Limin'

Yesterday we had mid-training interviews with the APCD. Everything went pretty well, though of course she wants me to talk more. I don't like people telling me that, because it's just how I am. It's not a danger to me or anyone else, it doesn't hurt anyone, and it makes things more efficient to have one less person voicing any thought that comes to mind. It's like telling an adult to be taller. It's not going to happen. I wish I were more outgoing, and I've tried to be, but it doesn't work.

Afterwards, Kelli and I had planned to go to the beach here in Vieux Fort, but it was very rainy by the time we got in. So instead we found a little place to have ice cream and beer. Single scoop of peanut butter vanilla swirl on a cone and a Piton for $3.50EC? Sounds good to me. A trip to S&S to get some flipflops for Kelli, and home again through the rain.

Last night Manman took me to Cozy Corner, a bar around the block, to hear a local folk band play.

It was fun. It was a little awkward sometimes, as you might imagine it would be if you were one of two women patrons in a place with many drunken men. But the music was good. I had rum (Crystal White) & Coke, and later the owner (who knows Manman) offered us drinks on the house. Manman had a Malta, and I was offered a Shandy, which is "A refreshing blend of lager beer and ginger," with a low alcohol content. It was pretty tasty--at first it tasted like cider, but after a bit I realized the ginger was a little bitey and each sip after that tingled on my lips and tongue.

:( i tried uploading video but it's not working. The sound on the video is horrible anyways, so oh well.

There was one guy dancing was doing so all night long, sometimes dancing with Manman, sometimes with another man. Another guy kept shouting "Waya waya waya!" to speed up the tempo. He was also a very good dancer, but only danced to one song when he came in. None of the young men danced last night, and none of the other women (but they all worked there, so that's ok).

getting into the schools

Yesterday I shadowed the principal of the Special Education Centre in Vieux Fort. This school serves a large swath of the southern part of the country, with 89 students and 10-11 teachers. I learned a lot in two general categories:

1. What the Special Education Centre does.

In order to have children in attendence, they screen every kindergartner in the area. They test cognitive, physical, developmental, communicative, and visual abilities. I'm not sure exactly what the minimums or maximums for enrollment are, but this screening has helped get students in to the school who would otherwise be doing very poorly in other schools, and many who would not be in schools at all.

At the school they have different goals for different disabilities. For those with behavioral problems and learning disabilities, the goal is to get them to a point where they can reenter other schools. For those with serious developmental impairments, the goal is to get them functional and self-sufficient. It varies child by child.

The principal of this school also keeps tabs on students at other schools with learning or other disabilities, to see how they're doing and to get help for them when possible.

2. What Principals do.

The principal checked in on the classrooms in the morning, then for a while was in a room where some physical therapy was going on, with some people from a different organization who had some tips for helping kids with a certain condition (I forgot to ask what condition it was). At one point she was asked to come outside to buy food from a man who was delivering it (I've seen him before, when he loaded something like 6 large bags of coconuts and bananas onto a bus on the side of the highway between VF and Choiseul). She bargained with him on some things (the pumpkins weren't ripe), and scolded him for other things (avocado/pears should NOT be touching citrus fruits), then paid. Around 11 there was a meeting between a group based in Castries that helps and monitors the academic activities of secondary school students around the island, and with someone from a gov't group something like Welfare of the Blind. We took lunch, and then went to some stores looking for a washer for the water cooler. She did some filing, delivered something to the District 6 Counselor in a different building a block away, and I left.

I didn't realise all the different tasks necessary for such a job, especially where there isn't a lot (if any) office staff like secretaries employed.

Overall it was a really neat experience.

After the shadowing, I had some time, so I went over to the grocery store and looked at prices of things, checked to make sure tortillas or masarina aren't available (I couldn't even find corn meal, but I'm sure it's somewhere), and picked up some chips and a chocolate & hazelnut bar. I'm saving those for another time. I walked around downtown for a while, looking into the sports store to see prices on weights (I think I'll get an exercise mat and a medicine ball when I move out), the library (which is only children's books, and is tiny), and had some ice cream (which was tasty and very cheap--$1.75 EC for a single scoop cone!). Then I walked over to VF Primary for a meeting for the parents by the Grade 4 teachers and principal.

I've attended about 4 meetings on different things now. Two of them went pretty smoothly, two of them dragged on for a while, mainly because different people repeatedly repeated their points repeatedly.

At this meeting one thing I noticed was that the teachers and principal took on an accusatory tone with the parents, saying that many of them put sugary things in their children's lunches, that they don't pay attention to their school work, etc etc. I think these things may be the case, but I also think there are much better ways of expressing these ideas without putting people off. Considering not every parent showed up, it's likely that those who did are not necessarily the ones committing these offenses. I know that if I were a parent sitting in that room, I would be upset by the way the teachers were talking to me. I'm starting to see how it really is that each group blames the other for the children's poor behavior or performance. I wonder, though, if the parents received the same message I did, because it might just be that this is how people talk to one another.

We'll see.

Adventures in Vieux Fort

On Sunday I walked with Randy (easier to say than fwe mwen) and Fay around the neighborhood some more, and up the hill. Here are a couple pics.

