Musings by the Curious  Non-Conformist

As the youth focal point on the National Steering Committee for the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Program, I get the amazing opportunity to travel the country conducting pre-site and follow up visits of our grantees, and I took my first official visit to the beautiful Toledo District.

We first visited Jalacte Village, which sits along Belize’s western border with our neighbour, Guatemala. The village has no connection to electricity nor does it have running water. Villagers depend on water pumps that run dry during the dry season.

In terms of electricity, main communal spaces such as schools have small solar panel systems. Even though getting that information was mind-blowing, it wasn’t the most jolting moment for me: it was our 4-minute trek along the border.

It is NOTHING like the northern Mexican border. It had houses and people occupying it and is very, littered with only a “knock and stand-up” chain link fence separating Belize and Guatemala. In fact, to cross the border there’s a Hispanic woman who grasped the economic opportunity to charge, one Belize dollar to walk through her yard and onto the other side, a cost I did not incur because I already pledged to not visit nor consciously contribute financially to Guatemala’s economy.

In fact, the Belizean dollar isn’t even the main currency circulated at the border, because everything is closer and cheaper in Guatemala and most cattle ranchers from both sides very easily cross over to trade goods, illegally, if I may add.

We do have a Belize Defence Force presence at “Tree Top,” but that’s all; it is a presence, just from my observation. Let’s just talk about the FACT that my Digi Service provider texted me, while I was well within Belizean borders, to tell me that I’m now set for roaming in Guatemala. All little things that made an impact on my already ICJ-question engulfed mind.

I also got to visit the sweet little hideaway village of San Jose! A long forty-five minute drive on a very bumpy and, at some junctures flooded, road. Our team was greeted with hot caldo and freshly-made corn tortillas, and after our meeting, given hot tamales for our journey back to Punta Gorda, and well, for me, to Belize City.

I want to take this opportunity to highlight Juan Bol, a 26-year-old native of San Jose village now pursuing his Master’s degree in plant science with a major in soil health and soil microbiology at Delaware State University! In fact, this brilliant young man is the brain behind the project proposal of the Green Creek Cooperative project focused on the several aspects of the socioeconomic development of the rural community where access is a huge concern.

Let’s face it. Everyone does not have a 2017 4-wheel drive Prado to get in and out of flooded, muddy roads. We must, and have the absolute responsibility to, do better for every Belizean person from Rio Hondo to the Sarstoon Island.

So that was my perfect, eye-opening, bottle-ass-biting experience in southern Belize!