Hero's day and other festivities

This past Wednesday was one of St. Kitts' national holidays, Hero's Day. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what Hero's day celebrates (other than the national hero's named the Bradshaws), but it is a national holiday and everything closes down for it. Typically there are several events throughout the island, however I didn't have the chance to go to any of them. The only one I knew about was a concert downtown, and apparently that was canceled for some reason or another. For my time during the holiday, my host family took me to the beautiful island of Nevis. Nevis is the other part of St. Kitts and Nevis. It has a population of about 10,000 people. Some people claim that Nevis is better than St. Kitts (Maggie), and it is very nice. But I don't know about better. Nevis is much smaller than St. Kitts. We were able to drive around the entire island in a short amount of time. During our trip, we stopped at several fruit trees to pick fruit, and stopped by several family members houses to pick up cousins. Once we drove around the island, we stopped in Charlestown (the largest village in Nevis) to eat lunch. In town, there were a few cricket matches being played, and food was being sold at the game. We decided to watch a match of one team from Tabernacle on St. Kitts. We ate saltfish and drank local fruit juice. It was very hot, and the game wasn't too exciting (I don't know the rules to cricket). Eventually we headed back to the car to drive a little more. Earlier in the day, I knew that Saira was coming to Nevis to hang out with Julie Anne and Maggie, so my host family was kind enough to drive to the beach and see if we could find them. What do you know, it was the right beach. I chatted with them for maybe an hour and we walked up and down the beach. (You can see what Saira did on Nevis here). Saira happened to be catching the same Ferry back to St. Kitts, so she rode with us all the way back home. It ended up being a nice relaxing day.

Myself, a "host cousin", and my host sister-Tarren in Nevis.
My Host Mother

My host mom climbed two trees that day, in order to fetch sugar apples.

A cricket match in Charlestown

Maggie let me come onto her island that day.

Saira is on a boat like Leo.

Hero's day was on Wednesday, but Independence day is tomorrow. Since schools aren't in session tomorrow, children all over the island celebrated in the classrooms today. In every school, children sang songs, performed dances, and read poetry relating to St. Kitts and Nevis. I arrived at the school a little before 8:30. All of the kids remembered me from last week, which was welcoming. Needing something to do with the kids (and entertain and impress them) I showed them the 'ol "pull off my thumb" trick. So now, every kid (except a few smart ones) in Saddlers think that I can pull off my thumb. They wanted me to do it over and over, and I was worried they would catch on, so I told them my thumb hurt from doing it so much, and I would do it again for them next week. Later on today when I was walking to the beach, some kid shouted at me from her house "Cut off your thumb!". My thumb is becoming legendary in St. Kitts.

After all the kids settled in their classes, they all went to an assembley hall (the same place where the "dance competition" took place). All the kids in one way or another performed a song, dance routing (an appropriate one) or read a poem. There was then a speaker who talked to the children about the importance of the Independence day, and how they need to succeed in school to achieve their dreams.

Once all this was over, the kids went back to their classrooms. I followed the fourth graders back to their room, to find the teacher wasn't there. Since they were bound to go crazy (and they did anyway) I taught them the moose song from camp. They seemed to like it. The kids also receive a special treat, which was pizza and ice cream, but I left before the 4th graders got theirs, so I didn't get any either.


Here is the children singing the St. Kitts national Anthem


Children waiting for the festivities to begin


Children singing "This Land is Your Land"

After I got home, Tiffany and I decided to hang out at a beach in Dieppe Bay. None of the buses go from Saddlers to Diep Bay, so I walked over. It was a great walk with no hills and great views. It only took about 30 minutes. We swam in the Caribbean sea for a while (It's very neat, it's a point where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean, so you can see the waves from one crashing into the other maybe a half mile out.) We worked on our tans, and drank some ting (a carbonated grapefruit drink). It was a good day.


Tomorrow I get the opportunity to ride on the Scenic railway as well as attend the Governors ball. Hopefully I'll remember to post about that later.