Denise and Jounen Kweyol

So now that I’ve arrived, I guess it’s my turn to take a stab at a blog entry. I arrived at about 8:30 on Monday night. And after being told by the customs’ officer that I have no right to stay in St. Lucia for more than six weeks and that I would have to go the immigration department if I wanted to stay as long as I’d planned, I was allowed out of the arrival area to be reunited with Norm. He, despite saying he was anxious for me to arrive, had stayed at home on our balcony waiting for the plane to land before taking the 10 or 15 minute drive to the airport. Luckily he was waiting when I came out. But I don’t think he waited very long. (As it turns out I have every right to stay in St. Lucia for ten months. I’m listed as a dependant on Norm’s work permit but the customs’ officer didn’t want to see it. It’s something I’ll have to straighten out in the next few weeks.)

The house we’ve rented is beautiful. Lots of room for three couples to share and even two spare bedrooms for our expected company. We can see the ocean from three sides of the house so all of our bedrooms have a spectacular view. The only disappointment is that the pool still isn’t finished. And judging by the pace of work in St. Lucia, it could be a while yet.

We all share space in the cupboards and two fridges. Norm’s shelf was pretty easy to spot. Lots of cheese, fruit, salad makings and a pitcher of home made juice. I know Norm talked about his juice in an earlier blog but the first batch I tasted when I arrived was incredible. Mango, star fruit and passion fruit. Norm is making friends at the market by buying the produce and then asking how to prepare it. For example, passion fruit is a round yellow fruit about the size of a small apple. You cut it in half, put the seeds and juice in a pan with some boiling water. The hot water releases the flavour in the juice. Then you strain it to remove the seeds and add the drained liquid to the juice mixture. The end product is very good. Incredibly sweet.

I’ve been to the market in Castries, the capital city about four times so far. Carl, one of our house mates, loves to go every day and chat up the local folks. Every time we go the merchants think we’re from a cruise ship and they try to sell us spices, beads, bird houses made out of coconuts, hats, etc. They’re all extremely courteous but we can’t wait until they start to recognize us so that we don’t have to turn them down all the time. There’s a street across from the market with at least a dozen bars that are each like a hole in the wall. Each place has a bar and if you’re lucky, two or three stools. We plan to try each of them over the course of our time here.

This weekend was the annual Jounen Kweyol, (Journée Créole or Creole Day) on the Island. That meant local people dressed up in their traditional costumes, drank rum punch and feasted on traditional foods. We went to an event at an historic home that’s just been restored. The house, known as ‘’The Pink House’’ is at the top of a hill overlooking Castries Harbour. The property is surrounded by beautiful gardens and fruit trees, some of which we couldn’t identify. There was a massive amount of food served in a buffet style by women wearing their traditional costumes.

The women had to patiently explain to everyone (the visitors anyway) what all the dishes were. There was a bouillie (a stew that I think was made of pork parts that we don’t normally eat), avocado balls, fish cakes, fried fish, smoked herring, salt fish, stewed chicken, soups, blood sausage, etc. I enjoyed tasting all of the different foods but I don’t think I would order some of them again in a restaurant.

Speaking of pork parts we don’t normally eat notice the picture of the local supermarket’s flyer for this week. On sale, specially for this time of celebration, salted pigs’ tails and snouts. Dale was duly impressed. Back to the meal now.

The dessert was an adventure of its own. There was a candy made with boiled guava and sugar, some candy that looked like taffy, several different cakes, including one that was a mixture of corn flower, sugar, raisins and spices, cooked in a banana leaf. It was served up in a little wrapped package. Mmmm. The four piece band played for at least three hours. One of the musicians played an instrument that looked like a tin cylinder the size of a rolling pin, poked with holes, and filled with beans. He said he made it himself. I wish I could find one. It looks like an easy instrument to play.

And this being the weekend before Halloween, the school where Norm, Dale and Sue are teaching had a fundraising Halloween dance. Sue was in charge of the decorations and most of us spent Saturday afternoon helping to decorate the school gym. A lot of the decorations were made by the students. Sue won a prize for best costume. Wanda, Dale’s girlfriend, won a prize as well. She just happened to come to St. Lucia with a pirate’s costume in her luggage. Now that’s planning ahead. Dale was Johnny Cash and, as soon as he was dressed, he worked on getting into character by giving us an impromptu Johnny Cash concert. The kids probably had no idea who Johnny Cash was but the parents probably did.

