Dangriga -Garifuna

Dangriga -Garafuna, originally uploaded by fiddlesarah.

I am in love this country. Not near enough time here to really get to know all that i want to know. The country is rich in traditions and culture and music. The amount of diversity blows my mind! We have had quite extreme experiences. There is so much light, joy, and heart here but it is not to say that there is not a dark side as well. Our friends that we have made here are amazingly lovely people.The embassy people really were awesome, they were so fun to hang out with and introduced us into the some of the really special parts of this country. Ms. Zoe engineered our performance at the Menonnite community and our meeting with the legendary Paul Nabor the greatest living Paranda artist.

We made our way down to Dangriga to play at the Garifuna Museum. Stopped off in dangriga town to have lunch at a local spot by the water. Things take awhile here, which means more hang time, which i love. Sean and I stepped out on the street to see what was happenin' and we were greeted by some local fellas. Charlie was one character that had lived in NY (we get that a lot down here) he was trying to hussle tourist for a boat ride out to the islands. But was a friendly soul. Then a big man with a beer in his hands came up quite abruptly and asked if sean was a blood. He said he was a crypt and then started a little rant about some wierd stuff and walked off. Then i was greeted by nolan, he was a young fella. He took me over to see the fisherman catches, he told me the story of his father and his pelican. Apparently the pelicans were made with one flaw. They get cataracts from the pressure of hitting the water all the time. Eventually both eyes are infected which blinds them and thus they starve to death. And so many realie on humans to feed them. Nolands dad was always able to be spotted out in his boat because he had a giant pelican with him. And when his dad went to Belize city his pelican followed him all the way there. Sweet story and said with so much love.
Then off we went to the much awaited Garafuna museum. It was hot, humid day, no way to escape the heat, because we were playing outside. The children couldn't either, there was a tent for them to stand under but there were to many to fit underneath it.
These children were beautiful. They came out and sang the Garafuna national anthem.

We performed and it was really difficult to tell if we were getting through or not to them. There were many dry faces in the audience, they had no expression at all on their faces. They were teenagers, that can definitely account for some of it. But i couldn't tell whether they really couldn't connect to what we were doing or if it's a cultural thing that i don't get? But, the adults always are so thankful to have us. They are so happy that we are exposing the kids to music other than hip-hop and Reggaeton. We are trying to convey that the old stuff is important, it's got stories that important to remember and to give respect to the older cultures. The old guys playing traditional music are gems in the middle of the dark caves of Belize. They play out of necessity to express themselves and tell a story from their soul.
After our performance we got to hear some music Garifun community. It was fascinating one man play Quadrilles 1-5, they were English in origin for sure. The Garifuna people are most noted by their resistance of Colonization of the British. Facinating. Then we heard "Brother David" he sang our favorite song that we know sing at any chance we can get called "Belizean Products" I thought at first he was saying "Belizean buttocks". This also brought me joy.