In the hours following the shooting in a grocery store outside of Tucson of Arizona U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, six people were announced as dead: U.S. District Judge John McCarthy Roll, 63; Christina-Taylor Greene, 9; Gabriel Zimmerman, 30; Dorwin Stoddard, 76; Dorthy Murray, 76; Phyllis Scheck, 79. Twelve additional people were wounded. (Source)

In the days following the shooting, we will hear many voices of concern. Sarah Palin's Facebook note still has a map of targeted districts with names; many have and will continue to blame this and other "vitriolic rhetoric" for the fatal shooting. Others will argue that the suspect (or suspects, if another is found) was mentally ill and a victim himself of lack of affordable health care. Right wingers will point to this as yet another blame game by liberals to defraud the second amendment. I myself have my own concerns, as I'm sure do you.

In the article of the suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, the New York Times reports that he had been suspended from college, to conditionally return after seeking a mental health evaluation. The article authors opine that Jared may have had schizophrenia, judging by the content of his Youtube videos (for example) and the testimony of former college classmates. It is unknown whether he saw any mental health professionals, but Jared dropped out of college last fall.

At this point, Jared may or may not confess to the shooting. He will likely undergo an overdue mental evaluation, and from there we may gain a better understanding of his motivation. Unless Jared himself admits he was inspired by talk of liberal "targets" or other right wing propaganda, it is unfair to make such claims for him. The Safeway where the killings took place was close to Jared's home; it's possible that he did not know of the event taking place at the time and had in mind a random act of violence. However, his videos suggest he was politically informed, and he had met Representative Giffords in person at a previous event.

Consider the possibility that Jared had opened fire in a grocery store on a normal crowded Saturday morning. National headlines, certainly. Political news? Only insofar as gun control is concerned. This tragedy has eclipsed other recent and concurrent tragedies, such as the Omaha school shooting and the brutal murder of a Portuguese gay activist, and not without reason. Deadly threats to politicians should be more concerning because these are people we deem important and clever enough to make decisions for the country on our behalf. But let's not forget the lives that are lost every day to the hands of those who had the opportunity to seek help and did not.

I doubt that lack of "affordable health care" was the main factor in spurring this act of violence. Pima Community College offers counseling for students and those enrolled within the past three years; it is unlikely that they would refuse Jared service due to his suspension. I've seen comments on this issue that attack the quality of mental health services in the U.S., though this claim is unfounded. We do not necessarily have the best care in the world, but it is world class.

What I see as a problem is the reluctance of Jared and his family to take interest in treating what may be a serious mental illness. This happens to so many people across the country. Articles on war veterans hurting themselves or their families because of untreated substance abuse and PTSD proliferate newspapers and cable news, but despite recent efforts to allay these actions (such as recent commercials for mental health services for military enrollees and veterans), many refuse to seek help. Many mental illness sufferers are diagnosed, receive therapy and/or medication, but do not stick with it and relapse.

So many times when an act of violence shakes the nation, we treat the perpetrator as heinous and evil, without thinking about what we as a society could have done to prevent them. Rather than extreme vilifying of individuals, especially those who we see as guilty by association, let us carefully critique societal pressures that prevent people from getting the help they need. Affordable health care is one step in the right direction, but so is destigmatizing mental illness. Jared, please get help.

So now it's 2011 and I'm still looking for work. I wonder if I screwed myself over by changing my mind about what I wanted to do because of my PC experience. I must have applied for over 70 jobs by now, but nothing's getting picked up.

I want to go into research. So I'm applying for research assistant positions of various sorts, mostly with think tanks and non-profits.

(There are a lot of "foundations" here in Marfa, inspired by the Judd Foundation and the Chinati Foundation. Others include the Pizza Foundation and the Foundation for Non-Prophets.)

When I was in college, I expected to apply for grad school and get a Master of Social Work as soon as I got out of the Peace Corps. Then I realized that it drains me too much to do that kind of work, and what I really enjoy is working with facts & numbers and figuring out how to improve things based on evaluations and sitting quietly and being right.

So with my degree in Sociology I decided to continue research in social science areas. I have several interests in it, including labor force, sexuality & gender issues, public health, education, and poverty reduction. My strongest interest is still in mental health. But the thing is, other than my senior thesis paper (45 pages long plus appendix and works cited) and the Barrier Analysis Volunteerism project I worked on in the Peace Corps (collaborated and initiated the 9ish page report), I don't have any works in the area.

Perhaps I can work on a project independently, though without affiliation to any institutions or even any decently sized public libraries around, it will be a challenge.

But I need to start working. Soon. Otherwise I'll have to renew my Texas drivers license with Marfa as my permanent residence.

So I haven't made an entry in about 5 months. Choops.

And all of a sudden everything is over. I'm working half days now, to make sure I have time to take care of things like applying to jobs and closing accounts and packing and cleaning. I've gone through a lot of looking inward and outward in the past few months, deciding to do what I can without making stress for myself and getting stressed anyways.

I'll be leaving Saint Lucia in two weeks.

And there's still so much to do.

Let's see where this goes.

Last week I subbed for a Grade 1 class. I hate subbing, but thankfully it was just an hour and a half, and the teacher gave me two assignments for them out of workbooks most of the students had in their desks.

Dialect differences are fun to play with.

Kermarl: Miss, Jeanie kicking me.

Jervehn: Miss me too.

Me: Who?

Jervehn: Miss, Jeanie.

Me: Bring her here.

Jeanie: Yes, Miss?

Me: Jeanie, what kind of animal kicks?

Jeanie thinks for a bit, then says: A horse?

Me: Yes, horses kick, and so do jackasses. Are you a jackass?

Jeanie: No?

Me: Do you want to be a jackass?

Jeanie: No, Miss.

Me: Then do not kick. Little girls do not kick, jackasses kick. Tell Jervehn and Kermarl that you are sorry.

----------------------------

Today at VF Primary I called in Joshua for a one-on-one session. Just as we were starting, he said he was hungry.

"I didn't have break, I lost my dollar."

"Do you have lunch?"

"No, Miss."

"Does anyone share their food with you?"

"No, Miss."

"So you didn't have break and you don't have lunch?"

"No, Miss, I lost my dollar."

"But you have gum, where did that come from?"

"Miss it's a plum.*"

"Someone shared it with you?"

"Yes, Miss."

*sigh* "Well let's look at these sounds."

"I'm hungry, Miss."

"Ok, Joshua, I have some bread with cheese and mustard. You'll come in when lunch starts and you can take it."

"Yes, Miss."

*A "plum" here is a very small fruit that has little more substance to it than a stick of gum, and it certainly doesn't last as long.

He did come in during lunch, when I was setting up a chessboard for a game with Zea. I took the bread with cheese and a banana. He was about to unwrap the sandwich, but I asked him to go outside with it. I don't let any children eat in the Resource Room. Instead, he stayed to learn to play chess. He played one game with Nabila, who helped him with moves, then I showed him pawn game.

He played black, and he beat me.

Pawn game lacks other pieces, and the goal is just to get to the other side of the board. White has the advantage, since that player makes the first move. Joshua had never played chess before.

Joshua is the academically weakest student I work with at that school. A few months ago he finally got the connection between sounds and the words they make. We have 11 sounds of the alphabet down solid, and we're working on 2 more now. He still has trouble with numbers between 11-50. I'm currently teaching him the difference between first, middle, and last. He is in Grade 5.

Joshua probably does not have a learning disability--just a severe disadvantage. He lives in Shanty-town, and often stays home from school because his mother doesn't have money for him to buy lunch. She might be illiterate herself, I don't remember. He says he has one book at home. He is the sweetest kid I work with, and even when he's hungry or tired or sick or all three, if he's in the room with me he tries his hardest.

(Names are definitely changed in this post.)

So I've been really busy the past few months.

VFASP is going pretty well. New kids that came consistently, and new rules and structure. It has helped. Last week I finally completed one of the seven goals I set for myself at Mid-Service Training: I compiled two binders for VFASP, one of daily maintenance things like attendance and one of resources and such.

I'm working more now with the Special Needs teachers at VF Infant and Primary, figuring out how to help them do their jobs as efficiently as possible. Sometimes it's a challenge, especially working with people that have extremely different expectations of a Special Needs teacher's role.

Catherding is going pretty well. The kindergarten students started typing their names. I really need to type up all the lessons for that computer skills for non-readers. That will be one more thing to cross of my list of MST goals.

On top of regular work, I have started getting my act together to look for jobs. Writing resumes, completing applications online, contacting references, etc. One week I did that almost non-stop at home. It was exhausting.

In addition to work and future work, I've been planning for Berney's parents to visit. They will be staying with me, so I've been cleaning plenty, and both Bern and I have been making and remaking plans to ensure they get a good taste of St. Lucia.

I have a lot of pictures, but Berney has stolen all of them. So I'll post them when I get a chance.

I'll update soon, I promise. Sorry for the long pause. I've been super busy lately.

Part 1

Last Monday, January 18th, I checked with the music teacher at the school to see if he could take the children for music at 4pm. He was packing up to go home already, so I needed to come up with a music and theatre combo for the group.

A few minutes later, as children started coming in for the After School Programme, Zoya came up and showed me that she finished a half-page I asked the kids to write about what it means to be a good leader. She wrote about Dr. Martin Luther King, and had even done a little more research about him. I looked it over, then told her that today was in fact MLK day in the US. Her smile got bigger and her eyes lit up. "Really?" I'm sure my eyes lit up at the same time, because I saw an immediate solution.

I asked her if she would like to read it for the group when it was time for the theatre session, since we had to change plans a little. She agreed, and I made a mental note to come up with some songs we could sing.

When 4pm (the scheduled time for creative activities) rolled around, I introduced the topic. Many of them had heard of Dr. King, and a few even knew what he did. Zoya read her piece, followed by applause. I then talked a little more about what Dr. King meant for people in America. It was difficult and improvised, but I did my best to connect the story back to their understanding of their own history.

The US and St. Lucia both experienced slavery. I talked about how Lincoln set the slaves free with the Emancipation Proclamation. Here they celebrate Emancipation Day on August 1, when the UK freed its slaves. I talked about the struggle of blacks and animosity between races, and how Dr. King and other civil rights leaders used peaceful protests to demand their rights.

One boy said that the white people shot Dr. King. At this point it was extremely important to me to clarify the extent and limitations of racism in the US. I told them that there were white abolitionists before slavery was over, and that there were many white people supporting and working for civil rights for all races in the 20th century. I knew it would be a touchy topic, but it worked and the kids saw how strongly I felt about it. We ended by singing "This Little Light of Mine."

Goal 2 achieved.

Part 2

I've mentioned this before on the blog, but serving as a PCV has given me the kind of perspectives I was seeking. One that I hadn't given much thought to before leaving but that hit me in the face as soon as I arrived was a real minority perspective.

Some of you reading know that I identify as Hispanic, but I'm such a guera that practically nobody would describe me as such. Even my claim to it is tenuous, especially when I'm not in the Southwest. My mom was not from Mexico as it is known today, but rather from south Texas. She is also a guera, meaning she has fair skin and her hair is not pitch black like the typical image of the ethnicity. When I say my mom is Mexican, I suppose I mean Chicana--a word not used in Texas. She and her siblings grew up speaking English because her father wanted them to have that advantage, but that fair skin and no Spanish accent didn't mean she was (or is) never discriminated against. While I haven't had to overcome racial inequalities myself, I embrace my family's history and culture.

In that sense and that sense only I am a minority in the United States. In St. Lucia I am absolutely a minority. I live here, and endure assumptions about me from all sides. People who don't know me or haven't seen me often enough assume I'm a tourist. If I'm lucky they think I'm a medical student. They assume I don't know prices for things, that I don't know their Kweyol language (which is mostly true), that I don't know how to get around, and worst of all that I have a lot of money.

I'm also met with a lot of interest from people who wouldn't naturally ask questions of a Lucian they didn't know. Yesterday Berney and I went to Sandy Beach. As we were packing up to go, a girl of about 16 (I guess) came over and asked us our names. Well, she asked Berney his name, and then me mine. We each hesitated but told her. She wandered back to her friends who continued walking along. No reason, it seemed, just curiosity.

By the time we got to into VF, it was after 6, so we stood out by the beginning of the Vieux Fort-Laborie highway instead of the bus stand. About ten minutes went by before an Augier bus came by for us to get on, and as sometimes happens on weekends, the back of the bus was filled with rowdy young men on their way home after a day of drinks.

The gason (dude) sitting next to Berney had let rum get the better of him, and he loudly harassed us. Nothing really aggressive, and nothing to the extent that I expected bodily or property harm, but it was pretty irritating. His friends tried to get him off the topic, but he would have none of it. One gason behind us tried to apologize to us by saying "I love tourists" a few times. By the time we were by the mall, the soule (drunkard) next to us was lightly knocking (in the American sense of the word) Berney on the shoulder as he got madder.

At the mall two girls got on the bus, and one of the young men told Soule to knock it off while the girls were on the bus. That didn't last long. He continued to threaten us and tap (again, American meaning) Berney on the arm and head, speaking in Kweyol with the key words I was waiting for: fanm, blan, etc. I leaned over and told him "Eh gason, ki te nou bat mi se nou!"

"What?" He leaned over to hear me better.

I told him very firmly and angrily, "Ki te nou, bat mi se nou!"

That shut him up for a bit, muttering under his breath sexual threats against me and violent threats against Berney. At least he stopped tapping Berney. His friends were freaked out, one of them saying "Dey undastand ah language, gason!"