So a busy first week. Next week it’s the Rum and Food Festival. We may have to check some of that out, even though Norm and I like the punch more than the rum, in the ever-present rum punch.

Assorted Happenings

Nothing big to report this week so I will just ramble on about a collection of happenings in and around the house and the school.

Last Monday, and this one Dale would differ with me and say this was a big happening, Wanda arrived. Ooh’s and aah’s spilled out of her as she was taken on her first tour of the house. Carl has taken her around, shown her the market and other sights while Dale teaches. Dale has left school pretty much as the day has ended all week long. I think he is trying to make up for seven weeks of separation.

My turn for making up for time separated will come this week. Denise arrives tomorrow (minus the pumpkin of course) and finally I am down to counting hours before she arrives instead of days.


Those here are kidding me as to when I will leave to go to the airport to scoop her up. As much as I dearly want to hold her in my arms, I know that it takes time to go through, pick up one’s bags and make one’s way through customs. For that reason, I shan’t do as Dale did and depart an hour before she will walk out the door. Instead I will wait until I see the plane land, (from the back balconies we see the airport runways, the little sign on the picture says "airport") before leisurely making my way to the car and then taking a calm ride down to the airport. With that, I still think I will make it to the airport before she walks out.

Thank God for Skype. Their webcam call service has helped make the weeks apart easier to take even if the quality of the connections has not always been great. And with Skype phone calls at only two cents a minute, that too has helped all three of us to keep in touch with folks back home. Both Sue and Dale have appreciated my introducing them to this easy and cheap way to call friends and family. And when my father-in-law Skyped me yesterday and was unable to get his mike working, it was just as easy to call him back and spend 20 cents to hear his voice and get caught up on his news.

Meanwhile Carl joined the local golf course. He bought a membership good till the end of the year. He tells me he can’t imagine walking the course though due to the high temperatures even though he tends to go out first thing in the morning. I guess that’s part of living in a place where nightly temperatures never fall below 25 degrees Celsius. Now I would have placed a picture of the course here but he hasn't taken one yet and that's why you see local fruit here instead :)

Sue took advantage of a rainy Saturday, one of the very few rainy days we have had even though we are in the rainy season, to paint. Painting is therapeutic she tells me. I look on painting as a chore so I had trouble processing that one. She has taken over one of the spare bedrooms as a studio, a good use for the space.

Also included in the happenings for the week would be the introduction of the wireless access point at the school. Its installation has brought about an explosion of laptops. They have sprung up here there and everywhere, in a fashion similar to what I would expect wild mushrooms to do on the forest floor after a late summer rain. It also meant that I had to spend some extra time on the job this week. First there was the actual installation that kept me at school to six on Tuesday. Through the week, I have had students and staff approaching me to change their settings so that they can access the network. Then late Friday afternoon we began and yesterday I finished a move of the computer lab that allowed us to install five new machines and to take advantage of the new access point. Slowly, we are moving this lab towards a workable environment and not a source of daily frustration. One in my shoes would have hoped that the school would have attended to this prior to the school year beginning but this is the Caribbean they keep reminding me, and things don’t always move as quickly as we would like them to.

Now let me change topics and head off in a different direction. All of us agree that our sleep patterns have changed and we have wondered and discussed what is behind this. We believe it has to do with both sun and heat but are not certain if this is true. We certainly find ourselves going to bed earlier and waking earlier. Dale claims he is getting up the earliest that he ever has in his life.

This early-to-bed, early-to-rise may have something to do with the fact that the sun goes down quickly and comes up quickly. Twilight and those early morning hours when the light given off by the sun either slowly diminishes or increases just doesn’t happen here. When nine o’clock rolls around, it feels like 11, the sun has been gone for hours and we start dragging our butts. That end of the day is not much of a problem for me but the other end is. Those who know me well will attest to the fact that I am an early riser. Early here though, even when measured by my early-bird standards, is ridiculous. If I can force myself to sleep till 5 or 6 I have slept in. Three or four become early mornings in this climate. I am hoping with Denise by my side, I may sleep better, or at least be encouraged to hang around the bed a little longer.

