fun with my new camera

here's the matriarch of Maya's host family, taking a break at her sewing machine.




and here's me playing with the color settings on my christmas present...


blue sky view from Maya's house




the sea breeze really does help




she'll probably hate me for posting yet another picture of her on the internet, but i love this one

Happy Garifuna Settlement Day

OK, i'm a little bit late, as Settlement Day was actually on the 19th, but better late than never. Settlement Day is a national holiday celebrating the arrival of the Garifuna people to Belizean shores. it is celebrated around the country, but most of the action takes place in the coastal communities of the south, where the Garifuna population is centered. so, if you were in Dangriga, Hopkins, Punta Gorda or Barranco the weekend before last, you would have found yourself swept up in all manner of festivities, from paranda concerts to punta dance-offs, from impromptu late night sing-alongs to elaborate early morning reenactments and church services. and you definitely shouldn't have expected to get much sleep.

i arrived in Dangriga on Saturday morning, met Maya at the bus station and promptly picked up some barbeque from one of the many vendors who grill their chicken in half drums on Dangriga's main drag. after a day running around town to visit with various friends, we headed to the concert stage to see Andy Palacio perform. Andy is a former punta rock star who has recently taken on the mission of bringing the more traditional forms of Garifuna music (with some contemporary and latin flair) to the world at large. just a few days prior, he'd been presented with the UNESCO Artist For Peace award in his hometown of Barranco. with a crew of over a dozen Garifuna musicians from Belize, Honduras and Guatemala, he put on an incredible show in front of an audience that knew (and sang) every word. definitely worth every minute.

after the concert we followed most of Dangriga to The Shed for drumming and punta dancing into the wee hours. i may love to dance, but i definitely don't have the stamina (or the quads) for the punta. that shit's crazy. but despite my punta inabilities, i still got to meet Mr. Palacio, who happens to be one of Maya's former co-workers. who knew?

next day we hopped a bus to the junction and then caught a ride the rest of the way into Hopkins, where we lazed around with Maya's host family before ambling down to King Cassava to take in yet another Andy P. show. it started pouring, and the band tried to stop, but the audience wasn't having it. and if they were content to dance in the rain, who were the sheltered musicians to protest? the early hour of the show and the ridiculous weather thinned the crowds, all of whom were expecting a village-wide party. but we perservered, and managed to find pockets of revelers scattered about town, drumming, singing and drinking into the night.



we made it home by 3, only to drag ourselves out of bed at 7 for the reenactment of the arrival of the Garinagu on Belize's shores. a small crowd gathered on the beach to welcome two boats to shore. representing the first Garinagu to come to Belize from St. Vincent, they acted out a scene wherein the would be settlers ask the governor for permission to land, are denied, return to sea to confer with the rest of their party, and then come back to shore to plead their case, this time successfully. much of the audience that came out to witness this scene wass dressed in the Garifuna African-inspired garb and singing traditional songs accompanied only by drums. after the actors were granted permission to stay, the whole crowd processed the few yards to the Catholic church on the beach for a celebratory mass. i can guarantee that you've probably never attended a Catholic service like this. the church rang with raucously joyful singing and drumming.





after church, as is the case all over the world, it was time for food. we dined under a tent on the beach on salted fish, cassava bread and mashed plantain steamed in banana leaves (much like tamales).

all in all, it was a fantastically vibrant weekend. for a culture that is supposedly on the verge of disappearing off the face of the earth, the Garifuna spirit seems to be alive and kicking. i will definitely be back for more next November. any takers?

disaster prep

back in September, my counterpart Joe and i facilitated a workshop for Standard 5 & 6 students on disaster preparedness. we talked about natural and man made disasters, and what we can do to both avoid and prepare for them. we had them make community risk maps, identifying the resources and risks in San Ignacio.

pageant pix

some pictures from the Miss Garifuna pageant. three of the contestants and a group of young dancers. many of the dances, like their traditional African antecedents, are inspired by everyday activities like harvesting and washing.







