Schools finished in the first or second week of December, and because schools were done, so were after-school programs. Being a Peace Corps volunteer is a 7 day a week job though. Even when I'm not working on a project I'm still a volunteer and am always trying to do something along with the Peace Corps goals, even if it's just talking with locals. The kids I walk home with from school and play games with after school came by frequently. With them I learned how to shoot marbles, and we went swimming in some tidal pools at black rock. The kids couldn't handle the cold water very well, so swimming typically lasted for less than five minutes. But it was still fun to do, and nice to know I can safely take a dip in a five minute walk from my house.
Lately I have been having some trouble with the kids begging me for food. It started when I first started walking home with the kids. I know that some of them don't always get a good meal after school, or sometimes even dinner. I invited the kids to stop by my house to have snacks, which include some finger biscuits and water. It wouldn't be much of a snack to the average American kid, but these kids loved it because it filled their stomachs. Before long the kids came to expect snacks from me, and shortly after food in general- even though the only time I've given them food other than a snack was Thanksgiving dinner. Their constant begging gets tired after a while and it didn't matter that I told them I couldn't afford to give them food other than snacks.
Tourism is a huge part of the economy in St. Kitts. In BelleVue where I live, there is a natural historic site called Black Rocks, where there are volcanic structures in the water, so whenever a cruise ship is in town tourists taking a tour of the island stop there to take pictures. Some days hundreds of tourists come through. The kids sometimes brag to me that they have American money. They get this money from the tourists, just for being kids. I've even heard stories about tourists taking the scenic railway and throwing ten dollar bills off of it telling the kids that the first one to get it keeps the money. I think that charity is fantastic when done right, and that the tourists want to help the kids who are relatively severely underprivileged. But it hurts me to see them do this because it gives the kids andlocals a skewed image of Americans. Not everyone in the U.S. is rich enough to travel on a cruise ship and hand out money to children. It's hard for me just to hand out food to these kids when that's not the reason I'm here. My friend Alisa wrote about a similar situation in her blog this past year, and she describes the situation very well. Her story starts right below the pictures.
The last day of school I went to the Christmas program in the evening. While there I sat with "my kids", the ones I walk home with and feed and play games with. At the Christmas program they were selling chicken and some other local foods. I had very little to eat all day and was starving, and would have loved to have bought some food, but the kids were hungry and asking me to get them some. I could not have afforded to buy all three kids a meal, so I didn't want to buy some for myself and eat it in front of them being unable to share. I am unsure how I feel about this. On one hand It is not my responsibility to feed the kids. I am not their parent and am in my way expected to make sure the kids are fed. I should be able to eat when I'm hungry. On the other hand I feel bad for these kids and want to show them compassion for their situation.
Their begging became so bad that I considered dropping snacks altogether. I was telling Julie Ann about the situation had some helpful and inspiring words. She helped me feel better about the situation and I continue to feed them snacks.
Back to the Christmas program. The program was meant to start at 5:30, so I decided to show up right on time. I am getting familiar enough with Kittitian time to know that the program will in fact not begin when it's supposed to. I arrived at exactly 5:30, expecting at least a couple people there and most of the event set up. No one was there except for one kid who lived close to the school. Eventually by 6:30 things started up. Each class, and a few small group of kids, sang songs and recited poems. In the end there was a skit which I couldn't understand even though everyone was laughing during most of it.
Some pictures:
Kids playing outside before the program began
Grade 4 singing a song
Part2:
A new horse and dog racing track opened up these past few weeks in Parsons, a village close to mine. Their first two weekends were free admission, to get people to show up and know what goes on. Patty and I headed down there the second Sunday to watch our first horse races. There were five races total. Each race lasted approximately five minutes (actually less), and there was an hour break between each race. This made it kind of slow and slightly uninteresting. We stuck around for three races and then headed back home. I'm glad I wejnt but it's not something I would do regularly. It was also a good time to take pictures.
