With Garifuna Settlement Day only 2 days away, Southern Belize is getting ready to celebrate with spirit.
But it's not only the adults; for the students at Epworth Methodist Primary School in Dangriga, today that meant getting the chance to learn about and prepare cultural dishes. Courtney Menzies visited them today and has this story.
The students at Epworth Methodist School - from the infants to the upperclassmen - spent today learning to make their cultural dishes. It's a part of the school's November celebrations, with the 19th only a couple days away, and the principal explained that it's a chance for them to get hands on experience.
Felicia Zuniga Palacio, Principal, Epworth Methodist School
"We have the infants doing hands on food such as garnaches, preparing the corn, grating the cabbage, grating the cheese, spreading the beans. Our upper division children are immersed on how to prepare hudut, darasa, tapou, bundiga, all this on open fire or as you will see shortly on the stove as well."
"It's the month of festivities, it's November celebrations, Garifuna Settlement Day time. And so we want children to get the experience, the real life experience on how to prepare these different cultural dishes so this is the reason why we choose to do it around this time."
And it's not just food - the students also provided the entertainment with a cultural dance set to the beat of the drums.
Felicia Zuniga Palacio, Principal, Epworth Methodist School
"We have very skilled boys and girls, as a matter of fact, we took part for the first time in the primary school Battle of the Drums. It was a wonderful experience where we got to experience in the competition against other schools. Our children got to showcase their true talent, singing, dancing, they love the drums, our boys and girls love playing the drums, our children love singing, and they're learning and keeping the culture alive through what they're doing."
And according to Palacio, for Epworth Methodist, it's important to have that cultural element in the curriculum so that the children learn it from a young age - starting with the language.
Felicia Zuniga Palacio, Principal, Epworth Methodist School
"Our school in the soft rollout of the Garifuna immersion curriculum. So our children are learning greetings in Garifuna, warm welcomes, we're learning how to say basic things, communicate in the Garifuna language as well. That is through the cooperation of Dr Gwen Nunez Gonzalez from Dangriga."
"Preserving the culture is very important. By ensuring our children are participating, by ensuring that our children are learning the language, it keeps it going for years to come and it ensures that the Garifuna language and culture will be around for many many years. So we applaud it, we participate, we ensure that our children get a full hands on experience with all that is happening here."
