Well, at this point we were about a week out from our grand opening on November 15th.  The three of us were understandably anxious and there was one major obstacle still looming – the liquor license.  This was the first hurdle that was running on “Belizean Time” and we were trying to take it in stride since we knew it was bound to happen at some point.  If you recall, Cathy – who heads up the liquor license commission – had told us that they would be having a special assembly to determine whether or not we would be granted the license.  Well, that meeting kept being put off and we were starting to get nervous – how would it work to have our grand opening without the ability to legally serve alcohol.  So since Cathy’s phone never seemed to work and she never, ever returned messages, we routinely had to go to her house to check on the status.  We still hadn’t gotten used to standing outside someone’s house and yelling for them tocome out but that was what had to be done.  The last we had heard Cathy informed us that the fire chief, a police officer, the health inspector and she would come by the business to inspect the place and then after the inspection a decision would be made.  In the meantime we had already started doing some advertising in hopes that the liquor license would, in fact, come through in time. 

The various forms of advertisting that we thought would work best were simple, but being new to the area we weren’t sure what form of advertising would be most effective.  We posted up and handed out about 400 flyers around town – we weren’t sure what would happen due to the fact that we are not on a main road and there are really no street signs around which meant a high likelihood that people simply wouldn’t be able to find us.  We stuck a simple map on the flyer in hopes that it would slightly help the situation.  We also contacted one of the local radio stations to put some radio spots out for the preceding week.  There are really only two local radio stations for Corozal so there’s a great chance that people would hear the ad – it’s kind of a wonderful occurance when you are driving through town listening to the radio station and it suddenly blares out in surround sound because the building you just past is playingthe same station and then this same thing happens about ten times on your ride.  That’s when you know you are truly in a small town.  The third and final form of advertisement that we used was the “friendship” email list.  I simply sent out a PDF of the flyer that was being posted around town so that the expats would know we would be open.  So we restlessly awaited Saturday to see if anyone would actually show up. 

So back to the liquor license inspection - it took about thee set dates before they actually showed up, but the four inspectors finally arrived at the bar the Thursday before our Saturday grand opening – talk about cutting it close.  We had hired a couple girls to waitress for us so we were in the process of training them when the four “inspectors” showed up.  I was in the house when they arrived but Will was in the bar to greet them.  Suddenly Will barged through the door of the house and in a panic asks where the application is.  I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and he was in a panic so it automatically increased my anxiety level and I started getting frantic.  “The inspectors are here and they want to see the application!  They said we should have it!”  Will exclaimed.  It was not clicking in my head – I was in charge of all the paperwork and I had no idea how I could have missed this requirement.  The tension level in the house was moving up at a rapid pace, I snapped back that I didn’t know what they were talking about.  My train of thought was that this had something to do with the new employees and that we needed something documenting them.  I’m madly running around the place looking through all my various stacks of paperwork and asking Will, “what exactly are they asking for?”  He shot back, “I don’t know!  They just said an application!”  Finally I got frustrated and went over there to ask them exactly what they were looking for – I wasn’t sure why there was such alarm, it was a simple inspection but now the situation felt like a red alert, five alarm panic situation and it just seemed so unnecessary.  Once I got over to the bar I asked one of the inspectors what exactly they were looking for and he simply responded, “th paper you received from town hall – we all have to sign it.”  That’s it??  Of course I knew what they were talking about so I told them to hold on for  minute and I went back to the house to grab the paper they needed which had been sitting on the counter the whole time.  I headed back out to them and handed them the paper, once they had that they started the inspection.  This part did make me a little nervous since we had no idea what they would be looking for and we were planning on a big opening day in two days.  I had absolutely no reason to worry, they basically just looked around for about 15 minutes and said everything was fine.  I just had to put up a couple signs regarding alcohol consumption, we needed a larger fire extinguisher and the employees had to sign up for the food handlers permit.  The four of them signed the paper and gave us instructions to take that back to town hall and pay the fee.  So we were set to sell alcohol – yes!  We had avoided major disaster so far. 

So everything was falling in to place for the Grand Opening.  We had hired a DJ and had put the word out that we would be open so now it was just a matter of waiting for the big day.

