Garifuna Settlement Day

November 19th we celebrated our first Garifuna Settlement Day in Dangriga. Settlement day is celebrated every year to commemorate the arrival and survival of the Garifuna people to Belize in the 1820's. The Garifuna have a rich and vibrant culture, and have maintained their unique language. The vast majority of Dangriga's population is Garifuna and is considered to be their cultural capital.

The highlight of the Settlement Day celebration is the "Reenactment" of when the first Garifuna settlers landed in Belize. At sunrise (after a night of partying hard) hundreds of people start to line the banks of the Riverside, looking out into the Caribbean for the first sign of the Reenactment sailboats. When the boats make landfall, they sing traditional Garifuna songs celebrating the end of their long journey to their new home in Belize.



Drumming is a huge part of the Garifuna culture and you can hear the drummers practicing weeks in advance of Settlement Day. Then in the days leading up to Settlement Day, groups of drummers and dancers go house to house to perform (much like our tradition of Christmas caroling).

We were lucky enough to see two dance performances at our host families house thanks to our friend Clairine, our host family, and their dance group.





The Garifuna also have a rich culinary tradition with foods based on plantain, bananas, coconuts, cassava roots, and especially fish (the Garifuna are considered excellent fishermen).

I got a chance to help our host mom make a traditional Garifuna dish called "Hudut" - which is made from green bananas that are mashed with a large sort of mortar and pestle, and then formed into balls and eaten in a coconut milk and fish soup. It was the hardest dish I have ever made! My arms were so tired afterward. You have to continuously mash the green banana until they are the right consistency, using a sort of mashing and twisting motion.














Things are going great down here in Belize, and we hope to talk to you all very soon!

Swearing In!

Hello every body! Well, we did it, we finally are official Peace Corps Volunteers! Our Swearing In Ceremony was held on October 22 at the Belize Governor General's House in Belmopan. A great time was had by all.

Since we will be living in the Garifuna cultural capital of Belize, Alyson and I decided to represent by wearing traditional Garifuna outfits. My shirt is called a "Dashiki" and Alyson's skirt is called a Gu'du and the style of her blouse is called a mannin.

There are a total of 40 Volunteers in our training class that will be posted all though out Belize - doing everything from training teachers, to helping start small businesses. It really is great to be part of such an amazing group of people.

Tobacco Caye

So, a few weeks ago the Tobacco Caye Marine Reserve invited the Stann Creek Education Office out to the Caye for a tour of their facility. First, they took us to one of the larger mangrove islands off the coast to show us where they would like to establish a place to bring school kids to teach about mangrove ecosystems.

Next they took us to the Tobacco Caye - which, I must say was amazing. In all the Caye is only about the total square footage of about a football field, with portions of the Belize Barrier reef on both sides. The island marks one of the few good channels for ships to cross the Barrier Reef, and in the picture above, you can see where a large portion of the reef actually sticks out of the water. We are told it is a superb place to go snorkeling. We are dying to go back and spend more time, so some of you need to come visit to give us a good excuse to go back!

Weekend Visit to Corazol

Hey everyone! We just wanted to share some pictures from our trip to Corazol a couple of weeks ago.

Corazol is a beautiful little town in the northern most part of Belize and is only minutes from the Mexico Border.

My trip down to Punta Gorda

For our Education Field Trip we took a beautiful trip down the Hummingbird Hwy to Punta Gorda on the coast. We were able to see several differnt schools and get a better idea what Education in Belize is like. I loved how all the school houses were brightly colored.
We did run into a little trouble on the way back though. During the rainy season the bridges tend to flood and sometimes even wash away! It had been raining for several days and the water had come up very high. So we had to wait for the workers to replace the washed away soil leading up to one of the main bridges in Belize. We finally made it across just in time to see an amazing firefly show in the jungle.

The Sleeping Giant