Double Dessert Recipes!

I haven't posted any recipes lately; this must be remedied immediately.

First we have an upside down cake I made for July 4th, followed by some rich Milo brownies.

For the Fourth of July, I wanted to make something that said summer to me. I remembered to a few years ago when I made an incredibly messy layered pound cake with peach filling. It was delicious but not quite right for this event. Besides the peaches I found at Super J were just about the sorriest stone fruit I've ever met. The whole ordeal made me really want some ripe, warm, perfect Hill Country peaches out of a paper bag. That'll have to wait a week, though. Nevertheless, people enjoyed the cake, especially fellow PCV Ann! This post is dedicated to her.

The spiced peach filling for the upside down cake can work as preserves on its own. You can put it in a sterilized jar for long shelf life, or put it in clean tupperware in the fridge to keep for a week or so.

Super Spiced Peach Upside Down Cake
Cake
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1-2 peaches, sliced into eighths
lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375F.

Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir butter to soften, then mix it with dry ingredients. Add milk and vanilla. Mix until all flour is dampened.

Beat batter 2 minutes medium/300 strokes by hand. Add eggs, beat 1 minute/150 strokes more.

In one greased 8" round pan, pour a little more than 1/2 of the batter.

Heat 2 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp sugar in sauce pan until bubbly, pour into second greased 8" round pan. Arrange peach slices on top of this mix, sprinkle with lemon juice. Pour the rest of the cake batter on top.

Bake for 35 minutes, you know the regular cake/toothpick stuff. Let them cool, take a lime.

Spiced Peach Filling
3-5 peaches
1-2 packets of gelatin
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water (maybe a little more)
1-2 dried cloves
1 tsp cinnamon or 1 medium stick
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
orange peel
dash (or two) cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp lemon juice

To skin the peaches, dunk them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Let them cool a bit, and the peel should come off pretty easily. Dice them into 1/2" chunks.

Place diced peaches in a saucepan, sprinkle with gelatin, stir over low heat. Add sugar and water. If you have cheese cloth or something like that, tie the clove, orange peel and cinnamon stick in it, and put it in the saucepan. If not, be prepared to fish those out. Add ground cinnamon (if using that), nutmeg, and cayenne. Stir. Let this cook down some, about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from heat, remove clove, cinnamon stick, and orange peel. Add lemon juice, stir. Let cool completely.


COMBINE FORCES!
This works best if the cakes have had plenty of time to rest--I refrigerated mine almost immediately after they came out of the oven, but that made them denser than I would have liked. But chilling or freezing them before assembly is a good idea.

Get your plain cake upside down onto the serving dish. If your pan is greased well enough and the cake has rested and chilled, just pick it out upside down. Spread your filling on top of that, then take your peach upside down cake, turn it upside down, and put it on top. How lovely.


Milo Brownies
Oh my you're missing out if you've never had Milo!
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup Milo powder
1/4 cup flour
pinch salt

Grease medium sized pan, preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, beat to combine well. In a separate bowl mix cocoa powder, Milo, flour, and salt. Slowly fold in dry ingredients to the wet. Mmm, doesn't that smell good?

Pour into your greased medium sized pan, bake 30-35 minutes, brownie/toothpick fun. I ended up having to leave it in for about 43 minutes, because my dish is deeper than I would like.

Let it cool! Oooh it smells good but let it cool. In fact, after you have some warm gooey brownie goodness, put it in the fridge, and it'll be even better the next day. Milo has vitamins and stuff, so you can pretend it's a good breakfast if you ignore all the sugar and butter in there!

A successful week (so far)

Sunday I went to a "Fun Fair" that was actually about AIDS awareness, to observe World AIDS Day on December 1. Some of the schools in the southern districts had skits or songs, although it seemed like there was some miscommunication between some schools and the organizers. There also weren't many people attending that weren't in direct relation to what was on the program. I saw some teachers I knew, and one of them introduced me to the organizers. I gave my email to one of them, because I think this event could be even bigger next year, and it should be, and I might be able to help with that. So hurray for making a step forward on one of the PC target areas, AIDS awareness and prevention.