When we pulled up to the house it was totally covered in mud due to all the rain water still standing so we cautiously made our way to the front gate. Their dogs started barking at us, all five were giving us their most ferocious sounding barks and, to be honest, it was slightly intimidating. Especially considering one of their dogs was about the size of me – probably taller than me if it stood on it’s hind legs. That was not the dog they were letting go of though. The owner of the dogs came out quickly once we had arrived and greeted us. She told us not to mind all the barking – they were just doing their job. She told us that she would invite us in but their yard was currently a mud hole so we just stayed behind the gate to look at the dog. She brought Coffee around, a blonde dog with pretty brown eyes and a little timid. The owner told us that Coffee was shy around new people, but would quickly warm up to us. She looked nice enough and we were told that the other dog, Maya, was just like Coffee except a darker, reddish-brown color and a little slower – whatever that meant. Both dogs were local Belizean dogs, or pot-lickers as called by everyone in Belize (most dogs owned by the gringos are brought in or bred from dogs brought in). We agreed that we would take both Coffee and Maya so the plan was for the owners to walk them over to our house the next day.

So now we were going to have vicious dogs to protect our fences at night – ha! Likely. The next day we hear a chorus of barking dogs about mid-afternoon and automatically assume that it must be Maya and Coffee walking to our house with every other neighbor dog barking at them. Sure enough, our assumption was correct and we see the dogs on their leashes coming around the corner as happy as can be. I felt a little sad for them since they were going to be leaving the owners that they knew and loved. We got the dogs in the gate and saw Maya for the first time, sure enough, she was a dark brown color with some reds sprinkled in. This is when I became a little concerned because unlike Coffee who had eyes with a little character behind them, Maya’s eyes sort of looked blank. Maya was definitely the more dominant of the two, they were both about a year old and female. Coffee took the backseat to Maya and their owners told us that we may even have to feed them separately because sometimes Maya doesn’t let Coffee eat her food. What it really boiled down to was an extreme jealously problem. Maya can not handle Coffee to have anything that she doesn’t, including attention.

We quickly learned what it meant when the previous owner of the two dogs said Maya was “slower.” That blank look in her eyes simply meant that she was not, at all, an intelligent dog. She did bark though and that was the main goal so we were fine with it – for a couple weeks – then it got very old. I love animals and I hate to say mean things about my new dog but I have basically encountered the dumbest dog ever. We were told that she is un-trainable. So now we basically have two dogs that eat a lot of food, bark only at other dogs, children, passing horses and the neighbors. Oh, and the cats are completely traumatized – they used to go outside all the time and they loved it. Now, they sit at the screen doors looking out and hissing whenever a dog comes in to sight. It may take awhile for them to warm up to the dogs. So we have a situation where the cats all want outside and the dogs both want inside – neither is getting their way at the moment. I guess the dogs are all for perception. If we have them behind the fence people think that they are guarding the property – little do they know that if someone were to hop the fence those dogs would probably quickly become best friends with the would-be thief.

Coffee

Maya

Coffee and Maya want in

There were only a few weeks until election day though and I was nervous that my ballot wouldn’t get back to the states in time to count my vote. So I filled it out as quickly as I could and went to the post office the next day to get it back in the mail. I had a little over two weeks for it to get back and I had heard the standard amount of time it takes is 10 days. So fast forward a couple weeks and I was watching election coverage live from my home in Belize. I was sort of expecting to be up all night waiting for results but it was all over so quickly and I am convinced my vote counted because Obama got the win. It was an emotional night, mostly to be getting rid of a president who I thought had been in office for way too long. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off of America and I was sort of sad I wasn’t in the country to experience that night. It was strange going around town in Corozal though because before the election I would walk around and see ‘Belizeans for Obama’ signs everywhere. Many of the local people would ask me if I had voted – everyone seemed to have an air of excitement about the whole thing.

