We have started getting up early (4am) in a neurotic (Belize still can’t take the neurosis out of two doctors, even after 10 years) bid to get everything done before it gets unbearably hot and humid at midday. Unfortunately, there was no committee meeting so the other animals (especially the night shift ones) haven’t quite got the hang of the new schedule. This morning, we found a snake fast asleep next to the freezer. I walked right passed it because I was half asleep and then I had to do a “double-take” and realise that there was a snake next to me whilst I was filling the teapot. I was quite unfazed by the snake and merely said “Snake!” to Gnome. He quickly got two sticks and used them like chop-sticks and got him out!! We then had a nice cup of tea (Ahhh…hits the spot!!) and started the day!
We have so many wax apples on our farm this year…we have even been giving them away to our piggies.
Guinea Pigs Eating Wax Apples.
We have been eating a lot of them raw. Because they have the crispy texture of an apple, I thought that they would do well baked. And, then I thought of chilli beef and hey presto, I came up with this recipe: Wax Apples Stuffed with Chilli Beef.
To stuff the wax apples, you just need to cut a wedge into the bottom. Like so:
Wedge Removed From Wax Apple.
Stuffed wax apples:
Wax Apples Stuffed with Beef.
I slow-baked the stuffed wax apples with onions so that the onions could form a nice gravy.
Wax Apples and Onions.
We ate it with a side of green vegetables:
Wax Apples Stuffed with Chilli Beef.
We really enjoyed this dish and this is also a great way of cooking other fruits in the Syzygium family, notably the Malay (Molly) Apple.
I have a nice story to share with you today. It is a heart-warming story that makes me feel connected with the community of Punta Gorda and at large, humanity.
About a week ago, I received an early morning phone call from the daughter one of our many patients. She was naturally distressed because her elderly father had fallen on the floor. Unfortunately, we were in Belize City at that time so we were unable to come to her aid. However, I did tell her that it was imperative that she take her father to hospital (in Punta Gorda) urgently. I detected some hesitancy from her because she was unsure as to whether she and her husband could physically carry him out of the house and into their truck. I understood her concerns and I stated that there was simply no ambulance service available but nevertheless, it was of utmost importance that he be seen by a medical doctor.
On the same day, the daughter phoned to give me an update and said that her father was stable and improving in hospital.
I didn’t hear anything more until a couple of days ago. The father had been discharged from hospital and we came out to do a check-up. When we arrived at the house, we were met by the daughter. She was very pleased with her father’s progress and said to us mysteriously, “I will let my dad tell you about the ride in the pick-up truck…”
When we saw the father, he was lying down and it was clear that he had been through a very difficult and trying week. Despite all this, he smiled and beamed with relief when he saw us. The first thing he said to us, as he chuckled to himself, was “Oh, I need to tell you about my first ride on the back of a pick-up truck…”
So this is the “pick-up story”: The daughter had run out to her neighbour and asked them for help in getting her dad into her truck. The neighbour shouted an incomprehensible list of commands in Creole over her shoulder and the next thing she knew there were six young men, armed with blankets, standing by her side. The six men (I imagine in my head, six very strong burly men) ran like soldiers to the house and swooped the father up effortlessly and carried him in a blanket onto the back of the pick-up truck. As they drove the bumpy ride to the hospital, the men acted as a human cushion to stop the father from rolling about on the truck.
The neighbour had also called ahead to the hospital to inform them of the imminent arrival. And so, everything was done in a timely, co-ordinated manner as soon as they reached hospital.
I smiled when I heard this story. This shows community spirit and compassion. In times of crisis, they rally together and give support to one another. This is truly priceless and no amount of facilities and public services can replace the warmth and humility that is necessary in times of need.
Here are some pictures of “animals in action” on our farm. First of all, I would like to say that our cat is back on track after his traumatic event. He rather enjoyed being fed three times a day and the intensive heavy petting. No more nightmares for Kitty and by the way, he is sleeping well. This is the cat “not in action.”
Doing Well.
Tarantula in the house…this one might actually be a resident but we don’t mind because he does the night shift so only comes out after dark. I used to be terrified of spiders when I lived in Scotland (and they were tiny compared to the ones here). Anyway, I actually think that the furriness makes the tarantula look cute and cuddly.
And, of course, our beloved piggies residing at the famous gated community of Paradise Pastures are doing their piggie thing…eating. The population is now 15 with 4 expecting mothers. The maternity wing is ready to receive them! A few days ago, Mayor Gnome presented each of them with a gift of a personal wax apple. They were very happy but somewhat confused over personal ownership and so they ended up playing a popular piggie game called “snatch and grab.”
