An update to this Caribbean Life for Kids post from 2020.
Summer is nearly over and elementary schools resume their classes September 3rd here on the peninsula. I, for one, can not freakin wait! Don’t get me wrong- we had a nice summer vacation but enough is enough and I’m ready to get back in to the (structured) swing of things. The thing about living in Belize is that there’s often this feast-or-famine of circumstances. Periods of abundance and spans of… un-abundance (yes I know that’s not technically a word and that if I applied myself I could think of a better alternative to convey my message but, shut up, I’m trying to make a point here and I have to focus on that). Life in Belize is cyclical: we have seasons for foods (ex: conch or lobster season/ mango, cashew, sorrel, etc/ those terrible weeks when we’re forced to eat the Mennonite’s awful carrots instead of the ones imported from Mexico) and seasons for weather (wet v dry season though I liked what I heard an old Belizean man say about the seasons: hot, hotter, and wet) and seasons for tourism (high or busy season being Nov-April and low or slow season May-Oct). Life, especially here, is an ebb and flow of activity and I feel particularly sensitive to it as a parent because the tidal changes of children’s activities on the peninsula is drastic.
I’m often asked by other parents considering a move to Placencia what it’s like for kids and what sort of activities and opportunities they have. In North America you can count on organized activities; you can build your whole year’s calendar around summer camps and Little League and dance classes and whatever-the-hell-else. In Placencia it is SO hit or miss with things. Last summer there seemed to be loads of things- sports, vacation bible school, multiple camps! This summer there was hardly anything! But that’s how it goes and we’ve learned to roll with it. When things are busy, take advantage and do the things because there will be other times when the village is dead and nobody is doin’ nothin. I’m so grateful that we took some trips over the past few months (Cayo, Colombia, Caye Caulker) and had friends visit right before and during Lobsterfest. That made the long summer holiday bearable, as did Mitch’s involvement in the Sailing Club which keeps him occupied with practices most weekends. Other than that, this kid has been stretching the boundaries of his free-roaming.
One of my tippy-top favorite things about village life is the relatively small and safe parameters in which Mitch can test his wings and grow his independence. Go out and play and wander with your mates and come home when the street lights turn on. Unstructured and unsupervised play is uncommon in North Americans’ childhoods now but in yesteryear, this is how it was done. I realize how fortunate we are to live in the community that we do because in other locations this wouldn’t be practical or safe but here in Placencia Mitch can enjoy a huge amount of freedom for an eight-year-old. He and his little buddies can play hide-and-seek, comb the beach for treasures, and wander down to the football field for a pick up game… on their own. Of course I feel a degree of apprehension when he’s out of eyesight range but a lot of my fear is quelled because I know dozens of other parents’ eyes are on them as they move throughout the village. The first Sunday (because that’s the super quiet day in the village with very little traffic and no deliveries or anything) that I decided to allow Mitch and his friend to ride their bikes to the ice-cream shop without an adult chaperone I received 2 messages within the hour from ladies that knew Mitch wasn’t allowed to ride on the road without an adult escort. How awesome is that?! I always marvel at how spectacularly this community comes together to support their own and it is so heartwarming to be part of that; we look out for one another and certainly people are looking out for Mitch. I think this is such a wonderful place for him to be growing up in. We don’t have a cinema or Little League or Space Camp or Chuck E Cheese or a children’s orchestra or a million other things but we have a certain lifestyle that is equally enriching albeit different.
And now that I’ve romanticized this free-range kid culture let me tell you, its not without its repercussions either. While he’s out running these streets he has picked up some new Kriol vocabulary that shouldn’t be used in polite conversation but that he uses liberally… almost excessively. These little hooligans think I don’t know what they’re saying when I overhear their conversations but I have Urban Dictionary and I’ve told them they better watch their mouths when they go back to school.
Here’s a little compellation video of Mitch’s Caribbean Life
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