After all that excitement was over it was back to business for us. So next on our agenda was to hire our first employee. We really had no idea how to go about this process. We knew we had to make sure the person we hire had a valid social security card. Other than that we were blindly going around trying to figure it out. It was an important decision though, we needed someone we could fully trust and count on. Well, the problem was that we didn’t know anyone in town to give us advice about that. We happened to be walking – in the mud – one morning and a local guy on his bike yelled out to us, “Hey! Miss Nance!” By the way, this was a custom that we would all have to take some time to get used to. Most people here say, Miss Nance or Miss Kristi as a sign of respect. It’s a very nice thing but at the age of 28 it’s a little weird to get used to. So here is this guy yelling out my mom’s name, strange. She turned to look and it happened to be a guy who she and my dad had met on one of their previous trips a couple months ago. He had remembered her name after all that time. She remembered him too, his dad had been the man who fixed part of the thatch roof on our business that had been damaged by hurricane Dean. We all stopped and talked with him for awhile, Salvador was his name. He had been unemployed for quite awhile and has a wife and four kids to take care of. We told him to come by the next day and talk about a possible position at our restaurant. He agreed that he would see us the next day and we parted ways.

After our conversation with him we started discussing whether or not he would be a good candidate for a job with us. There were some blaring issues, he didn’t have any experience in a bar or restaurant whatsoever. Will decided that he wanted to find a cook to train that didn’t have any kitchen experience. My mom and I thought this was a slightly strange method but his basic justification for that was that he would be able to train this person from the ground up; they wouldn’t have any bad habits to break so to speak. Well, Will was the person in charge of the kitchen so we let him go for it. We decided that since we had some knowledge of Salvador’s family that he may be a good person to bring in as part of the team. We settled on a salary that we would offer and waited to see his referrals. He had a reference letter from a previous employer that he told us he would bring along with him.

So the next day we hung around the house waiting for Salvador to show up. He arrived just about when we told him to be there, so that was a great start. We all talked to him for a little while and then we left Will to talk to him for a bit on his own. We basically explained the job to him, we would hire him as a cook and Will’s assistant in the kitchen. When the interview was over, we all wanted to process the information and have another conversation about it, we also wanted Salvador to go home and think about it so we told him to come back the next day.

That night we decided that we would offer the position to Salvador, he seemed very excited at the opportunity and willing to learn. When he arrived the next day we told him what the salary would be and asked if he was interested. He said that he was and would do his best to learn as much as he possibly could. He seemed to embrace the role of a cook right away and he seemed like a great guy which made the working environment that much easier. So we had hired our first employee. The plan was to hire two waitresses and have a staff of three people total. We got all of Salvador’s social security info from him and went to the social security office to start the process of registering our business and getting him set up as our employee.

We were continuing to move forward and it was feeling great. The only problem now was all the bad stories we were getting from different people about how we had to get dogs and take more precaution to be safe. This was getting to Will and probably should have been getting to my mom and I more than it was but he was really having a hard time with not feeling safe. So the next plan was to find a couple dogs. That would be a very interesting experience.

The first thing we did was ask around town.  Everyone had a different solution for us.  Various meat shops were recommended; some people told us that we would never find what we were looking for here because there’s not enough fat on the cows and others told us to go well beyond the Corozal town limits to find our beef.  There were a couple options that appealed the most to us.  The first was a company called Running W that was located in the Cayo district (about a 3 hour drive from Corozal) and the second option was to contact the food buyer for the Las Vegas casino in the Free Zone because they get their meat brought in from the states.  First Will called the woman at the casino to talk to her about possibly getting in on their orders but that was an immediate dead end.  They didn’t get their supply from the states anymore and if we were going to tag on to their orders we would also need an import permit.  We didn’t want to put in that additional cost right off the bat so we went to option B.  We were told that the Running W had meat sent in to the stores in Belize City on a regular basis and since we were making some trips over there we decided that we would buy some samples and see what their deal was.  When we finally got to Belize City to buy these samples we found that there was no Running W meat in town because of all the flooding that was happening across the country.  Damn.  So we bought some random samplings of the beef patties that were in the store to try them out.  At this point we were all getting a bit discouraged because if we couldn’t find the meat we wanted then our whole vision would go down the drain. 

