Marigot Bay and the Dennery Fish Fry

 We didn’t have anything to do Saturday during the day except for relaxation and homework.  I woke up at 7 AM so I could go on a run before it got too hot.  I made friends with a man collecting horses, which they leave anywhere they can find a patch of grass for them to graze on, for the stables nearby.  He very kindly offered to give me a ride home on one of the horses if I got tired and couldn’t make it.  I got back to the house and went around the back to see the garden, which I hadn’t explored yet.  As I went around I heard voices and I came across the Leons on their back porch.  When I said hello I think I scared Janna half to death.  It started to rain, so they invited me onto the porch and offered to share some grapefruit and a golden apple for breakfast.  The way they eat grape fruit is genius! They just peel the fruit and cut of big hunks.  When you get your hunk, you just peel the sections away and eat the fruit.  It’s so much easier than the way we do it at home.  So I enjoyed a friendly breakfast on the Leon’s back porch in the pouring rain looking out over Saint Lucia after a run.  There aren’t many better ways to start the day.

After breakfast I went upstairs and did some reading and some homework.  Mary called a group meeting in the early afternoon to finalize what each person was in charge of for our group presentation at the Health Ministry on Wednesday.  Emily, a medical student we met at St. Jude’s Hospital in Vieux Fort joined us midmorning so she could have some fun over her weekend.  She is volunteering there for a month before heading back home to Indiana.  Then the internet cooperated enough that I got to Skype with my parents and Aaron for about an hour, which completely made my day!  I can’t say that I’ve been very homesick, it’s almost too wonderful here to wish you were anywhere else, but I miss my family and friends.  I just wish that they could all be here with me instead!  I especially miss Aaron.  Saint Lucia is the honeymoon capital of the world for a reason.  There are so many couples and romantic spots.  The whole island is built for romance.  But talking to them helps and I get to see my family in a little less than a week!

At 4 o’clock Lucius arrived to drive to our destinations for the evening.  We were expecting to stop at a rum distillery on our way to the fish fry in Dennery, but Lucius had forgotten that the distillery closed early on Saturdays.  I guess it’s fairly common to take a half day on Saturdays here. We’re flexible though, and Lucius wanted to take us to his home village of Marigot Bay located between Castries and Anse la Raye.  I’m so happy we did!  On the way Lucius drove us through the St. Lucia Community College campus which is in old French and British barracks from  the 1800’s.  Then we headed toward the bay.  We stopped at lookout point overlooking the bay.  The sun was just beginning to set and it was gorgeous!  They also had coconut candy that they let us taste and $1 samples of local rum.  One of the many things my mother has taught me is that you don’t pass up cheap samples of rum, so of course I had to give at least one a try.  I asked the lady working there which one she recommended and she said the spiced rum.  Perfect!  She poured me a small shot out of a plastic bottle with a ton of spices inside and said that she had added sugar and honey to it.  It was amazing.  The rum was so flavorful and sweet and it made you feel warm all over!  Lovely.

Then we headed down toward the bay.  Lucius parked the car and led us along a bridge through a copse of mangroves. The grove was stunning to walk through during sunset and it was so cool to be able to see all the roots under the crystal clear water.  The bridge ended at a restaurant called JJ’s, which was right on the water and is run by Lucius’ brothers.  We caught a ferry from the restaurant’s dock and made our way to the other side of the bay.  Apparently, part of the original Doctor Dolittle, which I enjoyed many times as a child, was filmed at that spot!  They now have a hotel and restaurant called Dolittle’s there in reference to the movie.  The sunset was unbelievable; everything looked fake or like it belonged on a post card.  We met a few British boys who took our picture for us and checked out the restaurant.  Then we made our way back across the bay, through the mangroves, and to the van to get on our way, at last, to Dennery.

We reached Dennery about 45 minutes and one trip through a banana plantation later.  The fish fry was on the beach and it wasn’t very busy when we arrived at about 8 PM.  Lucius said we were early yet.  There were several large wood vendors set up with food and alcohol everywhere.  You could get tuna, mahi mahi, snapper, conch, lobster, and who knows what else. You could get your fish grilled, roasted, or steamed. I decided to get a small, grilled red snapper.  They gave me a plate with a whole fish!  Bones and all!  I also got some Chairman’s rum and coke and Griffin and I shared salad, rice, a piece of fried bread, and the local beer called Piton.  Everything was delicious, but I was having a hard time eating my fish with all the bones in it.  Finally, I asked Lucius if I was allowed to eat with my hands.  He assured me it was and after that I had no problem eating the entire fish! 