Soule turned his attention to the girl in front of him. I'm not sure exactly what precipitated, but he started a small fight between them and the girls shouted for the bus driver to pull over. They declared they would not pay, they must get off. The driver, caring more about his pay than the safety or comfort of his passengers, got out and demanded that they or the fellows on the bus pay for them, but the girls were already walking up the road.

While the door was still open, Soule's friends tried to get him out of the van. He resisted strongly, and one of the guys with him took a 4 foot long two-by-four from a pile nearby. Not even a real scuffle, and the drunk man was finally pulled out and a couple of his friends stayed with him. The driver got back to his seat, picked up the girls, and continued on.

Not too far down, the leader of the young men, called Blacks, said "Stopping at de gap, driva," and the remaining group went down from the bus. Blacks apologized to us as he got out, but I told him "Thank you." We were safely at my house not much longer.

Talking about it afterward, Berney said he was glad he was the one sitting next to Soule, but I felt awful that he had to go through it. There had been two other seats on the bus we could have taken, not next to each other; we decided it was better that we were seated together even though we were closer to the rowdy bunch.

We know, though, that the aggression wasn't because it was us, but because he was drunk and we were different. Had two Lucian girls been sitting in our seats, I expect something similar would happen. I'm very thankful that nothing further precipitated, but I also know that there's not really a way to avoid the same situation in the future.

I wish I could blend in anywhere I go, but I'm not a chameleon. Here I will continue to stick out like a big pasty sore thumb.

I was leaving the After School Programme and a group of girls were ahead of me. Three from the programme, one was not.

"Miss, Miss, Naomi saying you have flak backside!"

Naomi says crossly, "Miss I not saying that, uh."

"Miss, she saying it foh true!"

"Miss not true uh!"

I tell them, "Hey hold on let's talk about this. I'm not mad."

"Miss, Naomi say you have flak backside."

"Did you say that?"

"Yes miss."

"What does it mean?" I ask.

"Miss it meaning 'flat.'"

"Miss like not round backside."

"Ok, well it's true. I have flak backside then. Why is that?"

"Miss when you bend down you have flak backside."

"Well there are two reasons for that. One is that I wearing pants that ah a little too big for me, they not tight on me like some women weh."

"Miss yuh pants too big on you?"

"Yes, but also I'm white and many white people have smaller backside than many Lucians."

"Miss, Asians having flak backside too eh!" I was surprised the girl did not say "chiny," as most people here refer to Asians.

"Miss, where you from?"

"I'm from the United States."

A few ask at the same time, "New York?!"

"No, I'm from Texas."

"Miss, how you having so many moles?" The same girl that said "Asians." I was surprised she knew the word for mole, too. I've often heard younger children call them "buttons."

"Well I was born like that, with feh skin and moles."

Naomi looks up and asks, "Miss, are you a tourism?"

"Eh eh, tourist, Naomi!" the other girls correct her, "Tourist, tourist!"

"I'm not a tourist; I live heh and I wuhk heh."

"Miss wheh you livin'?"

"I livin' Augier."

"Miss looking like tourist, eh."

"But that's only because I'm white. Do I dress like a tourist?" I want to challenge their assumptions about white people.

"No, miss."

"What do tourists weh?" I ask.

"Miss dey wearing shoht skuhts an' fing."

Naomi asks, "But Miss if you not from United State how come you not talking yahnking?"

"Talking yahnking?" I ask, "What that mean?"

"Miss you not sounding like you from United States ey." Naomi explains.

I smile. This is what I've been working on, a secret to me as much as anyone. "Well I livin' St. Lucia ovuh a yeh now, I pick up the accent."

They asked a few more questions, but our conversation was cut short because a teacher that livin' near me came outside and was starting her car. I got a ride home.

I work with children ages 5-11 on basic literacy. Much of this involves learning and reviewing the sounds letters make. I found out over a year ago it was useless to try and teach them the sounds they have in American English. So the sounds are easy to get right. The dialect came later. Slowly I tried incorporating different phrases and words that would make me better understood by the young children. My classroom management skills are improving, but a lot of it is just the fact that kids understand what I'm saying now.

I look white, and maybe it's something that my students think about often. I don't, however, but I do take advantage of cultural education. Maybe I need to introduce real flour tortillas to my students so I can explain my moles better.

So I'm nearly at the end of my Christmas break, and I'll return to school next week. During the break I've gotten a lot of things done, especially in the kitchen.

Berney and I put presents under my tree, although we haven't received any of the other packages sent from family and such.

I've been staying in my apartment most of the break, goofing around but also getting some things done that advance some of the goals I listed in the last post. Unfortunately my mom won't be able to visit, so I need to come up with something else for that bit.

Though it's been nice to have lots of free time and have friends over and visit friends during the week, I'm (as usual) looking forward to getting back into a work schedule.

1. Compile a couple binders to guide others in continuing VFASP

2. Complete & have reviewed & made available curriculum for Computer Skills for Non-Readers (aka cathearding) for BVCS and PC office

3. Visit another island

4. Go to Jouvert w/ Fae

5. Have my mom visit

6. Make sure Joel is strong enough in phonics to read at a Grade 1 level

7. Climb either Petit Piton or M. Gimie (or both!)

8. Facilitate or plan (or whatever) one holiday camp

So many things, so busy since the beginning of this month! I'm home sick right now, but feeling a little better, I'll probably be able to attend the literacy workshop tomorrow. Hello vinegar and LLB, goodbye stomach pains (hopefully)!

The Vieux-Fort After School Programme is running! We have two dedicated regular volunteers, and Sister Mary Lee will be able to help out more regularly, as well as having generously donated some great maths flash cards and books. The participants have regularized, and the attendance has dropped a little and leveled off, so now when more children want to be in the programme, I can finally tell them yes! We have activities everyday after homework or academic work, including music, theatre, arts & craft, chess, and athletics. Speaking of theatre, the girls I worked with on Monday was the first group of kids here that really understood Charades and played it well once I explained it. We're also participating in an International Art Exchange, so over the next few weeks we'll create full color drawings of holidays celebrated in St. Lucia, then send them off and receive art from other students all around the world!

While things have been going pretty well recently in VFASP, for a few days a couple weeks ago things were kind of unstable. Ms. Casilda James, a teacher who had worked at the school 29 years, passed away. It was a very difficult time for everyone at the school and the family, so last week Vieux-Fort Primary put on an amazing Memorial Service. It was so touching, and I got to see sides of Ms. Cas and the impact she had that I hadn't yet learned in the year I'd known her. Rest in peace, Ms. Cas.

When not at work, Berney and I have been expanding our horizons. We have some new friends a couple towns away, where we've visited for dinner a couple times. The woman is French and a translator, so she and Bern have plenty to talk about with language experiences. The children are lively and instant friends.

Last weekend Bern and I climbed Gros Piton, the second tallest mountain on the island at a height of 2,619 feet. The cost was quite off-putting, though, and even though it was a good workout with better views, I'd rather not spend $70 EC for two of us to walk and have sore legs and feet. I can do that for free most places.

Last Sunday was Jounen Kweyol, so we dressed in our madwas and went into VF Town for some food and music. All the locals loved that we were wearing their national dress, and while it seemed like pestering at first, we realized soon that they were flattered at the compliment we were paying them.

Soon I'll have Mid-Service Training, where all of us on St. Lucia will get to see everyone in our group who flew off to other islands after staging. I'm looking forward to the reconnect, though I'll definitely be sad when I don't see some familiar faces. You know who you are.

I've been having trouble sleeping, I've been so busy! Before last week a lot of effort went into preparing for the Vieux Fort After School Programme (VFASP), and this past week a lot of effort went into making sure it got off the ground.

Well, it did! We had about 30 students each of the three days it runs, which is of course more manageable when there are more teachers and volunteers present. I'm especially excited that it started last week, because I could include it in my trimesterly report for PC. We still need to get some things in place, like more volunteers, regular club activities for half an hour after homework, etc., but it's great that the basic purpose is being fulfilled. Children are getting help with homework. When there are enough volunteers they get help from adults who already know the stuff, and when there aren't they get help from one another with key guidance from the adults that are around.

But even though this awesome thing is going on, it's been hard. Last weekend was so full of activity, from a fundraising concert in Laborie for St. Jude's to dinner in Balembouche (not the estate!) with a French family to another fundraising concert on Piaye beach--and all the house work and prep work that had to get done anyways! I haven't been getting much sleep for various reasons, and even twice last week I woke up from dreaming about writing lists and sorting out names and words, with children all around trying to help but being a distraction instead. Each day I come home (late, as you'll see in a bit) exhausted, but if I nap during the day I have an even harder time falling asleep at night.

So this three-day weekend was exactly what I needed. Berney and I went to Castries yesterday for a chess-training session, got a little shopping done in the market (mint! vanilla bean! miwi! roti!), and came back home for a quiet night. Today I made some vegan sloppy joes to take for our own cheap Oktoberfest at Sandy Beach, where we limed with Fae for a few hours. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to not leaving the house all day, and catching up on Heroes (since I didn't see the first three episodes of the season--I didn't have a working TV). Then it's back to some long days, but I'll be much more refreshed.

VFASP runs Mondays through Wednesdays until 4:30, so I get home around 5 or 5:30pm. Thursdays and Fridays, though, I still have to stay in Vieux Fort Town until about 4:30 because they're tearing down the remains of the hospital, and it's dangerous to be around the neighborhood with the asbestos in the air. They're working during the day, and then wetting everything down before people come home. So I need to find good reasons to stay around VF Town now. Or at least good places.

Finally, Berney and I recently celebrated two years of annoying each other constantly, regardless of proximity. :) I made a dinner that was special but not nearly as good as the lamb a month ago, along with a chocolate chip cookie cake with mint icing. Today we wrapped up the celebration with the rest of the lobster someone gave us as a consolation prize for getting ice thrown at us at the beach.

Oh. And both pairs of my work shoes broke. :(

I'm making a new side blog for drawing. I want to do at least one drawing a week, but I usually need inspiration.

Head over to Drawing Things Out, tell me what to draw, and I'll draw it!

Pictures below.

In the minuscule hours of Wednesday morning, September 9th, I woke up in a sweat after a mosquito ransacked my leg. My next conscious observation was a popping sound somewhere in the neighbourhood, like hail or rain falling hard nearby. After a few moments I realized that it doesn't hail in St. Lucia, and that no rain had moved to the apartment. Minutes later, a BOOM woke up everyone in the area who wasn't already awake. Thunder? It's not raining.

Curiosity drew me out of bed, and I looked out the window in the living room. The sky was orange. No, the sky was dark, it was a huge plume of smoke that was orange. My heart pounded as I dialed 999 to report the fire that they already knew about.

The St. Jude's Hospital, just a couple hundred yards from my house, was on fire.

I realized the next morning as more news came out that however much I feel I have integrated, there is still more to learn. Were I a real Lucian, I would have dressed and gone down the road to watch the blaze and find out what I could. Instead, I tried to fall asleep, only successful with a couple hours before I had to wake for work in the morning.

My TV had stopped working the week before, and I don't have a radio, so I didn't hear any official word until I got to VF Infant School.

The surgical ward burned nearly completely, and damage from smoke and water (pipes bursting and the long effort to extinguish the blaze) extended through much of the compound including the lab and the pediatric ward. I'm not sure if official reports have come out yet, but a sparking air conditioning unit is suspected as the culprit. Once the fire spread, oxygen and hydrogen tanks began to explode in the heat.

Initially most patients had been moved to VF Secondary School Campus B, just a few minutes ride away. Those in good condition were discharged, and those in critical condition were sent to Victoria Hospital in Castries. Two people died that night from the fire, and another on the way to Victoria. Many people suffered burns. The patients still in care in the South are now in the George Odlum Stadium, along with the administration and the pharmacy.

Before the fire engines arrived, nearby residents had begun rescuing people inside. One teacher at the VF Infant lives very close to the hospital, and she had to move everything out the house overnight and couldn't open the doors because of the polluted air. The hospital was built with plenty of asbestos, so workers the next few days all used respirators.

For more information, you can watch the video below or read this newspaper article, published Friday. In it questions are raised about whether the Hospital has had annual safety inspections (along with schools and other hospitals around the country), and whether it was insured.

Many sources are committing to funding the rebuilding, but I'm trying to find out from hospital admin what sorts of thing might be overlooked with all the stress. I'm looking into whether I can coordinate a fundraising effort by the PCVs on island to help with specific items, such as paying for lodging, meals, and services for the international medical volunteers the hospital has come to rely on. Most of the volunteers that were present at the time of the fire were sent home, but a few others were able to find places to stay temporarily.

St. Judes is the only general hospital for all of the south of St. Lucia; the two others are both located in Castries. It is of the utmost importance to everyone living in this area to have a fully functioning hospital. I hope that St. Judes will not be just restored, but renewed, in the very near future.

A short summary of my Austin vacation (sorry, no picture of the legendary barbacoa y guacamole taco). Mom's birthday party, Diana and I at the Ice Cream Festival, cousin's first birthday party, and at the airport. Try and guess who's related to me!

I haven't posted any recipes lately; this must be remedied immediately.

First we have an upside down cake I made for July 4th, followed by some rich Milo brownies.

For the Fourth of July, I wanted to make something that said summer to me. I remembered to a few years ago when I made an incredibly messy layered pound cake with peach filling. It was delicious but not quite right for this event. Besides the peaches I found at Super J were just about the sorriest stone fruit I've ever met. The whole ordeal made me really want some ripe, warm, perfect Hill Country peaches out of a paper bag. That'll have to wait a week, though. Nevertheless, people enjoyed the cake, especially fellow PCV Ann! This post is dedicated to her.

