She is a renowned herbalist turned tour guide, but that isn't why Janice Bain is in the news tonight. In December of last year she moved to Valley of Peace which is a village of about three thousand residents, most of whom are immigrants. It is located just outside of Belmopan. And while the village is called "Valley of Peace," Bain today told us there is anything but peace in that valley. Here's her story.
Janice Bain, Valley of Peace Resident
"At this point I don't feel very good about being a Belizean because I really see that benefits me very little at this time and I am being terrorized."
And Janice Bain says she is being terrorized by her neighbors in Valley of Peace.
Janice Bain,
"I think that I am on the border of hell in Valley of Peace. What concerns me most is that the children at all ages are experiencing this hate wave and they treat me as if I'm a monster and that is not me. I have even noticed that the children from the Belmopan Comprehensive High School were outside jeering my house and throwing fire crackers. I've been stoned, I've been treated like I live in San Salvador and I am in Belize.
They maliciously tormented us. They invaded our property, they take the fruits, they do all the things that people do that don't respect you and it continues and continues and now they followed me to the other place and now I am there and this other lady is doing this and it is really like you are awake but you are in a terrible nightmare."
And it is a living nightmare. This is a copy of a death threat, which Bain claims was posted on her door last month. The message is in Spanish but there is a part in Creole. That reads: "go away or you will be dead. You are thief and chancey." It ends with "gracias" and it is signed - MS- Mara Salvatrucha, a cryptic reference to the deadly Salvadoran gang. And while a threatening letter is one thing - Bain says that twelve days ago her house came under fire.
Janice Bain,
"They shot at me for once. They shot at me with bullets which is terrifying because I thought it was the tenth of September when I waken up out of my bed by gunfire and I didn't know that it was shooting. I thought it was just maybe the world was coming to an end but two days later I discovered the bullets."
This morning Janice Bain along with Canadian volunteer Rhonda MacFarlene told us the police and community leaders are showing little or no interest in helping her to regain some peace in Valley of Peace.
Rhonda MacFarlene, Friend
"This is now twelve days after the shooting. They are going to try to help to search for whoever shot at this lady's house and who wrote this letter and I feel that is an awful long time for them to take the responsibility to go after them."
Janice Bain,
"There has been no, absolutely no. There has been absolutely no one that has come to hear my side of the story."
And while that is Janice Bain's story, the Valley of Peace chairlady Maria Consuelo Avelar tells a different one. She told us late this evening that the dispute has nothing do with race or discrimination. She claims the argument is about Bain's refusal to pay her rent. Avelar admits that Bain's home was shot but she believes the shooting was staged because the Bain property is secure.
