upscale finesse of San Pedro and the down home charm of Caye Caulker each island has got to carve out its identity niche in its own special way. And that's just what Caye Caulker did this weekend with its first Annual Caye Caulker Cool Art and Tastefest. Our colleague at the San Pedro Sun, Ron Sniffin was there to taste the food and pleasure his eyes on the works.

Ron Sniffin Reporting, [For the San Pedro Sun]
Caye Caulker was the place to be this past weekend where the first annual Caye Caulker Cool Art and Tastefest tantalized your eyes along with your taste buds.

Irene Miller, Marketing Committee
"Everyone here in Caye Caulker is always saying, 'cool, cool, we wanted to do something but we did not want something hot. We wanted to do something that would please people to come. We decided to market Caye Caulker during the slow time. Under the marketing committee of the Caye Caulker Village Council decided that we needed to get some people here. With Mother's Day we thought it would be a good time. We've got 25 entrees and 15 artists. So far it is going really well."

Sally Parr, Tourist, England
"I've only tried the salad so far. It's tough competition basically. It's been hard to decide."

Ron Sniffin,
Have you taken any artwork yet?

Sally Parr,
I've bought a couple of photographs, I will take them home and give as presents. Belizean artwork is very interesting."

Gregory Carresco, Artist, Caye Caulker
"I love art. For me it's been a fun day to see so much art around me. It makes me more inspired to do art. So that's the reason I'm out here today, to get some inspiration."

Tim Stapleton, EAT Desert
"I think it gives you a good chance to get your product out there and tasted by industry. This is a good way to get a business started. Sell quality products and everything that is out there is quality products. Everyone that has participated has made some very nice products."

Amanda Badger, Caye Caulker
"This is the Hibiscus mint tea, which is non alcoholic. This is the pink pussy, the epileptic squid, the passionate iguana and the sunrise seaside."

So in addition to having the opportunity to try a variety of different entrees, salads, deserts and drinks, the customers were the ones who chose which was first in each category.

Alberto Villanueva, Caye Caulker Village Chairman
"What we're doing here is anyone who wants to participate pays a small fee. We have about 25 different entries. So for $5 for each category, you will get a complete meal."

Whitley Aguilar
"I'm eating desert."

Ron Sniffin,
So I hear you are a judge.

Whitley Aguilar,
"Yes."

Ron Sniffin,
Which desert do you like best so far?

Whitley Aguilar,
"Number six."

Ron Sniffin,
Do you like chocolate?

Whitley Aguilar,
"Yes."

Ron Sniffin,
Is that why you like number six?

Whitley Aguilar,
"Yes."

For the San Pedro Sun reporting from Caye Caulker, Ron Sniffin, for 7NEWS.

The Caye Caulker Cool Art and Taste Fest is expected to become a yearly event.