Happy Thanksgiving

part1: Caught a monkey

Last week I looked out my window and saw two or three monkeys climbing on the coconut tree and fence in my back yard. Even though I've the occasional monkey around the island, it was still exciting to see one in my back yard. Of course I wanted to take a picture of it, but my camera was disassembled and I had to take it out and put it together before the monkey ran away. I somehow managed to put the camera together and step outside to take a picture while the monkey was still out there. Unfortunately I was less than diligent in keeping the battery charged and was unable to take the picture. The battery charges pretty quickly, so I plugged it in hoping to give it enough juice for a couple pictures. Thinking that the battery had charged, I put it back in the camera and tried to take a picture, only I forgot that the current had been off all morning so the battery had not charged at all. So no picture. Thankfully, I had my small camera ready and got a short video of the beast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shAfSHNqRcI

Since the monkey incident I've been keeping my eyes open and battery charged hoping to catch another. The day after thanksgiving we were cleaning up and I was told by someone in the kitchen that there was a monkey in the backyard. Much to Saira's displeasure (she dislikes monkeys with a passion) I was able to get a couple shots of the monkey. Thankfully (for Saira) taking the pictures also scared it off.

Part 2: It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

Julie Ann and Saira have been a pretty good influence on me. One reason is because they've been encouraging me to make food other than rice, tuna, and macaroni. The other week Julie Ann spent a couple days in St. Kitts at Saira's house and my house. If you visit Saira's blog you can tell that she is an excellent baker. One day she asked me what my favorite cake was, so I told her it was my grandmas yellow cake (which is called buttercup cake). We were all grateful when grandma emailed me the recipe. Since Saira and Julie Ann love to bake, and I love to eat what they bake (and I want to learn my self) we decided to make my grandmas buttercup cake. The recipe can be found on Saira's blog. The cake was pretty good, and I'm sure we'll do even better next time. Here are some pictures from the adventure.

The batter

Testing the batter

Ready to put it in the oven

The finished product

Part 3: Moonshine by the hulk

Integrating into my community and meeting people has been slow. It's not an easy process that happens quickly for me. My house is in a fairly quiet location. Belle Vue is a very small village, and I would guess there are maybe 20 or so houses here. My apartment is on the edge of the villiage along the main road. Because my side of the apartment faces the ocean, I don't see any neighbors or people walking by when I'm out on my porch. Determined to start integrating a little more, I went down to the Black Rock Pub to have a beer. By doing this I am just making myself seen by the locals in my village, and hopefully they will realize that I am here to stay, and not just a tourist. Belle Vue has many taxis stop by since Black Rock is located here, which brings in the tourists. For the people here who don't know me, they think that I am off of the cruise ship.

It was a hot day and the beer was refreshing. The owner of the rum shop chatted with me for a bit, in which I told him I'm with Peace Corps which led him to warming up even more to me. By the end of our conversation he invited me to lime with him in town sometime. Excellent! This is just what I wanted to do in order to help integrate.

One Caribbean drink I really like is Ting, which is a carbonated grapefruit soda. It's delicious. During my first month here I've acquired a nice sized stash of empty ting bottles, but I didn't throw them out because you can exchange them for cash somewhere. I don't have the means to take a bunch of bottles into town an exchange them for money, so I told the owner of the rum shop that I'd give them to him. There was a lot of bottles and he was pretty grateful, so he offered me a free beer. After he gave me the beer he asked me if I wanted to try some moonshine. It sounded dangerous, but what a better way to integrate than try a local drink? He pulled out a big jug from under the bar that had lots of stuff inside of it, which included peanuts and coconut roots. Apparently sometimes they put centipedes in it, but this particular jug had none. The jug had a picture of the Hulk taped to it; this scared me. He poured me a good sized (too much) amount into a dixie glass and told me to try it, which I did. It actually wasn't too bad. It was strong and smooth, but not something I could drink straight. While I was trying the moonshine some locals came up and were taking an interest in my experiment with the drink. Eventually they started buying me beer ontop of the moonshine that I was slowly drinking. There was more drinks than I wanted, so the owner told me he would save them for me next time I came back. The moonshine really packed a punch (I had to take a nap shortly after), but it was a great way to meet some of the locals and let my face be known around the village.

part 4: Happy Thanksgiving

EC80 is apparently very enthusiastic about many things, such as our work sites, projects, and planning events. For the past month (at least), Saira, Julie Ann, and I have been planning a Thanksgiving feast at my house. After much planning it finally happened, resulting with a lot of fantastic food and great people. Here is what was on the menu: Turkey, glazed ham, breadfruit curry, lasagna, green bean casserole, pasta & gree veggie casserole, coconut brown rice, stuffing, mashed sweet potatos, fried okra, lumpia (Filipino spring rolls), buttermilk biscuits, cranberry sauce, guacamole, green fig tater tots, egg and tomato dish, collard greens, squash and onions, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, banana guava pie, coconut pecan cookies, passion fruit cake, apple and cranberry crisp.

There were approximately 40-45 people who attended.

LOLkitts

part 1: feeling comfortable
I'm starting to feel more comfortable at my school now, I feel as if my role there is more solid than it used to be. I now have stuff to actually do and I have a fairly solid schedule. Most of my time spent at the school is working with the library. In addition to being the librarian I am also working with one student on remedial reading. One of the reasons I am so pleased about this is because when I was first sworn in and was officially a volunteer, I wasn't entirely sure what my role was in the school and was not spending very much time working there. As an American I feel unproductive if I am not working 40 hours a week, and also felt slightly guilty because I am still getting "paid" even when I'm not working 40 hours a week. Many people told me that I shouldn't worry about the situation because I need to take things slowly at first. I understood that and tried my best to not worry about it, but of course I still worried. I may not be working "full time" yet, but I am feeling better about actually being slightly productive now.