We got back to Corozal with our meat as well as all the other supplies we would need to create our first burger.  Will got the grill fired up and it would be our first attempt.  It was an exciting moment with mom and I sitting in the bar waiting anxiously to try out our product.  Will got the burger finished and presented it on a simple ceramic plate for us all to try.  It looked great, we were all optimistic.  Will cut up the burger in three pieces so we could all have a sample.  The three of us took a bite in a coordinated effort and we all knew right away that this wasn’t it.  My dreams were dashed – we would still be on the search for this non-existent beef.  The problem came in the taste.  It cooked up fine and the meat held together but the suppliers put their own blend of seasonings in the actual ground beef that gave the final product more of a meat loaf taste.  It would not be good enough.  Our goal was an all-American juicy burger, not a slab of meatloaf on a bun.  When various meat shops were being recommended early on there was one that was repeatedly mentioned.  Frank’s Meats right in Corozal town – we had been told they are the best in Corozal but even they most likely would not have what we were looking for.  Since we were already down the list to option C we didn’t have much choice but try them out.  So the next day we found our way to Frank’s to see if they could sell us what we needed.  Frank is an extremely friendly man and was more than willing to help us out.  He was excited to hear that there would be a new place opening up in town and also eager for the new business.  We purchased some of his ground beef and some ground steak, the plan was to try a burger made of purely ground beef, one of purely ground steak and one with a mix of both.  So we got back home and Will tried again – he was the one with all the burger cooking experience since he had been an assistant manager at Helvetia Tavern in Oregon where burgers were their specialty.  He got all three burgers made and we sat around again to sample the final result.  This was more like it – all three tasted like an American burger but they all had distinctly different tastes as well.  The meat would make a big difference.  We all voted and decided on the winner which I won’t divulge here since I’m sure all my competition are keeping tabs on this blog J

Our Burger

So it was a success.  We were yet another step closer to opening day which was tentatively set for November 15^th since we were still waiting for the liquor license to be approved.  We all sat around laughing at ourselves for being in a new country trying to open this restaurant up and not even knowing if we could get good beef – what were we thinking?  Either way we were learning a lot along the way and having some interesting experiences to go along with it. 

The first holiday we really celebrated in Belize since our arrival came on October 31^st for Halloween.  Now, normally this wouldn’t be that big of a deal because Halloween is typically a fun, yet unimportant night for kids to go out and get a sugar high.  This is not the case for me, I love Halloween – it is one of my very favorite holidays.  I always dress up and find something to do and for the last three years my Mom and I have thrown some killer Halloween parties.  I grew up in a house out in the woods in Oregon, it was about a 40 mile drive to Portland and essentially it was in the middle of nowhere.  They still own this house and we utilized it’s spookiness to host Halloween parties.  We went all out too, for a week before the big night we would spend every spare moment to decorate each room (three levels) according to a frightening theme.  It was a big deal for us.  Well, it would be my first Halloween away from my comfort zone and regular party goers.  I didn’t even pack a costume – we had only been in town for a few weeks so I did not expect to be invited to a party for this dark occasion.  To my complete surprise people did have Halloween parties in Corozal and we were promptly invited to one.  As I mentioned in an earlier entry there are a fair amount of expats living in Corozal and they have some networking procedures set up for events such as this.  Often times someone in town will throw a party for this group of people and typically everyone gets and invite.  This would be our first experience with this trend and I have to say my hopes were high because of the occasion.  So my mom and I went out on a mission to find anything in town that could be considered a costume.  It was a last minute effort but it was absolutely necessary because what is Halloween if you don’t dress up?  After scouring the town for a couple days – there aren’t many options here – we found a couple witches hats and temporary tattoos.  We were desperate so it would have to work.  Will was just going to wear some Duke University attire and go as a Duke basketball player. 

All dressed up for Halloween

We really were having a great day besides the fact that it was Halloween, Solo had arrived that day with our new grill and it was a perfect fit.  Nothing fancy but it would do the job.  We had also purchased a fryer from the same little shop in Chet so that was here as well.  Our kitchen was starting to actually resemble a real life kitchen.  Also, after waiting for way too long, the technician from Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) arrived to hook up our internet – finally we were connected to home!  It was a great day; things were really starting to come together.  So we were ready to make a splash at the party and possibly meet some new friends. 