The spiced peach filling for the upside down cake can work as preserves on its own. You can put it in a sterilized jar for long shelf life, or put it in clean tupperware in the fridge to keep for a week or so.

Super Spiced Peach Upside Down Cake

Cake

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp sugar

1-2 peaches, sliced into eighths

lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375F.

Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir butter to soften, then mix it with dry ingredients. Add milk and vanilla. Mix until all flour is dampened.

Beat batter 2 minutes medium/300 strokes by hand. Add eggs, beat 1 minute/150 strokes more.

In one greased 8" round pan, pour a little more than 1/2 of the batter.

Heat 2 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp sugar in sauce pan until bubbly, pour into second greased 8" round pan. Arrange peach slices on top of this mix, sprinkle with lemon juice. Pour the rest of the cake batter on top.

Bake for 35 minutes, you know the regular cake/toothpick stuff. Let them cool, take a lime.

Spiced Peach Filling

3-5 peaches

1-2 packets of gelatin

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water (maybe a little more)

1-2 dried cloves

1 tsp cinnamon or 1 medium stick

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

orange peel

dash (or two) cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp lemon juice

To skin the peaches, dunk them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Let them cool a bit, and the peel should come off pretty easily. Dice them into 1/2" chunks.

Place diced peaches in a saucepan, sprinkle with gelatin, stir over low heat. Add sugar and water. If you have cheese cloth or something like that, tie the clove, orange peel and cinnamon stick in it, and put it in the saucepan. If not, be prepared to fish those out. Add ground cinnamon (if using that), nutmeg, and cayenne. Stir. Let this cook down some, about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from heat, remove clove, cinnamon stick, and orange peel. Add lemon juice, stir. Let cool completely.

COMBINE FORCES!

This works best if the cakes have had plenty of time to rest--I refrigerated mine almost immediately after they came out of the oven, but that made them denser than I would have liked. But chilling or freezing them before assembly is a good idea.

Get your plain cake upside down onto the serving dish. If your pan is greased well enough and the cake has rested and chilled, just pick it out upside down. Spread your filling on top of that, then take your peach upside down cake, turn it upside down, and put it on top. How lovely.

Milo Brownies

Oh my you're missing out if you've never had Milo!

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup Milo powder

1/4 cup flour

pinch salt

Grease medium sized pan, preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, beat to combine well. In a separate bowl mix cocoa powder, Milo, flour, and salt. Slowly fold in dry ingredients to the wet. Mmm, doesn't that smell good?

Pour into your greased medium sized pan, bake 30-35 minutes, brownie/toothpick fun. I ended up having to leave it in for about 43 minutes, because my dish is deeper than I would like.

Let it cool! Oooh it smells good but let it cool. In fact, after you have some warm gooey brownie goodness, put it in the fridge, and it'll be even better the next day. Milo has vitamins and stuff, so you can pretend it's a good breakfast if you ignore all the sugar and butter in there!

It seems I'm so busy now that school is out and I'm not going to a different school everyday!

Last week I went to Dennery to finish up the Barrier Analysis surveys (we're officially done with surveys in both locations! Hooray!) with MaryEllen and Haley. I don't exactly enjoy data collection (I'm too introverted to like it, though this is the third time I've had to contact large numbers of people--first was when I worked for the Census a few summers ago, then a year and a half ago when researching for my BA thesis), but knowing that data collection means data analysis is what keeps me going. That step is scheduled two Fridays from today :D

When I got back into Vieux Fort Town that Monday I was just in time to see the VF bands jump in our local Carnival parade. Today (Tuesday July 21st) concludes Carnival season. Several of the smaller Eastern Caribbean islands have staggered Carnival seasons, while Trinidad is the only one with the correct time (just before Lent). This is so that no one loses out on tourists.

One great group of older women started wining in line, and ended up falling down all over each other!

Tuesday and Wednesday last week I volunteered at Camp Lajwa ("Joy" in Creole), a retreat for children with disabilities. Tuesday was for the families in the south of the country, and Wednesday everyone met up (including those from the north that held their regional camp the Sunday prior) at George Odlum Stadium in VF. Honestly I didn't expect to have nearly as much fun as I did, despite the disorganization on Tuesday and the late meals both days. Seriously, it was a great time.

Friday I went with Fae up to the Gros Islet area. We originally intended to go to "Outrageous: Sexy in Black," a Carnival fete that featured all this year's big Soca finalists, a party to last until sunrise. Then we found out that it cost much more than we were previously told, so along with Fae's lifelong friend Tricia we hit up Rodney Bay and the Gros Islet Jump Up (the best time I've had at the Jump Up, with all the top Soca songs thumping until 2. Though I'm sort of sad we missed out on the real Carnival events, we totally had a blast! We got a free round of drinks from a bartender where Tricia sings sometimes, because it was her birthday (for true!).

A couple of their friends joined us, including Jason (a Rasta version of King Julian from "Madagascar"). The best part of the night was when all five of us were piled into Tricia's small SUV, and Jason realized that the CD playing was Jason Mraz. He flipped out--because he loves Jason Mraz so much! Each song he would listen for 30 seconds, and demand the next song be played, "Pull up, pull up!" At the next bar we went to, he went so far as to request Jason Mraz songs be played instead of the typical Soca or Dancehall songs that dominate St. Lucian night life. Just before we took everyone home for the night, a trip to a chicken and fries stand was necessary. While Fae and Tricia stood patiently in line, Jason called out to the server repeatedly "Ten dollars backs, five fries!" Chicken backs are popular here because they're cheap, and as a Rastafarian Jason is a vegetarian, so he was giving the order for the two ladies and himself, of course!

Sunday I went all the way upstairs to my landlady's apartment for her grandson's birthday party. I forgot to get a picture of the card I made for him; I didn't get a gift because I didn't find out until the evening before. Thomas turned 5, and everyone wins!

Great food, delicious tamarind juice (it's my favorite local juice, it has so much flavor), lots of sweets--ice cream and cake of course!

The past couple days I'm just using to wind down and get serious work done on things I've been needing to type up, like my reviews for the IBG Phonic Programme and the After School Programme, both at VF Infant School. This week will be another very busy one, with a meeting tomorrow, minor surgery on Thursday, and an overnight farewell beach bash for EC77 (the PC group before ours). So it was definitely nice to take a couple days to stay at home in cocoa-tea-with-dumplings weather (lots of rain, a small tropical wave) and just watch the final Carnival Jump parade on the local TV stations.

Bonus: Dancing to "Suzette" at Camp Lajwa!

School ended either last Friday or the Friday before, depending on who you are. For me it ended July 3rd, but there are several projects I have to work on organizing regarding school. Another work day to be scheduled, a meeting this week to discuss the afterschool program at Vieux-Fort Primary next year, perhaps a summer camp with the Lions preschool.

In addition to school projects, I've been working on Barrier Analysis interviews in Soufriere and I'll go to Dennery tomorrow to do the same. We're very nearly done with this stage, so analysis is next. That's the exciting part for me. This week I'm also helping out at a summer camp for disabled children.

Of course, you cah have July without fun! Last weekend of course was 4th of July, so 4 PCV cohort groups got together with staff at our Country Director's house for a party.

EC77, 78, and 79 represent, but also EC2! Peace Corps who served here 40 years ago came for a reunion, and we got to learn from each other about how St. Lucia and our service has changed over the decades.

And of course plenty of food!

The next day was Jess's birthday, so she organized a great camping trip. We got to stay in this nice roofed pavillion looking out to the sea.

Andy resuscitated the fire to make homemade pizzas and smores--with graham crackers and Hershey's chocolate (a rare find here)!

On Wednesday I joined Sam and his family, along with Eric, Jeff, and Fae, to tour the brewery down the road from my house. It was pretty neat, and I got a free shirt (plus drinks of course)!

Within the next week and a half I'm looking forward to going to different Carnival events! I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures.

A couple weeks ago I organized a work day for some PCVs to come to Belle Vue Combined and help organize the reading room.

This room was an initiative by the principal, Ms. Poleon, when she advanced to that position four years ago. That year the Vieux Fort PCV, Dan, organized a work day to make this beautiful room a peaceful place where students can come to read.

My work with Ms. Poleon is focused more on organizing and streamlining existing systems. In the reading room we're organizing books by reading level, as well as creating a catalogue and book cards, so it will work a little more like a small library. Students will be able to see on the cover what level a book is, and they can keep them organized alphabetically by author.

So two Saturdays ago a bunch of my Peace Corps buddies came over to help out. Ms. Poleon and Charmaine brought us cake, mango juice, and made a boulyon soup for lunch. We were able to get through over 200 books--about half of what's in the room total.

Yesterday I spent several hours cooking dasheen (the local name for taro root) in a couple different dishes. I wanted to prove to myself that I could use a somewhat bland ground provision in a fun way. They turned out alright, though I definitely know a few changes I'll make to the recipes I found online. Once I try them again and perfect the recipes I'll post them.

Bonus pic: the contents of my refrigerator. The plate of things in the middle is the other creation, dasheen black bean fritters. The bottle next to those is mango juice, and below that is a bunch of ripe bananas. Mmmm.

The strike continued for a week and a half. Finally yesterday a deal was struck between the leaders of the TUF and the government to give the workers an additional 0.625% now in addition to the 3.5% given in May, with the rest to be added next year.

I am so glad that school will be in session come Monday. Today I went to work at Belle Vue, and the teachers all showed up, but only a few students. Monday things should go back to normal.

Unfortunately, because of the strike, MST (Minimum Standards Test) will be canceled this year. So the prep work we've been doing for Grades 2 and 4 is going to waste. The first part was supposed to be this coming Monday, so at least the students won't be going into it after almost two weeks out of school, but the teachers and I are disappointed they're canceling instead of just postponing it.

Personally, I've been trying to take advantage of the time away from school by getting other projects worked on (like the Barrier Analysis survey) and spending good recreational time away from my home, but I've really been missing being around the kids at work. I know things will be hectic as all get out next week, but it'll be good to get back into my routine.

That's right. For those of you who didn't see it on Facebook, I ate termites yesterday.

On Tuesday afternoon I received an email from Diane inviting other PCVs on an around-the-island bus trip Wednesday. I was very hesitant to go, for two main reasons. 1) I wasn't sure if the teachers (along with other civil servants) would still be on strike on Wednesday, which would allow me to take the day away from school if they did. 2) I'm on a pretty tight budget right now, since I transferred most of my savings to my US account to pay for my plane tickets for summer vacation.

Well, the teachers, with the rest of the Trade Union Federation (TUF), did indeed strike Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. They're also planning a meeting (another day away from school) for tomorrow to discuss their next couse of action. There are a few developments that makes the issue more complicated than I had described in previous posts.

A couple weeks ago the government offered a 3% increase now (the rest to add later when they have the money), which TUF rejected. The government offered a 3.5% increase, also rejected. Earlier this week TUF said they won't stop action unless negotiations start at 4.5%. Tuesday government said they could maybe go for 4%. No deal. The government called in church leaders to speak to the TUF strikers, trying to "appeal to their sense of humanity." It just made the civil servants more upset. Wednesday morning the Ministry of Education announced that parents should send their children to school, even though many if not most teachers wouldn't be there (this confused me when I saw children in uniform yesterday morning, since I hadn't heard the news that morning). The president of TUF complained about this, saying parents should sue the Ministry of Education if anything happens to their children while teachers are not there. Wednesday there was also talk that civil servants might have pay docked for days they're on strike instead of at work, which TUF president had already said absolutely wouldn't happen.

Though on Tuesday morning it looked like the impasse might be resolved by the end of the week, as the strike continues to me it looks like the two sides are struggling farther apart in their demands.

So Wednesday, as I said, the strike continued, so I considered the around-the-island tour. When Diane gave me the price for the trip ($10 for transport, instead of the $30-35 it would cost normally), I had to get in on it. I'm so glad I did.

Our first main stop was in Forestierre, to take a walk through the rainforest. We had a really good trail guide, Cristel, who knew a lot about the different plants and animals in her forest and on St. Lucia. We stopped for a break to eat some fruit at the end of the short trail, but not before Justin, Mary Ellen, (Eric? I don't remember,) and I ate some live termites, fresh from the mound. Honestly I could't even taste them once they were in my mouth, they were just like tiny crumbs of shredded wheat.

We then headed to the Plantation House Brewery, where I enjoyed a nice microbrew lager with an overpriced but decent hamburger. On to Mega J, where I suggested we buy a 5 liter tub of neopolitan ice cream to share among the 9 of us on the van instead of stopping at an ice cream shop later. Idea approve and implemented. Excellent idea. Too much ice cream, it was awesome. We headed down the West Coast, much of which I hadn't seen before. We stopped at Plas Kasav, where they make cassava bread in the old-fashioned way, on leaves in a huge 200-year old cast iron pot over hot coals; then a nice gift shop with local crafts between Canaries and Soufriere. Our last stop before heading home was a dip in the Sulfur Springs (I didn't go in, because I hate the hassle of the grime and the smell on my skin and bathing suit and everything blech). Plenty of nice lookout points along the way.

Excellent day, I'm very glad I went.

Today I'm working on my volunteer report for the current trimester. Looking back I've done a lot of things in the past four months. I'm sure you can look back and see that too!

Tomorrow we have an all-volunteer conference, so I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again. It has been quite a while, and I don't think I've been up to Castries in about a month!

Discussions with Randy (my "host brother," a secondary school English teacher) and Mrs. Eugene (a secondary school counselor) make salient a some things that have made my progress here slow. Lack of parental involvement, lack of volunteerism, young parents, low educational standards (both cultural and institutional), distractions and hardships outside of school, the list goes on.

