Garifuna Inspiration and the End of A Year-Long Journey

Far in the distance is a line separating a purple and orange sky. I'm watching a rainy, dreary day turn into a calm, beautiful evening in Santo Domingo from an apartment window. The sun is setting on my year of thoughts, a year colored with such a huge range of experiences and emotions it makes it difficult to leave behind. I am keenly aware that, like college, this has been a defined, unique period of my life, which I will look back on with countless fond memories. As I prepare for my flight tomorrow, I'm becoming a bit nostalgic already. Even though it's definitely time to head home for me, I know part of me wants to keep going, keep exploring and asking questions and meeting new, interesting people forever. But I'm ready for the next phase and having this extended time away for self-reflection will be helpful in my next steps.

So my time in Belize came and went rather abruptly. Unfortunately it was raining most of the time, just like today, because Hurricane Ida is running all over the Gulf of Mexico. So I had a little less time to walk around, explore and take pictures. My visit to Dangriga was interesting. Dangriga is considered the heart of Garifuna culture, and one of the main points of entry for those Afro-Caribbean immigrants in the early 19th century. They're such an interesting people. I spent most of my time chasing the most famous Garifuna artist in the country, but it just wasn't meant to be. I also spent time in long conversations on the quiet, desolate streets of the small town. This one guy recapped his entire football career in Belize for me. He wasn't humble, which made it entertaining. The summary is that he spoke to me for an hour and basically said, "I'm the sh*t, I'm the sh*t, I'm the sh*t" over and over again until he said bye. He was a nice old man though. In Dangriga, people speak English, Spanish, Creole, Chinese, Garifuna and the list goes on. It's pretty crazy. Everything is relaxed to infinity though, so I did some good napping...

Oh well...I did get to go to the Garifuna museum, which was only two big rooms, but had tons of awesome information, pictures, artifacts, poems, etc. The Garifuna are fascinating. They have such pride because they were never officially slaves and established their own communities on the Atlantic coasts of Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua while fiercely fighting colonial forces for centuries. Some major foods and crops include yams, sweet potato and cocoa. They also eat tons of seafood because of their proximity to the sea. They have different religions, the major of which is Dugu, which like Candomble in Brazil involves trance, music, drums, dancing, and spirit possession. They have countless festivals, many of which include masquerade men doing traditional dances. They have tons of music, the most popular called punta, with famous artists Andy Palacio and Paul Nabor. Punta is really cool! It's slow, elegant music with lots of guitar and drums and vocals. Soothing type of music. There's the more modern version of this called punta rock, which reminds me of Pagode in Salvador. It's faster and the kind of music meant to make you move your hips, but the beat is a little oppressive after a while. It's kind of like reggaeton in that sense, EVERY punta rock song has the same beat. It was funny, in Dangriga I went to lunch and asked the guy behind the counter if he could play some punta for me. He looked a bit taken aback but said ok. Before I knew it, he brought out all this DJ equipment, hooked it all up, put DJ headphones on, and went crazy mixing songs, bobbing his head and ignoring other customers that came in. I created a monster lol. It was entertaining to hear all that music for the next 2 hours - I had nothing better to do. Anyway, back to the museum...beyond the really precise recounting of Garifuna history, I really enjoyed the poems and proverbs they had featured on the walls. It's all really spiritual and meaningful, centered on community and cultural survival. Those people are deep! It was a great trip to the museum.

After resting up, I headed back to Belize City where everyone was talking about Shyne, just back in Belize after like 9 years in prison following that shooting at the NYC club with Diddy and J.Lo (of course, as always, Diddy owes him a ton of money and got away from any blame). It seemed like everyone I met in Belize City had shot someone, been to prison, and then got deported. In my head I was thinking, "why is everyone telling me this right after I say hello?" It must've been some desire to establish that they were not someone to be messed with. It wasn't that cool though. I was staying on the southside of Belize City, which is the rougher side. I wonder if it would've been the same had I stayed on the north side, because it didn't look too different (Belize is quite poor and economically underdeveloped). In all, Belize was charming at times, but a bit disappointing. I'm sure if I went to the supposedly amazing beaches and did the snorkeling, diving, and all that stuff it's known for, and if I had seen some live Garifuna music performances, I'd have a different sense. But I'm tired and ready to go home. So I'm here in Santo Domingo, prepping for the flight tomorrow, and wrapping up whats been a ten-month adventure and thinking of what I'm going home to.