The new grill

The new fryer

Now when I think of a party I typically think music, there should always be music at a party.  It doesn’t have to be loud or crazy but something must be playing in the background to provide a bit of party type atmosphere.  I even brought along my own Halloween play list as a backup in case the hosts had forgotten this very important component of any good party.  So we packed up the CD, some drinks (BYOB) and ourselves in to the car (we had hitched a ride from a couple also headed to the party) and headed out.  I was excited but also a little nervous; I’m not the best in social situations where I don’t know anyone.  I get shy and nervous in those circumstances so I was hopeful that I could successfully overcome that and meet people.  Most people were dressed in a costume so that was a good start but there was no music at all.  My mom handed the hostess my CD – hopefully this isn’t rude but it’s way too late now.  She actually put it on but this must not have been appreciated as much as I would expect because the volume was placed so low that I had to strain to hear any audio at all.  Oh well, so it wasn’t a party with music – I could live with that.  The next observation I quickly made was that everyone is in about the mid-40 and older age range.  I knew that I wouldn’t come across too many expats in my age range but I thought there may be at least one.  There weren’t any at this party.  No problem – in general I can get along with people of any age.  I’m trying to keep a fun and positive attitude about this party. 

The house we were at was beautiful and right on 4 mile lagoon so the moon and stars were shining bright since there was hardly any surrounding light.  The three of us put out our best effort to mingle.  It was sort of easy because no one knew us and everyone wanted to know who we were and what we were doing here.  Each one of us probably told our story about 10 separate times throughout the night, but I’ll always take an easy ice breaker so no problem there.  The strangest thing to me was the number of people we had been meeting from Oregon.  It seemed as if there was a much higher concentration of Oregonians in Belize than any other state or country.  There were about 40 people there in total, everyone was very friendly.  After awhile people tended to go in their little groups of 4 -5 people and chat about whatever was currently relevant in their lives.  Towards the end of the night – still early because this party would not go much past 9pm – the three of us had gravitated to two particular people.  Both from England, these guys seemed to be a ton of fun.  They sat at the table and smoked cigars with my mom; we drank and talked about a range of topics from boxing to good places to get a drink.  Ken and Dave would become fast friends.  Dave was a little gruffer than Ken and talked tough but they both seemed like fun guys.  Dave was headed out to the casino – there are three casinos in the “free zone” right outside of Corozal – to play poker so we decided to head home at that point since the party was winding down by that time anyway. 

Overall it was an interesting night, we learned a few things; 1. A party doesn’t always have music 2. Parties with this group of people would never run too late 3. There were a ton of Oregonians here – seems like someone must have done a lot of Belize marketing my home state 4. I would need to be absolutely okay about hanging with a much older crowd 5. There are teeny tiny bugs that live in the sand and bite you at night – these bites itch very badly.  Compared to my last few Halloweens this was a bit disappointing but it only meant that for Halloween ’09 there would be a killer party thrown at Scotty’s Bar & Grill.  Now, I would have to go to bed nursing my very itchy feet.  I had about 20 bites per foot that itched and burnt like crazy. 

So it had been a couple weeks since the move and we were thick in to decision making for the business.  We had to agree on a menu, what drinks we would serve, our hours, who we would hire and other equally important decisions that we could all potentially have differing opinions on.  At first Will and mom were very careful how they spoke with each other and it went okay but the next phase was that they communicated directly about some topics and then used me as an intermediary on other topics which they felt more strongly about.  This started to cause some initial tension.  It was as if a little seed was sprouting and this was the type of plant we did not want to see.  It was coming, slowly but surely.  The first major issue that came up was Will’s mental attitude and energy level.  He didn’t like his surroundings here in Corozal and so he started moving in to a negative mental state which was very frustrating for both my mom and I because we both have the tendency to keep positive attitudes.  Frustration levels were rising and communication was falling.  It was a volatile combination that would only lead to bad things.

