Midterm Break

Friday Morning: 

I feel like I have been run over by a train.  Ok well maybe not quite, but my whole body does hurt.  Yesterday was a busy day starting off with a financial workshop.  Afterwards I helped prepare lunch for the teachers and then all the teachers headed out to do Zumba together.  It was quite fun to see all the teachers dancing along.  At Zumba they taught us how to whine, although I don’t think I’ll be doing that anytime soon. 

            After getting back from Zumba, Abby and I headed to the beach to try out Splash Island Waterpark with some people from church.  The waterpark reminds me of the TV show Wipeout.  I literally couldn’t count how many times I fell into the water.  My back hurts, my legs hurt, my arms hurt, but it was worth it.  Afterwards we all went over to Pastor Bram’s for dinner and a nice round of Settlers of Catan.  I’m finally starting to understand the game!  I am definitely feeling more comfortable around the people at Trinity, and hanging out outside of church really helps with that.  

Group at Splash Island

Saturday night:

            I am so tired. Last night Mrs. Murray took us to Gros Islet night, which means I didn’t get to bed until after midnight.  Now I do like Gros Islet night, if nothing else than for the fish, but last night was very tiring.  Plus I’m always more tired when I know I need to get up early the next morning. 

            Today was the big day! Today we finally got to go on the day long boat cruise and man was it worth it!  This tour went down to Soufriere and only had 12 people on the way there and about 20 on the way back.  This is a lot smaller than the usual 50 people that are on the catamaran and made for a nice and relaxing day.  Once docking in Soufriere, we hopped on a bus to Toraille Waterfall.  The waterfall was smaller than I imagined it being, but the cool part was that we were able to go into it.  The water was so cold, but very refreshing! 

            After a quick dip in the falls, we headed on our way to the Sulfur Springs.  While most of the people in our group were tourists and enjoyed the mud bath, Abby, Tanya, and I decided to wait until another time to do it.  We were told that sometimes it can be very difficult to get the sulfur smell out of your swimsuits and well, we need our suits for a while longer!  Maybe when I go home, I’ll buy a cheap one that I won’t care about. 

            After everyone got a chance to take their mud baths, the group piled back into the bus to head to Morne Coubaril Estate which is a working plantation that still produces cocoa, coffee, and processes coconuts.  While here we had the option to go zip lining or go on the plantation tour.  We chose to go on the tour this time around.  We learned about different plants on the island, as well as tried cocoa and coconut.  Afterwards we enjoyed a tasty buffet lunch before heading back onto the boat for round 2 of the cruise. 

            On the way back we stopped at Anse Cochon to snorkel.  I think this was my favorite part of the day!  While we only had about 40 minutes in the water, I was able to see all sorts of fish and all gorgeous colors.  I think my favorite were the purple angelfish.  Some of the other people on the boat shared their bread with me, so I was able to feed the fish and have them right underneath me as I swam.  I found myself thinking, “Wow God! You made some really cool looking fish!”

            We finished off the boat cruise with some music and drinks.  I found it fun to learn more about the locals so instead of socializing with the tourists, I talked mainly with two of the workers.  Both were very nice!  While on the boat I also checked off a few things from Erin’s Bachelorette party scavenger hunt which I am missing out on tonight.  One of the things on the list was dancing with a complete stranger.  Yep, I did that for her.  Ducking by Fada Fox is a song that was popular here in February, but Abby, Tanya, and I just learned of it so it is our song right now.  The 2 workers and Abby danced with me to that song and I got my 55 second video to prove it. 

After a day filled with sun and water, I am drained.  Excited for church in the morning, followed by the Jounen Kweyol festivities afterwards.  

Beautiful day for a boat cruise.

Living the life in St. Lucia!

The gang: Kevan, Tanya, and Abby

The Pitons

The coconut guy at the plantation

Scavenger Hunt: Find a Vikings fan, wearing Vikings attire with his thumb down.

Sunday night:

            I am pretty sure I will be going to bed by 8 P.M. tonight.  Today again was another great day filled with great people.  After church, Abby and I went with our church family to Babonneau for their Jounen Kweyol celebration.  Upon arrival, we walked 30 minutes down some steep hills to get to where the actual event was happening.  We had the option to take a bus down, but we decided we’d much rather spend the money and take it up the hill.  While I didn’t get many pictures, it reminded me a bit of a county fair.  Lots of people were there and we were able to have food and drinks with the people from church.  The food that was being sold was all cultural dishes.  I was told I should try turtle, dolphin, sea eggs, and manitou, but I only braved up enough to try one bite of turtle.  It was actually not too bad, although it did make me think a little bit about Scruffy.  

Part of our group from church.

Here are most of the rest!

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.