Last Week of School/Parents

We just finished our last official week of Term 2 and I am more than happy to be nearly on vacation. I say nearly because even though grades were due yesterday, we still have 2 - 3 full days of school next week. Since we're not taking any more grades, I'm not sure what the class schedule will be like...I'm hoping that there are some planned, school-wide activities, but I somehow doubt that. More likely, we'll be acting as glorified babysitters.
I had a good term, albeit a busy one. Overall, this was a learning term for me. I find that I am just now getting into the swing of things, even though we've been here for nearly 7 months. In many ways, it would have been an easier transition had we begun our service 2 months earlier (July 2008). That way, we could have been finished with training and ready to work for the start of school (September 1, 2008). As it stands, we spent just 1 day per week in the schools for the entire months of September and October. By the time we got into the schools full time, everything was winding down, exams were starting and we really didn't get to make the training - work transition I was hoping for. Instead, I spent the entire second term transitioning. That's not necessarily bad - we have a long enough service period that we can afford a long transition time, it's just such a weird situation for those of us in schools. We're here for two full school terms, but in an really awkward way. We basically work the second two terms of this school year, then a full school year, then a couple of months of the first term of the next school year. I just think that with most of us in schools, the timing could have been better arranged.
As it stands, I'm happy to finally be getting into the swing of things. I feel like I've learned so much more in my 7 months here than I did in 4 years of college (stay in school). When I first came here, I literally had NO IDEA what I was doing. I was expected to teach literacy and numeracy but I didn't know the first thing about teaching anything, and for the first couple of months, I was really terrible at it. Really terrible. Then, somewhere along the line, I got less terrible at it. I still have no idea what I'm doing most of the time, but I'm better at improvising and creatively using available materials. I've learned from my many (many) mistakes and in doing so, have become slightly more confident in my abilities. When I first arrived in Mespo, I was disenchanted. I was scared to death to work in a high school, I didn't feel qualified to teach literacy, I was disappointed not to be working with sciences, which I had originally requested. I really questioned my placement in the area and questioned whether I could be happy here. Now, 7 months later, I can't imagine being anywhere else. Turns out, I really love Mespo and working at a high school is a good fit for me. Sure it's challenging and I have to work really hard to make this job my own, but it's worth it. Even on bad days, it's worth it. And that's really something.
In other exciting news, my parents will be visiting me (yay!) for a week (yay!). They arrive on Wednesday, so I'm busy busy preparing my cute house for guests. We will spend a few days in Bequia, then it's back to St. Vincent for...whatever we feel like. I am very excited to show them around Mespo and to introduce them to the people I work and hang with. We're going to try the locals foods, visit the local hang-outs, see where I work and live. It'll be a great week. I'll let you know how it goes.

