Simone's family travel Blog

We are back in Belize!!!!

2010-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Hunt family has moved back to Belize. After our rather long (2 1/2 years) 'vacation', we are now back at the Jungle Dome. I will start updating this blog again with news of what we're up to here.

Jungle greetings! Simone

Great blog about Belize

2010-02-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

She's Dutch, she's a mother, she writes a Belize blog and she lives in Belmopan...and no, it's not me.

Her name is Susanne and her blog is brilliant! And, unlike mine, hers gets regular updates. Go check it out: http://dutchinbelize.blogspot.com/

With interesting articles on the cost of living in Belize, how to set up a restaurant in 3 weeks and how to sing national anthem. It's everything you need to know about Belize and it is funny!

The countdown has begun....

2010-01-31T03:49:00.000-08:00

A few more days until we go back to Belize for 3 weeks. Karen will have her vacation and we will run the Dome for a while. The boys can't wait to catch all those crickets, frogs, beetles and other bugs again. Should be fun. Oh, and we will do the 'jaguar encounter' with the boys too at the Belize Zoo. Bet they'll love that!

Belize Jungle Dome and Green Dragon adventure Travel now on Facebook

2010-01-31T03:25:00.000-08:00

Green Dragon Adventure Travel and the Belize Jungle Dome on Facebook

Why I am not blogging much anymore

2009-06-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

My appologies for the fact that there haven't been many new postings recently, but my joy in blogging has been slowly deteriorating. This is mainly due to the fact that slowly, but surely my blogs have become psycho magnets. Too many weirdos have been visiting my blogs and leaving nasty and/or weird comments. Obviously, this is never what I had intended for my blogs, but it is what has happened over time.

I don't want to expose myself or my family to this any longer. Maybe at some point in the future I'll be back blogging somehow. But not for the time being, I don't think.

It's a shame, as so many of you have been fun sharing my life's adventures with.

I already blocked non-members from commenting on my blogs a while ago, but I can't shake the thought that these freaks might still be looking at me and my family.

Sorry...

At the Dutch Marines' open day

2009-05-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Check out Lucas fighting a marine! Our cool dude! I'm having a problem embedding, but the clip can be seen here.

We had tons of fun last weekend at the 'Mariniers open dag'. And I filmed some bits there with Cool FM. It's been 7 years since I talked nonsense to a camera, but I still love it ; ) Here is some of what we filmed. The other clips should be on Video Aruba (Aruba's Utube) soon.

Camping

2009-04-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

It's tradition in Aruba that families go camping on the beaches at Easter. We joined the happy campers this year and, my goodness, did we had a blast!

We were 'taken in' by the 'Macamba camp', which consisted of about 8 families in 11 tents, plus a big communal (party) tent. Throughout the day and in the evenings, there were things organized for the kids: a talent show, a kids' disco, a spooky night-time treasure hunt, a flea market, a 'survival dinner' (organized and presented by one of the campers, who is a Marine), plus a ride on the partybus. It was all spontaneously organized by the parents (many of which were teachers, which explains their organizing talents)

I just know that experiences like these will stay with our kids for ever! No money, toys or expensive vacations can top these simple pleasures. Lucas wanted us to live in our tent on the beach for ever.

My mum and Lucas in our borrowed tent, which- on the last night- slowly started to collaps on us. It really was time to pack up!

See how close we were to the sea? And we were right next to the (cornered off) breading ground of Leatherback Sea Turtles. The night before we joined the camp, they saw a turtle checking on her eggs.

The 'party tent'...the place where everything happened. This was just before the scary treasure hunt. On this picture you can still see Andy in normal clothes. An hour later he was turned into a scary knight who had to protect treasures. Other parents were turned into witches, pirates, a green monster and more.

View from the light house, where we drove with the partybus. Towards the right on the coast, you can just see our camp.

Lemar (the birthday boy). It was his birthday that we were celebrating on the partybus.

A beer and some pumping music and a cut-up toe was quickly forgotten ; )

Happiness is just a state of mind

2009-04-10T04:40:00.000-07:00

Life is so great. I would almost say that our life feels idyllic. The kids are settled and doing well at school. Andy and I are still very happy together after-what is it now- almost 13 years as a couple? I totally enjoy the work that I am doing. We get to spend lots of time as a family, doing fun things with the boys, hanging out on the beach, swimming at my mum's pool, meeting up with other families at the park, etc. My extended family is also doing well. And we are- for as far as we know-all healthy. What more can anyone want?

Now- of course- I know that life is ever changing. So at some point we will face problems again. That’s inevitable. But when those hurdles come, we will jump them and move on. Because at least life is very democratic and fair like that. 'This too shall pass' is true of every stage in life. Of the good parts and the bad. So all we can do is savour the good parts and remind ourselves to enjoy them and give thanks for them & have the courage to move straight through the difficult and painful parts, having faith in the fact that once we've moved through them, we will be- once again- back in the light.

It's funny as well; I see my life and my past as truly beautiful. Yet, if I wanted to, I could easily tell myself (and others) that I lived a hard and painful life. For an example, as a kid I witnessed both my parents go through 2 difficult and painful divorces/separations, my mum was a welfare mum for many years and we lived in a rather rough housing estate, one of my best friends killed himself with his dad's hunting gun when we were 14, my first boyfriend got killed too, I flew 'off the rails' for a few years when I was younger and got in and out of all kinds of potentially harrowing situations...etc.

But- as I said before- I think my life has been truly wonderful and I feel so blessed. Even the painful parts have, in their own sad ways, been beautiful. They have shown me the gift that every day is & they have shown me that all true love is eternal. Plus they have given me a certain amount of mental toughness. I know that I can deal with anything that comes my way in life. Of course, I hope that life keeps blessing me, the way it has done up too now. But I know that I won't seize to exist if something painful happens. Again, life is very democratic and fair that way. We all get to experience beauty and pain. We all get to experience loss and death.

And so much has already happened in everyone's past, good and bad. And we can choose which parts to focus on. If I want to prove to the world and to myself that I can never be happy now because of what has been done to me in the past, then I can find proof for that. But why would I want to do that? The only person I get to hurt that way is myself.

The same with everything that is happening in my life now. I get to choose which parts to focus on and I get to interpret everything that happens around me. I choose to look at the good and therefore my life is beautiful. I don't dwell or worry about what could go wrong in the future. I will deal with the hurdles when and if they arrive. And for now, I enjoy every moment of my amazing life & I make sure I feel the gratitude for all that I have with every fibre of my being!

(By the way...I believe that, on an energetic level, gratitude is like a great magnet. If you truly feel it and allow yourself to be humbled by it, more good things get attracted to you. Just like we enjoy giving gifts to those who are truly grateful and excited about what we give, so it is in life. If we are ungrateful for the beauty that life bestows upon us, why would it give us more?)

Aidan

2009-04-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

It's a bit unfair, but when you're a second child (or a third or a fourth) no one makes as much of a hooha about you, as they did about child number one. So in our case that means that there have been tons of stories about Lucas growing up on this blog, but very little about Aidan. So now it's his turn....

Aidan is just about the most fun child you could imagine. He gets on with everyone & loves performing to a crowd (wonder who he got that from? ; )

He makes my heart melt whenever he looks me straight in the eyes and tells me that he loves me, or when he says 'Mamma, ik vind jou lief'. And no one gives cuddles the way Aidan does, he doesn't hold back (like Lucas often does), but just melts into you. I hope he'll never stop hugging us like that.

Now that he's started to talk, he comes out with some funny stuff. Especially as he is bi-lingual. He mashes up English and Dutch and says things like 'Ka-broken' (broken in English & kapot in Dutch) and 'Sea-paartje' (Seahorse in English & Zeepaardje in Dutch).

His rendition of Jingle bells is pretty original too. He is convinced that the song goes: 'Chicken bells, chicken bells, chicken all the way. Hey!' It is one of his favorite songs and he seems set on singing it year-round. Which we don't mind, as it continues to crack us up. He even grabbed the mic at a karaoke and sung 'Chicken bells' to a crowd of grown-ups (who were all doubled up laughing)

So yes...he's a joy. Having said that, he's a pain too. He is incredibly headstrong and can be unfaced by something like a time-out. This is what they've started to realize at school too. They send him to time-out and he goes 'Okay, I'll just go and sit there for a moment'. It doesn't bother him in the slightest. So we've all had to become a bit more creative in disciplining him. I have come to realize that I have to be quite strickt with both my boys, as otherwise they walk all over me in no time. It's annoying to have to be like that, but they leave me no choice (and I won't allow them to become disrespecting brats).

Anyway, so far so good. They're doing okay. I have started practicing 'self-control' with them now. It's a tip I picked up from a TV show, called 18 kids and counting. It isn't a time-out or punishment, but at some point in the day I call the boys over and they are given the task of sitting totally still for a few minutes. Which is really hard for energetic boys like them. When they do well, they get a sticker (and when they are really bad, they lose one). Once they both have 10 stickers we will go on a special outing. So far, Lucas has 6 stickers and Aidan has 4 (he keeps losing some for being naughty)

Oh, and one more thing about the both of them...they share a bedroom and they often tell each other stories before bedtime. They even make up songs for each other. It is just the cutest. And regardless of where they are when I bring them to bed, when I check up on them later, they are curled up together. I have even heard Lucas say to Aidan when he was afraid at bed time: 'Don't worry Aidan. Lucas is here. I will keep you safe. If a monster comes, I'll punch him'.

We are truly blessed with 'little monsters' like these. Both so different. Yet both so lovable.

RetroMatic was back at Chaos Cafe

2009-03-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

And we had a blast! Though I wasn't too keen on the late night start. We hit our first note at about 11.30PM and didn't finish till roughly 2.00AM

That is late in my books (these days)....still...I was able to 'sleep in' until 8 o'clock whilst Andy took the boys to the beach. My kids usually get me up at 6.00 AM, so sleeping in that 'late' was wonderful.

The reactions to the show were great & we definately had a giggle on stage, so all was well. Now we just have to decide how soon we'll be playing again...

It's always great to have my mum and my sister there...

Aruba Carnaval 2009

2009-03-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

Uplifting, empowering postcards

2009-02-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Shona has always been a person who can touch you with her poetic words, given at just the right time. She has sent me many wonderful cards over the years, that I have kept to this day and that still make me smile whenever I see them.

These days, everybody mainly sends emails & cards are becoming an 'old-fashioned luxury'. But it is a shame. Receiving a card with a powerful message has much more of an impact than an email or e-card could ever have. Not only does it touch you when you first receive it, but also when you hang it up and look at it over and over again.

I therefore think that everyone should have some cards at home to send whenever one feels that a message needs to passed on to a loved one (And I am as guilty as everyone else here...I haven't sent many cards over the last few years either. But I now aim to change this)

Shona has recently created her own collection of postcards & I think they are beautiful. Some may be too esoteric for the general public, but I believe that within the collection, there is something for everyone. Check out her website for the full range.

The inside text:

...and how my hair dances while my face sits silent...smiling inside......

The past is over.

Quietly, I celebrate...

The inside text:

I want you to be the ‘lucky one’ blessed by all the wonders and miracles of a glorious world.
...To Be the one life gives magic to...every day...
I want you to let life love you - like I love you...With stars and wings and roses...
...To be the one so completely in love with being alive...

Our RetroMatic performance

2009-02-25T06:07:00.001-08:00

Great to be working again

2009-02-23T16:08:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been quite tiring, but I am feeling more fulfilled than I have done for years. I have started doing a daily radio show (Angel in the morning) on Cool FM and last Friday we played the first ‘full set’ (over two hours!) with our band, RetroMatic at a local live music bar, the Chaos.

All of it is so enjoyable. I have just never been able to find that kind of satisfaction in anything I have been doing in life that has not been connected to music and/or media. It just feels so ‘right’ to be doing this. It’s like coming home to me.

The band performance went pretty good. Of course, we messed up here and there and we realized that we need to make a few changes before our next show. But then, that’s what a live performance is all about. And we couldn’t have figured these things out had we not stood in front of an audience.

The crowd reacted really well to the show though. There were a lot of smiling faces, people singing along, many people shouting ‘Yes!’ as they heard us start certain songs & applause at the end of each one (something you can’t take for granted on an island like Aruba, so inundated with live music that- at times- the audience hardly reacts). And there also was lots a dancing towards the end of the show, which is just the most satisfying thing to see when you’re onstage.

There were pictures taken that night by some of my Cool FM colleagues, I just need to find out where they’ve been posted, so I can add them later.

The owner of the bar came up to us after the show and basically offered us as many gigs as we’d like at that same venue or at a new bar that he has opened recently. So we just have to put our diaries together and see when we’d want to play again.

I have to say though...I wouldn’t want to do this once or twice a week, like some performers do on the island. It needs to stay fun. For us, but for the audience too. So maybe we’ll play once or twice a month...something like that.

As a mother- by the way- I am very happy with the move from being basically a stay-at-home mom, to being a (part-time) ‘working mom’. I gave my all to my kids for the last 6 years, which has been exactly what I had wanted to do. But as they were getting older I craved striking a balance between being a mom with being an individual, with her own wants and needs. So now that’s what I’ve got.

The juggling takes a little getting used to, but it isn’t too hard. Of course, my hours are great...I go to the radio station at about 9am or 9.30 & then I stay until I pick up the boys from school (12.30 & 1pm). So I have all afternoon to spend with them, apart from the few things I need to do online or the bits of practicing I need to do. And band practice is just one evening a week.

I feel so blessed to be doing exactly what I want to do. Yes....life is brilliant!

Daily radioshow

2009-02-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you all know that today I have started doing a daily radioshow on Cool FM, called 'Angel in the morning'.

So instead of doing my Saturday afternoon show for the station, I now broadcast every mon-fri, 10.30 am- 12.00 pm, Aruban time (-4 GMT)

You can watch and listen to me live on the Cool FM website: http://www.coolaruba.com/

I have to admit though, watching a radio DJ at work is generally bit boring (definitely not the same as watching a VJ ; ) but still....

