2024-05-14 - Channel 5 Belize

The Game of Marbles is not Lost in Belize

From the schoolyard to the playground and even your own backyard; the game of marbles can be played at any time and place. In this week’s episode of Kolcha Tuesday, we’ll be taking you back to your childhood as we explore a game that is a Belizean classic. Today, we visited some school children to learn if the game was still being played amongst Belizean kids. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with that story.

Britney Gordon, Reporting

A few decades ago, growing up in Belize meant hanging from trees, rolling tires down the street and flying kites. In the age of technology, many people believe these days of simple pleasures are over, but that’s not entirely true. While the game may not be as popular as it once was, there are still a few kids spinning marbles in the schoolyard. We spoke with community activist, Shane Williams, who has made it his mission to not let the game die out in Belize.

Shane Williams, Community Activist

“Growing up marble was a different world. You see this little park here, triangle park? Whenever the triangle angles for marble draw, this transforms into a whole different world. No matter wed happen outside ah this park, everything focus pan di competition.”

The game of marbles is played by drawing a shape, usually a triangle or circle, and positioning the marbles along the perimeter and inside to be knocked out of the shape. The goal is to be the player with the last marble standing, as well as collect as many of your opponent’s marbles as possible. Williams told us that the number one rule of the game is not to purchase marbles. According to him, they had to be earned by winning games. A student at Grace Primary School explained this process to us.

Deon Williams, std 3 student, GPS

“So you got the line. You got the triangle. Everybody wa shoot from back ah guts. The angle you deh, You play from the angle. All the marble ina the angle.”

Shane Williams showed us some of the different kinds of marbles children can win during games.

Shane Williams

“You have ney one ya, neya da di lee common one. Ney one da di lee cheapy one. Yo use nenya as bait, you set ney ina di angles and stuff. And then yo have the miami, well we call ney miami because nenya da di states thing when we di grow up. So yo have ney lee fancy one. You have the big dubs and then you have some kwiyan. Kwiyan da like bearing from veh9cle. If you lucky enough you can get a nice kwiyan and dende mek the best thaw. That da wat you use fi knock out the marbkle and kill the other opponents. And you have smallI. I noh have no smalli but poerple like smalli cuz ney hard fi hit. Dende da di small lee marble. So when you use that as your thaw ih hard fi somebody ketch you and out yo.”

He said that among communities, there is typically one player known for being the best in the group. While we visited Grace Primary School, a few boys battled to prove who deserved that title among them. We asked a few of them what it is they loved about the game.

Deon Williams

“Ihn oh have to be a team. You could go against your friends, your cousin, your family but this da di point. Marble da just wa game weh you feel like you badda dan anybofdy. Yu could fight with anybody. Marble da just wa friendly game.”

One student told us that while he used to live abroad, he would purchase marbles, but since coming to Belize, he enjoys trading them with his friends.

Lauriel Monroy, std 3 student, GPS

“Other countries like Spain they have other kinds of marbles. I born there. I but lotta marble from there. Then I come da Belize, then I like play with my friends from Lake I. Then I win special marble like that.”

Two students explained that it is the joy of playing with friends that draws them to the game.

Std 3 student, GPS

“Only reason I start play marble da cause of my older breda Alwin he used to play and he used to collect marble he have bumblebee and all ah den deh. He da dih only reason I start to play this game.

Britney Gordon

“Wha’s the most fun part of this game?”

Student

“Da wa friendly game. You have your friends ney, you could go against anybody you want. Along as ney know how fi play.”

Std 3 student, GPS

“The reason I like marble because da my village I have lotta friend ney and we use to have lotta marble. Soi I tell my ma please give me money fi go buy marble… We buy big dubs and ney thing. So we mek a lee triangle and we start to play.”

To keep the game alive, Williams hosts an annual marble contest in Belize. He saw a need for a community event that would bring children together after the COVID pandemic, and recalling how much he enjoyed spinning marbles with his friends growing up, he thought it would be the perfect game.

Shane Williams

“So I started the marble contest with community kids and then some from far around start coming and It’s been three years now. I want to introduce it into the summer camp that I usually have this year. And just hopefully that people start playing it in the schools and get some, just a little experience we had as children. I just want to get a little of that so that they could socialize. Meet people from different neighborhoods and stuff like that. That da di main t6hing. Socialization.”

Even though the game is no longer at the height of its popularity, it is evidently still alive in Belize and will continue to have a place among children if there is someone to teach them.

Shane Williams

“Marble allowed us to meet new. Life long friends and build some stories we will never forget.”

Britney Gordon for News Five.

Training Concludes for Interdepartmental Disaster Response

An interdepartmental response team training spearheaded by the Taiwanese government, concluded in Belmopan on Monday. The workshop saw the participation of the National Meteorological Service, the Hydrology Unit, the National Emergency Management Organization, as well as the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Climate Change. On hand for the closing ceremony was Minister Orlando Habet.

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“It is imperative also imperative that we enhance and improve the existing systems and programs set in place for disaster risk reduction. However, to ensure these services and operations, other key priority areas must be properly handled to ensure the effectiveness of such services, addressing disaster problems holistically and mainstreaming disaster risk management into development strategies and undertakings is vital in the effectiveness of disaster risk reduction. In addition, the necessity of hazard mapping and vulnerability assessment and the adoption of disaster risk management processes at all levels as a critical undertaking to reduce risks and vulnerabilities should be emphasized.”

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist

“One of the things that we are implementing this hurricane season is to do a daily briefing, virtual of course, but between these three agencies. We do a briefing once per day within our department itself, the forecasters will be briefing other forecasters on the weather conditions, but what we are going to do this season is to have that briefing extended to NEMO and to [the] Hydrology Unit so that we can get their input and we provide the weather forecast and the hydrology tells us how this will be and what are the implications of this forecast for flooding and, of course, NEMO will be dealing with the response part and the preparations. So certainly that’s one way that we’re going to be enhancing that collaboration.”

The World’s First and Only Hicatee Captive Breeding Facility is in Belize

The Central American river turtle, also known as the hicatee, is one of the world’s most heavily exploited species. Hicatees can only be found in southern Mexico, Northern Guatemala and Belize. One nonprofit organization nestled along the northern border of the Bladden Nature Reserve is working to replenish the hicatee population in Belize. Just over a decade ago, The Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education, BFREE, established the first and only hicatee captive breeding facility in the world. Before they began studying the species, not much was known about them. Through their groundbreaking research a substantial amount of data has been gathered on these turtles to better understand their behavioral patterns. Additionally, they have released hundreds of hicatees into the wild. We will have an extensive report on our visit to the facility in Wednesday night’s newscast. Tonight, we hear from Jacob Marlin, the Executive Director of BFREE who started the organization thirty years ago.

Jacob Marlin, Executive Director, BFREE

“Some of the core research project we have on the property right now, and I think that is why you are here, has to do with the Central American river turtle, local we call it the hicatee, interesting specie. We got involved with it twelve or thirteen years ago, my background is herpetology and I happen to know a lot of people in the international scene. So, a friend of mine reached out to me and asked what is going on with hicatee in Belize. One of the most critically endangered turtles in the world. I said yes, but I have never seen them, and I have a lot of other things going on. So, he asked me to look into it and so I started reading and talking to people and what I learned is that know nothing much about it at all. I started talking to people who go hunting and they know some about it, they know where to get them, but if you ask them what the status of the population is, nobody knows. So that led us to this collaboration with this organization called the Turtle Survival Alliance TSA which is a big international turtle conservation organization that works in dozens of countries across the world, trying to save the most critically endangered turtles. Turtles are interesting, there are only about three hundred and thirty species of turtles on the planet. They are considered one of the most endangered vertebrates in the world, along with primates and amphibians. Of those three hundred and forty species of turtles almost half are threatened with extinction. And of that half about half of those are seriously threatened with extinction. Of those species the hicatee is one of the top twenty-five of all the turtles in the world. In Belize we probably don’t think about that. Nobody knows, it is just not something people don’t know about. People like hicatee and rice. It taste nice, where is my hicatee, it is easter where is my hicatee. I get it. Culturally fine, people have been doing this for a long time.”

Man Goes Missing After Leaving Rehabilitation Center

A family is pleading for assistance in locating their loved one who went missing after he left the Jacob’s Farm Rehabilitation Facility in Corozal district. Fifty-year-old James Young was last seen at the facility in Patchakan Village around midday on May sixth, where he had been receiving holistic treatment for substance abuse issues. As persons seeking treatment at the facility can discharge themselves, Young simply left the grounds. According to his family, he has a history of mental illness so they are asking that members of the public refrain from harming him and instead report him to the nearest police station so that he may be reunited with his family. We spoke with Young’s nephew, who provided some more details on the situation.

Kenroy Young, Nephew of Missing James Young

“From since last week, Monday, my family and the police department and staff members and some of the Men who live at the facility in Patchakan Village at Jacob’s farm. We have all been intensifying our searches over the past few days this weekend. We did a more intensive search and all in Corozal and Orange Walk and we have turned up nothing. But every day my family members are in Corozal. We go to Orange Walk, we go to the villages in between. There were people saying that they received, we received tips of people seeing him in Corozal town upon the family’s arrival to these locations, it turned out not to be him. I don’t know basically what more to see about him being gone this long because this is not him. Even through all his years of mental illness, he has never done something like this. So I’m just appealing to the Belizean public. If you see him to please call the numbers that are on the bottom of the flyers there for our family members, or you call the nearest police station in the area where you are, because right now we’re at an impasse as to where he is. Because if he was coming to Belize City, because he is from Belize City, from, he used to live on Wagner’s Lane in Belize City, known as Jump Street. And it’s our consensus, if he was leaving from there to come to Belize City, he should be here by now. He’s 50 years old. He’s dark. He’s of dark complexion. He has dark colored eyes. He’s six feet, two inches tall. He wears about one hundred thirty to one hundred forty pounds. And he was last seen wearing a dark blue t-shirt and a dark blue long pants.”

“Kaya Fi Di Alberts”

Belize City Councilor Kaya Cattouse has officially declared her candidacy for the Albert constituency. Cattouse has been serving as a city councilor for the past three terms. She took to social media today to say quote, “over the past four years, I have witnessed the challenges facing the Albert Constituency, and I’m more determined than ever to lead us back to our blue roots. Together, we can ensure a P.U.P. victory and pave the way for a better quality of life for all Albert residents by uniting under the P.U.P. banner and ensuring that no one is left behind”, unquote. Cattouse is the only P.U.P. hopeful to date that has publicly declared her interest to run in the Albert Division. If another person chooses to submit their standard bearer application, then the party will certainly have to decide whether they will endorse a candidate or hold a convention. The P.U.P.’s deadline for application submission is at the end of May. We will continue to follow.

Are Cane Farmers’ Work Affected by “Blackouts”?

The recent power outages that have affected the areas of the country that are hooked up to the national grid have impacted almost every field of work, at least work that depends on power supply for lighting, cooling or processing purposes. But outdoor work has not been affected much – that is work that requires manual labour. Corozal Southeast Area Representative, Florencio Marin Junior, who represents cane farmers in the sugar belt, says that the recent outages have had little to no impact on their operations.

Florencio Marin, Junior, Area Representative, Corozal Southeast

“Remember it’s agriculture, noh, so they don’t really have that direct need to work. It is in the field, right. Now they’re mostly cutting their cane. Some have begun fertilizing their cane. You don’t really need much electricity for that operation.”

Shots Fired at Fairweather Camp

Police in Punta Gorda Town are investigating an incident that took place at the BDF’s Fairweather camp yesterday afternoon. News Five has learned that police officers are investigating a staff sergeant who reportedly fired his 9-mm firearm several times inside the compound.

The staff sergeant fired the shots in the air. There are no reports of injuries.

The staff sergeant left the scene. News Five contacted the BDF, and we were told that it is a police matter.

This is a developing story.

Shooting in Ladyville

Twenty-six-year-old Frank Young was shot last night in Ladyville Village. Investigators say that Young was shot while walking on the Philip Goldson Highway. He was injured in the right arm and leg. According to Young, he heard gunshots and later realised he was shot. He was taken to the hospital, where he remains in stable condition.