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.