I have had more success this week in my phonics classes with the kindergarteners. Partly it's due to my asking a couple of teachers to keep one or two children that had been giving me infinite problems. It's worked, at least. When the trouble kids aren't there, the other kids are still rambunctious (they are young kids, afterall), but they do listen to me. I also have been working on giving them incentives (e.g., sit still and be quiet for this song, and the next song you can dance around). I have started sending kids back to their classrooms if they misbehave to a point where I can't actually teach. I've also noticed that the easiest way to get their attention is to start the music (if it's not on) or stop it (if it is). My throat gets sore a little, but not nearly as bad.

Still, I know I'm not the kind of person who should be a teacher. I like organizing things and people, not controlling them (or trying to).

Yesterday at the Infant School the District Education Officer came and had a meeting with the task force committee (myself, the principal, the special needs teacher, and a teacher representing each grade). We talked about different activities we can do to improve the students' literacy and numeracy and therefore the school's test performance. Perhaps I'll get to work on getting a reading room running there, and maybe the afterschool program too. I'll see what I can do.

At Belle Vue I'm working on getting a small booth together about the Reading Room for the Open House/Showcase of Talent next week. It's neat because PCVs back in 2005 got the whole thing started, and it's still going. Hurray for sustainability!

On more personal notes, I sent the last of my Christmas packages today. I've only sent four, one to my mom & her house, one to my dad and grandma, one to Berney, and one to my Secret Santee. Unfortunately, I couldn't send the breadnuts to the last two that I had peeled and dried for that purpose. The post office wouldn't let me. It was very sad, since I wrote out instructions for cooking and all that, and I had to just cross it all out. But at least I don't need to worry anymore about sending anything else for a while. Sorry everyone else, I just can't afford it (it's cost around $15-25 for each package, in addition to contents).

This evening my neighbor Kathy invited me to the hospital's volunteer pizza party. She's an administrator from Iowa, and she's worked here at St. Jude's on and off for the past 14 years. I met some of the hospital staff, including groundsmen and doctors, and some nurses from Cuba, some med students from Switzerland, a priest from Nigeria, and some volunteer doctors that are only here a couple weeks from the US. It was really interesting to learn a little about all these people, and lots of fun to sit in on conversations in English between people who speak different languages back home. The pizza was interesting, too! One was vegetable (a frozen veggie mix of chopped green beans, carots, corn, cauliflower?), one was tuna, one was hot dog. This is how they do it down here, and though there were onions on all of them (I've been trying to get over it), I have to say the tuna pizza was actually pretty tasty!

Also, on Sunday after the AIDS event I passed by my friend Albert's house, and ended up staying for about an hour and a half to chat and have a bite to eat. He and his girlfriend Babsie are very nice and welcoming, as is the norm here. They gave me a huge soursop fruit, since Albert has a soursop tree in his yard. Now, I had already gotten myself into trouble when I bought too much fruit for the weekend, but I figured it would be ok. Well, this thing ripened, so I had to cut it open to taste, and now it's open and only a quarter eaten, despite my efforts eating and sharing with my neighbor. So I might get a chance to make some juice with it, except I only have one pitcher (which is perpetually filled with golden apple juice these days) and no large bottles, so even that might have to wait.

What is soursop? Well, if you remember waaaaay back to September, I wrote about sugar apples. Soursop is related, but pretty different. While a sugar apple is generally the size of a fist, this soursop is as big as a medium sized watermelon. It's spiny rather than scaly, and fibrous rather than grainy on the inside. The seeds are almost identical though, hard and black and shiny. Finally, the taste of the soursop is much like the sugar apple--very sweet, almost like plain old sugar--but with a very nice tangy flavor. Pretty much, it's delicious. To make the juice I should pour boiling water over it, press out the juice, add milk, and maybe sweeten it. Sounds like a delicious milk tea that could be served with tapioca pearls (bubble tea!) although I don't trust myself (or the availability of ingredients) to try that right now.

a week without a computer....

