Many things have happened in the past week (or more past couple days) which I'll fill you in on, and try to add pictures/video when necessary.
I went to my first school observation/participation last Tuesday. It took place at the Saddlers Primary School. It's a very small school with less than 100 students. It holds grades k-6. Most classes have around 10-15 students, but some classes has as many as 25. I met with the principal and she gave me a short tour around the school. Around 8:30 all of the students gathered to have a general morning assembly. During the assembly, the children started by singing uplifting Christian songs. It was odd hearing Christian worship songs in a public school. Here in St. Kitts, there is no such thing as separation of church and state. After the songs, the principal read a few readings from Genesis and tied it into a discussion about evils in the world. Many of the evils the kids mentioned was drugs and violence. The principal then led the students in a recital of a school motto. The motto was a declaration of the students desire to learn. The first time the principal didn't think the students recited it with enough passion and vigor, so they were made to repeat it two or three times. The principal introduced me to the school and made me feel very welcome. Afterward the kids all went to their classrooms. The principal wanted to talk to me about the projects I would be working on. The most areas they have the most need for help in the school is with the library, remedial reading programs, table tennis team, and teacher assistance. I told her I would be happy to help with any of that, but she wanted to know which areas I'm most interested in. During our training we have been instructed that we should not dive into projects. While it is true that everyone works at their own pace, and some people already have projects planned out, I don't want to get too involved yet and get weighed down by too many things. I was reluctant to choose something definite already, but she really wanted to know which ones I could work with. Because of my positive experiences at the library in college, I told her I would be happy to work with the library. A table tennis team would just be flat out cool, so I also said that one would be great. I tried to say these as non-committal as I could (Don't get me wrong, I want to work in these projects... I just want to go into it slowly).
After the project discussion I was left to explore and observe on my own. I started out in the sixth grade classroom. There were about 10 students, and Mr. Johnson was doing an excellent job leading a lesson. A while later I went to the kindergarten class and watched 22ish little kids go crazy with one teacher. Maybe crazy is an exaggeration, but they definitely had a lot of energy. I played with the kids while the teacher worked one on one with a few of them. Shortly after I went to the 4th grade class to observe. This was one of the larger classes, with about 25 kids. The principal was teaching a lesson trying her best to keep good control of the children. About fifteen minutes later, the principal leaves the classroom. I expected that she just had to take care of something outside and would be back in a few minutes. So I kind of stood in the corner observing the children and minding my own business. Twenty minutes later she still wasn't back and I didn't know what to do. The children were starting to get rowdy and had finished their lesson. In hindsight, I should have had brought something along with to interact with the children and have a makeshift lesson. Eventually it was time for me to leave, and the principal was still not back. I left the room (and the kids by themselves. yikes!) to find the principal and tell her that I was leaving. I couldn't find her anywhere, so I asked some of the other teachers standing outside where I could find her, and I was informed that she already left. Hmm. Oh well. Alot of this seems strange to me, but that's all part of understanding the culture. And the way school is run here is also part of the culture. It's easy to criticize, but I guess I should find out how things work here first.
part 2:
I have heard of the busses here in St. Kitts called "death traps" before. And I can understand where those sentiments come from. Often times riding in the busses can be scary. They are actaully 15 passenger vans that are often crammed with more than 15 people. There are on seatbelts to wear, and the bus drivers drive very fast. Add the fact that they drive on the left side of the road, and because I'm not used to that I ocassionally see a car driving up to us on the right side of the road and my stomach drops for a second until I realize that they always drive on that side... bus rides can sometimes be scary. They may be scary to me, but they are pretty safe. The drivers are experienced and know the road(s) very well. Unfortunately accidents still happen. On Wednesday I was taking the bus home and when we came up outside of saddlers, to Bel Vue (right by my new home in October) we saw there was an accident in the road. At first it looked a little worse than a fender bender, but as we got closer we noticed it was much worse. The road was completely blocked off and thankfully we were able to take a side road around. The side road goes less than 100 feet away from the main road for about a block, and we were able to see the accident very well. There were dozens of people on the side of the road observing. Involved with the accident was a public bus and a school bus. The accident had done incredible damage to the public bus. The entire front end was un recognizable (locals say the bus was "mash up"). The school bus had a lot of damage done to the front end but wasn't destroyed like the public bus was. The bus driver of the bus I was in pulled to the side of the road so we could all get out and observe the scene with everyone else. I got out too and walked up to the scene. It appeared the police had been there for a while and already set up police tape for people to stay behind. Sadly, the driver of the public bus had been killed and was covered by a blanket. A few of the children on the school bus had been injured, but nothing too bad. Thankfully, there had been no passengers in the public bus (if there had been, they surely would have all been killed). It turns out that many bus drivers like to race back to town (Basseterre) after dropping people off in the villages in the country. The driver of this bus was passing another public bus and lost control. and slammed into the school bus which was coming the other direction. I've read estimates that the public bus was going 120mph when the accident happened.
I'm not trying to make anyone afraid that I'm riding the busses here in St. Kitts, as accidents like this are extremely rare, but it was an event that really stuck with me this past week.
There is an article with pictures of the wreck here: http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/massive-traffic-accident-st-kitts-yesterday-202128/
Part 3: For anyone who is really prudish, easily offended, or likes to judge people, you might want to skip this part.
