Lourdes Vasquez (r) made the traditional mestizo dress that daughter Stephanie wore at St. Ignatius High School last week. Stephanie and three of her classmates won first place in the dance/costume competition at the annual Culture Day Extravaganza.
Greetings and cheers again from Texas Our Texas.
I continue to have a large time in spite of being busy and very busy, running here and yonder doing stuff I have to do while on U.S. soil in what is a more limited-time trip home this time.
I fly back to BZ Dec. 1 and hope to make another trip back in the summer to see loved ones up in North Texas.
For now, however, I have two(!) great pieces of news to report, especially for those who have donated to Stephanie Garcia’s Education Fund, about Stephanie’s progress in high school.
If you’re a newcomer to the blog, I’ll provide a link with more info about a GoFundMe campaign below. The gist of the matter is that Stephanie, who struggled mightily to pass most subjects in her grade-school years, finally blossomed into a good student last year. So much so that she’s in her first year of high school where I and her and the rest of my adoptive family live in San Ignacio/Santa Elena, Belize.
The great news is, first, that Stephanie passed the mid-term of the first semester with a 3.0 GPA–a solid B. The only bad mark was a 57 in English A, with a 76 in English B.
Stephanie and her high-school principal Miss Yvette pictured together at mass on a recent Sunday at St. Ignatius
Her mother and I conferred with her teachers on report card day last week, though, and Stef is already bringing up the one failing grade and the C grade in English B. I have no doubt she’ll pass English in this her first year, as she’s a very determined girl.
In even more exciting news, the St. Ignatius Catholic High School Stephanie attends recently had its annual Culture Day extravaganza. This event truly is an extravagant production that the kids and their educators spend weeks preparing for. It involves the making and wearing of cultural and ethnic costumes; dance and skit contests; cultural and educational exhibits of all kinds with emphasis on history and archeology; a lot of plain fun, good-time dance music; and cultural cooking and taste testing and free meals from the various cooking camps.
To really appreciate any cultural events and holiday sin this coountr you should know that Belize is one of the most diverse countries in the world, with something like distinct cultures and ethnicities. (*See note below for more.)
Mestizos, who are of mixed Spanish and indigenous descent, account for about half of the 320,000 people in Belize.
It so happens that Stephanie and her family are mestizos. So the bonus great news about Stephanie is that the beautiful costume her mother sewed–and the traditional mestizo dance-and-costume competition that Stef and three female classmates participated in–won first plac.
You read that right. Stephanie’s group got first place out of a lot of elaborate dances, extremely creative skits, and musical acts.
She and her classmates made her family, teachers, and yours truly proud on what was a beautiful, festive day in Old San Ignacio/Santa Elena.
So keep Stephanie in mind, if you will, as she advances in her eduction. For those who want to donate to the whole four-year education fund, which I will grow with interest in a local credit union account, go here:
https://www.gofundme.com/stephanies-education-fund
Those who want to make direct donations to my bank account to avoid the GoFundMe fees that are deducted–and some folks do prefer that–contact me at my email: revpaulmckay@gmail.com and I will provide my check account info.
Many thanks for your generosity in helping Stephanie get ahead in life.
(Special thanks to Jered Cady.)
Stef and her classmate along with two other girls nailed it in the traditional mestizo dance-and-costume competition.
