This was a type of fry jack stuffed with beans, cheese, and chicken. Fry jacks are deep-fried dough. It's almost like a fried pancake or a funnel cake. Otherwise, I had a lot of rice and beans this week, as well as tortillas and beans.
I heard a lot of drumming this week. This week there was a lot of hype leading up to Garifuna Settlement Day, a holiday to celebrate the Garifuna culture. For this, I went to multiple events: Miss Garifuna Primary, an elementary school pageant competition; Garifuna Translation Contest, a competition where students compete to show off their Garifuna language fluency for prizes; and as seen in my album previously posted: the Battle of the Drums. Plus, the next event that came after was the Mr. Garifuna competition and other Settlement Day celebrations, to which I was ecstatic about. All of these events center around the Garifuna tradition and culture of drumming as the foundation. Drumming and dancing are usually present during these events. Even during the Belizean national anthem, sung in Garifuna, it is backed by drummers. Drumming is always joined by a pair of maracas called shakas and sometimes by a turtle shell!
The Miss Garifuna Primary Pageant was the most fun: it was great to cheer on my school and our participant, listen to the music, and observe the dancing. One part of the competition was called chumba. This is a solo dance which is supposed to replicate a traditional activity; it is like dancing charades!
