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.

Hello again! Sorry I haven't posted in a while - I didn't have a lot of access to internet after I moved out from my host family. As some of you may have guessed, I am writing you using my NEW INTERNET CONNECTION! Be prepared for some serious blog-age.
So, let me update you a little on what I have been doing the past couple of weeks. I have been working full time at Emmanuel High School. We are doing reading assessments right now, which are pretty time consuming. We have to assess each student individually and each assessment takes between 10 - 20 minutes. The assessments consist of 6 passages, which the students read aloud and 4 - 8 comprehension questions per passage. We have finished with one Form 1 class (7th grade) and one Form 3 class (9th grade), but we still have one Form 2 (8th grade) and three Form 3 classes to do! As each class has between 35 and 40 students, this is quite a task! The nice thing about the evaluations is that they allow us to identify and group students who need a little more help - starting in January, I will be taking those groups out of class to work with them.
I also began working at the Marriaqua Government School this past Monday. I will be going in Monday mornings to work with the 2nd and 3rd grade students. I will be working mainly on literacy there as well.
Last Thursday and Friday, I attended an HIV/AIDS workshop in town. We discussed ways to educate the public about HIV prevention and I am going to use that information to work with an adolescent health group that I hope to re-start soon. The group was begun by the PCV before me, and I hope that the members are interested in continuing to meet.
On the 1st of November, I went with my host family to Union Island, one of the Grenadines, where we watched a Pan Against Crime performance. The ride over on the boat was 4 1/2 hours each way! It was also really choppy, but fortunately, I slept most of the way (otherwise, I might have been seasick for 9 hours!). Union Island is a really beautiful place, but unfortunately we didn't get there until the late afternoon, so I didn't get to explore too much before dark. It's really an interesting comparison to St. Vincent - I thought that St. Vincent was pretty un-populated, but when compared to Union Island, it is like New York City! I think that all the Grenadines are pretty sparsely populated, although I expect they are hopping during tourist season. Of the 120,000 people who live in SVG, I think only about 15,000 live on the Grenadines. And about 30 - 40,000 live in Kingstown. I am posting pictures of Union Island and also of Bequia, where I spent my independence holiday. SVG Independence was October 27th, 1979, so the country is 29 years old (just 7 years older than me!). Next year will be the 30th anniversary of independence and the whole year will be spent in celebration! The government is inviting all the SVG ex-pats back to the island and there will be festivals and celebrations all year long. I'm really excited to be a part of that!
This weekend, two PCVs are having a wedding ceremony in Bequia. Their service dates were pushed up at the last minute so they didn't have time for a ceremony before they left to serve in SVG, just an appointment at the courthouse. I think this arrangement is even better, though - where better to have a wedding than on a beautiful Grenadine Island? We were able to rent two apartments to hold everyone, and the tourist season doesn't start until early December, so we got cheaper rates! We'll be there Saturday and Sunday and most of us will return early Monday to our jobs.
I have to give a shout-out to our new president-elect, Barrack Obama. We were able to congregate in Kingstown for the election (courtesy of the American Embassy, who also provided free food - we will go almost anywhere for free food!). It was a great night and I for one am hopeful and excited about what the next 4 years will bring.
I also have to give a shout-out to the 4th graders at Tomahawk Elementary School in Overland Park. I am corresponding with them through letters and through this blog and I am really excited to tell them of my adventures and to hear all about theirs. Keep up the hard work in school and always be excited about life - with those tools, you can do absolutely anything.

Swearing In & Moving Out

This is my first post as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Our swearing-in ceremony was on Monday and all 13 of us decided to make the 2-year commitment! It was a really nice ceremony. It was held at the Kingstown Government Building and a bunch of representatives from the press came. We were on the SVG Evening News a few times and I'm pretty sure our picture came out in today's paper (I'm buying a few copies). We're practically famous. :)
Swearing-in begot moving out and most of us have left our home-stay lives behind and begun our official duties (a few are still in home-stay for an extra week or so). We are all enjoying being out on our own, although it gets pretty lonely at times. I have a cute house with a fantastic porch. It has two bedrooms, a living/dining room, a small kitchen and a bathroom (pictures are up). The porch has a hammock hook-up, so I'll have to buy one. The house is actually closer to my school than my homestay family's house - about a 15 minute walk. I live right across from a soccer playing-field where they play games Monday - Saturday. I haven't had a chance to go watch a game yet, but I hear they're pretty exciting. It is about a 15 - 20 minute walk to the grocery store, post office, police station and hospital. I have met a few of my neighbors and everyone seems really nice. Most of them were on good terms with the PCV before me, so I am already a more or less accepted member of the community. The nice thing about replacing a PCV is that you already have a set of friends waiting for you. The not-so-nice thing is that most people assume that you will be exactly like the volunteer you are replacing, which is rarely true.
My first week as an official PCV was pretty uneventful. The teachers in SVG were still on strike this week (from last week), so only about half of the Emmanual High School teachers came each day. We had official school on Tuesday and Wednesday, although the students spent most of their time alone in the classroom or running around the school grounds and school dismissed at lunch. On Thursday, we had an SVG Independence ceremony for a couple of hours, complete with a flag-raising ceremony and the national anthem. SVG Independence is on Monday, October 27th and all schools have a holiday on Friday and Monday. This year is the 29th year of SVG Independence. To celebrate on Monday, a couple of volunteers and I are going to Bequia, the nearest Grenadine to St. Vincent. It should be great fun.