With my sociological mentality, I'm constantly looking for explanations and solutions. Why are there so many children who perform so far below their level? What's the difference between the low performers I work with and the bright children who occupy the same classrooms and schoolyards? The obstacles mentioned above, certainly, but why are those the determinants, and how can we improve conditions for these kids?

I'm thinking that gender roles and attitudes toward sex and parenting is actually more important than people may realize. It's one of those things that's so ingrained from childhood that it's hard to see the effects (everywhere, not just in St. Lucia). This site explains it more succinctly than I can:

Women often times run their households and raise their children with little to no assistance from men. Most women work, shop, etc., and there is little that is seen as unacceptable for them to do. From a young age girls are encouraged far more than boys to be active in school, which continues into college. Increasingly women are taking over the professional role while men continue in labor jobs (construction, bus drivers, farming). Yet, men still expect to be the sole breadwinners despite a changing professional class of women. Men just aren't expected to do much, honestly. Many do, of course, but women are the ones who take care of most things, from earning to child rearing to cleaning. There's not much stigma against births outside of marriage, and many children have half siblings from both parents. Most children live with their mothers or grandmothers. The set up leads to many boys growing up without high achieving male role models. Add to this the stresses and limitations of single parenthood. Add to this the urban poverty felt throughout Vieux Fort Town. Add to this the availability of alcohol and drugs. Add to this the use of corporal punishment in schools. Add to this...

One of the Peace Corps initiatives worldwide is to empower women and girls. Here in St. Lucia, women already have power. They work, they make decisions about their families. Let's empower men and boys, teach them to respect their own sexuality. Teach them about raising families. Teach them to take responsibility. Teach them that life can get better than liming at the rum shop down the road and getting with whichever woman responds to their cat calls.

As hard a time as I'm having with my small project now, the idea of trying to change attitudes about gender roles makes it look easy.

Looks like I spoke too soon about the Teachers Union pay crisis being resolved. It isn't. In fact it's as far from resolved as ever.

On Tuesday this week they held another meeting (another day away from school) to discuss the government's offer. The teachers continue to demand payment (the full 7.5% increase in salary) by the end of this month, or else. The government still says it doesn't have the money to do that, period.

So we'll see.

Yesterday was the District 6 Sports Meet, where all the schools in the Vieux-Fort area came together with their best athletes. There was a very good showing, and thankfully the weather finally let up, so we just had a few light sprinkles throughout the day. Plainview Combined won the day, but Vieux-Fort Infant/Primary came in second! I sat with the VF Infant teachers, and we had a great time cheering for our track stars in both VF schools. I came home with a slightly sore throat from yelling for my kids.

All the athletes lined up by school. The two schools I work at are both on the far right.

I think this is the Under 9 Girls 80 meter Dash. A girl from VF Primary is winning by a long shot!

Students, teachers, and family from Vieux-Fort Infant and Primary

For those of you in Austin, I'll be home August 5th-19th! Diana will come and visit the second weekend I'm there. I'm super excited for all of it!

After jerk chicken, Jamaican beef patties are one of the more well known Caribbean dishes. They're delicious savory pastries sort of like empanadas (which are kind of like turnovers), but the dough is denser. Jamaican cooking is full of strong, spicy flavors, so many different spices are usually used.

Here in St. Lucia food usually isn't hot-spicy, but we do use a lot of curries because of the East Indian population influence.

Inspired by this, limited by my choice to refrain from buying meat, I came up with my own version of a Jamaican patty. The veggies involved are onions, eggplant, and shredded cabbage, with lentils thrown in for protein. The patties aren't exactly low-fat (butter and shortening are used in the pastry, coconut milk in the filling), but they are filling and full of healthy stuff. Plus they're delicious!

Vegetarian Curry Patties

Pastry

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp yellow curry powder

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup cold unsalted butter

1/2 black plantain, cooked, mashed, cooled (about 1/3 cup) (if not using plantain, make sure shortening and butter together total at least 3/4 cup)

1/2 cold water (more as needed)

Filling

1 Tbsp oil (I used soybean oil)

1 1/2 Tbsp yellow curry powder

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

salt to taste

1/2 cup white onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup dry lentils

1 cup eggplant, diced

1 cup cabbage, finely shredded and chopped

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Flour for rolling dough

1 egg, beaten for brushing patties

1. If using a black (very ripe) plantain in the pastry, cut off both ends, cut in two, boil 10 minutes. Let it cool, remove the skin from one of the halves, and mash it up with a fork. Put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.

2. Sort, wash, and soak lentils. (Usually they don't need to be soaked, but with the oil and coconut milk in the filling they'll need the extra moisture to soften up.)

3. In a large bowl, start the pastry. Mix flours, salt, curry powder. Cut in shortening, butter, and plantain bit by bit. Mix thoroughly until everything clumps and breaks apart easily.

4. Add cold water bit by bit, mix until a tight ball of dough is formed. Wrap dough in plastic, refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

5. Dice eggplant to 1/4 inch cubes, toss with a pinch of salt, set aside.

6. Saute curry, cayenne, salt, and onion with oil in medium saucepan, 8 minutes over low-med heat. Add minced garlic, saute for 2 minutes, then reduce heat.

7. Add coconut milk, lentils, and eggplant (diced to 1/4" cubes). Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add cabbage, continue to cook 10-15 minutes, letting the mixture reduce until it's moist but no longer soupy (resembling cooked ground beef, actually). If lentils don't soften after about 20 minutes, add 1/4 cup water, continue to cook and reduce. Add lemon juice, stir, remove from heat.

8. Preheat oven to 350F and get out the pastry dough.

9. Sprinkle a clean, dry, even surface with flour, and flour your trusty rolling pin. Pinch off a 3 inch ball of dough, flatten it, roll it out as you would a flour tortilla, but just a little thicker. Use a bowl between 5-7 inches diameter to cut a circle in dough.

10. Spoon the filling onto half the circle, leaving at least 1/2" around edge. Fold other half of pastry over, use a fork to press the two edges together, place on greased cookie sheet, brush with egg.

11. Repeat steps 7 and 8 to make all the patties. Cookie sheet with patties goes in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Makes 5-14, depending on size.

I found that though the patties are good while they're still warm from the oven, they are a little too dry. After they've been covered at room temperature for a day, the pastry is softer and moister, and it can be reheated easily. Refrigerate after 1 day.

The aroma from the filling cooking was one of the best I've had in my apartment since I moved in. Sometime I'll do just the filling without reducing it and eat it over noodles as a fake Thai dish.

If I remember correctly, the decision reached by the Trade Union Federation (including the Teachers Union) and the government is that workers will get a 3.5% salary increase soon, and by April of next year they expect the other 4%. That's taken care of, and we don't have to worry about any more unnecessary school closings...

...Except that this North American Flu thing has everyone scared, and people are so reactionary (here and throughout the world) that I won't be surprised if they start closing schools without full evidence of a confirmed case. Especially next week and the week after, because today is the beginning of Saint Lucia Jazz Fest, which is on of the big tourist draws for the country. We'll have world famous musicians, including one from (*gasp, run for the face mask*) Mexico. I have a feeling that group won't get the crowd it deserves.

Sometimes there are things I encounter here that impress me, other times they remind me of the hassles of daily life here. I am impressed that the news media has since Tuesday been consistently called the H5N1 virus "North American Flu," as encouraged by WHO. I'm not impressed that we've banned the import of pork from North America (remember, it's spread by human-to-human contact, not from eating pork!). I am glad that the teachers at the VF Primary School yesterday had some very good and insightful questions about how to deal with it.

Tuesday I went by the bank, expecting to wait an hour in line to transfer some money to my US account to pay for my plane ticket home (I'll be in Austin August 5-19th!), but I got there a little after 2:30 and apparently the bank closes at 2pm. What? Why would they close so early? And of course there's no hours posted on the outside, so I don't know if that's just on Tuesdays, or everyday, or when I'll next be able to go to the bank. Most offices and stores close at 4 or 4:30, so I guess this is one of the reasons why people leave work at random times and don't come back for an hour or so.

Finally, today I woke up at 6:30, like most mornings, saw that the sky was a nice bright blue. Excellent, I thought. Perfect day to do the laundry. Then I turned on my sink, and only a trickle of water came out. I'm not sure why, but my water supply is on our tank now, rather than regular water service. Not a great day to use the washing machine. If I don't get the right combination tomorrow I'll probably hand wash a few things, but what I've been needing to wash are my pants, clothes that need more vigorous work to get clean than blouses. I may go another week with unwashed slacks and jeans, but what's another week after a month and a half?

So while the gas dealers never striked even though they didn't get the full cut they were asking for, the biggest news on island right now is the salary raise promised to teachers last year due tomorrow--and how it's not going to happen.

And the Teachers Union already decided if they don't get their raise, they will not go to schools for three full days.

This past Monday they didn't attend because they had an emergency meeting, where they made this decision. Government (that's how it's said here, not "the government," similar to saying "he was rushed to hospital," no article) announced last week that it didn't have enough money to meet the second part of the raise that was initiated last year (there was a "meeting"/strike held on the second Monday of Term 1, back in September, where they negotiated this raise with government).

The teachers I've listened to the past couple of days argue that it's more than just a broken promise, it's actually breaking a legal contract. They say that government shouldn't have agreed to a raise that it wouldn't be able to deliver. The raise was made partly because teachers are not reimbursed in any part for purchases made for the classroom.

The government officials that have commented publicly cite the global economic crisis. Though it hasn't been mentioned directly in this context, a few months ago government provided a bailout to the tourism industry, since it is directly dependent on the currently failing economies of places like the UK and the US. Provisions such as this have dramatically and unexpectedly depleted already strained government assets.

So it looks like we'll miss another three days of school (Thursday, Friday, Monday) right at the beginning of the most important Term as far as test prep goes. Examinations for Minimum Standards, CXE (entry to secondary schools), and A'Levels (sort of like SATs) are coming up at the end of the term in June.

Because of the possible/very likely strike, the District Six Sports Meet scheduled for Friday has been postponed (again) to early May. This means I'll get to attend the swearing in of the new Peace Corps group and the Barrier Analysis meeting afterwards. I'm looking forward to both.

In other news (food related, of course) I made bread pudding two ways last night. One was savory with my veggie mainstays (spinach, tomato, onion, sweet (green bell) pepper), cheese, and plenty of egg; the other was sweet with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, currants, and chopped plantains. They're both delicious! I'm superglad that I read one particularly encouraging blog recipe. It said that it's pretty much impossible to mess up bread pudding. I like to think mine wasn't anywhere close from messing up, but I'm probably not the best judge of that.

Success!

I hadn't had a whoopie pie before, but the innumerable descriptions and recipes and pictures that have bombarded the culinary creative commons of the internet gave me a pretty good idea. So, of course, I decided to make my own. And, of course, I put my own West Indian (and cheap-skate) twist on it.

:D

So I used the same recipe for my candy molasses cookies, omitting the candy and nuts, adding perhaps just a touch more sifted flour to ensure they were super soft and cakey. Several methods of portioning out the dough (two rounded tablespoons, one rounded tablespoon, using a simple cookie cutter) led me to believe that the best prep for the dough just before it goes into the oven is to round a consistent amount (either 1 or 2 tablespoons, depending on your desired size) into balls in your hands, then pat them down a little bit flat on the cookie sheet. Give them plenty of room, since they spread.

Then I used a very simple recipe for the icing, which made a much larger quantity than my one-egg batch of cookies (so definitely go with the full batch of cookies for the right amount), and added several scrapings (up to a teaspoon, by taste) of fresh nutmeg. Make sure your cookies are completely cooled before spreading and sandwiching the icing.

...that doesn't look like good icing.

...but that does!

Encase them well in plastic wrap, walk two miles to the George Odlum Stadium with whoopie pies in your ever-present blue Peace Corps tote, and deliver them to weary Carifta volunteers.

One last bit of advice: the icing starts to stiffen after a day, so make sure there are people around to gobble them up the day you make them ;)

Looks like I'm getting sick. Just earlier this week I was thinking about how I'm awesome for not getting sick since I've been here....Pride before a fall, I guess.

Maybe I shouldn't have hung out at the house of a friend who has the flu (coughfaehacksneeze). Though the chicken and mashed potatoes she made for me were absolutely fantastic.

The other night I made a tasty full meal with spicy baked flying fish, a baked sweet potato (half seasoned savorily, half sweetened for dessert), and a mini veggie casserole. I assure you, it all tasted much better than it looks:

Today I went up to Castries for a Barrier Analysis meeting, and it looks like we're on our way towards researching. We developed our questions and revised our goal, behaviour, and priority group. There are still a few things to do, but we're much closer than we were yesterday.

I'm currently on Easter break, and if I weren't getting sick I would make sure to go to all the church services this weekend. I'll try to make at least one of them, though. Probably on Sunday. I'll also try to check out the Carifta Games (esp since they're right here in Vieux Fort!).

Monday the afterschool program went a little more smoothly, largely thanks to the help of Ms. Elsa, one of the teachers there. We got some homework done, and since I explained how they should behave upstairs, the kids weren't crazygonuts all afternoon.

But Wednesday was even better. After my meeting Monday morning at Campus A (it's where the first two forms [equivalent of grades 7-8] of VF Comprehensive Secondary School take place, in VF Town), two girls showed up on Wednesday. My Grade 2s didn't have homework, so we read together for an hour, and I went home feeling totally content--rather than tired and with a sore throat like many days at VF Infant School.

Next Monday will be the last day for the term, but next Wednesday I'll meet with the parents of children in the program to sign them up to volunteer time and donate food for the program, and to let their other Infant School kids in. Awesome.