And you can chat with me whilst I'm on-air. Either by Messenger (angelmorning@live.com ) or just send me a text on Aruba phone number: (297)-747 3562

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Hanging out with my boys...

2009-02-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Lucas seems to have a good eye for photography (for a 6-year-old). He walks around the house with a camera and takes lots of abstract pictures, mixed in with photos of the family. The roles seem to be devided like this: Lucas takes the pictures and Aidan poses for him, shouting 'Smile!' whenever he sees the camera. Here's a picture he took of Aidan and myself.

Yesterday, Aidan looked at the mustach from Hans & decided he wanted one too. So my mum drew one on him & attemped (in vain) to turn Lucas into a rabbit. They both fell asleep before I had a chance to clean their faces. It looked so funny when they woke me up this morning with those drawings still on their face.

Join the family!

2009-01-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

For those of you who enjoy this blog and visit it regularly, become 'part of the family' by signing in under 'followers', which is on the right-hand-side of this blog. It would be nice to see who you are ; )

Confessions of a ferquent flyer ; )

2009-01-27T05:27:00.000-08:00

Call me strange...but I really like travelling. I mean, I actually enjoy hanging out in airports, staying in a different hotel every night, taking taxis at 4am in the morning to catch a flight, the stupid security checks (I got a bunch of S’s on my ticket this time, meaning they did extra security checks on me), buying my Starbucks on the go, packing my suitcase, unpacking my suitcase and everything else that comes with travelling. It just feels so familiar, yet it also gives me the feeling of not knowing what surprises are waiting around the corner, like a Christmas morning.

Most people get stressed when a flight is delayed, I just get myself something nice to eat and drink, make myself comfortable (I usually have some sort of pillow or blanket with me) and read my book. Airports don’t stress me out. I’ve just spent too much time in them to get like that.

Back in my MTV days I used to travel to, on average, 2 foreign countries a week. So I was constantly on the go. I basically came home to wash my clothes, repack my bags and off I was again. It felt like the most normal thing in the world.

And I would turn each hotel room into my home, even if I was only there for one or two nights. I brought cloths of material that I would drape over unsightly furniture, I put out some pictures, crystals & candles, I would bring my own music and even travel with a blender, to make smoothies. My collegues often laughed at me as I transformed each hotel room into my own little sanctuary, but they also enjoyed hanging out in my room as it was so much more cozy and colourful than a standard hotel room. Plus, they loved my smoothies, especially after some heavy partying the night before.

It must be the gypsie blood (from my mother’s side) in me that makes me love this lifestyle so much.

I have to admit though, it is only now that I am travelling without my children again that I realize that I still love being on the go like this. Travelling with kids is quite a different story. When I travel by myself I have this real sense of freedom that I just don’t have when my kids are demanding my attention non-stop. Now that I am travelling by myself I can choose to watch a movie, read a book, sleep...do whatever I feel like. When I travel with my kids I have a job to do. And that job is to keep my kids happy, so they don’t bother the other travellers. We normally succeed in this and get many compliments as to our kids’ behaviour. But it does come at a price. At the end of our travels, Andy and I are usually exhausted beyond measure.

But not so this time, as it is just me travelling. Andy is still in Belize and will come back to Aruba in two weeks. So I am enjoying my last few hours of self-indulgence (which, as a mum, is as simple as reading a book) before I give my all to my kids again.
Homeward bound!

I am blogging? That must mean that I am traveling again ; )

2009-01-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true. We are traveling again. Andy and I are in Belize. Andy is staying for 3 weeks & I am here for 1 week. We are running the Jungle Dome whilst Karen is on holiday in Canada.

Our two boys are with my mum and sister in Aruba. And I have to admit, travelling without the kids has been very enjoyable so far (only 3 more nights and I am back home again). Of course, we always have a great time when we travel as a family, but it is also nice, for once, to not be responsible for anyone but myself. It feels rather good to have a break from being ‘mum’. As a mother, it’s so easy to lose your sense of self. Because you put everyone else’s needs before your own (generally) & you feel like you are only nurturing yourself with the scraps (of time) that have ‘fallen off the table’. But for now, my time is my own. And, as long as I know that my boys are happy (which they are), I can continue to enjoy myself and enjoy spending time with my husband. So to us, this is in part a working-holiday and part honeymoon (which we’ve never had before).

And being back in Belize has been great. It’s like I had almost forgotten what a beautiful country this is. It’s an absolute paradise! In a way, it’s much more beautiful than Aruba. It’s just so lush. Aruba has better beaches, that’s true, but apart from that, it’s a rock. It’s a rock with some cacti, some donkeys and some goats. Oh, and with a lot of mega hotels and resorts (these, obviously, do not make the landscape any prettier)

The Belize inland (which is where we are) consists of jungle, amazing birds and wildlife, rivers, small villages and character-filled lodges, like our own (much nicer than those gigantic monstrosities of the Aruban time-share hotels)

Still, each country has its own charm. Aruba is such a comfortable place to live (and, unlike what the US press says about the island, it must be one of the safest and most peaceful places on earth), Aruba truly is ‘one happy island’, where everything has to be celebrated excessively and abundantly, it has great bars and restaurants, good schools and facilities for families and the different cultures on the island seem to blend well together.

Belize, on the other hand, is an oddball country. It's a country steeped in contradictions. Many people have no running water at their houses, but they do have a cellphone and cable television. Many call themselves Christians, but they believe in witches, ghosts and shape shifters. It's a country of many cultures, each with their own traditions, yet they all feel Belizean.

Belizeans are generally polite and quite shy. They don’t party the way the Arubans do. When the Belizeans go swimming, they keep all their clothes on and the women refuse to dance when the men can see them. The country is steeped in religion. Any office you go in will have biblical versus stuck to the walls & church is often people’s only form of entertainment (I am now mainly talking of local rural communities and not the ex-pats) Many of the local Mayan women here seem to go to church so they can show off their new clothes, to join in what can only be called karaoke, to sway to the music and to enjoy the BBQ. Some will be genuine believers, but quite a few seem to go for ‘just a bit of fun’.

I have found living in both countries very enjoyable. Aruba because of it’s so ‘normal’ and ‘easy’. If you can live in Europe, you can live in Aruba. It isn’t all that different from each other. But living in Belize has been enjoyable especially because it is ‘not normal’. Nothing is like it is in Europe. It’s like a different world all together. How often have Andy and I not looked at each other over the years, laughed and said: ‘only in Belize’ (meaning, something as weird as this could never happen anywhere else). Every day is a surprise waiting to happen. And the more flexible your attitude is, the more you are able to ‘go with the flow’, the better your experience will be in this country. You may have planned to go from A to B on a certain day, yet you end up at X for some bizarre reason. And all you can do is laugh, which, by the way, is something the Belizeans do a lot. They laugh easily and heartily. It puts us, those from wealthy Western nations, to shame.

In countries like Belize, people seem to generally be more content and happy. Even when they live in a wooden shack, have no electricity or running water, no shoes for the kids and the women spend much of their time collecting wood for their open fires to cook on.

And it’s amazing how many people can live in one wooden shack here. The logistics of it are baffling. You wonder how on earth it all fits. Yet, when more family members or friends show up from Guatemala, everyone bumps up even more and that family is taken in too.

But in Europe we complain when we only have one flat-screen TV (the one in the bedroom is broke and we have no money to buy another) or we say that our house is too small because two of our children have to share a bedroom...I mean, what are we on about? It is embarrassing to hear everyone complain these days.

Recession or no recession...we are the fortunate ones. You are sitting behind a computer right now, you can explore the world (even if only online), you obviously can read and have been educated, you have a roof over your head, you have eaten and you have clean drinking water. So let’s stop complaining & start being thankful. That’s what I’ll do today. I will say my thanks for the rich life that I am living and have lived so far.

As Moby and I always used to shout out at each other (and what will be my mantra for today): ‘Life is nice!’

Back where we started (for a few weeks, anyway)

2008-11-17T00:20:00.000-08:00

It's funny being back in Holland. Some things have changed (a lot of new buildings and shops) & many things are still the same as when I was a little girl here. The people out on their pushbikes, going ice-skating with the family (no natural ice though nowadays), watching Saint Nicolas come to town, drinking lots of hots drinks throughout the day, watching silly gameshows on TV, playing boardgames with my family...it's all so familiar and cozy.

What I did forget- having been in the tropics for so long- is how cold your ears get outside, how horrible it is to sit on a cold toilet seat and how long you delay getting out of the shower or bath as you just can't stand the idea of drying yourself off in the cold.

Still, I like the seasons and all that comes with it. Of course, no one would choose rainy days or cold winds over a blue skies. But I enjoy the changing scenery throughout the year in Europe and it is something that I have always missed in Belize and Aruba. So I am enjoying myself.

Today we'll be meeting some family that we haven't seen since we were kids. Should be interesting.

I just wish that Aruba and Europe were less far apart, so we could hop backwards and forwards a bit more often.

Another family slideshow

2008-11-17T00:16:00.001-08:00

halloween, football, etc.

2008-11-09T18:03:00.001-08:00

So much personal stuff has happened lately. Lucas turned 6, my mum had a successful hernia operation, it was Halloween, we've found another house to move into in December & we planned a trip to Europe (leaving Aruba tomorrow)

I won't go into all the details. But instead I will just share a few pictures (more to come). Lucas dressed up as Harry Potter, Aidan dressed up as Batman and Andy playing in the Plaza football tournament.

When it rains it pours

2008-10-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here in the tropics we are usually blessed with gorgeous blue skies, a warm breeze and swimming pools that don’t make you scream out when you jump into them. But when the whether gets bad here, it gets real bad.

For the last day and a half now, it’s been raining on Aruba & there have been quite strong winds. Nothing too extreme, as Aruba is one of the islands located below the point where the hurricanes usually form in the Caribbean. In Dutch these islands are called ‘De onderwindse eilanden’.

But still, this island can’t deal with the amount of rainfall we’ve been getting off the tail end off the Tropical Storm Omar.

Straight away the roads turn into rivers, roofs and windows leak, trees and cacti fall down, the power is out, the schools close, the shops close, everything simply stops.

So- whilst I’m typing this- we are out of power (relying on my computer’s rather weak battery), the boys are home from school and climbing up the walls, our house is leaking like crazy and the toilets won’t flush.

Last night- when we still had power- I used the washing machine and heard a loud ‘Whoosh!’ It almost sounded like water was shooting out of something. I looked around and found nothing. Only that somehow the washing machine has leaked a bit. But later on, when I walked into the guest bathroom, I saw what the loud ‘Whoosh’ had really been. The septic tank had somehow backfired and the shower cubicle was filled with nasty blown slush. It was disgusting! Andy cleaned it as well as he could. But I will have to bleach it like crazy today (if I can manage to get to the local supermarket somehow and if it is open). And we will have to hope that the septic can be emptied today.

It really is a muddy, wet, windy mess on the island at the moment. And the sad part is that my little sister Iris is here from Holland with a friend. Yesterday we had wanted to celebrate Iris’ birthday on the beach, but of course that was impossible. Even the cinema (our plan B) was closed. And now they are stuck in this mess just like the rest of us.

Let’s hope that in a few days things clear up again (not much chance of that today). And let’s hope the power comes back on before our hyperactive kids drive my husband and myself insane!

P.S. Aha…help is near. My sister Miriam is coming to evacuate us to my mum’s house, where they still have power. Miriam’s car is high enough off the ground to get us through the flooded roads. Now we just have to hope that our house doesn’t flood completely whilst we’re out.

Our funny family cooking session

2008-09-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those days when you realize how wonderful it is to have family around.

We had a joined pizza baking session at my mum's house. Hans (my mum's partner) had heard a while ago that I knew how to make pizzas from scratch and decided that I had to teach the family how to do it. I only made pizza dough ones though and really wasn't sure I could do it again. But hey...it was a fun idea anyhow. So Hans, my brother-in-law Laurence and I did the cooking whilst everyone else sat in and around the pool.

We laughed so much! It was the messiest cooking session ever! The three of us were covered in flour, we couldn't get the dough of our hands, we were in a right state.

And, even though after two hours the dough still hadn't 'doubled in size' like the recipe had promised us, we just whacked it into the oven and...surprise, surprise....it all came out brilliantly (apart from the one pizza that I dropped face-down on to the floor)

We had such a great time that we decided that 'family cooking sessions' should become a monthly occurrence. Next month we will attempt to make the perfect curry.

Enjoy your own family and friends too. Do something fun with them! It's worth the effort.

A crazy version of 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star'

2008-09-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

This was filmed in our garden in Belize with Lucas, Aidan and some of their friends. Oh, and the sticks are their 'horses'.

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Our 'mainly Aidan' slideshow

2008-09-10T10:48:00.001-07:00

My lack of regular blogging...

2008-09-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that I haven't spent much time on this blog in the last few weeks/months, it's just that my daily attention has been going to my music blog: http://simonesmusicblog.blogspot.com

I will upload some new pictures on this family travel blog later today though.

And for those of you who want to see specific Aruba pictures, Aruba real estate & Aruba Hotels, then you're better off checking out my sister's blog: http://arubaconnections.blogspot.com/

Thanks & happy family travels everyone...

Do you want to spend more time with your family? Move abroad!

2008-08-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Tired of the rat race? Starting to forget the names of your own family members? Then it is time to take action! Go on an adventure together. And I don't just mean an adventure vacation (though that can be a nice start), but a real life-changing adventure. Move to a new country! And why not? If you're not happy in the new place, you can move back. Where ever you've come from will not just disappear.

Having done it ourselves, I can definitely recommend it. And starting a lodge or B&B with your family is something else that I can recommend. My two boys were born in Belize as we were building up our jungle lodge, The Belize Jungle Dome. And it was a wonderful lifestyle for us as new parents. We were always together as a family as the lodge was also our home (we later build a house at the edge of the land to have some more privacy). And, as a new mom, I didn't get the feeling that I was just 'sitting at home with the kids'. We really had the best of both worlds. Building a successful business and being full-time parents.

