Perspective after 4 months

We figured it would take us about 4 months to settle in and get a new routine for our new lives.  4 months to get the boxes unpacked, and house expansions complete.  4 months of Michael adjusting to retirement life and adjusting into co-teaching the home school curriculum we use for our son.  4 months for all of us to find a healthy network of friends to fill the relationship void of leaving behind all our friends and family.  4 months to get accepted by our new church congregation (we are the outsider white folk here).  4 months for me to figure out how Mike's retirement will fit into my daily life i.e. can I really stand to have him home all day.  4 months for our 12 year old son to adjust to our new way of life and network.  At the end of 4 months, we would be back in Las Vegas for a few days, as Mike needs to return to UNLV every 6 months.  He teaches an online course for them, at the end of the course, his students present their masters projects on campus.  A quick trip to Vegas would allow me to have touch with "reality as I have know it for 44 years" and to see my mom.

Status check...Well, I have a closet of boxes left to unpack, not too bad.  Seems, I've always had a few boxes I never seem to unpack through our life moves.  The house expansion is complete! Actually it was one of the first things we started and finished within just 3 weeks.  Now we have ample space for visitors to stay comfortably in their own 800 sf area downstairs; not apart of our home.

Our son has made many friends, he actually has more friends here than when we lived at our last house.  Most are ex-pat kids.  All are great kids, he hosts and attends many slumber parties, attends activities, enjoys the unique experiences with his friends such as exotic bone digging alongside a local wildlife veterinarian while learning about animal anatomy.  He and his friends attended a seminar on the healing powers of the jungle plants from a well know local author on the subject of natural remedies.   So far,  he's trekked through the jungle, experienced mayan ruins, had a possum in his pants, (a real live possum), swam in local rivers, slid down local waterfalls, and hiked through caves.  Texting and Facebook help him stay in touch with his buds in the States.  We do have internet for his online games of Modern Warfare. Although, he had a huge "homesick" episode just before we visited the States, Belize has been exciting to him.  We have watched his personality bloom while he is here.

As with any move, it is good to network with "like" people immediately.  During our research trip last May, we found our new church home in Calvary Chapel Cayo.  We were here less than 2 weeks and we had our sleeves rolled up, cutting down jungle and clearing the land for our new church building.  We are leading the youth group of 15-25 kids on Friday nights.  We've painted the church bus, by hand in 4 days. On Sunday nights, we provide hotdogs before church, we serve over 225 meals to our congregation families each month.  Our son is the "Church D.J." as he runs the projector on Friday and Sunday nights.

Although we miss our friends in the States, we are blessed to have made many great ones here.   It's like a big family we have created.  We don't have a void in friendships and we meet new friends quite regularly.  Mike and I have always been able to make friends quite easy.  We're even making some "local Belizean" friends, which is quite a hard barrier to break as the outsider moving in.  Culturally, people will gravitate to the groups they know and understand.  Here in Belize, the barriers are  strong.  The Chinese have their own community, and so on.  Although, most of our friends are "white" we are slowly breaking the barriers of cultural community.  Yeah, to you it may not be politically correct to say "white", but here they say it.  One guy told me "you white people seem pretty honest".  I said excuse me?  What did you say?  He repeated the statement again, clearly and slower.  Yup, he said "you white people"  LOL.

On a funny note, when we walk into our bank, they don't ask for our names, they just pull up our account or hand us our bank statements without asking for i.d.  They must see us coming and think.."here come the white people".   10% of our community is made of "ex-patriots" and not all "ex-patriots" are "white" so we do stick out a bit and the vendors just assume we are tourists as they try and sell us trinkets on the main street.

Our biggest challenge is Mike's concept of being retired.  He obviously thought it meant sleeping in and sitting around watching t.v., staying up late to watch movies, and sleeping in again.  He was allowed a few days of this concept before I put a screaming end to this.  The start of home-school helped break this cycle a bit, although he still wants to take the afternoon shift so he can sleep in.  Once Rip Van Winkle started coming out of his slumber, his natural management skills kicked in.  Again, another adjustment for us as I informed him he will not convert into "managing" my chores and my day.  This will continue to be a work in progress as two strong willed adults learn to co-exist in a smaller home.  He thinks he is busy, but nothing to the schedules we used to keep in the States.  He says his image of retirement mocks him.

We couldn't wait to return to the States recently, as we all were a bit homesick.  There was a list of restaurants and foods we must have during our visit.  Domino's pizza, Red Robin, a good steak, McDonald's fries mocked our taste bud memories and we could't wait to enjoy it all.  We found out our bellies and taste buds adjusted away from all the greasy goodness.  Our memory of these foods was better than the actual foods!  Being back in Vegas also taught us about how deep some of our friendships are.  Long distance is hard on any relationship.  We are blessed to be welcomed by so many, and it just make my heart jump when I saw friends who took the time to seek us out to be with us.  Sitting in my home church with my girlfriends was so empowering to my heart and soul.  My friends even had their baby girl the night before we left to go back to Belize.  I KNEW I would see her face before I left.  I could envision her perfect little face in my mind.  She looked just like I knew she would...amazing.

My first morning back in Belize, I drank my coffee on the porch wearing shorts, (winter attire here) and watched the parrots jump from tree to tree.  A butterfly landed on my shoulder and I realized I am HOME, my new home is San Ignacio, Belize.  Returning back to Belize, our friends, and church family were happy we were home.  It is nice to be missed amongst our new found country.

I look back over the last 4 months,  I can't believe we have accomplished everything we did.  I still can't believe I survived moving internationally with 2 large dogs and 2 cats.  I still wake up in the mornings thinking I will be waking up in Henderson, NV.  I'm told it will take about a year or so to adjust to life overseas.  I wonder how long it will take for a family to adjust to having a newly retired man in the house all the time.