In my role as a PCV, I am "working" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I knew that already. What I didn't expect was that I would get so much experience in occupational roles I didn't imagine before. In the 6 full months since swearing in, I have gained some of the basic skills for substitute teacher, special needs educator, nonprofit developer, school secretary, and most recently public advocate.

Wednesday while watching my afterschool kids outside I met a young woman who looks somewhere around my age. Her daughter is a Pre-K girl at the Infant School, so she's in the phonics lessons I teach. This girl is pretty bright, though, and at the top of the Pre-K class. She doesn't seem to need to be in this class, all but for the fact that she's very quiet. I suspect that at the beginning of the year she was put into the class rather than regular Kindergarten because she was shy and overly cautious of the adult administering the diagnostic. She and her mother live in Belle Vue (a $2.75 bus ride into VF Town each way for adults, which the mother makes as many as four times a day, five days a week, to take her daughter to school), and earlier this term the mother tried transferring her to BVCS (where I work on Fridays) without success. All the relevant administrators except for the BVCS principal (whom I love working with, by the way) approved the transfer. The reason: BVCS doesn't have a Pre-K program. I said I'd talk with the principal.

Today I showed the principal the results from the test (a "game," I told the children) I gave my phonics groups on Wednesday, illustrating that this girl is farther ahead in phonics than her classmates. Perhaps, I suggested, she might take some tests from BVCS to see whether she would be able to jump into a Kindergarten class at a different school after having been taught mainly preparatory content in Pre-K. I know it's a long shot, and I told that to both the principal and the K teacher at BVCS. They also seemed skeptical, but guess what--they agreed at least to let me give her some tests.

I'll start seeing on Monday whether this will be a sucess or just a learning experience.

Last week I bought some whole wheat flour, with the idea that I would make healthier foods. I think it's sort of working.

The bread that was becoming staler by the day in my refrigerator, the bread that I bought vaguely a month ago, had so little left that I salvaged what was still soft and threw the rest in the freezer to make breadcrumbs later. I wouldn't buy bread for a couple of weeks, I decided, so I made some wheat tortillas to go along with my salsa (these days I make food that I can take to work for lunch without reheating, since none of the schools I work at have functioning microwaves...quesadillas were last week's menu).

The tortillas came out pretty well. I used the same recipe as usual, except that half of the flour was whole grain wheat. They're not quite as flexible as my usual batches, but of course they have an earthier taste.

Sunday night, after I made these, I didn't want to eat a quesadilla like I would for the rest of the week, or even a taco. Over the phone my mom suggested soup. She meant just putting the soft tortillas right into the soup, but I had a different thought.

I cut the tortilla, fried it in my trusty canola oil, no extra salt, to make chips. A couple spoonfuls of salsa went into a saucepan, as did a cup or so of water, a few chopped leaves of spinach, some slices of carrot and fresh tomato, an extra dash each of cumin, cayenne, and black pepper so the water wouldn't dilute the flavour too much. Into a bowl went the soup, the whole wheat tortilla chips, and some shreds of cheese.

I didn't expect much, but it was some of the best tortilla soup I've ever had, to be completely honest. And I'm picky about my tortilla soup.

Later in the week I found a recipe on Taste Spotting for some whole wheat carrot muffins, but I didn't have all the ingredients. Oh well, time for some improv :)

Darling Muffins

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup sugar (or just under)

1 cup milk (I used evaporated)

1 large egg (I used 2 small eggs--in the States eggs are generally the same large size though, so use that)

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I have soybean oil this round)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup finely shredded carrot

1/4 cup raisins or assorted small dried fruit

(I would have added 1/2 cup chopped nuts, if I had any)

1. Combine dry ingredients (first set above) in a large mixing bowl, make a well with it (push most of it to the edges of the bottom of the bowl, leaving empty the middle), set aside.

2. Combine wet ingredients (second set above) in a medium mixing bowl, wisking well. Pour into well in dry ingredients, mix thoroughly. Add carrot, fruit, nuts. Preheat oven to 400F.

3. Pour into greased muffin tins or paper cups in muffin tins. Bake for 17-21 minutes. They're done when a toothpick poked in comes out clean.

Because I have small muffin tins, 18 darling little muffins came out. I didn't have paper cups, so I made some from wax paper as suggested.

I meant for them to be healthy-ish, so they're not really sweet, but they're incredibly moist and have a nice round flavour. Better than bran muffins, for sure. Perfect with tea as breakfast or snack for your darlings, with a dollop of peanut butter if you don't have chopped nuts around.

I have been trying to stick to the positive aspects of my experience here in St. Lucia, but sometimes everyone has a few days when things just don't go as planned.

I mentioned recently that this past week I would have meetings with the parents and secondary school students to get the afterschool program at the Infant School going. No one showed up to the parents' meeting, and only teachers from the Infant School came to the would-be training session on Wednesday. I had sent home letters with some Grade 2 students to inform their parents of the meeting, or to call me to schedule another time to meet if they couldn't make it. No one called.* I had asked the counselors at two secondary schools in town to find some interested students and have them show up at the infant school for a training workshop, but no luck there either.

*I can't say that nothing was my fault, since I realized later this week that I had put the wrong phone number on the letters, so perhaps parents had been trying to call me to no avail.

I didn't let the no-shows get off so easily. On Wednesday I sent the same Grade 2 students home with consent forms and another, shorter, letter, in hopes that their parents might fill out the forms and let their children attend the program. I'm requiring parents to donate either time, food, or materials to the program so that we don't have to charge for enrollment, so I need to make sure the parents get my real number so I can build a schedule.

I also had an encouraging and useful conversation with some teachers who want to help with the program. Their advice included advertising refreshments at meetings, calling parents directly, recruiting new Infant School students to participate, and holding the training workshops at the secondary schools.

Throughout the week, though it was disappointing, I was surprised that I didn't get stressed out or depressed about everything. Right now all I'm going to do is see if anyone comes to the program on Monday. I think I'll take advantage of the parent-teacher conference day the Wednesday before Spring Break, since most of the Grade 2 kids are in the same class, and meet with the parents briefly while they're waiting to meet with the teacher, to see if anyone else wants to participate.

Berney sent me a food challenge in his Valentine's Day/Birthday package to me. There was a bag of sausage-flavoured croutons and some nice air-filled milk chocolate. I was instructed to make something with both of them, so here are the results.

Adapted from the PC EC Cookbook--I reduced the portions, and sort of didn't know what I was doing when it came to frying. Next time I make them, I won't have the oil so hot because many of them blackened but were still gooey on the inside. It was even more of an adventure, since I had never deep fried before.

Ingredients (scaled down for just me)

1 small ripe banana

3/4 tsp sugar

dash cinnamon

about 1/3 of 1 beaten egg

dash vanilla essence

1/8 cup milk

1/4 cup flour

oil for deep frying

2 Tbsp milk chocolate, chopped

1 Tbsp crouton crumbs

Directions

If you really want to know the specifics of directions, let me know and I'll post them. I think this should be enough for now, though.

The results were that the sausage flavoured crouton crumbs were a little overwhelming, so I'm glad I only made 3 or 4 of the fritters with them. I was inspired by a pancake breakfast the day before. I remembered how I like to sop up some of the syrup from pancakes with my sausage when I have them together (oh dining hall how I miss you), and so combining breakfasty flavours was my goal. It sort of worked, though the chocolate-only fritters were better tasting.

I think next time I make them, I might omit the sugar altogether, since bananas are pretty dang sweet by themselves. Then it'll be a breakfast-worthy concoction :)

I'm getting tantalizingly close to the start of the afterschool program. Tomorrow I'm meeting with parents of children nominated to be the first to participate. Wednesday I'll be training volunteers for the program. Next week Monday (the 16th) will be the first day! I'm super excited about it.

Other than working on that, I haven't been doing too much the past couple of weeks.

Sunday, Feb 22nd was Independence Day, so we had Monday off from work. I went to hang with some PCVs in Piaye on the beach, then we went to Jess's house for delicious meatball subs and FUNFETTI cupcakes! It was a great time.

The next day some of us went over to the airport here in Vieux Fort to welcome the new Peace Corps Trainees. They look like a wholesome bunch. I'll be excited to meet them more in-depth in the next months.

Last week on Friday I had a great time subbing for a Grade 2 class at Belle Vue Combined. Somehow it seemed like I barely needed to be in the classroom. Even the children who were struggling with the assignment were doing the work. It was a different experience from what I'm used to, subbing at VF Infant and VF Primary, and even working in a 3rd grade class in Chicago when a substitute was there. I'm trying to figure out what the causes of these differences are, so that I might be able to give the teachers and principals in VF town insight to promote calmer classrooms.

Later in the day I went to see the end of the Interhouse Meet for VF Primary. It was a track meet for the four different sports houses at the school: Sunflower, Hibiscus, Evergreen, and Bluebell. Though I was only there for the last two races--the girls' and the boys' relays--the competition was very impressive. It was also a fun atmosphere. The Infant School children were there supporting their older siblings (there was a school-wide workshop for the teachers that day, so no classes were held), as well as many people from the community and some secondary school students who were helping out.

Yesterday Fae came over in the late afternoon, just planning to hang out, and I was going to cook dinner, but then she mentioned that if she had more money she would "sponsor" (treat) me and we could go up to Castries or Rodney Bay and do something. Well I've been pretty spendthrift lately, and I've barely gotten out of Vieux Fort, so I decided we should just go do it. We went up to Castries and met her friend Tricia, who took us up to Rodney Bay. Tricia is in a band, so we went to watch them (after splurging and getting a medium BBQ chicken and pineapple pizza at Domino's). It was a great time (even though I kept yawning; I didn't get enough sleep the night before!).

It may seem sometimes like I do exciting things all the time, because those are the things I find interesting enough to write about, but these things come in little clusters somehow. Most of my excitement comes from cooking. I'll do a post about those things soon :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I haven't made an entry in a few weeks, because first I was busy for the entire last week of the school term, then because my internet went out the day I was going to write an entry about that week, and then because the holiday time has been finding me much busier than I expected!

So, to sum up my weeks away from the blog, here are some photos.

That's the range from 8 Dec to 21 Dec. I'll try to do a holiday update pretty soon.

Sunday I went to a "Fun Fair" that was actually about AIDS awareness, to observe World AIDS Day on December 1. Some of the schools in the southern districts had skits or songs, although it seemed like there was some miscommunication between some schools and the organizers. There also weren't many people attending that weren't in direct relation to what was on the program. I saw some teachers I knew, and one of them introduced me to the organizers. I gave my email to one of them, because I think this event could be even bigger next year, and it should be, and I might be able to help with that. So hurray for making a step forward on one of the PC target areas, AIDS awareness and prevention.

I have had more success this week in my phonics classes with the kindergarteners. Partly it's due to my asking a couple of teachers to keep one or two children that had been giving me infinite problems. It's worked, at least. When the trouble kids aren't there, the other kids are still rambunctious (they are young kids, afterall), but they do listen to me. I also have been working on giving them incentives (e.g., sit still and be quiet for this song, and the next song you can dance around). I have started sending kids back to their classrooms if they misbehave to a point where I can't actually teach. I've also noticed that the easiest way to get their attention is to start the music (if it's not on) or stop it (if it is). My throat gets sore a little, but not nearly as bad.

Still, I know I'm not the kind of person who should be a teacher. I like organizing things and people, not controlling them (or trying to).

Yesterday at the Infant School the District Education Officer came and had a meeting with the task force committee (myself, the principal, the special needs teacher, and a teacher representing each grade). We talked about different activities we can do to improve the students' literacy and numeracy and therefore the school's test performance. Perhaps I'll get to work on getting a reading room running there, and maybe the afterschool program too. I'll see what I can do.

At Belle Vue I'm working on getting a small booth together about the Reading Room for the Open House/Showcase of Talent next week. It's neat because PCVs back in 2005 got the whole thing started, and it's still going. Hurray for sustainability!

On more personal notes, I sent the last of my Christmas packages today. I've only sent four, one to my mom & her house, one to my dad and grandma, one to Berney, and one to my Secret Santee. Unfortunately, I couldn't send the breadnuts to the last two that I had peeled and dried for that purpose. The post office wouldn't let me. It was very sad, since I wrote out instructions for cooking and all that, and I had to just cross it all out. But at least I don't need to worry anymore about sending anything else for a while. Sorry everyone else, I just can't afford it (it's cost around $15-25 for each package, in addition to contents).

This evening my neighbor Kathy invited me to the hospital's volunteer pizza party. She's an administrator from Iowa, and she's worked here at St. Jude's on and off for the past 14 years. I met some of the hospital staff, including groundsmen and doctors, and some nurses from Cuba, some med students from Switzerland, a priest from Nigeria, and some volunteer doctors that are only here a couple weeks from the US. It was really interesting to learn a little about all these people, and lots of fun to sit in on conversations in English between people who speak different languages back home. The pizza was interesting, too! One was vegetable (a frozen veggie mix of chopped green beans, carots, corn, cauliflower?), one was tuna, one was hot dog. This is how they do it down here, and though there were onions on all of them (I've been trying to get over it), I have to say the tuna pizza was actually pretty tasty!

Also, on Sunday after the AIDS event I passed by my friend Albert's house, and ended up staying for about an hour and a half to chat and have a bite to eat. He and his girlfriend Babsie are very nice and welcoming, as is the norm here. They gave me a huge soursop fruit, since Albert has a soursop tree in his yard. Now, I had already gotten myself into trouble when I bought too much fruit for the weekend, but I figured it would be ok. Well, this thing ripened, so I had to cut it open to taste, and now it's open and only a quarter eaten, despite my efforts eating and sharing with my neighbor. So I might get a chance to make some juice with it, except I only have one pitcher (which is perpetually filled with golden apple juice these days) and no large bottles, so even that might have to wait.

