My New Best Friend...

So much rain, even more noise.

... is my blue polka-dotted umbrella.

It has been raining like crazy this week. The rain here is different. It kind of just starts without any warning, most of the time it rains for like 5 minutes and then stops just as suddenly. The sun remains out and usually the rain is pretty hard to see because it is so light...

On Monday it rained all day, and this rain was uncharacteristically dense. Teacher friends, I'm going to tell you right now that you have not had to use a teaching voice until you've had to teach all day in a classroom with a tin roof while it pours outside. Not to mention that you have to keep the windows and doors open so that you don't roast in your classroom. It is impossibly loud and difficult to make sure you're being heard and more importantly understood over all that noise. This weather persisted throughout most of the week but gradually let up.

The Winners!

On Friday Monchy had their annual road race. Students in Grades 3-6 paid a dollar to participate in a type of marathon on the roads around the school. In the school's physical education program there are four different houses; Sunflower (yellow), Marguerite (blue), Hibiscus (red), and Lily (green). Each student is assigned a house for the duration of their time at the school (kind of like in Harry Potter, but it's only for gym class and as far as I know Monchy doesn't use a hat to sort the students). Then the houses compete against each other in different activities, like the annual road race. 60 medals and 6 trophies were given to the first 30 boys and the first 30 girls to complete the race. Then the house that won the marathon is announced, a house wins the marathon by having the more individuals from that house complete the race than the other houses. So if Sunflower had the most student complete the race they would win, even if Lily had won all of the medal and trophies... it's actually a pretty logical system even if I'm doing an inadequate job of explaining it.

Jenai crossing the finish!

Anyway.... the students started at the school and ran up the road a ways and then turned around and ran back. There were multiple water stations along the route that the teachers worked with students that weren't running. I was assigned to the half way point station. My main job was recording the numbers of the students that ran past so that we knew all of the students had run the entire distance. Cheating is a big concern here in academics and athletics. The culture encourages competition, and with competition comes cheating. Fortunately I didn't hear about any cheaters on Friday so I'm assuming everyone ran a clean, fair race.

Just finished the race, exhausted

Because I was at the half way point my job was done before the race was over so I got the chance to head back to the school and cheer some students across the finish line. My favorite moment of the day was seeing Jenai finish. Jenai is a grade four girl and is confined to a wheelchair. She is not in my class, so I don't know her that well but she is awesome. Jenai ran the entire race and didn't even finish last! She had a couple different people help push her along the way but I know that she also did a lot of the work herself. She made a point of crossing the finish line without any assistance. As she rolled up to the finish all of the students and teachers started to cheer for her and I could just feel the pride radiating through the crowd for her. It was awesome.

One of my favorite pictures so far

The race took maybe two hours to wrap up, but the students didn't have class for the rest of the day so there was a lot of down time. I personally was confused and frustrated because I know that I could have been using that time to teach or do something productive and organized with students but instead the entire day of classes was cancelled for a relatively short activity. I suppose that is just a difference between St. Lucia and the States though... nothing I can do to change it.

They love my red sunglasses

Right now I am sitting at a cafe in town and having my first cup of coffee in a month. I am so happy right now. I even pulled a super hipster move and took a picture of my coffee, that is how excited I am about it. Plus, Taylor Swift is playing on the radio. This is shaping up to be an exceptional day.

I almost forgot! In grammar this week we learned about conjunctions... guess what I used to teach the lesson? If you guessed Schoolhouse Rock,  Conjunction Junction you are correct! We watched it at least 6 times in class plus all of the times I watched it to prepare the lesson. Needless to say it has been stuck in my head all week. In case you forgot how it goes, I'll leave this clip here for you... 

Food Food Food!

As the title suggests... This post will be all about food. So, here is another list, this time of the different/new foods I've tried since being here. Not all of them are specific to St. Lucia, but there are still some tidbits of information/experiences that I'm going to share... more so that I remember I suppose, but if you're reading this then I assume you might be interested as well...