Top 10 Reasons Why I Would Make a Terrible Farmer

10. Uneducated assumption making principles. In October, I bought 4 seedlings - 2 tomatoes, 1 eggplant and 1 yellow pepper, which I assumed meant yellow bell pepper. 5 months later, I come to find that yellow pepper means any variety of peppers that are yellow (mine happens to be a hot banana pepper).
9. Poor purchasing decisions. When I bought my seedlings, I was thinking more about which vegetables are easy to grow and not so much about which vegetables I like to eat (I do like tomatoes). I am thankful every day for reason #4.
8. Lack of knowledge of common plant ailments. Case in point, I think that a tomato plant blight can be cured by watering it 50 times a day. Needless to say, only 1 tomato seedling survived.
7. Lack of knowledge of common garden pests. In late November, when I discovered that the leaves of my eggplant were half eaten, I cursed the chickens when I should have been hunting for the green worm of death, otherwise known as the very hungry caterpillar. We all know how that turned out.
6. Little weeding enthusiasm. I can't count the number of times I have come home from work to find the overgrown, prickly patch that I call my garden fully weeded and reinforced with growing posts, thanks to my very helpful neighbor (who, consequently, would probably make a very good farmer).
5. Bad tree-recognition ability. I have dozens of fruit trees in my yard, including an orange tree that I was overjoyed to share a space with. You can imagine my sadness upon moving in, when I noticed that the orange tree had no oranges on it. It wasn't until 4 weeks later, when my very helpful neighbors brought me a large bag of oranges from my tree, that I realized the tree I had previously thought to be my orange tree was, in fact, just a tree.
4. Little understanding of the fundamentals of plant growth. I was concerned that my monstrous eggplant was still eggplant-less, so I asked my very helpful neighbor for some gardening tips. She suggested that I pick the purple flowers that should be forming eggplants but were not and burn them in a corner of my yard. This, she said, would make the as-of-yet unformed purple flowers turn into eggplants. I think the logic is that by burning the unproductive flowers, you scare the future flowers into productivity. I actually considered doing this for about week, until reason took over. Although, I'm still eggplant-less.
3. Poor mistake-learnage. I also have another tree that I am just crazy about - the plumrose tree. For those of you who have not heard of the plumrose, it is a delicious and addictive phenomenon with the texture of a honeydew and the flavor of a sweetened rose. Again, try to imagine my disappointment when plumrose season came around and there were none to be found on my little tree. After waiting several weeks, I got to the point of desperation and bought a bag in town, which I immediately regretted, since, upon return to my domicile, I found that my very helpful neighbor had just left a full bag of them on my porch, picked from (can you guess?) my tree. Not only had I again mistaken tree identities, but the tree I thought to be my plumrose tree was the tree I originally thought was my orange tree. It's a sneaky and deceptive tree, I might cut it down.
2. Unrealistic problem solving strategies. I have a lime tree, which is not just a tree but actually has limes on it. About 2 months after I moved in, a thin but sturdy vine moved into the neighborhood and quickly established a cohabitation agreement with my lime tree. Instead of chopping it down, I hoped that the problem would sort itself out and I now have a lime tree that is so vine-y that limes can only grow on the top-most branches. Which means that everytime I want a lime, I have to throw rocks 25-feet into the air and hope that I hit one.
1. Poor garden planning skills. In late October, when my seedlings were still, well, seedlings, I decided to make a cute little garden in a small corner of my yard. 5 months later, my eggplant has grown to the size of a small baby elephant and is slowly killing my tomato via lack of direct sunlight.

Sports Update and Music Club

Sports have officially taken over at Emmanuel High School. Last Thursday, we had our first event - heats. The school is split up into four teams - green, red, yellow and blue. For heats, each team runs races against other members of the same team, basically an intra-team competition. The winners of these races are the ones who will compete at Sports Day, when the teams compete against each other. I have been placed with the blue team - blue for blue ribbon, of course.
So, heats. I was really excited to watch the races, because even though I am not athletically inclined AT ALL, I'm surprisingly competitive and I love to trash talk (only with the other teachers...I support all students be they green, red, yellow or !blue!). I went early, geared up in my blue attire, and signed on as official 4th place timer. The day's events ranged from the 1000 meter to sprints, and all-in-all, I found the day to be rather disappointing. There was a lot more walking than I had anticipated, and many of the students refused to participate at all. I was hoping for a lot of school spirit and excitement, but I think apathy kind of took over. Plus, I got a wicked sunburn. I guess it beat being in class, though.
Tomorrow is our second sporting event, the road relay. The road relay is a relay race that is run on the road (we're pretty literal here). It runs from Mespo to the Windward Highway and back. I'm not sure how far the course is, but at least 9 miles? There are 6 participants from each team, so each person runs about 1 1/2 miles? This is quite a bit further than any of the heats events, so I'm slightly doubtful of the students' abilities to run such distances, but still hoping for a better show. Sports Day is next Friday, so I will post more after that time.
Today was our first Music Club meeting, and it went a bit more slowly than I had anticipated. We've been learning about the music basics and we've learned the C-major scale in class, but it appears that retention hasn't yet occured. I brought in a piece of music today that I thought was workable, which may not actually be workable. As with anything, adjustments are a part of the process, so we'll see how it goes next week and modify accordingly. One really positive thing is the kids definately don't want for excitement! We may not have any Beethovens in the class, but it can't hurt to have them excited about music.

