Molly came knocking on mine and Kelsey's door at 8am this morning talking about how she was on trip advisor and that we could go drumming today. I was sold. The Garifuna culture is one that is in Belize, but is unfortunately dying because people aren't passing down the traditions to their children. A bunch of us wanted a cultural experience because we haven't really had one yet so drumming seemed perfect. The place was about a mile down the road and the guy who runs it is Ronald Raymond McDonald (no joke). He goes by Ray and not Ronald through. Probably to avoid the Ronald McDonald jokes. We went under a ginormous thatch roof with super soft sand. He told us it feels good to take off your shoes and to run your feet in it so it didn't take is long to be barefoot. He told us a lot about the Garifuna culture and that the language is a mix between English, Spanish, Carib, Arawak, French, and African. Once he have us a brief history of the Garifuna people, we got our drums!! Ray and his dad make all the drums by hand with hollowed out tree trunks deer skin. His wife had painted pictures on some of them and they were really pretty. Here's a picture of a drum from the side:
He taught us a basic rhythm on the drum and we would play the bass and he would start playing on his smaller drum, his dad would play the maracas, and they both would sing. It was awesome! We played the drums for about an hour before we packed up to leave.
Another very successful day in Belize! Tomorrow we're touring the chocolate farm!
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