making hay while the sun shines

Farming, man.  It's stressful.
This year we decided for the first time to cut and bale hay.  The thing with this process is the hay needs to be cut, allowed to dry on the ground for a few days, and then baled.  And the thing with living in the tropics, and this being the rainy, hurricane season, is that it rarely goes for more than a few days without raining.

This is the day we cut the grass-- notice, the nice, sunny blue skies.

Adding to the stress is that the farm does not own baling or mowing equipment, so we had to hire them... and Belizeans as a whole are quite relaxed about getting places on time. We spend a lot of time on the phone begging the operators to come RIGHT NOW because clouds were gathering on the horizon, and oh by the way a HURRICANE is supposed to hit tomorrow.  

And here is the baling, under grey skies....

After much worry and prayers to St Isadore (patron saint of farmers) we got all our hay baled and moved under shelter.  The weather held-- it didn't rain for three whole days-- and lucky for us the hurricane decided to go north.  Overall,  I now have much more respect for farmers who do this all the time.

let there be LIGHT

Yesterday we got electricity!

In celebration, I stayed up till 10pm.  Because I could still SEE.
I also was able to see my legs while shaving for the first time in 3 months.

We have not stocked up on food for our fridge, though, because... we might get hit by a hurricane today? And lose electricity?  Oh,  IRONY.

the hurricane that wasn't

I don’t know if US news reported this, but last Friday Tropical storm Matthew looked like it would become a hurricane, and looked like it would hit Belize.  Fortunately it fizzled out and became a tropical depression which dumped some rain on us and then left.  But before it downgraded Belize prepared for a hurricane, which mostly consisted of closing schools, buying a few pounds of extra beans, and listening to the radio.

When a storm is forecasted for Belize, the country’s major radio station, Love FM, switches from playing 24-7 love songs to continuous coverage of the storm.   It is a truly Belizean phenomenon.   EVERYONE listens to this station during a storm.  It becomes the central clearing house for all the country’s information.  The national emergency organizations, weather forecasters, Red Cross- they all call in and report flooding, bridge closings, shelters open, etc.  The best part though is anyone can call in, not just important people in charge of things.  So every few calls you hear one like this:

          

            dj: hello

            caller: hello? hello?

            dj: go ahead caller

            caller: hello?

            dj: go ahead caller, you’re on the air

            caller: [yelling as if into a microphone] can you tell my Tia Maria to call her family in                  

                      Orange Walk?  She’s not answering her cell phone.

Sometimes they broadcast the audio portion of the TV news, which results in highly informative sessions such as this:

broadcaster: ok now we’re going to show you some more pictures of the flooding area. [silence] Yeah look at how high the water is there. [silence] There’s that wall again. [silence] hmm that looks bad there. OK thank you and moving on…..

My all time favorite call-in was a few years ago when hurricane Dean threatened Belize. It went something like this:

irate female caller:  Would you remind those tourists who I just saw kayaking on the Mopan river that this is a STATE of EMERGENCY! They should not be KAYAKING!!

Dang tourists.  Don’t even listen to the radio while they kayak.