Impressions from the open market today:
A Mennonite from Orange Walk built a beautiful custom table for Physics demonstrations, etc. at the school. The legs are made from chaca blanco (Dendropanax arboreus) and the top and sides are negrito (Simarouba glauca). It had several admirers at the market. He really did a fantastic job (for less than US$200)
I happily bought fruits, vegetables, and tacos today……but not fish.
Uhhhhhhh…….no.
This is Cayo Honey: 
It is slightly less viscous than what we find in the states and has a more complex flavor than clover honey. I love the packaging. It facilitates an easy grab and chug straight from the bottle!
Today, I was reading in Jeremiah 16:15a “Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart”
Psalm 19:7-10 reminds us
“ The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”
“How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
~Psalm 119:103
“Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!” ~Psalm 34:8
May your time in the Word today be sweeter than honey!
As I understand it, this tent frame
was an unnecessary gift from a foreign government to Belize. The tent was never used, and this strange rusted structure stands a testimony of things that don’t really matter and aren’t really needed. This frame reminds me of the Jack Palance speech in the movie “City Slickers” about the One Thing that matters in life (although he figured out that it could be boiled down to one thing – he didn’t really know what that “One Thing” was).
The Bible says in Luke 10:38-42, “Now as they were traveling along, [Jesus] entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “ Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
What will warrant your time and energy today? Is it really unnecessary or will it be something that matters in light of eternity? Remember, only two things last forever, God’s Word* and people.
* Isaiah 40:8 & 1 Peter 1:24-25 both say that “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever”
When we visited Belize for the first time in May, we were blessed with this sunrise at Maya Beach in the Stann Creek District. The water was like glass that morning.
After having lived in forested areas for so long, it has been a while since we have been able to enjoy sunsets every night, but here in Belmopan (Cayo District), this is what we see from our place:
“When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator” Gandhi
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20
“Creation is a “wordless book” that everybody can read because it needs no translation.” Warren Wiersbe
We enjoyed a foggy morning hike through the jungle by our place the other day. Here are some of the sights we took in:
Click on any of the images below to enlarge (if you like)
Cohune Palms (Attalea cohune)
The fog wore off during our walk….
Heliconia latispatha and cohune palm
Wild Lantana
I’d never seen lantana growing as a wildflower before….
Wild Passion Flower
Neither had I previously seen a pink May Pop. We had purple ones in Alabama.
Life in the jungle…
A great kiskadee who comes to visit in our back yard:
The view out of our den window of the backyard:
Schefflera morototoni and
Attalea cohune (Cohune Palm)
I was very excited the other day to see my first Pleides Blue Morpho butterfly in our backyard, but I was not quick enough to get a picture.
Anyways, this is what the Emperor looks like:
Very Cool!
Twenty-six species of hummingbirds inhabit Belize. We’ve seen a couple of them so far, but they are quick, so difficult to identify so far. We need to learn all these!
Trivia: Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards.
Here’s a list of who’s here:
For some fantastic photography of Belizean hummingbirds, go here and look at Maya Beach Photo Flickr photostream set of hummingbirds. Gorgeous!!! Here are my favorites: 
Let me introduce you to Newton, the (easily) over two foot long black iguana or ctenosaur – Ctenosaura similis that lives outside of the BCA Physics room in the strangler fig
(Get it? The Big Fig Newton? Newtonian physics?)
(you can click on any of these photos to see them in a larger format)
A clan of juveniles lives nearby in a pile of rocks. Here is one cutie:
They are also referred to as Wish Willies.
Another cute lizard around here is the Basiliscus vittatus – Striped or Brown Basilisk or “The Jesus Christ Lizard” nicknamed so because they can “walk on water” due to the unique fringe of scales on their hind toes which makes little webs that can trap bubbles of air and water beneath their feet. This keeps them from sinking into the water if they run quickly enough across. When they do stop running they don’t mind taking a little swim. The smaller lizards can run further than the bigger and heavier ones. Basilisks usually weigh between 0.44 – 1.3 lbs and may grow to be about 2 feet long although they average about 1 foot in length. We’ve seen one in our yard, several on our jungle hikes around our place, and several at Guanacaste (pronounced gwan–ah- kahst’-ay) National Park. Check out this video of one in action.