Last Sunday my power cord went out and my battery died, just before I was about to call my mom and write a post. So this past week (until today) I've been without a working laptop, and have barely gotten to even check my email.

Well that is taken care of (the power cord magically fixed itself, it seems), so here are a few photos I've been meaning to post.

Two Fridays ago I went to work at Belle Vue Combined, but the computers still were not in, so I ended up writing the titles and authors of all the chapter books in the reading room on little slips of paper by hand. It was exciting! I found more than one silverfish (and had to kill a couple of them). One was already dead, in this here book:

This was the last page in the book:

The next day I went to market (like I do most Saturdays, although not yesterday) and bought all of this food for $12 (which is a little over $4 in USD). All those green golden apples, all 14 of them, were had for $1. That's enough to make juice for three weeks. My juice costs only a few cents per glass to make, and it's a wonder that people buy Fruta and other expensive sugary not-one-hundred-percent juices. Pictured: Three cucumbers ($5), four oranges ($1), five passion fruit ($1), one bag of méwé in a bowl ($1), 14 golden apples ($1), one bag of string beans ($3).

Today this little guy was crawling outside my front door when I was coming in from hanging up my laundry. It was almost the size of my palm. I didn't want to kill it, but I didn't want it coming in, so I went inside and closed my front door and sprayed some Bop (insecticide, to kill and prevent bugs, "Get serious, use Bop!") along the edges of the doorframe (there are large gaps between the door and doorframe).
Sometime last week I came home to find this little guy in my sink. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I got it in my hands and took it outside, where it hopped in some bushes and away. I was sure to wash my hands and the sink thoroughly afterwards (frogs can carry samonella, if you didn't know).

Of course, the "events" that I will remember the week by are not captured in photos. But they include (in brief): figuring out what I'll be doing at VF Infant ("the sound of B is buh; bee buh bee buh bee buh bee buh"); having a horrible experience subbing for a third grade class that start out well but was entirely out of control by the end; spending the night in Rodney Bay at Haley's with some other PCVs and going to the weekly Gros Islet Jump Up (so many white people!) and getting ripped off on bus ride home.

Actually, when that last incident happened, I could have argued about it, but I was tired. It made me frustrated though, and I said "I hate being white here!" and then of course it hit me. Not the bus, but that that's part of why I'm here, is to experience being a minority, and to have people think I'm foolish and having people try to take advantage of me. I guess me not arguing it doesn't get me anywhere, but at that moment I looked at the situation and I thought that arguing wouldn't get me anywhere either (I had already given the driver a 5 dollar note for two people, expecting $2 change, knowing that it might only be 50c change, but he didn't give me any, and insisted that the fare was $3 per person, although at night the fare should be $2.25 per person). But I'm finally in a place where I can't know how to get everywhere all the time, and I have to rely on the help of people I don't know (look at the Halloween adventure!), and even though it's not my first time being in a minority, the situation is even more pronounced. It's beginning to give me a new perspective on what Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Middle Easterners experience all the time when they're surrounded by people who look and treat them differently.

Vieux Fort Schools; Halloween (not related)

Yesterday I was scheduled to go work at Belle Vue Combined (the same grades as an elementary school in the states, up to grade 6), but instead I went with the teachers at Vieux Fort Primary to their development day activity.

We went to students' houses in Bruceville and the Mang in Vieux Fort Town to see what conditions the kids were living in, so we could understand the challenges they face at home that might interfere with their education, or likewise the support that helps it. These neighborhoods are pretty much the slums of the Vieux Fort area, and are located in or near downtown. Much of Bruceville is referred to as "shanty town" because the houses were built haphazardly on a bit of land with no planning. They are built on concrete or wooden stilts a few feet high usually, and the houses are thin wooden sheets, only a step above plywood. Roofs are sheet steel, and the fences are patches of long rusting sheet steel about 4x4 feet, nailed together. It seems like most people have an electricity connection, though some don't; many (perhaps most in this neighborhood) don't have running water. Trash is strewn all over the ground (there were a few times when the other teachers and I were taken aback when people just tossed it on the ground. One teacher asked if there was a bin around that she could put some trash in, and the resident told her to just put it on the ground). Some people have animals like goats, pigs, and chickens. Goats are usually tied up; the others are let run as they may.

