Research Mode

I haven’t posted anything in a few days ‘cause I’ve been brainstorming and researching some things. We originally came to Belize wanting to open a restaurant. We were/are open to other ideas, because we knew that having never been to Belize before now, we weren’t sure what to expect. Don’t get me wrong, we did tons of research…online. But much of what we found varied from person to person. We weren’t so naive as to believe online research was enough to equip us with all we needed to know about starting a business in Belize. Now that we are here and have been able to see how things work, and have had the opportunity to ask around, we are much more open to trying a different type of business. Honestly, I see the poor starving dogs here and all I want to do is start a shelter. They don’t really do that kind of thing here. I’m not saying there aren’t dog shelters, I saw a tiny one on Caye Caulker, but there are too many people that are living in poverty for there to even be a concern for animal shelters. Here I am between a rock and hard spot. I want to be of service to the people, but all the needy are in my heart (including animals), and I want my own business too. I figure, God put the desire for us to have our own business for a reason. I’ve wanted to have my own business since I was really young. If He opens the doors for us and blesses this business; which would really be His business not ours anyway, then maybe that would help open the doors for starting a non-profit. Hence all the research; what kind of business do we invest in? There are plenty of restaurants here; they don’t need any more of those. What skills do we have that can best serve this community? A couple of people have told us computers. Great! I enjoy technology, but it’s expensive and the import fees are high. Then there’s my/our passion for photography. We could travel the world and sell the photos of our memories. But the world has plenty of those too! Maybe we could still use it as a write off for our travels and equipment at least right? These are just a couple of examples of what we are thinking of, and researching. Any and all prayers for us are greatly appreciated. I know God will open the right door at the right time. Just wish (and pray) He would tell us what to do now, ‘cause my eyes are going cross-eyed from all the reading :0).

Haircut

I’ve been hard pressed to find a place to cut my hair since we arrived in Belize. I should’ve had it done back in the states before I came to give me some time, but being the procrastinator that I am…it didn’t happen. So here in Corozal I’ve only seen one place that cuts women’s hair. I went in to check it out, and she was busy. It’s a good sign right? Well apparently she was too busy for me and didn’t seem to care to have my business. She didn’t try making an appointment with me or anything. I’m very weary of having people cut my hair. Only one person has ever cut it the way I like it, but she would cut my hair way too short every time. Why do they do that? Everyone I know has the same problem finding someone that won’t chop their hair off. Anyway, I’d rather have a referral from people I know so I asked some of the people at church, and I had two people tell me of this one located behind the bank. Yesterday was a holiday so I couldn’t go then, but today I stopped by and she was able to cut my hair. She did a great job with the layers, but as most people do, she cut my hair a lot shorter than I would’ve liked. I’m not too sore about this since it’s been about 6 months since I’ve had my hair cut. It feels so much healthier so I’m happy. Maybe next time she won’t feel that she needs to cut so much off. Oh, by the way, it only cost $10 BZ!

In the beginning…

It had been a desire of mine to move to a beautiful, tropical place since I was too young to understand what that meant. I remember watching a news segment, when I was about four years old, about all the tourists in some beautiful location (I don’t remember where), and I told my mom I want to be tourist when I grow up. She laughed and told me it’s not a job people have. Little did she know that travel writing and blogging would indeed be a career for some people.  The desire to travel always stayed with me. In fact that desire evolved into a great desire to move to some beautiful tropical place somewhere. I married a man with the same desire. My husband and I have been married for about 3 and 1/2  years now, and we’ve been talking about wanting to move away since we were dating. Once we were married those conversations turned more serious, and thus birthed the plan to move. After about a year and a half of praying, seeking guidance from God in regards to where and when to go, and researching countries and cities to move to, we finally got our answer. Belize was the destination that stood out and really called to us through all of our research. The friendly people, warm climate, great diving, rich culture, and simple way of life in Belize really drew us in.  I knew God would not have placed such a strong desire to move to some far off tropical place for no reason. We just had to patiently wait for the right time, and that time is now!