Amongst my adventures in the school library are the kindergarten kids. Being the youngest in the school, they are often timid about things, and the library is one of them. They frequently come into the library wanting to check out books, which is fantastic. Our school does not have library cards (yet), so I have to ask every student what their name is when they want to check out a book, and find their library envelope. It is sometimes difficult to tell which kid I'm looking for since they often speak in thick dialect and I can't understand their names. It's even more difficult when you get three girls in a row whose names are "Darneisha", "Darnesia", and "Darnesa" (ok, maybe they're not quite that similar. But if feels that way sometimes). One kindergarten girl was trying to tell me her name, but her dialect was too thick and her voice was too gentle. I tried to ask her several more times but I got nowhere. Thinking I had a good idea I asked her to spell the name for me as I wrote it down. Most kids that age know how to spell their names, right? Her name started out simple enough, something like "Tatiana", but she continued to throw letters at me. Not just letters but random consonants. Before long, Tatiana turned into "Tatiananhtpentcnhn". I was convinced this was not her name so I asked her to write it down on the paper. It didn't take long before I realized that she was only copying down the same word she told me. Getting frustrated I asked her one last time what her name was, and of course she just told me her name clearly. And it was something simple like "Peggy".

After school there are three children who also live in Belle Vue and like to walk home with me. The first day they did this they showed me how to pick sugar cane from the cane fields, and how to eat it. Needless to say, I'm not very good at it yet and end up spitting a lot of fiber out of my mouth. Since then these three kids have been walking with me after school and visiting with me at my house. Ocassionally I am able to give them snacks of crackers and water, since the kids don't get a snack and apparently don't always get dinner either.

Sarah is one of the girls who walks home with me.


Diane is the other.

They are sisters.
Part 2: After School
During my pre-service training I met with Dr. Browne, the doctor the Peace Corps uses as their dermatologist. She runs an after school program for about 15-20 elementary school students in Basseterre. During training she asked me if I would be willing to help out once I am sworn in as a volunteer. I was reluctant initially to make a commitment before I was a volunteer, but I thought it sounded like a good program, so I told Dr. Browne I would help out.
Last Wednesday was going to be my first day helping out. I went into town and got a ride with Dr. Browne to the church where the program is held. It turned out to be a good experience, even though it was a little frustrating occasionally. The kids start out by eating a snack donated by some grocery or restaurant. After the snack they break into individuals or groups to work on homework. Overall the homework part was ok. There were a couple of students that had no interest in doing their work. I would try to help them but they would just stare out into space or look at other students who were talking. When I asked them to focus on the homework they would just ignore me. They would even ignore me if I tapped them on their shoulder to get their attention. After a while of doing this I got frustrated and told him that if he wants help he will have to ask me for it. So I left him and went to help other students. After all the students "finished" their homework, we played children's games. They weren't camp games like the ones I'm used to, but traditional childrens games similar to "London Bridge is Falling Down" and "Ring around the Rosy". I didn't think the games were very fun, or even age appropriate for the older elementary students, but the kids seemed to enjoy them. I will continue going to the program every Wednesday and Friday when school is in session.

part 3: Kittitian Kitten
Last night I was talking to Saira online, and she informed that at Ross University there was going to be a pet adoption day the next day. She knew very well that I have been wanting a cat. Michele, our PCMO, had some "wild" kittens she was trying to tame and was going to save one for me, but I don't know if a wild kitten would have been a good idea. I told Saira that I would go with her to the adoption, and that she should try to talk me into getting a cat because I would probably give in. She did a good job.
We meet in town with Laurant around 10:00 and drove out to Ross, where we met some students who were volunteering with P.A.W.S. (the organization with the adoption program). I filled out the adoption forms and turned in my written consent from my landlord saying I could have a pet. I was then led into a building where the cats were. There were maybe 15 or so cats that were waiting for adoption. There were kittens and there were adults. I was hoping for a kitten, but would have been open to an adult if I liked it. There were so many cats that I liked it was difficult to narrow it down, but I ended up having to decide between two of them. The competition was between Floyd and Grant, and it was difficult to decide. I wanted to make a decision based on the personality of the cat rather than how cute they were. Both of them were very sweet and liked to cuddle. I didn't want a cat that was always antsy and never wanted to be held. I liked Floyd a lot, but the second time I tried to hold him he wanted to get away, and Grant nearly fell asleep in my hands each time I held him. In the end I chose Grant.
Saira did not want to adopt today and instead signed up to be a foster home for a kitten. She chose Paige, who is Grant's sister. I'm pretty sure she's going to give in within a week and end up adopting Paige.
I decided that I did not like the name Grant, so I have suitably renamed him "Richard Parker". Richard Parker is the name of the Bengal Tiger in the book "Life of Pi", which is one of my all time favorite books. I call him Richard Parker, but you are welcome to call him Mr. Parker if you wish.
Since we've been home he has slept 98% of the the time. He is very sweet and likes to lean up against me when he sleeps. If I get up and move over a little, he will do the same so he is still leaning against me. He hasn't been very adventurous yet, and has only spent about 10 minutes following me around the living room. He hasn't shown any signs of stress other than the fact that he is sleeping so much, and hasn't eaten, drunk, or used the litter yet. Hopefully it won't take him long to warm up.