About ten days after our arrival to Belize the three of us were finally starting to get comfortable in our surroundings.  Despite hearing horror story after horror story from the expats here we were feeling safe and sound that night.  Will and I were watching the Portland Trailblazer game on TV – a small, but appreciated taste from home – mom was reading in her bedroom.  All of a sudden there are loud blasts close to the house.  Keep in mind we had been hearing all sorts of bad things about our neighborhood, in fact we had just found out that the previous owner had been attacked in the house and shot by the intruder – funny the little details people omit when trying to sell something.  She survived the attack, but the bullet grazed her head and caused vision trouble in one eye.  We were trying really hard to keep this new information off our mind and had been doing a great job of it until those blasts started to sound.  I just froze, my mom and Will have the same reaction.  No one said a word, I’m not sure any of us took a breath for about a minute while this was happening.  All that was going through my mind was that the noises sounded a lot like gunfire.  Will finally turns to me and asks if that sounds like gunfire to me.  I just nodded my head slowly.  At that point my mom comes out of the bedroom with hesitation, eyes wide and asking us what we thought the noise was.  A few minutes later Will looked out the window reluctantly to see if anything was visible – nothing.  The noise started up again so I went over to the window, heart pounding.  We had only been here for a little over a week and already we were going to be killed by random gunfire – outstanding.  I’m straining to see anything out the window and suddenly to the left of the house I see colorful bursts in the air – fireworks!  A wave of relief came over me and I yelled out “fireworks!”  We all immediately fell back laughing at ourselves.  We were all able to sleep easy that night and a little amused at our reaction to the whole thing.  Apparently in Belize fireworks are the standard practice for any holiday celebration.  We didn’t expect them that night because we weren’t aware of any holidays during that time, but there are a lot more holidays in Belize than at home so obviously something was being celebrated. 

The next day we were all happy to be alive and our task was to deal with the required liquor license for our business.  We had been procrastinating a little on this important detail because everything else had been going so efficiently.  We took the walk in to town and went to town hall to start the process.  We learned that we had to track down one woman who headed up the committee that issues these licenses.  We were given a phone number and vague directions to her residence.  The phone number was useless; we called about thirty times with no answer so we went on a quest to find her house.  After about an hour of searching and asking other people for directions we found a house that seemed to match the description.  In Corozal no one goes to the front door to knock – the typical method of operation is to pull up to the house and honk or yell at the house until someone comes out.  This is a little difficult to get used to, but we must follow procedure.  So we stood outside of her gate and yelled for awhile until finally someone came out of the house.  I asked him if Cathy was there and he said yes, disappeared back in to the house; finally a woman emerged.  I told Cathy we were opening up a bar in town and needed to get a liquor license.  She informed me that the committee had already had their final meeting for the year and that they wouldn’t meet again until January.  This meant that we would not be able to get our license for two months.  Well, we wanted to open in two weeks and without a liquor license it would be hard to call the place a bar.  I asked her, very politely, if there was anything we could do.  This would turn in to our first introduction of “buying” our desired result.  She simply said that we could pay $100 BZ for the committee to have a special meeting in order to grant the license early.  We didn’t have much choice so we said no problem.  We paid the money and Cathy said that she would be around to the business in the next week with the chief of police, fire chief and health inspector to check the place out.  At this point we were keeping our fingers crossed that this process wouldn’t take too long because we wanted to be open in two weeks. 

Everything else was in place for our Grand Opening on November 15^th, but we wanted to have a soft open a week before that date.  We would have to sit back and wait on the liquor license but everything else was coming in to place.  We had found a local bakery, Popular Bakery in Orange Walk town, to make our hamburger buns.  They were even going to make us slightly larger buns for our “Big Bay” burger.  We had several leads on stores to get most of our supplies (alcohol, condiments, meat, cheese, etc) in Belize City so we had a trip to Belize City planned for the next week.  Belize City was formally the capital of Belize but after most of the infrastructure was wiped out in a hurricane the capital city was moved to Belmopan.  Despite that Belize City (referred to as Belize by the locals) is a larger city with a much larger variety of our restaurant/bar requirements.  Solomon was going to be our taxi again for that trip and we were eager to make that trip.

