Houses

In response to a special request about our house and the church we are attending here, the kids and I be-bopped around a bit this morning snapping pictures.  We can play Mrs. Jen's neighborhood another day for some of the other sites around town.

Our house is located on the third and fourth floors of a 4-story building on Placencia Road above the Placencia Super Market.  The second floor consists of an apartment for the grocer, who owns the market across the street, and the Treaty Belize office, B's office.  Now, before you think that is totally bland, uncreative, and unoriginal, let me tell you that this town is totally the opposite and the diversity begins with just what I can observe from my windows and porch.

Yesterday I posted a picture from my porch of the sea.  Today, I'll post pictures of the house from 3 different angles, that include shots of the wrap around porch.

Front of house coming from North. 

This first photo is looking up from close to the building as you would see it driving into town.  The concrete part with the windows with panes on the far right is the grocer's apartment.  The solid paned glass windows belong to B's office.  His commute takes all of 5 seconds each day as it shares the stairwell with the house.  The grocer's apartment has stairs on the opposite side of the house.  The yellow, wood-sided house with blue trim is our house.  Only the third floor is visible in this shot.  The fourth floor is more of a loft area, containing 2 bedrooms and a half-bath.

South side of house taken from across the street.

This photo reveals the entry way to the Placencia Super Market on the front center with the awning and the grocer's apartment.  The grocer and his family do not own the Placencia Super Market, but the (I think) LU market across the street.  Either way, both owners are Chinese--as are most of the markets in town.  (I've found 6 so far and 5 are Chinese).  Bo owns the LU.  His wife seems to be Mestizo,which is the name for people of Mayan descent.  Their market has many comings and goings.  Going shopping in Placencia is a social event.  At any given time we can hear Chinese, Spanish, English and Kril (the Garifuna version of Creole) from our front windows.  (Garifuna is the name of the people who originate from the Carib and West Africa)  From this photo, you can also see part of our wrap around porch on the far right side.

Backside of the house

Here you can see how the porch covers the entire backside of the house.  You can also tell that the roof is tin, which makes for enjoying the almost nightly rainstorms all the more exciting.  From this shot you can also tell that some of the houses around us are more what we would consider lean-tos or shacks.  There are actually three houses other than ours in this shot.  Play, Where's Waldo and see if you can tell them apart.  Good luck. 

As I sit here, I can hear a heated discussion in Kril between the builders across the street.  I have no idea what they're saying except for the swear words that are clearly American English.  Thankfully the kids are in the back on the porch reading and cooling off after our morning excursion. 

Lighthouse Worship Center

We cannot seem to escape the Worship Center!  For those of you who don't know, our home church is The Worship Center of Hamilton County, or TWC for short.  Lighthouse is about a 1/2 mile walk North from our house.  They have Wednesday and Sunday evening services in English at 7pm.  There are Spanish services at other times of the week.  It is already dark on our walk to church, but it feels good since it is breezy and the cooler part of the day.  There is air-conditioning there too!  Can I hear an Amen?!?!  The church has about 80 members.  No kids matching the ages of ours from what I can tell.  Our first service they served communion.  That made us feel very welcomed indeed.  (Another reference for TWCers)  We brought down C's old electric drum set to donate.  B brought his guitar.  The pastor plays chords on his guitar and his wife leads a mixture of hymns and praise songs.  Hopefully I'll get to know them more soon. 

There are two other houses of worship in Placencia.  I took a couple of photos of one.  We will not be going there, but I snapped these shots to show you the diversity.

Now you know more about our houses.  Our family home and our new house of worship.  Did I mention that we have a spare room for guests?