Jounen Kweyol

Because I know that I will have a lot to talk about over this long weekend, here is a quick blog about our Jounen Kweyol celebration. 

This week was a short week so all our lessons we had planned were review for the students.  On Tuesday we had a whole school dress rehearsal which seemed like chaos.  Most classes got a chance to practice on stage, but some did not.  It was a hectic afternoon, but we survived.  After school all the teachers stayed back to help prepare the food for Jounen Kweyol.  Both schools had to prepare food for the following day, so I stayed on my campus to help with the boullion and floats.  This was the snack and lunch for those at Wee Wisdom on Wednesday.

I really enjoyed helping out and actually got to learn how to make floats!  Floats are basically fried bread and they are about the closest thing I have had to a doughnut since being here.  My co-teacher, Teacher Robin, taught me how to roll, flatten, and fry the dough.  At first we were doing it together, but by the end of the night I was frying the floats by myself.  After about 2 ½ hours of afterschool prep, I was finally able to leave.  It was a long and exhausting day, but finishing off with Sticky Group was nice and I don’t think my bed has ever felt better!

Wednesdays Jounen Kweyol celebration was actually really fun.  I had prepared myself for chaos, so it was less overwhelming than La Marguerite.  Everyone dressed up in madras, a almost plaid looking pattern of bright colors.  I also had madras that I was able to wear thanks to Teacher Mindy who made me a beautiful skirt.  It was so fun to see everyone dressed in their outfits!

The rest of the day consisted of a performance and then buying Creole food.  While sometimes hard to hear, each grade did wonderful as they embraced the Creole culture.  Each grade represented a different month and prepared something special for the month that they were in.  Reception did ring games which come in the month of March.  I have included my favorite performance from grade 6 who did their performance based on Carnival. 

Teacher Darnelle- Grade 1 

Teacher Abby- Grade 1

The Reception girls in their madras outfits. 

The Reception boys in their madras. 

Floats 

Boullion

The whole school is out buying Creole food.

Learning how to roll floats.

Frying Floats

I love floats!

Yep, they put me in charge!

Frying floats by myself.

 My favorite dance from the Jounen Kweyol performances.

Week of La Marguerite

This week was a whirlwind.  Monday and Tuesday were great days at school. Wednesday through Friday were a bit more rough.  I think everyone is ready for a break, both students and teachers included. 

            Friday was the day my students celebrated La Marguerite.  La Marguerite is a flower festival.  The colors worn during the celebration are blue, purple, lilac, violet, and white.  The students in pre-primary to grade 2 dressed up to look like kings, queens, princes, princesses, flower girls, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and policemen.  They marched around the grounds of school singing Creole songs, waving flowers and saying, “Vive La Marguerite!”  Included below is a clip of my children singing one of the 3 songs that they learned for the day.  I was truly amazed by how many parents showed up for the “parade.” Everyone wanted to capture their children dressed up and singing for the festival. 

            While I really enjoyed learning about La Marguerite and everything that goes along with it, I didn’t know what to expect which made me physically exhausted after the parade.  The children were hyped up on energy the rest of the day, which made it good that we planned for an easy Friday.  Friday also included two birthday celebrations.  For birthdays here we sing “Happy Birthday,” then “God’s blessings” and finish off with “May your Birthday be bright.” The student will blow out the candles and then we say as many“hip hip hoorays” for how old the child is.  Children are allowed to bring in cake, ice cream, and treats for their classmates, but the only thing that we actually let them eat at school is ice cream.  The cake gets cut up and sent home with the students at the end of the day, as do the rest of the treats. 

            Friday after school Abby, Tanya, and I headed to the bank where we waited for over 45 minutes to get our checks cashed.  On the bright side, at least we have money now to spend!  I was amazed by how many people were at the bank.  As we waited in the air conditioning, I was so worn out from the day that I almost fell asleep!  Thank goodness I didn’t.  I am very thankful for the nice lady who gave us an earlier number than ours and for my co-teachers who gave us the advice to all go up together to cash them, that way we weren’t waiting for each other. 