This really wasn’t a big deal until a few weeks in because the problem isn’t just the restaurant’s menu selection, but combined with the fact that that all the grocery stores sell the same items it becomes a bit boring.  My meals all start to look and taste the same.  I suppose this could be a good thing if I was a person who didn’t care much about food, but that is not me – I LOVE food.  Even my cats miss the various treats I used to give them from the take-out food I brought home, so their diet has been dramatically changed as well. 

For the first few weeks of being in Belize we did not have a stove or a grill and no propane to power either so even if we did have them we could not use them.  So we ate out for every meal.  Our first pick was a cute little place called RD’s – a family restaurant on one of the main roads in town.  It was close to our house and easy to walk to which was essential if we wanted to cut down on the blisters that were showing up on our feet from the miles and miles of walking we were getting in due to the lack of a vehicle.  Dinner was the first meal that we had at RD’s when we headed over there it was dark and rainy, on the walk over our legs were being speckled with mud but by now we were getting used to this look so it didn’t bother us too much.  We finally got there, ducked under the overhang to get out of the rain and sat down; it is a very nice, clean and inviting establishment so we were looking forward to dinner.  The owner, Rick came out to greet us and hand us our menus.  We put our umbrellas down and introduced ourselves.  He was very friendly and very willing to give us advice about where to go to get certain supplies, who to call for propane and just gave us some general advice about doing business in the area.  He is a Belizean but not originally from Corozal, he moved to Corozal from Belize City.  As we looked at the menu little did we know that these would be the same 12 food items on every menu so for that particular dining experience we weren’t yet jaded and we enthusiastically picked something off the menu to enjoy. 

I chose the chicken quesadilla, which was absolutely delicious.  Unfortunately another truth about food in Corozal is that you will never get the same taste as the last time you ordered that particular item.  People told me this and I didn’t really believe them at first but it was soon evident when that delicious chicken quesadilla was never ever quite as good again.  So from that moment on I typically don’t even try to find something unique; I take a quick look at the menu just in case, but then go for rice and beans, the dish of Belize.  There are some stars out there in town, but when there’s only two or three even they get old after awhile.  One of the nice places right on the bay, Vamp’s, has a fantastic pan fried fish and chicken fajitas.  If you ever find yourself in Corozal, Belize make sure you stop in there.  So because of the fact that there is no real selection of food in this town we were slightly optimistic that our restaurant would do well – we would be serving something totally different and without the main staples of the typical Belizean diet.  We chose to be optimistic, but in reality this could mean we do really well or completely sink.  This was still to be seen.  We had two main reactions from people when we told them what we planned on serving.  The first was, “You’re not going to serve rice and beans?!?  You have to serve rice and beans!”  The second went something like, “Oh!  That’s fantastic!  We need a good burger place in Corozal.  Something new!”

On the bright side of this whole situation is that the food supplies we need to get for the construction of our hamburgers is all organic, hormone free and totally green.  The produce is all local and pesticide free and the meat is also local beef that is grass fed and hormone free.  It is a little sad that it costs so much more to eat like this at home but here it’s pretty much the only option.  So I have found a bright side to the state of food in Corozal.  In fact, I’ve noticed that due to lack of infrastructure here, green living is a common side effect.  Many people grow their own produce, all coke/beer bottles are glass and recycled, alternate energy in the form of solar and wind are commonly used and buses/bicycles are the main mode of transportation. 

So as we struggle to appreciate a more simple way of eating we also continue to work on getting our restaurant set up.  The walls are freshly painted, the sign is completed, the tables and chairs are polished, the grill is in and it almost resembles an actual restaurant.  Scotty’s Bar and Grill would be up and running in a couple of weeks. 

