October Heat Wave & a Solar Eclipse
Have you ever heard of frying an egg on a rock using only the heat of the sun? I’ve never tried it myself, but I was strongly tempted to during this past week. I mean, whoever heard of 112 degrees Farenheit in October? That’s the month when we Belizeans are nearly drowned in rain and dodging muddy potholes, or moody in chilly wet weather, or worrying about hurricanes, or just plain cold weather down to 60 degrees Farenheit. It’s the month when we can hardly keep up with our lawn because it seems we just turned our backs and the grass is back to where it was. The month when we start sharing memes and jokes about the cold and “snow”.
Instead, Nature sprang a surprise. A hot, dry, dusty one with temperatures soaring to well over a hundred. People purchasing fans as if their lives depended on it, which it did in a way. But even then the fans running at full blast provide only a moderate relief since the breeze created by them isn’t much cooler than the temperature outside but at least you’ve got breeze circulating.
The chickens, especially the white broilers in the Mennonite farms in Spanish Lookout, were not so fortunate. In spite of mist fans, drip lines, and sprinklers, broilers suffocated from the heat. I briefly spoke with a worried farmer who was purchasing a stack of industrial fans for his turkey barns. He was in a great hurry, so I hurried to assist him too. The heat affected mostly the broilers which were a week or two short of being shipped to the meat packing facility. Owners and employees scrambled to finish off the dying chickens in order to preserve the meat, which was then cleaned and packed in freezers or sold at reduced prices to interested persons.
Now this is something that happens every year, usually in April and May, occasionally in June and July. Very rare for it to happen in October. However based on world news, heat waves are also bringing record breaking temperatures in various parts of the world. For example in some European countries, certain locations saw temperatures that had not been seen for half a century. Also based on world news, the global heat wave is triggered by climate change and global warming, which is something many Mennonites do not believe in and therefore will not be discussed any further.
So in order to stay on a safer subject, we’ll point out the eclipse which occurred today, October 14. Equipped with welding glasses, cardboard boxes, and other objects with pinholes, Belizeans across the country were prepared for it, with the government even rolling out activities and live-streaming the event. I purchased welding glasses ahead of time and explained to my keenly interested children that we were about to witness a rare event.
Did you know that some of the more traditional “Russian” Mennonites do not believe that humans have been to the moon? To them such a thing is simply impossible, nor do they believe that there are super giant stars that are hundreds of times bigger than our sun or that spacecraft have actually landed on Mars.
Did you also know that among some Mennonites who are not Plautdietsch, for example those among the Maya, Creole or Mestizo cultures, a common belief is that pregnant women should avoid a solar eclipse? The belief is that the sun’s harmful rays during this period will adversely affect the unborn baby, perhaps a cleft lip, a full facial birthmark, or some other physical deformity. No doubt rooted in ancient folklore, yet as someone who grew up in this, I do not belittle them for the same reason I do not attempt to change the Old Colony Mennonites' narrow-mindedness concerning astronomy. Each to his own.
Photo: Myrna Braun
A. Mendoza
