kittsmet: Happy Independence Day... last week.

Happy Independence Day!!! Oh, what's that you say? It was last week on the 16th? Oh well, at least I'm bringing it up at some point, right?

part 1: "The most exciting and luxurious tour in the Caribbean"
I'm actually not entirely sure how Kittitians celebrate Independence day, as I didn't participate in any public celebrations. In the morning there was a parade, but not what we think of parade, with floats and candy and killer masonic airplane-cars. It is strictly a military parade, with every uniformed person on the island. Even the British coast guard (or something like that) was there, since they were near the island. Apparently it was very hot, and several people passed out... which I guess is expected. But I didn't go, so I don't know the details.

I had the great opportunity to ride on the St. Kitts scenic railway. The scenic railway is mostly a tourist destination. Most locals I have talked to have either been on it once, or not at all. The train runs on old tracks that go all the way around the island, and were once used to transport sugar cane from the mills to town. Since the sugar cane industry shut down in 2005 due to continuing loss of profits.

The train its self I've heard is quite expensive (around $100 USD) but I was lucky enough to get on for free, since Saira's "host grandfather" is the conductor on the train. So on the train was Saira, Tiffany, and myself. The entire trip was maybe 2.5 hours. The train went (very slowly) around the Eastern side of the island, until it got up north, then we got off and took a bus the rest of the way around. Even though I go around the East side of the island every day, it was nice seeing it from a mostly different perspective of the train tracks. The entire trip was narrated, and they even gave us free water and rum strawberry daiquiris. I'm not sure if I could recommend the train to anyone visiting the island because it is normally so expensive. However if you can afford it, it's a comfortable way to experience the villages and coastline of the island.

The view from the train

Tiffany and Saira enjoying the ride.

part 2: The Governor's Ball
The train wasn't all I got to do on Independence day. I also had the great opportunity to attend the Governor's ball in Basseterre. It was a very fancy and formal event. All men were required to wear jackets and a tie, and was by invitation only. My host family gets invitations every year, and this year my host father said I should go with my host mom if they got invitations. The event didn't start until 7:00, so Sarah and I left at 6:30 and arrived right at 7:00. There was a short line going into the "governors mansion" (apparently he doesn't actually live there). We got in line, went inside, and shook hands with the Governor General, then went outside with the rest of the party. The lawn was decorated with lots of colorful "christmas lights", several plastic chairs placed in random spots, two large food tents, and two large bar tents. Rather than the typically cinderella type ball that I thought it would be like, it was more of a meet and greet. Sarah and I chose a spot in some chairs that were near the front of the lawn, got a couple drinks, and people watched for a bit. I saw Tiffany and some other volunteers from EC78 walking around. After everyone was there, the Governor General came over and sat down next to me. He looked pretty tired, and we didn't talk (he wasn't RIGHT next to me). Then the prime minister and some other important people came over and sat around the Governor General. It was neat being so close to the most important people in the country, but you have to remember that the entire nation consists of only 40,000 people, so seeing the head of government isn't a rare event. A little bit later Sarah and I decided to walk around, watch the band and the people dancing. We headed home around 10:45, and decided it was a fun night.

Sarah, enjoying the festivities.

They weren't serving us at the bar, so Sarah took the matter into her own hands and walked back there and grabbed our own drinks.

I was so excited that they filled half my cup with rum.

honoring the queen of England in the Governors home.

part 3: Back to School.
I have actually been going to the primary school I am assigned to, once a week for half a day. Most of the time I am just observing the classes, getting my face known to the staff and students in order to prepare for when I am there nearly full time. Our training before we become actual volunteers covers many aspects of Peace Corps, one of which is schools in St. Kitts (since Youth Development is a large program in the Eastern Caribbean for Peace Corps).
With this training we actually have a decent amount of homework. Last week one of our assignments was to teach a remedial reading lesson in our assigned school. To prepare for it, I asked the principal if there were any students that would benefit from a remedial reading class, and she directed me towards the fourth grade class... the entire fourth grade class. Now, the entire class does not need help with their reading... it's just the largest class in the school and the teacher needs help with the students. Instead of creating a remedial reading lesson, I created just a generalized lesson geared towards fourth grade reading (which I had no clue what to do). I have very little resources, which were basically the black board and whatever supplies I can scrounge up. In college, it was easy doing reading lessons because I had access to some great libraries and could use any children's book I wanted. Since I had none of those materials here, I decided a nice game of hangman using some big words from Roald Dahl's book "Matilda". I'll skip the details of the lesson since that's all boring (except that a major part of the lesson was Hangman, because that's important).

I go to the class in the morning, and the teacher wasn't there, which means I have to entertain the children until the teacher comes back. They were being very loud and unruly, so I did the old pull off the thumb trick again, which calmed them down (it's fun hearing all the kids in the class shout "mearm!" at the same time out of surprise). Eventually the teacher came back, so I was going to let her have control of the class... but she let me keep going (gee thanks). Now I had to entertain the kids for an even longer period of time. I sang the Moose song from camp with them, which they loved and wanted to sing multiple times. Not knowing what to do next, I started them on a game of hangman using random words. This was entertaining for them for a short amount of time, but once they started to lose interest I panicked. If they lose interest in the game before I even teach my lesson, then I know i'll have a disaster filled lesson. I decided to get their mind off of lessons and took them outside to play a game (waa master). To play this game they were supposed to form a circle. I have never ever seen a group of people have so much trouble forming a simple circle. They were perfectly capable of making a circle, but they just wouldn't. At first all the kids wanted to stand next to me, so it started being a straight line. I moved some kids to the other side and I stood in the middle. Of course some kids followed me to the middle, other kids started wandering outside the circle, and more kids were just walking around. One girl even picked up a couple rocks to throw at some boys. Mearm! This game was a mess. Eventually we got in a circle and I taught them how to play. Once we started playing nearly every single child was cheating to win, but thankfully it started raining so I didn't have to finish this hellish game with them.

I took them back inside and decided to just start my lesson. The teacher was in the room for the lesson and was being very supportive in keeping the kids quiet and respectful. I somehow survived through the lesson, and turned it back over to the teacher. The teacher let the kids go outside for a short break, when one kid prompty vomited on the sidewalk. I just can't wait until I get to teach another lesson next week.

part 4: Baptism and Brimstone
There has been very little opportunity to sleep in since I've been here. We have activities nearly every day of the week, and the days I am able to sleep in, I end up waking up early anyway because it gets hot once the sun hits the house. This past Saturday (September 27th) was one of those days I did not get to sleep in. My host sister, Tarren, was being baptised at a beach a few miles away in Diep Bay. It wasn't only Tarren being baptised, but approximately 12 others. We were at the beach by 7:15am. The only way I can describe the baptism is by relating it to the baptism scene in "Oh brother Where art thou". Everyone being baptised wore white gowns, and the congregation sang as each person walked into the ocean to be bathed. I'll let the pictures and video tell the rest.

Everyone is wearing their gowns.

The island in the background is St. Eustacius

After the baptism, I went on to Brimstone Hill, for a cultural field trip. Brimstone hill was once used as a fortress to defend the island against invaders. The invaders were either French or British. I'm not sure which. But it was a fun trip at a beautiful site. A place that every visitor to St. Kitts should see.

These pictures are kind of small, so you might want to click on them to see the large image.