Malate Isien (Worthless Love)
Malate Isien is one of the most popular traditional Garifuna songs. It is a catchy Paranda song, and as with many Garifuna songs, it relates to daily life. In this case, it is giving advice about love. It was…
The Lord’s Prayer in Garifuna
The Lord’s Prayer in Garifuna is beautiful. Even if you are not a Christian or not even a religious person, you will enjoy watching and listening to this Garifuna version of the Lord’s Prayer. You can learn the lyrics and…
Dügü – Garifuna Spirituality
Here is a wonderful first-hand narrative of one women’s experience of Garifuna spirtuality in 1996 taken from An Extended Family Reunion I was honoured to be invited to a Garifuna dügü by my friend, Sebastian Cayetano (Sab), because it…
Small Business Struggles in Belize
NOTICE: I have amended this from the original post, as the issue has been resolved honourably with the Facebook page in question. However I think it is good to leave it up in some form, so that people become more…
Hard-Work and Hammocks: Belize Work Culture
Some visitors to Belize may leave with the illusion that many of its residents are, shall we say, under-worked. Stores that close for two-hour lunch breaks, people lounging around in hammocks in the middle of the day, people that extend…
A Chronology of Muddy Walks
Things have moved on…I have graduated from daily chicken bus runs to the Belizean “Banana Belt” to monthly muddy walks to Machakilha Mayan village, and our drum school has been promoted from a small, cluttered spare bedroom in a rented…
Observations from A Belizean Bus
I spend four hours a day, five days a week sitting on a Belizean bus on the commute between my home town of Punta Gorda and the “banana belt” villages where I work. If it wasn’t for my finely honed…
Belize time – I’ll do it right now….
Since moving to Belize, if I need something done urgently, and someone tells me they’ll do it “right now”, I get an uncanny sinking feeling in my stomach. In Belize time, “right now” can be roughly translated as meaning “at…
Better step back cos I might pee on you!
So concludes the sign in front of one of the tapirs at Belize Zoo… I recommend everyone that comes to Belize visits the Zoo, because it’s great fun, the animals are all in their natural habitat, there is no…
What’s in a name?
Considering the name of my husband, I feel an entry on the general inventiveness of Belizean names is apt. There is no McDonald’s restaurant in Belize (in fact there are no chains at all), and so Ray has not suffered…