An “UnBelizeble” Day!

The day the 13th started as many others, we get woken up around 7o’clock when it’s time for breakfast, Slowly I roll around in my bunk trying to feel more awake than I actually am.

The night prior I had gone to bed around nine, so I had slept for a long time when 7 rolled around, I got up and ate the same breakfast as almost every other day a bowl of yoghurt with cornflakes. After I had still almost drunkenly tired chewed my breakfast, it was time to go and prepare for the day’s activity, I packed my bag with the necessary, water, sunscreen, a raincoat, and snus. At the line-up at 8 they told us something that you couldn’t really hear, they probably said something about or cleaning or something and then our teacher stepped up and said that the boat that was picking us up was incoming and that it was time to start lining up for that. I went in the boat the first time it came around so that I could be at the resort that they dropped us at and use their Wi-Fi while waiting for the rest to show up.

After waiting at the resort for just a few minutes the shuttle that was supposed to take us to the first stop arrived and since it didn’t fit everyone, we got in even though our teacher hadn’t arrived yet and we were off to the first visit of the day! It was a museum that displayed the history of the Garifuna people and how they all had ended up in the Caribbean and all the different tools and techniques that was associated that the Garifuna had developed and used during all their time, we got to talk with a couple of people who were well educated in the Garifuna and that taught us a lot. We stayed there for about an hour where we got to walk around and ask questions and learn a lot about them and their culture. After a while the shuttles returned, and it was time for the next location.

This new place was a Garifuna culture center where they made the traditional Garifuna food and bread named, we got to learn about how they process the casava which is a fruit they have depended on for hundreds of years to make food. They showed us how to peel, grate, press and use. The casava comes in two variety’s namely the sweet and the bitter one, the sweet one is good to eat as it is and isn’t dangerous at all but the bitter one is full of cyanide that could kill you if you consume it so be careful if you ever decide to pick up casava planting! After peeling the bitter one they grate it to a mush that’s full of the cyanide and the other things that they want and need. They then pick up the mush and presses it through a special type of press that gets rid of the dangerous juice that you collect below. The content that’s left in the press is a type of flour that after you siv it can cook delicious bread on, and the juice that you collect on the bottom of the press, if you wait for it to settle a layer of great starch start separating that you apparently can cook a delicious porridge on that is often used to feed baby’s with since it has a great nutrition in it.

After all this they had even invited a Garifuna band who showed us how the Garifuna dance, sing and play their drums and that was cool to get to learn that! In the end of their showcase a guy ran up on the stage and started to show us his moves. The show was then over, and it was time to leave, me and some friends had talked about eating some lunch and left the place where we were to find somewhere to eat. The guy mentioned earlier who ran upstage stood outsides talking to some classmates and I decided to ask him where the best place in Dangriga to eat some lunch and oh boy wasn’t I ready for what I started right there. The guy apparently named Civic said he was going to show us where and off we went walking and started to talk to him, Civic was a nice great guy and somewhat became our little tour guide for the rest of the day. He showed us zanes place I think it was called that’s served a delicious meal with rice, beans and chicken.

This place wasn’t your typical restaurant but more of a hole in the wall that you ordered and left with your food to somewhere else, while waiting for the food Civic showed us the Garifuna dance and party place where they celebrate often. He then took us to one of the most famous Garifuna drum makers in the whole city which was a 90 something year old man that still made drums to this day, Civic also meant to show us a really famous singer in the Garifuna community but we hadn’t really time to meet her since our food was ready so we went and picked it up and left to search for somewhere to eat. On our way out we meet one more of Civics friends who sold freshly pressed juices, so we all bought one of those for our lunch and stopped to talk to her for a while. As mentioned earlier the food was delicious and we ate it in a park while counting talking to Civic about his amazing life. After the lunch we went and visited a Garifuna art exhibition, met the daughter of the famous drum maker who also made some fabulous drums out of mahogany.

The clock just ran away so we went with Civic to an ice cream café where we ate some ice cream and kept hearing about Civics life and the Garifuna life which was amazing hearing about how they live, interact, and take care of each other. Suddenly the clock was almost 15:30 and it was time to head back to the resort to catch the boat back to Gunilla, we separated with Civic who went home and celebrated his birthday since it apparently was that. We went by a small market bought some snacks for the forthcoming visit to Tobacco key and the journey to Mexico. We then finally got back to the resort where we could enjoy some Wifi before the boat came and took us back to the boat. We then came back to the boat at around five where it soon was time for some dinner and then time to relax and play some sudoku. It really was an unbelizeble day and I promptly fell asleep around 10 o’clock.

Rasmus, SA2023