This is a view of Vieux Fort Proper (downtown) from the hill. The peninsula is the very southern tip of the island. On the field is the airport runway--if you ever visit me (unless you're coming from another Caribbean island) this is where you'll be coming in.

A view of my current neighborhood. As you can see, between the time I took the first pic and the second, clouds had started moving in on us. In the distance you can see Petit Piton, sticking up like a thumb from behind the hills. If you look close, to the left of that, behind the closer hill, Gros Piton is kind of visible (dang clouds!).

There's a water tank at the top of the hill. Hey there's me! Or is it my reflection? Or did the reflection take the picture??

At the very top of the hill (through the bush from where the water tank is) is a radio tower or something. There's also something that looks kinda like solar panels (not pictured) but it all seemed kind of old and defunct. Fay said that's on of the political party's flags. Must have been from quite a while ago, since it's so tattered.
On Tuesday I interned again in a Grade 4 class in VF Primary, and it went pretty well. I started working with a couple boys on basic math. After school got out, I was walking to the bus stand, and a little girl and her friend started talking and walking with me. She said she saw me at school, and both children told me about how they did in school and which class they were in and whether the teacher liked them or not. We got on different buses, but we waved at each other when their bus pulled out of the stand first. I wish I could talk to people like that.

Today is pretty much (well tonight, around midnight or later, but whatever) the one year anniversary of my relationship with Berney. We just talked for about an hour, and of course we miss one another terribly. I know it will be one of the hardest challenges I face while I'm down here. But we've both done LDRs before, and we know how to make them work if we want it to work. Of course, I spend lots of time thinking about all the cool things Bern and I can do when he comes to visit, and maybe if I'm lucky I can visit him in Russia at some point. At some point I need to toast to it, but I'm not sure when would be best. Maybe tomorrow afternoon. And I can toast to Diana's birthday tomorrow, too.

I have a shadowing assignment today at the Special Education School in VF, and after that (depending on how long I'm there) I might go to meet with some of the parents of students I'm working with in the internship. Manman is going to Castries today for a meeting, so there's a good chance I'll be on my own until the evening, so maybe I'll get to explore some of the shops in VF. There are many I've been meaning to just go in and poke around, get to know what's available (and what's not) in this place.

no pics, kinda boring

But that's pretty much how the past couple of days have gone.

Of note:

1. The rain continued on and off, often very hard. Halfway through yesterday the water was turned off, so this morning I took my first bucket bath.

2. Also because of the rain, yesterday's fieldtrip to Mamiku Gardens was cancelled. So that turned into two days off in a row, meaning a four-day weekend. If I had projects to work on, it might be different, but I've done a lot of lazing around the house.

3. To get me out of the house, I went with Manman to the preschool yesterday for the folk dance class she holds for primary school kids every week. I learned a few dances, and caught on to about a third of a song sung in Kwéyòl.

4. I hung out with fwe mwen and his friend Fay last night. Nothing exciting or expensive, just watching youtube videos of Dane Cook and a walk down to the grocery store for some drinks (I finally tried a Malta, which tastes like an oatmeal raisin cookie soaked in prune juice). So, pretty much what we do in Austin. No Whole Foods or Central Market, though.

5. This morning we went to the market, as on all Saturday mornings, followed by a meeting that started an hour late and turned out to be a different group with some of the same members, followed by a meeting that was supposed to have been first. Three and a half hours I sat in the little Town Hall. The first two hours were very boring for me, since I didn't have any interest at all in the group, but the second meeting I even contributed to, and volunteered to help serve drinks at the BBQ fundraiser next weekend.

6. New foods. I had "farin and pear" for the first time for lunch. Farin is the flour-like ground cassava root/fruit/whatever it is, and pear is what they call avocado here. Add a little oil, a pinch of salt, and you have an avocado-y paste that you eat with fish. I had potfish with it, pieces of little fishes that are very tasty.
Manman also baked cake yesterday, a delicious cinnamon coffee cake. I unfortunately didn't have time for tea this morning to go with it before we left for the market.
With dinner I'll have some cassava, and I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it the same thing that the farin is made from, but rolled out flat and fried. I'm interested to see how it is.
After the meeting we were treated to drinks because of the length of the meeting, and there was only one Malta left at the little snack stand nearby, so Manman and I had LLB: Lime, Lemon & Bitters, a bottled drink that isn't as sweet as Sprite and similar sodas, but is in fact tastier. The bitters give it just a little more depth, but it's still a nice sweet refreshing drink.

I'm thinking it might be time for dinner. Or maybe crunches.

sugar apple kitty cherise Jesus Christ comics rainy day

Interesting day so far, and it's only 4pm. I've had all day off, so I actually got to sleep in until 7! I was woken by my phone ringing, but not quickly enough for me to answer. Of course, it said "No Number" so I knew it was Berney trying to Skype me. How exciting! We were able to talk a bit, and im, without costing us much (aside from the $.25/min used a couple times to get me on the phone).

