Images of Belmopan

Time for some pictures of some of the things we see every day in our new home town.

1. The building ahead is the King's Children Home, run by a local charity. It's immediately opposite St Ann's Church (which would be to the left of the photograph).

2. A roadside lunch stall outside one of the primary schools.

3. On the ring road there are quite a lot of business premises. This is the eastern part of the ring road, showing some of the shops and supermarkets.


4 .Opposite the shops, and next to the lunch stall, is Our Lady of Guadalupe RC Primary School. We quite like the upbeat message on the fence of the school playing field.


5 is City Hall. It's on Trinity Boulevard, again opposite our house. Sometimes visitors to City Hall park right outside and we have to go and find the driver before we can get the car out - but they are always polite and ready to move their vehicles when we ask.

6. And finally a school crossing patrol ...

7 And a street scene. As you can see, most of the houses in this central part of town are well built and quite comfortable. But you do get big disparities between adjacent plots, with very large houses immediately next to quite small ones.

Groundbreaking ceremony for new School and Malcolm's Licensing

My licensing took place at 10am on Wednesday April 23rd - because truth to tell, the licensing was actually a sideshow to the main event, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new St Ann's primary school. For that, the diocese had invited (L-R) Mayor of Belmopan, (Bishop), Governor General, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Education, and the Minister of Public Works - and they all agreed to attend.

As we've mentioned, many schools are joint projects of the state and a faith group. Schools are very important to all the christian denominations; religious instruction in schools is firmly denominational, and people will describe themselves as Anglican or Baptist or Catholic because they went to a denominational school.

There aren't enough primary school places in Belmopan at the moment, and everyone seems very pleased that the Diocese and the Government have reached agreement on the funding arrangements for this new one. We are told that the design for the new school has now been approved and planning consent granted, but we don't know when construction will begin.

So it was a good time to also rededicate the newly refurbished "Bishop Desmond Smith Memorial Centre" - Brother Desmond was an Anglican Franciscan who became Bishop of Belize - the new name for my teaching centre. They have put a lot of work into it - redecoration inside and out - and I'm very pleased. And of course, I was licensed by the Bishop.

Market and Manatee

The last week has been very busy. But there has been some pleasure along the way. Something that remains a twice weekly pleasure is our trip to the local market on Tuesday and Friday mornings. You need to get there early: certainly before 8am, but earlier is better - firstly because then it's a cool (!) 27 / 29 degrees, and secondly before all the best fruit and veg is bought by someone else.

Our shopping basket includes: onions and garlic, tomatoes and cucumber, papaya, pineapple, bananas and plantains, oranges, and if we get there early enough, coriander, aubergines, courgettes, and sometimes carrots. Also on sale are sweet potatoes and yams - but the ones we've had so far have been disappointing; bonnet peppers (still not got through our first bag bought in week one: they are HOT!) cassava, custard apples, cashew fruit (not nice, those), fish (mainly snapper: the big ones are best) eggs and honey (produced by the Mennonite community). We've also bought watermelon and cantaloupes, but they are relatively expensive.

We are still waiting for our freight: when the blender arrives we will make lots of fruit juice. It's expensive to buy prepared juice - about $4 / £1 a litre. But you can buy 8 oranges or a papaya for $1 / 25p. Fresh orange and papaya juice is lovely.

One wonderful surprise was seeing a manatee. The West Indian manatee ( a sort of vegetarian seal / walrus - referred to locally as a sea cow) is an endangered species. Belize has one of the largest populations, but it is seriously effected by the draining of coastal sites, where it lives, to build new hotels etc.

We had hoped to see them at some point, but expected we would have to make a special trip. Instead, one came to us: it was feeding quietly just next to our table, as we had lunch at a restaurant on the coast. The pictures aren't the best quality - I only had the camera phone with me - but they show you something of what the animals are like.

Views from the Rectory

Across from our Rectory is a children's play area, on the edge of the large grassed Independence Park which is criss-crossed by footpaths.


Adjacent to this is a Government Infant School and Pre-School, so our days are full of the sounds of children playing.