            After the bank Abby and I went to KFC for supper.  This is the first fast food that we have had on the island.  While I’m not a huge fan of KFC, it was a good change and I enjoyed my popcorn chicken and fries.  

           On a side note, have you ever sat down to eat dinner and your hot and while you eat you become even hotter and start sweating?  Well it happens.  Just about every time that I sit down to eat, I am completely covered in sweat by the end of the meal.  This is called a food sweat (or at least that is what we call them at our apartment).  People may not believe me but food sweats are real.  Tanya, Abby and I can attest to that!  Who knew eating was such hard work! 

           After eating KFC, Jennifer picked us up and brought us to CIA.  Before we got too far, we realized that we had a flat tire.  That would be the 2^nd flat tire I have ever been in the car for, both of which have happened while here in St. Lucia.  At CIA we had some nice discussion and finished off with Taboo.  While most Friday nights I come exhausted, I really enjoy spending time with others around my same age.  

            This weekend has been fairly lazy, but I was able to watch a little bit of Kelsey’s volleyball game which I live-streamed.  Abby and I went Christmas shopping and well I ended up doing a little shopping for myself instead.  Whoops! 

            Today two new things happened.  First, I played piano during the offering at church.  This was big for me since I’ve never played for that many people before.  I am very thankful that Abby was willing to stand up front and turn my page for me, as well as tell me when offering was about over.  The second new thing for me was piano lessons.  I have never given piano lessons before, but today I started with Ian as my first piano student.  Ian is Pastor Tom and Jennifer’s, 13 year old son.  I really like spending time with him as he reminds me a little bit of the boys I nannied this summer.  Ian will not be my only student.  Abby and I have agreed to give some of the members at church piano lessons, in hope that one day they will be able to play in church.  We start in November, so we’ll see how that goes!  While I may not be the best piano player out there, I am glad I am able to use the gifts God has given me and share them with the people at Trinity.

      I’m looking forward to my 3 day week and am excited to see what all happens for Jounen Kweyol on Wednesday. I will be dressing in my new madras skirt made by Teacher Mindy and am happy that at least I'll have the proper outfit for the day! 

The doctors and nurse.

My students all dressed up. 

Go Blugolds! 

The gorgeous sunset tonight. The picture does not do it justice! 

La Marguerite 

Week after a Holiday

Hey everyone! A quick recap from last week. Monday was a holiday which means no school.  Yes I did enjoy it!  It was a very relaxing day, complete with pizza and movie night at Pastor and Jens. 

Tuesday I went into school not really knowing how much time I was going to have to teach.  I know this seems odd, but I really had no clue if we were going to have assembly or swimming and tennis.  Assembly normally happens on Mondays and since we didn’t have school on Monday, I wasn’t sure if we would still have it.  As for swimming and tennis, there were 2 different calendars out and we didn’t know the official start date.  I got to school and found out that both assembly and extracurricular were both happening.  Here is where I remember to be really flexible and just go with it.  I think that this is something I am definitely getting better at.  In the end I only made it through one of my two lessons I was supposed to teach for the day, but it’s okay.  It’ll all get done eventually!

Tuesday after school Jen took us to the beach to swim again.  I love going for an hour or so.  I swam for a bit and then enjoyed floating in the cool water with a bottle of Ting in hand.  Ting is basically grapefruit pop that is similar to Sprite.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon and later on that night Abby and I headed over to Pastor’s for sticky group.  While at sticky group, Abby and I tried the Crix challenge.  What’s the Crix challenge?  Well let me tell you! Crix is a cracker (almost like a Saltine).  The Crix challenge is when you have 1 minute to eat 5 Crix crackers.  Let me tell you, it is not an easy task and both Abby and I failed.  The video is at the bottom of my blog. 

