Journal Entry 26

December 12, 1976 / Belize City, Belize:

We've been having a very wet late November and early December. The locals say it is quite unusual to have so much rain at this time of the year. The rain has been coming down with the "northers" (cold air masses from North America.) With the rain, the northers have brought cooler air temperatures. The days are quite pleasant (maybe I'm just getting used to it) and the nights can be cool. Sometimes I even sleep under a light blanket. Something I could use, to lounge around in in the evenings, is some sweats.

It is customary in Belize for every government agency to hold a large staff Christmas Party. Last week, David, Denton and I went out to sea to catch enough fish for grilled fillets for our Christmas party. We went south about 20 miles to some patch reefs and speared 85 pounds of grouper. Fish averaged about 6 pounds each. Anything over 10 pounds is a little hard to handle when it's thrashing around on the end of the spear. After scaling, gutting and leaving some of the smaller fish whole to take home, we had 25 pounds of fillet for the party. Norris brought up 10 pounds of shrimp from Placencia. Everything was ready. In fact, the last week at work was devoted to preparing for the party. But it rained the day the party was to be held (Fri., 10 Dec.) and since the roof at the Fisheries Laboratory leaks badly, the party was cancelled. No one could get word out to Belmopan to cancel the order of hors d'oeuvres, so Mr. Miller gave Denton, David and me the order to wait around after work Friday evening to receive the party foods from Belmopan, and, if they were perishable, to see to it that they perished. So, we had our own small party.

I received a lot of mail this week. I got one package of clothes mailed in September. It contained a sweatshirt, 2 new cotton shirts, some towels, two books, etc. It came by way of N.Y., which is typical for surface mail, and was the 18th shipment to arrive in Belize this year. Also, I got a lot of paperback books: Eiseley's "Unexpected Universe"; Clavell's "Shogun," "King Rat," "Tai-Pan"; Caldwell's "Captain and Kings"; Higgins' "Eagle Has Landed"; Michener's "Miscellany"; Tolkien's "Hobbit," "Fellowship of the Ring", "Two Towers," "Return of the King"; Castaneda's "Don Juan", "Separate Reality," "Journey to Ixtlan," "Tales of Power"; Brady's "Shark Fighter" and Ali's "Greatest." I also got two old Time Magazines (9/27 and 10/4.) My second L.A. Times arrived. So, it looks like the mail is starting to come in now. The books look interesting. I've only read one of them before, "King Rat." The only ones I will not read are Tolkien's books.

Roger left yesterday to fly back to Michigan. He will then ride down with his father and brothers who are driving down to be in Belize for Christmas.

[Photo: Heading out to the patch reefs in the Fisheries skiff, December 1976.]

[Linked Image]