Ebook The Grass Is Greener Till You Get To The Other Side Tershia Lambrechts 9781460253274 Books

Product details Paperback 248 pages Publisher FriesenPress (February 7, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 1460253272

The Grass Is Greener Till You Get To The Other Side Tershia Lambrechts 9781460253274 Books Reviews

• I enjoyed the book. At the same time that it is a personal story about their lives in Belize, it goes into great detail about the nuts and bolts of living there.
  
  After having spent a short time in Belize, some things have changed and some descriptions in the book are outdated. The major roads are well paved now. I saw no potholes except on local dirt roads. Belmopan is paved. There is road construction going on everywhere. A lawyer in Belize City said the administration made it a priority to improve road conditions and it was quite easy to travel to all corners of the country by car.
  
  Placencia is no longer an isolated, slow-paced peninsula but is now bustling with scores of quite expensive new condo and housing developments, reminiscent of the building boom in the outer islands of Hawaii from decades ago. The infrastructure is struggling to keep up.
  
  The author noted that some of the citrus orchards were overgrown and dying, and said it was because they weren't being taken care of. The truth is that the groves are being ravaged by Citrus Greening disease, which is found in the US and other countries as well. Those trees are dying and her view that those farmers are lazy is wrong. The government is trying to combat it and many growers are working on the problem. This is an example of the author's bias, usually assuming the worst about Belizeans.
  
  The book was a very interesting read, but it is a litany of disappointments going into excruciating detail, all the way down to not getting a plastic knife with her fork, to cut her chicken dinner at a local wedding reception. Their dinner at a Belize City restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean was marred by a pat of margarine on a dinner roll that they were told was butter but she was sure was not. Just another example of being taken advantage of by the locals, she implies.
  
  The author unfavorably compares Belize to the Cayman Islands and gives statistics. Why can't Belize be like them, she asks. They have a much higher standard of living and a more effective government. Well they are also a much more expensive country in which to live, and since the author remarked upon how she and her husband were unable to live in Belize for under $500 a month, as their retirement seminar had led them to believe, I can understand why they didn't consider the Caymens which would have been much more expensive to retire to. The quest for cheaper living will inevitably take you to countries with lower median wages and more poverty. It goes hand in hand.
  
  The author goes into the treatment of dogs in Belize, complaining about the culture that doesn't sterilize its pets, faulting macho men for this. Lack of resources for sterilizing pets is an issue too. I'm sure that Canada, where she is from, is light years ahead in this regard, but as a former worker for pet rescues, this is also a problem all over the US in poorer areas of the country. It is a problem in many Southeast Asian countries, Latin countries, Eastern European countries, etc. Anywhere that doesn't have a uniform high standard of living and a government that has the resources to attack these problems, this is an issue.
  
  The book is very informative, if taken with a grain of salt. Belize greatly disappointed the author, who wanted cheap living coupled with First World delivery of services and only the most enlightened social attitudes. She burnt herself out becoming heavily involved in helping poor schoolchildren and then blasting the government for its inefficiencies. It's like the facebook post of an American woman living in Costa Rica who upon finding a dead sea turtle on the beach that had died tangled in a fishing net, cried and raged against the country, the locals down the beach who took no notice, the government who "let" this happen, and all and sundry. Becoming disgusted with an adopted country and sick of living there seems that it can be about not accepting that your dream was just that, and reality intrudes. The truth though is that reality has ugly parts in every country in the world, including the country that you left behind.
• A must-read for anybody contemplating retiring or moving from the comforts and efficiency of a First-world country to the challenges of life in a Central American nation such as Belize. Well-written and compelling. I read this account straight through, start to finish. Will make you think twice about trading one's home for the tropics.
• Tershia really told it like is Was and Is. You make the best of what you have to deal with in any foreign country. Yes, what took all of us there was the new adventure. And many of them Hugo and Tershia experienced. I enjoyed reading about the garden and all the animals the two of them acquired. It takes a loving and caring couple to handle the needs of all the different animals they befriended in Belize. The upside of this story is all the great friends and memories Hugo and Tershia made in Belize. I enjoyed too her memories. It reminded me of many people I had forgotten. Hope their relocation to Canada has given them many more wonderful memories to share in a future book!
• After living in Belize, off and on, for over 40 years, I can relate to this book. The author has expressed many of the same experiences I've had and does it in a humorous and very personal way. Things have gotten much worse in Belize since she left. For anyone thinking about a move to Belize you should read this first!
• Wow. This book completely changed my mind about moving/retiring to Belize. Well-written account of the Lambrects' journey to and ten-year residence in Belize. I had been reading all the "rah rah" articles/books and needed to read some opposing views. So happy I did. Thank you for your honest insights and information.
• Very good story - should be required reading for any couple that is considering moving to Belize
  I have spent over 20 years traveling between Canada and Belize and this is the most honest book on Belize I have ever read.
• Interesting reading, but a little longer than I expected. I would have rather had a condensed version.
• Worth the read to learn the downside of living in Belize. The author seems to want to be involved in the social hierarchy of society and in my opinion it taints
  her views