End of September Already?

This week was 10x better than last week, just because of the fact that I'm feeling better.  (I have taken a break from roti because the curry was upsetting my stomach.)  I think my students are beginning to understand the routine of things and everything is coming together.

I also am getting into a routine both at home and at school.  On Tuesday, I had my first staff meeting after school.  It went 2 1/2 hours long and made Tuesday feel very long.  Tuesday night was also the first night of Sticky Group.  Sticky group is a smaller groups of people from church that get together to enjoy each others company, as well as take a deeper look into Sunday's mornings message.  While it got to be a late night, I am going to enjoy Tuesday nights at Pastor and Jen's.

Wednesday was the first day that my class had P.E.  While I do love my class, it was nice to be able to take a little bit of a breather when they headed outside to have P.E. with Coach.  I am looking forward to next week when most of our other special classes begin as well.  After school was our typical planning meeting and I was able to go home and finish off those plans for the following week. Wednesday night Jennifer brought us to the store to show us what she buys for food (particularly meat). From the meat that we bought, we were able to make chicken taco meat in the crockpot, as well as pork roast.  We are liking that we now have a source of protein in our diets. 

Thursday Pastor Tom came over to help me set up a U.S. IP address.  While this may seem like a silly thing to be excited over, it definitely made my day as I can now keep up with the television shows that I watch in the States.  We are also able to listen to Spotify and Pandora again, which means I can keep up to date on the latest songs in the States.  

Friday night was spent cleaning and relaxing.  We again had Scruffy (grade 3's turtle) for the weekend.  He has shell rot so Tanya has to keep an eye on him. For a turtle Scruffy is very entertaining and we don't mind having a "pet" around.  On Friday we took Scruffy outside for a walk.  We all went out and watched him on the porch.  On Saturday Scruffy went for another walk, but this time in the grass.  He tried to make a run for it and even made it through our neighbors fence before Tanya could catch him.  Sunday, Scruffy got out of his cage and climbed onto our keyboard. (He must've wanted to learn how to play.)   He is a very talented turtle and can just about get out of anything.  

Saturday we were very excited to spend some of our day shopping for Christmas presents, as well as go to the beach.  It has been awhile since we've made it to Reduit Beach and we were excited to go, relax, and cool off for the day.  

Sunday again was church and Abby played piano in the service along with the band.  It sounded lovely.  I sat in with the youngest Sunday School class, as in 2 weeks I will begin teaching Sunday School for them.  I am looking forward to being able to teach Bible Stories to children, as I haven't been able to do that yet this year.

This weekend I was so very thankful to be able to talk to some family and friends via Skype and Whatsapp.  They help keep me going.  Technology has made it very easy to live in a different country.  Over 2000 miles away from family and friends, but that distance seems minimal when I am able to communicate with the people that I miss in the states.  

I am very blessed to live here and I thank God for all the people He has put into my life both in the States and here that have made my transition easier.

Our pretty flowers tree

Scruffy goes on a walk.

Scruffy gets through the fence.

Island life!

The buildings are so colorful. I love it!

Food and Week 3 of School

As promised here is a little bit on what I eat in St. Lucia. We have a gas stove in our house which is where we do most of our cooking. We use our microwave occasionally as well and once we clean our oven we can use that too. We are hoping to use the crock pot soon, but are waiting for Jennifer to bring us to the store to show us what meat she uses in hers.  

Every morning for breakfast I wake up and make myself some eggs and toast.  We don't have a toaster so I make egg in a whole on the stove.  I normally finish my breakfast with a banana and peanut butter, as well as a bit of cold coffee.  Saturdays Abby and I make pancakes for breakfast.  Often I will put some of my banana in a pancake and top my pancakes with peanut butter and syrup.  A great weekend treat! Abby and I also bought cereal and every once in awhile will eat Honey Bunches of Oats or Frosted Flakes with some milk. 

Snacks include many fruits that are grown on the island.  Sweet oranges, watermelon (on a rare occasion), and bananas are my top choices, but I've eaten mangos, plums, ackee, five fingers, passion fruit, breadfruit, and others.  We have freezie pops for when we are hot and sticky, and buy popcorn often as it a cheap snack that we enjoy making. 

Lunches I am now eating at school.  School lunches are very basic, but I think they will suffice.  The meals are prepared right at school and the menu rotates every other week.  They make spaghetti, roti, pizza, macaroni and cheese, potatoes, etc. I have decided to lay off the chicken roti for awhile though as it upsets my stomach.  

