Best advice: Put your energies in charity or volunteer work where you can make a real difference.

Culture Shock Is Real

Culture shock is what happens when everything looks about 20 degrees off kilter, when all the ways you learned were the right ways to deal with people turn out to be wrong. It is a state, someone said, of temporary madness.

Usually it happens after about six months in a new situation. At first, you're excited and thrilled by the new things you're seeing. Then, one day, you just can't stand one more dish of stewed chicken. In Belize, culture shock is sometimes masked by the surface familiarity. Most Belizeans speak English, albeit a different English. They watch - such a shame - American television. They drive big, old Buicks and Chevrolets. They even accept U.S. currency.

But, underneath the surface sameness, Belize is different, a collection of differences. Cases in point: The ancient Mayan view of time, cyclical and recurring, and even the Mayan view today, are grossly different from the linear way urban North Americans view time. The emerging Hispanic majority in Belize has social, religious and political views which are quite different from the views
of the average North American, or, even of the typical Belizean Creole. A Belize Creole saying is "If crab no walk 'e get fat, if 'e walk too much 'e lose claw." Is that a cultural concept your community shares?

In many cases, family connections and relationships are more important in Belize than they are in the U.S. or Canada. Time is less important. Not wanting to disappoint, Belizeans may say "maybe" when "no" would be more accurate. Otherwise honest men may take money under the table for getting things moving. Values North Americans take for granted, such as "work hard and get ahead," may not apply in Belize in the same way. Physical labor, especially agricultural work and service work, because of the heritage of slavery and colonialism, is sometimes viewed as demeaning among some Belize groups. A Belizean may work long hours for himself - fishing or logging can be backbreaking labor - but be reluctant to do so for an employer.

Best advice: Prepare yourself for a truly different world view. If you have trouble adjusting, get away on mini-vacations whenever you can.

No Wal-Marts in Belize

Belize has no Wal-Marts. No K-Marts. No Home Depots. No Circuit Cities. No McDonald'ses. It has a Burger King, but not the Burger King you're thinking of.

While this lack of homogenization is in Belize's favor, it also means that you can't go down to your neighborhood hyperstore and select from 40 kinds of dish soap, or 18 brands of underwear. Rum may be US$6 a bottle, but Cheetos may be US$3 a bag. Every CD player, nearly every piece of plumbing and electrical equipment, every car and truck, every pair of scissors, every bottle of aspirin, is imported, and often transshipped thousands of miles from one port to another before it gets to the final destination in Belize. Then it's carried on a bus or under a Cessna seat somewhere else.

Some items simply aren't available in Belize, or supplies may be spotty. Bags of cement, for example, sometimes are in short supply. To get ordinary items such as building nails or a certain kind of auto part, you may have to call several different suppliers.

Belize's small population is spread out over a relatively large area, served by a network of bad roads, old planes and leaky boats. Although the government is shifting its focus from excise and import taxes more to income and consumption taxes, much of government revenue still comes from import taxes, so the prices you pay may reflect a tax of 60 or 80 or 100% or more.

In short, Belize is an inefficient market of low-paid consumers, a country of middlemen and mom 'n pop stores, few of which could last more than a month or two in a highly competitive marketplace like the U.S.

This is what gives Belize its unique flavor in an age of franchised sameness. But, you better Belize it, it also provides a lot of frustration and higher prices.

Best advice: Buy local products where possible, and make trips to Mexico or the U.S. for big-ticket purchases.

Costs of Living

Belize doesn't have a cost of living. It has several costs of living.

The traditional view is that Belize is the most expensive country in Central America, yet one of the least expensive in the Caribbean. While there's truth to that, especially as regards travel, it really doesn't take into account that the actual cost of living in Belize can vary from almost nothing to sky high.

You can live in a luxury four-bedroom house on Ambergris Caye, with air conditioning, telephones and faxes, a dishwasher, microwave and cable TV, U.S. food in your pantry and Jack Daniels in your glass, and you can spend thousands a month. Or you can live in a small house in Cayo, or around P.G., with no phone, eat beans and rice and rice and beans, with local rum to drink, maybe someone to help clean and cook, for US$300 a month. Some condos in Belize go for more than US$200,000, but I know one happy Belize resident who built and equipped his small house, using his own labor, with thatch from nature and timbers from a lagoon, for  US$4,000, and that includes furniture and kitchen equipment.

After all, the per capita income in Belize is less than US$1,650 a year. A weekly wage of US$100 is considered pretty good. Tens of thousands of Belizeans live, and in many cases live comfortably, on a few thousand dollars a year. You can, too. Or you can compromise, forsaking those high-cost icons of civilization such as 80,000 BTU air conditioners, while keeping the Ford Explorer, boat or other toys which you enjoy. Live partly on the Belizean style, partly in the U.S. style, and enjoy the benefits of both, and you'll get more, for less.

Best advice: Live like a Belizean, at least some of the time.