Yesterday was very uneventful. It was our last day to work on our
presentations for the Health Ministry, so I spent almost the entire day working
on my PowerPoint. I did take a few study
breaks though. Griffin and I had a
picnic on the veranda for lunch. We have
been trying to finish all the food we bought, so our meals have been really
random. For example, Monday night we had
mashed potatoes and mac and cheese! The irony of doing research about healthy
diets while eating instant potatoes and boxed Velveeta macaroni and cheese was
not lost on us, don’t worry! We did
pretty well at lunch though! We had to finish our vegetables and our meat, so I
had a turkey, tomato, lettuce, cucumber and ranch sandwich on a pita with some
carrots on the side and Griffin had a salad.
Oh, we did finish up one bag of Munchies, though. It can’t all be healthy!
That evening we had some more Icicles with Rianna and
Kijahna out on the porch. Kijahna told
us all about a game she had to play at school that day called netball. Honestly, to me it sounds like a mix between
basketball and quiddich. All I know is
that there are no nets involved. These
two girls crack me up though. They are
both so smart and they give these faces that look just like the faces their mom
makes. I’m sure they would hate to hear
that, but I think it’s wonderful. Poor
Janna has been so sick. She has had a
sore throat for days and ended up going to the clinic last night and staying
for hours. I guess they sent her home
with some antibiotics, but she is still having to take a lot of pain meds. We gave her our remaining Icicle today. It was her favorite flavor, and maybe it’ll
numb her throat up some!
This morning was a bit of a frenzy. I had my PowerPoint completed, but Lekei and
Ursula were still working on theirs. At
11:30 we met with Dr. Hansen to make sure we were all on the right track, and
then we had until 2 PM to get everything finished and be ready to leave. Poor Lekei was in our room until 1:30 trying
to finish her presentation up. She
alternated between typing furiously, mumbling to herself, and praying to God
that she would get everything finished on time. Thankfully for our
presentation, her prayers were answered.
Ursula also got her part done, and we made it out to the van almost on
time.
I thought there were going to be a lot of strangers at the
presentation, but it turned out to all be familiar faces! Lisa was there with all of her staff members:
Mary Anna and Melva from our time in Castries and Francillia and Nisa from our
time in Soufriére. A room full of
friendly faces lightened the pressure considerably. The presentation itself was over child
obesity prevalence and evidence based solutions. Lisa and her staff are working hard at
teaching children how to eat healthy and we wanted to give them even more tools
to add to their arsenal. I started the
presentation with a broad overview about childhood obesity in the
Caribbean. Ursula presented several successful
physical activity interventions from the US that could be altered to fit the
Saint Lucian culture. Finally, Lekei
presented one nutritional intervention from the US as well as some dietary guidelines
that could be put into school policy.
Lisa said that we had some good ideas and she is particularly excited
about some of the interventions that Lekei and Ursula presented. We left the PowerPoint with them so they can
use it as they see fit.
Then the goodbyes started.
It is too sad to think that I may never see these women again, so I
refuse to entertain the idea. I will
simply have to stay in touch and come back to Saint Lucia someday! I was especially sad to say goodbye to Mary
Anna. She is such a wonderful woman, and
I really think that Griffin and I bonded with her during our time
together. She gave me a big hug and her
email address. Hopefully, I will stay in
touch with her. After our goodbyes we
headed across the street to the market so Griffin and Dr. Hansen could do some
last minute shopping. Many of the shops
were already closed for the day, but we managed to find everything we needed.
After we had finished shopping Lucius picked us up and took
us to pick up some food at the Rodney Bay mall.
I got some Subway. It was tasty,
but fast food isn’t the same on island time.
Everything took so much longer than I’m used too! Eventually we all got our food and hopped
back on the van to go home where we said goodbye to Lucius. I fit in a quick skype date with mom and then
everyone gathered in our room to have a little going away party. You see, Lekei is staying in Castries until
she flies home on Monday and the rest of us are going to Vieux Fort in the
morning, so this was our last night all together. Ursula made us tomato rice, which is a
Nigerian dish, and we all pooled the remnants of our food together to make an eclectic
little spread. We also did our best to
finish the rum!
After dinner, Rianna and Kijahna came up to play cards with
us. Well, Ursula took a little nap on
the couch, but the rest of us played a few hands of cards. Rianna came up first, so I taught her how to
play War. When Kijahna joined us, Lekei
taught us all how to play Crazy 8’s. She
wiped the floor with us on the first round, so Kijahna and Rianna decided to
teach us how to play a game called Donkey.
It’s basically like spoons, but you try to match suits, not
numbers. The last person to lay their
hand on the table after the first person has matching suits gets a D. You continue on until someone has enough
letters to spell out donkey. Usually,
the loser has to give everyone who played a ride, but since Dr. Hansen lost, we
just let Rianna do the honors.
It was such a fun night.
I’m going to be so sad to say goodbye to the Leons, especially those two
girls. I really feel like I made some
friends during my time here. I’m going
to do my best to convince my family to come stay at the Summer’s Inn if we stay
in Castries for one night. Abi has to
get to know these girls. If I love them
so much she’s going to be head over heels.
Also, Sunday is Richardson’s birthday and Janna wants to go celebrate at
Coconut Bay! We are going to exchange emails so she can let me know if they are
coming. Hopefully they do, because I am
dreading saying goodbye in the morning. I love traveling and meeting new
people, but it just makes saying goodbye so hard. On the bright side, my family will soon be
here to cheer me up. I can’t wait!
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