Dinners after school so far have been very simple.  Rotisserie chicken, bread, potatoes, onions, ground turkey, minced beef, salad, cucumbers, fruit, green beans, and pasta- spaghetti or mac and cheese.  While I'm sure I"m missing a few things in this list, I think that this has hit most of the foods we have eaten.  This week we splurged and bought brats to eat.  We paid more money than normal, but I think it was well worth it! 

Desserts at the beginning were rare in our diet.  We splurged one day and bought ourselves a butterfinger candy bar.  Now that school has begun though, we have had plenty of cake around.  Abby and I almost always bring home cake for each other.  I'm glad someone else shares my sweet tooth! Abby and I also splurged and bought 3 packs of brownie mix at Mega J's (like Costco) and last weekend we made our first batch.  We were very thankful for Pastor and Jennifer who let us make the brownies at their house last Sunday, since we don't have a pan yet for our house or a clean oven to use.

This week was fairly similar to last week, but included our first parent meeting.  It was nice to meet many of the parents that I will be working with.  Wednesday night we finally made it to the beach for happy hour, which we all enjoyed very much.  Friday morning our gas for the stove ran out so Mrs. Murray brought Tanya to go pick some more up after school.  Being that we use the stove for every meal, we were happy to get that taken care of right away.  Abby and I went to CIA at church.  It was nice to be around people our own age, but man did we come back tired!

Today Jennifer took us to the Pink House.  It's a restaurant with a pretty view and good food.  It's a great place to relax and enjoy each other's company. We also visited Mrs. Flemming, a member at church.  While visiting she gave us simosas (an Indian fried food), peanuts, and sprite.  The simosas were delicious! Mrs. Flemming is such a sweet lady and in some ways reminds me of Evelyn Faught.  She has many flowers in her yard and actually is the lady who brings flowers to church every week.  They are always lovely! 

I included a few pictures from the week for you all to enjoy.  

Last Saturday on the Atlantic Ocean

Lots of seaweed, but still gorgeous!

Tuesday was a bit embarrassing. We all accidentally matched...

The Pink House. Such a lovely place for lunch.

View from lunch

Beautiful pottery and painting is done here!

The cute kitten that wanted my food.

The Pink House

Meet Scruffy. Grade 3's class pet.
He is now the 3rd turtle we've had to watch over the weekend.
He is more entertaining than Abby's turtles though!

School has Begun!

Well the day finally arrived! The first day of school was last Wednesday and it went smoother than I expected.  I forgot how tired I get after a day of school.  Since then school has gone well.  I have two completely different groups of children, each with their own sets of challenges.  I am hoping as routines form, the days will become smoother.  Most days I come back exhausted from the day. In fact this last Monday I was in bed and asleep by 8 p.m. I look forward to taking a nice cold shower at the end of the day and the sleep that I am able to get.

Despite being tired, last Thursday night we went over to the Landwehr's house for dinner.  It was very nice to get away from the house and school and enjoy time with their family (plus we didn't have to make dinner for ourselves). :)

Friday night Mrs. Murray brought us to Gros Islet night.  Gros Islet night is every Friday night in the fishing village.  We enjoyed some fish for dinner, as well as got to see where the street party is.  It was a fun and relaxing night, but when we got home we all showered and went to bed.

Saturday was a lazy day.  We didn't want to do ANYTHING.  We ventured out later in the afternoon to get some groceries, but other than that we spent our day watching Netflix and working on school stuff.

Sunday was church and after church Junior and Shenelle took us to down south to Soufriere.  Soufriere is where the beautiful Pitons are, as well as the Sulphur Springs.  We loved seeing the different parts of the island!  On the way down we stopped and got Cassava bread.  If I am remembering correctly cassava is a root.  There were many different choices, but I had banana cassava bread.  We stopped at a Junior's previous school he taught at and enjoyed lunch on the beach.  Junior and Shenelle's daughter Nia was my little buddy for the day.  I held her in the car all the way too and from Soufriere.

This week I have been tired, but functioning.  As my school schedule stands right now, I am teaching one group on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the other group of children Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I would say that this is a positive for me, as am able to go through the lesson with one group and then improve on the lesson the next day.

Well I made it past the halfway point of the week! Looking forward to two more days of school and then a much needed weekend.

The Fish Fry 

Gros Islet night 

First day of school selfie 

How we stay sane

The cockroach I found my first day of school... 

"Baths" that drain water from the sulfur springs

The Pitons (well one of them)

Sulfur Springs- the active volcano I believe