While we were chatting, I had breakfast. This included a sandwich Manman (what I will be calling Nethelia, my host mom, from now on. It's Kwéyòl for mother, and pronounced like mama, but with nasal n's after the a's) made for me for lunch, since she thought I would be going into Vieux Fort to go to the school today. Breakfast also had some Earl Grey with too much evaporated milk, since the can I used for my first cup was curdled, I had to make a second cup, and there wasn't that much hot water left, and it's hard to pour in a tiny amount of milk. Talk about a spot of tea! I also had a sugar apple, which is the green scaly thing pictured in the middle. It came from the tree in the backyard--Manman said she climbed it to pick some the other day.

Now for your info session on sugar apples (they are nothing like regular apples, kinda like how pineapples aren't either). The other day I was sharing some cheap shortbread-and-vanilla-cream-filling cookies with Kelli in the training office, and I told her how they aren't that great but when I need a sugar fix they hit the spot. Well, that day when I came home I tried just a little bit of a sugar apple in the fridge, and WOW! I didn't think a regular fruit could taste so much like processed sugar! So I decided I would have one with breakfast today. To open it, you just sort of break it apart--the seams of the scales come apart easily on the ripe fruit. On the inside there's the sugary pulp that's a little grainy, and some seeds that are wrapped in slippery pouches (like the cacao bean). I couldn't even finish the thing, it was so sweet. So I'll have some later tonight after dinner.

After breakfast Manman left the house to do some errands, so I was left to my own devices. Recording devices, I suppose, since I kept using my camera.

The past couple of days I've been hearing the mewing of a baby kitten from the back balcony (many houses here are two stories, but complete homes on both, sort of like a duplex I suppose). I decided to see if it really was a kitty or if it was a bird in one of the trees or a squirrel (do we even have squirrels here?) or what. Well, well, it is a little kitten, just a few weeks old, there with its mom (who ran down the stairs as soon as I stepped outside) and a sibling from a previous litter. They are all very cute, although the baby kitty has something strange going on in the underside of its back legs--it looks like the skin has no fur, and perhaps the skin itself is damaged. Poor kitten, it kept hissing at me in the cutest way every time I passed by it, it sounded like it was a bag popping, and puffing up like a little fuzzball. Its sibling also left when I got closer, and this little baby was left all alone with me, a great big strange giant that would surely gobble it up. I spent some time picking some cherise (the word for the local cherries, which are tart and have about three seeds in them) from the stairs. After I got back inside, the momma cat returned to the balcony, along with the sibling, and nursed baby kitty.

Here people don't usually own pets in the way we do in the States. There are lots of cats and dogs around, and they can be found in residential areas and in business areas, just wandering the streets. To my knowledge they aren't aggressive (I've never seen them so much as bark at a human, though they make quite a racous at night with each other). They are generally very thin, since the food consists of rodents or lizards they catch and scraps people give them every couple of days. Most people don't let cats or dogs in their homes, even if they own them. They're not considered clean enough for that, or for petting by most people. Our cats hang around because a while back Manman made the mistake of feeding them. Now our yard is their home base, and they often try to get in the house (and sometimes succeed, since we have the doors open often to let in the breeze), although they roam all around the neighborhood. Lots of people also have goats and chickens and roosters, some have sheep, some have cows, some have horses. It's pretty neat sometimes to be riding through even the big city of Castries and seen some roosters just clucking around.

When Manman got back we decided to go visit Julietta, a friend (or relative? I never know) of hers in Grace, a suburb/part of town of Vieux Fort. It was a small house, with a cozy living room that has many of the same furniture and decoration style that we have in our house here, but in a much smaller living space. I listened mostly for a while, though at one point Julietta started asking me why I wasn't talking. This was sort of awkward, since I don't really talk much anyway around new people. After asking about where I'm from and such things, she asked what church I go to. I said I don't. She asked what religion I believe in, I told her I'm not religious but I do believe in god. She couldn't stand this, and for the next half hour told me that I need to get baptized, and put my life in the hands of Jesus and god, and that she would pray for me, and that Manman should be taking me to church, and that this is why I was here in St. Lucia: so that I could come meet Julietta and she could show me the way and the light. I tried to be polite, but it was very uncomfortable for me, since I do have my own spiritual beliefs, and it's not just that I don't know anything about the Christian god or have never been exposed to any of that, but that I have already chosen for myself what I believe. She told me I could choose to be baptized and follow Jesus and take the Word back to my parents and they would follow me, and I knew it would be pointless to tell her my own views on the matter. After a while she settled on telling me to think about it and sleep on it and let Manman know, who would then let Julietta know, and then she would get me baptized.

I really have nothing against Christianity and Catholicism. I think for the most part it is a beautiful, loving religion, but I don't think it's for me. I feel the same way about most religions, really. I am glad that people find hope in their own religions, and I sometimes wish I had grown up going to church, but that's mostly because I think I missed out on a whole community aspect that is part and parcel to most other people's lives. I have in the past struggled to find out for myself what god is, and for a few of my teenage years I wanted to major in religious studies in college. Finally I sorted out my own beliefs, saw how they are different and similar to others', and now I'm content in my own thoughts, and I often marvel at the wonders of god that I can sense around me. But this is a very personal matter for me, and I felt very uncomfortable to have someone telling me effectively that I'm wrong and what I have decided for myself already isn't the truth and all that. I know many people think that about people like me, and it's fine for them to think that, but I really prefer for them to not try to save me.

