The Beginning of the Diaries - We must start somewhere!

 I've started this blog many times in my mind.  The goal is to write with a soft heart in an effort to understand those around me.  It is a diary after all.  Some sourness may come, I'm sure; but there is plenty of sweetness too. I'm a bit somber today so I'm not sure what will pour out to this page.

I've lived here, in Spanish Lookout for a few years now and find myself wondering about many social issues that are not talked about or hardly even noticed.  To look at me, you wouldn't think I was much different from "them" - the Mennonites I live among.  But I am.  To them, I am an outsider.  Someone they have decided is alright.  Harmless.  Nice enough.  No trouble.  

I've made a few friends.  Some from the very conservative majority, some from the "less conservative" groups (there are several), some from the Mexa (Central American migrants who occupy the communities adjacent to this one) and some from the other outsiders, like myself.  Very few actual Belizean locals.  They are hard to come by in this area.  Though, I do speak to people outside this peculiar, yet fascinating utopia.  I'm glad I have this opportunity to broaden my communications.

I start this blog with a heavy heart.  We're in a pandemic.  Not sure if we're in the middle, tail end (probably not), mid-beginning?  It's felt like several lifetimes.  There's so much going on.  So much not going on, it's hard to know where to start.  But I'll pick a starting point anyway.

Let's start with COVID 19.  

ooooh. Con. Tra. Vercial. 

Let's face it.  COVID 19 is controversial.  It seems it can't come up without very passionate outbursts of defiance, or compliance.  Hoax or reality.  You're either a "fear-mongerer", or "a sheep".  Both calling the other names that don't sound very Christian.  Both causing division. And that's true everywhere.  But when you live among people with a very firm belief system, where everyone actually thinks the same, things get interesting.  Polarization takes on a new form.  It's not just online, anymore.  These people have been polarized before it was even a thing!  Everyone dresses the same.  If you don't, you're different.  Different. is. bad.  Unless, different is considered harmless to the collective or financially beneficial to the collective.  Everyone eats the same food.  The ladies have the same "past time", most men have the same job - Farming.  To talk to the youth, you'd often hear the girls can't wait to get married and the boys can't wait to drive a tractor.  It's what's expected.  It's the same like everybody else.  It's comfortable.  The girls are beautiful and smart.  They can make any dessert, any meal and clean better than any outsider, for sure!  (I concede to that. I ain't much of  a cleaner, but I can make a pretty good stew).  The boys are just as smart.  The very smart ones get to work in offices and may become a manager.  The rest will be farmers.  That's ok.  That's expected.  That's comfortable.

Insert PANDEMIC

Not expected.  Not the same.  NOT COMFORTABLE.

Let's talk Belize and Pandemic.

The way COVID 19 is being handled in Belize, is much like the rest of the world.  There is a "lock down" when there is overwhelm of resources or sickness, then there is a lax when things are "better".  Schools, churches, casinos, gyms and bars have been closed since April.  Restaurants have been in varying degrees of operation since then. 

Belize started their pandemic experience in March, 2020.  San Pedro.  Imported case from a repatriated person.  As the months dragged on in uncertainty and elections (both in the US and Belize) came closer, tensions seemed to rise.  It seems that the average Spanish Lookout Mennonite (I cannot speak to others because I have little exposure to them) is pro Trump.  They cannot vote in a US election, but they are passionate about the US electoral system.  I'm not saying that there should be no interest, but passion?  There's a lot of passion.  It seemed however that the same amount of passion is not expressed towards the election process in Belize.  There was energy but none that could be interpreted as passionate.  

The government in office at the time had stopped the informal cattle trade that made use of unconventional border crossings. (border line illegal)  They did this in an attempt to reduce border jumpers from importing cases of COVID 19.  However, the economic impact was pretty big.  Cows had no where to go.  Grass was scarce.  One Facebook commenter mentioned on one of news posts that they would start shooting cows.  That's how bad it was.  The electoral energy was geared towards a new government that would allow the informal cattle trade to proceed.  Lo and behold, there came a new government in November 2020.  Lo and behold, the Belizean news was filled with footage of cattle trailers loaded up with big blue and white flags sailing to the border with their cows.  New "Blu" government came through with their promise.

What does this have to do with San Pedro and March?  Well, by now it's November and COVID 19 has claimed an official 141 lives in Belize.  None of these lives are Mennonite lives to date as yet.  Well, along with the hope the new government would bring with the cattle, there was hope the new government would see the light about the pandemic and make the lock downs go away.  Unfortunately, that was one promise - real or imagined - that could not be kept.  It is now the third week since the election and though the process was seemingly safe, the parties and customs of the local Belizean population was not.  The new Prime Minister himself has tested positive with the novel, Coronavirus.  People are sick.  Hospitals are full.  Every medical facility is short-staffed.  People are dying.

The Mennonites have boldly declared that their loyalty to God is shown by their appearance in church on Sunday, and the school children in school on school days.  The mayor of Spanish Lookout was on national news declaring this belief.  This was after a similar community, in Northern Belize had managed to evade arrest by the police for carrying out service with (allegedly) 200 people present.  I had heard a few people talk this way in town.  I had also noted comments on Facebook from people with Mennonite last names with passionate beliefs about the validity or the pandemic... but I had not gathered that this was the truth for the community as a whole.  Church happens on Sundays in Air conditioned, confined spaces where very few attendees wear masks.  Schools are open.

They may have a point, though because there have only been two confirmed cases of COVID 19 in Spanish Lookout.  But how can that statistic be true?  Are these people really being shielded from a pandemic that has killed 141 people in Belize to date?  Is their faithfulness to God being rewarded with immunity?  I am a Christian, too.  I think I read the same Bible.  Mine is in English, but I believe the content is the same.  Are they right?  Is the pandemic a hoax?  What can they see that I cannot?  What do they know?  So. Many. Questions.

I'll explore some of these ideas in the next post.  Today I started.  It has begun.  

Release the Kraken!