Part 3: Mt. Misery
Last Tuesday the 22nd I had a great opportunity to hike to the rim of the crater on Mt. Liamuiga. Mt. Liamuiga is a stratovolcano that has a peak of 3,792 feet, but we only went to abuout 3000 feet. It last erupted about 1,800 years ago. Geoff's family was on island and scheduled a tour, so we were invited to go with. The hike was not easy the entire way up, and some of it was more vertical than horizontal. It took us about two hours to reach the top. Once we made it we had some snacks and lunch and relaxed for a bit. There was a very large boulder at the top which we climbed (it was not an easy climb, and I thought I was going to die), and once we made it to the top, we were treated with an incredibly beautiful view.
The view from the very top
Saira and Julie Ann on their way up
Alisa is clearly excited.
Cynthia, Julie Ann, and Saira
Part 4: Christmas
This is my first Christmas away from home, so that made it a little harder than normal. I wasn't really homesick though, mostly because I have some great friends here who I was able to spend it with which made me feel at home. Julie Ann me to go visit her from the 23rd to the 25th. We left on the 23rd (almost missing the ferry. 5 seconds later and we really would have missed it). That night we went to one of Julie Ann's favorite places in Nevis, the Riviere House. It's a nice coffee shop made from a colonial house. Julie Ann, her friend Cynthia, Maggie, and myself all went. There was music drinks and Hors d'oeuvres, and we all had a good time. I stayed at Maggie's house and met up with Julie Ann and Cynthia later. On Christmas eve we all met at Montpilier plantation to eat lunch and play Mah Jong (Taiwanese style, thank you Maggie). After Mah Jong we went to the house of a friend of Julie Ann. She's an expat who has lived in many places, and Nevis happened to be the most recent one. She fed us a wonderful Christmas dinner with appetizers, wine, and dessert. She even let us use her phone to call home. Christmas morning, I was going to head back to St. Kitts and intended to catch the 10:30 ferry. Unfortunately there was no 10:30 ferry, and instead only a 4:00. We went back to relax at Julie Ann's place until 4:00. Maggie went back to St. Kitts with us and Julie Ann and Cynthia met us there. We had to rest up for J'ouvert.
Our group at the Riviere House
Part 5: J'ouvert
The 26th of December is the celebration of J'ouvert. If you want a history of Carnival you can check out wikipedia or Saira's blog. Here is my experience. On Christmas day Maggie and I made it back to my house. We relaxed a bit watching some movies and TV, and then went to bed because we were going to get up at 1am to get ready to leave for J'ouvert. The troupe we joined was the Xtreme troupe, which I believe is the largest. We paid 75EC and received a package including backpacks, a t-shirt, admission bands, a whistle, paint, and drinks.
Maggie and I woke up and went out to catch a bus. We were told that buses would be running all night long because of J'ouvert, and we would have no trouble catching one. We waited in front of my house for maybe 20-25 minutes and only one bus went by, and it was going the wrong direction.
Maggie waiting for the bus. She was sitting on a cow pie.
We decided to hitch a ride instead. The guy that picked us up was kind enough to take us all the way to Saira's house, where we met up with Saira, Cynthia, and Julie Ann. Once they were ready, we caught another ride to our starting point in town. When we arrived there was already a couple hundred people dancing and drinking and painting everything in sight. We ate some cookup and had a couple drinks, and then the caravan started to head out. We left around 3:30 and headed into the streets. Our caravan was led by people, followed by a tractor trailer with the dj and speakers, followed by more people, and then trailed by the tractor trailer with the bar. In case we finished our drink we could have just waited a minute for the drink trailer to catch up. We followed some roads through town towards the center. When we finally arrived at the circus (what the town "square" is called) it was already daylight. At that point, other troupes similar to ours that started out at different spots all met together. By the second lap around town, it seemed that half the country was was there watching. From that point on, all the troupes made laps around the downtown area drinking, dancing, and partying until about 2 in the afternoon. Most of our group was tired and we mostly went home between 9 and 10:00. It was an incredible experience and I cannot wait until next year.
Pictures:
We made it to town
Leaving the starting area
Julie Ann and a painted man
Alisa and Kelsey made sure my face was painted
Alisa and Kelsey made sure my face was painted
Kelsey and I
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