What is soursop? Well, if you remember waaaaay back to September, I wrote about sugar apples. Soursop is related, but pretty different. While a sugar apple is generally the size of a fist, this soursop is as big as a medium sized watermelon. It's spiny rather than scaly, and fibrous rather than grainy on the inside. The seeds are almost identical though, hard and black and shiny. Finally, the taste of the soursop is much like the sugar apple--very sweet, almost like plain old sugar--but with a very nice tangy flavor. Pretty much, it's delicious. To make the juice I should pour boiling water over it, press out the juice, add milk, and maybe sweeten it. Sounds like a delicious milk tea that could be served with tapioca pearls (bubble tea!) although I don't trust myself (or the availability of ingredients) to try that right now.

I made about 55 tortillas yesterday.

They are delicious.

Today I made a black bean dish to eat with them, and salsa roja to top. These I took to Dennery for the Peace Corps Thanksgiving dinner. Read about that above!

For now, let's focus on what will quite possibly be the best homemade flour tortillas you will ever eat.

This weekend I started making tortillas. I now consider myself an expert. I tried two different recipes, looked at about twenty, and came up with something that got all I wanted. Using just shortening gave the tortillas a very nice flexibility, but no flavor at all. Using just vegetable oil made the dough pretty unpliable. Some compromise, some addition, and I now have a flour tortilla that made a Colombian say "You're not from the States!"

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup powedered skim milk

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used soybean oil because it's the cheapest here)

1Tbsp shortening

1/2 cup warm water

Instructions

1. Mix dry ingredients together completely. (Powdered milk has a tendency to clump in general, so mix it well with the flour to prevent this)

2. Add vegetable oil, mix well. Things will start clumping a little.

3. Cut in the shortening, mixing in little by little. Mixture should now pack and crumble easily.

4. Add a water a little at a time. Mix in well until it all forms one big sticky blob. It shouldn't be wet, but nice and sticky. This way it will roll out well a few steps down the line.

5. Knead the dough for at least the length of one country song. Pull the dough apart into 10-12 clumps and roll into balls. Cover them with a damp paper towel, let sit for at least twenty minutes.

6. Sprinkle some flour on an even, clean surface (counter or tabletop work well) and put flour on a rolling pin. Take one dough ball, pat it down a little, and roll it out with the pin, so that it looks like a vertical oval. Flip it and turn it 90 degrees, and roll it so that it more closely resembles a circle. Use more flour on the pin, work surface, and tortilla as necessary. Roll it very thin, maybe 1/16th of an inch. It will thicken when heated, but making it thin in the first place makes it nice and bendable.

7. To cook the tortillas, heat a skillet over low-medium heat. Place a tortilla on the skillet, let it sit for about a minute, or until it puffs a little bit in several places. Flip it (there may be some brown spots on it now, this is normal and delicious) and let it sit for about 30 seconds or until the entire tortilla is a lighter color than it started out.

8. Eat! Eat! Eat! If you will serve them in a little bit, place them on two paper towels still attached, over a large sheet of aluminum foil. After you put each cooked tortilla on the stack, cover it with the rest of the paper towel, foil, and top with a towel or dishrag. If you want, you can freeze or microwave them. Serving suggestion:

Black Bean something or other

(serves a lot, so if it's just a meal for a couple people pare it down by half or so)

Ingredients

1 cup dried black beans

dash crushed oregano

dash crushed basil

dash salt

lotsa water

2 green bell peppers

2 red bell peppers

1 1/2 cup corn (I thawed my frozen corn, or you can drain and rinse a can of corn)

1 cup diced tomatoes (I used canned, since fresh tomatoes are really expensive here)

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp onion powder

(I forgot to add other spices, so add some cayenne or chipotle powder or something)

Directions

1. Prepare beans according to directions on package (soak, cook over low-med heat), but add salt, oregano, and basil when it's cooking. Drain, set aside.

2a. Preheat oven 400 degrees.

2. Dice bell peppers, removing seeds.

3. Toss corn and bell peppers with oil, onion powder, and other spices.

4a. Oh no! The oven isn't turning on! Now I have to

4. Scoop 1/4 bell pepper mixture onto skillet or frying pan with lid over medium heat. Cover, cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Put cooked mixture into large casserole dish or bowl; repeat with the other 3/4 of the mixture.

5. Drain canned tomatoes or dice fresh tomatoes, remove seeds. Add tomatoes and beans to bell peppers and corn, toss well.

6. Scoop into delicious homemade tortillas, top with

Salsa Wouj

(This uses the local hot pepper, which I think are the same as habañeros, but I'm just going to call them hot peppers. I say salsa wouj instead of salsa roja because it's now a sort of creole sauce.) (I just found that they are called [elsewhere] Scotch Bonnets, and they are closely related to habañeros)

Ingredients

3/4 cup diced tomatoes

1 small hot pepper, diced, all but 2-3 seeds removed

1 clove garlic, diced

Dash black pepper

Dash cayenne

Dash onion powder

(again, if I had chili powder or cilantro, those would go in there. Also, I don't like onions, but if you do you can certainly use onion instead of onion powder.)

Directions

1. Make sure you use gloves (or a plastic back around the hand holding it, which is what I do) when cutting the hot pepper. Seriously. I am not kidding. I should know (my eye and hands have learned my lesson for me). Wash your hands and your knife and your cutting board thoroughly after cutting it.

2. Blend all ingredients together until there are no chunks

3. Wash hands again. Pour mixture into small serving dish. Wash hands again. Taste to see how spicy it is. Wash hands again.

4. Warn people that this is either spicy or very very spicy (if it's medium spicy, it takes a couple seconds before the heat hits; ) depending on the outcome.

5. Use to top black bean something or other that's in your delicious homemade tortilla; enjoy!

So there you go, a Melaney-style Thanksgiving dish.

It's late now, so I'll post pics of the steps and write about Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Today was awesome. Yesterday was awesome too. Maybe tomorrow will be awesome, we'll have to wait and find out.

Yesterday I went up to Babonneau to spend the night with Ashley so I wouldn't have to get up super-early to get to the conference on time today. I met up with her and Scott, Lois, Elaine, and Karen, all PCVs, at a faux-Starbucks cafe by the cinema. We chatted, ate, and had gelato (!!), then Ash & I went back to her place. We stayed up talking girl-talk (not Girl Talk) and exercising. It was nice to chill with someone one-on-one, since I haven't done that in a long time and that's the kind of interaction I've been craving lately.

Today we went to Rodney Bay to a hotel where volunteers from both US Peace Corps and the Japanese Oversea Cooperation met up, met each other, and shared presentations to stimulate discussion about the issues we're facing as volunteers in St. Lucia. JOCVs do very similar work, and have a similar mission to the PC. I really enjoyed both presentations I sat in on, one about the Maths Achievement Program two JOCVs have been working on, and one about Libary and Reading Programs that two PCVs have been working on. They gave me a lot of insights and ideas for what I should be doing in order to get some of my project ideas accomplished.

Afterwards, we were supposed to go to Gros Islet for a beach BBQ, but it started raining so the JOC Country Director very generously volunteered his house, which was only a ten minute walk from the hotel. Altogether there was a lot of food, from what the hosts provided and what we bought for the cookout. The best pictures I got were of food (you should expect this by now of me), so here they are:

Veggies, dips, delicious cookie and brownie by Sam (the PCV who organized the event), green tea cake made by one of the JOCVs, and THE BEST SUSHI I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE I am not kidding I don't usually like sushi that much but dang this was amazing. It was homemade, btw.

American contributions to snacks!

And the main course. I had a cheese veggie burger with pickles, ketchup, lettuce and hot pepper mustard. Justin and Ashley were concerned about the amount of the pepper mustard on my burger bun, but it left my mouth only mildly warm. It was delicious.

I ate about 27 cookies and brownies, as did everyone else along with all the other food. We went home stuffed and very happy.

The best part, though, was when a bunch of the JOCVs practiced one of their traditional dances for us. They'll perform it next Saturday when they host Japan Day at Town Hall in Castries, to share their culture with the people of St. Lucia. This is called the Fishermen's Dance, and it's sure to bring in lots of fish!

Tomorrow I might go over to Albert's house. He's a bus driver (the first one I met, he taxis for Manman) who lives down the road, and he invited me to come over to chat with him and his girlfriend. I also need to start practicing my tortillas for Thanksgiving, so I'll walk down to Super J and back for flour and shortening (which will be my exercise for the day--it's about 35 minutes each way at a brisk pace).

Last Sunday my power cord went out and my battery died, just before I was about to call my mom and write a post. So this past week (until today) I've been without a working laptop, and have barely gotten to even check my email.

Well that is taken care of (the power cord magically fixed itself, it seems), so here are a few photos I've been meaning to post.

Two Fridays ago I went to work at Belle Vue Combined, but the computers still were not in, so I ended up writing the titles and authors of all the chapter books in the reading room on little slips of paper by hand. It was exciting! I found more than one silverfish (and had to kill a couple of them). One was already dead, in this here book:

This was the last page in the book:

The next day I went to market (like I do most Saturdays, although not yesterday) and bought all of this food for $12 (which is a little over $4 in USD). All those green golden apples, all 14 of them, were had for $1. That's enough to make juice for three weeks. My juice costs only a few cents per glass to make, and it's a wonder that people buy Fruta and other expensive sugary not-one-hundred-percent juices. Pictured: Three cucumbers ($5), four oranges ($1), five passion fruit ($1), one bag of méwé in a bowl ($1), 14 golden apples ($1), one bag of string beans ($3).

Today this little guy was crawling outside my front door when I was coming in from hanging up my laundry. It was almost the size of my palm. I didn't want to kill it, but I didn't want it coming in, so I went inside and closed my front door and sprayed some Bop (insecticide, to kill and prevent bugs, "Get serious, use Bop!") along the edges of the doorframe (there are large gaps between the door and doorframe).

Sometime last week I came home to find this little guy in my sink. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I got it in my hands and took it outside, where it hopped in some bushes and away. I was sure to wash my hands and the sink thoroughly afterwards (frogs can carry samonella, if you didn't know).

Of course, the "events" that I will remember the week by are not captured in photos. But they include (in brief): figuring out what I'll be doing at VF Infant ("the sound of B is buh; bee buh bee buh bee buh bee buh"); having a horrible experience subbing for a third grade class that start out well but was entirely out of control by the end; spending the night in Rodney Bay at Haley's with some other PCVs and going to the weekly Gros Islet Jump Up (so many white people!) and getting ripped off on bus ride home.

Actually, when that last incident happened, I could have argued about it, but I was tired. It made me frustrated though, and I said "I hate being white here!" and then of course it hit me. Not the bus, but that that's part of why I'm here, is to experience being a minority, and to have people think I'm foolish and having people try to take advantage of me. I guess me not arguing it doesn't get me anywhere, but at that moment I looked at the situation and I thought that arguing wouldn't get me anywhere either (I had already given the driver a 5 dollar note for two people, expecting $2 change, knowing that it might only be 50c change, but he didn't give me any, and insisted that the fare was $3 per person, although at night the fare should be $2.25 per person). But I'm finally in a place where I can't know how to get everywhere all the time, and I have to rely on the help of people I don't know (look at the Halloween adventure!), and even though it's not my first time being in a minority, the situation is even more pronounced. It's beginning to give me a new perspective on what Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Middle Easterners experience all the time when they're surrounded by people who look and treat them differently.

A little over two hours ago I came home very tired from an Election Night Party at a little rum shop down the street from me. Everyone there was very excited, and everyone here (as well as the rest of the world) was hoping and hoping that Obama would win.

A little less than an hour ago CNN announced that Obama had won. Although at this point I was at home sitting on my couch, I felt an immediate energy rising up from myself and everywhere. It was glorious.

Now I'm still waiting for the acceptance speech, even though I'm behind on my sleep and my cooking for the week. But it'll be worth it.

Thank god. Thank everyone who voted. Thank everyone for the support from all over the world. Things were going to get better either way. It's just better this way.

Here's the speech FTW!

Yesterday I was scheduled to go work at Belle Vue Combined (the same grades as an elementary school in the states, up to grade 6), but instead I went with the teachers at Vieux Fort Primary to their development day activity.

We went to students' houses in Bruceville and the Mang in Vieux Fort Town to see what conditions the kids were living in, so we could understand the challenges they face at home that might interfere with their education, or likewise the support that helps it. These neighborhoods are pretty much the slums of the Vieux Fort area, and are located in or near downtown. Much of Bruceville is referred to as "shanty town" because the houses were built haphazardly on a bit of land with no planning. They are built on concrete or wooden stilts a few feet high usually, and the houses are thin wooden sheets, only a step above plywood. Roofs are sheet steel, and the fences are patches of long rusting sheet steel about 4x4 feet, nailed together. It seems like most people have an electricity connection, though some don't; many (perhaps most in this neighborhood) don't have running water. Trash is strewn all over the ground (there were a few times when the other teachers and I were taken aback when people just tossed it on the ground. One teacher asked if there was a bin around that she could put some trash in, and the resident told her to just put it on the ground). Some people have animals like goats, pigs, and chickens. Goats are usually tied up; the others are let run as they may.

As we went along meeting parents and grandparents we had a survey sheet to fill out. It asked questions like: Mother/Father/Guardian's employment; parents' and siblings' education levels; whether they had electricity, water, books, newspapers, radio, television (Miss Sherene always skipped over the one about computers); where and how often they went to church, and whether they had a Bible; and if children were given chores, help with homework, and did other activities with parents (many said they took their kids to the beach or shopping regularly).

