Mennonites in Belize

   For an in-depth, colorful view of the Old Colony Mennonites in Belize, check out this  documentary by the New York Times, published more than a year ago.

     Alright, I learned a bit more about the Beachy Mennonite congregation at Esperanza village in the western Cayo District. Most people nowadays no longer call it by its mission name, Homestead Acres, so when the spokesperson first referred to that I was perplexed. According to him, it began as a mission base established in the 1970's by white missionaries from the US. The decades rolled by and it became a permanent congregation as locals from the area were converted to the Mennonite faith; there were also some Old Order Mennonites from Pilgrimage Valley who joined the Beachy in fellowship.    Right next to the church is a poultry operation owned by Caribbean Chicken, a poultry packing and processing company based in Blue Creek, a modern Plautdietsch Mennonite colony in northern Belize. It used to be Kratzer's Poultry because it was started by the Kratzer brothers, members of a conservative Amish Mennonite church, but in 2003(5) it was purchased by Caribbean Chicken.   Not th

   I came across an interesting article concerning the Plautdietsch Mennonites in Belize in the Amandala,  a Belizean news outlet which has already passed the 50th year mark since it was established. Here is the  link to the article.                                                       A. Mendoza

      I spent a short time in Shipyard yesterday; in a hurry due to the fact that we didn't want to be driving at night and also because I had brought a patient to the dentist and she was anxious to return to her home in the south.    On our return trip we stopped in at Elias Multiservice which from the outside looks like a sprawling concrete warehouse; I was genuinely surprised at the tiled floor, air conditioned room, and clean, tidy long shelves stacked with groceries and other dry goods and kitchen utensils. Except for the Old Colony Mennonite married ladies sitting at the cashier's till, it could have been any modern non-Mennonite supermarket. I craved something ice cold so headed straight for the freezers; to my dismay they were very low in stock and variety of frozen snacks.   When I arrived at the cashier I half expected to see a computer. I thought perhaps the church leaders would have made an exception for this wealthy Old Colony storeowner but no, the married woman w

     Chiropracting is a popular thing among Plautdietsch Mennonites. In fact, some of the chiropracters have become sort of celebrities within their communities. For example in Spanish Lookout the now deceased Abram K Friesen was well known by the surrounding Mestizo villages as "Don Abram, el que soba".  (Mr. Abram, the chiropracter) I personally never met him but his wife carried on the practice. We often went to her; a quiet but friendly lady. I remember the first ones to greet us as we stepped on her porch would be a big green parrot and a German Shepherd dog. After she remarried we had to find another chiropracter.    For a time we went to an older gentleman who often came to Spanish Lookout from Shipyard. However after he permanently returned to Shipyard we began visiting a female chiropracter also in Spanish Lookout. I suffer from plantar fascitis  so when I visited Shipyard last year I paid a visit to a chiropracter who was recommended to me. He twisted my ankle, pull