Three Piggies Eating One Apple.
Doing a photo shoot with guinea pigs is actually really difficult because they tend to be camera-shy. As soon as they see a camera pointing at them they usually scurry off into the corners. So, you have to realise that I took about 30 camera clicks to get these photos. I have to say that Stumpy (the Grandmother of all the piggies so-called because she has one stumped leg due to an unfortunate accident in the past) is a real champion with photos because she has bilateral cataracts so she can’t spot the camera. She’s a real natural, very photogenic:
Grandma Stumpy on the right. What a Cutey!
Another piggie picture:
Guinea Pigs Eating Wax Apples.
This is a huge caterpillar (the size of a finger) feasting on our fig plant. We eventually had to flick it off because it ate up all the foliage.
Bird Shit Caterpillar.
And, last but not least. This frog jumped onto Gnome’s shoulder and promptly fell asleep.
Froggie on Shoulder.
Gnome is much loved by the frog community for continuing the breeding program in various buckets of water on the farm.
We have discovered the wonders of cooked cashew fruit because they absorb flavours really well and they have the texture of chicken breast. Cashew fruit can be eaten raw but tends to have tannins in them which stops you from eating too much of them. Cooking this fruit in sugar helps to off-set the tannin taste.
After eating this, we both agreed that the cashew fruit was worth eating. In previous years, we have just let this fruit drop to the ground and rot…what a waste! The only problem is that there seems to be a health community of pacas (gibnuts) feasting on the fruit as soon as they drop to the ground. This means that we have to get up at the crack of dawn to collect the fruit before all the critters (including doggie) get them!!
Munchkin has charged me with the honorary task of posting our two-hundredth post and filling it with some lofty thoughts and ideas that free us from the feeling of mundaneness engendered by three inches of rain every night, not having fixed the pump yet, mud, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, botless flies, doctor flies, termites and the constant growth of tropical bush — Green Hell…ehm…I mean Paradise!
Before I start, however, I want to share the happiness of having found and reconnected with a long-lost, medical school classmate with whom I shared some of those awful times:
Thank you for re-appearing in our lives and being more than a once-a-year-email friend.
Here I go: Let us take today to realise that all religions have at least one common commandment: “Thou shalt not disfigure the soul.” This is a powerful and empowering statement and it gives me hope and comfort when I ponder upon it: it reminds me that we are all in the same boat as collective Humanity; allowing me to feel and behave as an equal with my fellows; with compassion and understanding regardless of which books we read and study in our search for freedom. I believe that we can all meet with the common belief that there exists a Divine Essence in the universe without having to kill, crush and destroy each other trying to prove the supremacy of our personal thoughts to others.
This next one is a blatant paraphrase from the Liturgical Manual and Commentaries of the Orange Catholic Bible: People, finding no answers to the ten thousand religious questions now apply their own reasoning: All men seek to be enlightened. Religion is but the most ancient and honourable way in which men have striven to make sense out of God’s universe. Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of religion to fit man into this lawfulness.
Another paraphrase that follows nicely: Much that is called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility towards life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All men must see that the teaching of religions by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognised with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you’ve always known.
I dedicate this quote from Bomoko’s Legacy to those of us that feel that our problems will be taken away by somebody else: “You who have defeated us say to yourselves that Babylon is fallen and its works have been overturned. I say to you still that man remains on trial, each man in his own dock. Each man is a little war.”
I find this quote from the O.C. Bible enlightening when I neurotically rationalise and justify my bad behaviour: “Any sin can be ascribed, at least in part, to a natural bad tendency that is an extenuating circumstance acceptable to God.”
And finally, to end on a note that reminds us to be mindful of that little voice in our heads which often gets us into plenty of trouble (22 Kalima): “Whether a thought is spoken or not, it is a real thing and has powers of reality.”
A couple of weeks ago we were asked by Belcampo Lodge (an eco-lodge in Toledo) to assess their foraging tour. We were accompanied by their guide, Jose Vellos and we went on a two hour trek around Belcampo grounds. We would like to share with you some of the plants and trees that we came across…we probably saw up to about sixty plants mostly noted for their edibility, medicinal or useful purposes. All in all, the tour reinforced the diversity of plants in the rainforest and it was very educational for everyone involved. I will probably write about this tour in wee instalments since I have so many pictures to show you.
This is a picture of a Strangler Fig of the Ficus sp.; the seeds end up dropping in crevices of other trees and as they grow, they form roots which bind around the host tree, eventually killing it.
