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9 Reflections on Working Remotely & Homeschooling in Belize for 26 Days
“Wake up, wake up, I need to talk to you about something.”
My wife was taking a nap. It was Monday, October 31. Halloween.
We were supposed to leave for Belize the next day. For a month.
I had literally just filed the paperwork to withdraw my kids from the local school system.
But there was a problem.
A hurricane was headed straight for Belize. And over the small tropical island of Caye Caulker.
Caye Caulker is part of Belize and sits about an hour into the Caribbean from Belize City, the biggest city.
It was only a Category 1.
But still. I have my own personal history with hurricanes. I don’t mess around anymore.
So we changed our flight for a few days later and rode out the storm in Nashville, TN. Thankfully there was only one building down on Caye Caulker, with the power out.
Belize City had more damage but nothing like the recent storms in the U.S.
It wasn’t a great start to our grand plan of going to Belize for a month. But in the end, missing out on a few days didn’t hurt that much.
In this article, I’ll share a few lessons of working remotely and homeschooling while in Belize.
- *First, a caveat: Yes, I worked remotely and my wife homeschooled. She quit her job back in June, which gave us the idea to do this.
Why Belize?
- It’s close. Belize sits next to Guatemala on the Gulf of Mexico, and is below the Yucatan Peninsula. Go to Tulum and go south. It’s only a 2.5-hour plane ride from Atlanta
- They speak English. Belize used to be known as British Honduras. They were a former British colony. English is the official language. All locals speak it, though they also speak Kriol which is a different dialect that non-natives have a difficult time understanding.
- They take American money. USD is accepted and many prices are in USD and sometimes you’ll even receive USD back. The Belize dollar is exactly double the value of $1 American dollar, making the conversion rate easy in your head.
