Mennonites

We at long last went out to Pine Hill, the Mennonite village in our territory today. Mennonites are one of the religious groups that to some extent reject modern technology and live in a relatively isolated way. There is a wide range of views about how strictly they should do this, and in Belize it ranges from little more than an average fundamentalist in the UK to the more conservative Amish-like communities of which Pine Hill is one. Members have to agree not to use a phone or have a driving licence, for example.

Ever since we arrived we've regularly seen 
Mennonites riding in their horse and carts taking produce to the market or supplies back home. The men all have full beards and the women wear head coverings and blue dresses. They don't like having their pictures taken but we managed to sneak a few from a distance. 

 Bill Taylor, one of our elders, has helped them out quite a few times when they've had medical emergencies or otherwise needed help that they couldn't get from within their community, so they are quite happy to talk to him and us along with him. We went to one farm where only the girls were home but they were willing to show us around a bit and got a horse out to demonstrate their water pump made from old transmission parts. 

The community as a whole feels much like I imagine farmland a couple of hundred years ago felt. Everything is so quiet and settled, but you can hardly imagine how much work it must be on a daily basis. 

Mennonites have actually been behind an agricultural revolution in Belize over the past few decades and almost single-handedly introduced dairy and poultry farming here. They have a business acumen that makes them quite an influential group in the country, but that's particularly the more liberal groups in the North. Pine Hill just wants to be allowed to go about its life in relative peace. As always when you meet such different cultures, there's something to be learned from their simple lives and hard work. Doesn't mean I'd want to live there, though!