Although most, if not all, will not have noticed that I had to get up during the writing of that last paragraph, let me tell you that I did. Living in a climate that lends itself to open doors and windows throughout the day also entails tails (tales) of another sort. Birds tend to fly in to search for food. Food has to be left covered or in a closed pantry. Shooing the bird out of the house becomes a regular daily occurrence. As so, I did, while telling you about sleep patterns. I did manage to grab Sue’s camera and snap the picture you see here.

I’ve just about come to the end of today’s entry. For those that have read enough on life in the Caribbean and need a change of climate allow me to suggest http://jandlarcticadventure.blogspot.com/adventure.blogspot.com/ . This blog is being written by a nephew and his girlfriend who are also educators, albeit with a few fewer years of experience than Dale, Sue and I. They have chosen, as I might have done in a younger time of life’s path, a different direction to head for this year. Although we find ourselves 15 degrees north of the equator, they find themselves 20 degrees south of the North Pole. The contrasts in culture and climate between here, there and home are interesting and make for good reading.

So that’s all for this week. Enjoy your days.

Ah, life in paradise

Ah, life in paradise...some of you who have read earlier blog entries have written me directly or posted here and have said how this seems so idyllic. A brother-in-law, and good friend, commented on how fortunate I was to be living such a wonderful adventure. “Adventure is good,” he said. “Don’t under appreciate it.”

Last spring, when we mulled over whether or not to come, my darling Denise used similar words when she said: “I guess, Norm, you are taking me on just another one of your adventures.” But, good sport that she is, she still agreed to come or at least I hope she hasn’t changed her mind and will get on that plane. She is due to arrive in a week’s time and, missing her as I am, I sure hope that the week flies by fast :)

Now back to that same brother-in-law. He welcomed me into the family many, many years ago by telling me that he felt I had ulterior motives for betrothing his sister. He believed I was doing it so that I could be an uncle to his children. Definitely he had a different way of looking at the picture and so from him I’ve learned that it is often good to take time, to sit back and to look at a situation through a different focus. When I replied last week to his note regarding the adventure I was on and mentioned that this adventure was not without frustration, he simply responded: “Frustrations??? What did you expect?”

So frustrations will be my focus for this week’s ramble and I will try and keep it all in focus since, bottom line, we are living on a beautiful, warm and at times, idyllic island. As you may have already noticed, as I do spout off, I will throw in a collection of photos that may, but probably will not, have anything to do with what I am talking about.

Life in a different culture often moves at a different pace than that to which we are accustomed or so I have found as I have adventured around. And, as I believe I’ve mentioned earlier, life here in the Caribbean moves slowly. One can’t speed things up, one can only get used to the slow pace. In discussing this with my colleagues and other ex-pats we all seem to agree the heat may have something to do with this tempo. Adjusting to the rate at which life moves here helps alleviate some of that inner build-up of frustration. (I am tempted to print off that last sentence and paste it around the house and my classroom at school so that I can focus on more positive thoughts when frustrations get me down.)

The first topic I’ll address is the purchase and registration of used cars. This tale almost qualifies for Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The process begins once you find a car to purchase. Quite normally, you need to have it inspected and evaluated and this needs to be done before you can drive it away. With the evaluation in hand, and still no vehicle, you must make your way to an insurance broker who will then insure it, no sorry, I misspoke. The insurer will take your money and then begin the process of insuring it and give you documentation that the paperwork has begun.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the renewal date for your car insurance has nothing to do with the date you purchase the used car. Rather, it has to do with the date the car was first insured. Due to this, you may end up getting insurance for weeks or months and when the car’s original insurance date comes up, it’s once again time for inspection and evaluation.

Back to the used car purchase process now. With “promise of proof of insurance to come” in hand you head back to the seller to pay for and pick up the vehicle. Now that you have wheels, completing the next four stops in the process will be slightly easier. There, of course, may be more than four stops, if you forget a document or signature along the way.

