May Breeze 2012 Part 1 - The Placencia Breeze

Lobsterfest 2012 T-shirt Design
Continued from page seven
APOLO CALIZ
Teachers from St. John’s Memorial Anglican School celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day
on May 8 at small gathering organized by the school’s Parent Teacher Association.
Vern’s Kitchen
Continued from page 9
The Placencia Breeze – May 2012- Page 11
On most days when it’s not raining she cooks over the ‘fyah haat’ (fire
hearth). At 6 a.m. her faithful assistant Louise Guzman of Seine Bight
Village joins her and the two begin to prepare the rest of the day’s
menu.
It’s no easy task in Vern’s Kitchen. There is constant attention to the
oven and the four or five pots simmering on the stove. Each day, Pancho,
a gentleman from the village, manually grates 40 to 50 coconuts,
which Verna uses to make coconut milk – the essential ingredient in
almost every item on her menu. She is constantly on the lookout for
fish and never fails to satisfy her customers with her Saturday Hudut.
Andrew, another gentleman from Seine Bight cleans her fish. “Without
my little staff this would not be possible.”
Why work so hard? Why the long hours? Why not choose canned coconut
milk to make life easier? “I nuh waan dih cultcha fuh dead (I
don’t want the culture to die); it’s for the grandkids and their kids,”
said Verna. “This is my life, and I love cooking and baking. It makes
me happy ... I like it when people come back again. It motivates me.”
And Verna Marin doesn’t stop with traditional cooking methods. She is
sending Louise to Belize City to shop for cloth, which they will use to
sew traditional Garifuna dress for the staff. “We push. We push,” said
Verna. ▪
Placing second was a stain-glass styled, digitally-enhanced drawing of a Caribbean spiny lobster and marine friends by Laura Godfrey, owner of Placencia Office
Supply. Coming in third was The Shak Proprietor Magda Morales’ water colour painting of a fisherman throwing his lobster catch into a dorey. Fourth
place went to Beverly Cabral’s digital image of a grayscale lobster overlaid with a bold catch phrase reading “Bring it!”Placing fifth was Isabelle “Matea”
Fleisch’s painting, reminiscent of archaic Native American art, of a red lobster on a black background surrounded by a wavy caramel coloured border.
The Placencia BTIA would like to thank all these talented artists for taking the time to participate in our t-shirt design competition! Grayson and Omar received
a $200 cash prize courtesy of the Placencia BTIA. We look forward to seeing everyone sporting the Sierras’ design on our Lobsterfest t-shirts, which will be
available for sale at the Placencia Tourism Center and at the grand event on June 22, 23 and 24 in Placencia Village. ▪