2009 In Retrospect

Well, it's been one hell of a year. A quick recap...

January

We had Tamara visit, actually arrived in December but stayed a week. We went to San Ignacio where we checked out Xunantunich, did some cave tubing at Jaguar Paw Resort, and finished her stay by going to Caye Caulker for some snorkelling at the reef. After that we started struggling with Access America for the refund due to Air Canada cancelling their flights. This is the month that Elvis finally opened his new store in Seine Bight.

February

We saw bats in the bedroom, plenty of birds, even more rain. At the end of the month, we sold our grill and moved from Maya Beach to Seine Bight. We continued our struggle with Access America for our refund. They did reinburse us for some of it, but put it on the wrong credit card. They promised to cut a cheque for the remainder sometime in the next 60 days.

March

First we went to Belmopan where we applied for our residency as our year was up. That was a struggle in itself as there is no set standard and if you talk to two different people, you will get two totally different sets of instructions. We took a mini vacation and checked out Punta Gorda as it was one of the places we had not been to yet. We then settled into the new digs at Seine Bight. We continued our struggle with Access America.

April

We had Easter and we went to our first Passover Seder, which was wonderful, then my mom's birthday (which we celebrated without her), Bob's birthday party at Lil Bit's place and I did the Walk For Polio. I got bit by a dog in Seine Bight. We had our Police Interview for residency. They started building the road in Seine Bight. We continued our struggle with Access America.

May

The Village of Seine Bight got a road, Adriane had a birthday, Yoli's had a deck opening ceremony and party, we were finally paid the amount owed by Access America. We checked out some property in Riversdale on May 19th, but later found out the realtor took us to the wrong lot. On May 27th, we went back and checked out the correct property on our own. We continued our struggle with Immigration for residency.

June

The road continued to North Seine Bight, Lobster Season opened, LobsterFest happened and I did the Walk For Cancer. Our struggle with Immigration continued.

July

We celebrated Canada Day, Barnacle's birthday, and continued our struggle with Immigration. They managed to complete my application but lose Bob's. Bob's mum passed away, so we went to Victoria for two weeks. First we had to move out of Seine Bight and put our 'stuff' into storage.

August

We returned from Victoria and moved into the new digs in Placencia Village. We got our residency, Social Security and Voter Identification all set. We applied for internet to be installed in the new house before we left for Victoria and got it on August 20th. They installed the wrong speed but at least we had internet. Not bad for a $605 installation fee!!

September

We had lots of rain, Barefoot reopened, we celebrated The Battle of St. George's Caye and Independence Day. David Perez reopened his store in Placencia. We received our Social Security cards in the Placencia office.

October

We went to Dangriga to pick up our Voter ID cards, we celebrated Dax's birthday at the Maya Breeze. We checked out the property at Riversdale again, this time wondering why we were interested in the first place. We found out that we were being billed the wrong amount for the internet and began our struggle with BTL to have the billing corrected.

November

We started our struggle with Solicitor General's Office in Belmopan to get a Marriage Licence. Like Immigration, it depends on what day it is and who you talk to as to what information you get. We did get our Licence in the end but had to pay four times as much as originally told because we are FOREIGNERS. So why did we go for Residency? TuttiFrutti reopened. We celebrated Remembrance Day and we did get quietly married barefoot on the beach in front of our house on November 28th. We continued with our struggle with BTL billing.

December

We spent eight wonderful days in Costa Rica on our honeymoon. We celebrated my birthday at Barefoot Beach. We think we finally got the internet billing straightened around. We went to some friends in the village for a Christmas party and we had a wonderful Christmas Day with our friends and neighbours. Christmas Day afternoon we went for a swim. Just yesterday, we hooked up with some dear friends from Victoria who will be coming down to visit we hope. The year is ending on a wonderful note as our struggles seem to be over for now.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Bob and Sharyn Flindell