Starting this project as a couple also brought my husband and myself closer, as we don't have many of the same interests in life, and having something like this to share has been great for us.

So why have we moved away from Belize and our lodge after all these years? Because we felt like our job was done there. We did what we said we were going to do and created a great business. We didn't want to expand anymore and our staff had become so good at running the lodge that there wasn't much left for us to do.

Also, I wanted to do something in the creative field again and didn't see any opportunities for that in Belize. So now we are living in Aruba and I have joined a local radio station, Cool FM. And I sing in a band here on the island, called RetroMatic.

The lodge still runs wonderfully well without us and provides us with a nice income so-again-we have the best of both worlds.

Back at the Belize Jungle Dome for the summer

2008-07-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Whilst Karen (our resort's manager) is on her well-deserved break to Canada we are back in Belize running the Belize Jungle Dome. Coming back to Belize-after all these months in Aruba-was a bit of a shock to the system, but we are now back into the swing of things and are enjoying ourselves.

We had to get used again to the fact that in Belize you create your own fun. Nothing gets handed on a plate to you. Especially with the kids...I missed the many playgrounds, the tennis club, the summer camps, all the things that Aruba has in abundance. Lucky enough, the Brazilian Ambassador's wife has set up arts & crafts mornings at their residence. The boys go there most mornings and it breaks up the day perfectly.

Back at the house, they play with the local kids, catch bugs, swim, etc. And at 7 o'clock they are ready for sleep.

We also went for a short break to the golf island, Caye Chappel, which is always fantastic. So, all in all, we are doing great. Here's a few pics of the boys in action with several of their friends.

My mum's brilliant birthday party!

2008-06-24T04:00:00.000-07:00

Andy's birthday....out on a quadbike!

2008-06-23T09:57:00.001-07:00

This is quiet beach we found on the North of the island, where thousands of people over the years have been piling up rocks for good luck. I built a little rockpile myself whilst there and made a wish. It's a shame that in this picture you only see a small part of the beach, because these piles of rocks go on forever and even are built high up on giant bolders. Very cool place indeed.

After having been on our little tour of the island in the morning, Andy picked Lucas up from school with the quadbike in the afternoon. Of course, Lucas was delighted!

And here is picture of a us with our neighbours, who we'd invited over for dinner by the pool. We served them chicken, rice & beans, to show them what people eat in Belize (there's not much chicken, rice and beans being served in Aruba)

father's day, going orange, etc. Some recent pictures...

2008-06-18T08:43:00.001-07:00

Some old fashion partying....but still in bed before one ; )

2008-05-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

What I find so enjoyable about being in Aruba is that I have a chance to just be myself sometimes. To go out dancing with my sister, for instance. It allows me to, just for a few hours, forget that I am mom & that I have a family that needs me. For just a few hours I can simply get lost in the music, jump around & talk rubbish to people that I don't know (actually, isn't that also what I do when I blog and do my radio show? Hihi...)

These pictures were of a double birthday-party we had at someone's house recently. As you can see, it was a 'white' party. I've also been to a 'trashy, fake' party at another person's house/pool here on Aruba, which was also brilliant. These actually are the most fun places to go to (I think). Much more chilled than going into town to a club/bar. Most people seem to hire a DJ, catering and sometimes additional entertainment. At the 'trashy, fake' party they brought in a whole mariachi band which was a great surprise.

Anyway, guess this means that life on Aruba is still wonderful (apart from this terrible cold that we've all been suffering from).

Wishing you sunshine and happiness, where ever you are....

Cool FM

2008-04-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Starting the first of May I will be joining Aruba’s number 1 radio station, called Cool FM.

Of course, this is a small island, so if you compare it to Europe or America, than the radio over-all is pretty basic in Aruba. But still, Cool FM is the best station the island has. And they are very involved when it comes to live events. These guys are everywhere!

I’ve never done radio before, so it’s actually a nice challenge for me. I’ll be doing a show every Saturday morning from 10 to 12, called the Weekend Express. It will be a ‘standard’ radio show, with some tracks from the Dutch, English and American Charts, the Caribbean & Latin charts, some classic tracks, some dance tunes, some mash-ups…you get the drift.

The thing that’s rather worrying is that I am meant to do the show all by myself & I get very intimidated when I see lots of buttons, computer programs, etc. I just haven’t got a clue how to work these things. Also, I am starting so soon (May the 3rd) that I have no idents yet, no jingles, nothing. Still, I know how to introduce music and as long as the songs are good, the show should be okay. Right?

On the first of May the radio station is hosting a big event here on the island. I’ll be presenting part of the day and also my new cover band (RetroMatic) gets launched on that day. We have never been on a stage yet together & just two weeks ago we got a new drummer. And now our first performance will be in front of 10.000 to 20.000 people, plus be broadcast live on air. How crazy is that? We always envisioned playing our first gig in a smoky old bar somewhere, not in front of such a large audience! Still, we’re pretty confident that it will work out alright. And anyway, it’s just some covers we’re playing.
Wish me luck!

message to our family in Holland (sorry for anyone left out, the list was getting rather long for him ; )

2008-04-10T16:44:00.001-07:00

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Lucas and Caroline dodging the Aruban waves

2008-04-10T16:41:00.001-07:00

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Aidan's birthday

2008-03-24T09:30:00.001-07:00

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Belize real estate, Riverside Villa

2008-03-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we have decided that we want to stay on Aruba for the coming year(s). This place is a perfect mix for us between the relaxed Caribbean lifstyle that we had gotten used to in Belize & the Dutch/European lifestyle we were sometimes missing when we were living in the jungle. I love the fact that Lucas and Aidan are now learning to speak perfect Dutch in their Dutch schools & of course we love living so close to family (my mum and sister)

So, because we will not to return to Belize and because we want to buy a property here, we have decided to sell our family home.

Our house in Belize is actually my dream home. If we could pick it up and move it to Aruba, we certainly would. It was designed by a UK/Swiss architecture company from Belize and I took a very active part in the designing of it. So many of the features were dreams of mine. Like the large sunken bath in our bathroom, with the floor to ceiling window and its private courtyard (complete with a lovers statue and tropical plants), the open-plan Mexican kitchen, the large walk-in cupboard, the hand-made mahogany furniture throughout, the decks overlooking the Belize River, etc. etc.

Anyway, we can't move our beautiful Riverside Villa. So its up for sale for $395,000. Which is roughly the same as 197,000 English Pounds. Not a bad deal for someone as it produces a good yearly income and could stay as part of the Belize Jungle Dome's rental pool. So if anyone is looking for a good investment in the international tourism industry, maybe with the thought of ultimately using the house as a place to retire to, than this house would be perfect. It is being managed and maintained to a high standard & it is making money.

Considering the large amounts of cash people spend on timeshare and condos, this 2000 square foot, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house, on 1/2 acre of property land, 15 minutes from Belize's fast developing capital, is an absolute steal. Of course I'm biased, but I can hardly believe that anyone who would look at the place and look at the investment potential would say otherwise.

So...you wanna buy a house in the tropics? For info and pictures click here , plus check out an older blog posting of mine with pictures. And/or email Andy at andy@greendragonbelize.com

More happy days

2008-03-07T16:50:00.001-08:00

My goodness there's a delay on my blogging since we've moved to Aruba. This picture for instance was taken at the 2008 Carnival (late January) and I haven't yet uploaded the clips of Aidan birthday (14th of February)

Guess I'm just too busy having fun ; )

Nearly ran over a wild goat yesterday, which a true 'Aruba' moment. There's loads of them on the island. They are stinky, but fun to see around.

Now what to do tomorrow???? Shall we go sit on one of the many beaches, climb some rocks, take the kids to the playground or go to the cinema? Oh what a tough life we have...hihi...

So, just in case you wondered...are things good here? Yes they are! Apart from the fact that the drummer of our band suddenly has decided to leave the island. So we're currently drummerless. Still, we're working on finding a replacement. It'll all work out, it always does.

Aidan at the Ostridge Farm

2008-02-19T07:36:00.001-08:00

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Who's afraid of the birdy?

2008-02-19T07:31:00.001-08:00

My little sister's 'hero'...her partner Remon ; )

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Funny things kids say

2008-02-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

All is well here on the sunny island. My little sister Iris and her partner Remon came over from Holland, Andy went to Belize to check on the Dome (it's running great, so we can continue to hang out in Aruba), Lucas and Aidan are enjoying their schools and I love singing in a band. So yes, we're a happy bunch.

We also celebrated carnaval here which-by the way-was great fun. I'll post some pics in the coming days.

Anyway, I believe it's time again to write down some classic 'Lucas comments'. Like the other day when we were bickering and he said:

'My brain thinks you're stupid...but I think you're beautiful'
Now how could I respond to that? It did make me laugh though.

And when he talked about how he misses Belize, he said:
'You know mum, I love Belize like a brother'

Talking about his brother...the other day he got very confused when he saw Aidan outside and a second later he noticed that Aidan was inside. He was convinced that we suddenly had 2 Aidans and looked for number two for ages.

And finally, we were talking about how Andy and I used to be on television. Lucas said that he wanted to be on TV too. When I asked him what he wanted to do on TV he answered:
'Oh nothing, I just want to go in there and have a look around'.

Oh, the innocence of childhood.

Religion 'gone crazy' in Belize

2008-01-31T02:28:00.000-08:00

Living in Belize, we've come across some crazy situations with regards to superstitions. People in our local community believe in witchcraft, demon possessions, etc. It seems to be that many of the (rural) communities in Belize have blended the message of the evangelical missionaries with their old traditions/religions and/or superstitions. All that shouting about the devil (something the US missionaries seem to do a lot) is at least part to blame for crazy situations like the following story of today's Channel 7 newscast:

'Demon Possession' Forces Closure of Hattieville Government School

Stories of spirit possession in children are often things of village lore – and when the come across our news desk, we look very critically at the reports. But it became a story in Hattieville today when the strange behavior of 4 children forced the entire school to close down and sent 369 children home. What’s more the District Education Officer says it’s authentic! But is it really? Keith Swift went looking for answers.

Keith Swift Reporting,The classrooms were empty and the playground was deserted today at the Hattieville Government School. That is because since Monday 4 students have been possessed by what school officials are calling an “evil spirit.”

12-year-old Aquila - who we spoke to in the presence of her mother - is one of them.
Aquila, Claimed She Was Possessed“I was with my friends and afterwards I started to talk about demons and then I felt something in my belly, something was in my belly moving, and then it started to make me tremble up and then I started to scream out. I didn’t want to scream but I had to make a little noise. I was screaming, my friend took me to the office and they tried to calm me down but I couldn’t calm down. I was trembling and I couldn’t stop.”

Keith SwiftWhat did you think was happening?
Aquila,“Well I think it was some kind of spirit that was trying to take over me.”

And if you don’t believe Aquila, 11 year old Richard Wade and his cousin 12 year old Devon Wade, who we met on the street playing because of their unexpected holiday, say they saw it – and they weren’t the only ones who did.
Devon Wade, “I saw a little girl Aquila on the ground going on crazy and she was spinning around her head and it was just frightening.”
Keith Swift,What did your teacher tell you?
Devon Wade,“She told us to stay in our class.”
Richard Wade,“She locked up the class because she didn’t want any demon coming in we. And then after that they just told us to get our school bag and go home.”
Devon Wade,“Our teacher is like a really good Christian, Ms. Mejia, she is a really good teacher and a Christian so she give, sometimes she prays for us and like that so that nothing goes in us.”

Richard Wade,“He just started to hold his head and was screaming how he is tired of this thing in me and how he wanted it to come out and he started to slam up the desk.”

Devon Wade,“And you know when like demon gets into you, you get stronger, he was lifting some beavy beavy desks. So I don’t know what went on because he was just scary. I was really frightened. I didn’t know that would happen. I didn’t know demon could come to Hattieville.”

Shanine Holland,“Yesterday evening around 5 o’clock to 5:30 when I was going to Belize, I saw the young lady Aquila just started to go on crazy and everything. She just started to cuss her. She said nobody can stop her from doing what she wants. That is all I see. She was flinging herself on the ground and in the drain.”

Janelle Thompson,“I came out here this morning and then I saw the young lady run from out of her classroom towards her mother and she bit her at her neck and then the blood came out and then she started to throw about herself, know her mom, and all the kids started to run and cry.”
There was a mass exodus from the school. This afternoon when we visited only teachers were there. Jahmor Lopez is the district education officer and he told us the ministry of education says they are trying to contain the situation.

Jahmor Lopez, District Education Officer“We were in contact with members of staff, telling them to remain calm, to try to deal with the situation. I believe that the staff members on the ground did an excellent job in trying to maintain order but things got a little bit out of hand when a relative of one of the children who is affected apparently was trying to perform some kind of, trying to exorcise the demon right on the compound. I think at that point students got very very alarmed because I think the woman shouted that the demon is here in the compound and I think that is when students began running. It was pandemonium and there were some parents in the vicinity and so a lot of parents came for their kids and others just dismissed themselves.
I was informed that when they had attended church that the manifestation started there and so it seems to be something involving evil spirit so clearly we would have to get in touch with the clergy, we would have to get in touch with somebody who will be ready to do such a job, to exorcise the demon. We just can’t call on anybody. You have to fast, you have to meditate, you have to prepare for spiritual warfare.”

Keith Swift,Sir but demon possessions don’t happen.
Jahmor Lopez,“Keith is that your position, you are telling me? You believe in good? That is your position.”

But Pastor Mark Somerville from the village Baptist Church – where the possession allegedly originated - has a simpler explanation.

Pastor Mark Somerville, Hattieville Government School“They were affected by something and then when we tried to find out what was the situation that was causing them to divide then they came up and behaved like they had some kind of unclean spirit but that doesn’t say they are possessed by these spirits.”

