new land belize

my last few days spent in san ignacio were with a guy i knew and his family. they lived on a jungle farm and i satyed in my tent. they had a beautiful little creek that ran through their property, that i bathed in and washed my clothes in. they had 2 horses, lime, mango, avocado, chaya, basil, chickens, and goats. my friends brother was practically a bush doctor, so i learned tons about all the plants and trees that grow in their jungle. we drank bitters to clear our stomach of any possible parasites or problems, i soaked fresh cedar bark in my water to cure my cold, i learned what plants to eat to slow snake venom from getting all up in your body before you can reach a hospital, any many more jungle remedies. i went horseback riding one day with the brother, and we cantered a lot down beautiful farm roads, made it to the river, that was full, flowing and brown from recent rains. we passed some menonites on the way to the river, they were farming with tractors and drove a pickup, not dressed in the usual attire so they were the more modern menonites. there are 2 groups of menonites, the modern ones and the ones that stil dont use any machinery or technology. i got a ride with some family members to dangriga, a biggish town on the coast.
in dangriga i planned to meet some people who were going to get me into gales point. gales point is where famous creole drummer, emmeth young lives. i went to stay with emmeth and his family there and my plan was to make a djembe drum. gales point was a really small town on a peninsula in a lagoon about 5 miles from the coast, also known as manatee, because of the large manatee population that lives in the lagoon(i did see one when i was kayaking with his daughter ajani). i stayed with them for over a week, working everyday on my drum, i started with a huge tree stump of cedar and had to hack and hack and hack out the center to form the bowl on top and the foot on the bottom, then i had to shape the outside, giving it its hour glass shape, then i carved and picture on it, then we soaked the goat skin and pulled it over, bent the wire, tied on the stings, tightened it, and then shaved the hair off the skin, and then bangbadabangbangbang! it was a lot of work but i made it with my own sweat and blood! its definetly the nicest drum that i have ever seen!
gales point was full of gang members that would work in belize city and escape to gales point as their hideouts, a lot of robberies going on and just plane unhappiness. i found this through alot of belize, heard many stories mostly, about rapings, executions, murders, houses broken into, etc. its something tourists definetly miss if they just go to the caves and national parks and ruins. there was a wake in gales point on one of the nights i was there, a wake here is a huge party full of rum, rice and beans, and reggae music. some friends went but i decided not to go. i did hear gunshots in the night, just gang members firing into the sky as a slut thing(stupid). they did the 21 gun salute the next day at the funeral aswell. i felt completely safe but i just heard many stories about the issues that were going on.
the past government PUP was very corrupt. they would always giver handouts to friends and random people. they would come around to houses and give money to people based on how many people were there and then "oh you have 3 dogs so heres and extra 400 dollars". venezuela gave them some large number of millions of dollars for housing projects, none of it accounted for and the ministers taking trips to the cayman islands on luxurious vacations. the new government is UDP and they seem to be better, more honest government. they are trying to get back the laundered money, and i have already seen wood and tin roofs being delivered to people that apply for it.
emmeth had a drum school here with tons of djembes, congas, a balafon, some garifuna drums, most of them that he made. gales point is the original place of creole culture in belize. they still do traditional san bais, where drums are played around a pine wood fire.emmeth and his wife jill(from cinncinati, with dreads to the floor) are doing alot to help the town. they have a youth group, they are on the water board to get the town drinking water thats clean, she writes a newsletter. they are trying to get the kids into drums and away from guns. they want to make shirts that say DRUMS NOT GUNS. jill was one of the first people to work with FOOD NOT BOMBS back in the day. emmeth was the only belizian that really met my exspectations, he was dreaded, with peace on his mind, very calmly but wisely spoken, very good ideas, im very glad that i ended up meeting him and geting to spend so much time with him and his family too.
the day after i finished my drum i was ready to head back to mexico so i got a ride to belize city and hopped on a bus to the border. and here i am back in mexico planning on coming home soon! it was such great joy getting off the bus in tulum and being in a familiar place that i knew, knew where to go and people i saw. im looking forward to come back to silver spring and be familiar again, and then when i reach san francisco again i know i will be overh=joyed since its one of my favorite places to be, and then off to start a new again in olympia washington.

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