Sugar Factory Strike & More

Zipper and Moses like to sprawl on me when I read. Its really nice. You can only see about half the dog from this position. He's getting big enough to push me off the couch! Whatdyall think of my new Belizian haircut and beard/chinstrap??

Susannah and I went to Lamani yesterday. This is from the top of the largest temple, which overlooks the lagoon.

It wont let me load more at the moment :( sorry!

Well hello all! What an eventful couple of weeks! Things have calmed down here after a pretty serious set of events. Carmelita Village is located about two miles from the Tower Hill Sugarcane factory. This factory processes all of the sugarcane grown in Belize. Thousands upon thousands of tons of sugar are refined here each year. Any given day a trip to Orange Walk will pass you by hundreds of trucks loaded down with fresh cane waiting for a turn to offload at the factory. Over half of the village is employed by the sugar industry; growing, cutting, burning, driving, factory work etc. For the past two weeks or so the Cane Farmers have been on strike. They are protesting a new machine that measures the quality of the cane. The price they pay per truckload is calculated according to the quality. The farmers have been objecting to what they feel is an unfair pricing program. This is compounded by the fact that Belize Sugar Industries (who also owns the factory) owns fields of cane that are not tested in the same way. While I do not have all of the information, it seems like this is an effective way to ensure that the higher prices go to the farmers that work for the company, and leave the freelancers/regular people with the lower prices. All this came to a head a few days ago when the Cane Farmers Association announced a strike, blocked off the Northern Highway and started getting hostile. Rocks were gathered as weapons, tensions skyrocketed and the Belizian Army was called in. In an attempt to run a road block and destroy the quality measuring machine shots were fired, seven were injured and one farmer was killed with a shot to the head.
Things have calmed down a bit and the two parties are talking, but tensions are still rather high. For a few days I couldn’t get into the village from Corozal, where Suzy and I had gone to spend a night by the water and watch the Superbowl with other volunteers.
Yep, so that’s been my excitement these past lil bit. In other news, the garden is growing nicely in the school. All of the groups have painted signs that tell what they are growing, their names, their “team” names and some even have pictures painted of their crops. Fun! Its just another way that we are hoping to encourage ownership of their beds. January rocketed past, and its hard to believe February is already a week in. Things have started picking up speed here. The past couple weeks I haven’t spent as much time going out to the court and playing volleyball. Its been really cold here (below 70 almost every night…brrrr!!!!) And its hard to gather the motivation to get out the door. Why do I mention this? Well, after a week of not going out I had some people come over to the house and ask if I was alright. They said they missed seeing me out there and were wondering if I was sick. Felt good to be considered a part of the community and to be missed, ya know?
OOOOH…next subject then I gotta run…We went to Shipyard last week. Now that was an adventure. Shipyard is a community of traditional Mennonites (very similar to the Amish). Walking down the dirt lane it could be Lancaster, PA with palm trees. Everything is cheaper there, from rice to gas to kerosene lanterns (hadta buy one) to pots to pans to screws to whatever. Its worth an internet search to check out the Mennonite communities in Belize. They have had quite a trek to find asylum. (too long to recount here) But for most of them, their last home was in Mexico. So we have Aryan looking people wearing overalls and cowboy hats (men) or long dresses and wide brimmed hats (women) riding in horse driven buggies, speaking lowland german accented Spanish in Belize. Right. Makes total sense. No mind screw there at all! It was pretty interesting and for all who plan on visiting me, know we will be taking a trip there!
K, I gotta run. More to come. Have a great day!
jake

lalala...waiting for my pics to upload...sitting in the internet cafe. its gonna start raining soon. meh. :) Just got a package from mom and dad! THANK YOUUUU!!! the coffee will be consumed immediately and we are already down to one package of beef jerky!

Thought it would be fun to tell you guys about my quest to find something for Moses to chew on (that isnt wood!) So a guy in the village told me about a butcher that sometimes has bones. So in I walk to Campo's meat shop slogan: "We're here to MEAT your needs" heh heh...witty. So the place looks like something out of the Saw horror movie series with a slapstick twist. There are about 6 gigantic Mestizo men covered in blood from head to waist slicing up halves of beef. I wouldnt be surprised to see one play a practical joke on another by slapping him across the face with a t-bone. K, so they all look up when I walk in and stand there with a bit of an inquisitive expression. I start in and ask about bones (take note that this is all goin down in spanish) Guy asks me what for and i tell him to chew on. His face takes on a bit of a weird look before I realize that I said something that approximates "for me to chew on" Right. Strike one for high school spanish! I quickly correct myself and let him know that its for my dog. He laughs. I laugh. We laugh. He then asks me if I have a black and tan hound. (thats the pooch) He has heard about me and my dog. I say I do! We are bonding. He wants to know all about the dog. I oblige by showing pictures. Turns out that he has a female hound and wants to breed her. We are now best of friends. We get back to the reason i walked in...bones. He reaches a bloody hand into a bin and comes out with a cow's thighbone. "Will this work??" Yup. The bone is bigger and longer than my thigh bone. "How much?" "Gratis, amigo!" For serious?? Yep. He places the bone in a plastic bag that only covers the bottom half. another on top and hands it over. Thanks! I am now buddies with the meat man. Beautiful.