Trial Farm, more usually acknowledged as being a suburb of Orange Walk, is officially a village in its own right.  And while it is so intricately connected to its neighbouring town, it also retains its sense of village pride, not least demonstrated by the local protests a few years ago when there were talks of the village becoming a part of the Orange Walk municipality.   

Trial Farm is unique in a number of ways: its boundaries today represent an entirely new village which is still only a few decades old, and it has struggled with the subsequent problems of rapid population growth and exhaustion of natural resources.  Even more remarkable is that Trial Farm is now officially recognized as the largest village in the country, despite its infantile status, which perhaps exacerbates the problems over resources for the residents.

People occasionally raise eyebrows when I say I live in Trial Farm.  In fact, following a burglary last month, the Orange Walk police officer who took my statement actually asked if I was surprised to have been burgled, seeing as I live in the most crime-infested village of Belize.  Ok, so Trial Farm has a bad reputation for alcoholism, drug abuse and drug-related crimes, and come to think about it the statistics on assault, manslaughter and murder are fairly gruesome when you look at the overall incidence compared to the age of the village.  And yet even regardless of this, I can’t help but consider Trial Farm to have a friendly feel about it, an aura and an essence which is at least comfortable, if not comforting.

And the simplest reason I can put this down to is that its residents are all relatively new to the area, they have all raised children who have been schooled together, and they have seen the growth and the development of the village together.  Which gives the village an enormous sense of community solidarity as a whole.  However, that’s not to say that neighbourhood problems are absent from Trial Farm life. 

Several households report an overriding threat of burglary to properties left unattended during the day, and this perception of fear actually creates a somewhat lively atmosphere in Trial Farm as most families ensure that there is always at least one house-sitter left at home at all times.  The problem of crime is often put down to poverty and unemployment in the village, whereby villagers resort to desperate measures to feed themselves and their families.  More plausible, however, is the fact that drugs have become an inherent problem, particularly among the village youth, and addiction is warranting crime in order to further feed the addiction, and spread the habit throughout society.  It is said that there are more parolees and recently released Hattieville inmates in Trial Farm, per capita of the population, than in other parts of the country; whilst theoretically this should give hope that past offenders are re-entering society following strict programs of rehabilitation, and perhaps may positively impact youths in the village, the grim reality is that many of these return to their ‘catch and kill’ ways, and once again fall slave to marijuana, cocaine or crack. 

Much of the land donated to struggling Orangewalkaños over past decades was in the form of land parcels in Trial Farm, one of the few places that still had potential for development on excess bushland.  Because definitively these lots were given to those in need, there is a high proportion of single-headed families in Trial Farm, which perpetuates problems of poverty, particularly when parents are forced to stay at home to care for young children as opposed to finding work and earning better incomes to support themselves.

More employable members of Trial Farm society, however, find work in various industries, predominated by BSI, Fruta Bomba and retail and entertainment (especially at complexes in the FreeZone).  However, the proportion of students who continue their education to sixth form and beyond is still a minority, meaning that highly professional posts are not held by many Trial Farm residents, despite the education system having improved by leaps and bounds over recent decades. 

The early arrivals of the Trial Farm community remember when there was no school nearby and children were forced to trek along the picados until a passing cane truck would take them to La Inmaculada.  Shortly after the village’s inception, the Ministry paid for a bus for Trial Farm students, and ultimately in 1984 the rural cow pasture in the centre of the village became the location for the Trial Farm Government School, catering to around 100 students in the first academic year.  In 2004, then Prime Minister Said Musa inaugurated eight new Ferro-concrete buildings to support the increasing expansion of the school population.  And again in 2007, Operation New Horizons, commanded as a US Military Operation, with local participation of BDF forces, built two additional rooms onto the school premises to enhance the educational infrastructure of the village, which was perceived as ‘particularly needy of external support and investment’.  The project involved the fitting of indoor plumbing, the establishment of a library and the creation of a computer laboratory for the school’s pupils.  It is remarkable that in the 25 years that the school has been opened, the student population has increased in size every year without fail.  There are concerns that the quality of education is deteriorating as the school’s resources are being stretched far beyond the capacity that it was initially designed for.  It is ironic to consider that some villages with far smaller populations boast of multiple schools, whereas almost 1000 students from Trial Farm are all expected to attain an education at one institution. 

Another unrealistic expectation of the plans envisioned for Trial Farm was that the village’s deceased could be accommodated within the main cemetery of Orange Walk.  Although this improbable ideal proved unattainable many years ago, it was only in August of this year that the village’s own burying ground, Trial Farm Sunset Cemetery, was blessed at its official inauguration ceremony. 

Yet even despite this record of trial and tribulation in the village (no pun intended), Trial Farm still scores more positives than negatives when comparing village life between various different communities throughout Belize.  Trial Farm has just about every sort of grocery and hardware shop that could possibly be required by its residents; it has some of the most reputed bars in the district (not that I condone the dubious negotiations that happen behind their closed doors, however); it boasts the Gamis Hotel which was opened a few years ago, more to accommodate local trade than tourist interest, but equally available for both.  There was a time that Trial Farm boasted two gas stations, and although only the Texaco officially remains, there are allegedly numerous outlets of Mexican gas in the village, catering to the needs of Orangewalkaños who can no longer afford the extortionate prices charged at the pump.

Trial Farm seems to find a solution to every affliction, albeit occasionally in unconventional ways.  It is by no means a village that has had an easy route to development and growth, but it has sustained itself through the vigour and determination of its residents.  And so I am confident that whatever problems may afflict Trial Farm and its villagers over the coming years, it will staunchly fight back and maintain its reputation as a village not to be messed with.