As we went along meeting parents and grandparents we had a survey sheet to fill out. It asked questions like: Mother/Father/Guardian's employment; parents' and siblings' education levels; whether they had electricity, water, books, newspapers, radio, television (Miss Sherene always skipped over the one about computers); where and how often they went to church, and whether they had a Bible; and if children were given chores, help with homework, and did other activities with parents (many said they took their kids to the beach or shopping regularly).

At each home we were greeted warmly (sometimes too warmly: one woman was bathing in a fenced area where the outhouse is. As we walked to the front door of the house, she called from behind us, "I'm busy, I'm not doing laundry," so we looked and there she was, completely naked and dripping from her shower. We tried to get out of that situation quickly, though she was not at all uncomfortable with it), and parents were not shy or dishonest about what they had or didn't have. Most had nice things to say about us and the kids. One mom we spoke with (and other groups reported similar conversations) told us that her son, a boy that I've been working with personally, insists on doing his homework by himself even though he can't read or write (yet!! I'm working on it with him. He's in Grade 4), and also that every night he asks for KFC for dinner. KFC is very expensive (between $10-15 for combo meals, $20-30 for family dinners), especially considering that similar meals would cost less than half if made at home, and many families have only one employed member, if that, and are seriously scraping to get by. Most families said that they or the older siblings help our students with homework, but that doesn't necessarily show when we look at their work in class (this is one of the reasons I think an after school tutoring program would be so helpful).

After the visits, we went back to the school for lunch (the third free lunch I enjoyed that week--It's nice because I cut back on my expenses, but then again I end up having left over food for over a week that needs to be consumed), then we went to visit three other schools in the district. (I had already visited all three before, and I ended up knowing more about them than my coworkers.)

The first was Vige (pronounced Veezhay), a rural school with four classrooms and 55 students in grades K-6. The VF Primary teachers were agap at the size and at the effort those teachers must have to put in to teach not only mixed-ability classrooms, but mixe classes too.

Next we visited Belle Vue, a school I work at on Fridays, helping mainly in the computer lab. The fact that this school has a computer lab says something about it. It also has a learning center with televisions, projectors, board games, and books; murals a paintings all over the school yard of educational games for kids to play and learn at break and lunch; a school garden of fruit and vegetables (I'm not sure if they sell the produce or use it in the kitchen); and two little meditation gardens where kids can go read and be in a peaceful, relaxing area outside. The classrooms were not as bare as those in VF Primary. The effects of this stimulating learning environment shows: Belle Vue has pretty good test scores for the area.

Finally (after school got out at 3pm) we went to Blanchard, a school that is participating in a test program called SET, where classrooms are made with themes to promote the idea that learning is fun. The VF teachers also liked these classrooms, but overall they were most impressed with Belle Vue. It's supposed to be a "sister school," in that they serve similar demographics and have similar resources, but in truth Belle Vue and Vieux Fort Primary stand on opposite ends of the District 6 spectrum of primary and combined schools.

After our visits to these schools, we went to a hotel bar where the principal bought a round of drinks for everyone. I felt bad because I ended up making everyone leave early. I was going to a Halloween party in a different town (about two hours away) that started at 6, so I had planned on going back home quickly after we were done so I could leave just after 4. Well, we didn't get to the bar until about 3:40, and so by 4:15 I told the principal that I had to go, and that I would catch a bus back into town, but he rounded every one up and we went back to VF Primary.