At each home we were greeted warmly (sometimes too warmly: one woman was bathing in a fenced area where the outhouse is. As we walked to the front door of the house, she called from behind us, "I'm busy, I'm not doing laundry," so we looked and there she was, completely naked and dripping from her shower. We tried to get out of that situation quickly, though she was not at all uncomfortable with it), and parents were not shy or dishonest about what they had or didn't have. Most had nice things to say about us and the kids. One mom we spoke with (and other groups reported similar conversations) told us that her son, a boy that I've been working with personally, insists on doing his homework by himself even though he can't read or write (yet!! I'm working on it with him. He's in Grade 4), and also that every night he asks for KFC for dinner. KFC is very expensive (between $10-15 for combo meals, $20-30 for family dinners), especially considering that similar meals would cost less than half if made at home, and many families have only one employed member, if that, and are seriously scraping to get by. Most families said that they or the older siblings help our students with homework, but that doesn't necessarily show when we look at their work in class (this is one of the reasons I think an after school tutoring program would be so helpful).

After the visits, we went back to the school for lunch (the third free lunch I enjoyed that week--It's nice because I cut back on my expenses, but then again I end up having left over food for over a week that needs to be consumed), then we went to visit three other schools in the district. (I had already visited all three before, and I ended up knowing more about them than my coworkers.)

The first was Vige (pronounced Veezhay), a rural school with four classrooms and 55 students in grades K-6. The VF Primary teachers were agap at the size and at the effort those teachers must have to put in to teach not only mixed-ability classrooms, but mixe classes too.

Next we visited Belle Vue, a school I work at on Fridays, helping mainly in the computer lab. The fact that this school has a computer lab says something about it. It also has a learning center with televisions, projectors, board games, and books; murals a paintings all over the school yard of educational games for kids to play and learn at break and lunch; a school garden of fruit and vegetables (I'm not sure if they sell the produce or use it in the kitchen); and two little meditation gardens where kids can go read and be in a peaceful, relaxing area outside. The classrooms were not as bare as those in VF Primary. The effects of this stimulating learning environment shows: Belle Vue has pretty good test scores for the area.

Finally (after school got out at 3pm) we went to Blanchard, a school that is participating in a test program called SET, where classrooms are made with themes to promote the idea that learning is fun. The VF teachers also liked these classrooms, but overall they were most impressed with Belle Vue. It's supposed to be a "sister school," in that they serve similar demographics and have similar resources, but in truth Belle Vue and Vieux Fort Primary stand on opposite ends of the District 6 spectrum of primary and combined schools.

After our visits to these schools, we went to a hotel bar where the principal bought a round of drinks for everyone. I felt bad because I ended up making everyone leave early. I was going to a Halloween party in a different town (about two hours away) that started at 6, so I had planned on going back home quickly after we were done so I could leave just after 4. Well, we didn't get to the bar until about 3:40, and so by 4:15 I told the principal that I had to go, and that I would catch a bus back into town, but he rounded every one up and we went back to VF Primary.

I didn't get home until about 5, and I didn't leave for Canaries until 5:45. It was already dark, and I took a bus to the mall where I thought I could catch a bus to Soufriere, but apparently I had to go all the way into town to get that bus, so I wasted about 20 minutes and $1.25 on that misconception (it does work that way for buses into Laborie on the same highway, so it wasn't unfounded, just wrong). I had to wait another 10 minutes once I got on the bus for it to fill up, and I spent the hour ride into Soufriere worrying because as soon as I left the house and tried to call my landlady to let her know I was going, my phone died (thankfully I had asked someone at her house to let her know just before I left). I knew there was a chance that the bus up from Soufriere that should pass through Canaries might not run often that time of night (I got into Soufriere a little after 7. So early, but because it's already dark there's no one out and fewer buses), and I knew I would cry if I couldn't find a ride, but the thing that kept me going was knowing that this was an adventure. Thankfully a woman in Soufriere walked me to the cemetery where I might be able to get a ride, and luckily a bus passed just as we were there, going to Canaries. When I had spoken to Jason (a PCV who also lives in Canaries) the other night on the phone, he wouldn't tell me exactly where the house was, instead saying I should just call him when I got off by the police station. It turned out the bus driver didn't have a phone either (his was stolen at Jounen Kweyol), but the first person I asked when I got off told me exactly where the house was, so that wasn't a problem. It was a stressful but very exciting journey, alone at night to a place I'd not only never been, I didn't even know where it was! I arrived just before 8.

No one else at the party could believe I was able to get buses at that hour. I changed into my costume, and everyone loved it. One of the neighbors, a boy about 11 years old, told some of the PCVs that my costume won. Unfortunately in my rush from home I forgot my camera, but here's a pic someone else took. What you can't see in the pic are the wings from the mesh laundry hamper, the white bands around my joints on my legs, and the lyre pattern in white paper on my back. This was the reference I used.

Last night was a ton of fun, though. It was nice to be around people I already know, and to just hang out and enjoy being social. This morning those of us that stayed in Canaries over night made a breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and golden apple juice (I used the green golden apples left over from last night's bobbing for golden apples).

When I finally got back home around 1:30 or 2pm today (Saturday) I had to take a nap before cleaning up my mess of an apartment. But now it's clean, and now I'm enjoying a more relaxing weekend.

Sunday was Jounen Kweyol (Creole Day). It's an international celebration of Creole language and cultures, so everyone here dresses up in the traditional madras plaid patterns, white cloth, and red ribbons (or in floral patterns if they don't have madras). Last week Manman took me to get fitted for a dress, so I wore that and had my hair cornrowed for the day. "We're going to Creolize you!" she said.

In the morning we went to the Catholic church in Vieux Fort town for Mass. I was actually a little disappointed that it wasn't all in Kweyol, but the priest is Indian (as opposed to West Indian) and doesn't speak it fluently I think. But it was nice.

I went to Sunday lunch with Manman, and Ellery (a friend from down the road, who works at one of the schools I'm involved with) came over and did my hair. She also sewed a sash for me, since the dress was more of a frock and it needed some shape.

Manman and I went over to a little block party where Julius had gone. I had black pudding for the first time, and it was better than I thought it would be but I tasted it in my mouth for about an hour afterwards. It also has a weird texture.

Julius drove us to Micoud Village, one of the four communities around the island hosting Jounen Kweyol celebrations. It was filled with people, music, food, drinks, displays of old things like pots and pans and stuff. There was a stage by the Temple of Saint Lucia, and when we first went by there a dance performance was going on.

I feel like I'm really becoming a part of the community. Kids call out "Miss!" to me all the time, and most of them I don't recognize because I haven't worked with them, but they most certainly recognize me. I took some of my golden apple oatmeal biscuits yesterday to the Infant School (PreK-Grade 2) for Ellery and Manman, and Manman's sister Eugenia came by to give me some baked goods. More and more I know the people that pass. It's been very nice lately.

Actually it's been pretty hot lately. When I first had my hair cornrowed I had to take some aspirin when I got home because my head hurt, but now I'm glad I don't have to worry about putting it up in a bun in the mornings. Actually, I went out and bought a little kerchief to wrap my hair in while I sleep, and its nice because it keeps all the hair off my neck so I'm not so hot.

I spent the better part of today cooking various items. After a trip to the market and a store and picking up my dress for tomorrow, I set out to cook a delicious lunch for myself. Well, I didn't eat the intended results until about 6:30, but cooking was so good at occupying me it was ok.

I made the green fig pie, the recipe back from almost two months ago, with some frozen veggies thrown in (and too much mustard), and some pinto beans that I had left over from the stew (I figured out how to get them soft, and now they are delicious), and some golden apple juice.

Golden apples aren't apples, and they are definitely not golden-delicious apples, so finding a recipe was really hard. Turns out their real real name is Spondias mombin, and they're called different things around the West Indies and Americas. So if you want to use them for these recipes, find out what they're called, whether it's hog plum, Spanish plum, jocote, or those-things-that-aren't-apples-and-they-in-fact-look-like-(but-taste-nothing-at-all-like)-potatoes-so-why-would-you-call-them-apples.

For both of these recipes I was pretty much just making them up as I went along, with the limited ingredients I already had in my kitchen (remember, I just moved in!). They came out great, though, so I hope you try them out too!

Golden Apple Juice

Ingredients

4 ripe golden apples

5 1/2 cups water (you may want to use less; I like my juice kind of weak)

1/2 cup brown sugar (you may want to use more; I don't like juices really sweet)

Directions

1. Cut sections off golden apples however possible. Peel skin off sections, put the pulp in a blender. Try to cut out the meat from the spines around the seed, too. After one you get the hang of it. Discard peels & seeds (or eat the peels, but they're pretty sour).

2. Blend by first pulsing a few times so all the meat starts breaking down. Then blend at high speeds to make it a very thick liquid. Add 1/2 cup water, blend a little more.

3. To press the juice: Pour a little of the juice into a strainer over a 1 liter pitcher. Use a spoon to stir, then press, out the watery juice from the pulp. Each pouring takes a few minutes to get nearly all the water out. Put the left over pulp in a bowl or saucepan and set aside (you can use this for the next recipe!).

4. Add water and sugar to pitcher, stir well. Stir the juice in the pitcher before pouring. Chill, serve over ice.

Golden Apple* Oatmeal Biscuits

(this recipe only makes 1 batch of 15 biscuits)

Ingredients

Dough:

3 cups flour

1 cup quick cook oatmeal (actually steel cut oats would probably be better)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 Tbsp honey

3 Tbsp margarine

1/4 cup evaporated milk

Spread:

1/2 cup golden apple* pulp

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp evaporated milk

(next time I'll probably add just a little flour to thicken it up)

*Since golden apples are probably hard to find in the States, I think apricots are the closest approximation for taste. Either press out juice from 1lb fresh apricots using the method described above, or blend dried unsweetened apricots to use the pulp.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg Farenheit. Combine all dough ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. It will be pretty sticky, thick, and heavy.

2. On a nonstick or greased cookie sheet put large rounded drops of dough. Make a wide, shallow depression in each one.

3. Heat spread ingredients in a saucepan over low-medium heat, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes.

4. Spoon about 1 tsp of the heated spread into the depression in each biscuit (more if you can). Bake on middle rack 17-23 minutes. The edges of the bottoms and any little parts that stick out will be golden brown.

5. Brush with margarine or butter immediately after removing from oven. These would be great served with milk or for breakfast. No need for jam, it's already on there!

Of course, if you want just the biscuits by themselves, they're pretty tasty and a little (but not too) sweet. If you want the biscuits lighter, add a little yeast or more baking powder and let it set for a while before putting it on the cookie sheet.

So this was my extremely satisfying dinner:

18/10/08 Pigeon Island (it's not an island, which is why I always end up calling it Pigeon Point) Picnic

It rained on us just when we were going to start eating!

Some of our crew in front of some of the ruins of the British post established in 1778.

This is just a really bad picture of all of us.

22/10/08 Swearing-in Ceremony

That's me reading in Kweyol, introducing the NGO group.

Dr. Stephen King of Rise, Inc. This was the feature address of the ceremony.

Afterwards we went to Spinnakers. This is a toast proposed by Scott to the end of our training and to wish Judy good luck in Dominica.Everyone signed a great big card for her. We'll miss you, Judes!

This is my apartment. This is the living/dining area.

The most important room of the house, of course:

The stew I made Tuesday morning. Green plantain, dasheen, pumpkin, okra, pinto beans, carrots, cabbage. But I need to put some meat or at least bullion cubes in it next time.

The first morning I lived here I found this little guy sliding around my bedroom floor. How cute!

The past week has been very busy. Along with regular training and school internship stuff, there were extra homework assignments, requiring me to carry more things and go more places, and finally on Friday was our last full day of training.

Thursday in addition to whatever else I ended up needing to do (I really don't remember, it seemed like so much) I went by my new apartment to check it out, meet the landlady, give her the rent agreement, and get the inventory. Looks like I lucked out--there are many things already here, since there were a couple Peace Corps volunteers who have lived here before me. And cable and internet are provided by my landlady, so I get to save more money for vacation (which means I'll get to catch up on fellow volunteers who have more funds back home)

Friday I was sad that I couldn't go to Laborie to see La Magueritte, a cultural festival in which different groups do performances and dress up and have princes and princesses and kings and queens. I don't have pictures on my computer, so maybe another day I'll upload the pics Manman took.

Saturday I went with my host parents up to Pidgeon Point, in the fancy touristy north part of the island. It was organized by the Peace Corps, so almost all of us trainees were there with our host families. Everyone brought food and there were so many tasty dishes. It was neat to meet everyone's families, since we've all heard things about all the others. A few of us went on a hike for a couple hours going around the hills there, and exploring the ruins of old colonial buildings. The views were pretty neat, and it was a good hike. We even grabbed a few guavas from a tree on the way back. And one of the locals, Jason's host cousin (?), talked the park people into not charging us for the hike.

Saturday night I went out after dark by myself for the first time. In downtown Vieux Fort at The Old Plantation Restaurant was a cultural music event organized by my friend Fay. It was a lot of fun, and of course I ended up seeing one of the boys I work with at school. No pictures unfortunately of this event, but it included a group of drum dancers and a band. There were supposed to be more, but there was some confusion between Fay and the restaurant owner about the time of the event. It ended early and I went home to pack, but fell asleep on my floor (and my clothes in a suitcase) after less than an hour. It was a long day.

