September in Belize has arrived!

September has arrived in Belize!  And as mentioned in a previous blog, it is a month of celebrating the birth of Belize early in history (with the pirates on St. George's Caye--which is probably Politically Incorrect to say) and Independence Day, in addition to Carnaval!  Lots of photo opportunities!  And the above photo is of a near-by roundabout decorated for the month!

My friend, Karen Simplis, suggested that Dave and I might enjoy the "Mass in Blues" concert, which was really a reprise of a concert held in 1971.  The concert was held at the Bliss Centre, which is a 600 seat performance house that is lovely!  The concert featured Frankie Reneau, who is a classical pianist, composer and director of music, who I believe lives in the UK now.  He agreed to return to Belize (he actually returns often, but some persuasion was necessary to have him agree to this reprisal), and worked with a group of vocalists and a band to recreate the concert from 1971, with a few changes to the program.  What wonderful music!!  The night was the first "date" that Dave and I have had since coming to Belize, and it was so wonderful to get dressed and go to a concert!  The music, much of it gospel in style, was simply wonderful and uplifting!  Dave and I were not sure what it would be like to park downtown, so we took a taxi, which worked out great!  Then, in thanking Karen for the idea of coming, she and a friend gave us a ride home!  I will buy the "album" from iTunes, but it was interesting that some people at the concert were holding up the original vinyl LP!  And a few of the singers were in the original concert and in this concert with their son or daughter in the chorus, too!  What a special night!

Dave and I also went out on Thursday night to Wine Club.  We actually joined the Wine Club, which is a different group of people, largely, whom we do not know.  The Aliwen wines from Chile (Undarraga) were excellent!

(I don't know what I do to make the pictures go to these positions, but oh, well...those are pictures from the concert.)

Work continues to dominate our lives.  Dave has had some challenging weather for flying.  And I've had some relief with the beginning of school and children gone for the day and at home still enthused with homework.

Rattletrap has had a lot of issues.  I was going to have Dave tell the story of the air conditioner being repaired by the shade-tree mechanic...yes, the tools were spread out, under a shade tree!  These kind of activities take all day.  First, the problem needs to be determined.  Then, with the air conditioner, it was found to have a leak, so Dave had to drive to a store to pick up a piece.  Then the piece was installed, and Dave drove to another store to buy the freeon.  After that was put in, the a/c worked!  Hurray!  But don't get too overly confident, because two days later, it quit again.  Now the compressor seems to be dead.  And let me tell you...when the Weather Channel says that it "feels like 100," it really does!  Added to that issue, Dave backed out of the driveway into the street, which happened to be crowded with cars (we are close to two schools), and he took off the left hand rear view mirror.  So it is now reattached in a typical Belizean way.  We definitely look like we belong!  On a positive note, we were driving home last night from the gym, and someone yelled out to us (we, obviously, had the windows open), saying "Hello, Pilot!"  Our car is recognizable!  However, if anyone has a yearning to drive a less used vehicle to Belize, we would so appreciate someone finding us a small SUV (not a Subaru, Albuquerque...we haven't seen one here), we would really like to get another car!  BERT will pay!

I hope that my blogs don't sound like a litany of complaints.  As we drove home from the gym beside the Sea, and going along past Memorial Park where yet another celebratory concert was being held, I said out loud how happy I am to be here.  Yes, it can be challenging, but what a wonderful opportunity for us!