Term 2

We are three weeks into the second term of the school year (we have 3 terms - the first runs from September to December, the second from January to April, and the third from April to July). This is the sports term, which means that classes are disrupted frequently so the students can go practice cricket or netball. Pretty soon, they will choose students to play on the school team, which will travel around the island to play tournaments against other schools. The students have also been divided into houses and at the end of February, we have a "Sports Day," when students from each house play each other in the different sports. This is a really fun term for the students, but certainly not very academically inclined.
I've started to get more involved at school and in the community, so I'm quite a bit busier this term. I'm still involved with the remedial English class, but I've also branched out a bit. The principal asked me to teach a science class this term, and even though I have NO teacher qualifications whatsoever, I agreed. I teach integrated science to 40 Form 1 students 5 periods a week. It's not a lot, but between class control and lesson plans, it can feel overwhelming sometimes. I do enjoy it, though - it gives me a chance to get to know the students a little more and I'm happy for the opportunity to make science fun and interesting. I also have been working with the Form 5 chemistry classes. I sit in and assist the teacher twice a week, and starting next week, I'll be leading a weekly after-school study/discussion session with the students. I'm also working with other Emmanuel teachers to start a Young Leaders Organization. The students involved will work on an environmentally themed, community based project that they research, plan and implement. In May, all the participating schools get together to present their projects, and the top three groups are awarded prizes. We are still in the (very) beginning stages, but I'm excited to see how the group progresses over the next 4 months. At the primary school, I have begun teaching a 5th grade music class once a week, which is really fun. We're just starting the basics, but in a few weeks, we're going to start learning to play the recorder. The kids are really excited about this and so am I! I'm still working with the Adult and Continuing Education Center - we are planning an open-house for the first week in March, when all community members can come out, see what classes are being offered and give feed-back on our operations in Mespo. I am also tutoring math and English twice a week at the Girl's Home in my neighborhood. And finally, I am working with other PCVs to plan a basketball summer camp in communities around the island. It's a heavy load, but I'm really interested in everything I'm involved in, so I have fun with it.
In other news, I FINALLY recieved the letters from Tomahawk Elementary School (2 1/2 months after they were mailed). SVG has been promised a postal code, which should help fix this problem. I will be sending individual responses to each student, but for now, let me answer some of the common questions I was asked.
I really like to travel. I have lived in many states (Virgina, Maryland, Texas, Ohio, Florida) and have visited several countries in Europe (Italy - I lived here for 6 months, France, Poland, Switzerland). I hope that I can travel even more and would like to visit Asia and South America.
Some of my hobbies are playing the flute, writing poetry and doing crossword puzzles. I also really enjoy swimming, but where I live is kind of far from the beach, so I don't go often.
My favorite color is green, which is perfect in St. Vincent, since everything is green here all the time.

Back to School

The Christmas vacation officially ended on Friday and today was our first day back at school. I'm glad to be back in a schedule, but I was just starting to get good at doing nothing all day, so I'm kind of mixed. Today was pretty uneventful for me, because it was a teacher planning day - this roughly translates into 'last minute scramble to get grades in/complain about how the break wasn't long enough.' I don't assign grades and there is only so much complaining I can do, so I left at lunch. This week will probably be spent weaning the students off their holiday sugar/tv rush, which will be a nice, slow transition for teachers too. I am excited about this semester - I'm going to try to spread out a bit in the community and get some really interesting projects going. I'll post more when I get a little more settled into to a schedule.
Now to backtrack a bit - in between Christmas and New Year's, I visited one of the Vincentian waterfalls with some friends. The waterfall is called Dark View Falls and is located in Chateau-Belair, a community on the north-Leeward side of the island. Another volunteer's sister and brother-in-law were visiting and we drove in their rental car (which, hands down, beats a van) to the waterfall. It was about 1 1/2 drive, once we left Mespo. The waterfall is amazing! We had to walk across a bridge made entirely of bamboo and then a bamboo forest to get to it. There are actually 3 parts - lower, middle and upper. We were able to get to the lower falls and the middle falls, but to get to the upper falls, you have to climb part of a mountain using vines, and as we are neither skilled climbers nor goats, we passed (I say goats, because the goats here really seem to enjoy climbing things - if you have one in your yard, you can be sure that it will find the highest rock and stand on it). Actually, I thought the climb to the middle falls was a bit precarious, but everyone else deemed it safe, so we went. I have posted pictures of the falls - they really are breathtaking.
I spent New Year's in Bequia. It was a really nice time - they put on an awesome fireworks show (or so I thought - they say it was 100 times better last year). We really enjoyed our last days of freedom, since most of us returned to work today. I have a few pictures - I will probably add them to the existing Bequia album. I added one picture of a bolley tree - notice the large, round, green fruit. People cut these in half and hollow them out, then carve or paint designs on each half and use them as bowls. They look really cool when finished, I'll try to take a picture of one.
I hate to end on a sad note, but something ate my little pepper - I suspect chickens.

