Warasa Garifuna Drum School

Category: Living in Belize

  • 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 aware of copyright laws and intellectual property rights. I have previously written about some of…

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  • 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 even the Belizean definition of “right now” to seemingly endless stretches of time.  Belize work…

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  • 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 house to a beautiful thatch palapa behind our very own house that we designed and…

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  • 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 ability to sleep anywhere, anytime, I’m not sure I could handle it. Those who have…

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  • 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 some indefinite, potentially distant time in the future”.  It certainly doesn’t mean “now”. The time…

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  • 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 too much as a result of his name, but there is a reason he introduces…

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  • Black man lay the pipe: Belize race relations

    “Spanish man build the house, Chiney man cook the food, White man pay the bills, Black man lay de pipe!” Immortal words from a song of Belizean punta rock super star, Supa G. “Hey, Blondie!” I keep walking, aware of my long dark brunette hair. “Hey, White gyal!” Ah.  They’re talking to me.   Welcome to…

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  • From Brixton ‘Bananas’ to PG Plantain

    The first time I ate a plantain was when I lived in Brixton, London, five minutes’ walk away from Electric Avenue market. I had bought a large banana, but it didn’t want to peel properly, and it was a weird shade of yellow inside, and it tasted unripe and made my tongue feel funny even…

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  • Mundian to Bach Ke (Ronald McDonald vs. Punjabi MC)

    I have a terrible singing voice. I love to sing, but only in private when (I think) nobody is listening. Ray has a good overall singing voice and a great Garifuna singing voice: Garifuna songs don’t require you to be in perfect tune or for you to sing like a bird, but they do require…

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  • How to shake your arse (Belize style)

    Go to any bar with live music at night in Belize, and you will witness the dominant form of Belizean dancing, which like the dominant form of Belizean music (Punta rock), originates from traditional Garifuna culture.  That is, it involves shaking your arse.   Visitors to Belize often marvel at how Belizean women especially are able…

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