The Bar - Before Cleaning

The Bar After Cleaning

The Sign is up

We were able to get a lot accomplished in the span of a few weeks.  We essentially had our business ready to go, all the legal tasks were worked out and the three of us had the place looking brand new.  The building we purchased had already been set up to be a restaurant so really we only had clean-up and touch-up work to do.  We did have to find a grill and some other various kitchen items but nothing too daunting.  The house we were now living in is right next door to the business so we have a very short commute to work.  There were only a couple things that were dragging out at this point; the first was our internet access and the second, our liquor license.  Finding a grill had also proven to be a little difficult.  Everyone in town cooks on gas burners – no one really sells a grill top to cook hamburgers on.  This was our first major obstacle.  We started the search by asking around town and we quickly found that this would be a challenge because most people we asked didn’t even know what we were talking about.  The kitchen already had a three burner grill set up but what we needed was a top to stretch over the three burners creating a grill.  We were pointed in a few different directions and so the wild goose chase started; “the woman who owns this hotel is selling one.” “There’s a steel place down the main road that can provide the steel.”  “So and so welds – he lives by the white house down the second street off the bay – he can structure it for you if you provide the steel.”  “There’s a place in Spanish Lookout that can make you one.”  The advice went on and on and we entertained every single option with absolutely no luck.  Needless to say we were disappointed, the grill was essential and it seemed like we may have to cook the burgers on frying pans over a burner.  Then we met Solomon, aka King Solomon. 

Solomon is a border taxi driver.  We were actually referred to him from a man back home in Oregon; it’s such a small world.  This guy who worked with my mom’s best friend’s husband actually owned property in Corozal and had a bunch of extended family there by marriage.  He had met Will before we left for Belize and given him Solomon’s business card – he told us that this guy would help us out if we needed it and was a big teddy bear – just watch out for him when he gets drunk because the religion starts to pour out.  Well, we needed to get to Mexico because that was our last option for a grill.  Chetumal is a Mexican city right outside of the Belize border and about 20 miles from Corozal.  The entire city has approximately the same population as the whole country of Belize so if we need anything then we can go to Chetumal to get it.  The only problem was our lack of reliable transportation.  This is where Solomon comes in to play.  So we tracked him down – everyone knows everyone in this small town and it’s never hard to find anyone around here.  The plan was that Solomon would stop by our house so we could meet him and then we’ll schedule the trip.  It is a complete understatement to say that this guy demands attention.  He is a big guy, which is sort of rare here, he’s loud and he loves to talk.  He comes in to our house and his stories start; for the next few hours they do not stop.  The three of us are just sitting there speechless – because we actually couldn’t get a word in and because none of us had ever met a person quite like him.  As he continued to tell us stories he was drinking beer and eventually we found out that he used to be addicted to crack and his life was on a fast spiral down, he was at the brink of death one night and God spoke to him.  God told him he had to stop with the drugs and from that day forward he has not taken any drugs.  He totally turned his life around and has frequent conversations with God.  He told us that he is not religious because religions are just out to steal money so he is spiritual.  From that moment forward he would not stop talking about God so I just kept my mouth shut and listened to him, at this point I did not think it wise to reveal that I don’t believe in God.  I knew that religion and God were very important here and I didn’t really want to start making enemies already.  It was a fairly comical situation.  He also told us, as he moved on to his 6^th beer, that he didn’t drink anymore either.  Hmm.

After spending a few hours at our house he had decided he liked us and wanted us to go with him to see his property and meet his family.  We were a little tired from all the listening but we decided to go along with him so we piled in to his SUV – we weren’t entirely sure where he was taking us but at this point it was all an adventure.  After about 20 minutes of riding and listening to very loud religious reggae we arrived at a beautiful piece of property in the village of San Antonio.  This was the farm that Solomon spent a lot of his free time maintaining.  It was full of fruit trees and beautiful flowers – he wants to put a little resort there at some point but for now is slowly building a house on the property.  We looked around there for awhile and then headed over to the house he lives in with his wife and small daughter.  Solo’s wife Consuelo is a lovely woman and very friendly.  She welcomed the three of us in to her home and we all sat around talking for awhile.  His daughter is one of the cutest little girls I’ve ever seen, she is named Solome, after her dad. 

At this point we had spent half a day with Solomon and we were exhausted, it was dark so we told him that we needed to get home.  Once we arrived back at the house we had a drink or two to unwind from all the excitement and went to bed watching TV.  We had a trip planned with him to get our grill in Mexico a couple days later.