9 Mornings Update and Holiday Cookies

As it turns out, my original goal of going to 9 Mornings every day was entirely too ambitious. Especially since I never get to bed before 11 pm and the 3:30 am wake up requirement left me in a perpetual zombie-like trance. I did manage to haul myself out of bed for 3 of the 9 Mornings and was glad I did. First of all, it is amazing to be outside in the early morning in St. Vincent because it's cool, quiet and you can see approximately 1 billion stars. And since it is so dark out in the country (coupled with the severe lack of sleep), the lights at 9 Mornings seem even more stunning. The entertainment varied each day, but usually there was some sort of karyoke, guessing games for children, traditional Vincentian dishes like callalou* and bush teas**, costume contests and special appearences by local celebrities. The ceremonies are generally aimed at children, but adults join in the fun as well. The organizers also created special contests for Vincentians living abroad who returned for the Christmas season and visitors experiencing 9 Mornings for the first time. The first day (Tuesday, December 16th), I went to the Carriere 9 Mornings, which is about a half hours walk from my house. I thought it was really nice, although it was on a much smaller scale than other 9 Mornings. On Thursday, December 18th, I went to 9 Mornings in Kingstown, which was significantly larger and more crowded. We tried to go to the Mespo 9 Mornings, but someone apparently dropped the ball, because even though they hung a sign and lights, no one ever organized the 9 Mornings ceremony! Fortunately, a van drove through at 4 am and took us to town. This day was "Audience Day," so anyone who wanted could go up on stage and sing or dance. Skarpyon, a local celebrity, also performed on this day. The last 9 Mornings I attended was on Tuesday, December 23rd in Carriere. I think everyone was pretty tired by this time, because it started an hour late, a pretty significant delay in a 2 hour ceremony! All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw of 9 Mornings. I'm glad that I was able to experience this entirely Vincentian tradition and I hope to power through at least 4 or 5 mornings next Christmas. I'm posting the few pictures I have.
On Wednesday, December 17th, I invited the other volunteers over and we made Christmas cookies, which may be an entirely American tradition as my neighbors and friends here thought it was strange that we would bake cookies instead of cakes. Even so, we had a lot of fun and watched Christmas-y movies like "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas." In fact, it was so fun that I invited some of the neighborhood kids over yesterday to bake Christmas cookies. It made for quite a crowded kitchen (4 - 6 kids plus me), but they were great - there was surprisingly little fighting over who got to do what and then only thing they needed help with was cracking the eggs. The most fun part was that each kid got his or her own bowl of dough to add food coloring to. Most of them went a bit color-happy and ended up with greenish-brown gloop, but there were a few nice looking results (notably a purple and green swirl pattern). The important thing is everyone had fun and it was a great way to curb boredom for an afternoon.
On an unrelated note, those of you following this blog will be excited to know that my eggplant plant survived the caterpillar mauling and is now growing new leaves and the pepper plant has begun to form a tiny bell pepper!
Happy Holidays!

*Callalou is a soup made from dasheen leaves (called callalou), coconut milk, potatoes (or other starch) and some kind of meat.
**Bush teas are just teas made from local plants (bush).

A Very Vincy Christmas

Here is a Vincy-style version of "'Twas the night before Christmas," written completely in dialect (by me). It's certainly not perfect (my dialect definately isn't!), but it's not bad and should make for a fun read. I've added some translation notes at the bottom. Enjoy!

‘Twas e night befo Chrismas an all tru Hairoun
All nayga was windin to e new Soca tune.
De cutlasses heng on e front porch wit might
Ready to chop jus in case of a fight.

Nine marnings dun now, all dat sweet bacchanal
An mammy bin kill e fat holiday fowl.
E breadfruit dun roas an e pickney bin lick
Der was nottin to do, ‘cept wait fuh St. Nick.

E pickney was sleepin, tree to a bed
Wile tots of guava jelly dance in dey head.
An mammy in she kerchif and unclo in he cap
Had jus settloed in fuh a lang winter nap.

