Work day and a dasheen preview

A couple weeks ago I organized a work day for some PCVs to come to Belle Vue Combined and help organize the reading room.

This room was an initiative by the principal, Ms. Poleon, when she advanced to that position four years ago. That year the Vieux Fort PCV, Dan, organized a work day to make this beautiful room a peaceful place where students can come to read.

My work with Ms. Poleon is focused more on organizing and streamlining existing systems. In the reading room we're organizing books by reading level, as well as creating a catalogue and book cards, so it will work a little more like a small library. Students will be able to see on the cover what level a book is, and they can keep them organized alphabetically by author.

So two Saturdays ago a bunch of my Peace Corps buddies came over to help out. Ms. Poleon and Charmaine brought us cake, mango juice, and made a boulyon soup for lunch. We were able to get through over 200 books--about half of what's in the room total.

Yesterday I spent several hours cooking dasheen (the local name for taro root) in a couple different dishes. I wanted to prove to myself that I could use a somewhat bland ground provision in a fun way. They turned out alright, though I definitely know a few changes I'll make to the recipes I found online. Once I try them again and perfect the recipes I'll post them.
Bonus pic: the contents of my refrigerator. The plate of things in the middle is the other creation, dasheen black bean fritters. The bottle next to those is mango juice, and below that is a bunch of ripe bananas. Mmmm.

Finally

The strike continued for a week and a half. Finally yesterday a deal was struck between the leaders of the TUF and the government to give the workers an additional 0.625% now in addition to the 3.5% given in May, with the rest to be added next year.

I am so glad that school will be in session come Monday. Today I went to work at Belle Vue, and the teachers all showed up, but only a few students. Monday things should go back to normal.

Unfortunately, because of the strike, MST (Minimum Standards Test) will be canceled this year. So the prep work we've been doing for Grades 2 and 4 is going to waste. The first part was supposed to be this coming Monday, so at least the students won't be going into it after almost two weeks out of school, but the teachers and I are disappointed they're canceling instead of just postponing it.

Personally, I've been trying to take advantage of the time away from school by getting other projects worked on (like the Barrier Analysis survey) and spending good recreational time away from my home, but I've really been missing being around the kids at work. I know things will be hectic as all get out next week, but it'll be good to get back into my routine.