Belize: How to Cook a Tapir

I’m back with #booxploringtheworld Belize, which we read for November.✌️

“I suddenly grasped what Aaron had been trying to tell me about not treating the Maya the way I would treat my neighbours in Verona. What had just happened was, to me, a terrifying, once-in-a-lifetime experience. To Maxiana it was commonplace. So was the bite of a malaria-infected mosquito. So was a swarm of army ants overrunning her house and consuming every living thing in it. So was a tommygoff, the one-cigarette-and-you’re dead pit viper Don had told me about. (The Kekchi called it us li xul, the good animal, because to call it by name was to summon it.) The slightest misstep, the most insignificant miscalculation, could end in death. Life in the bush was dangerous-a single thread with the potential to break in less time than it took to blink.”

You might’ve heard of Belize. But probably, like me, this must be the first time you’re hearing the name. Belize is a small country in the eastern part of Central America. It was under British rule from 1840 to 1981 and was called the British Honduras. A part of the Mayan civilization flourished here. In 1962, the author decides to come on a ‘working honeymoon’ with her anthropologist husband  who wants to live among the Qekchi Maya and study their way of life; while she takes up the job of teaching English to the children. There starts the story of the 20 year old Teacher.

What follows is a fun and in depth description of life in the bush: daily bouts with tarantulas and cockroaches, and the burden of learning to cook and wash clothes. The lifestyle of the Maya influences the author strongly and makes her realize her own strength. From being reliant on her husband for most things in the beginning, she starts forming deep bonds with the people around her, learn to barter and stand on her own feet. There are a lot of photos of the place and people in the book, which helped a lot. There were also recipes for Mayan dishes at the end of each chapter which, I’m sorry to say, I mostly skipped. Reading such books make me realize how different people are, but at the same time so similar.