A Dictionary Reference for Newcomers
English
Kriol
take a shower
get fresh
change clothes
change off
stay up all night
bleach
later or maybe
right now
hangover
goma
light skin
clear
infidelity
joe grind
ideal
frozen pop
gum
chicle
rice & beans
R & B
swim
bathe
rastarfarian title
Ras
herbal blood booster
bitters




 Traffic Tips
•   Stop signs are merely a suggestion.
•   "O'er yonder, then so" are the directions you'll get no matter where you are going.


  Travel Tips
for Belize, Central America


Belize Travel Tips -
A few things that are good to know before coming to Belize.
 http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/
Belize/Do's+and+Don'ts




Article Index






Words of Wisdom

For Women Who Travel

Women who travel alone are often free, happy, and available, even vulnerable. And often women from developed countries who are traveling in countries less developed are put to the test. One of the biggest differences in these two cultures exists within relationships between women and men.

The roles a woman and a man are expected to fulfill are very, very different here. And both the hidden agendas and games people play are different, with different rules. A woman traveler will find herself in conversations with men in stores, on tours, at restaurants, in bars, and just about anywhere. The more a woman traveler knows about the differences the more she can converse respectfully, respond appropriately, make intelligent decisions, and react with both compassion and dignity.

The best place for women to begin to understand this process is any place where women are. Try going to a beauty salon or women's clothing shop. Get to know as many women as you can.

Talk to women and ask them about their lifestyle, what they do for a living, how many children they have, and what makes them happy. Ask about relationships and what games lovers play, what women and men here want out of a relationship, and what to look out for both in a simple conversation and in the depths of an intimate relationship. Talk to several women to get a good well-rounded understanding.

Some basic concepts about home life in Belize:

  • As a general rule, life is very physical here. Women's bodies are strong because they were brought up hand-scrubbing laundry and carrying heavy buckets of water or food. Only in recent years have most of the modern conveniences been made available and affordable to the majority of the public sector. Most still do not have the luxuries that pamper the body.
  • Families are usually large. Birth control is not widely accepted. It is common for women to give birth to anywhere from 6 to 16 children. This is usually anticipated at the onset of a permanent long-term relationship.
  • Personal space and possessions are limited. Houses with two or three bedrooms may be home to many people. Rarely does a child grow up with a bed all to himself.
  • It is only too often that a man in a permanent relationship will also have one-night-interactions or long lasting relationships with one or more mistresses.

The longer one stays in Belize, the more one can assess for oneself and acclimate to the cultural differences. Some say that it takes three years to truly adjust. Others say longer.

Women who are on vacation can begin the process by simply being open to the differences and realizing that lifestyles and relationships are too drastically different to fully understand in a short visit. With this in mind, it is probably best that exploration into these areas be done through friendships (especially with women), as opposed to spontaneous intimate relationships with men.



Driving Tips:
Don't Drive Without Them!

Driving in Belize is an adventure and a drastic contrast to the fast freeways, busy intersections, and even the bumper to bumper traffic on the national park roads up north.
Our three highways have only two lanes and often have no yellow line down the middle. It is easy to enjoy the scenery while you drive, slowing down occasionally to peer at the side of a mountain. "Wow! Was that hill just dirt or was it really a grass covered ancient Maya pyramid?"
Yikes! Swerve. "That bus just pulled to a stop in the middle of nowhere! What does he think he's doing? I'm glad I saw it in time. We could have just crashed!"
Belize brings new meaning to "driving defensively". Buses stop often, sometimes every few feet, to let passengers on and off. Sometimes cars also stop in the middle of the road (with or without brake lights). And often drivers will use the Central American method of turning left, which means the driver pulls off the road to the right until all traffic has passed and then makes the left turn. So don't be surprised if you see someone pull to the right with their left turn signal on.
Visitors often marvel at the fact that Belize has only four red and green signal lights in the whole country. "What a great place, where there are so few cars that there is no need for traffic lights," you might be thinking. It wasn't very long ago when this was true, but now this looks deceiving. It isn't that we do not need traffic control. It's just that we use a less expensive and more effective method. We call them "sleeping policemen". Speed bumps. Sometimes unmarked. Sometimes only a few feet from each other. Sometimes high enough to do damage to your vehicle. Effective. Very effective for slowing down traffic in villages or at dangerous intersections. So keep alert and don't drive too fast.
You might have been parking on the same side of the street for the past few days because it appears that everyone is required to park on that side of the street. But today all the cars are parked on the opposite side of the street. "How odd." Yes, you better get out there and move your car to the other side of the road to avoid getting a ticket violation. Some busy roads in some towns allow parking on one side of the road for half the month and on the other side of the road for the other half of the month. This way the businesses share the discomfort of having their store fronts blocked by automobiles.
And don't forget those pesky one-way streets. Many roads are one way, but they are usually not marked as so. There may be a sign, but chances are that the original sign has "disappeared" and the only way to tell is by experience, good directions, or taking your chances and peeking down the way before you pull out. Observing before driving in any particular town or street is advisable. Watch which way cars are going on the roads. Just follow traffic and if worse comes to worse, and you find yourself going the wrong way on a one-way, don't panic. You may find yourself trapped on a road or even a bridge with nowhere to go! Take a deep breath, put on your hazard lights (if they work) and slowly reverse. Watch out for groups of schoolchildren, grazing animals, and remember, some take "one-way" as just a suggestion anyway.
When you get behind the wheel, just consider it another adventure in Belize!




A Lesson In Observation
Under
The Belmoral

There is a little inn at the center of one Belizean town called the New Belmoral. Under it is a covered area that faces the very center of town at an intersection with roads dispersing in five directions.

At any given time, this covered space under the Belmoral might contain a number of children, women, and especially men, each with their own reason for being there. Some stay for hours and appear to be too lazy to do anything more than stand leaning against a pole. Others sit and wait. Others hold conversations with whoever happens by.

Observing this crowd of people brings a certain curiosity. How could grown men just stand in one place for literally hours on end? Don't they have something to do?

But should you try hanging out in one of these very popular observation points you will discover the quiet inner action that takes place. You will discover that it is not idle laziness ruling the space under the Belmoral. There is purpose to stillness. For those who practice meditation, there will be a relative understanding.

One Eastern term that has been used, at least in the Western world, to describe a similar understanding is Wu Wei. The easiest way to explain this might be "the art of not doing". In Christian terms it might be described best in this popular phrase, "Be still and know God."

The bottom line is that in stillness the universe around you can be better understood. All the commotion and action in one's view can be better understood if observed quietly for a period of time.

Time is an important ingredient. Although some men have been known for standing relatively still for four or even six hours straight, a period of two hours is sufficient to obtain a clear understanding of what can be gained from this action.

Getting over the self-conscious feeling of being judged for standing still must pass first. Once this happens, an absorbed feeling can occur, a feeling as though you are a grain of sand on a beach. Then the fullness of your surroundings is felt.

The more you observe the people and cars and actions going on around you, the more you come to understand about the meaning and purpose of those actions. You begin to know why people are moving as they are, how they are connected, where the tensions exist, who is seeking companionship, when an employer might have a need to hire someone, who needs emotional support, and the list goes on and on.

This is not a new concept and it can be achieved almost anywhere. It is a life skill that can help you at home and at work. And it is something that many Belizeans practice often. So enjoy this beautiful country of Belize and resolve to taste a tiny bit of the wisdom of its people.