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Miss Garifuna

Maya and i also recently attended that most curious of Belizean obsessions - a pageant. they seem to pop up around the country like a contagion (that, and karaoke competitions). this one wasn't your typical beauty pageant, however. it was a competition to see who would be crowned Miss Garifuna Belize. the winners of all the regional Garifuna competitions gathered at the University of Belize gymnasium in Belmopan to show off their Garifuna language and dance skills, and to tell the audience how they plan to play a part in the celebration and preservation of Garifuna culture (a blending of West African slave culture with that of the indigenous tribes of some of the western Caribbean islands). as pageants go, it was pretty cool. Miss Seine Beight too the crown, in case you're wondering.


Maya at my desk at the Cayo District Education Center


fruit vendor outside the bus as we head out of town towards Belmopan. Maya kindly shared her mango.


maybe one day i'll be crowned Miss Garifuna Belize...

everyone needs a good restaurant in the neighborhood

Ashley and i will be living just a couple blocks from each other, with a fantastic South Indian restaurant conveniently located between our houses (surprisingly enough, Belize actually has a sizable East Indian population). we discovered it a month or so ago, and have made it a regular stop. it's owned by a couple from Kerala. mom does the cooking, dad waits on the customers and their two young sons watch cartoons and Indian soap operas and ride their big wheels around the outdoor dining area. and they serve a mean dhosa. i went there last week with Maya, who happened to be on the phone with her father when we arrived. as we walked up to the counter, she handed her cell phone to the proprieter and said, "my dad wants to talk to you." at which point he gave her a puzzled look, took the phone, and immediately started chattering away with my uncle in Malayalam. a fascinating way to begin any meal! and the world just keeps getting smaller...

house hunting

all this is to say that i have indeed found a place of my own to move into. it's a little two-bedroom house smack in the middle of town. like most houses around here, it's surrounded by a wrought iron gate and the windows are covered with burglar bars to, you guessed it, keep the burglars out. but it's plenty spacious for just me - in fact i imagine that on my peace corps budget it's going to be just me, a bed, a hammock and the luxurious yoga mat mom sent for a while to come. if you're thinking of visiting, don't expect much in the way of furniture. and when a Belizean says he'll rent you an unfurnished apartment, that means completely devoid of anything but walls and a roof. no fridge, no stove, no nothing (i realize my friends in Toledo probably think i'm just being spoiled. i do, after all, have electricity, running water and a flush toilet. it's all about perspective i guess.).

so, i'll be moving into my new place in about a month. it's owned by Mr. De Paz, a friendly older gentleman who insists on taking me and Ashley out for a beer (meaning as many beers as he can get us to agree to before we plead prior commitments and work days ahead of us) every time he sees us. he's got nine kids, five of whom are doctors of one sort or another. a few of them live in the states (i've heard there are actually more Belizeans living in the US than in Belize), but Mr. De Paz was born and bred and will undoubtedly die and be buried in his beloved San Ignacio. tried and true. and a good man to have at my back during my stay here.

not the new place, but here are a couple photos of the house where i'm living now...


front yard with view of San Ignacio


hammock from which to enjoy aforementioned view


my room

shopping in Guatemala

i recently took an afternoon trip to Guatemala to shop for household goods. it's common practice for Belizeans living in the north and west of the country to head across the border to do their shopping. when i was living in Orange Walk, my host family went to Chetumal, Mexico for the day and brought me back Raisin Bran and Crest. this time around i was looking for dishes, linens and cheap tupperware to set up house. not to mention the famous Guatemalan woven hammocks that are a staple of every Belizean household. since Belize produces almost none of its own goods, they have to import everything from abroad. which makes pretty much everything three times as expensive here as in the neighboring manufacturing powerhouses of Guatemala and Mexico. so, people make a day of it and head across the border when they need clothes, or groceries, or beer other than the national brew Belikin (you can't buy any beer in Belize that isn't brewed in country, which limits the options considerably. though for some reason there is actually a Guinness brewery here...). when you're trying to set up house for two years on the equivalent of $850 US, pots and pans and dishtowels for a third of the price start to look mighty attractive. so, i headed to Melchor, less than ten miles from my home in San Ignacio, and made it home with, among other things, a hammock to spend my copious hours of infamous Peace Corps reading time.