Things You Will Not Find in a Mennonite Colony

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  You can find peace and quiet in a Mennonite farming community; you can find a thriving colony of a people that appear to be living in the 18th century, or head to the progressive ones and find modern technology at work side by side with plainly dressed people. You can find the best cheeses in the country or the freshest milk. But there are some things you will not find in a Mennonite colony. See below for the list.


  1. Saloons/bars, nightclubs are not seen in their colonies. This doesn't mean certain Mennonites don't visit these places, they're just not allowed inside their colony. Some sly non-Mennonites know this very well, and consequently set up their saloons right next to the border line so that the black sheep can quench their thirst with ice cold beer on Saturday nights and hot Sunday afternoons.

  2. Gaming rooms, scratch & win vendors. You won't find them inside their colonies.

  3. Public libraries. There are a few small private libraries in Spanish Lookout that open a few hours a day but deal only with storybook rentals, not the whole setup with study rooms, research material, online book catalog, etc.

  4. Chinese take out food. Those clever Chinese have wedged themselves into nearly every corner of Belize but so far their restaurants have not been able to penetrate the Mennonite colonies. 

  5. Alcoholic drinks and cigarettes for sale in the stores. Yet certain 'fridges' in some individual's houses would tell you a far different story as they are usually kept well-stocked with neat rows of dark bottles.

  6. Homeless Mennonites living on the streets; mentally challenged ones roaming the countryside; Mennonite beggars on street corners asking "fi wa lee donation" or outrightly demanding "gimme one dalla". You will indeed see such individuals in the Mennonite communities, I am not denying the fact, but they are not residents of the colony. Rather, they are Creole and Mestizos from the surrounding villages hoping that the rich menonas will have a bit of charity to hand out. Charity in the form of money, which is a complicated and sticky subject for the Mennonites and therefore not so easily handed out to beggars.

  7. Media houses in the modern colonies. Most Mennonites are quick to point out whatever they deem "fake news" whenever they see it so in order to avoid such a public sin themselves, they would much rather depend and believe on their own grapevine than have crews of reporters or official news channel. Stories shared via the grapevine are much more difficult to track and keeps you away from the cameras, hence nobody can point fingers and cry out: "fake news!" Spanish Lookout and Shipyard have Mennonite-owned radio ministries run by churches but not with a ground crew collecting data, a TV channel, or full-time journalists.

  8. Tombs above the ground. Graves are marked with a plain low slab of concrete or a simple white cross inserted on the ground. For some reason the departed ones are not interested in fancy bright-colored tombs with mosaic tiles on the surface.


  So there you are. The 8 things you will not find in a Mennonite colony. Next article coming up is: Things You Didn't Know about Spanish Lookout.


Mennonite boys and locals enjoy a game of pool at a village bordering a Mennonite community













A. Mendoza

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