Migrant Mennonites (Part 2)
This article is about the Plautdietsch Mennonites only.
Within the colonized Mennonites of Belize there is quite an amount of internal migration. The 2 most popular colonies are Spanish Lookout and Blue Creek, with the former seeing the biggest increase in arrivals of Old Colony Mennonites from northern Belize and a few Old Order young men from central or south Belize. The Spanish Lookout businesses and farms have benefited from these people because they are willing to work very hard for a minimum to average salary. Their born talent for mechanics and engineering is a tremendous advantage to their employers.
Occasionally entire families completely leave the Old Colony traditions and settle in Spanish Lookout, other families move back and forth due to seasonal work and other families split apart, the husband and some sons permanently banned from the colony while the wife and younger ones move back. But MOST of the migrant workers in Spanish Lookout right now are single young men. They rent here and there, hang out in the Spanish villages surrounding the Mennonite town, date Hispanic and black girls, and live one day at a time. Often broke, usually like to smoke, smuggle a little weed here and there, and work at whatever they find.
The migrant young women, on the other hand, are timid, find steady jobs, save their money and are terrified of non-German boys although they certainly enjoy the attention. A very few have been bold enough to live in with their non-Mennonite boyfriends.
Anyways, for many of the boys, as long as they are working outside their respective communities, they cast off their traditional clothing and wear regular clothes. Whenever they visit home they don their original clothing again.
Concerning work, usually their reason for migrating is because they're tired of the close and stuffy rules of their home church. There are a few that come to earn some money in order to return and get married. Very few. Most do not return, which makes the community leaders and elders furious and they in turn predict dire consequences for those youngsters who are wishing to leave. The modern town of Spanish Lookout is the most mentioned, being named as a devilish town, a wordly place that will take you to hell and where you are in danger of learning all sorts of evil habits.
Not too long ago the colonies in northern Belize experienced quite a flood, then a severe drought. This forced some to move out of the country while others headed to Spanish Lookout, Belize City, and Placencia where some Mennonite-owned construction businesses are head-quartered.
Within the colonized Mennonites of Belize there is quite an amount of internal migration. The 2 most popular colonies are Spanish Lookout and Blue Creek, with the former seeing the biggest increase in arrivals of Old Colony Mennonites from northern Belize and a few Old Order young men from central or south Belize. The Spanish Lookout businesses and farms have benefited from these people because they are willing to work very hard for a minimum to average salary. Their born talent for mechanics and engineering is a tremendous advantage to their employers.
Occasionally entire families completely leave the Old Colony traditions and settle in Spanish Lookout, other families move back and forth due to seasonal work and other families split apart, the husband and some sons permanently banned from the colony while the wife and younger ones move back. But MOST of the migrant workers in Spanish Lookout right now are single young men. They rent here and there, hang out in the Spanish villages surrounding the Mennonite town, date Hispanic and black girls, and live one day at a time. Often broke, usually like to smoke, smuggle a little weed here and there, and work at whatever they find.
The migrant young women, on the other hand, are timid, find steady jobs, save their money and are terrified of non-German boys although they certainly enjoy the attention. A very few have been bold enough to live in with their non-Mennonite boyfriends.
Anyways, for many of the boys, as long as they are working outside their respective communities, they cast off their traditional clothing and wear regular clothes. Whenever they visit home they don their original clothing again.
Concerning work, usually their reason for migrating is because they're tired of the close and stuffy rules of their home church. There are a few that come to earn some money in order to return and get married. Very few. Most do not return, which makes the community leaders and elders furious and they in turn predict dire consequences for those youngsters who are wishing to leave. The modern town of Spanish Lookout is the most mentioned, being named as a devilish town, a wordly place that will take you to hell and where you are in danger of learning all sorts of evil habits.
Not too long ago the colonies in northern Belize experienced quite a flood, then a severe drought. This forced some to move out of the country while others headed to Spanish Lookout, Belize City, and Placencia where some Mennonite-owned construction businesses are head-quartered.
Old Colony children playing in a warehouse in Spanish Lookout
While they are forbidden to drive in their home colony, they are extremely quick to master heavy machinery