I'm already used to bowing my head for prayers before school starts, during school, before meetings, etc. here in St. Lucia. A considerable majority of people here identify themselves as Catholic, and several other Christian denominations also have good showings, and there's a decent population of Rastafarians, and a few Muslims. Religion is expected from everyone here, it seems, but no one I had met before made a huge deal about it. In fact, many people I've met don't go to church regularly, and many have their own beliefs that may not follow the exact words of the Bible. I don't mind going through the motions, and I'll even go to church with them if it will help me integrate, but I don't want to be baptized. Honestly, Julietta's prostletizing was the first thing that made me think, "Maybe I can't do this." I wanted to go home and cry at that moment, for fear that this would become a regular occurence.

Thankfully, Julietta let up after a while, and dropped the subject for the most part. When we got home, Manman asked me about how I felt, and I told her. She was really comforting to talk to, since she respects my beliefs and to some extent shares them as well. It made me feel a lot better.

Since then I've been able to use the internet, since it's been connected to this computer all day (the modem is in my host brother's [to be called "fwe mwen," meaning my brother] room). So I got to catch up on all my web comics. That was a good way to spend a day off, I thought. Actually, we would have visited another person up in Grace but she didn't answer her phone at all. And it's been raining all day--to the extent, of course, that the water has been shut off. Manman and I both took showers this morning when the water pressure was just low, not off. I'm following Lily's (a current PCV) advice: when it starts raining hard, when you see the clouds, wash your hair; you might not be able to again for a day or two.

Sorry for the long post. Here's more kitties to make up for it:

Update (while still typing the original post): the water is back on! Now I can wash my clothes!

Walking (written on Sunday, pics to be added soon)

Yesterday I planned on writing about it's activities, but no internet connection was available. So today you get two busy days' worth of stuff.

So I went with Kelli, Ashley, and Haley (other trainees) to Sulphur Springs, where we bathed in the cleansing waters of a volcano. It was hot! It took a few minutes to get used to, and then we realized a bunch of tourists were looking down at us from up on a bridge. It was a little embarrassing. Oh well. Part of the point of going to the sulphur springs is to rub the mud all over yourself. Yep. It wasn't until afterwards that we realized we didn't have a very good plan for getting it off. We went to find the waterfall, but it was pretty much the same grey water, still warm. And there was a naked guy hanging around. I guess he really wanted to be 10 years younger. We didn't get to go and look at the volcanic crater, because it costs US $5 or EC$12.50, and a couple of us didn't have enough money to do that and get back.

Next we had planned on hiking, although Kelli and I didn't realize Ashley and Haley had planned on hiking across the rain forest, from roughly Soufriere to roughly Micoud, on the other side of the island. That was the first thing. The second is that no one would tell us how to get to the trail, because they all said we needed a guide. As mentioned before, we didn't have the money for a guide. And it was raining when we asked, so I don't think that helped. It's my opinion that we should wait until dry season, because during wet season you never know when there will be a downpour, even if it doesn't look cloudy enough. It's not that we weren't willing to get wet, but for me I don't think the trail would be good when it's very muddy. It's also my opinion that we don't know the island well enough to go on a 4-5 hour hike without someone who has taken the trail before, even if it's just another volunteer.

Well, we rode into Soufriere and started walking towards where the trail was. We ran into Hallie, who was headed to meet some of the other trainees who hired a taxi (it was a good deal, it was one of the trainee's host family). We walked along a road, tried calling another volunteer to see if he wanted to come or could give us direction--he also said we shouldn't go without someone who knows where they're going--and met a guy in a field who said that we shouldn't go without a guide, but offered to take our number next time he sees us and he'll take us on the hike halfway across. Hopefully in later months we'll get a good chance to hike whereever we want in St. Lucia, but yesterday probably wasn't the best time. I did feel a little bad because Ashley had her heart set on it, and I'm sure she'll get her chance soon.

So instead we met up with the other trainees, who were at a restaurant in Soufriere. They were waiting for food, but us hikers all brought our lunch, so we went and ate at a little shaded place. We tried the beach first, but it's not exactly that kind of beach. I think that's where I cut one of my toes; a piece of a broken bottle probably scratched it when we stepped in the water. After lunch (including a HUGE mango, nearly the size of my head, from Kelli's backyard) we went back to the restaurant. I thought about getting a beer, but EC$5 for a Piton is against my morals. It took fully 2.5 hours between the time the taxi group got to the restaurant and when the whole group left. Only about 20 minutes of that was spent eating, though appetizers and salads were served earlier. The food was apparently good, though the wraps weren't actually wrapped.