We walk across the park to the farmers' market on Tuesday and Friday mornings, usually very early to avoid the hottest part of the day.


St. Ann's Church was built when Belmopan was just being developed in the 1970s as a community church building. Initially it was shared by all the main denominations.

Since then the RCs, Methodists and Nazarenes have built separate churches, sadly; and St. Ann's itself has been redeveloped and expanded. It has the large worship area you can see in Ruth's Installation Service pictures, but also includes her office, a parish office, a choir vestry (currently used as storage) and two 'rest rooms'. There isn't a kitchen - yet! But parish events manage to involve food anyway...

This is a great-tailed Grackle! (male, I believe)

It's the commonest bird around here - we certainly see and hear them all the time. Our book of Belizean birds describes them as 'very vocal' - they have an extraordinary range of caws, shrieks and whistles!

Our friend Lesley bought us the book as a leaving present, and we've started paying more attention to the birds as a result.



And here's another large bird that's new to us, the Great Kiskadee. It has really striking plumage (beautiful, of course) and strangely Badger-like black and white stripes on the top of its head. So when we can't remember the proper name it's the "yellow Badger Bird".

Malcolm's decided not to risk boring people who have no interest in birds. (Oh look: it's a bird). So he's started another blog just for bird photos ... If you're interested, go to "A bad birdwatcher in Belize."


This shows the view from our side garden across the park towards ATI, which can just be made out in the background.

It's been newly refurbished for the grand ceremonials on 23 April, when Malcolm will be instituted as Director, and we will have the ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the new St. Ann's Primary School.

Meanwhile he has completed two full Saturday training / teaching days there and is busily planning courses.

A trip to the seaside

We had a day off, and thought: what shall we do on a day off in a country bordering the Caribbean Sea? And with a car to get us where we want to go?

We decided, after much thought, that the choice was between (a) sweeping and cleaning the house, removing rocks from the garden and generally being useful about the place, or (b) driving the 60 miles to the coast. The coast won.

We tootled along the Hummingbird Highway, which runs from Belmopan south and east towards the coast. It's lush and green, rising up into the hills. Mostly still covered with jungle, but also some citrus groves along the roadside. (We are told that the land is much more managed and agricultural in the north and south; most of the centre / more mountainous area is still protected national park.)



After 55 miles of paved road, across some very narrow bridges, we reached the turn off for Hopkins. This road isn't paved. It's just some hardcore laid on the cleared surface. And even in a 4wd, it's bumpy. Very bumpy. (Though there are some smoother bits where you can drive off the road on to the nice field for a bit, before you have to get back on to the road). Lots of dust, lots of questions about how the suspension would cope, and by racing along at 10mph we got down the road in only half an hour. (How's that for arithmetic! My primary school teacher would be proud.)

It was worth it.

Of course, we didn't just stand and look at the water. We had to check it to make sure that it could support the human body ... and we had to check it for temperature... and sparkly turquoise ness. We spoke to a couple of locals (we had to look hard to find anyone, but there were some. You can see them swimming in the picture above). And they assured us that it was safe to swim, and so, being trusting sorts, we did.

There are pictures of that too ... but because this is a public blog, I don't want to offend or distress anyone of a sensitive disposition. Needless to say, the water was 28 degrees, salty, and generally wet.

It will still be there when you come to visit ...

But we are now back at work. Ruth's had a Mother's Union meeting last night and a meeting with the pianist / choir leader; I've been preparing for teaching on Saturday and trying to sort out the chaos that is the offices at ATI. And we've been meeting lots of new people. This afternoon it's mainly admin. And yes, we did get to do all the household things too.

Ruth's Institution at St Ann's

Out and about was promised ... but that will have to wait for next time

First, here are some photos from Ruth's commissioning service at St Ann's Church on April 5th.

Bishop Philip Wright conducted the service, which was quite formal but with lots of very lively singing. Dean Lloyd Neal from the Cathedral guided me through my formalities. Everyone was very welcoming and suffered 2 hours on the hottest day we'd had so far - well into the thirties - with good humour. The bishop and dean actually donned chasuble and cope respectively because they weren't wearing enough already!!

