Saturday my counterpart (Isaac), who is the public relations officer for the clinic, took me for a walking tour Dangriga town. He seems to know everybody, We chatted with the mayor as he drove by. We stopped at some shops. We caught the bus to Pomona village for a bar-b-cue party at the home of one of the doctors, who is from Nicaragua. We watched football and enjoyed food, drink, and fellowship. The doctor told me we were eating Nicaraguan food rather than Belizean food. The meat on the grill was alligator.
Monday was my first day at work. I walked to the clinic about a mile away. People were cordial. When they saw me surfing the net about local cultural things, they were much more friendly.
Tuesday we visited the satellite clinic in Pomona. There is a waiting room with a TV monitor and a DVD player with educational tapes. There is also a small pharmacy, an examining room, and a bathroom. While we were waiting to go to the next site we had a grapefruit right off the tree behind the clinic building. We rode in the back of the truck to two other sites with the Ministry of Health people delivering vaccine, and then drove on to Bertha’s Burrito place. Chicken burrito for BZ $2 is a full meal. I tried some hot pepper sauce on mine that made for an exciting meal.
Today I hope to get my phone back from the fixer place in Belize City and will try to catch up on family calls. Rainy season started yesterday, so maybe it will be less hot.
3 comments:
Steve, Good to hear your voice! Well you know what I mean. First day on the job huh? I'm sure things will run in Belize time, but it sounds like a great start. Getting to meet everyone is important. Sorry about the phone. Don't know what your computer is like, but you probably know about Skype. Skype to Skype is free. If you have a web cam, you can even do video calls. They are pretty good. Mary Anne and I have done this while I was running around the planet. I'll look forward to more posts!
Best,
Ed
Oh and nothing disrespectful meant about Belize time either. Outside the US, I've often found people want to develop a relationship before business. Much of the rest of the world isn't a 'task' oriented as the US. Just different... Turkey was definitely this way..
I never ate alligator in Nicaragua, but I'll take the good doctor's word for it. :-) Keep on keepin' on...
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