Production: Ijaba Films
Director: Tressa Sanders
Camera(s): Panasonic PV-DV100
Travel Date(s): August 2002
Place(s): Ghana, West Africa

It feels like 1000 reasons why I should be living in Belize. *Smile* Here are some good reasons why I would like to move to Belize. I can only list what is reasonable considering I haven’t been there. I can’t speculate the good or bad without having been.

1. Protected Forests, animals and other environmental resources and lots of it.
2. 500+ species of birds, a protected Jaguar population, monkeys, butterflies and all types of other amazing animals and insects.
3. A diverse group of people.
4. Low cost of living.
5. Ability to afford land
6. Ability as a foreigner to buy land
7. Ability to build my eco friendly dream house without a hassle and with good, affordable labor
8. Ability to observe nature in a rain forest (I’m thinking of all the beautiful nature films I could create and all of the things I can learn about).
9. Close proximity to so many other countries I could visit.
10. It’s gorgeous!
11. There is a group or two building eco communities there should I like to mingle (although it appears to me, people native to the area pretty much live this way already and have always done so.)
12. Clean natural water supply.

I work with a gentleman who took some time this week to tell me all about Belize as he sees it. He and his wife own property there and plan to retire there. They’ve been in the process of building a home, the Mayan way and also have some wonderful plans for providing a place for visitors and students to learning about the land, natural building, medicinal plants, etc. It is always good to hear about a place you’d like to visit or move to first hand from someone who has been there, lived there, and/or grew up there (even if you don’t want to hear what they have to say. *smile*). Honesty and reality are always useful. Love them. *Smile*

What this has also done for me, is forced me to think outside of my conditioned pattern. Yes, I could work for someone else there in Belize or anywhere I choose to move, but I don’t have to. I’ve been coming up with all sorts of ways I can make a rewarding living. It’s also forced me to see that I have something to contribute on a different level other than hired help at a company. I can teach things, I can help others with their business, I can build professional affordable websites, I can provide video services to businesses and organizations, I can write articles, I could help people build things, fix things, etc. I can do all sorts of things and I simply have never looked at my freedom that way before. I love it.

A friend of mine had suggested in the past I consider moving to Central or South America but for no particular reason, I’ve never been interested. This is true for many places, including the Islands of the Pacific. Truth be told, even if I don’t move to these places, many are worth a good visit. So I’ve got other countries on my mind in addition to Belize as well.

There are also some pros and cons I’ve read or heard about Belize I’m leaving out because I need to visit there and live there for a little while before I can really acknowledge them as accurate and truthful. I’m planning to take a trip to Belize withing the next 3 months. I’ll be sure to blog about the experience.

Cheers!

I have always made an effort to travel light however, my trip to Germany and Ireland in 2007 was the first time I officially traveled as a filmmaker. I took with me my Panasonic DVX100B, full sized tripod, mini tripod, one full sized high wattage light, 15″ laptop, and a whole host of other gear I never used. It was the first time I’d carried a large suitcase as well. The suitcase needed to be large enough for my full sized tripod to fit collapsed. That’s still a pretty big bag. I didn’t like it at all.

So now I’m planning what looks like a trip to Singapore and Thailand and I have to travel light. Here are some of the issues I faced on my last international trip.

1. I worried about overweight baggage fees every time I had to catch a flight. At my home airport, I had to run to a gift shop, buy another bag, and transfer some items from the large bag to the new smaller bag to avoid paying $80 in overweight baggage fees. Later, I ended up having to pay $250 Euros on my trip from Ireland to Frankfurt because of my overweight bag. That was almost $200 Euros more than the actual cost of the plane ticket! **The airline was Lufthansa which does well on long flights (I flew from the US to Frankfurt with the same bags with no charges) but does not do well on short flights (I guess you have to travel damn near naked on short flights).

2. I had to lug around a heavy bag and my backpack. I did plan ahead with this as best as possible but the reality is, my bags were heavy. The smaller bag I had to buy at the airport fit on top of the larger bag and the large bag had wheels so I could just pull them around but again, the bags were heavy and I felt like I was running a marathon anytime I had to move them. I also stayed in a 3 story hotel in Germany with no elevators (yep I was on the top floor), and a 3 story B&B in Dublin with no elevators of course (and on the top floor again). So it was quite unpleasant trying to get my bags up and down the stairs. My backpack was also heavy because in it were my Panasonic DVX100B, 15″ laptop, batteries, tapes, microphones, etc.

3. I drew too much attention for my taste by using my fancy camera and carrying around my tripod. This by far became the biggest issue for me, although I had no idea I would be bothered by this prior to this trip. This is more of a personal preference if you will. I know many filmmakers who have no issues with drawing attention while they film, it comes with the job. However, I do not like this at all. For me there are some safety concerns as well as creative concerns. Some things to consider… I was grilled at the airport in Frankfurt about whether or not I’d filmed anything when I went to the Reeperbahn. My camera is always thoroughly checked at the security check points. This means pulling out all your gear for everyone at the check point to see (Not very safe; especially when they do it while you have to take your shoes off and on and you can’t glue your eyes to your stuff).

A funny thing… I was carrying around my tripod in it’s bag while in Dublin and I was riding the buses a lot. I got on this one bus and the driver asked me “Is that a gun?”. I had to laugh, it did look like a rifle bag. But what was really interesting is that the driver was serious but he didn’t seem at all concerned if it were a gun. Funny those Irish folks are. :)

This set contains images from video: