by Ray Auxillou

A chance visit with Central Cayo Area Representative, Mario Castellanos in Allens Hardware the other day was interesting. Mario said; if the PUP were reelected, that the Hillview Community would be extended to the S.E., over the ranges and hills behind my house towards Cristo Rey road.
The telecommunications companies won't like that. They can't serve existing hill and valley suburbs with cell and internet service. The radio waves they use in their broadband are short like microwave bullets and will not bend over the hilltops. So far, they have failed after 15 years to provide hilly community areas with service due to this physics restriction
The serious cold that is going through the twin towns, with a runny nose, clogged sinus's, sore throat and then chest congestion is a rhino-virus and there is no medical treatment known to man. That said, my wife made a discovery from the hint of Antonio our day mason contractor, that in the yards of Santa Elena, a wild grass grows that is known as FEVER GRASS, which can alleviate the symptoms somewhat. We tried it and my wife cuts the grass with scissors along the fence, chops it up into one inch pieces, add hot water, honey and condensed milk and you get the most delicious drink. The flavor is like MINT with a touch of Lemon. Somebody local should put it into TEA BAGS, as it is more flavorful than imported mint tea bags bought at the store. Mint tea fever grass, an import substitution enterprise. Maybe we could export it? Hey Maria Sharpe, you reading this?
Couldn't find anybody who knew anything about the Benque Viejo FREE ZONE? Does it really exist, or is it imaginary?
Saw our local STAR newspaper got a lot of government advertising this past week. Bully for them!
Heard by the rumor mill, that Mr. Boignton Jr. of Santa Elena Town will run as the NRP representative in the next election. I'm told; he is the son of the famous local GOLD MINER who has been working the placer gold deposits in the Southern Chiquibul for the past twenty years. Think he started before even Francis Gegg was working back there, two thousand feet high on the slopes of the Southern Belize Alps. Rene Montero will run for the UDP and Mario Castellanos will run again for the PUP. Voters who want a change in the way we are governed and claim corruption, should seriously vote for the best THIRD PARTY candidate, if they are serious about wanting to change the political system. Mennonite Dueck has organized the NRP for honesty and intregrity in government. Other third parties are probably going to declare candidacy after the holidays in January.
Rumor mill has it that a law was passed in September OUTLAWING kids using fireworks. The law is supposed to prevent physical injury to little kids. They injure their eyes and blow off fingers apparently? Don't know what the fine is for this new law, but you wouldn't know it around our neighborhood.
Santa Elena Public Library has a lot of new donated paperback books, but ran out of the cards needed to file them in the system. They say they cannot input them, until they hold a bazaar, or cake sale of some kind to earn the money to buy the cards needed for their work. Money raising projects to run the library take up a lot of the energy and time. Never saw any progress from the Town Board over in San Ignacio about shifting the Public Library they have, to a bigger facility over there. They also have run out of money. Six months or more ago, they claimed they were going to make their library bigger and more modern. It never happened!
A 14 ounce, three inch diameter tomato was grown by somebody around Gracias, near Buena Vista. A bit of tracking down the variety like a detective, found that it came from some expensive hybrid seed called POLINA, imported by Brodies company and sold at Agro Jiron store. Manuel Trujillo head of research at Central Farm is excited about it, as this tomato looks like it could be the foundation of a multi-million dollar greenhouse export tomato industry and of puree paste in bulk in the future.
My new book is now for sale at Agro Pro in Santa Elena Town. THE VEGETABLE FARMERS BIBLE, 4th edition. This year 2007, three vegetable growers made a half million dollars each. This coming year in 2008 we expect to see the first millionaires in the nation from growing specialist vegetables. Probably in Corozal District.