neighborly relations

We were taken by surprise last week when we got an email from a friend in Belize alerting us to the fact that we have a new neighbor. We'd dreamed inactively about purchasing the acre next to ours in Belize for about a year bur never pursued it because we didn't have the money and didn't think it would sell for a number of years.

But apparently we were wrong. I got an email asking for an introduction from a woman who just purchased the land in what must have been a considerably easier transaction. And that alone makes me feel a sense of ownership over something I have no rights to at all. When we first met the "owner" of our land several years ago he was in actuality the leaser. Citizens can lease land from the government but cannot own it without ponying up the additional cash - something not very many folks are able to do.

We met Jose accidentally as he was driving a collectivo that we had jumped in to ride into town. He heard us talking about land and casually mentioned that he indeed had some he wanted to sell. That is an all too common experience and one with varied outcomes for success. Jose was leasing 20 acres outside a small village near the Guatemalean border and three of those acres were on the river with the rest inland which was where Jose and his family had made their home for many years. The issue with buying leased land is that the owner needs to own it first and in order to own it first he needed our money to buy it. Not a lot of money, but enough money to give us pause. We consulted some folks and they were of varying opinions but the general theme was that this was a risky proposition. Some even advocated for attorneys and whatnot to protect our interests and ensure a higher degree of success. J and I sat in a cafe and pondered our options and decided to take a leap of faith without bringing the western (agressive) style of business into the equation because indeed, we were the visitors here.

In the end we decided to trust Jose. We agreed in broken spanish and bits of english about next steps and worked with a local broker who agreed to transfer the title once the land was in his name. The realtor made no promises, if Jose decided to take our money and buy the land and then sell the land to someone else we'd have little recourse. We went with Jose to his tiny particle board house with his thirteen children and assorted chickens and goats (all of which were in the kitchen) and listened as best we could to him telling his wife that he was going to sell us a part of their land. She turned to us and gave me a long warm hug and invited us to sit down and share a meal. It was lovely and awkward and after we left we looked at each other and decided that even if he screwed us over we'd be okay with it because we would be hard pressed to survive his level of poverty and if a bad outcome for us still meant something good for them we knew we could live with it.

Many, many months later the deal went through exactly as we'd planned and we finalized the deal on a return trip. Jose picked us up to take us to the broker and shook our hands and called us his neighbor. Our purchase not only allowed him to own all 20 acres for the first time in 50 years but also made it possible for him to send most of his kids to college, something we were unaware of at the time because Jose simply offered a price and we agreed to it without bartering or negotiation. As far as we were concerned it was his land and his deal and if we could figure out a way to meet his price we would do it and in the end we got a very good deal. But learning later what that sum meant to his family gave us another another reason to be happy to be a part of it.
So it's a long way of saying that I covet that piece of land and a little part of me cracked when we realized we'd missed our chance but a larger part of me is excited about having someone to share the fence with once we finally are able to come home to roost.