Bread -- My host mom bakes her own bread. It is so much better than store bought bread. I usually take a couple of slices with some cheese for lunch at school.

Grapefruit -- Although I used to dislike grapefruit it's been growing on me here. I sometimes have half a grapefruit for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Oranges -- Taste the same, but they're green not orange!

Bananas -- They are ten times better here. I go through like 10 a week. I usually have one for breakfast, bring another to school, and sometimes eat one in the afternoon.

Soda -- About once a week I treat myself to a soda either Coke or Sprite. These are a treat because they are nice and cold, very refreshing in such hot weather. The difference is that the soda here has a lot more sugar. It's very very sweet, which changes the flavor ever so slightly.

Juice -- There is so much juice here!! I am in love! Each day I get home from school and have a nice cold glass of whatever juice is in the fridge that day. Each juice is made fresh. My host mom juices the different fruits and adds different amounts of sugar and water herself. I've had pineapple juice, golden apple juice, grapefruit juice, passion fruit juice, and lime juice. So far I think lime juice is my favorite. My host mom said that it lime juice, sugar, and banana extract. I am definitely trying to make it when I get back.

Fried Plantains -- Best. Thing. Ever. Fried plantains, are... plantains (kind of like bananas, but not) that have been fried. They are very sweet and have a caramelized taste too. I like them warm, but they good cold too... I mean, as I've said they're delicious no matter how you eat them.

Conch -- On Friday I went to a fish fry type deal with some friends and tried conch (as in conch shells) for the first time. They catch them fresh and grill them with what I think was butter, garlic, and maybe a couple other spices? It was pretty good, a bit rubbery, and the skin was particularly difficult to chew, but I liked it.

Golden Apples -- There is a fruit here called a golden apple. When it's ripe it is fantastic to just eat raw and fresh. You peel the skin and then sink your teeth into the juicy, almost sour core. The center seed is spikey and is easily caught between your teeth so you have to be careful to eat around it. Before the golden apple gets too ripe St. Lucians also pick them, peel them, and then make a juice out of them. It is actually the first thing I had to drink here and the juice is just so perfectly refreshing, I can't even describe it.

As delicious as the food is here I'm starting to miss the freedom and choice of doing my own shopping and cooking back home. At the moment I'm missing baked goods and surprisingly my go to meal of chicken breast, noodles, butter, and cheese more than anything,. I might cave one of these days and hit up one of the many American fast food chains on the island, but I'm putting that off as long as possible. 

All Kinds of Differences

So far St. Lucia hasn't been terribly different than life in the states. I haven't experienced any drastic culture shock or anything like that but I have noticed some differences:

This is the view from outside the Grade Six classroom

1. Driving -- I hadn't really thought about it but they drive on the opposite side of the road here, which makes sense but also throws me for a loop sometimes. I'm getting used to it almost to the point that driving on the "right" side of the road will come as a shock when I get back.

2. Use of Car Horns -- Although related to driving this deserves it's own place on the list. The streets here are noisy! Drivers use their horns for everything; they honk to say hello to pedestrians, to say thank you to another driver, to say you're welcome to another driver, to alert drivers and pedestrians that they are coming around a particularly sharp turn, and occasionally out of frustration or anger. It's been weird, but nice, to hear so many happy honks on the road.

3. Roads -- Living in the Midwest has meant a lot of long, straight roads driving wise for me. This is not the case here. The terrain of the island is very mountainous, which accounts for beautiful landscapes and scenery but also some treacherous driving. The roads here turn and curve up and down the various mountains and around the different obstacles so that passengers are constantly being tossed from side to side and even jolted forward or back. My bus rides to school can sometimes feel like a carnival ride!

As I said, it's beautiful here!

(This is turning out to be a lot of information about driving... not my original intention, allow me to expand past roadways...)