Music Class

I want to relay a really amazing experience I had on Monday. Every Monday, I teach a 5th grade music class at the primary school in Mespo. We started with the really basic stuff (note names, staff, clefs) and have since moved on to the more interesting stuff, like actually playing the recorder. On Monday, we finished learning the notes and fingerings for the C-major scale, so at the end of class, all the students with recorders (about 15 in a class of 41) practiced playing the scale together. All through the class, I was worried that the students without recorders (the majority) weren't really getting anything out of the class. The school can't provide recorders for the students and many of the parents can't afford the extra expense, so I was concerned that the students without instruments felt left out of the class. I shouldn't have been. At the end of class as the students with recorders played their 7 new notes, the rest of the students added a magnificent percussion ensemble! They played on the desks, chairs, cabinets - anything and everything - and it sounded so great with the C-major "melody" from the recorders. It made my week to see the students really enjoying music class, especially in such a creative, out-of-the-box way!
I enjoy working with this class so much that I've decided to start a music club with the students that meets after school. We would practice together, then play "gigs" in the community (by "gigs" I mean at church or school). I think that it will be something really enjoyable for the kids and it's a great way to get them more actively involved in music (my secret plan!). We have our interest meeting tomorrow afternoon, so I will let you know more about how that goes. I have high hopes, since 8 students asked if they could join already!

Hiking the Volcano and Cooking Class

Hello again! This past Saturday, I got the opportunity to hike the St. Vincent Volcano (La Soufriere), and it was a really neat experience. We hired a van to take us all the way to the trail head, which was a great plan since the road to the trail head is a LONG dirt road through some banana fields. It's a really pretty walk, but would add at least an hour to an already 4 hour hike. Since the hike is such a long one, the day started really early - I caught one of the first vans at 6 am to meet in Georgetown at 8. We started our hike at about 9:30. The first part of the trail is really beautiful! It winds through sections of rainforest, so it's green and lush and full of exotic plants and animals - and the mosquitoes are the size of small dogs! The path is basically a series of steps carved into the mountainside and it can get pretty steep, but we powered through with only a couple of breaks. We were feeling pretty harmonious with nature until we arrived at the second part of the trail, which was a slightly less neat experience. At this point, a significant portion of the trail is washed away (I expect it happens every year during the rainy season), so we were left to pick our way through. We followed a rocky path near the actual trail and didn't do that bad. It would have been no problem, except that it had begun raining at this point. Fortunately, we've been here long enough to always pack ponchos, but it made for a very slippery climb. Then the fog rolled in. It was the very wet, very dense kind of fog that makes the world appear mysterious and new while at the same time drenching both your body and mood. We couldn't see more than 100 yards in any direction! This was fun at first, in a "now you see me, now you don't" kind of way, but quickly grew old as we watched the mountain grow steeper with every 100 yards! It also made reaching the top less memorable as we couldn't see anything! We ended up waiting about 45 minutes for the fog and rain to clear up, freezing in the 65 degree weather (hey, I haven't been in temperatures lower than 75 degrees in over 6-months AND we were wet!). Finally, the fog cleared enough fo us to get a great view of the crater and the Caribbean Sea. I got some pretty good pictures - I'm posting them for you. At this point, we were all tired, cold, wet and pretty ready to hike down the slippery mountain side - don't worry, we only suffered a few falls, nothing major! I would definately go again, I just might check the weather forcast first!
As far as cooking class goes, I decided to make it a permanant Monday afternoon addition. I've taken on 6 young apprentices and we're going to bake all sorts of delicious cookies and cakes! Last week we made a scrumptious banana bread. We had a bit of a disaster today. We were in the process of making Lemon Glaze Cookies, when the dough suddenly found itself on my kitchen floor. We almost had a riot, but fortunately, I keep a secret stash of brownie mix for rainy days (or angry mobs) and there is nothing the gang loves more than brownies from a box. Good save.

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.