Since the start of April and the end of most mandates, Belizeans have been breaking out with a vengeance. But, on a more low key note, they've also been returning to other pre-COVID aspects of daily life: face to face business meetings, in person classes, and working at an office instead of out of home.
And a good indicator of how closer we all are to getting back to normal - is the throughput at one of the last homegrown monopolies left in Belize: that's Lascelle Arnold's Belize Dry Cleaners.
When the economy crashed in the lock down - he had to lock down too, since no one was going anywhere - there was no need for dry cleaning or renting fancy outfits - the kinds that would be used at weddings or proms.
But, when we checked in today, the dry cleaning business is making a serious comeback - along with the economy.
I found out more when I visited today:
Social gatherings are rebounding post-pandemic and for a bellwether of that, you need look no further than Belize Dry Cleaners. It's a business that thrives when social life is bustling and social functions are regular happenings.
Owner Lascelle Arnold says his dry cleaning business that flat lined during the lock downs has re-opened and has been steadily rebounding for months.
Lascelle Arnold - General Manager
"Three months after the major close down that we had when they closed down the city, three months after that we opened and we've been opened. But because of that segment that you all put on Channel Seven news people, a lot of people didn't know that it was open back. And then plus the whole entertainment and All the formal events was closed off. We didn't get our customers back because of that. But now the Courts are opening up about having the events sort of not back, prom I guess will be coming back in more formal events. So we need the customers to know that we are back. We are getting back into all, you see the Easter and we're all the events and all the formal events and you go out for dinner and we don't fight in parties or weddings and stuff like that, that the dry cleaners is open now, to to prepare all your clothes for those events."
Indeed Belize's only dry cleaner which started up in 1989 - experienced a wrinkle but wasn't totally mashed up by the pandemic.
They've even expanded taking on hospital and hotel laundry but they're not forgetting about their core services:
Lascelle Arnold
"It's in a more controlled environment in the machine. It's a huge investment a big machine."
And it's not just machinery, there's also a whole lot of expertise behind getting out stubborn stains before the dry cleaning can begin. This morning Arnold walked us through the little-understood process which isn't dry at all.
Lascelle Arnold
"The dry cleaning process is a process through a big washing machine. We use chemicals and another solvent where you put in the clothes and it was like a regular washing machine. It drys, I mean it washes and extracts and, rinse everything and then extract after you extract it steam blow into the same machine and then they come out dry, clean."
And Arnold says there's a good argument for spending an extra bit of change for dry cleaning, put plain and simple it makes your clothes last longer.
Lascelle Arnold
"It saves your clothes? And if you have a suit that is wool and you wash it, that's the end of the soup. The guys shrink and pull up the fabric, we'll get feg out while the dry cleaning machine will not do that. And then the machine that we use, the steam machine, the steam press, we have steam that comes from the bottom and the top says point to the point of the linen evenly."