Keith Swift,So these kids aren’t demon possessed?

Pastor Mark Somerville,“Well I would not say they are not influenced by some sort of evil spirit but to say that they are demonized – then I am saying that they are not. They are not demonized.”

Keith Swift,Is it safe for these children to return to school?
Jahmor Lopez,“Certainly. In my view I believe it is perfectly safe. The problems that the kids have been experiencing, these are students in standard six, I was told there is one student from standard five. But it is not the entire school, it is a number of students from one classroom. And so there is no need for all the students to stay away from school. If it was such that there is something on the compound then I would be affected, all the other members of staff would be affected. There is no need for us to be alarmed and take alarmist’s approach. We have four students and we need to address the issue with those four students. It is not a thing with the entire school so we need to get that clear. I am appealing to parents, send your kids to school and we will continue to monitor the situation.”

The Ministry of Education says it will be seeking treatment for the four children.

Aruban life

2008-01-26T17:12:00.000-08:00

Aidan loves having his aunt and his nan so nearby. Strangely enough, he calls them both 'Opa', which is Dutch for grandad. Oh well, guess he's a tat confused.

Lucas has been struggling the most with our move, but he is just starting to get settled in now. He has started school (finally) and is loving it. It's a brilliant Dutch private school, called 'De Schakel'. So he should be talking Dutch in no time, seeing as he's already got the basis of it, with me talking Dutch on and off to him since he was born.

Our dear friends Roy and Cindy came down from Rochester, New York to stay with us. They brought their son Joshua along for a few days. We had never met Joshua before, but he turned out to be a wonderful guy. They are such a nice family : )

Chilling at 'Fisherman's hut' with Cindy. This is the place where we spend many weekends...

Our little pirate Aidan

Still in love after all these years. If only we could remember for sure how long we've been together. Has it been 11 years now?

Happy 2008!

2007-12-31T04:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas and New Year has been very enjoyable here on Aruba, with plenty of presents, plenty of family time and plenty of crazy fireworks. Pretty much the oposite of the quiet Christmasses and New Years that we've had in Belize for the last 6 years.

In Belize we had to remind ourselves that it was New Year Eve, for instance, whilst in Aruba there's no escaping it. Everybody spends a small fortune on fireworks here and goes out on the street creating their own little (or not so little) fireworks show. So at midnight the whole sky above Aruba was alight with fireworks, you simply didn't know which way to turn, it was everywhere. Andy was really surprised to see it as even in the UK people don't do that, but I told him that it reminded me of my childhood in Holland as the Dutch do the same thing.

Something else that I really enjoyed here were the traditional Christmas singers. I forgot what they are called, there's a special name for them. Anyway, they are big groups of people (about 20 per band, with about 8 to 10 of them singing). The music that they make does not sound like Christmas music to me though, it just sounds Tropical and kinda salsa to me. It's really good fun. And these bands are everywhere around the Christmas period in Aruba. They play at the supermarkets, in the shopping streets, out at parking lots, etc.

The traditional Christmas lights on the islands were wonderful to see as well. The boys (of course) loved them.

And the other traditional thing that the Arubans do is scare away the bad spitits from the past year by letting off thousands of firecrakers outside virtually every store and business on the island around New Year's Eve. It's rediculously noisy, but I like the thought behind it.

The following pictures were from our Christmas Eve dinner, which was at a Lebanese restaurant. Which is of course not particularly traditional for Christmas, but we had great food and good fun too.

So there you go. That's what's been happening here. I hope you've all had plenty of good times and I wish you all good health, love and joy for 2008 and for the years that follow.

Blog on!

The clown doctors Aruba

2007-12-12T03:11:00.000-08:00

The clowns sorting out the Christmas tree decorations. I didn't take any pictures of them 'in action' as I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take and/or post pictures with the residents of the old people's home or the children with special needs on it.

Before our move to Aruba I had already been thinking that I had wanted to do the following things here:

Sing in a band
Join the clown doctors

Well, it looks like I will be doing both those things. The band has already been formed. Currently it's just the 4 of us, with 2 Dutch guys (guitar & bass), one Aruban guy(drums) & we may still take on one more person (keyboards). They really are a nice bunch, so I'm very happy. We haven't got a name yet, so any suggestions would be welcomed ; )

And then there's the clown doctors...

I went to see them in action yesterday & loved what they did. They had invited some special needs kids to a retirement home-with mainly people with Alzheimer’s-to help them decorate their Christmas trees. It was a wonderful experience.

As I arrived, most of the residence were sitting motionless in the hallways. I was surprised at the lack of reactions from them. I would greet them as I walked by, but most would not acknowledge me at all. I guess its part of the Alzheimer’s? Anyway, what was interesting was the things that did make them react. For instance, I noticed the difference music made. As soon as the salsa music started to play many residents would start dancing and singing and you could see how they were transported into another space and time. Suddenly you could see how these people had once been, dancing the night away, celebrating life, feeling sexy and confident...I instantly realized that one day I (like any of us) could be just like them & that music would definitely do the same thing for me as it did for them (already, when I hear good dance music I get transported back to the nineties and I get a huge grin on my face; )

The other thing that made the residents react was the sight of children in the hallways. Most of them loved the kids. We tried to get the old people involved with the decorating of the trees by giving them some decorations to unpack-it was as much as most could contribute-and to hand the decorations back to the kids to hang in the tree.

The clowns were wonderful in how they would approach people and get them involved. It seems that their most important role is to be the icebreaker. It's not about tripping up over banana peels or squirting water out of plastic flowers (though they may do that at times?) It simply is about approaching people, it's about playing with them, holding them, smiling to them, it's about sharing love with them. At least, that's how I see it. That's my feeling of it.

So I would love to join the clown doctors. It's quite a commitment though. It's not something you can do once every few months. You have to commit to one or several 4-hour sessions a week. Still, I would love to do it. I'll first receive some training and after that I'd have to create my character and outfit. I'll keep you informed on it all. Just like the band, it won't really start until the New Year. But that suits me just fine. It gives me a few more weeks to settle in.

Our 5-year-old and God

2007-12-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

Lucas has started to have a bit of a spiritual life all of his own. He talks to God quite a lot these days and it's so sweet to listen to. He asked God the other day why people have 10 fingers and then continued to ask him to please, please, please give him 17 fingers. When he opened his eyes and I asked him what he was planning to do with his 17 fingers, he went quiet for a moment, closed his eyes again and said: "No please God just give me 10 fingers, just 10, that's all I want. Not 17 fingers. Please God, do not give me 17 fingers!"

And the other day there was a TV show on about religion when Lucas walked into the room. He said: "Is that show about God mommy?" I told him that it was. He then looked at the theologist talking on the screen and said: "You know mommy, God made that man". I said that that was right. He then continued: "And you know what else? God even made himself and that's a very tricky thing to do".

Andy and I may not be part of any kind of organized religion, but I do find it important that my children develop their own spirituality. Oh, and whenever Lucas asks God to help him not wee the bed at night, he doesn't wee the bed. So his prayers are being answered ; )

Belize supermarkets versus Aruban supermarkets...I think we have a winner!

2007-12-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

For those of you who've never lived in a developing country like Belize it may be hard to imagine, but I am in heaven every time I walk into a supermarket here in Aruba. In the supermarkets here you can get pretty much everything. Which isn't always the case in Belize. In Belize you can never get any kind of mushrooms, fresh asparagus, soy yoghurts, blueberries, veggie burgers, etc. But in Aruba you can! So I'm having a field day here. Not that I've really got into cooking properly yet. I'm still getting used to this kitchen and figuring out what things we still need to get for it.

And the other cool thing is that nothing on the supermarket shelves in Aruba is out of date. In Belize you have to check everything you buy. Sometimes things are more than a year out of date. I recently bought some children's vitamine C there that turned out to be from 2002! Five years out of date. Can you believe it?

Anyway, I better get ready and start my day. Have a good one, where ever you are!

We're here!

2007-12-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Aruba last Tuesday night, but it feels like we've been here much longer than a week already. My dad and Ina had flown over to Aruba from Holland on a last-minute deal that they found, which was a wonderful surprise! We had some great family time with them (not long enough though)

Our house here is great, Andy is happy playing golf, I've found a band to sing with, the kids are settling in well at school...all is good, really.

It's so hard to imagine that the following pictures were taken just a week ago in Belize. Bart had come back over to spend some time at the Belize Jungle Dome to help out the ladies in the kitchen (congratulations Nora on the birth of your baby girl!!!!!)

It was great to spend some time with him, John and Silvia before we left. And of course with Karen. I will miss you her whilst we're here : (

Will blog more soon....

The adventure that ended in the emergency room

2007-11-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be nice idea to do some Belize daytrips before we leave the country at the end of the month so my sister Miriam and I decided to do the zip line tour at Jaguar Paw yesterday.

But guess what happened? On the first of the eight ziplines my shoulder popped out of its socket. So there I was, stuck on a platform high up in a tree in the jungle, seeing stars and being wobbly on my legs. The Jaguar Paw guides were amazing and within minutes the first aid guy was there with a full kit. By that point we had already been trying to get my shoulder back into its socket, I remembered how it was done many years before and gave our incredibly shocked guides instructions (nothing like this had ever happened before at the ziplines). After 3 painful failed attempts we had to give up.

So they put a sling on me and then I had to climb down some rocks to get off the platform and back to the ground.

The staff at Belmopan hospital were great too. They drugged me up good ; ) and I didn't even realize that they put my shoulder back. All in all it worked out well. Just been back to the hospital to bring the staff some 'thank you' donuts and I'll phone Jaguar Paw in a minute to thank them too for the good care.

But no more wild adventures for me for a while.

Oh, and this is a picture of the baby howler monkey that runs around at Jaguar Paw. Isn't he adorable? I wonder where his mum is though. Poor little guy. He must miss her : (

The view from my kitchen window

2007-10-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yep, views like these make doing the dishes a lot more pleasurable (aren't I the domestic blogger today?)

When I was a little girl I always dreamed of being able to see horses from my house. Well, I got it. Plenty of horses to see and a river view too.

If this is your idea of heaven too, please check out: Horse Lovers Dream Home for sale

My God, I hate sweeping!

2007-10-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

I tried to be 'all Zen' about it today and imagined myself being some kind of Buddhist Monk as I was sweeping, trying to meditate as I went along, but I failed miserably. I just hate sweeping. Just like I hate repetitive exercise like running or cycling. It's all just so mind-numbingly dull. I'd rather clean toilets than sweep.

Now, lately it's been easy. The resort has been closed (for maintenance, etc.) for the last two months, so we had to find work to keep the staff employed. So the women would come and sweep our house. Today was the first time that I had swept in weeks, which is pretty good going if you knew how much mess my two little boys make.

But instead of meditating as I was sweeping this morning, all I could think of was that maybe I should ask for one of those little robot vacuum cleaners for my birthday. You know, those things that look like flying saucers? Or I might even ask for one of those plus the other one that mops. That way I'll never have to clean the floors again. Or maybe I'll just strike a deal with Andy: He'll keep the floors clean in our house in Aruba (as we definitely won't have any staff there) and I'll do everything else as far as cleaning the house goes. Does that sound like a fair deal to you?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2007-10-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

Our almost 5-year-old boy Lucas is dealing with some difficult life questions at the moment, like: What do I want to be when I grow up and whom do I want to marry?

He said that he wants to marry me when he grows up because he likes the way I cut mangoes (my special ‘criss-cross’ system), but also would like to marry Emelda, the girl from next door.

And he also can’t decide whether he’d like to be a bug catcher when he grows up or a Princess, or whether Emelda should be the Princess and he would be a man with a tie, a black T-Shirt and jeans. Decisions, decisions, it must be hard being a kid sometimes ; )

My book reviews

2007-10-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

I may not have been blogging that much lately, what I have been doing is reading, lots and lots of great books. Oddly enough, my favorites recently seem to have been either historical novels or memoirs of people growing up in highly dysfunctional families. I’m sure there are other great genres out there, but right now these are the only books that are doing it for me’.

My two favorite historical novels have been:
‘The other Boleyn girl’ by Philippa Gregory
& ‘The birth of Venus’ by Sarah Dunant

And my favorite dysfunctional family books have been:
‘The Glass Castle’ by Jeannette Walls
& ‘Running with scissors’ by Augusten Burroughs

‘The other Boleyn girl’ is about the first few women in the life of Henry VIII, up to the point where he has married for the third time. The cool thing for me is that I know very little of English history, so I had no idea how things would end (I was aware that he chopped off the heads of some of his wives, so I did expect that somewhere along the line). The author, Philippa Gregory is a genius at weaving historical facts into imaginative novels and by the rave reviews I read about her on Amazon, her other books are meant to be just as good. I’ve already ordered some and can’t wait to get stuck into them. Trust me, this stuff is better then any soap opera! It’s totally addictive reading.

‘The birth of Venus’ is set in fifteenth-century Florence and the thing that fascinated me most was the story behind the story. Basically, as the leading character moves through her life, we get introduced to the vibrant art world of Florence of that time & later the emergence of an extremely fanatical form of Christianity, which brought with it the early stages of what would become the frantic Witch hunts of Europe.

‘The Glass Castle’ is the memoir of Jeannette Walls, who is a news anchor at MSNBC. She grew up in an extremely dysfunctional, yet at times brilliantly creative and funny, nomadic family. At some point in the story you wish you were part of the family yourself and at times you are fuming at the carelessness and cruelness of the parents towards the children, hoping that someone would just jump in and take these poor kids away from them.

The interesting thing that this books shows so well is that children, in most situations, seem to stick to their dysfunctional parents like glue. They protect them to the bitter end and seem to view the outside world (police, social workers, etc.) as the enemy. I saw this in some families as I was growing up, witnessing situations where social services probably should have jumped in, but where the children would hide the truth from the outside world, fearing that their parents would get into trouble or that they would be ‘taken away’. ‘The Glass Castle’ is a rolercoaster of a story; it’s funny, shocking, sad and beautiful and then back to being shocking and funny yet again.

