It’s been a fun filled week in St. Lucia. October is Cultural Heritage month so there have been a number of concerts and public events to mark the celebration. During the last week, many businesses decorated their offices, staff dressed up in their costumes and the local Royal Bank outlet even had a live band playing. 
Like many other schools on the island, The International School of St. Lucia, where Norm teaches, celebrated Jounen Kweyol or Creole Day, last Friday. Staff and students dressed up in their madras outfits. Madras is the name of the checkered patterns in bright colors that people wear. One local school wanted to teach students about traditional costumes so after a Creole breakfast, they slaughtered a pig. Norm’s school wasn’t that brave. They stuck to costumes, song, dance, story telling and a fashion show featuring people in their madras outfits (including Norm). Here’s a picture of the outfits put together by the principal, secretary, teacher and finance person. 
The biggest party always takes place on the Sunday closest to October 28th. Four villages are designated as party sites, one in the north, south, east and west. We went to the one in the North, in Grande Riviere, which is only ten minutes away from where we live. 
It was very sunny and hot but that didn’t stop thousands of people from showing up in their bright costumes. There were people standing or sitting in every shady spot available. There were several booths set up with lots to drink and Creole food including pig tail stew and turtle soup. The soup was being served even though it’s illegal to catch the turtles, which are endangered.
A couple of men showed how to make sugar cane juice. One person chopped off the hard exterior. A second person put the sugar cane through a machine to squeeze out the juice. There is always sugar cane available at the market even though there is not much sugar cane grown on the island these days. It’s sold in 4 or 5 inch sticks. You chew on them to suck the juice out. They can also be used to make skewers on the barbeque.
Another display showed how people used to make wood planks out of trees. One man stood on a platform about ten feet off the ground. The platform was actually the tree that they were cutting, supported by a frame. The man on top manoeuvered the saw between his legs in tandem with someone standing on the ground below. All of them were barefoot.
People here say it usually rains during the Jounen Kweyol celebrations. There wasn’t a drop that fell this year. That was exceptional considering we have had a very wet October with some extremely heavy rainfalls. There were some landslides and many streets and some houses were flooded. Local folks say they don’t remember ever getting so much rain in October. This is a picture of the path we usually take to the beach. Needless to say, we didn’t go swimming for a couple of days.
We’re going to be getting some company this weekend. Our friends from the Czech Republic, Zuzka and Milan and their two year old Tomas will be visiting for the month of November. It will be interesting to live with a two year old again.
No comments:
Post a Comment