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.