Us hikers ended up getting in the taxi with the rest of the group. We went through a few towns on the way, stopping often to get pictures of the Piton mountains (Gros Piton on the right, Petit Piton on the left behind a hill), and stopping to look at churches in town, and stopping to walk on the beach for a little bit in Choiseul. We made our way through Laborie, and finally got to Vieux Fort. I opted to go home rather than hang out on the beach once we got there, since I had the previously mentioned cut on my toe, that I felt should be treated sooner rather than much later.

At home I ate dinner, went to my room to read, and fell asleep aroud 7:30 or 8pm. I woke up around midnight, tried to read, and fell back asleep. I woke up at 5:30, in time to get ready for the walk today.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today. My host mom organized for some people in a club she's in to go on this health walk a couple towns over. We got there just in time, although unfortunately the organizers and the police escorts didn't. The walk was supposed to begin at 8, but it wasn't until a good 50 minutes later that we were allowed to go. It wasn't a very long walk, up and down a couple small hills on the highway, to a playing field next to a secondary school in La Fargue, a part of Choiseul. We participated in an aerobics workout, then ate the bananas and watermelon they had provided for free, and hung around for a couple hours, watching kids (high school age, mostly) dance, a jump rope competition, and things like that. We left before the other sports (football [soccer], cricket, basketball, volleyball) got going. It was a good few hours of being outside and getting active. It was also cool that all the older women (in their 50s/60s) in our group were dancing--wining, even--to the music. They impressed me, and I impressed them with the same moves. They thought I caught on quickly, but I told them I already knew how to dance like that. Though I now need to work on some more moves I picked up from some of the younger girls.

So, lots of walking. Lots of being outside. No sunburn for me, either! Sunscreen and dorky looking hats are awesome.

Oh, one more thing. Yesterday in the taxi van Judy passed around a cacao bean. I ate a seed, and it's sort of hard to describe. The outside is sweet and slippery/rubbery, and the inside is what chocolate comes from--it's little crunchy bits of it. If you've every had completely unsweetened chocolate, that's what it tastes like--very bitter, but certainly still chocolatey.

Transportation on St. Lucia

So I'll type up my observations of the classroom I'm interning in after I write it. But as a precursor, it might help for you to understand the transportation system a little, as one of the class lessons was about that. If you want to skip this informational, there are a couple paragraphs at the end of the post about daily things.

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So, to start out with, the roads are generally two lanes, even the major highways. We drive on the left side of the road, like in England. Roundabouts are common (and generally more efficient than traffic lights). Because the highways are two lanes, passing in the right lane is very common. It would be dangerous except that nearly everyone who drives takes great care about not passing if they have limited sight--if there's a curve or hill ahead and they couldn't get around fast enough in case a car comes the other way. Occasionally there are drivers who are much more reckless, but for the most part people don't pass unless they know it's safe. Except in towns sometimes, there aren't generally sidewalks, so people walking or waiting for buses are on the sides of the road, very close to where traffic is. This is kind of scary sometimes, if in a town on the highway, for example, a bus is picking up people on one side, a car is passing it, and a bus is going the other way in the left lane, with people standing on the side, I get afraid sometimes that peds will get hurt, but I guess people know how to take care of themselves so it doesn't happen much.

I'm not sure how many people own cars. Maybe around half of households, maybe less. If they do own one, it's often just one car per family. It seems like most people use the public transportation for the most part, although I live in an urban area where buses are common. I can't say for sure about more rural areas, but it still seems like buses are the main transport. It's also common to hitch rides from people you know who happen to be going the same way, or sometimes even from people you don't know. The nice thing about hitching is the drivers you know don't really expect any money, since they're going the same direction anyways.

The buses carry up to 15 people, more if small children are on board, since they sit on their moms' laps, and if they do that they aren't charged the price of a seat. The front seat (the one place I haven't ridden yet and don't really want to ride in) has the driver, and space for two passengers. The four rows behind that have seats for two, with an aisle with flip seats that you pull down. So without flip seats, a bus could hold 12 people (3 in front, 3 in back, 2 in middle three rows). Most buses have radios on them, but not all drivers have them on. I've found it's more likely to have a radio on for long bus rides, such as from Vieux Fort up to Castries (a commute I'm all too familiar with now). Many buses have handles on the back of the main seats (not the flip seats) to hold on to when going on curves. The buses without handles are a little more stressful to ride on, since it's a mountainous island with lots of curves and hairpin turns. There are sliding windows for most seats, and as long as the bus is moving, there's a nice breeze that keeps you cool, even when it's hot out. If the bus is standing still for a while, it is very hot.

To catch a bus, you wait on the side of the road anywhere buses pass by, and when one comes, you signal it--I point the direction I'm going, sometimes moving my hand up and down as I do so. A bus will pass if it's full, or will pull over and let you in if it's not--they often honk and blink their hazard lights either way. You get in, sit down, and get off at your stop, where you pay the driver. Alternately, if you're in a city or town already and are going out of the city, you go to a bus stand. Each destination pairing usually has its own bus stand, where lots of buses line up or park and wait to fill up. For long trips to different towns, you pay the driver before leaving the stand. Unless you're getting off at the final destination--in the bus stand--to get off the bus you ask the bus driver to stop. "Stoppin' here," "Bus stop, driver," "Stop at the gap," or any variation on this theme, are generally sufficient. A gap, by the way, is an intersection, whether three-way or fourway or whatever. The driver pulls to the side of the road, if possible, lets off the passenger, collects payment and gives change as necessary, and moves on.