First, it’s back to the insurance company to show them you have the car and necessary paperwork. The seller must complete a form describing the car, announcing that he/she is selling it to you and must also provide you with a photocopy of his or her driver’s licence. The insurer will then give you the almost 100% complete insurance package. Later on we will return to visit our friendly insurance broker and we will, only then, have the process complete.

Next step is to head off to the registration office. With a bit of money and all completed documents in hand you must get in line. The office is open Monday to Friday 10 am to 2 pm but not Thursdays and they are closed from 12 to 1 for lunch. If you are going in the afternoon, please make sure you are in line by at least 1:30 since the wicket where you must pay your money closes precisely at 2.

If you are lucky enough to make it to the front of the line with all of your documents, properly completed, it’s smooth sailing now. If not, good afternoon, please go back to the end of the line and do have a good day. Those fortunate enough to pass the wicket lady’s test of documentation verification will pay their money, receive numerous official stamps in the appropriate places and will also be assigned a new licence plate number. Odd I thought. Although the car must keep its original insurance date forever, the licence plate expires when the vehicle is sold. Just makes for another stop along the way I guess.

Now some of my readers may have jumped to the conclusion that since the wicket lady gives you a new number she would also have given you a new set of licence plates for the car. Not true. You take your assigned number, mine was PE9837, and you either go home if you are handy with a paint brush or you head off to the local licence plate maker. That’s right. You either make your own or you have a set made.

The final step in the process is to return to the insurance company since they like to see your face. Remember, this is the third time you are visiting them. You show them the documentation with official stamps in all the required places and you show them your new licence plates. I am not certain whether or not they have the right to approve or deny the acceptability of plates since I did not attempt to paint my own but rather went to a licence plate maker with a good reputation.

With so many steps in the process, just imagine how many times you line up and wait. In this climate, one hopes to find air-conditioning to wait in but such is not always the case. Did I mention that, at the insurance office, during one of my visits there, they even apologized to me for the length of time it took to finish with me? That may have had something to do with the fact that I had fallen asleep in the chair during one of the four times, that day alone, that I had been called to their counter, had been asked to provide further information and then had been told to have a seat and wait while they continued working on my dossier.

Let’s hope selling a car is less complicated otherwise I think I need to put a sign in the window next week if we hope to sell it when we leave at the end of June.

Recall, if you will, that my topic for the day was frustration. What better environment to stimulate frustration’s growth than the internet or lack thereof. I had already mentioned in previous postings how we were trying desperately to get to a level of regular service both at school, where I attempt to be the computer lab technician while also facilitating on-line course during half of my day, and at home, where the gang look to me as the guy with the most number of hours logged at a keyboard and hence the most wherewithal to solve problems. How many times have they asked me, “Do we have internet yet?” or “Any word from Paul or Portia (our landlords) on when someone is coming to fix the internet?”?

We reserved this house seven weeks ago and moved in three weeks ago. One of our first questions was “Will we have internet when we move in?”. “Yes, no problem.” we were told. Up to yesterday, we had had a total of 22 hours of internet service, we had spent 9 days at home waiting for the “technician who will come today”, we had received three visits from 3 different technicians and had been given two different helpline numbers, neither of which had service.

The nine days of waiting for someone who does not show is typical St. Lucian behaviour we are told. It seems that companies and individuals find it easier to say “Yes we will”, even if they have no intention of doing, rather than say “No we won’t.” As for the three technicians, it seems that this Cable and Wireless company, the sole internet and cable TV provider on the island (and oh, how I just love dealing with monopolies), have very specialized technicians. An internet technician who comes by either will not or is unable to verify problems with telephone lines and jacks. Then there are inside and outside wire technicians neither of whom will touch the others wires. And so knowing exactly where the problem with connectivity comes into play and knowing which technician you have to chase to come by and solve your problem can be difficult at times. Being friendly and on good terms with our neighbour, Wally, chief financial officer for Cable and Wireless, helps me deal, in a small way, with this possible source of frustration.

Then there is the school. I am here because they decided to sign up for New Brunswick’s online courses as a route to a diploma for their students that will be recognized in universities around the world. To date, they have been trying to run up to 25 machines on the internet but with only enough bandwidth to handle 5 or 6 comfortably. That will hopefully change in the coming days.

