Alot has happened since my last post...its been almost three weeks and things really have changed!
So backtracking a bit..
After my awesome birthday party, we went to Rio Dulce, a small town on the river about 7 hours from Antigua in Guatemala. We only spent a day and a night there but in that time went to an amazing waterfall that consisted of 12 meters of cascading hot water into a cold rock pool. Amazing!
From Rio Dulce we took a serene and beautiful boat trip to the small town of Livingstone, home of the Garifuna people and my new friends Luis, Steven, Stewart etc from the band. A tiny place, it was so friendly, had great food and music, more beautiful waterfalls, beaches and good vibes...loved it!
I was keen to cross the border and get into Belize. I knew basically nothing about Belize before this trip except it is the only place in Central America that has English as its first langauage. It was weird to suddenly be understood again after 4 months of bad Spanglish and hand gestures to get us by.
We hit Belize City and were met with friendly faces and helpful people. One in particular was really nice to me as soon as we arrived, helped me to find a cheap beer and gave me some tips on where to go on the island of Caye Caulker, our destination. Kenroy Elijioh turned out to be one of those rare people that I like to label Friends For Life.
Caye Caulker is a gorgeous tropical island 45 minutes from Belize City on boat. It has white sand for streets and is surrounded by sparkling blue water. Great seafood, great snorkelling, yumy coconut rum drinks, and some of the worst racism we have encountered on our trip so far.
Here, when a white girl hangs out with a black guy it means two things. The black guy is with the girl because she is rich and the white girl is with the guy for sex (sorry if my dad is reading this). But thats the stereotype and no amount of One People mentality is going to change it. I spent a lot of time with Kenroy in the time we were there: walking around town, eating fish burgers, watching TV with him, going to the club, it was awesome. But I was so aware of the stares we got, the comments in Creole that the guys made about us (blah blah White Girl blah blah), the looks from the neighbours when I would go to his house....I talked with the girls about it and made the point that I would never refer to the guys on the island as Black Boy so what was the difference? The worst case of it was at the club when we were all dancing, me and Jodie, Kenroy and his friends when one of the guys he knew wanted to dance with Jodie. She declined politely because she was having fun doing her own thing. His mates blew up and started dissing her, talking about her in Creole. A little later one of the guys asked me when she was leaving the island because they dont want people "like her" to be there. To that I say such double standards my friend, how are we ever going to repair the wrong doings of our ancestors if its 2008 and we are still thinking in terms of colours???
By the time we left I was glad to go. I know my skin is white and I am privileged in many ways because of it. I take things for granted that other people have to worry about...I dont get stopped on the street and asked for ID by the police, I dont get frisked when I walk into nightclubs, just some of the things I have seen happen here.
But racism seems so fucking antiquated a concept...its up there with the abortion debate...is it really an issue anymore?
I guess until we have equality, it is.
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