Fare is based on distance traveled. For example, to get from my neighborhood to downtown Vieux Fort, it's EC$1.25; to go from VF downtown to downtown Castries (very southern tip of the island, around most of the east coast, through the rainforest across the island ridge [barre isle], to the northwestern bit) is EC$7; to get from downtown Castries (a few blocks away from where the VF bus drops me off) to the highway where the Peace Corps office is costs $1.25. Though this commute ends up being $19 a day round trip, it's still less expensive than owning a car, since gas costs currently EC$12.75 (that's about $4.76US) per gallon, and it's probably 45 miles each way, certainly more than a gallon of gas. The bus isn't faster, though, which is why some people (like my host dad) make the commute anyways. Bus drivers earn their livings from the fares they collect, so they like to keep buses as full as possible. If there's a broken flip seat, that means the driver will never collect fare on it, so it's a sizeable loss throughout the day.

For much of the trip, buses travel at 70-80mph, slowing down to 50-60mph for turns, and much slower for hairpin turns. They also must slow down if behind a vehicle they can't safely pass, or behind several vehicles with a slow one in front. They're supposed to slow down as they go through towns, but unless people are boarding or getting off the bus, they don't really. It takes me about 1hour 40 minutes total, including walking and waiting for buses to leave the bus stands, to get to the PC office in the morning. It takes longer in the afternoon to get home, since there's a longer walk between bus stands in Castries and it takes longer to get a full bus load.

For the most part, buses are pretty safe. I know I've only been using them for a week and a half, but I haven't felt unsafe at any point, aside from getting used to very fast drivers. There are wrecks somewhat often, but they rarely cause injury. The other day there was a child that vomited on the bus, but her mom caught it in a plastic bag. Luckily I was a few rows back from where that was going on, so I didn't get a single whiff of it. When people get on a bus, it's very common for them to say "Good morning" or "Good afternoon," and to have nearly everyone on the bus respond with the same in unison.

Taxis are also common on the island. For the most part, they are also minibuses, but they are for comission and cost much more. I think it costs around EC$100 to get from Vieux Fort to Castries, but I'm not sure if this depends on the number of passengers--having 1 person pay the whole amount of that vs. having 5 split the cost, or if it would cost more to have 5 people than just 1. It also probably depends on the driver--people like to get to know specific taxi drivers, so they develop friendly relationships and might not be charged quite as much as others would.

The scariest part of riding in any sort of vehicle is the general lack or disuse of seatbelts. Drivers rarely use them, passengers even more rarely. If I can, I use one in a private vehicle, but not on buses. In private cars, though, they are often lost in the seats or covered up in the back seats, so the only place I would be sure to know that I can put on a seatbelt is in the front passenger seat. I must look like a total square, but it's so ingrained in me, and for good reason. This is the main reason I don't want to ride in the front seat of a bus.

The coolest part of riding is how drivers honk at other drivers for just about anything. They honk to let them know they're passing, they honk to tell them to go, they honk when they're going around a hairpin turn so that they don't collide...but mostly they honk just to say hi.

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I know this is a long post, so I'll wrap up quickly. I worked out for reals last night for the first time since I got here. It was pretty good, listening to Muse's album Black Holes and Revelations, working up a really good sweat. I did 75 pushups over the course of it, but unfortunately I can't do more than 20 at a time. When it was time to take a shower, I had to ask my host brother Randel (I think that's how it's spelled, but I'm not sure at all) to turn on the tap, since there's been a leak in the bathroom. At the moment a family friend who is a handyman (he picked Nethelia and I up from the docks in his truck last week) is working on the pipes. On Sunday the water was turned off because of heavy rains--the watersources get too muddy, so the company turns it off. Everyone here is used to this (well, those that have running water in the first place), so we keep 5-gallon buckets around to fill up beforehand, and plenty of sterile water in waterbottles stored in the cupboards. If I had showered Sunday evening, it would have been bathing using water from the bucket.

Today is Randel's birthday. Nethelia made a cheesecake for him, and Julius is probably going to get a bottle of champagne. I asked if there was anything I could do, but Nethelia told me, "No, just have some cake and a drink of champagne." I told her I would try my hardest.

Pictures finally!

Our bus upon arrival in St. Lucia. Look at all those smiling faces!
This is for Jesse. It's masons! No, I don't know. This is in Castries.
A view of the surrounding area from the first night in St. Lucia. Our building was up a hill, so plenty of sweat went into getting luggage (and ourselves) up and down.

This was the dining room at the pastoral retreat center where we stayed at first.
Dinner on the first night overseas: fish (kingfish? something...), green fig salad (just like potato salad), salad w/ lettuce and cucumber, spaghetti, bread and butter.

