Saturday, Oct 9, 2010

Some Kind of Remote

Delta Flight 665 took off from Atlanta Airport right on time, bound for Belize City, Belize. The plane was full; packed with passengers on the way to Belize for a multitude of reasons. Some were going for business, some for pleasure and six of us to find out what God has for us in Belize.

As this was a first visit for most of us, we spent the three hours on the flight in curious conversation with other passengers who had previous Belize experience. A couple of quick notes here about traveling to Belize:

1) You can bring $10,000 US out of the country without declaring it; however, you are allowed only $5000 US brought into Belize. (The exchange rate is two Belizean dollars for one US dollar). Of course, few of us will ever be traveling with this much cash!!

2) Processing customs is fairly simple. You are first processed into the country with your passport. You then retrieve your bags and proceed to customs. If you have things to declare AND if they choose to levy an import tax, it will cost you about 20% of the declared value. You can pay in US or Belize dollars. Most times you will not have things to declare, but I recommend that if you think it needs to be declared, declare it and let them decide. They will ask you the value of what you are declaring.

As you approach Belize City, you will be awestruck by the beauty of the ocean and the incredible lack of development! There are few, very few, habitations along the coast, with even fewer roads leading through the jungle. Belize City is not a large city by US standards. I’m guessing the populations might be about 20-30,000; but note that the entire population of Belize is only 250,000!

Belize City International Airport is one runway and no taxiways; so, once on the ground, your pilot will execute a 180 degree turn and taxi to the terminal. It’s interesting to see United Airlines and Delta MD-88s or bigger at this terminal. I believe this speaks to the development potential of this wonderful little country. It’s an “old school” exit from the plane down a portable stairways and into the terminal to process into Belize.

Once through customs, it’s time to find your next mode of transportation. Ours was Tropic Air Airlines. The employees of Tropic Air make it very easy for you to check your bags and obtain your boarding pass. Tipping is recommended and encouraged.

There is a nice, little restaurant upstairs in the airport. If you have time, grab a quick bite of lunch. We thought we had time, but just after ordering, a Tropic Air employee came to our table and said they had another plane ready (flexibility is the key to air power right?!?!?) So, we asked the waitress to pack our order to go and we headed for the gate.

Tropic Air planes are small. Ours had room for about 14 passengers. I sat right behind the pilot (literally, I could have reached out to tap him on the shoulder!). Ours was to be a 30-45 minutes flight to Punta Gorda in the Toledo District in the southern end of Belize.

Flying over the Belize landscape it only takes a few moments to realize this is a very sparsely populated country! The Belizean jungle is formidable and certainly not a place I would want to travel through. I was told later on that the US and British military regularly send personnel to Belize to train in the jungle. It is definitely the “real deal”!

Jacob pointed out to me that if one looks along the rivers, you will see the thatched huts of indigenous people living in the jungle. Another clue is smoke curling up through the jungle canopy.

And if you thought Belize City was a relatively small town, wait until you see Punta Gorda!! As the landing strip (and yes it’s just a strip!) came into view I thought, “Whoa, this is going to be interesting!” (See picture insert)

The pilot made a beautiful landing and we taxied to the terminal….kind of a stretch to use that word. (See building behind the team in the next picture.)

We are definitely in another world! I’ve experienced a sense of remoteness in other places that I’ve visited: the solitude that is eastern Montana during antelope season or the realization of just how far I was away flying over the Black Sea on the way to the country of Georgia, but this is different. There is virtually nothing around this small community but water to the south and east and jungle every other direction. Honduras is across the water to the east and Guatemala across the water to the south.

Jervis (half of the lead missionary team here at Laugh Out Loud) and Gary, one of their interns met us at the airport. After hugs around, we loaded up the van and headed for San Felipe. On the way, we stopped at the new property where we will be assisting with the continuing construction of the new LOL facilities.

The larger districts in Belize (there are six) are administered by governors. The towns and villages and small communities are governed by a chief who is responsible for all administration, to include doling out appropriate punishment for crimes. There are laws for governance and taxing set in place, but the communities receive virtually nothing from the national government. Belize remains a part of the British Commonwealth (it was formerly known as British Honduras) and, as such, the Royal British Army maintains a garrison here. I understand this is very desirable posting for RA personnel.

We continued on to our residence for the next week. It’s a facility owned by the Toledo (district) Christian Academy (TCA) including a church, school and facilities for church teams to stay while here helping. The first night we stayed in the building pictured below. The next morning we realized that the building next door was probably intended for us as the hot water was on in that building!! So, we moved!

We moved in, set up beds, unpacked and prepared for a night out on the town. We went to a wonderful little restaurant in Punta Gorda and met up with the rest of Jervis and Melissa’s (the other half of the mission leads here), their family and the interns from Louisiana, Colorado and Virginia. We enjoyed some wonderfully delicious food and great conversation getting to know some of the others we are to be working with the next week. As time permits, I will endeavor to introduce you briefly to some of the staff and interns.

We were all pretty tired after this day of travel and it felt good to return home and turn in for the night. The facilities we are staying in are (to me) like a hunting cabin. Rustic but most definitely adequate. Electricity, fans, hot water and coffee in the morning!

More tomorrow!!