Strangler Fig.Strangler Fig.
This one is the Central American Rubber Tree, also known as Castilla elastica and Panama Rubber Tree. Here is a picture; if you look carefully, you can see some latex dripping out from the multiple scores on the bark. During the heyday of the rubber industry in Central America, these trees were tapped for their valuable latex. As an historical aside, the rubber from this tree was used to make the ball used for the famous Mesoamerican ballgame Ollamaliztli.
Rubber Tree.
Close-up picture of the foliage:
Rubber Tree Leaves.
These are the fruit of the rubber tree; Gnome took some home to start a rubber plantation…he wants to make his own thigh high rubber boots one day (for walking about the farm in the wet season). NOT a cosplay fetish!
Rubber Tree Fruit.
This one has many names…we have heard of the following: Bull’s Eye, Deer’s Eye and Horse’s Eye. Gnome suggested re-naming it ” Some Sort of Ruminant’s Eye” as a catch-all term. I don’t know…mmmm…not a very catchy name?!
Picture of the seed with the dried pod:
Deer’s Eye/ Bull’s Eye/ Horse’s Eye.
The locals tell us that this seed is used in childrens’ games where it is rubbed very quickly against the pod and then transferred onto somebody else’s skin to cause a scalding effect. This is done for fun and laughs in the bush! It happens less now that everyone has Galaxy phones 😉
Now that the rains have come, the humidity has shot up to 100%. It is muggy and wet and it feels like you are inhaling wet air. Every movement on the farm causes profuse sweating. Yes, I know I was complaining about dry season…but this is even worse because nothing ever dries up and we are wading in puddles. The up side is that the duckies are very happy splashing about in water and incessantly quacking. Poor Gnome attempted to clean up some coconuts and over-heated; he actually had to lie down under the shade of the coconuts from heat exhaustion.
Poor Gnome!
To add to our list of worries, the cat has been severely traumatised. He did not appear all day yesterday and finally turned up in the evening looking very scared and bewildered. He was not physically injured but he was obviously shaken up. So, we carried him into the house and it took him an hour to get settled down. He was hyper-alert and kept on surveying his surroundings as if, at any moment, a giant monster would pounce on him. At night, I tried the usual routine with him and turfed him out of the front door. He would have none of it and started walking backwards (he actually moon-walked!) back into the house slowly and deliberately.
We are not sure what happened to our cat but from our observations, it looks like he might have been chased and he probably spent a night and day up on a tree.
We need to get our cat back on track. Meanwhile Doctor’s orders are plenty of TLC until he starts behaving normally again…like this:
Hello Everyone, we are continuing with the mushroom theme since the rains are bringing a huge abundance of them onto our farm and the Toledo region of Belize. Interestingly enough, many of them fall into the category of the Lepiota sp…also commonly known as the parasol mushrooms.
Here are some pictures from the farm:
Parasol Mushrooms.Little Lepiota mushrooms.Lepiota in Grass.
Lepiota mushrooms are notoriously difficult to identify and many of them are poisonous, whilst others are edible and delectable. Although we are pretty adventurous with our eating, we have decided not to chance it with these mushrooms since it would be pretty embarrassing for two doctors, in the bush, to come to an early demise due to mushroom mis-adventure.
This particular Lepiota is more distinctive as it has green spores. This one is Chlorophyllummolybdites; unfortunately, inedible and can cause gastro-intestinal upset.
Chlorophyllum molybdites.Chlorophyllum molybdites.: distinctive green spores.
Even although we can’t eat any of these, we still have a passion for mushrooms and love to take pictures of them.
By the way, we know that we are back in the Toledo region of Belize (been out of town last few days) when we have to stop the car to let the little piggies cross:
Oh, I can not believe that I forgot to mention that we had found a puffball mushroom whilst on our travels the last few days. We had just driven up to the Taiwanese shop and the next thing I knew, Gnome had scrambled out quickly and was on his hands and knees in the grassy field beside the car-park.
He was so excited because he had spotted a puff-ball mushroom. These are edible and some of them can get to the size of footballs. We have never had the pleasure of eating one but apparently you can slice them and cook them like steaks.
Ripe Puffball.
We took this specimen back to the farm and Gnome stomped all over it on the grass to disperse the spores. Hope to have puffball steak sometime soon!!
Internet Crap…short post today!!
I was quite unfazed by the snake and merely said “Snake!” to Gnome. He quickly got two sticks and used them like chop-sticks and got him out!! We then had a nice cup of tea (Ahhh…hits the spot!!) and started the day!
