Independence Day!

So in Belize the entire month of September is basically one big party month. There are holidays placed strategically throughout the month giving me various days off from work, and many cultural events to attend. The first was St. Georges Caye (pronounced Key) day, September 10. It marks one of the biggest battles ever won in Belize. But the mother of all celebrations is September 21st, Independence day. Belize gained its independence in 1981, so it is still a baby as far as countries go, being only 27 years old. It was actually a really cool experience sharing the day with people who had actually been around for the first independence day in 81. During mass on Sunday Fr. Dick asked those parishioners who were around during the first independence day to raise their hand and nearly half the congregation had remembered the day. I unfortunately didn't get to talk to many people about the events of that day. But hopefully with time those stories will come.
The celebrations started on Thursday for Zu, Pat and I, bobby was still in Honduras so we were only three for the weekend. We decided it would be fun to attend the big karaoke contest, held in the local sports complex. The event was scheduled to begin at 7, so we showed up at 8 knowing that true to belizean form most things never start on time. We were in fact an hour early and things didn't get underway until 9pm. It was raining pretty badly outside so the turnout was pretty low, only ten contestants actually participated. Now if you thought karaoke in the states was funny, maybe a little embarrassing, sometimes a little silly, you would be correct but in Belize it is HYSTERICAL. My room mates and i couldn't help but crack up at each NSYNC, Celine or old time country song that came on, (Sad Movies anyone?). There was country, pop, Spanish love songs, even some Musical theater in the form of Grease, made an appearance. We left before the competition was over but the grand prize was 500 bucks so many of the contestants, and audience, took the competition pretty seriously. We heard that there was some dispute about the final grand prize winner and most of the audience was upset by the results. Regardless of who won it gave us a good two hours of sheer entertainment and many laughs.

Saturday night at midnight (so really Sunday morning) marked the first moment of independence day which is celebrated every year by a flag raising at the Central Park, a 21 Gun salute and fireworks. We didn't make it to the park this year, but it will be a must for next year. We instead waited for the fireworks at our house, which over looks the Caribbean sea and the pier where the fireworks were to be shot off. So we secured our seats on our veranda and waited for the fireworks. They were amazing. Not the best I'd ever seen, but definitely the closest. They went on for about half an hour, and afterwards we stayed up on the veranda talking till about 2 in the morning.

This was a bad decision because i had to be up for mass and ready to march in the parade with TCC at 730 the next morning. i rolled out of bed at 7 and began my day in somewhat of a tired daze. I was quickly awoken as soon as i got to school and had to help finish the float and march with my students during the 3 hour long parade. Not only was the parade and ceremonies three hours long but it was out in the blazing heat at the worst time of day 9am to about 12pm (the hottest time of day in Belize). Despite the heat and early hour, it was pretty cool to be marching in a parade again, i think the last time i was part of any type of parade was during homecoming in high school, so it was really a blast from the past for me. A lot of my life here in Belize thus far as reminded me a lot of high school. This is most likely attributed to my job placement and spending a majority of my time with high schoolers in a high school. It has really given me an opportunity to reflect back on high school and has helped me to realize how much fun i actually had. The parade was Hot but Fun, i got my first Belisean sun burn, and had some good bonding time with my students and some of the staff.

Sunday afternoon we went out to central park to check out the activities. We met up with some of the Peace Corps, one of whom was doing a tumbling show, during the celebrations (he started a Punta Gorda tumbling team and they are really amazing!!). We watched them compete then stuck around to see the egg toss, marble on the spoon, and beer chugging competition. But the best part of the day was the punta competition and the grease poll competition. Punta rock is the local music and punta is the local dance, involving insane gyration of the hips and butt. some of these kids could move their bodies in way i could have never imagined. the best part of this dance however is that your hips are the only part of your body which moves. its like a mix between pop and lock hiphop and crazy hula or belly dancing. Everyone gets really into it and some of the dancers were really good! Finally there was the greasy poll competition. This was something i had never heard of before, but Pat informed me that sometimes at Italian festivals it makes an appearance. its basically a telephone poll lubed up with grease or oil and a bag at the top. the object is to knock down the bag by climbing up the poll. Now one could never do this alone so you need to have a team, there were two teams who competed and only one was successful. The teams, all male, would stand on each others shoulder and attempt to hold onto the poll but as they climbed higher and higher and got greasier and greasier it was virtually impossible to climb up even their team mates bodies. People were loosing their pants, shirts and at one point three grown men, all one on top of the other, just slipped (whoop) straight down the poll crashing to the floor. It looked a little dangerous, and it probably was, but it was also one of the funniest things i have ever seen. Their faces covered with black grease and their sheer determination to make it to the top proved to be a pretty entertaining event.

independence day was a great example of what i have come to realize Punta Gorda is all about, having a good time and celebrating your pride in your country. PG knows how to throw a party and i had a lot of fun getting out into the community and participating in life here. While at some points i felt a little out of place because i am not actually belisean, most of the people don't care as long as they know you are having a good time, and i definitely had a great weekend.