Afterwards we enjoyed lots of excellent food which my church committee (= PCC) had organised in half an hour on Thursday! Spiced chicken, rice and beans, and salad... the classic Belizean fare. Yum.

Home sweet home

We've finally managed to track down a slightly faster internet connection in Belmopan. Hooray! I've tried twice before to add photos to the blog, but managed to crash connections in the attempt. We are waiting for DSL at home, but don't know how that will cope either. Have to wait and see, when the company finally get round to completing the installation. Customer service in Belize is ... polite but s l o w.

Right, time for the photies.

As you can see, we have a verandah on two sides of the house, which is quite nice to sit out in if there's a breeze. Unfortunately in the evening the biting insects make it less appealing. We are also the proud owner of a washing line and our very own pile of gravel - apparently destined for the extension of the concrete to make a path along the back of the house, which would be nic

We also now have a car. Ten years old and 90,000 miles, imported from Illinois according to the licence plate. But it has a/c - which is great on longer journeys when it has a chance to get going.

And some pictures of the inside of the house:

Sorry the light levels aren't too good. The dining room has a nice table and chairs, and the stairs are in here. The whole house has been newly decorated, with good tiles on the floor downstairs (previously it was bare concrete) and 'restrooms' as we are learning to call them. The kitchen is nicely fitted, but quite small and with a utility room off.

For all enquiries, interested purchasers should contact ... (Sorry, I was beginning to sound like a property salesperson for a minute there!)

At the moment we can accommodate two guests comfortably. There is still space in the bookings diary!

Next time: further afield. Keep in touch!

April - one week after arrival

Most of the people reading this should have received an email from us by now, with news from our first week here in Belize. If you've not had that, but would like to, please email one of us and we'll gladly send it to you. Most of the descriptions of what we are doing will be sent out by regular emails. What this blog allows us to do easily is add some photos or even video to supplement what we've written.

So let's start with where we are. Thanks to the wonderful people at Google, we can grab an image of Belmopan using satellite photos. We'll begin with a large scale image. If you double click your mouse on any of the images, then they should open at a much bigger scale.


As you can see, the town is laid out quite formally, with an inner ring road circling the oldest part of town, where we are, and then newer estates being added around the edge.

The inner ring road is the rectangle around the four coloured purple and blue - green markers at the centre of the image. The Northern ring road follows the word "Belmopan", the Eastern road starts at the capital C of Cayo, Belize. (Cayo is the district of Belize). Now let's zoom in a bit.



The odd shape at the top right of the image is the upper of the two purple markers. ie, this image shows the area to the left / west of the two purple markers on the first picture.

The red roofed building at the bottom left is the ATI = Anglican Theological Institute, where Malcolm will be running training courses. The green roofed building with a six sided roof is St Ann's Church. There is a path / walkway running in at the top right / East of the image. The cluster of buildings below / south of the path is a preschool / nursery. The first building you come to above / north of the path is our house.

The cluster of buildings on the other side of the road from the house is Belmopan city Hall; and the large blue roofed building North / above St Ann's church is a children's home. You should be able to see the yellow bus belonging to the children's home parked on the access road to the Church car park.

Now some more pictures of Belize.


This was taken just a couple of hours after we arrived, at the Bird's Isle restaurant in Belize City. With Ruth is Bishop Philip Wright, and Tess Meadows from Canada. Our first meal in Belize included kingfish, rice and beans and fresh fruit juice. We'll probably take you there if you come to visit us!


This is the view from the verandah of the Bishop's house, on the Southern Foreshore. We are looking across the inlet to the marina. If you come in by boat and travel to the left of this picture you come to the swing bridge that gives access to the river which divides north and south Belize City. The buildings on the far side include some of the posher hotels, as well as a dedicated tourist area for some of the people who come to Belize City on cruise ships that dock here for a day.

I'll try to add some photos of the house next time.