I didn't get home until about 5, and I didn't leave for Canaries until 5:45. It was already dark, and I took a bus to the mall where I thought I could catch a bus to Soufriere, but apparently I had to go all the way into town to get that bus, so I wasted about 20 minutes and $1.25 on that misconception (it does work that way for buses into Laborie on the same highway, so it wasn't unfounded, just wrong). I had to wait another 10 minutes once I got on the bus for it to fill up, and I spent the hour ride into Soufriere worrying because as soon as I left the house and tried to call my landlady to let her know I was going, my phone died (thankfully I had asked someone at her house to let her know just before I left). I knew there was a chance that the bus up from Soufriere that should pass through Canaries might not run often that time of night (I got into Soufriere a little after 7. So early, but because it's already dark there's no one out and fewer buses), and I knew I would cry if I couldn't find a ride, but the thing that kept me going was knowing that this was an adventure. Thankfully a woman in Soufriere walked me to the cemetery where I might be able to get a ride, and luckily a bus passed just as we were there, going to Canaries. When I had spoken to Jason (a PCV who also lives in Canaries) the other night on the phone, he wouldn't tell me exactly where the house was, instead saying I should just call him when I got off by the police station. It turned out the bus driver didn't have a phone either (his was stolen at Jounen Kweyol), but the first person I asked when I got off told me exactly where the house was, so that wasn't a problem. It was a stressful but very exciting journey, alone at night to a place I'd not only never been, I didn't even know where it was! I arrived just before 8.

No one else at the party could believe I was able to get buses at that hour. I changed into my costume, and everyone loved it. One of the neighbors, a boy about 11 years old, told some of the PCVs that my costume won. Unfortunately in my rush from home I forgot my camera, but here's a pic someone else took. What you can't see in the pic are the wings from the mesh laundry hamper, the white bands around my joints on my legs, and the lyre pattern in white paper on my back. This was the reference I used.

Last night was a ton of fun, though. It was nice to be around people I already know, and to just hang out and enjoy being social. This morning those of us that stayed in Canaries over night made a breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and golden apple juice (I used the green golden apples left over from last night's bobbing for golden apples).

When I finally got back home around 1:30 or 2pm today (Saturday) I had to take a nap before cleaning up my mess of an apartment. But now it's clean, and now I'm enjoying a more relaxing weekend.

Golden Apple Oatmeal Biscuits, etc.

I spent the better part of today cooking various items. After a trip to the market and a store and picking up my dress for tomorrow, I set out to cook a delicious lunch for myself. Well, I didn't eat the intended results until about 6:30, but cooking was so good at occupying me it was ok.

I made the green fig pie, the recipe back from almost two months ago, with some frozen veggies thrown in (and too much mustard), and some pinto beans that I had left over from the stew (I figured out how to get them soft, and now they are delicious), and some golden apple juice.

Golden apples aren't apples, and they are definitely not golden-delicious apples, so finding a recipe was really hard. Turns out their real real name is Spondias mombin, and they're called different things around the West Indies and Americas. So if you want to use them for these recipes, find out what they're called, whether it's hog plum, Spanish plum, jocote, or those-things-that-aren't-apples-and-they-in-fact-look-like-(but-taste-nothing-at-all-like)-potatoes-so-why-would-you-call-them-apples.

For both of these recipes I was pretty much just making them up as I went along, with the limited ingredients I already had in my kitchen (remember, I just moved in!). They came out great, though, so I hope you try them out too!

Golden Apple Juice
Ingredients
4 ripe golden apples
5 1/2 cups water (you may want to use less; I like my juice kind of weak)
1/2 cup brown sugar (you may want to use more; I don't like juices really sweet)

Directions
1. Cut sections off golden apples however possible. Peel skin off sections, put the pulp in a blender. Try to cut out the meat from the spines around the seed, too. After one you get the hang of it. Discard peels & seeds (or eat the peels, but they're pretty sour).
2. Blend by first pulsing a few times so all the meat starts breaking down. Then blend at high speeds to make it a very thick liquid. Add 1/2 cup water, blend a little more.
3. To press the juice: Pour a little of the juice into a strainer over a 1 liter pitcher. Use a spoon to stir, then press, out the watery juice from the pulp. Each pouring takes a few minutes to get nearly all the water out. Put the left over pulp in a bowl or saucepan and set aside (you can use this for the next recipe!).
4. Add water and sugar to pitcher, stir well. Stir the juice in the pitcher before pouring. Chill, serve over ice.

