Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I cannot begin to explain how much I am missing home right now. I had the hardest time falling asleep last night because I kept thinking about everything I would be missing today: waking up early to cook with my dad, lounging at home watching tv and baking with my mom, dinner with family, etc, etc. I'm extremely blessed and thankful to be in Belize and I am looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner tonight with everyone here, but I still wish I were home.

This morning Adam wished me a Happy Thanksgiving and it took all my willpower not to cry. It's hard enough that it's the last week here and I'm ready to come home, but adding the holiday to that just makes me infinitely more emotional (and of course you all know how emotional I am anyway).

I want to thank all of my family and friends for supporting me on this trip and throughout life. I'm grateful for the abundance of opportunities life has presented to me. I'm thankful to be coming home in 2 days.

I may not post again before I return to the states, but I'll be thinking of all of you on the way back. See you soon!

Tom Owen's Island

Well we're back from an amazing weekend. Left Friday afternoon and headed out to Tom Owen's Island in Sapodilla Cayes. Just relaxed and had a delicious dinner of stew chicken, mash potatoes and rice and beans. Later we set up a bonfire and made smores. Saturday morning we got up and went snorkeling around the island. Then took the boat out to do some tubing and finally ended the day by doing some fishing and island hopping. That's when I got the picture of the starfish. For dinner Saturday night we has lobster, conch, and grouper that we caught and barbecued. It was so good. Another bonfire and more smores ensued. This morning we just relaxed on the island before heading home.

The island is tiny and we were the only people on it. You can see every side of it from the middle. There's a main house with 3 bedrooms and 3 cabanas out on the island with beds in them. It was a fun time but I'm glad to be back to running water and flush toilets. Not to mention I'm getting ready to head home. It'll be a decently short week: mobile clinics Monday and Tuesday, Clinic here on Wednesday, half-day in Barranco on Thursday (ending with Thanksgiving dinner), and a half day on Friday.

See you all in a week or two!

Settlement Day

On November 19, Belize will celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of 500 Garifunas to the country in 1823. A national holiday, Garifuna Settlement Day, is celebrated with food, song and dance throughout Belize, but mainly in the southern areas. From their infectious music and dancing to their colorful clothing, Garifunas have no doubt left their blueprint on the Caribbean and Central America.

HISTORY

While Garifuna Settlement Day remembers the exodus of the Garifunas to Belize in 1823, their history dates back to nearly 200 hundred years before, to the year 1635. This was the year when two Spanish ships carrying African slaves for transport to their buyers were shipwrecked off the coast of Saint Vincent. Soon the Yellow Caribs were created, a mixture of African, Venezuelan Caribs and the indigenous island group called Arawaks. By 1750, a new race called the Garifuna was born - a combination of African, Arawaks and the Yellow Caribs - and which remains to this day. The Garifunas are sometimes called Black Caribs and Garinagu as well.

In 1797, after decades of fighting the British invading forces, many Garifunas were deported to the Bay Islands of Honduras while some remained. Some of the deported Garifunas, unhappy with their small area to live, pleaded with the Spanish authorities to allow them to live on the mainland. Soon they were employed as soldiers and spread throughout the region. Today, approximately 98,000 Garifunas live in Honduras, and in coastal regions of Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala.

CULTURE

The Garifunas' strong African and Carib roots allow their culture to thrive, with very little change throughout the centuries. Garifunas, depending on their region, speak English, Spanish or Igneri, a Garifuna dialect with Arahuaco, Swahili, French and Bantu roots, or all three.

Music and dance are a huge part of their culture. Punta, a Garifunan secular class of music and dance, recreates the cock and hen mating dance. Its movements are composed of the intense shuffling of the feet and the quick motion of the hips and buttocks, while the upper torso remains still. The music is generally accompanied by two drums, rattles and conch shell trumpets.