Clark-Peterek Belize

Happy Holidays

Hope your holidays are "Out of this World!" Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Places Around PG

James Bus Line

The James Bus Line is known as the King of the South, and provides bus service along the Hummingbird and Southern Highway in southern Belize.  “The People’s Champion” is based out of Forest Home Village and big supporters of Little Flower R.C.  and Forest Home Methodist School. 

All James Buses leave from the station before circling around town and heading north.  The station is located a street over from Via Franco’s and also serves as a pay station for electricity bills. 

If you come to visit us in Punta Gorda, you will be riding a James Bus.  We will take you aroud PG so you can see the bus station and all of the other points of interest we have featured in Places Around PG.  We hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about the place we call home. 

 

More Cookie Decorating

Cookie decorating with the St. Benedict Butterflies was so much fun, that I decided to do it again with our friends and neighbors before we left for vacation in Texas. Once again, it was a big success. The cookies turned out great and everyone had a fantastic time.

 

Places Around PG

Villafranco’s

 

Villafranco’s is a favorite of ours and has the best johnny cakes in Punta Gorda.  Next door to the Snack Shack, Villafranco's is always busy. Villafranco’s also serves a delicious lunch, and the owners are very nice. 

St. Benedict Butterflies Christmas Party

The St. Benedict Butterflies celebrated the end of the First Session and the Holidays with a Christmas Party.  We decorated sugar cookies, played musical chairs, limbo, and a version of hot potato known as “Pass the Present.”  The girls had a great time decorating the sugar cookies, one of my favorite holiday activities.  Most of the cookies were heavy on the icing, but they still tasted good. 

Christmas Crafts & Cookies

Our fellow PCV, Miss Cheryl, recently hosted a Christmas Crafts &Cookies Party.  We gathered at Cheryl’s home in Hopeville and made make necklaces, Christmas ornaments, and cards out of recycled material.  Cheryl is a wonderful artist, and she loves to share tips and ideas on how to create art out of locally available supplies and resources and items many of us would normally throw away.  I had a great time and look forward to making some of these items with the St. Benedict Butterflies.  Thanks Miss Cheryl for a wonderful day and the tasty treats! 

Christmas in Belize

 It’s Christmas time in Belize!  Houses and stores are decorated with Christmas decorations, and Christmas music can heard blasting from stereos.  School ended last week and with it came School Christmas Parties, Pageants, and Staff Dinners.  St. Benedict had a school wide BBQ and each child was given a gift and bag of goodies.  Forest Home had a lovely pageant and the kids did a fantastic job.  We attended Staff Parties for St. Benedict, Little Flower, and Forest Home and a great time hanging out with the teachers and eating good food. 

John with Santa outside of a shop in Belmopan.

 

St. Benedict R.C. School students with thier Christmas gifts. 

 
Marcellino & Sylvester enjoying garnaches at St. Benedict R.C. School.

 
Forest Home Methodist School Christmas pagaent.

 

 

Places Around PG

Dean Martin Café

The Dean Martin Café is located on Main Street near St. Joseph’s.   It is one of the many food stands around PG.  Have some fry jacks and beans for breakfast or grab some stew chicken and rice and beans for lunch. 

Garifuna Settlement Day

Garifuna Settlement Day is a national Belizean Holiday, celebrating the arrival of the Garingua, or Garifuna to Belize.  Like last year, we celebrated Garifuna Settlement Day in Peini, Garifuna for Punta Gorda.  We joined in on the festivities and early Wednesday morning witnessed the reenactment of the landing, known as the Urumein.  We wore our traditional Garifuna outfits for the day.  The men's shirt is called a dashiki and the women's outfit is known as the douguo.  The weather was cool and everyone was in high spirits.  It was another great Garifuna Settlement Day. 

 

 

Culture Day

One of the most beautiful things about Belize is the diversity.  It's pretty amazing how many different cultures there are in this small country: Maya, Mestizo, Garifuna, Kriol, Taiwanese/Chinese, Mennonite, East Indian, and Lebanese.

Around mid-November, schools all over Belize celebrate Culture Day.  This year we both took part in several Culture Days at various schools.  St. Benedict R.C. School focused on the Garifuna Culture.  All students are encouraged to wear traditional clothing from any culture in Belize, and classrooms are set up and feature Garifuna history and traditional music, clothing, food, and implements.  Little Flower R.C, Forest Home Methodist, and St. Peter Claver R.C. focused on the variety of cultures found in Belize.  John and I both dressed in traditional clothing and many were impressed with our outfits. Culture Day was a huge success for all of the school s, and we had lots of fun. 

St, Benedict R.C. School students in Kekchi outfits.

 
Dressed in traditional Garifuna blouse and skirt.

 
Mica and a fellow teacher at St. Peter Claver Culture Day.

Students at St. Peter Claver representing the Mestizo culture.