Cup Full of Culture


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Published: November 25th 2011
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As we approach another Saturday (time is just FLYING by!) I should tell you about the rad Saturday I just had last week, and some other stuff I've been up to! If you can't tell yet, my soul needs some pretty frequent replenishing of things that are awesome, luckily I don't have a hard time finding those kinds of things.

Last week we had a teachers retreat at a beautiful centre, so that was a nice mid week break (see the pictures to see why!). Got a chance to chat with my colleagues and just have a Wednesday off from teaching, which anyone can appreciate!

We also got Friday off of teaching, because it was Garifuna Settlement Day on Saturday, a day to celebrate when the Garinagu people came to Belize from St. Vincent. The Garifuna community was created when a shipload of slaves being transported by the Spanish was wrecked and the slaves who surivived ended up in St. Vincent. They made babies with the indigenous population of the island, whom everyone called "Caribs" and the new babes were the first "Black Caribs" or Garifuna. They came to Belize in 1802 after the British squashed their rebellion on the occupied island and deported them elsewhere. The celebrations for the day included a full out Culture Day at our school (and the other schools in the area) and the Re-enactment on Saturday morning.

Culture Day was GREAT! Each of the upper grades took one of the 5 major ethnic groups of Belize and made a little presentation booth with food, clothes, info and tools. They were also responsible for presenting two performances (dances, songs, poems, etc.) It was great for Tourist/Teacher Kristina who knew so little about each of the groups. Here they are:

-Maya (K'ekchi and Mopan)
-Garifuna
-Creole
-East Indian
-Mesitizo

The dances were so fun to watch, and the cultural food was a nice touch too. Some of the teachers even made enough to sell, as a fundraiser for the school (Each teacher is responsible for fundraising BZ$400 /year for the school, don't even get me started on that...) The kids did a great job - OH! And the best part! I almost forgot! Most of the kids wore their cultural clothes to school! It was so neat to see all the students in their culture's traditional clothing, all so nice!

That was Friday. On Saturday morning, I went to the re-enactment which, surprise surprise, started an hour and a half later than it was supposed to, even though tons of people were there already, at 5:30am... But eventually they started, and had some Garifuna people in traditional clothes arrive by dory (a canoe dug out of a tree) to ask permission to land in Belize. The British officer sends them away two different times, and on their third attempt, they're allowed to settle land south of Belize City (now Dangriga, the place I posted about - where I went with Gary and Tom). Garifuna drumming, great garifuna dresses, and lots of dancing - people had a lot of energy for 6am! After the Garifuna were allowed to land, they all come onto the dock, and dance out with drums and palms, parading all the way to church for a mass in Garifuna (which we also did on Culture Day at school). I decided to go get myself some veggies at the market instead of go to mass since we had done it the day before, so my Settlement Day activities were over there but it was all so interesting, despite the early morning!

Around 10, Kathleen and I went off for the adventure of our own making. We borrowed a truck her work has (she works for the parish) and went out to some of the villages around PG. We went to 2 by accident, and 2 on purpose. We ended up, after an incredibly bumpy ride, in Crique Juta, a village on a hill with some great views, because we took the wrong turn on our way to our actual destination - San Antonio. I have been to San Antonio but I wanted to go back and walk around the village a bit. We took our time during the day, stopping and looking at beautiful things, sitting on trees that hang out over creeks, and getting out to walk around in the forest. We walked around San Antonio village, a beautiful hilly place that is certainly one of the biggest villages I have seen around here, more like a town in my opinion, then went to go see the falls since Kathleen hadn't been there. We missed the falls by accident (Again!) because we were paying attention to the construction on the road right in front of the place
Culture DayCulture DayCulture Day

Before the kids take over the compound
you pull over for the falls, and just kept driving. After a while I said - they are definitely not this far. We knew there was another village further anyway, so we kept going. Santa Cruz was that village, and at least we made some people laugh by making a turn that made it obvious that we were not where we were supposed to be. Right outside the village is a little area with ruins and some trails. At this point it was raining pretty steady so needless to say, hiking through some rainforest trails was fun - but involved a lot of slipping and falling up and down the hills. Oh well, what's adventure without some mud on your pants (read: ALL OVER your pants.) We eventually did end up making it to the falls where we could clean up a bit and relax. We decided to try to make it to Laguna, a village that has some caves you can visit, but we got there about an hour to sunset, and we decided we didn't want to get stuck in the forest/cave/rocky village roads, in the dark. Back we headed to PG, and had a fun night of calzones and board games with Tom, myself and the 5 JVs (and some late night chocolate cake baking).

All in all - an incredibly exhausting day, the kind where you don't realize you're really tired until you lie down and it hits you - you've been up since 5am and now it's 1am and you've been doing high energy things the whole time! In other words, the great kind of exhaustion.

Oh - and in case you think I don't teach at all, I included some pics from school. The whole PSIII experience deserves its own post which I will work on, but in a nutshell: It's hard and stressful and overwhelming and awesome. The kids drive me bananas and I love them. Some days I feel like I can't teach and some days I figure out one little technique that gives a student clarity on a topic and it makes my whole week. It's been such an incredible experience and I am grateful I am doing it. Some of the fun things at school - we had a visit from two health groups the past two weeks, to give them vitamins and remind them about oral health. I set up one of my high needs students on my laptop and his addition is finally improving! I've also started a read-aloud club - I read James and the Giant Peach to them two days a week, and it's great to see them interested in the book!

Love it. and love you 😊 Thanks for reading another way too giant post. To see more pics check out this album on Facebook.

Also! Countdowns are on, which is craziness - as of today:
18 days until Saima gets here to start OUR adventure (yay!!)
21 days until classes are over
39 days until I am home!! See you then!


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