So daily, together with my own frustration, I must deal with the students’ frustration. Luckily for me, they have, for the most part, grown up in cultures that have taught them to show patience and to find other ways in which to deal with frustration. In classrooms back home I would have had daily mutinies to put down. Not so here.

To top things off, Friday after school I received a phone call telling me that Cable and Wireless have given the school a new domain name and a new static address, that the school’s router will have to be reconfigured, that we will have no internet in the meantime and that the technician will be in sometime Monday (maybe, I think to myself) to address this.

There is good news to report. Yesterday, (Saturday), I was able to reconfigure the school’s router myself and I was able to get on line there. Let’s hope that it wasn’t just a temporary fix. Also here at home, the Cable and Wireless outside line technician that came by, wasn’t able to find the problem, but was able to put me in contact with an internet guy and together, he and I were able to find and solve our connection problems.

Enough on frustration. Let me finish this posting with a lighter, happier item. For those who know me well, you know I am crazy about fruits. I love to eat them, grow them and work with them. Down here I am taking advantage of the friendly ladies at the market to teach me about fruits that I knew about but had never worked with before. Star fruit, passion fruit, and something locally referred to as spice apple are the exotic flavours for this week. Denise, got to love her, was smart enough to throw a hand blender into my luggage before I left home and now its fruit juice city here in Marisule where we live. :)

Well that’s all for this week folks. Thanks again to Sue for the pictures. Have a good one and stay happy :)

Touristy Visits

With company around it was time to head to some of this island’s better known attractions. Some of the photos that follow will give you an idea of the places we visited but may not do true justice to the venues.

We started with a stop at the world’s only drive-in active volcano. We were greeted by the smell of sulphur in the air, the sight of steam escaping from many different spots, and the bubbling of mud and water in pools here and there. Our guide explained how 400,000 years ago, when this volcano had last erupted, the eruption had blown out one side of the mountain’s crater leaving the way for today’s road access.
The heat given off by the earth near this volcano has given rise to several different places where one can enjoy a hot and sometimes muddy bath. The bubbling mud finds its way into the mountain streams and many find that it is healthy to coat oneself with this mud. Others find a heated pool at the bottom of a local waterfall more soothing.

Touristy affairs are not only daytime activities. One of the nearby towns has a regular Friday evening “Jump-up”. The streets in the centre of town are closed off as many of the locals prepare food and drink to sell. The music blares and dancing goes on till well beyond my bedtime. Generally, I can be seen wandering away when many are still rolling in and others have yet to think of arriving.

We included of course a photo op with the “Pearl” or maybe it was the "Unicorn" :) . For the trivia buffs you should know that this ship, whatever its name, was see in the TV series Roots as well as more recently, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

And of course a “quick” (rather I should say short since the road is not long but it takes a long time to drive it) drive to the Atlantic coast situated not far from where we are located.

One of my loves, as many of you know, is gardening so I am happy to announce that the week was calm enough that I was able to plant my tomatoes and peppers. I will surely keep you informed as time goes on as to the progress on my Caribbean garden.

I mention gardening because we also managed to take in this week one of the island’s botanical gardens. I won’t attempt to name any of the flowers shown here. I will leave that as a challenge to the avid flower lovers. I will say that I have only chosen to show a small number of the ones we saw.

Finally, along with this botanical garden came more hot spring pools, including one in which Napolean’s Josephine is said to have bathed during a visit to her father’s plantation in St. Lucia. The pools are fed and heated by the water that comes down from the Diamond waterfalls that you see here.

It would be remiss of me to not update everyone on the internet situation I spoke of last time. After waiting all week for a technician to stop by he finally showed on Saturday afternoon. He left and we were no further ahead so I had the idea of changing the modem from one phone jack to another. Presto, there we were on-line and for hours we joyfully surfed. Today though, our glee came to an abrupt halt and we know not why. Alas, we may have to learn to live with intermittent internet and who knows when I will be able to post this entry :).

Let me leave you with one final photo for the week. See if you can spot the wildlife in this picture. Here’s a hint. It is poking its head just above the leaf and if you look closely at the leaf you can even see its toes. Have a good week one and all.