4. Electrical outlets -- Obviously the outlets here are different, but each outlet also has a switch next to it. Thanks to Mr. Dave Mielke I have often been reminded of how appliances and chargers still drain power from outlets when they are plugged in, even if they are not being used. Here each outlet has a switch next to it; when you are not using the outlet/whatever is plugged into the outlet you can flip the switch to off and it no longer drains electricity. I am personally impressed with this idea; I think it is a great way to conserve energy.

5. Daylights Savings Time -- I always assumed that Daylights Savings Time was an international practice. It is not. It surprised me, but hasn't phased me too much. It has been an adjustment to be two hours ahead of the US where before I was only one hour ahead.

That's all for now, I'm sure I will continue to discover differences and learn more about St. Lucia but I will leave you with some pictures from my week here.

This week I pulled out my camera during break time and while I was trying to catch some candid images of students as soon as they see a camera they flock to it! Everyone wants to pose for pictures and take them....

2 Weeks in and Getting Comfortable

Now that I've been here for 2 weeks (oh my goodness! it's going so fast!!) I'm starting to form some routines and am feeling comfortable here.

The Monchy schoolyard has a beautiful tree with pink flowers.

I usually wake up around 6:30 am, get ready for the day and then catch my two buses to Monchy. I get to school around 8:15 and spend some time with the students playing or going over lesson plans for the day and then school starts around 9:00.

At Monchy the school day starts with an all school assembly where the students pray and a different teacher gives a short talk about important events and/or announcements for that day. Then Grade 6 has English for about an hour and a half. After the first class of the day the school has a break that lasts about half an hour where students usually run around and play for a bit and grab a snack. After morning break Grade 6 has Maths (yes, they call it maths or mathematics) and then another hour break for lunch. After lunch the students have 2 different classes. The subjects of these classes change depending on the day of the week but include Health Science, Social Studies, General Science, Music, Study Skills, P.E., French, and Arts and Crafts.

This week I started teaching. The first subjects I've taken over are English and Health Science. I had a lot of fun planning for this week, although Health Science was a challenge (I haven't study Health since I was in middle school myself).

There is a carpet of pink petals under the tree that the students love to play in.

Thursday and Friday of this week the other Grade 6 teachers were at a conference all day... I didn't know this until Thursday morning, so I was tasked with taking over all 4 classes for both days with no preparation. It was scary for a bit, and I was nervous about teaching the subjects I wasn't prepared for (especially Math) but everything worked out well.

They weren't the best lessons I've ever taught but I got though each day and each subject without too much trouble. The biggest problem was Friday afternoon; the students had a lot of energy and were obviously excited for the weekend and that translated into poor behavior from most of them. There was disrespect for me and for their classmates and I felt like I was losing control of the classroom. I ended up having to put my strict teacher face on. I had the class write a 3 paragraph essay about how they should act in class, how they should treat their classmates, and why they had trouble doing those things that day (shout out to Crupi, totally stole your idea). The class seemed very receptive and apologized to me profusely. Hopefully they will do better on Monday... I'm pretty sure they will.

Happy Birthday Miss Crispin!

Yesterday I turned 22! It was my first birthday away from family and friends at home and, although I missed everyone terribly, I had a stupendous time!!

They love to take pictures!

The students and staff of Monchy made sure I felt welcome and loved all day! At morning assembly they sang their birthday song to me (I'm going to try to learn it because it is so much better than ours). Throughout the day I received cards from students wishing me well and telling me how much they loved me. The accent here is different so the students and staff pronounce my name differently, the best I can describe it is that they emphasize the last syllable and stress vowels.  I think because of this discrepancy in pronunciation the students are struggling with how to spell my name. I had one card with Scapin spelled correctly, the majority of the other cards wished a happy birthday to Miss Crispin.

Lucky for me Friday was also Jounen Kweyol (National Creole Day). During the month of October the people of St. Lucia celebrate their Creole heritage. These celebrations culminate on the last weekend of the month with a number of festivals and parties around the island. 

