Temperature hit 109 Thursday.

    Hot even for me, but I ain't complaining.  Drops down into the low 90s by bedtime, and I have a fan if I need it.  Usually stays a little cooler inside my house...of course since it's block it also retains the heat well into the night.  Still wouldn't trade it for 20 below and ice.

    Having mentioned ice, I have to mention a phenomenon long associated with my travels.  It seems whenever I'm in warmer climates, especially when I was attempting to escape from the deep freeze of the Midwest in mid-winter, the phrase I would often here was, "You know, it almost never gets this cold here."  But darned if it didn't go ahead and get that cold as long as I was there...and then slowly warm back up after I left.

    So on Friday, I heard the wind start to whip up a storm in Benque, at least that's what I would think was happening, although I'm still not to good at reading the weather here.  But I closed the shutters on my office window, as the wind was threatening to blow not only my papers away, but my computer as well.  I had to make a run for Hanna Meat, one of my advertisers, as I hadn't clarified his ad for the May issue of El Chiclero and I had to get the copy to BRC Printing by 5:00.  Caught a ride over to his business, got caught in the cloudburst walking (running) back.

    Hail.

    That's what we had Thursday in Belize.  Hail.

    It's difficult here to even get ice in drinks, and we had it dropping from the sky.  Thursday I had a Coke with my rice & beans.  Ice-cold out of the chest cooler.  Before I finished my meal it was not cool, but hot.  So was the bottle. On the up side, so are toilet seats.

    Councilor Constance Hyde took videos from her front porch.  It's not that she'd never seen hail.  She had, once about 30 years ago.  I wasn't anywhere near Belize at the time...I swear. 

    Global warming has nothin' on me.

    One other note...we had ground breaking for the bank in Benque yesterday, something Mayor Nick has been working on since he was elected 2 years ago, and for the 3 years he was a councilor before that.  Huge for Benque.  Very difficult to create business opportunities or encourage entrepreneurs when you have to travel out of town to deposit checks, cash checks, use an ATM...any of the things you take for granted in most towns in the U.S., and even most towns in Belize. 

    But after years of lobbying, and finally connecting with a banker who saw the potential here, Heritage Bank Limited should be opening its doors here in 6 or 7 months.  So we celebrated some yesterday, and I had one of those moments of integration that warmed my heart.  A couple of glasses of wine into the food and discussion, Councilor Ana Melita turned to me and asked if I knew Dionicio's last name.  Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but for me, it created a great big smile.  Because when I first came to Benque and met Dionicio, I mangled his name badly and often, to much amusement.  Now, one of the Town Councilors who has lived in Benque most of her life was asking me if I knew his last name.  And I did.  Felt pretty darn good.

Comments

[C]

Hmmm. Two miraculous events in one week. What are the odds? Rekon the bank thought they would catch hail if they didn't take some responsible action?
I try really hard not to post here but you lead me down the path with two such events.

[Roger German]

C...why on earth would you try hard NOT to post here...that's the idea you know, to "talk" about these things...Rg

[Cf]

Cuz, I have a tendency more toward sarcasm than talking. I don't wish to make light of your plight.