Largest recycling project in Belize: or white people...

Before we get to the next ruin, and snuggled deep into Mayan land, on the side of the bumpy dirt road there sits a huge white monstrosity oddly shaped and colorfully painted that has a sign boasting it is the largest recycling project in Belize – which might not be saying much as there doesn’t appear to be any recycling program in Belize.

We pull into the driveway and are greeted by a dog and, surprisingly, a white womon, who we learn is originally from England. She fascinates us with the story of at least 25,000 plastic bottles comprising the walls, floors, ceiling of this building – as with all the buildings on this land – along with a few tires covered by local cement.

It's an earthship house. In Belize. A few tenths of a mile from the ancient ruins. And in the middle of scattered Mayan houses and communities. Which is why we are surprised to see a white person living here.

The ‘beams’ in the ceilings do have steel rods in them thru the plastic bottles – it is quite amazing really. She has 3 white children who are attending Mayan schools in the nearby village.

She touches on her previous purpose of the building: she wanted to make it into a school for Mayan children but confesses rather angrily that there is too much red tape and it didn’t work out.

Now she wants to show Mayan children how to build a house like this with all recycled and local materials.

I’m pondering why this womon isn’t showing all the tourists, ex-pats, and foreigners invading Placencia how to build a house like this.

How much wealth does it take for a white het couple to move their three children across the world, buy sacred land in the middle of a large, ancient Mayan community, build several small houses and one huge house, and then have a burning desire to teach Mayan’s how to replicate their project?

I wonder if the Mayan people have said this is the house they want to build and live in.