Little Updates

A new group of trainees has arrived in Belize so after only two months here, I'm no longer the newbie! My life has been a little crazy for the past few weeks as I've been discussing with Peace Corps how to improve my working situation. Not working during this time has allowed me the opportunity to experience some great parts of Belize. I've enjoyed several nice bike rides around Dangriga and swimming in the ocean from several different beaches in town. I've also spent a while in Belmopan at the Peace Corps office so have had a chance to get to know some of the new training group and answer a few of their many questions. I don't know a lot about Belize yet but I know the basics and think I do understand Peace Corps well. I'm able to participate in some of the more interesting sessions since I never went through training here. Last week they had a panel on politics and the local government of Belize. I realized that I've learned nothing about either of these during my time here. The panel included three volunteers that work with local government - one with a mayor, another with a village council, and the last with the National Association of Village Councils. They also had two Belizean women speak about their experiences. They were from the two opposing political parties but both are working to focus beyond political parties and look at the needs of the country. One is an employee that works with the association and the other is an elected official. She originally was elected to her village council, became chair, then asked to serve on a district association, and also is serving as a Senator. She's currently wearing all these hats at once so representing several different populations depending on which role she is working in at the time. They were very honest with us and explained how animosity between political parties can have a debilitating effect within Belize. It sounded very much like my own country! Today I'm back in Belmopan to attend a session on the history and government of Belize. Senator Hulse, who represents the business community in Belize, gave the lecture. He's a great public speaker and did a fantastic job making this topic interesting. Belize is a young country (30 years in 2011) and the senator could tell us stories from before independence up until today and many of the challenges the country has faced. He also shared the history of Europeans arrival in Belize and why it is so different than the rest of Central America. Since the arrival of Europeans, it has been considered more a part of the Caribbean than Central America but because of its location on the mainland and the large coral reef that prevented large ships from easily attacking, early settlements were fairly secure. I also was invited to participate in Culture Day, an annual tradition in Peace Corps Belize held at the very beginning of training. The group travels to an area of the country to spend a day learning about one of the local cultures. This year the focus was Garifuna and everyone came to Dangriga. We had a tour of the National Garifuna Museum, lectures on spirituality and the use of plants for medicinal purposes, a tour showing the process of making cassava bread, visited Pen Cayetano's art gallery, ate a traditional lunch, watched a drum-making demonstration, and enjoyed dance and drumming performances. It was a fun day and covered lots of information. I had met and spoken with most of the individuals that presented activities during the day but its always different hearing their formal presentations. Last week I did a little traveling to learn more about activities that other Peace Corps Volunteers are doing. I spent a day in Georgeville, a village in the Cayo district west of Belmopan, visiting PCV Jenna. The village has about 500 people in it I believe but is right on the main highway and in a popular tourist area. Cayo is very mountainous and beautiful and Jenna has a gorgeous house on the top of a hill with a great view of the village and countryside below. She works at a small primary school in the village as a teacher trainer and has done a lot of work with the school library, has reading groups, and started a running and exercise club. I enjoyed interacting with young kids since I haven't had many chances to be around children since I left Burkina! Later in the week I traveled to the very north of Belize to visit PCV Holly in Corozal. This is a large town near the border with Mexico and has a much larger Mestizo population than in my area. Its a beautiful town as well and feels so different than southern Belize. Its amazing how diverse this country is for being so small. Holly is a youth development volunteer but also works in a primary school as well as with other activities in the community. I've posted pictures from some of these recent activities so check them out!

The Garifuna

The Garifuna are an ethnic group found in Belize and Dangriga is often referred to as the heart of the Garifuna people. This group has an interesting and well-preserved history describing how they settled along the shores of Belize. The story begins before European arrival when there were two distinct ethnicities living in the Caribbean and more specifically on the island of St Vincent: the Arawak and the Carib which later melted into one group. In 1635 two Spanish ships carrying slaves from Nigeria where shipwrecked in the Caribbean. Some of the captives were able to swim to the shores of St Vincent and settled among the local populations. The indigenous people and new arrivals did not always get along at the beginning but eventually theses separate groups intermarried and formed a new ethnicity known as the Garifuna.