Last night I got a call from Tiffany (another volunteer from my group). She told me that she was going to a dance competition in Saddlers (where I live) and was wondering if I would like to join her. Thinking this would be a fantastic cultural opportunity, I accepted. The dance competition was going to take place at Saddlers Primary School. I expected it to be a competition where people and groups have been practicing for a long time and to be all dressed up in authentic clothes. How wrong I was. I went down to the school with my 12 year old sister (with her mothers permission) and Ryan who is a family friend of the families. We got to the school and I met up with Tiffany. It costed us $20 EC for admission (which is a LOT of money to us volunteers). It was incredibly loud and crowded. Everyone was crowded into an assembly hall area and loud music was playing. We worked our way to the back of the room (where they were selling beer. I bought one and it was tasty). Looking up front at the dance stage, it was definitely not what I expected. At all. The easist way I can describe it is as a PG-13 rated strip show. No clothes were actually being removed, but it would have been more modest if there had been. The woman who was dancing was wearing a skirt, and had her back side turned to the crowd. Even though she was wearing a skirt, she was not being modest about it.
The first woman we saw dancing:
The second woman. She was pretty popular with the crowd.
People of all ages were at the event watching. Children as young as infants, to primary school aged children, to adults in their 50's. Definitely not an event I'm used to seeing at a school (or at all). The dance competition was used as a fundraiser for something, and as part of Saddlers Fest (more on that later).
Tiffany and I watched for a little bit, but decided it was too crowded and we weren't too interested in it. So we stepped outside for a while and just hung out.
Some videos of the dancing. Don't be too shocked.
Most of the dancing involved only the backside of the person. It also involved lots of shaking. LOTS of shaking. One young lady laid upside down on a chair (in her skirt of course) and stuck her leg in the air, shaking it vigerously. In some ways it was quite impressive as I couldn't do something like that.
This was just the beginning of my Saddlers fest activities.
Part 4: (this is the ok part to read for those who skipped the last section)
This morning I woke up earlier than I had expected to lots of loud noise. In fact, my entire room was shaking to this noise. I looked out the window, and didn't see anything, so I just dismissed it to neighbors playing their music way too loud. But, slowly, it got louder and louder. I could feel my entire body vibrating to the music. Since I can't sleep in these conditions (it was about 9am) I decided to get up. I walk into the living room and ask my sister Tarren what was going on, and she told me that it was "Saddlers Fest". Of course, just like the dance contest from last night. I put on some clothes and walked outside. In front of our house was hundreds of people dancing in the street. I look a little further down the street, and I see a tractor pulling about a dozen huge speakers and a live band on a trailer down the street closer towards us. Following in front and behind the trailer were many many people dancing. I stood up on our porch ledge to get a better view, and was able to take several pictures and videos.
As they rolled down the street and past us, the music faded into the village and the street in front of our house was empty again.
part 5: Jingle bells, cockleshells.
EC 78 was kind enough to put on a barbecue for all of us new volunteers in EC 80. The reason EC 79 was not involved is because there is no EC 79 in St. Kitts. EC stands for Eastern Caribbean, which includes several islands. They seem to bring new people to islands twice a year, but each island only gets new people once a year.
The barbecue was on Cockleshell beach, on the southern penninsula of the island. This part of the island is very different from the rest. Aside from the geological differences (it's a penninsula and the sand here is white, instead of black like the rest of the island). There are also socio-economic differences. The houses here are huge and obviously belong to very wealthy people. The big hotels such as the Marriott and other condos are situated here. We arrived at the beach and it was very beautiful. The water is a clear blue, rather than the dark blue we normally see on the island, and it was very sandy. Not all the beaches in St. kitts are sandy, for example the ones by me in Saddlers are very rocky from volcanic formations. Because a cruise ship was in town, there were several tourists at the beach. They were mostly at the other end of the beach so we weren't too bothered by them. I'll let the pictures say the rest.
There was a cruise ship in town, so there were a few tourists at the beach.
You're not allowed to take a picture of Julie Ann unless she is making a funny face.
A beautiful place
We gathered underneath a tree for the BBQ. There were minimal shaded spots, so we were lucky getting the tree.
Saira, Julie Ann, and myself decided to take a walk to the other end of the beach.
A rainstorm off in the distance.
The island of Nevis in the distance. It's about 2 miles away.
Julie Ann and Saira.
It was very hot, and I got a bad sunburn. I really did use lots of sunscreen too.
From left to right: Patricia, Tiffany, Myself, Saira
Can you guess who the Caucasian is?
Julie Ann
Some of the lovely ladies I get to work with while I'm here.
Saira and Julie Ann
A view of the southern Peninsula of the island.
Tiffany and Maggie are ninjas. I don't know why.
Kelsey and Alyssa. They are members of EC78
Tiffany throwing a football around.
Julie Ann, Tiffany, and Maggie after being in the sun all day.
A view of frigate bay. A very beautiful place.
Frigate Bay is where the Marriott and other resorts/condos are located.
When I got back from the beach tonight, around 6:30, I was greeted at the entrance of Saddlers with the music trailer again. Because I was on the bus and the bus couldn't pass all the people and the trailer, I decided to get off and walk with the dancers the rest of the way to my house. It was a great experience and I got some good videos which I will post in a future update (when I can get them loaded.)
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