More on strangler figs: These plants begin life as epiphytes, when their seed, often bird-dispersed, germinate in crevices atop other trees. These seedlings grow their roots downward and envelop the host tree while also growing upward to reach into the sunlight zone above the canopy. These are some pics of the one in which Newton lives:
My first day at the market, I decided to try new things. I bought a pineapple that I would have to cut up myself (sad, isn’t it that I’ve always depended on others to do this for me or bought them in a can?). The pineapples here are so fragrant, I love to set them on the counter for a few days before cutting them up – just to enjoy the smell! They are absolutely delicious! But the fruit I really wanted to write about is the Pitaya or Pitahaya or Dragon Fruit. It tastes a lot like a kiwi, with a similar texture, but it has this beautiful fuchsia color 
(it temporarily stains your fingers and tongue that color too – what fun!) It is fruit from a type of cactus (hylocerus undatus) that blooms only at night and is pollinated by bats. Looks a bit like Medusa to me! Go here for more about the dragon fruit.
We fly to Belize! We had to drop Cary off 3 hours before our flight in the cargo area of the airport. The rules for international travel required a ridiculously giant crate (even though it is only a 2 ½ hour flight) that barely fit on the plane. Since Continental and United have merged, they have had some trouble working out the communication kinks, so even though we had confirmation from United that Cary was booked on our flight, Continental said he wasn’t booked. They worked it out and got him on our plane though. Whew. When we arrived in Belize, we got charged a $50 fine for not submitting the proper paperwork, even though we sent a request to BAHA back in June for this date for Cary to have an import permit. They also set an arbitrary figure for us to be charged based on the value of the freight (Cary) that cost us an unexpected $277. When we got to Hertz to pick up our rental vehicle, it didn’t have a real rack on top that we could tie Cary’s travel kennel to, but they were cool about letting us cancel and took us to the rental company next door who had an SUV with a rack that would work. A nice cargo officer and an ex-scout leader tied the kennel to the rack for us. 
We drive to Belmopan from Belize City and met our landlord, and 2 of our neighbors. We also met Glenn who was already living in our townhouse.
(Truth be told, there are probably ten Glenns in the house – they are cute little chirping house geckoes). I was happy to see a rainbow over the jungle, but not happy about the septic system being pumped into the ditch next to the building. How is that not an open sewer? We went to the store to purchase minimal groceries, and it was pretty busy – perhaps people getting ready in case tropical storm Ernesto became hurricane strength. At the store we met and talked with some short-term Methodist missionaries from Texas and saw Mennonites. The grocery stores here are Chinese owned and operated. A (probably) 8-year-old Chinese girl processed my credit card to check me out. We stopped by Zeta for drinking water and a dispenser and stayed at a room at the Twin Palms B&B 
(where the owners have been very gracious to us during previous stays). The hubby and dog did see 2 tarantulas there outside our room on the steps. If I would have felt tickled at night, I might have freaked out!
Cary Grant finds that the chicks here dig him! He smelled his first dog in heat, but she was behind bars. Another dog (not in heat) named Nala fell in love with Cary and played with him in the yard and slept outside our door while he kept sniffing around the doors edges.
At the Mexican border to Belize, the Mexican side opens at 8 am, then there is a 10 minute drive, then a 50 minute wait for the Belizean border to open. Our driver spent most of the day there working out customs and duty. Belizean customs sets both the value of the items as well as the percentage duty. On the SUV duty was 77%. Ouch!! They cut the rod that allowed the trailer to be locked and made him unpack 40% of a trailer that was “stuffed to the gills”. Pretty much everything that had fabric on it was stained or ripped. Oh well. Our driver was very happy to be back home safely with his family and we’re sure they were very happy to see him! We were greatly relieved and rejoiced that he made it safely through! We were very concerned for him, but “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 Through all of this, He is somehow conforming believers to the image of His Son, Jesus (Romans 8:29).
Ramblin' San 