Sunday, November 26, 2017

Growing Pains


There is evidence of growth all over Belize. Here in San Ignacio, a new city office building is being built and the old colonial hospital has been restored and painted for additional space. There is constant on-going work on streets and highways. Sometimes this means, however, that the water is off. For me, the result has been lower water pressures so no hot water. My hot water heater is an on-demand heater that is triggered by water flow. This means cold showers for me, which is not a problem when it is warm, but the days and nights are getting cooler here.

It is cool enough in the mornings now for me to need a light jacket. As soon as the temperatures dip, people here start wearing coats. I understand that about 30 years ago the temperatures actually got into the 40s. The lowest it has been since I have moved here is in the 50s. Right now, the nights are in the high 60’s and the days in the high 70’s/low 80s. At night, the air is so cool and fresh smelling it is like sleeping outdoors. I still go to the pool 3 times a week. As the temperatures cool, that just means fewer people who want to use the pool. J

It has stopped raining for a while. We’ll see what December brings because last December it rained every day. Thanks to a couple of guys—Michael and Jose—my gardens are ready for planting, and I have been putting seedgreen beans, okra, corn, onions, zucchini, and pinto beansout for the cooler weather. Gardening here is a bit of an experiment, and I have done a bit better with trees than with vegetables. I have included photos below. I finally got a smart phone, and I am learning how to snap photos with it—much more fun than a camera.

I am completing the fall semester, and I have been assigned two classes for spring. They run almost concurrently—usually, I have one class that starts earlier than the other so that one ends shortly after the other begins. I do have, however, a class in gender differences in conversation, something closer to my linguistic background. Since it is an upper division class, it may not make.

The class I have really enjoyed teaching is Spch 100, which is a public speaking course. It is a pleasure not to have to grade a lot of writing. The Communications and Writing Department has a new chair who is very earnest. However, he spends a lot of time telling faculty what they should be doing in class without actually knowing what any of us are doing in class. An example of this is an email he sent ordering us to post our availability during the Thanksgiving holidays. I found this odd because the syllabus and our contract spells out how often we must be in class and respond to students. It says nothing about “except for holidays.” It is an online class: It can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

I have started a new editing job—my brother’s third book in the Health Restoration series. We also updated and did a second edition for the first two.

Just for fun, I am taking an online Icelandic language course and also some Scottish Gaelic. They are both fascinating languages. Icelandic still has all kinds of changes in nouns, adjectives, and verbs depending on number, person, and case (nouns & adjectives.

I am sure you are tired of hearing about my metaphor article, but this is what happened. I started on the article in September. I took it out again in October and reread the introduction. I got to the third sentence and realized that I had made a statement that I didn’t know was really true. As a consequence, I had to do additional research. While a lot of what I found really wasn’t relevant, some fortunately is. One particular good article for what I want to say is about Scottish Gaelic speakers. I am still looking to see if anyone has done metaphor research with people who are describing ideas from their mother tongue into another language.  If anybody knows of this research, please send me the citation.

My critters are doing fine. I had thought I might get some goslings, but the three I have keep me pretty busy already. My neighbor’s cat has also moved himself into my yard. I suspect that my cats are gradually getting used to him as I am hearing fewer cat fights.

I am also feeding what is called a potlicker here. She actually belongs to the people across the street, but many Belizeans do not feed or underfeed their animals. As a consequence, the animals have to scrounge or hunt. She has already had one litter and lost the entire litter, so I am just trying to make sure any further litters do make it. She was abused as a pup, so she doesn’t let anybody really touch her. This morning, my neighbor Leroy, who is about 80, was moving one of his old cars. Another old man was helping him. When they got out the chain for towing, she bolted. I did get to meet the neighbor she belongs to, and he is a policeman in Belmopan. This morning when he came out he gave me a big wave. He might be a good friend to have.

This is my life in the slow lane, and I like it.

 green beans, kale, and lettuce
 some of the trees--little tree in front is an avocado
 the little pear tree sprout with some celery in front
 the veranda--east end
the veranda--west end

 green beans and okra
 east side of my house--red ginger
tomato plants and lettuce in the boxes

 new municipal offices
 colonial hospital
 partially paved street--I have to go up this hill to get to my house


Sunday, November 19, 2017

 Belizean grasshopper
 Me and Eero in our Chahta Sia T-shirts
 Stefani at lunch at Guava Limb
On a back road to Spanish Lookout