Belize Mennonites: News

     On Thursday the 11th of June, torrential rains caused flooding in southern Belize. Among the affected who had to be rescued were members of Mountain View, a small recently established colony of Noah Hoover Mennonites. No lives were lost and material damage was minimum from what was told to me.

     Johan Harder, a resident of Neuland currently employed in Spanish Lookout, was shot last weekend in Unitedville. According to sources, it did not appear that he was the intended target. Unfortunately he was hit and was rushed to the hospital where he suffered what many Belizeans are forced to endure: 12 to 24 hours of agony due to a shortage of doctors over the weekend. With no skilled medics around to extract the bullet lodged in his body he was rushed to Guatemala. No more updates have been received since then.

  Isaac Fehr, a Mennonite doctor and owner of Tonic Life in Shipyard, Belize, has made a significant contribution to the Belize Defense Forces by donating an ambulance and other medical equipment. The donation was formally acknowledged by the government at the Price Barracks in Ladyville on May 25th.

       A one year old child, Peter Wall, of Camp 53, Indian, Creek, was accidentally killed by his own father who was reversing a vehicle. Sources say the father was unaware of the child until it was too late.

      A resident of Little Belize died in a work-related accident near the colony of that same name. According to his wife, he was cutting down a tree with a chainsaw when something went wrong. A branch from the falling tree caught his head causing the fatal injury.

     A law which previously existed but was consistently ignored as it gathered dust on some forgotten shelf was suddenly pulled out of storage and declared effective immediately. No more OTC birth control packages. No more popping in and out of the pharmacy on your way home from work. Prescription is now mandatory.   We spoke to a nurse in Spanish Lookout who explained that a doctor would prescribe what method was best for the patient, e.g. IUD, arm implants or pills. If pills then the doctor would state what type and for how long, at the end of which time the patient needed another consultation and a new prescription.   

     The US-Iran conflict has certainly had worldwide effects, Belize included. Obviously the price of fuel would go up, people expected it; but what we did not expect was for it to go up so far and so fast. Diesel is currently at US$8 a gallon with regular only slightly behind it. Bus owners demanded the government let them raise their fares which was refused. They threatened countrywide strikes. Still no action. This led to a temporary early morning road block on a major highway in northern Belize. By mid-morning bus owners and the government reached a compromise. Fuel for the public transport sector would be temporarily subsidized.   In Spanish Lookout, Blue Creek and Shipyard, crop farmers and cattle ranchers are bearing the brunt of it. Those cattle-trucks and massive John Deere 8-wheel tractors certainly don't run on water. How much is too much?   The government official was smooth and oily. We already removed certain taxes...we have enough fuel supplies.....