‘Running with scissors’ by Augusten Burroughs is quite similar to the Glass Castle in some ways. Augusten’s memoir tells of him being ‘given away’ to an extremely bizarre psychiatrist and his unorthodox family by his psychotic poet mother & his is surely one of the weirdest childhoods I have ever heard of.

And reading about the ‘relationship’ he had with a pedophile from age 12 onwards was both shocking and fascinating to me. It shows the intricate mix of emotions that a child goes through in a situation like this & it’s the kind of stuff you don’t normally hear about. Society likes to keep that whole subject one-dimensional, when of course we all know that it can’t be (no relationship in life is). I guess that most of the time it’s just too shocking and distasteful a subject for us to look at, so we like to just scan the surface & simply say that all pedophiles should be shot, locked up, or whatever we think should happen to them. This memoir will not change your views on pedophilia (it didn’t change mine), but even so, it was interesting to actually hear the voice of someone who has been through this and to see the human aspect of it.

‘Running with scissors’ is actually a very funny book and a highly entertaining read. The part where, together with his adopted sister, Augusten spontaneously decides to knock the ceiling out of the family kitchen or where the family thought that God was sending messages to them through the shapes of the father’s turds/poos/number-two’s (they would actually fish them out of the toilet and dry them in the back garden) all made me laugh to no end.

This book made me realize yet again that there can be some kind of value in ‘disfunctionality’. Apart from the chance of becoming a complete lunatic, addict, drunk or criminal (or all of these together), there is also the chance of becoming a much more interesting person in the process with a tremendous amount of depth, insight, compassion & humor.

So anyway, if you have a spare moment…read these books. They are all total gems. Enjoy!

The Jaden Foundation blog

2007-10-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Any of you who have supported the Jaden Foundation (my little charity) over the last few years, please check out the Jaden Foundation blog on what's been happening with it.

Just to get you up to date though...here's the posting that I added to it today:

Tumul k'in sponsorship

As nowadays the children of Belize are getting their schoolbooks for free (paid for by the government of Belize), we decided to spend the bulk of this year's Jaden Foundation money on supporting the sponsorship program of the local Private school, the Belize Christian Academy & on supporting the Tumul k'in Center of Learning in Punta Gorda.

Tumul k'in is a Mayan school (not only for Mayan children, though most are) and it is a project that both Karen and I visited a few years ago and fell in love with. I wrote about Tumul k'in in the following blog postings: http://simonesbelizeblog.blogspot.com/search?q=tumul+k%27in

Anyway, this year we have donated $3000 BZ to the school so they can finish building their 'multi-purpose' building. It will be a place where the children can eat their lunch, where the graduations will be held, where community meetings will be held as well as parties and music performances (my kind of place!)

At the last graduation most parents had to stand outside as they didn't have a building large enough to house everyone, so they are very happy with the Jaden Foundation donation.

The managing director of the school wrote me this lovely note today:

Hi Simone,
Just letting you know that we have received the transfer of funds for the construction of the community cultural center (aka kitchen). We will start the work in a week so so since we have to wait for a change in the moon to cut the bamboo to use for the walling. I will keep you informed on the advances of the project.

Isn't that great? They have to wait for the moon to start building. That's the kind of 'being at one with nature' that we as a society have lost. Part of the school's mission is to teach the Mayan kids to respect their Mayan heritage and to take pride in the ancient knowledge and traditions. They use ancient farming practices next to modern day ones, teach the kids about the medicinal properties of the jungle herbs, etc.

And the kids, staff and parents all work together on building the school & many of the buildings are build in the traditional Mayan way, as you can see in the following pictures. This is the start of the building that they will be finishing and furnishing with our donation:

So thank you again to all our sponsors. We hope that you agree with how we are spending the Jaden Foundation money this year. Personally we are delighted that apart from the children that we have sponsored over the years there now also is something tangible that has been build with the sponsorship money. Something that in years from now will still be there and enjoyed by many people.

My blogging dilema

2007-10-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bit of a 'problem'. As you know, my blog is called 'Simone's Belize Blog', but we have decided not to live in Belize from this coming December until next summer.

For this coming tourist season we will be renting out our new house (next to the Jungle Dome) as part of the vacation packages that are offered through Green Dragon Adventure Travel and The Belize Jungle Dome. We are always turning away so much business as the Dome only has 4 Suites, so it makes sense to add our house to the rental pool for at least one season. And anyway, after 6 years of living in the jungle we are quite up for new experiences (which must have been getting obvious by the fact that we have been traveling so much). On top of all this our business is now at a point where, under Karen's amazing management, it is run without Andy and I needing to be there on a day-to-day basis, so we might as well be somewhere else.

Now initially we had planned to go back to the UK for these months, but we have recently decided to go to Aruba instead (where my mum and sister live) as it is so much nearer & therefor easier to travel backwards and forwards and to stay involved with what's happening at the Dome.

So anyway, we will be living in Aruba for the coming months & what am I supposed to do with my Belize Blog? Simply use it for our Aruba stories? That will be a bit weird, won't it? I mean, already it is an odd blog with tons of stories about our family life on there, stuff that has little to do with Belize. But to not even live in Belize and call my blog a Belize blog? Surely that's too much. Still, I don't think I can just change the name. And if I start a new blog it will take years before the search engines start to pick it up again. Hmmmm...what to do, what to do.

Any suggestions? Apart from staying in Belize to continue my blogging? ; )

Let me know.....

Belize Dolphin Encounter pictures

2007-09-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here are two more pictures of last week's dolphin encounter. I never did collect the underwater pictures of my scuba dive though as it started raining badly on San Pedro and the dive shop was quite far from the hotel.

Oh well.....

Aidan with his 'babysitter'. The people on Spanish Lookout Caye were really helpful & when Aidan couldn't join in at the dolphin encounter they made sure that he was being watched at all times. Doesn't he look funny with his floppy sunhat on?

Scuba diving in Belize

2007-09-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that I have managed to live in Belize for 6 years, without having been scuba diving once? I do have my PADI advanced Open Water certificate & love diving, but I just haven’t had a chance to do so whilst living here. For all this time, we were either too busy building our business or I was pregnant or nursing. So I’ve never been on more than a short snorkeling trip (which are great trips too, by the way)

Anyhow, yesterday I finally went on a proper scuba dive. And it was brilliant! My dive master Marcos was just amazing. The sea life we encountered on the two different dive sites were acting like they were all his personal pets. I’ve never seen anything like it. He didn’t even feed any of them, but he just seemed to communicate with them by touch.

Through Marcos’ help, we were able to pet a giant eel and tickle a nurse shark. The eel was actually a ‘friend’ of his. He calls her Esmerelda and he had been looking for her for over a month. He was so excited when he found her again. I have never seen a man beam over the sight of an eel before, but Marcos surely did when we got back to the boat and he told us about how Esmerelda had been hiding since Hurricane Dean had come near.

We also swam right beside a turtle, tons of other nurse sharks, a stingray, a parrotfish and we got kind of ‘attacked’ by a Moreno fish? I forgot the actual name of the fish, but it was a fish that normally attaches itself to a shark or a whale & had obviously lost its host. It then tried to attach itself to us as we were hovering around waiting for our ears to equalize on our way back to the surface. It kept trying to nibble at my hair and in the end the dive master had to punch it to get it to move away from us.

All in all, it was a fantastic first diving session. And I definitely won’t wait another 6 years to dive again.

Oh, and I will try and get hold of the pictures that were taken by the dive master later today

Spiderman, spiderman

2007-09-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

Oh, my boys do crack me up. Aidan is quite a handful these days. His favorite thing is playing in mud and grabbing things he shouldn't grab. He also lifts up your shirt to blow raspberries on your tummy (laughing hysterically as he does so). And he has started to talk a bit too. Just a few words so far: mommy, daddy, night-night and juice & in Dutch: koekje en vissen. He's attempting other words, but can't make them sound right yet.

And Lucas? Well, what can I say about Lucas. He actually believes that he's Spiderman. On some days he thinks that he's the boy from the Incredibles (the one who can run on water), but most days he's Spiderman. To be honest, I even think he's Spiderman sometimes. Just look at this clip and you'll understand what I mean.

Oh, and before I forget...here are some more funny comments from Lucas: "Oh mom, you should have seen these little baby rabbits. They were so cute, I almost cried"

And a while ago he came home from school to tell me that he has a girlfriend. "Wow" I said, "That's nice. What's her name?"

"Er...I forgot"

"Well, do you want to invite her over for a play date soon?"

"Oh, no!" He answered mortified "I don't talk to her. I'm scared of her"

Belize Dolphin Encounter

2007-09-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

Days out with the family don’t come much better than this! We went to Spanish Lookout Caye yesterday, which is a 20-minute boat ride from Belize City and experienced the Dolphin Encounter there. It was amazing!!!!

We’d been meaning to check the dolphin encounter out for ages now, but never got round to it before. We wanted to see first hand if the place was exploitative in any way. If it was, we would make sure never to send any of our guests there. But after having been there, I’m happy to say though that the place is run in a very responsible manner & that it is highly educative, with an emphasis on conservation.

Before you go into the water with the dolphins, the trainers teach you a thing or two about the animals. About their physiology, their behavior and about ways that we can all protect their habitat. You are then taught how to behave in the water with the animals. The 4 dolphins at Spanish Lookout Caye are bottlenose dolphins, bred in captivity & they are all relatively young, about 4 to 6 years old, so they are still learning a lot and don’t always behave perfectly (but then, which 4-year-old does?)

Still, the two dolphins we met did wonderful. They were so bright and so excited about everything. It was really cute to see how much they loved their trainers and how they loved all the positive reinforcement they got. When one dolphin was a bit naughty, the trainer just blanked him for a moment. Which is the dolphin equivalent to a ‘time-out’.

These captive dolphins get regular visits from their wild counterparts & the two boys seem to be doing very well with the ‘wild’ ladies out there. So there is a lot of flirting going on between the dolphins at the lagoon and those just outside the barrier.

Of course, there is nothing as great as dolphins in the wild. But these captive dolphins seemed very happy (something that can not be faked) & I am sure that they enjoy this highly interactive lifestyle to being stuck in a tank at a zoo somewhere.

I definitely recommend this encounter to those visiting or living in Belize and we’ll start adding this day trip to our own packages soon too.

So if any of you want to go on this daytrip or any other Belize daytrip/vacation, contact us at Green Dragon Adventure Travel.

A few more pictures from our travels that I hadn't posted yet

2007-09-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here's Aidan hanging out with my cousin Lida. We had a lovely day with my two cousins and my cousin's little boy Meldy at a local playground/fairground/crazy golf place. Lucas was even saying that he wanted to move to Holland as there are more playgrounds there than in Belize (which is easy as there really aren't any good playgrounds in Belize) and also because he gets more presents whenever we are in Holland.

Our easy rider Aidan. Doesn't he look cool?

Lucas and his new best friend Meldy. Lucas had been asking me for ages why he hasn't got any cousins (Andy and I are the first of our siblings to have kids), so he was delighted when I told him that Meldy was actually a real cousin of his. I just didn't tell him that he is his cousin third removed, or whatever it's called. After meeting Meldy Lucas kept talking proudly about 'my cousin this' and 'my cousin that'. Meldy is a really great kid, so it was nice to see how well they got on.

Here I am trying to take a picture on the timer with my cousins Lida and Esther. I just figured out how to use the timer on my new camera and using it brought back all those memories of my father taking timed pictures when we were growing up. The camera would never go off when we expected it to, but wait until my dad got up and check the camera. So most pictures would be of his worried face right in front of the camera, with us in the background trying to pull him back. I always found it hilarious.

Anyway, it was great spending time with Lida, Esther and Meldy. I hope we can do it again real soon!

High school reunion

2007-08-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to see my 2 old school friends Marloes and Wendy. We had all grown up together and kind of lost touch with each other after finishing school, mainly becaues I moved away to London when I was 18. Our little 'reunion' was brilliant. They haven't changed a bit and they said the same of me. It is astounding to think that you can be away from people for 17 years and then simply pick up the threat where you left it, but that's how it felt. I guess it helps that we are all in similar phase of life again as all 3 of us have young children. Here is Lucas with Wendy's little boy Djoy and Marloes' little girl Tess. I definately intent to stay in touch this time and to visit them again next time we're back in Holland.

Oh, and we drove past my old house, my old school, etc. It was funny seeing it all back again and seeing how much things have changed.

Wendy talked to me about why she never left the town that we all grew up in & she was quite right when she said to me: "I see it like this, regardless of where you live, once you've been there for a while it will become mundane and regardless of where you are in the world, you need to work for a living. So why move half-way across the world to end up the same situation you would be in right here? At least here I have the support of my friends and family"

Yep, she sure has a point.

Anyway, here's a picture of Lucas with Wendy's little boy Djoy and Marloes' little girl Tess. And a picture of the 3 of us together with Tess and Lucas.

Can I just keep updating you on our travels with photographs?

2007-08-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying being a lazy blogger right now. So I'll just keep telling the story of our travels by showing the pictures.
In the kitchen with my dad, his wife Ina and my little sister Iris. It's been lovely hanging out with family. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family. I love each and every one of them. If only everyone could live closer to each other.

In this picture for instance are my brothers Vincent and Floris and my sister Iris, but Miriam and JP are missing. It's been too long since we've had all the brothers and sisters together.

Floris (our little actor) looking rather silly with Iris' glasses...

Crazy Iris showing off her tongue piercing....

Family picture with my aunt Jola and uncle Jose. My other aunt and uncle and grandma had to leave unexpectantly early that day as they suddenly received a phonecall from the hospital. My cousin had an accident and had broken his arm. Yes, the boys in the Engeln family have been a bit unfortunate recently. My little brother Floris broke his toe a few days earlier too. Let's hope the family clumsiness/bad luck stops soon.