Showing off their Jounen Kweyol style

Monchy Primary celebrates by allowing students to dress in their Kweyol fabric, which is basically different kinds of colorful plaid, instead of their uniforms. There were no classes on Friday, instead the day was spent playing, dancing, telling stories, and eating! The teachers prepared traditional food for breakfast and lunch that students were able to purchase. I was lucky enough to sample several of the different foods including...

fish cakes - fish covered with batter and fried

Such a colorful day!

cocoa tea - almost like hot chocolate, but not really at all... more of and herbal taste but still very sweet and delicious

floats - which is a sweet dough wrapped in tin foil (they used to wrap them in banana leaves, but foil is much quicker) and the put in boiling water to cook

For lunch I had a pork stew with beans and dumplings... I didn't catch the official name but it tasted pretty good.

The boys drumming away

The students have an amazing sense of rhythm! The older boys spent the day drumming and making music on the table, walls, and anything else they could find! Staff and students took to dancing the day away. The way some of these kids can move their bodies blew me away. Although it took some time and encouragement for them to get started once their feet and hips got going there was no stopping them.

The students also shot off bamboo throughout the day. At first this made me very nervous. I mean fire, and children, and loud noises, and small children... those don't usually mix well in my experience. But this has been a part of celebrations forever here so all the kids are experienced and know what is safe and what is not. The students here are very responsible and trustworthy. They know what is allowed, what is safe, and who is in charge so they are given a lot more freedom than American students.

Shooting off bamboo

 After I got over my nerves I learned a little bit more about what was going on. Students took a large bamboo chute and propped it on the ground so that it faced up into the air. There was a small hole on the top of the bamboo where they poured kerosene in. Then they blew into the hole, lit a stick on fire and placed the fire into the hole and then blew air into it again. It made a loud booming sound as the air/flame shot out the end. It was fun to watch but the constant booms put me on edge a bit.

If you want to see more pictures from Creole day and/or the Monchy School in general you can find them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/monchy.primary?fref=ts

I'm Here!

I have finally arrived and settled in St. Lucia! I am already melting from the heat but am definitely enjoying myself.

The view from my front porch

I landed on Saturday and was met at the airport by Sister Marie Therese who drove me around the island and to my host home. Sister has been absolutely fantastic! She invited me to lunch at her home on Sunday after she took me to mass and helped me figure out my phone situation. She has just been a blessing in my adjustment to St. Lucia.

My Bedroom

My host mom is great! She is encouraging me to be as independent as possible, which is awesome.

I had my first day at Monchy today, which went really well. The staff and students were so welcoming and friendly. By then end of the day I had a host of the younger students gathered around me asking questions and anxious to tell me what they learned at school that day.

Tomorrow I have to start taking the bus to school; actually I will be taking two buses. I'm a little nervous about negotiating the system but I'm sure with practice it will be fine.

Grade 5 field trip at the beach!

 On Wednesday I got the opportunity to help chaperone a field trip for grade 5 this week. They are learning about ecosystems so we took a long walk to the beach and observed several different types of ecosystems on our hike.

On the way to the beach with Grade 5

The walk was over an hour each way, but it was beautiful weather and scenery. It was also a great chance to interact with students and get to know them a little bit. Even though this was not the class I will be teaching I loved spending time with the students and building relationships with them.

Several students and staff were concerned about my ability to make the trek and the condition of my skin. I am pleased to report that I made the hike without complaint or any trouble, I have no sunburn, and other than a mosquito bite on my eyelid I am unscathed!

Less than 2 days...

Still cannot believe I am actually leaving this weekend!

I have been ridiculously busy this week between wrapping up student teaching at Wrightstown, trying to get myself prepared, and spending quality time with people before I leave. I finally finished running errands and will be packing tonight. Wish me luck; I have to fit 9 weeks of clothing and teaching materials into one 50 pound piece of luggage.

If you read the comments on this blog you may notice some updates from my current students at Wrightstown High School. I have been assured by a couple of students that I will have a daily update on what they've been doing during study hall. Recently this has included picking noses, eating boogers, and crying... it is worthy to note that these are the Juniors...