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.

Good Food, Good Friends...

That's what life is all about, right? Well, almost. :)

As most of you know, this past Wednesday was my birthday. I'm now 23, a rather unexciting number, other than being a prime. Many thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. Diana sent me this pic, I think it sums things up pretty well:

That morning was off to a sour start...I was volunteered to sub for a teacher who was absent. I actually took that same class on Monday, and that went over pretty well, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard. Unfortunately, the children's notebooks were unavailable because the keys to the cabinet were also absent. So though I tried just going over the homework, it was extremely difficult to get the attention of the class, and before lunch my voice was already sore from trying to be heard over the talking. However, even before lunch the principal came up and had the class distributed throughout the other first grade classes (which is what's usually done when a teacher is absent). After lunch (which the principal bought for me, some tasty soup) I and Sister Mary subbed a different class who had maths assignments, and that was rather pleasant.

I came home and talked with Berney on Skype while making cookie dough--see above for the recipe! Fae came over around 5, and we hung out and watched TV and baked cookies until Randy, Nethelia, and Ellery also joined us. It was very nice to have just a few close friends over for my birthday--it wasn't stressful trying to host many people, and it wasn't depressing having no one over. Everyone loved the cookies (the sparkling wine less so, since it was really cheap).

I also now understand the cake thing. Nethelia brought me a pretty little cake (it's delicious!) that she made. Its about 3-4 inches tall, and the circumfrence of a tea saucer. I offered some, but no one took. I had noticed at previous birthday parties that cakes were present, but the fancy cakes weren't cut and shared among the guests. Honestly I thought that it seemed greedy, but the other night it was explained to me: The birthday person is given a small cake to last them the entire month. This makes it very special, since it's just for you and you're not obligated to share it. People (other than children) don't receive gifts for birthdays, but they are given a fantastic little cake that should last 30 days if you portion it right.


This week has been very busy.

Saturday I went up to Castries to pick up a couple packages from my mom! She sent tax-related documents, candy, Asimov books, and a very special (broken, but meant to be built again) spaceship. What a great gift for my birthday! (I've already started reading the next book in the Robot series.) I also was able to get my trimesterly report and my 6-month work plan done on the computer at the PC office.

Sunday I made soup. I made A LOT of soup. I have a decently large pot, and it was almost filled to the top. I had a bowl, fixed it, had a little more, then put half of it in tupperware to freeze. That took four containers. I was able to push more of the non-frozen stuff to the guests on Wednesday, so now I only have 9 more servings :) I'm proud of this soup because it tasted so much better than my previous soup (though it looks largely the same, I guess!). It has carrots, onions, chives, parsely, cabbage, okra, christophen (chayote squash), pumpkin, green fig, rice, chicken stock, and some chicken bones and scraps. I was especially proud because, as I said, I had a bowl and then I was able to fix it, adding more salt and a couple spices that I thought would round it out. It worked! It's a very filling and decently tasty soup, without using the pre-packaged seasoning that pretty much just adds MSG (which isn't a bad thing, I'm just glad I could make it completely from scratch!).

Monday afterschool I had to run up to Castries for an errand, Tuesday I went to Piaye to check out Jess's afterschool program, Wednesday was the birthday stuff, Thursday I tried to go meet the counselor at Camus A (unsuccessfully), and today I did meet with her (very successfully!). Now I have a free weekend before in-service training up past Castries. So I'm trying to catch up on little things that I should have done earlier. Like this post! :)

quick mid-week update

I was supposed to have an assessment of sorts yesterday while at my internship, but the person who was going to assess me couldn't make it. So I'm expecting a call from him to reschedule for tomorrow, although I have a shadowing assignment with another PCV tomorrow, so I'm not sure how it'll all work out. If we had had more time & info about the activity & assignment I don't think there would really be a problem, but here we are. Flexibility is one of the PC qualities emphasized, after all.

I got a package from my mom today! It's very exciting. I have clothes--more t-shirts, shorts, pants & such. Thanks mom!

I'm nearly done with The Hobbit, and next I will move on to God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Vonnegut. I like reading. :)

On Saturday I was bitten many times by mosquitoes. There are small red spots all over my legs still left, but even worse, there are a couple of very red patches where I must have been bitten by a spider or something. These spots itch still!

During training up in Castries we've taken to playing "Suzette" by Herb Black, the Soca Monarch for 2008--it's an award-winning calypso song, in other words. Well, when you listen to the song you have to dance to it if at all possible. So I've gotten plenty of (toned-down) wining and shaking and "bat-bat"ing in at the office. Here's a good video of it, since you can see also what the schools here look like from the outside. It's hilarious and awful though that he's singing this song for kids, and having them dance to it. Try to figure out what the song is about. Check out the blue video on youtube too, it has the song with full music quality but no video.

Manman bakes cakes (like coffee cakes, but moist and better than any kind you'd find in a store), and they are delicious, and it's a good thing I'm moving out in two and a half weeks, because I'd get fat really quickly otherwise.

Leaving!

I'm leaving this morning (later, perhaps after a couple hours of sleep). I'm sort of nervous, but not too much yet. I spent several hours packing and unpacking and repacking, since I didn't bother measuring my suitcases until after I was done. I found out my large suitcase is a few inches beyond the limit, and the two combined were way past the combined limit for size, so I had to leave a few more things out and put clothes into a hanging/folding bag.

I think I'll go try to get some sleep. I don't know how well it will work. :-/ I'm also afraid I'll run out of reading material quickly, since I just started Caves of Steel by Asimov, and it's by Asimov, so I won't be able to put it down. I don't really have room for other books, though.

OK SLEEP