COINCIDENCE

My friend John Moe sent me a little note recounting a remarkable coincidence.  A man named Reddick has three triplets in the fifth grade at John’s school in Colorado Springs, and John got to know him because he is a teacher for one of the triplets.  At a PTA meeting, Mr. Reddick told him that he had recently taken a new job as the manager of offshore operations with a tropical fruit company called “Snarks Fruity Imports” and he was waiting to find which tropical country he would be working in.  A month later, he looked John up at the PTA meeting, and told him he would be coming to Belize.
“BELIZE!!” says John.  “I have a good friend who just moved to Belize.  Where in Belize?”

“A little town called Corozal”

“Amazing!!” says John.  (As you know, one of my favorite expressions.)

So John sends me a note, tells me all about this and says he will let me know when Reddick will be in town.

In three or four weeks, I get a very belated note (written on Sunday, mailed on Wednesday) which says that Mr. Reddick is in Corozal right now, and he is staying at Tony’s Inn.  “Do you know where that is?,” the note says.

Well, yes, Tony’s is the biggest, nicest hotel in town, so I run over there that evening.   Room clerk tells me that Bruce Reddick has left town, and will be back in about 10 days.   I can hardly wait.

Ten days later, I hook up with Bruce, and we get to know each other over a couple of Belikin beers at the Y*Not Palapa at Tony’s.  The next night, Bruce comes over, meets Charlotte, we have a little dinner, and get to know each other a lot better.  In a word, we hit it off.

He was sent down here by Snarks to straighten out their papaya growing and packing operation here.  Originally started by a government sponsored non-profit, it has been losing lots of money ever since its foundation, even after Snarks took it over and installed some new Belizean managers. Bruce has over 20 years of experience in growing and packing tropical fruit, with Dole in Honduras and the Philippines, with his own operation in Mexico, with Del Monte in Costa Rica, etc. etc.  He is just the right kind of “hired gun” to straighten out this operation, which is hemorrhaging money like a stuck pig loses blood. 

THE PLOT THICKENS

The next day, Bruce calls me from Tony’s.

“I got arrested by immigration, escorted off the work site, and told not to come back until I have a work permit.  I’ll see you in a little while.”

It turns out that Snarks had a very casual working arrangement with the government when they first took over the failing papaya operation from the non-profit and Gringo managers could come and go fairly easily. That was three years ago, and now we have a new government which is much more strict.   Snarks has made a desultory effort to get Bruce a work permit, but it is stalled in the government works, and now he has to tread water until it is approved. 

AN INTERLUDE

This gives Bruce and I plenty of time to think about all the great things you can do with your leisure time in Belize.  He is already a diver, and has SCUBA outfits for his whole family (of five) so he wants a boat big enough to go out to San Pedro – 500 yards from the Belizean Barrier Reef, the finest diving area in the Western Hemisphere.  We can also use the boat to fish in the river and along the coast, thus realizing my dream of bonefishing close to Corozal. 

Bruce makes a trip out to San Pedro and finds a 26-foot skiff with a 75 horse motor for a very reasonable price.  Using his rented Mitsubishi Montero, we make trips around the countryside, looking for places to live, fish, explore, identify birds, harvest plants for my back yard.  In between, we drink a little Belikin, a little Rum ‘N Coke, and plot & scheme about fishing. 

 Some days, he goes to Belize City, and talks to the lawyer who is working on getting his work permit, and he has some interviews with minor officials in the government.  The word seems to be that the work permit is going to come through any day, but of course, that is “Belize Time” which is sometimes a lot slower than time in other parts of the world. 

CHERCHE LA FEMME

Alas, there is a lady fly in the ointment, named Evalyn, a manager for the Snarks operation here.  She was hired as an office manager seven months ago but she now has cards printed up that read “General Manager” and that makes it official. She has expanded her job, and her benefits significantly. She has a company car, an expense account, and lots of perks like office supplies for the entire third grade. I ask some of my (Belizean) town buddies about her.  “Oh yeah!,” they say.  “Everyone knows that Evalyn really has a sweet deal.” 

Of course, Bruce might spoil this whole deal, but Evalyn has connections with the immigration folks who picked Bruce up, with government folks in high places, and with Russell, the Snarks executive who hired her.  She calls Russell and complains about Bruce.  Shortly, Russell is down here, interviewing the people at the local office. 

“He’s a trouble maker!”

“He thinks he knows more about papaya than we do.”

“He doesn’t think we should take the company cars and trucks home at night.”

“Things are just fine, and he wants to change them. ”

Russell assures Bruce that he will straighten everything out, and goes back to the Snarks headquarters.

Bruce makes arrangements to rent a local house, and goes home to Colorado Springs.  He will be in COS four days, four days at Snarks in Florida, and then back to Belize. 

Mid-week before he is due back, he calls me. 

“I’m quitting Snarks.”

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