We were burned out group home parents in Golden, BC. The work
was brutal, 24/7 care of 8 or 10 kids plus our own two who were then age six and seven. Just us, no staff, not even a cleaner
for the first few months. It was fun but exhausting.
Most of the kids were young teens and there were some great personalities
among them.One was a little girl named Valerie who had no family beyond her sisters and an uncle who lived nearby. We would
have liked to adopt her but she decided, after much thought, to stay in Golden. Twenty years later, we heard she was an assistant
bank manager in Ontario. I hope life has turned out well for her. She was a great kid.
Anyway, enough was enough and we decided to "retire". We had saved some money and needed to decide whether to put
a downpayment on a house (but where?) or move to Belize. We moved to Belize.
We bought an elderly Ford Fairline, piled in the kids and our dog, Pica, and set off for Central America.
First, came Disneyland, a fun day but it ended in what we now call "Disneyland Syndrome" when one
of the kids had a meltdown because his last big want, a Mickey Mouse stuffy, wasn't in the budget. He threw the first (and
last) big fit of his life right there in the gift shop as we exited. All his fits, since, have been no match for that doozy.
Next, came Mexico, which we loved. We still talk about Mexico as one of our two favorite places
on earth (the other is China) although we have never been back. Years later, I met a woman who spends her winters in a mountain
village where the local people rent her a little house and feed her, in exchange for English lessons for their kids. This
sounds like paradise.
Finally, Belize. I have never been to Florida but, in pictures at least,
it seems the same. Balmy, blowy, too hot, ragged palm trees and gators in the swamps. Update: on our way to and from Ecuador (2009) we changed airplanes in Miami and had great views of the surrounding
terrain and the sea. It has been over 30 years since our time in Belize and maybe they have skyscrapers there, now, too.
Doesn't seem likely. There has been an influx of people buying fancy houses and beach condos, though.
One of the things we did daily in Corozol Town, where we settled for a month, was go swimming in
a "lagoon" outside town. We thought the word lagoon might indicate a connection to the sea, and that raised the possibility
of sharks so we asked locals if there were sharks in the lagoon.
They
said, no, but there are creatures. Well, okay, we thought, creatures are pretty much inevitable in water, especially water
as pleasantly warm as this was.
For about one month, we swam daily. The kids were nonswimmers when we arrived
and swimmers when we left. Once in awhile, the dog got chased out of the mangroves by something large and, evidently, intimidating,
but otherwise no problems.
We were surprised how few locals swam in the lagoon but they explained
it was "winter" and they weren't hot. Well, we certainly were and we loved going to the lagoon.
When locals came, it was usually a large group in an old car. The boys jumped in the water, naked, and the very superior
little girls played sedately on the shore in their clean little dresses. An adult male sat on the top of the car and watched.
We thought that was very responsible parenting.
Finally, we decided
Belize was not for us and we would go home to Canada. We went for one last swim. We asked a local one last time if there
were sharks in the lagoon. He said, as the first ones had, no, "but there are creatures".
This time we asked, "what's a creature?" The guy thought about it and said, "I think in English you call them alligators".
