Eggplant Parmesan

2 posts in 2 days?? Unprecedented? Yes. Winds of change? Sadly, no. Just a short comment on a couple of unexpected things that happened to me in the last few days. First off, remember my complete lack of a green thumb? Well, it must be slightly reversible as I have eggplants! That's right. Turns out, my enormous, yet worthless eggplant is not as barren as I initially expected. This weekend, I came home to no fewer than 6 little eggplants that quickly became medium sized eggplants. Now, I mentioned a few months back that I don't really care for eggplant. This turns out to be not entirely true. I quite like 1 eggplant-based dish in particular - if you haven't already guessed, it's eggplant parmesan (seriously, if you didn't guess that, you might consider some critical thinking exercises). This leads me to unexpected thing number 2 - so do the kids in my cooking class. Seriously, if someone had told me last week that I could get these soda and chips guzzling kids to eat eggplant, I would have laughed. I only chose the recipe because a) I needed to use up the eggplant and b) I thought it would be great fun if the kids cooked me dinner, but they gobbled it up! If I were a really good PCV, this would morph into a summer gardening/fresh vegetable cooking extravaganza, but it's REALLY hot in the summer. We'll have to see. For those of you who are interested in trying the Vincy children approved recipe, here it is (from www.allrecipes.com).

Eggplant Parmesan

3 eggplants, peeled and thinly sliced
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups bread crumbs
6 cups tomato sauce
16 oz mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Fresh basil to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Dip eggplant slices in egg, then in bread crumbs. Bake for 5 minutes on each side.
3. In a 9 x 13 baking dish, spread sauce to cover the bottom. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Sprinkle with cheese. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with cheese.
4. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Enjoy!

Laboring Under a Misapprehension

Term 3 began Tuesday at Emmanuel and I was actually excited to start. Over the break, I thought a lot about my Form 1 reading program and decided to make some pretty significant changes. Last term, I focused primarily on a handful of students who needed the most help and only sporadically read with the other students, if at all. This is a good strategy, since the students who are furthest behind need the most attention, but I hated neglecting the other students - in the end, they are ALL in the remedial program. This term, I have more free time since I'm no longer teaching the Integrated Science course (that's right, we're getting an ACTUAL science teacher), so I'm going to use that extra time to work with every student in my Form 1 class (all 40). I've created reading groups of 4 students and each group will meet with me twice a week, every other week. We'll read a story and work on critical discussion the first time, then the second time we meet, I want the students to write something about what we've read and discussed. I will still spend extra time with the few students who need the most work, but this way every student gets the opportunity to improve. I was especially excited about this method, because there are also a handful of students in this class who I think could be quite good readers, with some practice. I kind of hoped that if I worked with some of the more motivated students, perhaps they could improve enough to get out of the remedial program and into regular classes. I understand that the remedial program is a necessary part of the school, but it's certainly not a pleasant one. There is a huge stigma associated with the program - it's called the dunce class by students and teachers alike, there are lots of behavioral problems and many teachers don't even bother with them at all. For these reasons, I was excited at the possibility of getting even just one student out of there. Excited, that is, until I ran the new program by the Form teacher, who told me straight out that no students were going to be moved. They were labled "remedial" from elementary school and would remain "remedial" throughout high school. And no amount of improvement would change that. Which leads me to the question...what am I doing here? If these kids are being marked as "failures" at the tender age of 11 (which is when many of them take their high school entrance exams) and there is no opportunity for them to move away from that, then what am I doing here? Sure, any reading help is good and necessary, but it's not going to solve the central issue, which is, of course, if you consistently tell a kid that he is a failure, he will FAIL. And barring all possible exits from the remedial program tells the kids just that. That they are failures, that they will always be failures and that no amount of work could possibly prevent them from failing. Plus, students in the remedial program are so far behind in the curriculum that if they do beat the odds and make it to Form 4 (the remedial program ends at Form 3), they'll be so far behind the non-remedial students that no amount of work could catch them up. Which I think is the ultimate argument for moving motivated students up NOW, while they still have a fighting chance. As it stands, these students are simply being conditioned to fail, which, in the end, fails us all.

Parent's Visit

My parents flew out early this morning. I think they really enjoyed their visit to St. Vincent. They were only here for a week, so we didn't get to do nearly as much as we wanted, I guess that's how it goes. We spent 5 days in Bequia, the closest Grenadine to St. Vincent. We stayed in this really charming apartment called The Nest. The complex is called The Three Trees and it's made of three apartments stacked on top of each other, kind of like a tree trunk. Each apartment has a wrap around wooden veranda with amazing views of Port Elizabeth. It was nice to wake up and have coffee with a view before the daily tourist-ing. One of our tourist-ing activites was a sailing expedition to Mustique, another Grenadine. We went on this boat called the Friendship Rose. It was built in the 40s to carry cargo between St. Vincent and Bequia, but has recently been refurbished to carry tours between the Grenadines. The man who built it is still the captain! It took us a little over an hour to sail to Mustique, where we de-boated and explored the small island. Turns out, not that much to explore. We walked through all the shops, had ice-cream and collected sea-shells...then we still had a couple of hours to kill before lunch! I guess Mustique isn't treasured for it's activity!
Back in St. Vincent, we got a chance to walk around and my parents met some of my friends here. I was happy for them to see my community and understand more of what I do. I think they return today with good memories and a better understanding of life in Mespo.

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!