Last night Olivia and I visited the House of Culture in Belize City. The House of Culture is a teeny-tiny walk from our house and the host of a tourism showcase for Yucatan in Mexico. The Ballet Folklorico del Lolbe presented traditional dances that you could watch if I had stronger interwebz.* The dances were lovely, colorful, celebratory in nature, and fun.
¡Quiero los bufandas del hombres ahora! Por favor.
I most assuredly cannot do this.
The Ballet Folklorico del Lolbé
I’m always interested to see what countries hold up as their prized customs, beliefs, symbols, foodways, etc. What would America have as its dance? Heck, America could have an official dance that I am completely overlooking and if we actually do have one, it can be argued that “official” rarely represents the opinion of the masses. I’d look up an official dance for the US but I don’t have the internet and I can guarantee I won’t look it up when I am eventually able to post this because I will be spaz-ing out once I have email again. Would we choose a current dance like that “to the left, to the left…now cha-cha” dance? Or something old like the Jitterbug? (No offense to my reader [singular] if they happen to still bust out a few jitters every now and then) Would it be tap dance? That seems like a dance style born and bred in the US but so few people…actually tap dance. I don’t know a soul that taps. Perhaps “b-boy-style-by-the-mile” breakin’ would be our dance style. That of course would include the b-girls, I didn’t want to screw up the Salt-N-Pepa reference.
Is the hokey-pokey exclusively American?
I heard a commercial advertising the search for the “Fourth Fantana.” This has my name all over it. I love Pineapple Fanta. I love it so much, I think I capitalized it unnecessarily. I love it so much, Julianne and Olivia will read this and will probably be like, “What?” And the reason they’ll be perplexed is that I rarely drink the nectar of the gods that is Pineapple Fanta. Why? Because I’ll become an addict otherwise. Ask me about my coke habit. My Coca-Cola Classic habit.
Because of Belize, whenever I have Chinese food from now on (which I’ve had a lot of in Dangriga), I’ll be just a little bit mournful if the sometimes salty, sweet, and savory flavors of this nom-nom genre aren’t accompanied by a freakishly-yellow beverage in a bottle that’s been reused no less than umpteen times as evidenced by the scrapes around the most protruding parts of said bottle. ** See below.
Glorious!
As it stands now, I’ll be headed to San Ignacio on Wednesday to look at more sites related to my project. Recently, the village of San Antonio in the Cayo District (yes, there is a need to be this specific because there is more than one San Antonio in Belize) received funding from the Social Investment Fund in Belize for a new water system that has been needed for at least a decade. You can learn more about it here. My plan is to learn about the process San Antonio used for their success and develop best practices that can be used in other Belizean communities. I’ll be very inland and close to the Guatemalan border. Yeah! More traveling! That was not sarcasm I’ll have you know.
And now, more photos:
A Hindu Temple in Belize City
This view plus beans, eggs, grapefruit juice, and sugared fry jacks is a great start to the day.
"Always bet on chicken." Those of you that heard my intro speech in Professionalism where I proclaimed my love for chicken poop know who I'm betting on. Northwest Arkansas representin'.
Do those of you with Skype feel guilty yet?
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* Honestly, as I type this, I have no interwebz at all, so I’m lying about the “last night” part because it was only 2 hours ago but I won’t be able to post this until tomorrow when I find internetz. It’s okay. I’m not bitter. Really.
**Is “umpteen” an actual word or is Microsoft Word messin’ with me? I can’t look it up! I have no interwebz as discussed previously! AH!
2 Comments
June 24, 2009 at 3:02 am
I honestly was pondering that EXACT same question the other day. Oh and by ¨that question¨ I mean “what is America´s national dance?”
Argentina´s is the tango (duh).
Oh, and b t dubbs I think SK Clark tap dances. I seem to remember her flossin some moves back in the day.
June 24, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Good thing you clarified “that question.” I was like, “Does John want to be the Pineapple Fantana too?”
I am not remotely surprised that SKC could have tap dancing skillz. I am, however, hurt that I haven’t been made privy to them before. Tear.