Golden Apple* Oatmeal Biscuits
(this recipe only makes 1 batch of 15 biscuits)
Ingredients
Dough:
3 cups flour
1 cup quick cook oatmeal (actually steel cut oats would probably be better)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp margarine
1/4 cup evaporated milk

Spread:
1/2 cup golden apple* pulp
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp evaporated milk
(next time I'll probably add just a little flour to thicken it up)

*Since golden apples are probably hard to find in the States, I think apricots are the closest approximation for taste. Either press out juice from 1lb fresh apricots using the method described above, or blend dried unsweetened apricots to use the pulp.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg Farenheit. Combine all dough ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. It will be pretty sticky, thick, and heavy.
2. On a nonstick or greased cookie sheet put large rounded drops of dough. Make a wide, shallow depression in each one.
3. Heat spread ingredients in a saucepan over low-medium heat, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes.
4. Spoon about 1 tsp of the heated spread into the depression in each biscuit (more if you can). Bake on middle rack 17-23 minutes. The edges of the bottoms and any little parts that stick out will be golden brown.
5. Brush with margarine or butter immediately after removing from oven. These would be great served with milk or for breakfast. No need for jam, it's already on there!

Of course, if you want just the biscuits by themselves, they're pretty tasty and a little (but not too) sweet. If you want the biscuits lighter, add a little yeast or more baking powder and let it set for a while before putting it on the cookie sheet.

So this was my extremely satisfying dinner:

feels like it's been more than a week and a half (pics later)

The past week has been very busy. Along with regular training and school internship stuff, there were extra homework assignments, requiring me to carry more things and go more places, and finally on Friday was our last full day of training.

Thursday in addition to whatever else I ended up needing to do (I really don't remember, it seemed like so much) I went by my new apartment to check it out, meet the landlady, give her the rent agreement, and get the inventory. Looks like I lucked out--there are many things already here, since there were a couple Peace Corps volunteers who have lived here before me. And cable and internet are provided by my landlady, so I get to save more money for vacation (which means I'll get to catch up on fellow volunteers who have more funds back home)

Friday I was sad that I couldn't go to Laborie to see La Magueritte, a cultural festival in which different groups do performances and dress up and have princes and princesses and kings and queens. I don't have pictures on my computer, so maybe another day I'll upload the pics Manman took.

Saturday I went with my host parents up to Pidgeon Point, in the fancy touristy north part of the island. It was organized by the Peace Corps, so almost all of us trainees were there with our host families. Everyone brought food and there were so many tasty dishes. It was neat to meet everyone's families, since we've all heard things about all the others. A few of us went on a hike for a couple hours going around the hills there, and exploring the ruins of old colonial buildings. The views were pretty neat, and it was a good hike. We even grabbed a few guavas from a tree on the way back. And one of the locals, Jason's host cousin (?), talked the park people into not charging us for the hike.

Saturday night I went out after dark by myself for the first time. In downtown Vieux Fort at The Old Plantation Restaurant was a cultural music event organized by my friend Fay. It was a lot of fun, and of course I ended up seeing one of the boys I work with at school. No pictures unfortunately of this event, but it included a group of drum dancers and a band. There were supposed to be more, but there was some confusion between Fay and the restaurant owner about the time of the event. It ended early and I went home to pack, but fell asleep on my floor (and my clothes in a suitcase) after less than an hour. It was a long day.

Sunday seemed even longer. I finished packing in the morning, then walked down to the Super J (the big chain grocery store around the island) to get food and supplies for my new apartment. I spent $400EC there, and of course there are plenty of things I didn't/couldn't get there. Albert, a taxi driver that's a friend of Manman (who lives down the street from me now) picked me up there, then we went home, packed up the van with my luggage, and moved everything into my apartment. After putting away groceries, Manman and I walked back to her house (about 35 min walk, at about noon) for lunch. I thought I would get ready to go soon after that, but she insisted I just hang out and watch TV or something. I guess she was sad to see me go, even though I'm going to be around and visit often (more on that later). So she walked me back around 4pm, passing by her cousin's house on the way, and showing me a place past the brewery where there are roads going all through a grassy area where I can start jogging (it was originally going to be an industrial complex, but only one or two factory shells were put up, and they are long out of work). Once home I continued to unpack, although a lot of my time was spent going through the kitchen and cleaning lots of dishes and appliances. I didn't get to sleep until midnight, even later I think.

