St. Joseph?s School holds Culture Day
It’s a popular way to teach social studies: get the children to dress up and make displays on Belize’s ethnic groups. But while many schools do a Cultural Day, the one at St. Joseph’s School in Belize City just seems to get better every year. And while many of the students brought cultural foods to the event, one family lent its support by bringing a whole pig and preparing it pibil style, underground. News Five spoke with Standard Six teacher Adelaida Guerra about this special school day.
Adelaida Guerra, Standard VI teacher
?They covered four major ethnic groups: the Maya, Creole, Mestizo, and Garifuna. They had to do their research, either going to the library or asking resource people to help them and then they had to put their things together into different areas, for each culture and look at different aspects of the culture, the language, the origin.?
?We had a family from Orange Walk who came and dug the hole over there, they put in all the wood to be burned, and after that is burned, then they put the pig that has been prepared, seasoned and everything. They put that in a container and put it in there on the stones and covered it with more sticks and so on and they leave it there for it to cook, for about three hours.?
?I think that this gives them a first-hand experience, to be able to appreciate the other cultures. They will be able to see similar as well as different aspects of the cultures. Whenever you learn through this means, you will be able to appreciate the other cultures better than most of us do.?
Besides showing students in the lower classes what they had learned, a number of parents also came to the St. Joseph school grounds to view the displays and sample the cuisine.
