Cuxlin Ha- An Overview

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After a pleasant 7am boatride from Livingston, we disembarked to the bottom of Belize in Punta Gorda. The moment we stepped out of customs, a guide named Celiano (who I would get to know well over our week here) greeted us and guided us around town to take care of getting food to stock the kitchen we were told we would have, getting Belizean dollars, and a couple of other errands. Presently we found ourselves turning off one of the two paved roads in Punta Gorda, and jostling for 2 1/2 miles down a pitted, puddly dirt road surrounded by lush greenery and spotted with the occasional wooden shack with a thatch hut. We were dropped off in front of our cottage, which is set alongside a wide river (which was about 23 feet deep when we got here, and raised a bit more each evening as thunderstorms hit).

We were introduced quickly to the realities of this part of the country. Dona walked us around the cottage, which didn{t seem as clean and sparkly as it could have been, poking and prodding at various appliances, and commenting on their current condition. Apparently the house hadn{t been used in a month. The hot water in the showers didn{t work. A few hundred meters away was the main housebuilding, and as we walked there, I noticed relatively quickly that microscopic sand flies were feasting on me. As we approached the large main building, a high pitch beeping came from the office. Apparently the electricity in the house had kept turning off sporadically throughout the day due to termites that had been gnawing on a little string that threads between the electrical lines. And they had gnawed trhough cement to get to the wires. This equated also to no internet, and no phone, as both depend on electricity here to operate. All I could do was cross my fingers that Gabby and her friend Becky, who were supposed to call when they got to Belize, had printed out the directions to get down here. The glistening green-yes, green- pool was currently being drained and scrubbed clean as algae had taken over in the past week while the owners were out of town. Our visions of splashing around in a refreshing blue pool after our hot ride vanished (although by that night the pool was already cleaned and being refilled).

So, on the first day I was a little bit restless in this place that exists in the middle of no where- thinking, there are so many places I could be going if I hadn't committed to a week stay here. However as each day has passed I have grown more and more thankful that I had the amazing opportunity to stay a week here. After a couple days, I laughed at myself a bit, thinking "what is it I came on this trip to do?" My answer was that I wanted to learn more about the people and culture of the countries I had chosen to visit. While sight-seeing is certainly part of this experience, in some ways I realized that, as a tourist, I sometimes fall into a kind of frantic American "entertain me" attitude- we get to a city, look at the guidebook, find the biggest, best thing to do there, and once that's out of the way, we say "what's next," and are put out when the ways of the country interfere with our plans. Unfortunately, hiking around a ruin for an hour or two can{t really give us true insight into the culture that exists here, and being here in Punta Gorda for this time has truly made me realize the extent to which limitations and obstacles are an integral part of every day life for people here. But it has also allowed me to visit with and understand more about the lives of the people in this mostly agrarian Mayan village, and to see the happiness and contentment that can exist among these people who, in comparison to the average American, have almost nothing, yet have all they need to fulfill their lives.

As it turns out, Cuxlin Ha is actually a Mayan village co-op, established by Dona and Gayle- expats originally from Washington- who fell in love with Belize and felt that Mayans should be able to own their own land, so helped one village incorporate, giving interest free loans to all of the families who wanted to participate and build a home for themselves. I must say that they are as close to saints as anyone I have met in my life time. At 73 years old, neither of them looked or acted a day over 50- listening to the stories of their life long dedication to serving others, I wondered if they hadn{t hit upon the true secret to a long, happy life. I also found myself getting accustomed to the daily inconveniences- electricity going out with a harsh storm at night, running out of gas for the stove in the midst of cooking a meal, cheap toilet parts not functioning correctly, the millions of marching army ants that literally blanketed the front porch and wall of the new cottage we moved into the day after Mo left, preventing us from continuing our move until the entire battalion had marched through.

The town of Punta Gorda itself is an extremely interesting amalgum of people, most of whom were deposited here in the process colonization. Mennonite and Amish farmers come to sell their watermelon and baked goods to the Mayan sales people, who then sell them along with all variety of traditional fruits and vegetables to Garifuna (African slave descendants), Mestizos, Indians and Chinese who mingle in the marketplace. All this in a town of 1 or two thousand (the rest of the Punta Gorda poplulation, which totals 5000, live in the 35 Mayan villages that spread out into the jungles and mountains of lower Belize).

After being here nearly a week now, I've come to several conclusions about Belize.
1. Everything is bound to break at some point, and the local repair man will drive the 15 miles through pitted dirt roads to try to fix it, but then it will break again, and inevitably you will have to wait three more weeks for him to get to your problem because he himself is waiting on a part for his truck that takes 2 weeks to arrive from the US. Self sufficiency is therefore a must.
2. Patience is not only a virtue in this country, it's a survival tactic.
3. Everything not paved over is green
4. Enormous cultural diversity can exist in the smallest of towns
5.Modernity is in a constant boxing match with Mother Nature here, and she seems to be ahead in points

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