Wednesday was a long day.  After school I had a staff workshop that I attended about Sequence of Reading in the Montessori method of teaching. While some of the information was interesting to hear about, the meeting just felt long after a full day of school.  The meeting ended around 5.  I was hoping to get back home and eat, but the house was locked as Abby and Tanya had run to the store.  Again my day was long and everything put together just made me crabby.  After eating and showering I spent the rest of the night in my room.  Thursday was going to be a better day and it was!

Thursday morning and woke up revived and ready to concur the day, the only downside was the rain.  It rained all day long which means all the students are stuck inside the classrooms.  A nice storm rolled through, but even the rain couldn’t put me down.  Thursday we had a fruit taste test day and all my students brought in a lot of fruit.  I spent a good hour cutting it up, but it was so worth it!  I got to taste fruits like apples, pears, and grapes which I have not had since being home.  Apples, pears, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, etc. are all pretty expensive here which means Abby, Tanya, and I avoid them at the store.  I will be looking forward to eating these fruits when I get back to the states!

Friday was also a good day at school.  This week was teacher’s appreciation week so some of my students brought me in gifts.  While this was definitely not necessary, it definitely made me feel appreciated.  A picture of all the things I got is below. 

Saturday was a lazy day.  I spent most of the day relaxing with the exception of the walk to the Supermarket and the bus stop.  Abby, Tanya and I ventured to the movie theater to watch The Martian.  When we arrived 4 minutes before the show was supposed to start, the lady taking tickets told us that our theater wasn’t ready yet.  Only in St. Lucia! Surprisingly I really enjoyed the movie, although part of that may have been the air conditioning we were able to sit in.  Well worth the $7 we paid for!  I think we have mastered the bus system here.  It is really simple and we no longer stress about telling the bust drivers to stop.  Having simple and cheap public transportation makes it easy not to have a car here. 

Yesterday Abby and I taught our first day of Sunday School.  I had a good group of 8 that stayed for the story of the Wise Men.  While I normally will be having Laurie help me, Jen was able to step in and help out with the craft project.  I am teaching preschool to grade 1 which is quite the age span when teaching a group of children.  Abby and I also had our first people sign up for piano!  We are very excited to begin lessons in November.  Even though we have both never taught before, I think it will be a great way to help the church out while we are here. 

When we got home we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving.  As some of you know my roommate Tanya is from Canada.  While not quite the normal Thanksgiving meal, we made burgers and had guacamole, it was quite good and we all enjoyed it!  Later on we went over to Jen and Tom’s.  Ian, their 13 year old son, requested no pizza so they grilled for us!  It was a delicious meal and a great way to end our weekend!

Fruit Taste Test Day!

So much fruit.

Teacher Appreciation week

Not many people will see a cow next to their movie theater.

Our Thanksgiving meal. 

Thanksgiving number 2! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! :) 

Crix Challenge

My students preparing for Jounen Kweyol 

This week I am looking forward to La Maurgarite on Friday.  It is a flower festival and celebrates Creole heritage.  It will be fun to see all my students dressed up in their special costumes as well as hear them sing and watch the “parade” that they will be involved in.  More to come on that in my next blog. 

Enjoy your week! 

October has Begun

Good morning everyone! It's Monday and it's a holiday! I only just found out about this holiday last Sunday, but all week I was looking forward to a 3 day weekend! The holiday is Thanksgiving, however Thanksgiving here is no where near as big of a deal as it is in the states.  Most of my children didn't even know it was Thanksgiving.  I'm just thankful for a break and I'll take any that I'm given!  From what I'm told, St Lucia celebrates the most holidays compared to any other country.  This will be a nice bonus to living and teaching here! :) 

October has just begun and life is starting to settle down.  Here is a little recap of my week.

