Halloween; one of my very favorite holidays to throw a party. I love finding a costume, dressing up, seeing what everyone else comes up with and having a party – specifically I love throwing a Halloween party. In the States my mom and I started our own Halloween party tradition and went all out for this ghostly night, but last year Halloween was a bust for us. We had just moved to Corozal and didn’t have a proper costume or a proper party to go to; this meant that we would simply have to throw a killer party this year. We began the planning early October because Halloween decorations are not very easy to come by here – not even in Chetumal. Luckily there is a resale shop in Orange Walk which imports items in from the US and typically they stock holiday items. Sure enough when we stopped in to check out what they had they were stocked full of miscellaneous Halloween décor. We filled our baskets and were very happy that we had also hit a 50% off day which meant we got a ton of stuff for almost nothing ($25 US).

We put things up here and there right away but saved most of the hardcore decorating for the week of Halloween. We had both ordered our costumes off a Halloween website and our friend brought them down from the states for us so we were really all set and I was even more excited that Halloween day would also bring a huge college football game for the Oregon Ducks vs. USC which we would get to watch on ABC. We had personally invited our friends around town and everyone was planning on coming all dressed up. Jell-O shots, Lime Cello and dancing were on the menu. Friday soon came around and we did all of our last minute decorating – the place looked fantastic. We had little kids coming in to order burgers and walking at a snail’s pace looking all over in awe, or possibly fright.

That week at the bar had been slow so we were also looking forward to having some people actually occupying the bar. Saturday morning I woke up slowly and turned on ESPN – I had totally forgotten about College Game Day setting up in Eugene, OR that day so I got to watch the Duck fans going crazy with excitement for the game and it really set my mood on high for the day. Then it hit…

The rain came in suddenly. I had seen the grey clouds in the distance but hadn’t thought much of it since we hadn’t heard of any major storms coming through. All of a sudden the clouds burst with huge drops of rain – the sound was deafening and everything immediately started to get wet. Water came in the business, my room, the living room and I was running around shutting up the house while my mom and the girls were dealing with the water coming in the business. I looked out at the sky and it was dark as far as I could see – this didn’t seem to be just passing through – my mood dipped slightly but I was still holding out hope. Of all the days for this to hit it had to be this day. I started to feel a twinge of homesickness knowing if I was in Oregon I would be at the game and at a party with no flooding.

Then the lightning started striking and the thunder was rolling. At first it started at somewhat of a distance as usual but then it started moving much closer until it was directly on top of us. It was the most intense lightning storm I had been in and a little unnerving. The power started hitting and I turned off all the electronics; I unplugged the laptop and stereo but failed to unplug the TV. At one point Vanessa was nailing stuff up to the wall in the business and a bolt of lightning struck close throwing everything off that wall and shocking her. This was serious. The cats were hiding in the cupboards, the dogs were whimpering around my mom. I was sitting in the living room putting a playlist together for that night wondering if we would even be having a party later when a big spark came snapping through the electrical outlet that the house TV was plugged in to – at that moment I knew we no longer had a working TV although I did not confirm that until later once the storm finally passed. We never lost power for too long and the cable didn’t go out but once it was all said and done both the house and business TV had blown as well as our modem. The skies were still a heavy grey and I wondered if we would get more rain that day – by 3pm I was frantic about being able to watch the Duck game but luckily we were able to borrow a friend’s TV to put in the bar to watch the game. The rain never really started up again so the party was also on, but that day we got as much rain in a few hours as we had all year.

We ate dinner at 2:30, went over to another friend’s house to get our makeup applied and back to the house to put costumes on and get to the bar just in time to catch kick-off. Everything was set and we were just waiting for people to arrive and slowly they did. In the end the Ducks pulled off a major win and we danced and drank all night – it turned out to be an outstanding day and Halloween – the only downside was that I didn’t get to enjoy my annual Halloween viewing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. In the aftermath of this storm we had to purchase a new TV for the bar and for the time being will have to live without a TV in the house, and we’re currently awaiting a new modem from BTL. So it is internet cafes for me right now, luckily they are all over the place here.

Me and Mom Ready for Halloween

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.