Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2003. Mattie was about a year and a half old and was a live wire. So much so that it was impossible to get him to sit still and pose for a photo. That day, I dressed Mattie in a Christmas sweater and we took him to Home Depot and Lowe's. These were the only stores Mattie gravitated to and was fascinated to look around at the displays. So we put him in a shopping cart and went to the holiday aisle of Lowe's and began snapping photos. I am quite sure others thought we were nuts. But this one photo was featured on the cover of our 2003 Christmas card.
Quote of the day: Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~ Norman Vincent Peale
Formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala, and on the east by the Caribbean Sea.
Belize has an area of 8,800 sq mi and a population of 387,879 (2017). It has the lowest population density in Central America. Belize has the second largest barrier reef in the world.
Over half the population is multilingual. English is the Countries language, with Spanish being the second most common spoken language.
Only elementary school is mandatory, which was clear to me as I saw many older children wandering around by day (a day which is typically a school day). Ken explained that in Belize NO ONE goes hungry. No one dies of starvation and that is because of their community focus and helping one another. I tried to snap photos as our tour bus was driving by. This was a local fruit stand that caught my attention.
What always catches my attention while in the Caribbean is two things: 1) the animals always are roaming around and look emaciated and 2) trash is strewn everywhere and there doesn't seem to be infrastructure to deal with this wastage.
Altun Ha is the name given to the ruins of an ancient Mayan city in Belize, located in the Belize District about 31 miles north of Belize City. The site covers an area of about 3.1 square miles.
Stones from the ruins of the ancient structures were reused for residential construction of the agricultural village of Rockstone Pond in modern times, but the ancient site did not come to the attention of archaeologists until 1963, after the stones were unearth during a 1961, Hurricane Hattie.
The above photo shows the expanse of these ruins. At one time it is said that 10,000 Mayan's lived here. To live in this community, you had to be well to do! The 'regular' people lived outside in the village. This area was divided into two sections, as you see above. The part on the right was the ceremonial area and the part on the left the more residential area.
In the Mayan culture, 7 and 13 are special numbers. You will see this reflected in their temples, with 7 or 13 steps up. Seven signifies the levels of the underworld. Everyone in the Mayan culture, when they die must battle the spirits at each of these 7 levels. Once they get through these levels, then they have the opportunity to move through the 13 levels to get to heaven.
Given that it is hard to upload photos, due to slow connectivity, I am not showing you a close up of this stone. But in the stone, is carved people with cone shaped heads and crossed eyes. This was considered beautiful, and when babies were born their heads were put between boards and tied, to make their heads flat and pointed. In addition, a bead was tied around the child's head that would dangle between the eyes. Naturally a baby would land up staring at the bead, helping it to become cross eyed. People like you and me would be considered ordinary and common.
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