The last night in the pastoral retreat center, the band that played for us. Lovely music.
Elaine dancing with some of the staff's kids to the music.
At the Stress Out Bar. Yeah, I know--"heeeeyy guys" expression on my face--I was blinking!
Sea grapes!

Drafted on Thursday, 9/4/08

I shouldn't be allowed to read/listen/watch anything about food when I don't have a kitchen of my own to work with. I listened to three food podcasts in a row. Then I went to the kitchen. I ended up making a sort of grilled cheese sandwich, the first time I've actually made one myself. Wheat bread, mustard, sweet-hot (not very hot) peppers, american cheese, baloney (that had been sitting in the frying pan, covered, since this morning), american cheese, two pieces of lettuce, ketchup. I fried it in the grease from the baloney. It was alright, not enough meat, not enough flavor of anything....I'm sad because I don't have control over the food available in the kitchen, and many of the things that are available aren't for me to use. The women here are kind of possessive of their kitchens--they do almost all of the cooking and cleaning in most cases. My host mom today finally told me, "You can use anything you like in here. Make yourself at home." This is Thursday, now, so I've been here almost a week. But, of course, I don't feel comfortable making lunch (the biggest meal of the day), so it's either breakfast or a snack (or dinner which is a slightly larger snack). I followed up dinner with some crappy-and-bad-for-you cookies (they were the cheap ones at the store, and I picked them out, so eh) and some fresh, ripe star fruit. Here it's called five-finger. It's an interesting fruit--it tastes a lot like a pear or a golden delicious apple, but it feels citrus-y like an orange. It's only mildly sweet, even when it's ripe, but so acidic that it was burning my mouth a tiny bit for a couple minutes after eating a few slices. btw, you eat the skin, just not the seeds, so you can slice it or just bite into it. It's more fun to eat slices, I think.

Yesterday I went to meet my "point person," my main contact for my site/work assignment. He's the district education officer for this part of the island. So apparently I'll be focusing mainly on remedial education for lower grade levels--infant and primary schools. The former includes K-2, the latter grades 3-6. Working with kids directly and maybe trying to train teachers insofar as addressing the difficulties of working with "mixed ability" classrooms--pretty much what most schools in the States are, with bright, average, and slow children all under one teacher. I'll be working initially with these two schools down in Vieux Fort, and the district ed officer might decide to give me another school to work with. In addition, I may have a chance to work on arts & crafts in the schools, and there may be a need for me to do simple IT instruction in the primary school. That's kinda scary, considering how little I know about these magical boxes called computers, but I know how to use word processors and how to use the web beyond email, pictures, and games--but more importantly I have (some) experience showing kids how to use these things.

OH I had a dream on Wednesday morning. It was kinda funny. I was in a classroom, and there was a kid in front of me, who was showing the class and the teacher this starfish that he was trying to cut out, but couldn't quite get it right. So the teacher--who was SAMUEL L. JACKSON!--was admonishing him for being a poor math student. And part of that scolding included something about Melaney Parker being a very good math student. And everyone in the class agreed and looked at me, and in the dream I was embarrassed and my face was blushing, so I put my hand up to my cheek to hide my red face--and then I woke up, realizing that my face actually did feel weird, and I had a small mosquito bite on my cheek where I put my hand. In addition, there was a HUGE bite on my forehead, about 1" high and 2" across, and there was a similarly sized one on my shoulder. :( I was puzzled, since I have the mosquito net up, but I looked and there was a small opening between the flaps, probably from the fan blowing on it.

OK THAT'S IT

Guava Juice and Green Fig Pie

OK, two recipes for you straight from St. Lucia. I wrote these down after my host mom showed me how to make them. The first recipe is great as a sweet drink, and the second is best served warm, just after cooling from the oven. The second, "Green Fig Pie," is made with green bananas, which are almost exactly like potatoes. "Anything you can do with potatoes you can do with green figs," my host mom tells me repeatedly. The dish is pretty much a casserole. It's delicous.

Note: all measures are estimated! Use your own judgment and taste for these recipes.

Guava Juice

8 fresh guavas
3 limes
½ cup brown sugar
2 cups water

1. Wash guavas & limes thoroughly. Cut off black end of guavas, where the stem was attached. Quarter the guavas, blend on a low speed. Do not puree or liquefy—the seeds should be intact.
2. Juice limes well, as you are used to.
3. Pour blended guava into a strainer, a little at a time, over a large pitcher (with a tightly fitting cover is best). Use a spoon to press juice through strainer, leaving only the seeds behind. Scoop seeds into separate bowl to discard when done. Repeat with strainer and spoon until all juice is used.
4. Add strained lime juice, 1/2 cup sugar 1 cup water; mix well. Add more water and/or sugar as necessary to taste. Chill in refrigerator several hours or overnight. To keep fresh juice longer, pour into an emptied large juice bottle with lid.

