belizean serendipity

until yesterday,it had been been 3 months since i had eaten the most wonderful combination of foods ever(rice and beans,stewed chicken,fried plantains,potato salad=traditional sunday dinner in belize).my friend wilhemina always gets a t shirt from wherever i travel.i don't travel much so i think she has 4 total(bahamas,grand cayman,2 from belize)she was wearing her "i love belize" shirt where she works and a lady told her that she was from belize.i met this lady last week.her family is from altun ha-the village is called "lucky strike"and she has relatives in san pedro.she invited me over for dinner yesterday and her family watched me eat and cry and exclaim the deliciousness of the food and how much it adds to my belize ennui(that is my not being there).another thing i remembered yesterday is my observation that it is typical for these very masculine and macho belizean men to admit to,and even be unashamedly proud of music that,in this country,would be considered quite sissy.when in san pedro at a bar where i was the only woman,the men were completely grooving to celine dion(?!?)yesterday the males in the family were in the garage playing pool listening(very loudly)to what i recognized as air supply's greatest hits with some leo sayer mixed in.this is yet another fascinating aspect of belizean culture.i will now remove my cultural anthropologists hat and search for my dinner tonight.sadly, it won't be rice and beans but i am looking forward to another sunday dinner with the leslie family!!!!