The world always seems to be falling to pieces. At the present moment, its wars, broken health care systems, unemployment, economic inequality, violence, genocide, brutal dictators and regimes, swine flu, climate change, gang rapes, diseases, racism, and the list goes on...What this trip has reinforced for me is that there is as much to be inspired by in the world, as much to behold for its magnificence, as there is to deplore and denounce. This trip has sustained the ideal of the world with which I arrived on my first day of college. That same ideal everyone complains is beaten out of young minds by years of pessimism and being made to feel small and insignificant. It's the ideal that hard work, good ideas, and active participation can produce real changes. Whether it was young activists in Brazilian favelas, or festejo dancing children in Peru, or a seasoned professor with a vision in Panama, or cumbia troupes in Colombia, people were making a difference in their communities all over Latin America, through culture, through music, through politics and indeed saving lives at the same time. This made an impact on me. Furthermore, those moments where I felt like I was dreaming because the moment was so overwhelming, because I couldn't believe how blessed I was to be seeing such blue waters or such vast mountain ranges, will be stored in that compartment of my mind that I'll reach to whenever I need hope. I've met so many amazing people on this trip, and have tons of new friends throughout the world and great memories. As it comes to an end, I'm filled with gratitude, and excitement for what comes next...

Here is a fitting Garifuna proverb to drop as I leave...
Luagu lidise wéibugu wasandirei lihürü wanügü
It is as we proceed on our journey that we feel the weight of our burden

Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls and the Arrival in Belize

Near death experiences are not fun. Yet I had another one, my second of the year, and just as I had decided to have a calm last few weeks before my flight back to Newark. Maybe it's a sign that I need to take a break from traveling?

I had a fun weekend though with a good group of people in Jarabacoa, a small town in Dominican Republic about 4 hours from Santo Domingo. It's known for its water sports and beautiful nature, and it didn't disappoint. The six of us stayed in this real cool resort, with a beautiful river running through the grounds, a swimming pool, restaurant, almost anything you could think of. It was super cheap though because we all split the price. We rode around town on motorcycles, taking in the amazing mountain views and scenery. It was real peaceful. We then visited one of the big waterfall attractions of the town, renown for being the setting of scenes from Jurassic Park. We walked for about twenty minutes until we reached the amazing fall, landing in a small pool of freshwater. We all quickly ran in with excitement, even though it was ice cold. It was pretty cool at first, but soon the currents became stronger and took control, pulling us in different directions. Before I knew it, I was being pulled into the waterfall, unable to do anything to stop it. Then came some of the scariest 30-45 seconds of my year away, as I was caught in the center of the waterfall, hoping the currents would push me back out immediately after pulling me in. Eventually I was able to stand again and gasp for air, but man, for a minute I really thought, what a terrible ending to the year this could be...As I caught my breath back on the beach, I watched helplessly as Kamila was screaming and Mike was fruitlessly trying to help her swim against the current and back to shore. A serene, fun hike to a cool waterfall, turned into a bout with death within minutes. Safe to say I will not go near a waterfall again anytime soon.

We celebrated life that on Halloween eve night to the fullest though. We had these AMAZING platano sandwich snacks called patacones, which were so good I'm still dreaming about them. Then we went to a club where people had some ridiculous costumes - someone was dressed like Michael Jackson, another like a trashbag. We danced to the salsa, bachata and merengue until pretty late and then retired to the hotel. The next day the rest of the group went white water rafting as I took a break from water. We had a fun Halloween night in Santo Domingo, hopping from party to party (the dancing to reggaeton at some of these places was quite crazy). I spent most of my time in conversations with people about not really achieving much in DR and elusively looking for some of the Afro-influences I know are there. Luckily, I'll be back for a day or two at the end of the week so we'll see what happens...

Now, I'm in Dangriga, Belize, a small, quiet and quaint town at the heart of Garifuna culture, the Afro-Caribbean people with roots here from over 200 years ago. They have a such an interesting culture and I'm looking forward to exploring in the days ahead. My two days in Belize City were uneventful - people in Belize are incredibly laid-back, everyone is just chillin to the nth degree. I walked around the city, which felt more like a small town, and I did visit the House of Culture to learn about Belize history. Belize in general is on a smaller scale than other countries, understandably so with only 300,000 people. Reminiscent of Panama, it is incredibly diverse, with Mayans, Europeans, Asians, Garifuna, mestizos, etc., with the major difference being that this formerly British colony sees itself as distinct form the rest of Central America. There's outright animosity at times with Guatemala, and with the rest of the countries, language (English) and culture make Beliceans feel apart from their neighbors. It definitely carries more of a Caribbean feel to the place, with Bob Marley everywhere and people speaking Creole. I actually really love it though, and I've already seen another idea of the Latin American world expressed, and it's even more diversified than I thought!