On Monday night Abby and I were invited over to Pastor Bram's for a cook out.  He made brats on the grill and they were delicious!  Abby and I wanted to contribute something to the meal, so we brought over brownies.  Apparently Lucian's really like their brownies because the whole pan was gone before we left.  I guess we know what we can bring to other people's homes when we are invited! While at Pastor Bram's we started to learn how to play Settlers of Catan.  This is a game that is often played among the people from church, so we were thankful for Sheena, Ravi, and Casey who began to teach us.  

After school on Tuesday Jennifer took us to the beach to go swimming.  This was the first time that I actually went for a swim on the beach.  Most times when we go to the beach, we walk the 30 minutes and all we want to do is cool off, but this time I decided a little exercise is probably good for me. Tuesday night was Sticky Group, in which some really good discussions happened, plus it is always nice to see people from church throughout the week. 

On Thursday I survived my first earthquake (although I didn't even know that it had happened). It happened at about 2:30 in the afternoon while I was teaching.  While I know of some people on the island who did feel it, I did not know about it until about 4:00 when Jennifer took us grocery shopping.  We really appreciate Jennifer and all she does for us!  Letting us tag along to the store so we can learn about the different foods, as well as buy some groceries that we don't have to carry home is such a blessing! 

Friday was a bit crazy at school.  I think the children realized a long weekend was coming up and there was just excitement in the air.  Friday night Abby, Tanya, and I went on a Sunset Cruise aboard the Pirate Ship.  After getting home from school we rushed to change, eat, and walk to the Marina.  We were told to arrive for 4:30 so that we could pay and we were in such a hurry because we thought we were going to be late.  We couldn't find the office to pay and we began to panic just a bit.  Well our panic was for nothing.  We again were reminded that we are living in St. Lucia as the guy we paid remarked how early we were.  I guess I would still rather be early than late, but we were the only ones aboard the ship until about 4:55.  In general we really enjoyed the cruise.  While there was really not a sunset, we still had a great time on the ship with some free food which included a small burger and free drinks.  It was a nice and relaxing time and in some ways made us feel like tourists. 

On Saturday, Stacy picked us up and we enjoyed the nice beach by their house.  It was part of a resort so we were actually able to sit in beach chairs for the first time since getting here.  The beach was gorgeous and well worth the walk down and up the hill! Staci also made us some really good salsa chicken in her crockpot.  I really enjoy spending time with the Landwehrs and it is so kind that they invite us over to their home every now and then.  

Yesterday morning we went to church and were able to witness 2 adult Baptisms and Confirmations.  These 2 adults, who are also sisters, will be working with Abby and I to learn how to teach Sunday School.  The goal is that they will be able to teach without our help before we leave.  It was a very cool for us to see these two ladies getting baptized and confirmed at church.  

Yesterday afternoon Jennifer took us to Donkey Beach with some of her friends. This beach is located on the Atlantic side so the waves are a lot stronger. It's really cool to be able to see God's creation in different ways.  Looking at the waves and how strong and powerful a single wave can be is just mind boggling sometimes. It was again such a relaxing time on a gorgeous beach.  We hiked around a bit and then took a "sea bath" as they call it here.  A sea bath is basically when someone just goes in the water to cool off.  I love spending time at the beach and being able to not just go to the same beach every time is pretty amazing!

Last night we made our first batch of guacamole which was made from the biggest avocado I have ever seen.  It was easily the size of my fist. I think we will be buying avocados from now on when we see them! 

Since today is a holiday I am looking forward to the resting at home.  I need to prepare a bit for school, as well as clean and go to the supermarket.  We also may attempt to make some salsa from the tomatoes we have frozen.  Hoping it turns out as well as the guacamole!

This whole weekend we have caught ourselves saying, "and this is home." Not many people can call an island home, but we can.  It's a hard life, I know! :) 

The Pirate Ship

So fun seeing where we live from water!

The gorgeous beach by Staci's house!

Donkey Beach

So much cacti. It almost felt like I was in Arizona!

So beautiful! Marveling at His creation!

The start to the sunset.

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