What is it About Belize?

Back in 2001, while in the 6th grade, Joycie had to make a mobile for a social studies class. They had to pick a country, find out facts about it and make a visual representation of those facts, incorporating the facts in written format. Joycie chose Belize.


When the kids do projects like that, I decorate my house with them. After a while, we either file them away in their grade box (we keep a storage box for each grade), or I'll put them up in the basement. The Belize mobile stayed out and on the wall in our basement. It's really pretty, and I thought Joycie was super creative with it. Also, at the time, I couldn't remember ever hearing about a country called Belize. Which I thought was pretty amazing, considering I spent 12 years on a job involving a great deal of international work. I could tell you the 2-letter country code for nearly every country in the world. NA Namibia (formerly South-West Africa), LK Sri Lanka, HR Croatia, CH Switzerland... But Belize? Maybe I had heard of Belize, but I didn't remember it. I learned about it, though.


I learned there are a lot of poor people there.


And lately, I keep hearing about Belize. A blog I read has entries about her recent trip there. Joycie found a t-shirt at "Salvo" from Belize (Salvation Army, her & her friends like to go there and buy t-shirts from other people's vacation destinations). It's a really cool t-shirt, like brand new. (It makes me wonder how it ended up at Salvo. Why did the person want to get rid of that beautiful, colorful and nearly new t-shirt? Did the person have an awful time on their trip there? Did the person go there with an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband? Probably more likely the trip-taker bought it for someone and got it a size too small. But that's not very interesting, is it.)

Also, I heard something about Belize on the radio the other day, and it was mentioned on a quiz show on TV. Belize, Belize, Belize, everywhere I go lately, Belize.