One hundred and fifty years after the marooned slaves arrived on St Vincent and mixed with the Caribs, the Garifuna were the largest and most powerful group on the island. At this time St. Vincent, along with many Caribbean Islands, was under British rule and they began building slave plantations. The British were unwilling to accept a free black population so close to their slaves and wanted to gain control of the island so repeatedly fought the Garifuna.

In 1796, after a year of bloody fighting and the killing of their chief Joseph Chatoyer, the Garifuna surrendered. Months later the British decided to put an end to free blacks in St Vincent so rounded up the Garifuna killing many in the process. British records state that around 4300 individuals were deported to the island of Balliceuax, just off the St Vincent coast. Half of the remaining population died within a few months because of lack of food and yellow fever. The survivors were once again rounded up and deported this time to the island of Roatan, one of the Bay Islands off Honduras. Survival continued to be a struggle and many died here. Shortly after their arrival, the Spanish took the remaining 1700 Garifuna to mainland Honduras. They settled here for 20 some years before war came to Honduras. The Garifuna supported the losing side and were again persecuted so once again had to move this time to British Honduras (which later became Belize).

History states that on November 19, 1832, the largest group of several hundred Garifuna landed at Stann Creek (located in Dangriga). They were led in their travels by Elijio Beni (who happens to have a park named in his honor next to my house). Other Garifuna had arrived in small number prior to this and even more came later. After 200 years of travelling, the Garifuna finally found a new homeland.

November 19 is a national holiday in Belize called Settlement Day. It is celebrated throughout the country with some of the biggest festivities in Dangriga including a re-enactment of the first ships arriving at Stann Creek.

The Garifuna were traditionally fishermen along the coast of Belize and did some farming. These people sought out ways to advance themselves and focused on education. They moved into the professional class throughout the country and are known as being very successful. It is very common to find Garifuna teachers, principals, and medical professionals.

Today the Garifuna continue to keep their tradition and culture alive. There is a National Garifuna Council that have wrote a dictionary, hold conferences, run a primary school, and opened a museum to share their story with visitors. The Garifuna language is still widely-spoken though there is talk about it being a dying language. In my experience, many young people have not learned it and are uninterested in doing so. It is mostly older generations that I hear speaking Garifuna. Traditional dances and drumming are still performed and many older women can be seen in town in their traditional clothing. These dances remind me of dancing in my village in Burkina Faso and I can see how they probably originate from the same traditions.

In the past twenty years or so, younger Garifuna have developed a new style of music called Punta Rock that has a base in traditional music but with a quicker beat and other instruments besides traditional drums. There are many well-known Punta Rock artists in Dangriga but two of the most famous are the late Andy Palacio and Pen Cayetano of the Turtle Shell Band. Pen is also a painter and he and his German wife Ingrid have a beautiful studio in Dangriga showcasing their work.

Other Garifuna traditions remind me of what I saw and learned in West Africa. There is a strong belief in ancestry worship and that spirits are all around us. Some people say that this involves voodoo and black magic but I’d like to think of it more as traditional religion and beliefs that are still practiced here as well as in Africa. One tradition is for a large event that is held every several years when an ancestor or spirit tells someone they need to hold this event or party. The spirits require that everyone in the family attend so it often takes a long time to plan. People have family that have settled all over and everyone must come including those in the United States. The event includes singing, dancing, and lots of food and continues for several days I believe. At the end, the spirit can say that they didn’t do a good enough job and they have to plan and throw a whole other event. This doesn’t usually happen though since it is such a huge expense for just one. I’ve also heard that there are many traditions surrounding death and funerals but I don’t know the specifics.

Please note that this is just my understanding of what I've read in several guidebooks and heard from the folks at the museum and other Garifuna in the community.