PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

It was a lovely Tuesday when Anna & Cody came to visit Yo Creek while on their lovely travels of Latin America when they got to meet our little friend here. While my host mom was making food outside the day before, the noticed there was a small baby crocodile under her feet. Even she was alarmed. My host dad tried to put it in his chicken cage only to realize it had a hole in it and then it was on the loose again.

Luckily the neighbor found it and put a rope around its neck and let it swim in the creek behind his house. Anny and Cody came along just in time. We were going to go to Orange Walk to meet up with others and they asked us if we would like a ride into town. I don't know how to turn a free ride in the back of a truck down, so we agreed and that was that.

What we didn't realize was we were on a mission. Anna, being a woman, was forced to sit up front with my parents. Cody and I were in the back of the truck with our neighbor who doesn't make any sense to me regardless of what language he is speaking. We had 7 chickens, 2 ducks and this croc in the back. The chickens and the ducks were in a cage. The croc was just hanging out in the spare tire rolled up like a puppy would.

We get to town and this is where the fun begins. We go to one of the Chinese shops (they are Taiwanese but you cant tell Belizeans that) and try to sell our items to them. I failed to mention that I had eaten at the restaurant the week before so at least I knew the chickens were fresh if they came from my house. I just didn't know the chickens I watch everyday were my food in other places besides my house.

The store owners loved the idea of buying the chickens and the ducks, but wanted nothing to do with the croc. It wasn't the most mobile croc, but everyone was terrified of it. They were also scared of us because they were all trying to figure out why there were 3 gringos watching a deal like this go down.

The biggest problem was not negotiations, it was language. Usually people speak a variation of either English, Spanish, or Kriol. Any deal can be made using any of the 3, especially in town. However, when dealing with the Taiwanese, they still use their native tongue and don't speak much of any of the 3 main ones. They can all understand numbers so the price was agreed upon for the chickens and ducks, but the problem started with the croc. They clearly didn't want it, but that didn't stop my neighbor. He began saying over and over again "konichiwa konichiwa" which is a greeting in Japanese like "hello." It was obvious the Taiwanese people understood them enough to be confused since it pertained nothing to the deal but they continued to banter on in any language they did know.

They never did buy the croc. My neighbor is still convinced that any other Chinese would buy it though. Maybe next time.

I was just happy that Anna and her friend Cody, whom I had never met, got to see that experience. They were my first visitors to Belize and even came to Yo Creek. They were there when I looked at my house for the first time and had a true Belizean meal of Rice & Beans and Stew Chicken.

Had I had my own house by this point, I probably would have tried to cook the croc after no one else wanted it. It would have been a great house warming dinner for anyone who wanted to come.