Fix It

(Hey - we have two blog entries this week, so be sure to check out the one right after this for a taste of "real" Peace Corps life.)

Sunday was a fun day for the fix-it man hidden inside me. I went with our neighbors, Rafaela and her son Anthony, to her home village, Big Falls, near Punta Gorda. She owns property there, and she is renovating her building in hope of renting it as a commercial site. It has a good location right by the road.

The future Copa Cabana of Big Falls

It has a distinctive red zinc roof. There is a large room that could be a store or restaurant or night club and an adjoining kitchen, bath, and storage room.

The current project is electricity - no pun. The meter was tacked to the cinder block building with concrete nails and doesn't meet code. We used U-brackets and concrete anchors to screw it to the building. When we finished I thought it was ready to be hurricane-tested.

After the work was completed

They have not yet hooked up the water connection, so Anthony went across the road to pump a bucket of water to flush the toilet.

In Belize, it's usually the women who pump and carry the water.
We enlisted Anthony's help for this special situation - his mom is
8 months pregnant!

We went into Punta Gorda town to get larger brackets and more screws and also got lunch. It was spicy fried chicken in a place that was air conditioned. Wow!

I like the "timeless" clock tower in PG. None of the four clocks work, they all tell different times, and none of them are correct - except each is correct for one minute twice a day.

The clock tower and the town center

Back in Big Falls, Rafaela also owns a house across the creek, and we went to see it after finishing the electrical work. She has a renter there who was baking journey cakes (pronounced johnny cakes) to take and sell. The woman and her daughter (or granddaughter?) rode with us to Bella Vista (it's on the way back to Dangriga) where her son lives. We also visited with Rafaela’s brother before heading back home. I am not sure what her next project will be. She does parts as money becomes available for the work.

Rafi's house in Big Falls

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Weekly Dose of Pet Pictures

Murusun Mesu is growing! He seems to be the catalyst for a lot of interaction between dog, cat, Steve and Cathy!