Some more pictures of our travels

2007-08-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

Lucas is very much stuck in his role of Spiderman. But then, aren't all 4-year-old boys? This outfit is actually a swimsuit. Isn't it fun?

Aidan trying to stand on Lucas' new skateboard with assistance from Ina.

My dad and Ina....aren't they sweet?

Going on another daytrip with the boys. They've been in playgrounds, petting zoos, etc. virtually every day. Not a bad life!

This gypsie family is back on the road again!

2007-08-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I have no real excuse for my recent lack of blogging apart from the fact that we have been- and still are-traveling yet again. We're in the UK and have been spending time in Brighton with Jody, Amber, Rich and Mooch & have now landed in Hunstanton. The weather-as you can see-is beautiful. We've even burned a tat whilst walking on the beach. But apparently that's all going to change tomorrow as major rain will hit the British Isles, accompanied by gale force winds!!!! Not looking forward to being on the coast in a flimsy log cabin for that (they call them log cabins, but they really are luxury caravans). But we'll see how things work out. Hopefully we won't blow away.

By the way, aren't these photographs stunning? I am so delighted to have a Fujifilm Finepix camera back. My old one died a while ago and I had replaced it with a Canon Powershot. But no camera seem to be able to do what Fujifilm cameras can, so I decided to get my broken camera sent off and to spend some more on a new Fujifilm replacement camera (a great service they provide)

Most these pictures were taken against a bright background with forced flash. You also can edit and chop pictures in the camera. If you are thinking of buying a new digital camera...buy a fujifilm (unless you want to buy my old Canon Powershot of me. It's for sale ; )

Lucas and Aidan are having a blast. Playing on the beach, going to the funfair, hanging out in the playground, riding around on scooters. It's great to see them having so much fun.

Of course, Lucas had to catch disgusting creatures again. If he isn't digging out worms, he's catching frogs and here he is on Hunstanton beach with some crabs. Nice!

This last weekend we spent with Russel, Sarah and their two boys Jack and Sam. It was lovely. It's so great to spent time with old friends.

Nice Jungle Dome reviews

2007-07-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

It's always great to hear how much people enjoy staying at the Jungle Dome. The atmosphere at the lodge is rather unique, unless you've been there it's hard to explain in words. I guess you could say that it's like a luxury bed & breakfast experience (even though we feed everyone fantastic dinners there too). Our guests usually end up becoming good friends with everyone else at the lodge and they all love our staff! Some guests are virtually in tears when they leave the place and tell us that they feel like they've been visiting family, instead of feeling like they were guests at a hotel.

Just have a read of the Carrie's blog, a newly-wed who recently stayed at the Jungle Dome:
http://newlywedgal.blogspot.com/

Our all-inclusive resort experience

2007-07-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

It's so funny, just over a month ago I wrote 'No more travels please!' and what have we been doing lately? Yep, travel, travel and travel some more.

Last week we drove to Playacar, Mexico and we stayed at one of those big all-inclusive resorts. We've never stayed at one of those before and had never had felt attracted to them, but thought it was a good idea now because of the kids. All the reviews on Tripadvisor go on about how great these places are for children, with kids clubs and activities for them, etc. So we tried it out.

Well, what can I say...in order to decide who and what you are in life, you sometimes have to experience that which you are not. And people for large all-inclusive resorts we are not. Don't get me wrong, we had a nice enough time. The food was over-flowing and good, we were right on the beach and by the pool, there was nightly entertainment that was good fun and it was an easy vacation/holiday for parents like us with young kids.

One of the down-sides was that Lucas, our jungle boy, was totally intimidated by the size of it all and refused to go to the kids club or take part in any of the organized activities (he liked watching the evening shows though), it was hard to make any friends, even for us, in a place that was that big. The activities around the pool were incredibly embarrassing, with the aqua fit sessions looking more like something from an 18-30's holiday (a cheap excuse to touch up members of the opposite sex). And I found it hard to admire the beauty of the sea and the beach as it was so full of 'stuff' (palapas, beach chairs, hammocks, etc.)

On our last day we drove to Tulum for the morning and as soon as we arrived there I realized that that is where I would want to stay again next time. Tulum is so unspoiled, with cute character-filled little hotels, restaurants and gift shops. It's got a slight 'hippie' feel to it & I find the whole place rather magical. I can't exactly explain why I feel like that.

The only down-side to Tulum is that it hasn't got a golf course nearby. And Andy, of course, is totally into playing golf. It would therefore be a shame to go to Mexico without making use of the incredible golf courses that are there. Oh well, we will figure out where to stay next time we go back to Mexico. Maybe we'll go again when Andy's mum is with us in September?

Great golf vacation for the whole family!

2007-07-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a 3-day break on Caye Chapel, a private golf island off the Belize coast.

When Andy first suggested going to Caye Chapel with the kids I was slightly sceptical of the idea. First of all, I thought that only millionaires were able to afford to stay there & I was a bit worried about what the kids and I would do for the three days that Andy played golf. It turns out that I worried for nothing. Caye Chapel feels like a playground for the rich and famous, but it actually is quite affordable (but don't tell anyone...otherwise we'll never be able to get a room there again) & the kids and I weren't bored for a minute.

We were given a lovely 2-bedroom casita, with satellite TV, wireless Internet and a DVD player (so when we needed the kids to wind down, we'd stick on one of their favorite movies). We also were given 2 golf buggies and bicycles for whizzing around the island. There was a lovely pool, a spa, a gym, coconut skittles, a basketball court, volleyball, swing sets and of course the beach. We didn't need to lock our door for the whole weekend, the kids were safe to run in and out of the casita and Andy would practice his golf swing right outside our door (the golf course was just across the sandy road). Whenever Lucas wanted to join Andy on the golf course, he'd run over and use the little kiddies golf clubs that the Caye Chapel staff provided us with.

The place is both swanky and relaxed at the same time. Our food was brought to where ever we wanted it (lunch at the pool and dinner in our casita) and it was funny to see men playing the golf course on bare feet and with just their swimming shorts on.

Lucas never even missed his friends. Which is unusual for him. Even after 3 days there, he did not want to leave.

So anyway, we'll be going back soon. Until then, Andy is practicing his golf skills almost daily at the Roaring River Golf Course near our house. He really has a the mindset of top sports man. When he gets in to something, he gets in to something. And right now that something is golf. It's inspiring to watch his determination, even though I could never be like that myself. When Karen and I played tennis for instance, we weren't even able to keep score. We were too busy chatting to be serious about the game. Andy was baffled. Why would anyone play sports and not even care about how well they do? Guess that's why he he's the sports man in the family ; )

This is great news!!!!!!!

2007-06-28T04:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've just read on the Channel 7 website that the Belize Government is going to start giving free text books to all primary school children! That is fantastic! I'm absolutely delighted. This is what has been needed so badly for so long now. And I guess that means that the job of the Jaden Foundation is going to change quite a bit. A big part of our job used to be the sorting out of school books each year. We used to collect last year's books, see which ones could be re-used, collect all the new book lists (some hand written and barely understandable) & then go up and down the country to all the different book stores in an attempt to buy all the books we needed. It was never a straight forward process & it used to cost us a fair amount of money too.

We can now use the Jaden Foundation funds for school transport, supporting high school students and sponorship for those wanting to attend the private school, BCA.

Here is the news story:

GOB To Offer Free Textbook for Primary School Students

Free textbooks for primary school students - that was the announcement made by Education Minister Francis Fonseca at this morning's PSE Awards Ceremony.

It's been general knowledge to parents and educators for months, but details have been scarce. And in the absence of information, apprehension has developed in some quarters because parents want to know, what will their children be learning and will it be up to standard? But those answers were not forthcoming this morning. Fonseca only made the general announcement that starting in September all primary school students enrolled in public and church run schools will receive free textbooks.

Hon. Francis Fonseca,"The standardized books cover the five core subject areas of mathematics, language arts, science, social studies, and Spanish. The textbook program will provide quality and relevant textbooks free of cost for all children attending primary school. This textbook program takes effect September, 2007. We have consulted widely and deeply and we are doing the right thing for the children of Belize. Yes, there are cynics and those for whom the Ministry of Education can do no right. I urge all our people, but particularly our principals and teachers and parents to embrace this important opportunity for our nation."

After this morning's ceremony, Fonseca declined our request for an interview to elaborate on the program's scarce details. He promised that those questions would be answered next week when he holds a press conference to fully detail the initiative.

Finally...pictures of our new house!

2007-06-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

We are still working on the finishing touches to the house like landscaping, paving, hanging up pictures, etc. But apart from that we are done!!!! We never thought this day would actually come ; )

So anyway, this is one of the entrances. It's the one we use when we move between the Dome and the house & as you can see everything is starting to grow up nicely around it.

Our open-plan kitchen. You can't see the breakfast bar in this picture though. I have to say, I really love this kitchen. It's cozy, made of local mahogany (recycled from our old cabinets) and finished with Mexican tiles. By the way, the river views from the window by the sink are amazing. It makes washing up almost fun!

Our Mexican tiles...

The living room, with its bay windows and DVD shelves. As you can see, one of the local boys is in the picture. Our house has become the community's playground, with children running in and out all day.

The living room goes straight into the dining area and to the left of this picture is the breakfast bar and open-plan kitchen.

This is our family deck. It's a great place to hang out with the kids. We spend a lot of time out there. The views are incredible.

Although not as incredible as the views from the deck on the top floor. The top floor is made especially for our friends and family, with its own bathroom and private deck. Our pampered guests will have the best views in the house (yes, that's the river you see there)

That's it so far. I'll post more pictures some other time.

Investment in the Cayo district of Belize!!! Riverfront property for sale!

Aha! So you can go fly fishing in Aruba!

2007-06-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, I apparently laughed too soon when I blogged about my brother-in-law's plans to start a fly fishing business on Aruba. I thought that fly fishing wasn't possible there as it would be too windy on the island. It turns out that I was very wrong. Laurenz (My brother-in-law) is out fly fishing all the time & has now set up a free fly fishing service for visitors of the island. Of course, I think he's crazy offering that for free, but there you go...the guy is just obsessed about fishing & wants to get the whole fly fishing industry going on Aruba.

From the website:

Fly Fishing in Aruba for free !

"Welcome to the only web page about fly fishing in Aruba. Check us for all your info on fly fishing in Aruba.

Our big idea is to get more people interested in fly fishing on the beautiful island of Aruba so Me (Laurenz) and Ben started a non profit organization, to offer tourist and locals a chance to experience saltwater fly fishing at no fee.

The goal is to learn, teach and meet people with the same interest.We can take people who contact us on a guided fly fishing tour or help them with anything they need for a non guided fishing day. Learning from different people from different parts of the world will make us better fishermen and more expert on the subject!

For the local training program we are looking for sponsors from abroad. We will take no money, but instead fly fish gear/ leaders, fly’s, fly lines,bag, rods, books and anything we can use for teaching. Donations can also be in the form of sharing expertise or advice. If you have a nice story to share, and you have been to Aruba and did fly fishing, please send us an email at: info@flyfishingaruba.com All stories are very welcome and appreciated.

All stories will be read and if interesting for others, placed on our web page.Thanks for your interest and hopefully see you soon, Laurenz and uncle Ben. "

Well, I wish them luck and of course I'm sure that Lucas will want to join them some time ; )

Norman Cook & Zoe Ball's fabulous yacht

2007-06-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim) has just sent me through the info on their 'boutique hotel' charter boat. It's called the Barracuda Yacht Charter & it is amazing! What a great idea to offer the boutique hotel experience on a private charter. And of course it gives you lots of bragging rights when you can tell your mates: "Oh yes, we'll be spending a week on Norman and Zoe's yacht".

It holds up to 8 people plus staff and is available in the Mediterranean between the months of May to October. Hmmm...maybe I can persuade them to bring the boat down to Belize from November to April? ; )

My thoughts on the Educo gym

2007-06-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

It seems that a fair amount of people come to my blog by Google-ing 'Educo gym' and 'does Educo gym work?'

Well, let me just share my opinion on it then with a list of what I like about the Educo gym system and a list of what I don't like and then you can make up your own mind.

What I like:

It is a fast work-out (2o minutes per session)
You always are accompanied by a personal trainer
It kick-starts you into eating better and exercising with their 12-day program. During these first 12 days you work out every day and you are put on a special diet.
It is a nice looking, fully AC-ed gym (most other gyms I have seen in Belize are not particularly flash and most have no AC!!!!)
They offer personal support, a diet plan and nutritional supplements
I believe that the system works well for those wanting to lose weight and/or adding muscle mass

What I don't like:

Their work-out routine and diet is too rigid.
They offer no real cardio exercises. By doing the resistance training at a fast pace you are told that you are doing a cardio work-out. Personally, am not convinced that resistance training alone can offer this.
The system seems build on a 'one size fits all' policy. In my opinion there should be more variety and people's own input should be encouraged and listened to. Also, not enough attention seems to given to pre-existing conditions and injuries.
Because of the short intense work-out time, there is no warm-up or cool-down period and no stretching. One of the trainers told me that by extending each muscle fully in between each power move you are getting all the stretching you need. Again, I disagree with that statement.

All in all, I'm sure that the system suits some people down to the ground. I'm just not one of those people. I want more variety when working out & less emphasis on all this body building stuff. I have bought dance and yoga DVDs and am working out by myself again here at the Belize Jungle Dome : (

Aidan can use his water wings and Lucas can ride a bike!

2007-06-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

By the way, I'll promise to start writing about other things than just my children again soon. I must sound so boring!

It's just so easy to love him

2007-06-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

I always thought that Lucas was an easy child, until Aidan came along. It's virtually impossible to not like this kid. He is just so happy and easy-going, an absolute delight. Lucas is funny and emotional, but he can also be a complete wind-up.

Aidan on the other hand is totally mellow. When you stick a hat on him, he doesn't try to pull it off, when you want him to swim with water wings he does so. He may protest for a moment, but then he realizes that that's too much work and gives up. Lucas would battle with me constantly about stuff like that, but Aidan just isn't too bothered.

