...with two cats in the yard (and some dogs, and a couple of lizards, and some roosters, bats, and some giant cockroaches.
So now that we're a little bit settled I wanted to tell you a bit around our home. We basically live in a two family flat on the second floor. We've learned quickly that this is a good thing as we tend to catch quite a bit more breeze up here (that and the 1st floor seems to smell very musty because of the rain). Space wise, it's not bad as we have about as much space as we did at our house back in the States (less the basement).
We've got a living room, kitchen, eat in area, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a veranda. The veranda has quickly become the choice spot for playing, drying clothes, and sitting. We hope to get a hammock soon as the choices for seating appear to be limited to resin chair or hammock.
The house came furnished but we would definitely consider it to be sparsely furnished as you can see from the pictures (the bookshelf in the living room photo was made by Andy from some reclaimed wood and the blue tubs are luggage we brought with us). Still, as I'd mentioned before, our apartment is obviously one of the nicer homes around.
One of the things we are quickly learning about living in a 3rd world country, with limited resources, is that things often don't work (or work regularly). Blackouts are common (in which we lose both electricity and water) as are what we like to call "water outs" in which we lose just water. Between that and the regularly non-functioning bathrooms (neither has worked fully since we've lived here), we've quickly developed the family motto, "don't let it brew if you don't have to"--you never know when the toilet will stop working.
It's not about the lack of effort to maintain things, it's really just the inability to do so as the caretaker (who also works another job) has been working many hours to try to keep our house up. Our plumbing has broken pieces which have been hard to come by along with the fact that it lacks proper ventilation for it to really work well. In fact, many things around here seem to be jerry rigged--as can be noticed in the random holes in the walls, and the wires that poke in and out of the house with no apparent rhyme or reason. Our master bedroom has a wire that goes from the top corner of our room, across our wall, and out our bedroom window to who knows where.
Another thing you might notice in the photos of our house are the bars on the windows. While the town feels relatively safe, theft and burglary seem to be an issue here. Nearly every house has bars on their windows. We try to be positive and look at it as a way of preventing small kids from falling out the window. Plus, several of our windows have missing or broken screens so we like to think that it also keeps some birds and bats out. Our entire yard has a fence and gate around it as well for added security.
In spite of the nuances, we are working to make our house a home. The country here is absolutely beautiful--the birds are beautiful, coconut trees and mango trees abound, we live just minutes from the rain forest, blocks from the ocean, and can see the Maya Mountains from our kitchen window. It really is a blessing to be here.
Here is our mailing address should you wish to contact us:
The Kuhnert Family
St. Peter Claver Church
P.O. Box 25
Punta Gorda, Belize
Central America
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