Tue 1 Jul 2008
Hopkins, Belize
Visiting a salsa factory isn’t really very thrilling but its interesting to see. Marie Sharp is a Belizean legend and her hot sauce is on over table in the country. Pop into the factory for a tour if you’re passing that way. 
After that we went swimming in the Blue Hole park. Nice and fresh. Vanessa got a thrill when we floated down the river and were nearly sucked into the underwater tunnel. I saved her 
Then we went nearly a mile into the cave nearby with only a small LED flashlight. That was fun. Vanessa was kinda scared :p
Then the biggest and best thrill was saved until last but we didn’t take any photographs. We couldn’t and I will explain why.
When we had driven down to Hopkins a few days before we passed some people in a horse drawn buggy who we assumed to be Amish. We soon learned that they were Menonites, and they had a sizeable community out in the jungle. On the way back up we decided to go and have a proper look.
4 miles up a dirt track from the main road we found a set of farms and houses. No electricity poles or cars were about but there were quite a few people. We stopped to chat to a local on the road and asked if there was any where we could get some food nearby. The community didn’t have anything as advanced as a restaurant but he suggested we pull into someone’s drive and eat with them.
This seemed a bit crazy, to just invite yourself to dinner with a random family but when I suggested we choose his house he told us to give him half an hour and let us know where he lived. We carried on up the road to explore some more.
Vanessa and I wanted to photograph the people but knew this would be rather rude and managed to restrain ourselves. We turned around and stopped again to chat to a guy loading up some lumber at the lumber yard. He was also dressed the same as all the men in the area. Straw hat, blue shirt and a long beard.
Abraham, it turned out, was the brother of John, the man who had invited us to dinner and we waited a while talking about their life in the village and what we were doing in the area. At least until we had to move out of the way of horse and cart that wanted to get past. This was the closest to a traffic jam that you can get around here.
We drove back to Johns house and met his wife Margaret and learned they had 11 children running around, ranging from 7 months to 14 years old. The three boys were outnumbered by their sisters slightly but they were all curious as to what we were doing and what we looked like. I have no idea what they thought of my long hair but they all stared when I took off my hat.
John was building onto his new house so we sat in that and talked some more. Some of the children had had some vaccinations that morning so were somewhat afraid of strangers. They also dressed in the traditional way and John explained how they bought cloth and made their own clothes.
He took us on a mini-tour of their farm and showed us their horse drawn washing machine and how they could change the belts around to power the corn grinder and even a drill. Chickens were running everywhere in the yard, jumping over broken farm equipment and being chased by the barefoot children.
In the field nearby they kept horses for transport and cows for dairy produce. The Menonites are all vegetarians but they are not against using animals to make money. They must be quite well off since they came and bought 3,000 acres in the valley. 35 families lived there and they had only been there 12 years but were well established with a church, school and market.
A spring from the hills provides all the families with a gravity fed clean water supply and the land was green and fertile, perfect for farming. The Menonites provide 80% of the countries local produce and with no real costs for gasoline or other resources were in a great position to profit from the worldwide increases in food prices. I only hope they don’t also suffer from this, people can get very jealous from others’ success.
We learned they sometimes even had people coming to rob them with guns and someone was shot through the hand a few years back. Now they don’t keep too much money in the houses.
Dinner was finally ready so we washed our handed and all 15 of us squeezed around the table, the adults at either end. Vanessa my ‘wife’ and I sat together, we both felt it best not to correct them on this point, it was hardly relevant.
We bowed our heads for a silent prayer and passed around the bowls for a simple meal of vegetable stew, rice, cottage cheese and soup. The children were learning English in school but their main language is Low German which they would mutter amongst themselves. They didn’t really speak to us but we knew at least some of the older ones understood what we were talking about.
Vanessa and I were desperate to photograph this beautiful scene of the family sharing a meal by lantern light, the girls in their black bonnets and simple dresses, the boys in blue with perfect, blonde bowl haircuts but we could hardly jump up and retrieve our cameras from the car. We had both talked about doing an article on them for the National Geographic, which was mostly just conjecture, but here we were having dinner with people who are managing to avoid the crazy materialism we are obsessed with in the west. It was such a nice feeling that we were doing something very few people would ever experience, but even nicer to be reminded that there are friendly people all over the world.
After dinner we continued to talk about their lives and what we were doing. John asked where we were staying that night and I replied that I didn’t know, it would probably be a hotel. He offered to let us stay and I should have agreed immediately, sadly Vanessa and I don’t really know each other that well and she didn’t think I wanted to stay, so she said no.
After we said goodbye and set off to the main road in the dark we realised our mistake but it was too late. They would soon be in bed so we could hardly go back. John did say we would always be welcome, so maybe someday I will return, but who knows. We would have to settle for a night in a dingy Chinese Hotel in the capital, Belompan. What a great day.
A menonite buggy
leaving kismet, photo kids, new arrival, palencia?/late/marie sharp factory/blue hole pool/underwater current/drive to next cave/1 light/scared/muddy/menonite turning/4 miles in/chatting to john/up to nersery/chatting to abraham/back to johns/wrong turn/john + margret + 11 kids/14 to 7 months/3 boys/sat and chat in new house section/no photos/trad dress/vaccines/blonde/waching machine/corn grinder/drill/makes shutters/various carriages./horses and cows/bread fruit tree/chickens/dinner/silent prayer/rice/stew/soup/bread+corn syrup/pineapple and mango/kick in the head/well behaved/long hair/vanessa wife/lanterns/no photos/offer to stay/regrets/drive up to capital/cheap chinese hotel/vanessa asleep
