Belize Mennonites: News

     On Tuesday morning, July 7, a horrifying airplane accident was caught on camera over southern Spanish Lookout. Veteran pilot Henry Plett was carrying out a routine task of spraying fertilizer over a cornfield beside the river when his plane suddenly nosedived and crashed to the ground in an open pasture. He did not survive.

     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 Valley, a small recently established colony of Noah Hoover Mennonites. Fortunately no lives were lost.

     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.