And Aidan loves all the good things in life: music, food and good company. As soon as music starts, his face lits up and he starts dancing. And he'll dance for hours (he's just like his mum ; )
When I look at him, two things go through my head:

I will have so much fun with this boy when he gets older
He will cause me as many sleepless nights as I used to cause my mother (what goes around, comes around)

Yep, He'll most likely become quite a party animal. And he loves to entertain the crowds. He's a hit where ever he goes. Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for Lucas as Aidan seems to get all the attention. Still, it's just what happens with the little ones, isn't it?

By the way, Lucas has learned to ride a bike! I'll post some clips of it later. I am so proud of him!

Domestic Goddess

2007-06-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yep, I've been feeling like a super fantastic domestic Goddess. Well, I felt like that yesterday. I enjoyed my mother/chef/cleaner role so much that I couldn't even pull myself away from it to go to the US Ambassador's house, where his wife had invited me for lunch together with the other International Women's Group women. I had really wanted to go to that, but just couldn't get myself into the right state of mind yesterday. I felt like walking around the house on my slippers and with curlers in my hair (I don't use curlers, but you get what I mean, right?) & so I just cooked, cleaned and played with the kids. It was wonderful!

Today I've already fallen out of my domestic role again (it never lasts long) as my patience with the kids was near zero this morning. Thank God we have a babysitter. I told her that I needed to be in the Jungle Dome office this morning and left her in charge of playing with the baby. Lucas won't be back from school until 12 o'clock, so I have a few hours of blogging peace. Maybe my domestic Goddess feeling will return this afternoon, if not then I will just heat up left-overs for dinner and throw all the scattered toys in one big box at the end of the day.

No more traveling please!!!!!

2007-06-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's nice to be back home. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling and it was great to see my mum and my sister, but I really needed to be back in my own space for a little while.

I remember this 'please bring me home' feeling from my MTV time as well as I was constantly on the road back then, at an average of 2 foreign trip per week for 8 years. Back then I'd often crave to just stay in, curl up on the sofa with my cats (this was obviously pre-motherhood) and watch a movie. That was one of the things that was hard to explain to people who weren't 'in the industry'. If I told someone who was a shop assistant that I had to go to New York the next day and that I just didn't feel like it or that I had begged my boss to send someone else to that festival at Mount Fuji as I had already gone from Japan to LA and back to London and therefor did not know anymore when to sleep, eat or play, they would surely think that I was bragging & so I would only talk of this kind of stuff with those who lived a similar lifestyle.

Anyhow, what I'm trying to say is that it's great to be back home again. In our new home! Yes, it's (pretty much) finished. Even though my washing machine and cooker don't work yet, some sockets give no power, there's a missing moskito screen, the fence around our deck isn't finished and even though I have to go around the house with a fine paint brush to touch up dodgy paint lines, it is all wonderful. I mean, just the fact that I'm able to make breakfast and coffee in my own kitchen is heaven to me!

Oops! Got to go...have to get Lucas ready for school....adios!

The way kids minds work

2007-05-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

My four-year-old boy Lucas keeps cracking me up with the things he says lately, like: "Mum, I can run really fast. As fast as a coconut falls from the tree. And even faster than diarrhea comes out. That fast."

And yesterday he was rather tired and moody. When I asked him what we could do to make him happy again, he looked down at the floor, shook his head and said: "I don't know mummy, I think my happy is stuck".

Anyway, I've decided to write down all these funny comment, as I know that it's impossible to remember them all. And I can't wait till Aidan adds to the list too. Moments like these make all the hard work that we parents do worthwhile. Don't you think?

Our family 'on tour'

2007-05-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

Oops, I just realized that I never told you yet how the principle of Lucas' school reacted to us asking for yet more time off school for Lucas....well, he was totally cool about it. His mantra turns out to be 'travel is a different kind of learning and no less valuable than time in the class room'. So obviously this is my kind of principle.

We've been in Aruba since the 16th of May and the kids have only just started to get settled in. I guess we've under-estimated the effect that all this traveling would have on them (2 weeks in the UK, one over-night in Houston, four days back in Belize, one over-night in Miami and then on to Aruba)

The effects of all this upheaval were mainly visible in sleeping problems, being moody (Lucas acted like he entered early puberty...I've never met such a moody 4-year-old!) & fear of new children, something my kids normally never suffer from. We had hoped to enrol the kids into a playgroup for the 3 weeks that we were here, but after 3 failed attempts and some rather hysterical scenes, we gave up.

So now our days are filled with:

Watching rented childrens DVD's in the morning, whilst mum drinks coffee and slowly wakes up (we don't really have rental places back home, so to rent a DVD is a luxury for us)
Dad taking Lucas to the driving range to practice their golf swings
Shopping (big supermarkets are extremely exciting to those of us who have lived in Belizean jungle for the last few years)
Spending time on one of the many beautiful beaches in Aruba
Hanging out with my mum, sister and their partners
Exercising at the local gym (I'm in heaven! Some real time for myself)

My two boys being nice to each other. I wich they were always like this. Lucas has been fighting a lot with his little brother, even though yesterday he told me how much he loves little Aidan: "Mum, I love him so much! I love him like fire! I love him like the night time when there are really hard winds, that much. I love him like a hundred thousand!"

A few hours later he tried to drown him in the sea....

One of the many fun nights in Aruba. Here Lucas tries his hand at 'spijkers slaan', where you have to try and knock a nail into some wood in as few hits as possible.

My sister Miriam and her husband Laurenz outside 'the Plaza' bar in Aruba during the pole sitting competitions (strange Dutch tradition where people sit on a pole for days on end & start halucinating after many sleepless night)That's all for now. The baby just woke up again... For more pictures of our Aruba adventure, check out my sisters blog.

Back in Belize for 4 days only!

2007-05-14T04:36:00.000-07:00

This is crazy. We arrived back in Belize on Friday and tomorrow we're off again, this time to Aruba. The Aruba trip had been planned ages ago & we couldn't change the flights anymore, so off we all go again!

This morning I'll have to talk to the principle of Lucas' school and ask for three more weeks of school. I hope that he'll be cool about it & that it isn't too big of a deal as Lucas is still so young. Anyway, if because of all this he'll be held back next year it wouldn't be the end of the world either. He is meant to start going to K5 after the summer and go for full days, yet he's only 4 and
I am a bit worried that that may be a bit much for him. Anyway, I'll just see what they say today.

Here are a few pictures of our England trip. I better get a move on. Lots to do before we leave again....

Belize to England

2007-04-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, there obviously has been a lack of blogging on my behalf recently, but this is because we suddenly and quite expectantly have flown off to England earlier in the week. Andy's nan passed away and his mum is due for triple surgery next week, so we decided that we needed to be with the family.

Right now we're in his nan's old house, getting everything ready for the funeral & in a few days we'll head up to Norfolk to be nearer his mum & dad's house.

The kids have been amazing through this whole upheaval. They were as good as gold on the flight over, which is always a worry, as you never know how your children will behave when they are forced to sit down and share a confined space with tons of other people for such a long time. Lucas was actually trying to figure out which cloud was heaven & was expecting to see his great-grandmother fly by when we were up the air.

Anyway, I'm going to keep it short. Just wanted to let you all know where we were.

Enjoy your family and friends! They are precious!

So what's new?

2007-04-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it's still hot here. There was meant to be a cold front coming in now, but apart from it being pleasantly cool last night, nothing much has changed in the temperature during the day. Maybe it's a tat cooler than it was, but that's it.

Some good news: the house is getting closer and closer to getting finished. Yeeha! There are so many people working in there today, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, builders...it's quite a sight. I think that in another week or so we'll be able to take out the partition wall and live in the whole building.

Lucas is back in school (another 'Yeeha!') and little Aidan is still fighting off a cold, the second one he's had in a row now. He's still happy as anything and he doesn't act sick during the day, apart from the fact that he's gone off solids almost completely now (how on earth can I start weaning him, when he keeps getting flu's and colds?) But at night he has such coughing fits that he ends up vomiting the phlegm all over the place. It's hard to figure out what to do. Are these just viruses he picks up, is it something else? Am I worrying too much? Am I worrying too little? Oh, the predicaments of being a mother...

And then there's the Jungle Dome, of course. Well, we're still very busy, with a lot of families staying with us (which Lucas is very happy about). But starting next week it will be a bit more quiet again, so we can look at going away for a weekend soon.

And that's all really.

Mini-heat wave in Belize

2007-04-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Boy, it's been hot the last few days. Apparently it was 105 degrees F. (about 40 C.) yesterday?

That's pretty hot in my books. And our house has no AC (Andy and I are not crazy about AC most of the time)

Anyway, even when it gets real hot in Belize, it usually cools down at night. And that's the main thing for me...that I'm able to sleep comfortably at night with just a fan on the ceiling.

Oh, and that's not me in that fridge. I just found this picture online and found it quite funny...

Is our house ready yet?

2007-04-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

No, it still isn't finished. But we're getting there now. Our kitchen is coming along nicely as you can see. It's going to be finished with lots of Mexican tiles.

Anyway, in another month we should be done. And, even tough the end result will be great, I don't think I'll ever build a house again. It will have taken us more than a year (about 14 months in total, I expect)

Still, we will be living in our dream house & that can't be too bad. We may even forget about the whole process once we're in.

A day at the San Ignacio Easter fair

2007-04-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Andy, John, Lucas and (barely visible in the cart) Aidan. Behind them is the scariest ferris wheel in the world. It goes incredibly fast and there are no rails around it, so if you don't watch out you'll walk straight into it. I also noticed an overall lack of safety features on most the rides, with little kids flying up in the air on all kinds of machines, without even a basic safety belt or bar. It's all so Central American.

Check out Lucas and Andy in some sort of go-cart/buggy thing...

Plus some rather fun live music. The woman dancing with the MC is a person from the audience, hoping to get a free CD. Oh, and isn't the little girl dancing at the side cute? By the way, I'm sorry for the awful sound quality

Flu, etc.

2007-04-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Little Aidan has had the flu again this week. He has been struck down with it several times in the last 6 months or so. It's weird, Aidan seems like a much sturdier baby than Lucas was, yet Lucas never seemed to be ill & Aidan has been sick a lot. I guess the difference is that when Lucas was a baby we weren't running a resort yet. Nowadays we receive visitors from all over the world & I guess people bring us the occasional foreign viruses too. I assume that's what's happening. I have heard that this kind of stuff is meant to strengthen an immune system. So let's at least hope that that's true.

Anyway, he's getting better. So if we're lucky we may even get a decent night's sleep again tonight.

A bit of work, lots of chilling....

2007-04-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

Andy, the kids and I just went on a rather fun adventure. We spent the week at a San Pedro recording studio, where the English music producer Norman Cook (better known as Fatboy Slim) was doing jamming sessions with several Belizean artists (Andy Palacio, the Grandmaster and the Garifuna collective). It's a thing I had set up with my friend Caroline, so we went along to see how it all went.

It was so much fun. Andy and I really got to relax as well, as we brought a babysitter out with us to help with Aidan & Lucas made friends with another little boy, so he didn't need us to entertain him constantly.

Anyway, Norman Cook is just the nicest guy ever. He is totally down to earth. I knew him from back in my MTV days and he does not seem to have changed at all. I mean, we've all grown up since then, but as far as him being an ordinary guy, he's still the same old person.And then there was Nathan, who runs Norman's record label Southern Fried Records. I never met Nathan before, but he was just the easiest person to get on with. The guy is crazy. He grew up in London, but is able to climb coconut trees the way the locals here do, he manages to do back flips on the beach like Lucas' 6-year-old friend Justin did and, to top it all off, has incredible speed when chasing after nurse sharks. The guy is just full of surprises.

We all got on so well. And watching Andy and Nathan row off into the horizon in a kayak loaded with beer made me laugh, as Andy never does anything like that anymore these days. He's always so focused on his work and our family, so to see him like that, without a care in the world, was just wonderful. I, obviously, loved hanging out on the beach with my dear old friend Caroline Prothero. We shared a house in London many, many years ago and have stayed friends through all our ups and downs in life.

Caroline, Aidan and I soaking up the last bit of sun on our final day in Ambegris Caye.

Miss Prothero and the nurse sharks...

Snorkeling on the reef.

Norman and Lucas checking out the sharks. To swim or not to swim?

Every afternoon, the boys tried to catch dinner. But this crab was sadly enough the catch of the day.

Lucas' friend Justin was at the studio with his mother, who was one of the singers of the Garifuna collective. They were meant to be leaving on our second day there, but we so enjoyed the way the two boys got on, that we asked his mum if little Justin could stay behind with us. We told her that we'd drop him off in Belize City at the end of the week. And, surprisingly enough, she said yes.

Now, to ask a mother to just leave her child behind with us is something I would have never dared to ask anywhere else, but things in Belize are just so chilled. Also, the woman's boss and other her other colleagues were still there at the resort/studio with us, so it wasn't like she was totally abandoning her child. Still, it was a bit of a crazy set-up, as I didn't know the mother's name, I only had a phone number of one of her band members (she had just lost her cell phone) & some rather confusing instructions on where to find her house. It all worked out perfectly though. Justin actually flew back with the woman's boss in the end, so we didn't even have to try and find our way around Belize City, looking for the woman's house.

Everyone had such a great time that even Lucas, who is always the first to want to go home, was wondering out loud on the final day 'Mum, why do we have to go back to the Jungle Dome?'

Oh well, all we are doing is move from one piece of paradise to the next, so I guess we can't really complain.

Caroline, Andy and Lucas on the boat on our way home. We'll be back soon!

A little 'Aidan photoshoot'

2007-03-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

Isn't he a beauty? And he's a proper little Buddah too. Always happy & oh so easy-going. We're very lucky to have two such wonderful children...

