Thanksgiving and World AIDS Day

Hello again. We're in our last few days of exams now and I and the students alike are really looking forward to the break. I hope to use it to explore SVG a little more.
Thanksgiving was amazing. Like I said before, it was at the Taiwanese Embassy and each PCV signed up to make a dish. I, along with 2 others, signed up for apple pie, and since I live the closest to the Embassy (about 25 minutes by bus), we spent Wednesday night here baking, baking, baking. The pie making went reasonably well. Our first attempt at crust was a sticky mess, but it tasted good anyway. And then we nearly forgot to add sugar to our first pie, but it fortunately became our penultimate step, just before we pushed it into the oven. Fears of exhausing our propane supply (my oven/stove runs on a propane tank) were unrealized in the end and all 5 pies (that's 3 hours of oven time) were delicious, if a bit lopsided. The transformation from pie #1 to pie # 5 is actually quite amazing - with our baking and teamwork skills refined, we were ready to open our own bakery...that exclusively serves apple pie, as that's the only thing we make well. I'll post pictures when the photographer of the night emails them to me.
So, back to Thanksgiving. We arrived at the Embassy at minutes to 12, carrying pies only slightly worse off for the van ride (a testament to our skills) and were astonished by the sheer amount of food that awaited us. The event was large - 26 PCVs plus staff, 4 Taiwanese volunteers and the entire staff of the Taiwanese Embassy pushed our numbers to 40+ - but I think we had food for twice that. Someone donated 2 enormous turkeys of at least 30 - 40 pounds each, we had buckets of mashed potatoes, gallons of cranberry sauce, ham, green bean casserole, stuffing, yams, apple and pumpkin pies, cheesecake, spice cake, PLUS an assortment of delicious Taiwanese foods. It was fantastic. And on top of all that, they had really good coffee, a luxury I've been craving since I got here. It was really nice to interact with the Taiwanese volunteers as well. They are working with agro-tourism and they also have a 2-year commitment. At the end of the afternoon, the Embassy bestowed us with parting gifts - a mug and re-useable shopping bag displaying their national bird, the blue-magpie. It was such a great time that PCVs unanimously suggested that we hold Thanksgiving every 6 months!
Yesterday, December 1st, was World AIDS Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness worldwide about HIV and AIDS. At EHS, we were able to have a short program for all Form 2 students about HIV and AIDS, run by a nurse from the Mespo clinic and a representative of the SVG AIDS Secretariat. I think it was really successful - the facilitators spoke about how to prevent the spread of HIV and, more importantly, how to reduce the stigma associated with the disease. At the end of the presentation, the students asked a lot of (mostly) thoughtful questions and I think the overall response was positive. I think that it is important to put the issues out there as often as possible - really push the subject so that people understand fully that HIV is about lifestyle choices, that it is a truly preventable disease. I hope that our presentation will prompt EHS students to make better choices in the coming years. I will post pictures when they are emailed to me.