Monday I went up to Castries for the final interview of training, to make sure I was in good condition for swearing in. Sharmon (pretty much my Peace Corps boss/supervisor) said I had done very well in training, and that I had surprised everyone because I'm competent (good, some might even say) at working with kids who need help in school. Who new? Well, they didn't expect it because I was quiet in training. That day we also practiced for swearing in, and got information about reporting, monitoring, and evaluation throughout service. Which is nice, since it'll give us (and the PC office, and Washington) good quantifiable things to see what we've actually accomplished.

After training Kelli and I went through the market up in Castries, where I picked up some garlic, a dasheen, some okra, and a big red tomato (that alone was $4, but they're expensive here). We also went by a home improvement store, where I picked up most of the things I still needed, like towels and an iron. I lugged home a heavy tote bag and a big bag o' stuff. That night I prepared things to make stew the next morning. And of course I watched Heroes.

I did make stew on Tuesday morning before school, and it turned out ok, but I'll definitely need to revise it a few times before I'll post a full recipe. Suffice to say, though, it included green plantain, dasheen, pinto beans, okra, cabbage, pumpkin, and carrot. The really cool thing about stew is that for about $12 plus energy and time, I get a good 10 meals.

After work on Tuesday I walked between a few stores and got some more things that I needed and things that aren't necessary but nice to have. I got some instant coffee and some powdered cocoa, which made me jittery the next morning. Before I went home on Tuesday I also picked up some grapefruits from a fruit vendor on the street ($2 for 4 big ones), who I talked a little with and who I saw the next night on the bus. I remembered his name but he didn't remember mine (which doesn't usually happen).

Wednesday was our Swearing-In Ceremony. Manman and my point person, the District 6 Education Officer (Mr. Joseph), as well as the families and point persons of other trainees, and a bunch of gov't officials, and current volunteers, and.... well they all attended, and it was nice. I and three other volunteers (we had by this time taken our oath of office) read an address in Kwéyòl written by our instructor, and everyone was surprised and impressed with our pronunciation (although the four of us were selected because of that quality, and just because we could say things doesn't mean that we know what they mean). It was a nice ceremony though, and catered with delicious finger foods.

After the ceremony, the volunteers all headed over to a restaurant/bar in Rodney Bay (where all the hoity toity touristy types go, so everything is pretty expensive) for a send-off for Judy, who trained with us but will be working in Dominica. It was fun getting to hang out with everyone, and I was sad that I had to leave at 4 to get home before it got late, since most other people who lived south were spending the night with Haley, who lives there in Rodney Bay. But I had work at the school in the morning today so I couldn't stay.

At lunch today (Thursday) Manman came by the school and took me down the street to a seamstress so I can have a dress made with the madras cloth for Jounen Creole on Sunday. I'll even get have my hair in corn rows, according to Manman, and then I'll be ready for Creole Mass and the celebration that goes along with the day. Expect pictures!

Well, after a few nights of being on my own, I'm feelig comfortable in the place. It's nice to have things to do in the evenings (cook and clean), and I feel like I'm doing things nicely. On Monday evening I made some popcorn on the stove, and I don't ever want to waste money on microwavable popcorn again. There was so much of it! I'm still eating it a few days later. Most of my meals consist of either sandwiches filled with lots of veggies and some cheese and a cut-up chicken hot dog, or some soup and bread. Lots of fruit, too.

I feel like I'll get to know plenty of people around here eventually. One of my neighbors in this apt complex has made herself available for anything I need, and she's invited me to an election night party. Things are nice in general.

Well, it's very late (almost 12:30am!), waaaaaay past my bedtime, and I'm going to a school on the other side of town in the morning, so I think it's time to turn in.

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!

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.