When out in e yard der arose such a drum
Dat mammy jump up an yell “Rain ah go come!”
She run to e window to close up e shutter
Bu instead see a man in a red Chrismas sweater.

“Way yo a do?” yell she a e man in she yard.
“Leave arwe or me chap yo real hard!”
Bu e man only smile in he red Christmas sweater.
Which mus a bin hot in e tropical wedder.

E man belly real roun along wit he bum
He nose like red mango fuh all dat strong rum
He beard lang and white jus like a new rag
An he drogh on he back a big scarlet bag.

He reach in he bag an he nar mek a soun
Wile he a lay plenty of gif on e groun.
Toys fuh e pickney, a fish fuh e cat
An fuh mammy a red an blue Church-gwine hat.

Den fas as iguana, he turn an he run
An he jump in e front of a idloing van.
An as e van drive, he yell out e rear -
“Ah bussin it, Merry Chrismas, yo hear!”

**Translation Notes**

Hairoun = SVG
All nayga = everyone
windin = dancing
bacchanal = a fun time
pickney = children
"Rain ah go come" = "It's going to rain"
"Way yo a do" = "What are you doing"
"Leave arwe" = "Leave us alone"
fuh = for
drogh = carry
nar = never
gwine = going
"Ah bussin it" = "I'm leaving"

Nine Mornings Kick-Off

On Sunday, I went to the 9 Mornings Kick-Off Festival in Kingstown. 9 Mornings is a strictly Vincentian celebration, which runs from the 16th of December to the 24th of December, basically the 9 mornings before Christmas. 9 Mornings events are held all over the island, and the village with the best 9 Mornings celebration wins the title of "Best 9 Mornings." Last year, the title went to Carriere, a village within walking distance of my house! Each morning, people assemble really early (around 4 am) at their local 9 Mornings celebration, although not every village has one. There, they play Christmas games, sing carols, eat and drink and make merry. The party lasts until about 7 am, when people have to start going to work. Everyone has been talking about 9 Mornings for months now, so I know it will be great. The Kick-Off Festival was really nice. There was a parade through town, which ended in the main square, where the big event was held. There was a Christmas concert and the Minister of Culture spoke and, as always, there was tons of food. Plus, a surprise fireworks show (or at least, a surprise to me). I'm posting pictures. Tomorrow evening, Carriere is having a Kick-Off Festival too, which I am also attending so I will put up pictures of that as well.
Yesterday was our last day of school. We had a school closing assembly in our "assembly room," which is really just a bunch of classrooms that connect through partitions. The teachers gave a short sermon and then led the students in some Christmas carols. It was nice, but a bit noisy. Both campuses met at the main campus, and that is a lot of students in a small space. I also tried my first red mango, which is a mango that has been soaked in a vinegar solution - it looks and tastes kind of like a pickled beet. People here love them, and they're really not bad after the initial shock of the vinegar taste.

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.

Bequia Wedding

The wedding in Bequia was a beautiful experience. One of the PCVs was the acting priest and the bride and her bridesmaids wore bathing suits and sarongs while the groom and his groomsmen wore bathing suits and ties. We had it right on this beautiful, nearly deserted beach. The bride and groom have been officially married for two years yesterday, but it was nice that they finally were able to have a ceremony. I'm posting pictures.
The only negative about this weekend was that it rained a lot. It's been raining on and off all day since Thursday, with no end in sight. What this means is that I get really wet walking to work and half the students don't even show up. Which is really unfortunate, because this is the last official week of classes. The students start exams next Monday and this week is their opportunity to review the semester's materials. Once exams begin, the students don't keep regular school hours - they only go during their exam blocks. This will be nice for me, because I'll get a chance to work on some lesson plans and activities for next semester. Plus, I'll get an opportunity to catalogue our reading room books - then, next semester, we can build a library system and allow the students to take books home. I'm not sure if they will, but it will still be exciting that they CAN.
Next Thursday, we're joining the Taiwanese Embassy for a Thanksgiving feast. The Taiwanese are preparing traditional Taiwanese foods and we are each preparing a traditional Thanksgiving food. I'm making an apple pie, which is quite American and hopefully very delicious. Tomorrow, I'm going to town to hunt for butter for my pie, which, like all dairy products, is rare on St. Vincent and expensive. Hopefully I'm able to find it at the 'imported-foods' grocery store.