Thursday, November 20, 2014

Dangriga

Dangriga is a southern coastal city in Belize, and it is also the mail cite for the celebration of the Garifuna People. Every year they celebrate with a reanactment of them landing at Belize. They come in from the sea on small boats. And there is a short ceremony, a parade and church mass.  Unfortunately it rained all day. So we stayed in the car for most of it to stay dry and safe.  We went to the reenactment and then to a Garifuna home. At the home of Mercy Sabal and her husband Sala Hindine I learned a great deal.  We stayed with them for the whole afternoon. Mercy is very colorful and active. She was doing a little celebrating of her own with rum and some other things that we would find illegal in the U.S.  She danced for us and sang. She played Dollly Parton while we cooked. I laughed hard and sang loud. I dropped food once and tried to pick it up. She said leve it for the dead they get their share first. I will never forget Mercy and all of he energy. She gave me good advice and showed me a whole lot about her culture.  We made a traditional meal and made a drum. The Garifuna people are known for their food, dress, and dance. I ate somethings that I would never have thought I would eat. I had plantines, muscles, pig tail, and coconut. I cooked a lot of the meal with Mercy's help. Sala helped me to make a drum from a bamboo tree, mahogany wood and sheep skin. They use sand and a stick to get the hair off of the skin.  They use sheep skin for peace and prosperity and tiger skin for war. They also make dolls that were two in one dolls. When little girls in the 180's would play with dolls they would have a  Garifuna face and in the slave owners would come by they could quickly flip the girls to a white face. This day was full of culture and firsts for me. There were so many people that had been celebrating for 24 hours. And they were every where. It was cool to see it. I was very tired after cooking and making the drum. It was very hard work. This was a very good day. 







































6 comments:

  1. And yes folks that is a beard she has. If you know my ha and he can't grow one. He may be jealous of old Mercy. Lol

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  2. Oh Shannon what an experience ....lok she looks very colorful!

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  3. So much fun for you! Do you get to keep a doll and drum?

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  5. This reminds me if Jamaica!! Sooooo cool!!

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