It’s a brand new year bringing change and clarity. Let us all be imaginative and creative so that we can get out of the blah and mundaneness of life. Munchkin and Gnome will strive to keep the Magic going!! Are you ready to follow us…
Into The Jungle (Our New Theme For 2016)!!
This story, all names, characters and incidents portrayed in this production are non-fictitious. Identification with actual persons, places, buildings and products is intended and should be inferred.
Here’s a medical one. An eponymous syndrome is an ailment named after a person. During medical school, it was a favourite past time amongst us all (yes, we were a bunch of sad buggers with no mates) to memorise as many eponymous syndromes as possible and rhyme them off whilst intoxicated with alcohol. Of course, I didn’t do that kind of thing (Ha-Ha) but I did study up on the syndromes like a swotty Munchkin.
Ulysses Syndrome comes to mind because it is rather the way that I have seen Medicine being utilised everywhere.
And so the Ulysses (Odysseus) story and syndrome goes like this…
After the Trojan war Ulysses, King of Ithaca, had many dangerous and perhaps pointless adventures before he returned to his starting place. Similarly, many patients with incurable diseases start with a problem and end up with much the same problem. This is usually after many dangerous and pointless tests. The Ulysses Syndrome describes this over-investigation.
To investigate or not to investigate. Before you embark on your adventure you may want to speak to us about it.
Yes, it was a town day with the usual madness of rushing about, delivering stuff, paying bills in between seeing patients and hailing passerbys. After all that, we sat by the sea with our Duckie Bag sipping coffee together.
Who needs a coffee shop when you can sit out here?
Always remember to take time to relax!!
Can anybody tell us Who Jonas Are? Have we missed out on anything good? Somehow the last 10 years of Belize has acted as a time warp and we have no knowledge of current trends and popular fads. We have no idea.. are these guys old or new? Are they a Christian Pop Band? We have ended up with hundreds of Jonas Gift Bags and this is how it happened…
Just last week, our old missionary friend phoned me up and asked if I had ordered gift bags to be sent to his States address. I recalled that a long time ago (2 years to be exact) I had ordered some golden organza bags via Amazon, from China, to be sent to his address. They never appeared and so I had given them up for being lost in the post somewhere out there! So, when he mentioned Gift Bags, I immediately thought that they had at long last arrived. When our friend came to deliver the stuff he literally chucked a huge bin bag liner over the gate, a few token papayas and scurried quick smart back into his truck. He made a hurried excuse about needing a hair-cut, pushed the gas pedal down and was gone before I could even utter a word of thanks.
I opened up the bag and this is what I got. Hundreds of these in all shapes and sizes.
I have the sneaky suspicion that my missionary friend has happily off-loaded these bags onto me regardless of whether I have true ownership. I think they probably came from some church bazaar along with woolly jumpers and coffee mugs. Anyway, since I continue to receive gifts under the auspices of Jesus, I would like to extend this gesture by giving away a free Jonas bag with every International order from our website. Yay!! Start Shopping!!
Here is another Munchkin and Gnome Game which might become famous once we are minor celebrities. So, even although it seems like we are the only ones that find this game humourous, it is our hope that this might catch on at some point…”go viral” so-to-speak. However, I would like to give a Big Thank-you to Ginja Bwai for playing this game with us once.
Last week, we spotted a Fridge On A Pickup at Tommy’s Superstore in Bella Vista.
Gnome:
“Quick, quick, get a picture before you miss it!”
Munchkin:
“Yeah but…how can I miss it? It’s not moving!”
Gnome:
“Sorry Babes, but you do have a habit of missing them!”
Spotting a Fridge On A Pickup means 1000 points!!
And we have had close calls in the past as I fumbled around for the camera as the truck and fridge came whizzing by. Look! It’s speeding away!! There have been a few fast and furious car chases in Belize with Munchkin and Gnome!
Anyway here are the Point Allocations for the spotting of Goods (and assorted paraphernilia) on a Pickup (with a picture):
When you spot the Fridge on a Pickup, the rule is to jiggle your bottom on the car seat and shout out,
“Fridge On A Pickup!!”
with whistles, loud expressive whooping and hand gesticulating.
Add up all your points and come to the sober realisation that none of this means anything and try to have More Fun!!
The Tao of Belize: Car Hailing was first introduced as a concept which encompassed the philosophy of symbolic communication on the roads of Belize. Last week we traveled on the mean roads of the country and opted to use the following hails:
Pointing Snake; Projection of Inner Knowledge.
With intermittent Jaguar Paw; Respect To The Power of The Predator.
You could consider this as “Tai Chi On The Road”; powerful symbolism to soothe the souls of travellers. C’mon everyone…start with the Fundamental Five (Rabbit Ears, Double Gibnut, Pointing Snake, Jaguar Paw and Upward Facing Dog) and keep the Car Hailing Revolution going!
A while back, we down-loaded a whole load of Amazing Grace versions in order to choose the best one for our Grandma Stumpy’s Funeral. We like any opportunity to sing along to Amazing Grace because the song gives us a deeply cathartic feeling of emancipation.
Gnome says: “It is deeply cleansing…like a purge.”
Munchkin says, “I can release all my suffering now…”
Please sing along with us to our Amazing Grace shortlist and vote in our “The Best of Amazing Grace” Poll.
Number 1: The King: Elvis Presley!
