Frog Under Glass

Every Saturday morning, we take our regular trip to the market. We haven't missed a Saturday, except when we were out of town.

As we finish up our market shopping we always pick up two newspapers, the Star and the Voice. There are others but we limit ourselves to these two. They have different takes on stories and between the two of them, we get a good idea of what’s happening in St. Lucia. The vendor knows us now. He's a young man in a wheelchair. He often has his two young daughter with him. When he sees us coming, he rolls up the two papers together and wraps them with an elastic.

An amusing section to read is the Classifieds. Many St. Lucian’s are quite superstitious by nature and that probably explains why there are so many ads under astrology. Here are some examples of what these ads promise.

Rev. Mother Kingston
Spiritual Healer
Stops Break-ups, Divorce
Reunites separated
Restores lost nature
Removes jealousy
Calls enemies by name
Grants desires
Results 7 hours

Sister Lindsey
Free Same Reading
God Gifted Spiritualist
Solves all problems
Relieves depression
Returns lovers
Clears bad luck
Guaranteed results

High Powered Spiritualist Healer
Specializes in all problems
Removes all bad luck
Succeeds where others failed
Contact this gift lady for help tomorrow






One of the first things visitors notice during their first night in St. Lucia (besides the heat) is the sound of the tree frogs. The males chirp loudly at night to attract the females. They remind us of the peepers at home. But these critters are louder, they sing all night, and they're also very small. It's unusual to see them but one of them decided to hang around our deck. We brought him inside so that Milan could take some pictures.







He used a regular sized wine glass so you can get a sense of the size of the frog. After a few pics, we let him go to resume his singing. The frogs keep some people awake but you get used to them very quickly.









They say the coconut tree is known as the tree of life because you can survive eating jut coconut and drinking the coconut water. It's very popular here for people to buy fresh coconuts. Sometimes they just want the juice. Zuzka and Milan got their first sampling of coconut water.








Then the vendor cut the coconut open with his machete and took out what he called the coconut gel. It's basicly very soft coconut. The coconut water takes some getting used to but the coconut gel is yummy. It costs about 60 cents Canadian for a coconut...or 1.50 Eastern Caribbean Dollars. But if you're in a resort, the locals will try to sell one to you for $5.00 U.S.












We were on our way to a beach this past weekend when we came across this little shack at the side of the road.


















We didn't really get the reasoning behind the air freshener...but we thought it was kind of funny.

Thanks to Milan for alot of pictures this week.
It's nice to have more to choose from.

From Prague to St. Lucia

It’s always nice to get company because we get to see St. Lucia again through fresh eyes.
Our friends, Zuzka and Milan and their two year old son Tomas are visiting for the next month. We picked them up last week and they’re already impressed with the beauty of the Island and with the warm temperatures.

Tomas loves swimming so he swims in the pool and the ocean several times a day. They arrived at Hewanorra, the airport in Vieux Fort that is about an hour and a half drive south of the Island. As with most visitors we took them to the beach before heading home. And we had a couple of Piton, ‘’the local beer’’, in a cooler. If you’re thinking of coming to visit, you can expect the same treatment :)



Now that we live in Rodney Bay, the tourist hub of the island, our visitors can come and go much more easily. We’re a five minute walk to the beach and a ten minute walk to the mall.

We ventured a little further last week when we went into Castries. There was only one cruise ship in port but by all reports, there will be even more cruise ships visiting St. Lucia this year.

Zuzka admitted to being a little intimidated walking through downtown. It does take a bit of getting used to.

This is the inside of the Roman Catholic church downtown. It’s made of stone on the outside but wood on the inside. 65 percent of the population in St. Lucia is Catholic.

Norm has been outdoing himself at the market these days. The selection of fruits and vegetables varies with the season. Mangoes are done right now but grapefruit is at its peak. Check out the red bananas we can only find on occasion and look at the size of the avocados. They are superb. For those looking for a challenge, see if you can correctly identify all 20 of the examples of produce shown in the picture. The first one to send in a correct response gets a week's stay at the Hamel St. Lucian retreat :)

MADRAS Madness

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.