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BELIZE SURVIVOR: Darker Side of Paradise |
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Expatriate Blog
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 23:00 |
| | | Although disguised as fiction, this true story depicts the early days of the gringo homesteaders who came to Belize in the mid-1970's in search of a modern-day utopia and instead found themselves battling primitive lifestyle, natural disaster, and for some of us, the darker side of human nature.
With a five-star rating, the book is currently available online at Amazon 
by Nancy, R. Koerner
| | Nancy R. Koerner was born in eastern Ohio and raised in northwestern Pennsylvania. At age twenty-three, she moved to the Maya Mountains of Belize, Central America, where she lived in the rainforest for thirteen years. | | | 
| A woman of diverse talents, with a strong background in sales and marketing, Nancy has founded, owned, and operated a number of successful businesses throughout the years, including a world-class horseback tour facility in Belize, Central America. This facility, Mountain Equestrian Trails, is one of only two locations within the country of Belize to be cited in the new best seller, "1000 Places To See Before You Die." Mountain Equestrian Trails is the true-life entity referred to in Belize Survivor as "Belize-By-Horseback." | | See more books about Belize | | | | |
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Global demand for chocolate revives cocoa farms |
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Expatriate Blog
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Monday, 11 August 2008 16:13 |
| | | | | INDIGENOUS people grew cocoa in Panama more than 2,000 years ago. Now, their descendants are reviving the crop to meet world demand for high-quality chocolate.
Throughout Central America, farmers are planting cocoa, taking advantage of high world cocoa prices and the premium their cocoa commands.
Grown by the ancient Maya in Mexico and Central America long before the arrival of the Spanish, cocoa also has a long tradition with the Ngobe people, native to the Panama-Costa Rica border region, as well as indigenous communities in Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
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In the 1990s, the farmers abandoned the crop when the trees were hit by fungus and world prices were low.
Now gourmet chocolate companies are turning to growers in Central America to supply cocoa that can be labelled organic and “fair trade” – under which companies pledge to pay Third World farmers more for their crops.
The bulk of the world’s cocoa is grown in Africa, where cacao trees were imported by Portuguese colonisers in the 1800s.
Despite efforts to plant more cocoa, the scale of operations is still tiny on most Central American plots. By comparison, the Ivory Coast produces more than one million tonnes of cocoa a year.
Monday March 24, 2008 - Reuters | | | | | |
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A Lesson In Observation Under The Belmoral |
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Expatriate Blog
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Saturday, 09 August 2008 01:49 |
| | | There is a little inn at the center of one Belizean town called the New Belmoral.
Under it is a covered area that faces the very center of town at an intersection with roads dispersing in five directions.
At any given time, this covered space under the Belmoral might contain a number of children, women, and especially men, each with their own reason for being there. Some stay for hours and appear to be too lazy to do anything more than stand leaning against a pole. Others sit and wait. Others hold conversations with whoever happens by.
|  | Observing this crowd of people brings a certain curiosity. How could grown men just stand in one place for literally hours on end? Don't they have something to do?
But should you try hanging out in one of these very popular observation points you will discover the quiet inner action that takes place. You will discover that it is not idle laziness ruling the space under the Belmoral. There is purpose to stillness. For those who practice meditation, there will be a relative understanding.
One Eastern term that has been used, at least in the Western world, to describe a similar understanding is Wu Wei. The easiest way to explain this might be "the art of not doing". In Christian terms it might be described best in this popular phrase, "Be still and know God."
The bottom line is that in stillness the universe around you can be better understood. All the commotion and action in one's view can be better understood if observed quietly for a period of time. Time is an important ingredient. Although some men have been known for standing relatively still for four or even six hours straight, a period of two hours is sufficient to obtain a clear understanding of what can be gained from this action.
Getting over the self-conscious feeling of being judged for standing still must pass first. Once this happens, an absorbed feeling can occur, a feeling as though you are a grain of sand on a beach. Then the fullness of your surroundings is felt.
The more you observe the people and cars and actions going on around you, the more you come to understand about the meaning and purpose of those actions. You begin to know why people are moving as they are, how they are connected, where the tensions exist, who is seeking companionship, when an employer might have a need to hire someone, who needs emotional support, and the list goes on and on.
This is not a new concept and it can be achieved almost anywhere. It is a life skill that can help you at home and at work. And it is something that many Belizeans practice often. So enjoy this beautiful country of Belize and resolve to taste a tiny bit of the wisdom of its people. | | | | |
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