Number 2: Celine Dion:
Number 3: Whitney Houston:
I was harvesting bird chilli peppers today to dry out in the sun. It is hot and dry again. These come up as voluntary plants everywhere because the birds eat them and poop the seeds out. I like these chilli peppers so I usually let these plants come up opportunistically; these plants can grow into considerable bushes and I have at least a dozen of them scattered around the yard.
Well, the running joke, on the farm, is that the birds get them all because I never actually get round to harvesting any of them. Gnome says that one day when we finally have our 4 and 20 blackbird pie, they will be very hot and spicy!
In order to put an end to the joke (it is after all at my expense) I took the time to pick some of the peppers; I probably picked close to 1000 and that wasn’t even half of them!
Whilst I was picking them, I realised that all the Munchkin jobs involved food in some way or another. On the farm, I am in charge of food harvesting, preservation, preparation and cooking. It is quite a job because it is ongoing and if you slack off, fruit and vegetables get wasted and fall to the ground.
Yesterday, I prepared another jackfruit “baby”…believe me, this is no mean feat when you have to wrestle with such a heavy fruit with all the latex and goo sticking onto the knife and hands! The jackfruit dried beautifully into very sweet, aromatic chips.
More Munchkin jobs coming up:
Picking of Chinese Jujube; these are green fruit about the size of small plums. When they turn yellow-green, they are ready to pick and at this point, have the consistency and crispness of Granny Smith apples. When they are fully mature, they actually turn red and shrivel up like prunes. This is a version of the Chinese red date, which can be purchased at Chinese supermarkets. This year I will have my own to cook in savoury and sweet soups.
Oh, and yes we have bamboo shoots coming up. These will be ready in about a week. It sounds like fun when you are reading it off my blog but in actual fact, it is a whole sweaty morning of cutting, slicing and boiling. You really have to be dedicated to food to do all of this!
It is all indeed a labour of love. If I didn’t love cooking and eating so much, I honestly would not do all of this. For any people out there who dream of a self-sustainable farming existence, they need to first of all, ask themselves if they are prepared to spend at least 50% of their day planting, weeding, harvesting, preserving and preparing food. Because that is all it is about. When I first moved to Belize, there were a number of couples who also bought farms and wanted to grow their own food to some extent. One couple, who had more resources than us, even got a digger to mound up 5 feet high garden rows to grow vegetables. Their idea worked wonders and they had tonnes of vegetables…the only problem was that neither of them were willing to pick or cook any of them. At the time, one of them had remarked,
“…do you know what this place (Punta Gorda) really needs? Yes, we need a “Drive Through” so that we can just pick up our meals…in and out…without having to wait around…”
This was a serious comment but nevertheless, I found it hilarious and I still to this very day, it makes me chuckle. For me, the fact that there was no “Drive Through” was one of the reasons why I came to Belize!
In the end, they gave up on the garden idea and now mostly buy all the food in, despite having all the space and resources to plant their own food.
The lesson to be learned here is to realise your own real motivations and predilections because that is your real push to do things. Also, subsistence farming does not make you rich so if you are chasing the bucks, don’t even consider this type of living. If you are looking for food security and independence, then you might think about this as a worthwhile option.
We are now facing a slight problem with writing our posts. Our camera has suddenly stopped working and it looks like it is going the usual way of “throw-away consumables.” Now, this is really upsetting because the camera was a gift and it was not cheap. It has only lasted 18 months. We are not the kind of people who like to throw away stuff to buy more gadgets to play with and throw again. Plus, we are in Belize!! I can not physically buy a brand new camera in Punta Gorda, I would have to drive two hours to Belmopan to get one. Anyway, we tried the camera on my crappy phone (I am still using a flip phone whilst everyone now is onto the clunky, rectangular looking things) and it does work. The only problem is that, for some unknown reason, we can not transfer pictures from the phone to the computer. Possibly because Gnome uses Linux rather than Windows?? However, it does work the other way…pictures from computer to phone…but, that is of no help to us. Arrrrghhh!!!
I don’t know if getting a new phone will change things…I loathe to buy yet another gadget. It is my philosophy to keep a mobile phone until it dies its natural death, usually a life-span of 2 years (how ridiculous). I might be trying the pawn shop for a cheap camera!!
Here are some pictures that I saved up for a rainy day:
Poor Froggy!! Must breed more in our buckets of water…
Let’s hope we come up with a solution because otherwise, you will just have to read my plain old words and imagine the pictures!
That dastardly goosie has been casing me for the last couple of weeks; he knows my routine and most importantly, feeding times. He has learnt the art of stalking, infiltration and acquisition of stolen food.
Goosie Stalking; hiding in the shadows of two metal barrels, plotting and scheming away:
Goosie Infiltration and Acquisition of Stolen Chicken Feet:
The Nefarious Mr. Goosie is stealing chicken feet from the dog bowls…whoever heard of a goose eating chicken feet?! I was led to believe that they only ate grass.
If you ask me, the removal of the Wart of Evil “didn’t do nothing” as they say here in Belize:
Mr. Goosie is still displaying evil and wanton traits. Gnome takes a philosophical stance and says that Goosie is the balance on our farm; he describes the fluffy ducks and friendly guinea pigs as the “Yin” of the “Yin and Yang” of our farm. He explains that Goosie has to naturally balance the “good” with his “bad.”
The Yin of our farm:
The “Yang” of our Farm:
Gnome advice to Munchkin: Be brave, Munchkin. Don’t run from goosie! Show NO Fear!!