Sunday seemed even longer. I finished packing in the morning, then walked down to the Super J (the big chain grocery store around the island) to get food and supplies for my new apartment. I spent $400EC there, and of course there are plenty of things I didn't/couldn't get there. Albert, a taxi driver that's a friend of Manman (who lives down the street from me now) picked me up there, then we went home, packed up the van with my luggage, and moved everything into my apartment. After putting away groceries, Manman and I walked back to her house (about 35 min walk, at about noon) for lunch. I thought I would get ready to go soon after that, but she insisted I just hang out and watch TV or something. I guess she was sad to see me go, even though I'm going to be around and visit often (more on that later). So she walked me back around 4pm, passing by her cousin's house on the way, and showing me a place past the brewery where there are roads going all through a grassy area where I can start jogging (it was originally going to be an industrial complex, but only one or two factory shells were put up, and they are long out of work). Once home I continued to unpack, although a lot of my time was spent going through the kitchen and cleaning lots of dishes and appliances. I didn't get to sleep until midnight, even later I think.

Monday I went up to Castries for the final interview of training, to make sure I was in good condition for swearing in. Sharmon (pretty much my Peace Corps boss/supervisor) said I had done very well in training, and that I had surprised everyone because I'm competent (good, some might even say) at working with kids who need help in school. Who new? Well, they didn't expect it because I was quiet in training. That day we also practiced for swearing in, and got information about reporting, monitoring, and evaluation throughout service. Which is nice, since it'll give us (and the PC office, and Washington) good quantifiable things to see what we've actually accomplished.

After training Kelli and I went through the market up in Castries, where I picked up some garlic, a dasheen, some okra, and a big red tomato (that alone was $4, but they're expensive here). We also went by a home improvement store, where I picked up most of the things I still needed, like towels and an iron. I lugged home a heavy tote bag and a big bag o' stuff. That night I prepared things to make stew the next morning. And of course I watched Heroes.

I did make stew on Tuesday morning before school, and it turned out ok, but I'll definitely need to revise it a few times before I'll post a full recipe. Suffice to say, though, it included green plantain, dasheen, pinto beans, okra, cabbage, pumpkin, and carrot. The really cool thing about stew is that for about $12 plus energy and time, I get a good 10 meals.

After work on Tuesday I walked between a few stores and got some more things that I needed and things that aren't necessary but nice to have. I got some instant coffee and some powdered cocoa, which made me jittery the next morning. Before I went home on Tuesday I also picked up some grapefruits from a fruit vendor on the street ($2 for 4 big ones), who I talked a little with and who I saw the next night on the bus. I remembered his name but he didn't remember mine (which doesn't usually happen).

Wednesday was our Swearing-In Ceremony. Manman and my point person, the District 6 Education Officer (Mr. Joseph), as well as the families and point persons of other trainees, and a bunch of gov't officials, and current volunteers, and.... well they all attended, and it was nice. I and three other volunteers (we had by this time taken our oath of office) read an address in Kwéyòl written by our instructor, and everyone was surprised and impressed with our pronunciation (although the four of us were selected because of that quality, and just because we could say things doesn't mean that we know what they mean). It was a nice ceremony though, and catered with delicious finger foods.

After the ceremony, the volunteers all headed over to a restaurant/bar in Rodney Bay (where all the hoity toity touristy types go, so everything is pretty expensive) for a send-off for Judy, who trained with us but will be working in Dominica. It was fun getting to hang out with everyone, and I was sad that I had to leave at 4 to get home before it got late, since most other people who lived south were spending the night with Haley, who lives there in Rodney Bay. But I had work at the school in the morning today so I couldn't stay.

At lunch today (Thursday) Manman came by the school and took me down the street to a seamstress so I can have a dress made with the madras cloth for Jounen Creole on Sunday. I'll even get have my hair in corn rows, according to Manman, and then I'll be ready for Creole Mass and the celebration that goes along with the day. Expect pictures!

Well, after a few nights of being on my own, I'm feelig comfortable in the place. It's nice to have things to do in the evenings (cook and clean), and I feel like I'm doing things nicely. On Monday evening I made some popcorn on the stove, and I don't ever want to waste money on microwavable popcorn again. There was so much of it! I'm still eating it a few days later. Most of my meals consist of either sandwiches filled with lots of veggies and some cheese and a cut-up chicken hot dog, or some soup and bread. Lots of fruit, too.

I feel like I'll get to know plenty of people around here eventually. One of my neighbors in this apt complex has made herself available for anything I need, and she's invited me to an election night party. Things are nice in general.

Well, it's very late (almost 12:30am!), waaaaaay past my bedtime, and I'm going to a school on the other side of town in the morning, so I think it's time to turn in.

So yesterday we did indeed host a swing dance party. Well, there was only about an hour total of dancing, but the party lasted for several hours. Two fellow PCTs, a married couple who are also living in the neighborhood for the time, came by, and many of my host family's friends and family.

We started with a full lunch for everyone--fish, saltfish, breadfruit, black beans, rice w/ vegetables, avocado, fried magombo (a lot like plantain), shredded carrot, sliced tomato. It was all very good. To drink of course we had the rum punch (recipe below!) and some grapefruit/lime/sour orange juice made from fresh fruit.

After lunch I taught a short lesson for 8 people (there were more than that many there, but they didn't want to dance). Most people picked it up really quickly, including my point person's young daughter! Not many people danced after the lesson, though. Fay was a very good follow for me to work with to demonstrate the steps and some turns. After the lesson, for the most part, the only dancing was a few of us just moving around by ourselves. Everyone was impressed (and surprised, those that didn't know I like to dance) by my moves. I'll see if I can get a video up later.

After a while I switched the music from a swing playlist I made to a band my brother plays with, The Neoprimitive. Everyone liked that music, too, and the different kinds of dances you can do to it.

After the party my host parents and another couple took me to a (free) "country and western" dance so I could see what it was like, since I had mentioned it before. Well: the music is very loud. There weren't many people there since it was early on a Sunday night. There's pretty much only one kind of step that people do to the music (box step), and no turns or anything. And the songs all sound the same--old country music. After an hour we left. It was pretty boring, to be honest. I don't think I could do more than an hour and half unless I were with friends at such a dance.

All in all yesterday was very busy, so I was very tired by the end and still am today! Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment, then I'll go to my school internship like most Tuesdays during training.

Tomorrow we're hosting a swing dance lesson/party, so today Manman made rum punch for it. It's delicious!

Ingredients

1.75 cups water

1.5 cups sugar

peel from one lime or lemon

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 6 small limes)

1 sprig anis (or 1 tsp anis seeds)

20 oz pineapple juice, unsweetened

20 oz grapefruit juice, unsweetened

20 oz orange juice, unsweetened

1 cup strong light rum

2 cups dark rum

1/2 cup grenadine syrup

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tps (about, just do a few dashes) bitters

Directions

1. Make simple syrup using 1.5 cups each of water and sugar, and the peel from lemon or lime. Boil, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Remove immediately from heat and let cool to room temperature.

2. Boil anis in 1/4 cup water for 5 minutes, remove from heat.

3. Squeeze limes to make lime juice, strain to remove pulp.

4. Combine pineapple juice, grapefruit juice, and orange juice in large bowl or pot. Remember to shake before opening! Add cooled simple syrup and cooled anis water through a strainer, add lime juice, mix.

5. Add light and dark rums, grenadine syrup, bitters, and ground nutmeg (fresh, if possible). Stir. Taste, adding whatever may need more, but don't ask a man to taste it, since he'll just say it needs more rum. You don't need more rum.

6. Pour into a large (very large) juice bottle through strainer and funnel. Refrigerate overnight.

7. If it's a small party, serve chilled. If it's larger, serve with plenty of ice. Remember to shake bottle before pouring. Enjoy!

As promised, here are the pictures I drew for the presentation today. Ours was probably the longest presentation, but people enjoyed it because of the pictures we both drew and because it was mildly interactive. I gave each person an animal, and everyone had to figure out what it was called, and each person put theirs under the labels "Poisonous" or "Non-posionous." Only a couple people guessed wrong, but theirs were difficult animals that aren't obviously poisonous.

Click on the pics for bigger images!

Phylum Osteicthyes (fish!) (Clockwise from top left): stingray, sea catfish, caribbean reef shark, moray eel, stonefish, lionfish.

Phylum Cnidaria (except Portuguese man-of-war, which is pictured later): sea lice (which are really like baby jellies), sea anemone, box jellyfish, fire coral (which isn't true coral, obviously if it's in this phylum).

Phylum Molluska (shellfish!): cone shell, caribbean reef octopus.

Other Phyla ('cept as noted above): Cnidaria: Portuguese man-of-war; Echinodermata: crown-of-thorns starfish, black sea urchin; Annelida: fireworm; Arthropoda: crab!

I had so much fun drawing these. I brought them home with me too, and I will decorate my house with them when I move!

I've been meaning to post a few times already, but somehow haven't gotten around to it. That means this will be an extra long post. Subtitled for clarity!

Shadowing and the Beach

On Thursday I went to Laborie to shadow Eric, a volunteer who's been here a year already. He works at the Boys' School, so it was helpful to hear from him advice about getting projects started. He said that if I have a really good idea, I should keep trying for it, even if I meet resistance from people who don't want to change the way things are already done.

At the school, I helped some kids read and complete verbal worksheets. Eric does remedial reading, and I felt right at home. After lunch a bunch of boys came in for their chess tournaments. I checked in on games to make sure kids were playing the rules, and to give constructive suggestions to those who needed it (as in, "Where can you put that one so that he can't get to it?") Then I played a game against a boy who had finished early. It was like being at Sue's again!

The boys had a sort of half day, so at 1 we started heading back to Vieux Fort to go to Sandy Beach with some other volunteers.We hung out, swam around a bit (the water was warm and the day was beautiful), and bought a couple coconuts from a guy walking around selling coconuts. As you can see, Jess didn't really like hers (the rest of us had to finish it) but Nina did!

Boring Saturday

I haven't really done a lot to speak of this weekend, which is especially sad since it's a three day weekend. I spent a lot of time researching for a water safety thing Kelli and I will present tomorrow. But it's OK because I got to draw sea creatures, and learn more about them! :)

Saturday night Randy and I went over to Fay's house for a movie night. I met some people around my age, but since it was a movie night there wasn't much talking. We watched a "preview" that Fay filmed herself (it was hilariously ridiculous) and Mind Hunters. The movie wasn't great, but to its credit I was surprised by the ending. I guess I haven't been watching enough mysteries (movies or TV shows) lately; I've lost that edge. That ended up being the only thing we watched, since Fay had another party to go to. She kicked us out at 10:30. I was up until 11:30 or maybe even midnight reading. Wow. I slept in until 7:30 the next morning. Yes, you read that right.

Walking

Yesterday I went with Manman, Eugenia (her sister), and Theo (a friend) to visit a relative who is sick. We walked from Campus A up the road in Moulez-a-chique to the house, then walked from there all the way home. I have no idea how far it was, but it took about 1 hour 20 minutes to get back. It was a good walk. It was nice and cool, BUT that was because it was dark! There's a stretch of the Vieux Fort - Laborie highway (that we were walking along) outside of town that is absolutely not lit at all. We could barely see where we were stepping, unless a car was passing us. Other than not being able to see, it was a nice walk.

Thanksgiving

Today I have the day off, since it is Thanksgiving. Nothing really special about this day, everyone celebrates in their own little way. We didn't go out at all or anything, though some people go to the beach or have cookouts or things like that. But Manman did make cocoa tea with dumplings (absolutely delicious, but I will postpone putting up the recipe until I can make it on my own, and it'll be personalized) for breakfast (edit: and dinner!), and saltfish and breadfruit for lunch. Delicious!

Tomorrow or sometime soon I will post Things That Sting And Bite And Stuff. Look forward to MelaneyArtz!

Manman made this on Saturday. Here's the recipe. All measurements are estimated! Don't blame me if it tastes bad, is what I mean :)

Ingredients

8 cups water

2 lbs ribs (salted ribs were used)

3/4 lb pumpkin on rind, strings & seeds discarded

1 cup carrot, peeled & chopped

1/2 cup turnip, peeled & chopped

2 or 2 1/2 cup any (or all) of the following, peeled & chopped: green plantain, green fig (unripe banana), potato, yam

1 Tbsp chives, chopped

1 sprig thyme

1 cup cooked beans

Dumplings (see below)

1-2 Tbsp dry seasoning mix, your preference.

Dumplings

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup water

1. Dissolve salt in water (room temperature). Add salt water a little at a time to flour in large mixing bowl. Mix as you add water. Dough should form into a ball with a little effort. Dough should flake easily, be slightly sticky on inside. Add water or flour as necessary to get desired texture. Set aside for 5 minutes.

2. Pinch ball of dough into pieces, forming logs 1 inch thick. Cut 1/2 inch sections of log with a knife. Add more flour or water only if necessary.

Boulyon

1. If using salted ribs, boil in water 30 min, rinse and discard half of water. Replace with fresh water, boil over medium-low heat for up to an hour, pot covered. Turn off heat after an hour.

2. Put pumpkin in broth for 10-20 minutes to soften, then remove pumpkin and mash it. Return mashed pumpkin (with rind) to pot. Add 1 cup water.

3. Add chopped carrots, turnips, ground provisions, cover. Heat over medium-high heat until it boils. Remove lid.

4. Add dumplings, a few at a time, stir. Add beans, stir, cover for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure dumplings don't stick together.

5. Add chives, thyme, dry seasoning mix (avoid seasoning with much salt if using salted meat).

6. Serve & enjoy! To eat like a true Lucian, suck the meat off the bones (it will be very tender by now), and chew out the marrow--if you've never tried it, it's actually really tasty!