I'm in Jail!

3D Erika - Look I'm in jail! But don't worry. I didn't do anything wrong.

Karen is working for a foundation and the Saint Lucian Government has given them permission to use the old Police Station. The real jail is at the new police station. We went to the Old Police Station to take pictures of what the building looked like before cleaning it up.

Isn't it a scary place? I promise to be VERY good!

Critters and Creatures

Bonjou! Mwen ni ywit lanne. Ki laj ou ye? As you can see I am learning a lot of Kweyol. I just said, Hello, I am eight years old. How old are you? I am feeling more grown up since my birthday earlier this week.

This is a picture of the village. Ask Jay to show you where we are living. He knows.

We have a lot of animals and creatures in our village and in Saint Lucia. Here are some of them:

Look at this tiny frog. There are lots of them here in the village. They have very big eyes. I wonder if it makes them see better. What do you think?

Butterfly’s are always fun to look at. They are so pretty.

There are lots of goats. People tie them up so they don’t wander off. They sleep most of the day! Isn’t the baby goat cute? The mother goat was calling her baby goat in this picture. The baby goat was upset because it could not figure out how to get to her mom.

Do you see the little hermit crab? He is hiding in his shell.

There are lots of humming birds on the island. Can you find him in the picture? You can click on it to make it larger.

Look at the crab! There are lots of them. People set traps, catch them and have them for dinner. Ah, poor crab.

Here’s an ant. They are smaller than ours. They are brown and there are lots of them. Karen set traps and killed them. Now she feels kind of bad.

Mombo and Crystal, our neighbors have a dog who just had puppies. Aren't they cute?

At night we hear crickets - lots of crickets. They sing all night long. About 4:00 in the morning the roosters start crowing. Roosters and chickens walk up and down our street. They are very noisy.

Well, that's about all for now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FLAT ERIKA AND 3D ERIKA!

Hi 3D Erika. I hope your birthday is as good as mine. Karen had a cake for me with eight candles - well, they were sort of like candles. She sang Happy Birthday to me. You can see it on the video.

We had a nice day today. The cable stopped working and there is no water so we went to the Library and helped Egbert, the Librarian with his homework. He is very nice and really likes to see me.

I hope your day was as fun as mine. Write and let me know what you did. I love you!

Hi Mrs. Schneider's Class!!!

Bonjou! Sa Ka Fet! That means "Hello, what's up?" I heard that Mrs. Schneider is going to let the class visit my blog. I think Mrs. Schneider is very nice. I’d love to hear from you. I miss all of you. You can send a comment at the bottom of the post. Just click on “comment” and ask me a question or tell me what you think. I’ll write you back! At the end of each post you can tell me if you think I’m having a “Good Time” and if you “Wish you were here”. Just check the box.

Well, Karen and I had a big day today. We went to Castries, the capitol of Saint Lucia. As we left our house, Karen told me how happy she is because the men were here to finish making screens for her windows. She says she’s happy because she won’t have so many mosquito bites now. The man is making her screens at the house across the street.

We met with a lot of the volunteers at the Peace Corps Office. They put me right in the center of things as they discussed Peace Corps business. They are all so nice and were so happy to see me. They loved my new Kweyol clothes.

You can click on the pictures to make it bigger so you can see me better.

I thought you might want to know a little bit about how I live. One thing you might find strange is that we don’t have hot water here. No one does. We take cold showers and Karen heats the water in her electric kettle to wash the dishes.

Karen says she doesn’t worry too much about hot water – she just wants water. Many times, the water system breaks and we don’t have any. We have buckets in the shower filled with water. We use them when there is no water. Karen says that sometimes they don’t have water for two or three days at a time!

There are a lot of people without much money here. Most of the people in the village make money by fishing or growing bananas. Some people don’t have indoor plumbing or electricity. They have public facilities where people go to get water and take a shower or use the bathroom.

The man in the picture is a fisherman. He is cutting up his catch and will sell them to the local people here. Fisherman are very brave because they go way out to sea in very small boats to catch their fish.

Junior Achievement

Karen and I went to a conference last week in Castries. That’s the capitol of Saint Lucia. We brought seven girls with us. They were very excited and lots of fun. The conference was at a very nice hotel called Sandal’s. None of the girls had ever been there and so we all explored the pool and beach area. It was really very beautiful.

The girls are the officers in a Junior Achievement Project at the Secondary School. Junior Achievement teaches students how to create a business, make a product and sell it. They are making dog tags and key chains and have sold a lot of them. They are very popular.

Junior Achievement is in schools all over the world! Karen said she was in Junior Achievement when she was in high school. She said that it was so much fun that’s why she wanted to work in the business field! She said that when we get to high school it is likely that we will have the opportunity to be part of Junior Achievement. I can hardly wait!

I've gone native!

Hi everyone! Well, Karen and I have been very busy lately.

I learned about the people and their traditions during Independence Day. Do you remember the video of the children dancing in their traditional clothes? Well, Karen and I went to Castries yesterday and she bought some traditional material at one of the stores. Today, she made me a new outfit.

Karen says that it looks like I'm going "native". That's what they say when you change and become more like the people in the country you are visiting. Do you like my new outfit?

Slaves and Traditions

Boujour! So, here is the next part of the story. After the French took the island from the Caribs, the the English came and decided they wanted it! They fought for years and the island went from French to English seven times. The English finally won and they ruled the island until 1979!

In the meantime business men came to produce sugar cane. They needed people to work in the fields.

So, do you know what they did? Men with ships went to Africa and caught African men and women. They put them in chains and forced them in their boats. They brought them to Saint Lucia and made them slaves. They were forced to work in the fields and beat them if they didn’t work. Slavery lasted for over one-hundred years!

Many of the traditions they have come from the days of slavery. They have traditional dance. They wear special dresses. Here’s a video Karen took of children dancing in their traditional clothes.