The People of Belize

One cool thing about our trip to Belize was getting to meet people from all over the world and finding out how they ended up in Belize.

We met two girls in their early twenties who were from Denmark. The pair had been best friends their whole life and after vacationing several times on the island, they decided to apply for work visas. They now work for a new resort on the north side of the island. They currently spend their days riding around on a golf cart (everyone uses golf carts or bikes for transportation) trying to persuade tourists to come and check out their resort. They offered Casey and me a free excursion and a seven night stay to take a boat to their place and listen to a 90 minute presentation on the resort. It sounded too good to be true, so we opted not to go. Later in the week, we spotted the girls out on the town trying to entice another group to come to their resort – that group seemed hesitant as well.

Another interesting pair was two Lebanese teenagers who ran a convenience store on the island. The boy was not thrilled about living in Belize. Although, he seemed to be having a pretty good time haggling with the tourists and singing the praises of his Snickers ice cream bars. He said that his family had moved to Belize just before his 15th birthday. When we asked how old he was now, he said he’d be 16 at the next full moon. I thought that was an interesting way of keeping track of age. His sister sat quietly in a chair behind him, her head was tightly covered and she wore a long-sleeved black dress over pants. She looked like she wanted to join in our conversation but didn’t know if it was proper for her to speak up.

Next, we met a British couple vacationing at our resort. They were in their mid-thirties and didn’t appear to be married. They went on one of our snorkeling trips and the woman got back in the boat quickly when we were swimming with the sharks and the stingrays. The British are surrounded by a lot more water than Oklahomans – I think I should’ve been the one jumping back in the boat quickly. :)

After eating the tempura fried fish in our resort’s restaurant, I told Casey that it tasted Japanese. Sure enough, the head chef at the Victoria House is from Japan. We met him one evening after his cooking duties were finished. Judging by his boyish looks, I though he was around 20, but it turned out he’s 32. I had the opportunity to “impress” him with my few Japanese phrases. I think the speed at which I blurted out my phrases may have deceived him into thinking I was more proficient in the language than I actually am – the next night he greeted me with “Konbanwa.” I recognized the words but wasn’t sure what an appropriate response would be so I just said “Hello.” That probably threw all thoughts of my fluency out of his mind. Our Japanese chef moved to the island 7 months ago with his wife and two year old son. I asked how his wife was adjusting to the island, and he said she was already bored. He said she hasn’t made any friends yet and only speaks a little English. When he told me that, I wished somehow I could reach out to her. But, we were only there another night and my limited Japanese (“Nice weather we’re having.” “Where is the train station?”) probably wouldn’t have alleviated her loneliness much. Hopefully, the Lord will bring her a friend soon.

At the one room San Pedro airport, I met an air conditioner repair man from Scotland. The man was in his fifties and wore a light blue short-sleeved workshirt and navy blue pants. After recognizing his accent, I asked how he ended up in Belize. He told me of his days in the British Army traveling the world. Since Belize was a British colony until 1981, he had served several tours of duty there over the years. When his time with the army was up, he decided to relocate to Belize. Growing up in Scotland, the former military man had played lots of rugby which had done a number on his joints. He told me that the warmth of Belize was much easier on his aching body than the frigidness of Scotland. I asked him if he ever missed Scotland but he said after serving in the army for so many years and traveling the world, he no longer felt like he could relate to the people of his small fishing village back home. He hasn’t been back to Scotland in nearly ten years. Something about meeting a Scotsman on a tiny island in the Gulf of Mexico made me a little sad.

Of course we got to know some of the native Belizeans too. People like Ezekiel, the security guard at our resort, who spoke in a gentle voice as he apologized for what he felt were mediocre English speaking skills. Ezekiel is a soft-spoken man in his early forties. He speaks three languages – Mayan, Spanish and English. Mayan is his first language, and he only recently learned to speak English when he came to the island. He has four children ranging from 5 to 17. His wife works as a maid on the island. Ezekiel used to play in a Christian music group that traveled to impoverished villages in Guatemala to spread the gospel. He told us that even though sometimes it’s a struggle for his family to get by, he always remembers the poor and sick that he encountered in Guatemala, and is thankful for what he has. He hopes to save enough money in a few years to pay for his home and return to mission work.

See below to read a little bit about the rest of our trip to Belize and to see some pictures.