There are a few things that I thoroughly enjoy; nature and good food are in my top five for sure. I only have a few more days with my mom and so we went for a three hour bike ride on Sunday. We rode to the north of the island and that basically consisted of a view like the picture above. The trails go along the beach for most of the way which makes for a rather enjoyable adventure. This ride essential captured the marketing aspect of the island because there were resorts all around it.
I had an opportunity to see the other side of the island, and by 'other side' I mean the poverty and pollution. On Saturday I decided to take a solo adventure and see what I could find. While I was riding my bike towards the beach I passes a little more dragging a dog who was obviously exhausted. The boy stopped his bike and was trying to tug the dog along, and the dog had no intentions of moving. I started to talk to the boy and then asked where he lived. He said he was right down the street so I offered to put the dog in my basket and follow him. About thirty minutes later I was at the boys home meeting his mother. The bike ride was unreal, the boy kept looking back and asking if I was alright! We passed behind the airport and the tourist area quickly became the hidden poverty. I was amazed at the homes- if I can call them that- and smell. I hate saying that but I passed by the area where the sewer dumps into the water and there are homes all around it. I wanted to take pictures on my ride back to town, but I was alone and I didn't want to offend anybody.
I'm fascinated by the languages here. The students did some standardized testing today and for the languages they had five options to pick from: Creole, Spanish, Garifuna, Mayan (and form), and other. There are 21 known Mayan language forms and the population in Belize is fairly stable. The Creole, or Kriol, is spoken by roughly 75% of the population and is a mix of languages unique to Belize. However, in my previous linguistic studies I learned that Creole is fairly common when two opposing cultures come together for economic reasons. It would be like UK and France needing to trade and creating a language that combines the two languages. It's honestly so fascinating. The Garifuna is a population of descendants from Africa. They live in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The language is very unique and actually has words that are solely spoken by men and likewise for women. With all these unique languages I am baffled that most of the students spoke a minimum of three languages. Most were a combination of Creole, Spanish, and English. I would love to do something with linguistics in the future because I keep researching languages instead of finishing my Inquiry Project- oops.
I had an opportunity to see the other side of the island, and by 'other side' I mean the poverty and pollution. On Saturday I decided to take a solo adventure and see what I could find. While I was riding my bike towards the beach I passes a little more dragging a dog who was obviously exhausted. The boy stopped his bike and was trying to tug the dog along, and the dog had no intentions of moving. I started to talk to the boy and then asked where he lived. He said he was right down the street so I offered to put the dog in my basket and follow him. About thirty minutes later I was at the boys home meeting his mother. The bike ride was unreal, the boy kept looking back and asking if I was alright! We passed behind the airport and the tourist area quickly became the hidden poverty. I was amazed at the homes- if I can call them that- and smell. I hate saying that but I passed by the area where the sewer dumps into the water and there are homes all around it. I wanted to take pictures on my ride back to town, but I was alone and I didn't want to offend anybody.
I'm fascinated by the languages here. The students did some standardized testing today and for the languages they had five options to pick from: Creole, Spanish, Garifuna, Mayan (and form), and other. There are 21 known Mayan language forms and the population in Belize is fairly stable. The Creole, or Kriol, is spoken by roughly 75% of the population and is a mix of languages unique to Belize. However, in my previous linguistic studies I learned that Creole is fairly common when two opposing cultures come together for economic reasons. It would be like UK and France needing to trade and creating a language that combines the two languages. It's honestly so fascinating. The Garifuna is a population of descendants from Africa. They live in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The language is very unique and actually has words that are solely spoken by men and likewise for women. With all these unique languages I am baffled that most of the students spoke a minimum of three languages. Most were a combination of Creole, Spanish, and English. I would love to do something with linguistics in the future because I keep researching languages instead of finishing my Inquiry Project- oops.