Progress gone mad

2007-03-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

I always feel relieved in more ways than one when, after long travels, I once again visit a public toilet in Belize. Now, I know that that is a strange thing to say, but I just hate all these 'top of the range' public toilets that are now all over Western society. I mean, what's wrong with flushing a toilet? I hate these toilets that are meant to flush by themselves. They either start flushing before you're finished or they refuse to flush at all and you end up moving backwards and forwards in the cubicle in the hope of of your movements being detected somehow.

I understand that people don't like touching anything in public toilets, but come on! This is just progress gone mad as far as I'm concerned. You can just flush the damn thing and wash your hands when you're done. Oh, and then there's those stupid taps too that are meant to start running as soon as you put your hands under them. They never seem to work the way they are supposed to either.

Now, I'm sorry to say, but it made me laugh to hear that during a power cut in New York no one could use public toilets, because none of them would flush and the taps gave no water either. Something like that would never happen in a developing country like Belize...because here we are still able to manually flush away our own crap.

Giving machines this much power is just ridiculous.

So there you go, progress is not always about going faster & it's not about sanitizing the hell out of life either.

So flush and be happy!

How long will it be before he starts bringing home dinner?

2007-03-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

Dr. Tim was kind enough to go fishing with Lucas several times whilst the Intervol group was here. I get the feeling he is improving, even though he still does have a hard time following instructions.

Anyway, next week on San Pedro he'll be able to practice every day with Andy : )

Our Beautiful boy at Old Belize

2007-03-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

There he goes!

2007-03-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

Aidan's walking!

2007-03-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Oh, it is just the cutest! He is wobbling all over the place. Lucky enough, Cindy from Intervol (yes, my lovely doctor friends are back in Belize) brought me my new camera, so I can actually document his early walking moments, before he loses that adorable wobble.

The only problem so far is that he refuses to walk when the camera points at him. But once he's had his nap I will try again & I will post it later.

Oh, and I'm not feeling 'blah!' anymore. That only lasted a day or so. Thanks for the lovely reactions to that post though. I guess the experience is quite universal.

Messages about Darfur, Sudan

2007-03-06T10:17:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Suzanne Doyle has worked with some of the greatest music stars in the world. At one point she was Bono's personal assistant & I guess that 'like attracts like' in this case, because like Bono, Suzanne is a person who can not watch by in silence when she sees an injustice, in this case the genocide in Sudan. Please have a look at the emails she's been sending me. I hope they'll inspire you to take some action...

Suzanne:

So last night, in our PJ's, with full tummies, warm bed clothes and no pain or fear, I sat with my 8 year old and my 2 year old watching the amazing Eclipse of the Moon or 'La Luna' (as my 2-year-old calls it) from the comfort of our sheltered and safe bedroom. I couldn't help thinking of the innocent men, women and children all over the world who would probably wish upon that Eclipse for NO FEAR, PROPER ACCOMMODATION, PROPER FOOD AND MEDICINE, THEIR MURDERED SONS & DAUGHTERS, FATHERS AND MOTHERS TO BE ALIVE AGAIN and most importantly for HOPE TO BE RESTORED....

It really is SO wrong that so many people are suffering at the hands of other humans - and for what? For those of you who don't know, the situation in DARFUR, SUDAN is being compared to the GENOCIDE in RWANDA. The rape, killing and pillage has killed an estimated 200,000 people (some reports say it's actually far more than this) and it has driven 2.5 million from their homes in four years...

This week there has been talk of the The Sudanese interior minister threatening to BEHEAD ANY PERSON attempting to arrest the individuals indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and I ask myself if that is the sort of government in Sudan, IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE in DARFUR? I have been trying to read as much as I can, speak to as many people as I can, to get my head around DARFUR and I just cannot make sense of it...

I know about the oil. I know about China. I know about the U.N. But I don't understand, and will never understand how the International Community and smart business people can turn a blind eye at the MASS DESTRUCTION, KILLING AND TORTURE of fellow human beings.

I was told that the media does not give it the coverage it deserves because 'It is AFRICA'... I've been told that people in general are 'de-sensitised' to the troubles and strives - especially in Africa. Well, shame on us.How easy it is to turn the other way...

I wonder if the same thing was going on in France or Spain or even Ireland,would the world be OUTRAGED, CONCERNED AND ACTIVE...? Africa just doesn't count in the same way.... How any of us can sleep at night is beyond me....I wonder when the next Eclipse happens, will AFRICAN HUMAN LIFE BE SO CHEAP?

For more information and to get the current information and what's in the news about Darfur you can read and/or take action by looking at the following sites...

www.LifeNets.netwww.amnesty.org/sudan
www.myspace.com/savedarfurcoalition
http://www.msf.orgwww.goal.ie/

Thanks,
Suzanne Doyle

This is what Suzanne wrote in an earlier email:

As some of you will know, I have been researching DARFUR for a couple of weeks now and have set up two pages to try and spread awareness:
www.myspace.com/suzannedoyleconsultancy and http://www.irishfordarfur.bebo.com/

Since doing this, one positive thing I have heard about is a money lending initiative called Microfinance/Microcredits which I think is worth checking into (although the term 'money lending' tends to send shudders down my back!). It allows you to connect and lend money to small businesses (a lot of the time directly to a woman, usually a mother) in the developing world and help them achieve economic independence...

The loan can be as little as $25 and may last 6-12 months. You can get your money back once the loan is paid or maybe choose to give it to someone else to give them the 'leg up' we all have needed at one time or another.

If you have time to spare, you can watch a programme on the net about it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1640009667534997960

Two such groups that were recommended to me are KIVA and UNITUS. Maybe have a read at what they are doing to see if it sits right with you:
http://kiva.org/app.php
http://www.unitus.com/

Thank you!

Suzanne Doyle

Feeling restless

2007-03-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

Now, I don't quite know what's up with me the last few days, but I've been feeling rather uninspired and restless. I feel in need of some excitement, I just have no idea what kind of excitement that should be.

I would like to feel really passionate about something, but I just don't know about what. It's a rather frustrating feeling. I mean, of course I feel passionate about my family...my husband, my kids, we also have a very successful and enjoyable business that I am very proud of, we get to travel a fair deal, and in another month or so our new house should be ready. These are all wonderful things, I know they are. And I am grateful for all of them. But even so, there is nothing that makes me jump out of bed in the mornings (I get up because my children pound on me before the sun is even up)

Maybe it's just that I don't feel like I'm growing enough as a person, that I'm learning anything new or that I'm stretching myself in any way these days.

I assume that most mothers of young children feel this way from time to time? We all want to learn and grow and challenge ourselves, but it's so hard to take on any other challenges apart from the raising of our children. I really admire those women who feel 100% fulfilled just by being a mother, even though I can't feel that way personally. It's all a bit of a catch-22 for me...I want my children to be my main priority, but at the same time I don't want them to be my 'be all and end all'. Please tell me I'm not the only mom feeling like this....

Anyway, it does prove that even whilst living in paradise can you can feel 'blah' from time to time ; )

San Pedro pictures

2007-03-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

Andy has been wondering for a while now if Lucas was old enough to go fishing with him. He decided to give it a go this time on San Pedro and Lucas was 'hooked' immediately. He now even has his own rod. Lucas does drive Andy crazy though as he refuses to follow instructions. 4-year-olds seem to believe that they know everything!

Problems of the Belize education system

2007-03-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

Please have a read of this Channel 7 news story. This is alarming to say the least. How to solve this problem? I don't know. It would be a huge task. Personally, I just try and get as many Belizean children sponsored (through the Jaden Foundation) to go to the private schools. It's a shame that it has to be this way, though.

From the Channel 7 story:

Standards 6 Teachers Can't Pass The PSE Either

As we've reported, failure rates in the PSE continued last year and with examinations coming up in May, most educators concede that it won't get much better. And today, new information released by the Ministry of Education tells us why that may be the case. Late last year, teachers took the test and the results were alarming. Those were released to mixed reaction at a Ministry of Education press conference this morning. We were there.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,There are 355 standard six teachers in Belize - from varying backgrounds and with different levels of training In October to November, they were invited to take the PSE. Some didn't show up, but on test day, those that did were very much like the students they teach.

And the bad news is that they didn't do much better than the children.

In problem solving, 10 of the 300 teachers got between two and ten points out of a possible 50 points - that's a score of between 0 and 20%!

In the Toledo District, one teacher got 2 points out of that possible 50 - that's a score of 4%.

What's more, 98 of the 308 teachers - a third, outright failed the problem solving portion of the exam by earning a score of less than 60%.

But most teachers - 111 of them scored between 31 to 40 points, that's a score of between 60 and 80% - considered adequate score - but certainly not impressive.

In fact of the 308 teachers that did the math problem solving, only 12, earned a perfect score.

The district averages show teachers in Corozal and Cayo averaging the best with 36 and 37 correct out of 50 - average scores of about 75%.

And while math was worrying - the English test divided into letter writing and composition, wasn't as bad, but still gives reason to worry. 287 teachers sat this test and, again, most only did adequately.

Yvonne Davis,"The majority of our papers were at the adequate level. 141 of our teachers were writing at the adequate level, scoring about ten to fourteen points on the letter writing paper."
And on the composition again the greatest number, 115 of them were at the adequate level. 41 teachers failed this section of the test as well.

Overall, the scores are abysmal and the results profoundly worrying.

Chief Education Officer Maud Hyde underscored the concern: "When you face it, quite in this way and looking at the system across the board, it is certainly takes away your breath a bit and you know that you have to do something."

And that something was follow up courses to improve on their weaknesses. But the follow up sessions on Saturdays were poorly attended.

Yvonne Davis,"The response to the follow up was very poor I would say. For January 20th and 27th, the first two sessions in English by district overall only about 47% of the teachers came out and it fell on January 27th when 39.7% of them came out. February 46.7% came out and 52% last Saturday which was the last day of the follow up."

So who is responsible for these failures, first in the test and then in efforts to follow up?. Union President Anthony Fuentes was on the defensive, "The teachers will take this issue here today and see it as probably a deliberate attempt, maybe it might not be, but as an attempt to attack the teaching profession."

Maud Hyde,"The intent is not to necessarily be overly critical of what teachers and our teachers ability but as a nation to look at where we stand, to look at some of the things that keep us from seeing the performance from our children we would like to see and be able to address them."

Anthony Fuentes,"It is not only teachers who want but all stakeholders from Ministry, management, union, parents, children - all of us are involved in the delivery of the quality of education so all of us have to take blame."

And all those stakeholders, with the exception of children and parents were at the head table - and all could point to a contributory cause. Management, represented by the Chair of the Association of School Managers Carol Babb said it was the quality of teachers.

Carol Babb,"I was watching some of your expressions, your facial expressions when you learnt about the results of the PSE that the teachers themselves took. As a manager I am telling you that everyday we are faced with filling vacancies and being unable to find qualified teachers to fill those vacancies. Right now I look at one of my larger Anglican schools and at that school there are only three trained teachers and the principal and I, she came to me and she asked me what are we going to do?"

Indeed what to do, less than half the teachers are trained, one of them with only a standard six diploma.

Carol Babb,"We have to admit too that in very remote villages, teachers don't qualify, teachers don't want to go there and sometimes you have to take what you get. And I am talking from experience. I would have problems right now to find somebody to go to Punta Negra. Nobody wants to go to those places and I am sure in the case of that teacher that has a primary school certificate, that might be the only person who is willing to go there."

Problems wide and far reaching, and a test that now is failing both students and teachers. But Hyde says, nothing is wrong with the test,"If the system is not measuring up to what the expectations are, then the system needs to be addressed."
Jules Vasquez,"How can you say that the system has to measure up, no in the system punishes. You get 100% of your salary, these teachers will get 100% of their salary, these kids get half a life?"

Maud Hyde,"I think that is putting it a bit strongly. Half a life…we wouldn't want to say that our children can't succeed if they don't do well on PSE. Examinations are a necessary evil some people would say but education is not all about examination."

With no stated targets for improvement - and a clear indication that many teacher just cannot teach what they don't know - Hyde says things are under control - this is not a crisis.

Maud Hyde,"Whether we're in a crisis, I wouldn't say so. A crisis to me is something where everything is falling down. I don't think everything is falling down."

We're back on the beach

2007-02-25T14:05:00.000-08:00

I don't want to rub it in or anything, but we're back on sunny San Pedro beach. Andy and Lucas are fishing off the pier right now and I'm hanging out at the apartment whilst the baby naps. I wonder if they'll manage to catch dinner.

Love ya! (photos will follow soon....)

Better late than never...

2007-02-24T04:51:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more picture of our last Aruba visit. I know we've back for ages, but I have no other pictures to share since my camera died the minute we got back to Belize. A new camera has been ordered though, so in a few weeks I can take new pictures of life here.

I want my own kitchen!

2007-02-22T08:08:00.000-08:00

It's nice to be living in our new house, but it would be even better if the whole place was ready, instead of just living in the bedrooms. I walk on the building site, of what will be our kitchen, living & dining room, and almost start to feel like the place will never be finished. We've been building this house for over a year now. I mean, there is definite progress and we are getting to the end of it all, but it's just taken so bloody long. If we had known this, we probably would have bought one of those pre-fabricated Mennonite house instead (Hmmm...is that why architects don't tell people how long it really takes to build a house? To not put them off the idea?)

Anyway, I know that once it's all done we'll forget about how long it took and just enjoy the place, but for now it's still a bit frustrating.

I get especially annoyed first thing in the morning. See, I need to eat something the minute I open my eyes, but because we don't have a kitchen yet, I have to walk over to the Dome's office, get the keys to the resorts kitchen, walk there, make our breakfasts and coffees and try and balance it all on my way back to the house. Virtually every morning I walk with my face through several spiderwebs (disgusting!) and/or get stuck in the rain and mud. Not the best way to start the day!

Still, as far as problems go in life, this is not bad. I can have a little moan, but really my life is pretty darn good.

I just know that once I have my own kitchen again it will be even better!!!!