April Updates - Sport's Day and Band Fest '09

Sports Daze

Just before the start of the two week Easter holiday each of our schools held their annual Sports Days.  St. Luke on Wednesday and Trinity on Thursday.

Anthony snapped this photo and officially dubbed it, "The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat!"

Our schools were seas of green, red, blue, and yellow with the children in their house shirts. Competition was high as the houses sought victory in the many battles that included sprints, sack races, lime and spoon races, three-legged races, and team spirit.

   

The popular sack race, this guy leaves the competition in the dust

  

Lower division students compete in the lime and spoon race

There was a lot of cheering and chanting for houses and students and teachers alike were engaged in the spirit of the day.

 

The green house at Trinity tries to charm the competition

While a tad chaotic, it was a lot of fun to cheer on the teams. We each had to decline the role of judge because we saw the fierce competitiveness among our teachers and did not want to end up in any heated arguments – we left that to the parent volunteers! Overall, both days were fun and we enjoyed being part of the excitement.

  

Students in the lime and spoon at Trinity; Taking a break from the action with a yummy orange

e

  

Waiting to start the games at Trinity

Band Fest 2009

Our break began with a trip to Cayo for the Fourth Annual Love FM Band Fest. St. Luke’s marching band was competing and we went to support them in their return to the competition. The Band Fest was one of the coolest events we've attended in Belize. It’s like a really long halftime routine with marching bands performing 10-15 minute routines.

 St. Luke's taking the field at Band Fest '09

The bands from Belize City were the first to compete and when we saw Holy Redeemer put up a pyramid, we both thought Ginnie should have come over and taught stunting to the St. Luke team! At any rate, the Belize City teams were overshadowed by the bands from the west. Not to mention their fans – the teams from the west had whole sections in the stands cheering for them.

Performing dance moves for the crowd

We were loud for St. Luke's, but with a smaller crowd it just didn’t have the same effect. We pretty much knew who the winner would be when the Succotz Festival Drum Corps came out and started playing marching band classics combined with a few modern songs.  They really busted out with high energy dancing and marching! All of the bands did a fantastic job and we really loved the positive message of the event – to bring music to the schools and engage youth in a meaningful and positive activity. After the day’s events ended and we were relaxing in our room, we started hearing the bands starting up again, so we headed out to the park where Succotz came out with their first place trophy and marched down the streets playing. Seeing the kids with their families and friends so proud was such a great evening!

 More marching and drumming