Green Fig Pie

8 green figs (unripe or very green bananas)
1/2 cup mustard
1 cup grated cheese, set 1/3 cup aside (mild cheddar or similar is good)
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1/4 cup of that set aside
4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp salt to taste
1 tsp powdered nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup water

Note: Use 1b if you have sensitive hands, or coat hands with oil before using 1a. 1a takes less time.
1a. Wash & peel green figs. Remove all green skin from peeled figs w/ knife. Place them i a large pot, cover with water. Boil 20-30 min, until soft. Let cool a little, then drain keep figs in pot.
OR
1b. Wash green figs, cut off both ends, place in large pot, cover w/ water. Boil 30-40 min. Let cool. Peel figs, discard water.
2. After figs are cooled drained, cut them w/ knife in a pot. Add mustard, cheese, bread crumbs, butter, salt, evaporated milk, water, nutmeg. Stir as you add each ingredient, mushing them up with the soft figs. Mixture should be reasonably solid, staying together for the most part, with plenty of moisture, but not runny or watery. Add water as necessary to achieve this consistency.
3. Grease large/med glass cooking dish (casserole dish) with butter or oil. Scoop fig mixture into dish, spreading it evenly on top.
4. Mix the cheese and bread crumbs previously set aside, sprinkle over the fig mixture. Use more of each if necessary to cover.
5. Heat in oven at 300 (or higher, the oven we used wasn't labeled, and the owner guessed it went up to 300. I'm guessing it goes higher than that) for 30 min. Check occasionally. Top should be golden brown, a little crunchy.

This past weekend

After another day of training on Friday, there was a barbeque with a local music group playing. It was nice. After that, around 8 or 8:30, a group of trainees was heading out to a bar down the street, and I joined them. It was a tiny little place, but the drinks weren't very expensive--EC$4 for most, so definitely cheaper than any place I know of in Chicago, and many in Austin. The music was DJed by a couple of younger girls, around 9 and 11 yrs old, and it was mostly just pop and hip hop from the US. Some of us danced, and I was one of the only Americans able to do some of the moves--the isolation techniques that I worked on last year. Everyone was surprised when I was talking, which doesn't surprise me.

again, I have pictures, but I may wait until later in the week to upload them. I'm on my homestay family's computer.

What I'll do for the next posts is type up what I'd written in the journal they gave us yesterday.

8/30/08
I fell asleep for an hour and a half in my room. I guess I felt very hot and the hours missed earlier this week caught up to me. Just now after I had worken up and was writing a list of things to get done, Julius (my homestay father) popped his head in my room, asked if I had a good rest, asked about the light and the lock on the door, and closed my bedroom door. A few seconds later, he knocked, I answered, and he asked if they were speaking too fast; if I could understand. I said only occasionally was it too fast, and he left. I left my door open.

I'm not sure, but maybe it's that here the bedroom is considered a private place, even if it's the middle of the day and I'm at my desk. I'm wondering if I should move to the living room--perhaps when I begin again to read. I think what it was is that they leave the door to their house open, to let in air, and I'm also used to being in a dorm or at home where for many people they only close the door if they're changing or sleeping.

The family is very nice, although at this moment I'm afraid that they don't want me to help.

The mosquito bites down here are nasty. I've only been bitten a few times, but the bites from yesterday are still big & itch a lot at times. At least I was able to avoid what others have gotten in the training group. This is because I"ve been using (& reapplying) the bug repellant. I told my roommate the other day, "This will be my new perfume." I really think it is.

On the way home [from the PC office in Castries, down to Vieux Fort] we passed by a beach when we were almost at our destination. There was a group of people watching a baptism there in the sea. Further along, Nethelia (my homestay mother) told the driver to stop so she could pick some sea grapes. I made the mistake of biting into one, and found it was a crunchy bitter seed. The fruit part is only a few milimeters thick, but it's sweet. The skin leaves the mouth a little dry afterwards.

To Do:
-get transformer or adapter
-get shoe fixed
-read PC materials CHECK
-buy shower toiletries CHECK
-learn more about bus system CHECK
-do bus q's for HW CHECK
-get alarm clock and/or cellphone CHECK

8/31/08
I found out that actually, the reason they wanted me to close my door is to keep mosquitoes out. How funny that I wrote about those issues right next to one another but didn't think to connect them. I have a mosquito net over my bed now, and I feel (right now) that it's too much trouble to undo it and set it up again each time, so I have one less surface on which to put things. Not that I actually have many things, but I think it'll help keep my room tidy.

Actually, I am glad that the family maintains a similar level of cleanliness in their home to my own level. Well, ok, it's much neaater in here than I would keep my own place, but it's not to an uncomfortably high level. Lived in, that's how I like to describe it.

This morning I had cocotea, made by Nethelia. It's cocoa sticks, with all sorts of different spices, boiled, with a little milk added (here fresh milk is rare and expensive, so evaporated and powdered are used). It tastes good by itself, but it's even better with just a little bit of sugar. Yesterday Nethelia showed me how to make fresh fruit juice--we did guava. I think when I make my own I will add more water, just to stretch it a little farther. It is very good, though, especially once it's chilled thoroughly.

Today for dinner Nethelia is showing me how to make green fig pie (bananas are called figs here, so green figs are unripe bananas. They’re almost exactly like potatoes), some beans, and some cow heel stew. The stew has pumpkin and calalloo leaves (like spinach) in it, too.