James – A New Friend!

After living in the same area for well over 20 years in New York before moving to Belize, Tom and I had made a lot of friends. We’ve always appreciated our friends, but it was still a little unsettling to us to move here and realize that we didn’t always have a houseful of friends at our fingertips at any time, and that we had to go about the process of making new friends – something that I’m not sure either of us really even remembered how to do since we never really thought about it before coming here.

But, we’ve been slowly and steadily making friends since we got here, and it hasn’t been difficult since we meet a lot of nice people in our day to day travels. The hard part is the same thing that was difficult in NY – having everybody be able to make enough time and get together to do the things that friends do. We’ve been talking to James, who works at the mill where we buy our horse feed and dog food, since he started working there a little over a year ago. James moved to Belize from Uganda, so he’s also in the process of settling in Belize, meeting people and making friends. We’ve been talking to him for quite a while and saying he’d have to come out to visit us, and finally a couple of weeks ago when we threw out the offer, he said “Fine – how about next Tuesday?”

So, a couple of Tuesdays ago he came out after work. We had dinner with James and Marjie and Chuck and sat talking at the table until none of us could keep our eyes open. James stayed overnight, and in the morning we saddled up Ness and Es and Tom and James took off for a ride to Big Rock. James hadn’t been on a horse before, but he’s naturally athletic and strong – that’s what tossing around 100 pound feed bags will do for you – and he and Tom had a very enjoyable day. James hadn’t been into the Mountain Pine Ridge before, and the route to Big Rock is a nice mix of broadleaf jungle and pine savannah, so Tom said they talked some, and sometimes just rode along quietly looking at everything there is to see out here as you go up and down the hills and in and out of the different types of forest. James went home Wednesday night so he could be back at work on Thursday, but promised to come back for another visit before too long.