Well, everything but the head.  Lucius explained that getting to eat the head of the fish is an honor, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  THEN, he freaking stuck his fish head in his mouth, sucked all the meat off it, and spit the eye back out into his palm to show me. WHOA!  I asked him to do it again with my fish so I could film it or take a picture, but he wouldn’t.  Too bad.  After dinner we put our feet in the ocean and enjoyed some R&B and Reggae being played by a DJ.  Unfortunately, although there were more people, no one started dancing before we left.  On the way back to the van, an old homeless woman started harassing us.  We were obviously the likely targets as we were some of the only white people there, and they woman had some obvious mental disabilities.  At one point she even jumped forward and snapped her teeth at me! Thankfully, Lucius stepped in between us and got us all to the van unscathed. 

Then we drove all the way back to Rodney Bay.  Lucius drove so nicely that I didn’t feel nauseated the entire evening.  Thank goodness!  We stopped at the market to pick up supplies for our beach day the next day before finally making it back to the apartments at about 11 PM where we promptly paid Lucius well for his hard work and crawled into bed.  Despite the unsettling experience toward the end, it was a truly wonderful evening in Saint Lucia.

The Market in Castries and My First Taste of Indian Food!

We got to sleep in a little bit on Friday, which was a welcome relief.  Lucius picked us up at Summer’s Inn at 9:30 AM and we went into Castries to visit the market.  The market is right on the edge of the harbor and sells just about everything you can imagine.  Handmade and hand-painted crafts, spices, fruits, vegetables, fish, souvenirs, clothes…everything!  There are two main buildings, the Arcade nearest the water and the market across the street, as well as an outdoor space for produce and fish vendors to set up.  We started in the Arcade, which had more tourist-y stuff.  I got myself a new coin purse for work that says St. Lucia on it (I’m going to retire my owl), a scarf, and some gifts for people.  Then Griffin and I crossed the street to the market where I got myself a painting and more gifts!  One of my favorite things about the market is that when all the vendors talk to you they say “Of course, my darling” and “Yes, my dear.”  I know they’re only saying it to loosen my purse strings, but I love it anyway!

At noon we went to the Health Ministry where our driver from the day before was supposed to pick us up to take us to a local restaurant.  We were under the impression that we had nowhere to be until 1:30 PM, when we would meet Lisa to go see her give a presentation. However, Lisa met us downstairs and said that she had just learned that we had to be at the school by 1:30!  That’s when everything went to hell in a handbasket.  Our driver showed up late and only had a pick-up truck. The five of us (Lisa stayed behind) squeezed in, with me on Mary’s lap, and drove ten minutes to a restaurant.  We quickly realized that there was no food that would be easy to take on the road, and they couldn’t get it prepared for all six of us anyway.  Then we tried to go to Subway and Burger King to get a quick meal to go, but it was lunch time and the traffic was horrible.  I kept telling Mary that we should Call Lisa and tell her to leave without us so she wouldn’t be late, but the driver insisted we would make it on time.  We ended up getting back to the Health Ministry to meet Lisa at 1:10, ten minutes after we said we would.

The school was a little ways into the country, but luckily the driver got Lisa to the school right on time.  She set up her presentation in a music room at a primary school called Odsan Combined School.  It was a presentation for the teachers of the school on the importance of a well-rounded diet on the academic success and overall health of the children in their school.  After she finished we went back to the Health Ministry and Lucius met us to take us back to our apartments.  We rested for a while, then we met Lisa at an Indian restaurant called Spice of India in Rodney Bay, which is about 5 minutes away from where we are staying.  Richardson had to take our group in spurts, so Griffin and I got there early and enjoyed an adult beverage.  I tried a Saint Lucian rum called Chairman’s Spice with soda and lime juice.  It was delicious!

When everyone arrived, the real adventure began!  I have never had Indian food, but Lekei is married to an Indian man so she gave a lot of guidance while we were deciding what to eat.  The owner of the restaurant, who remembered Dr. Hansen from previous trips, took our orders and was also very helpful.  I had a lamb in a spinach paste with rice and naan on the side.  Mildly spiced, of course!  It was so good!  Ursula got a goat dish, which I tried.  It was surprisingly good, but I forgot that Ursula had ordered her meal hot, so that was a surprise.  Then I had a desert that was fried dough balls in a sweet syrup.  I’m sorry I can’t remember the names of the dishes I ordered.  Maybe I will ask Lekei if she remembers!  After dinner, Griffin and I were at home and asleep within an hour.

Map of Saint Lucia

Hey everyone.  Here's a map of Saint Lucia so you can see where I've been going on all my travels. Enjoy!

Experiencing Soufrière

On Thursday morning we woke up early again and met Lucius outside for our drive to the Health Ministry.  We grabbed a little more EC from the ATM and met Lisa outside to wait for our driver.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but the Health Ministry is right across the street from the harbor where the cruise ships dock.  Yesterday morning there were two big cruise ships in the harbor, a Carnival ship and a Royal Caribbean ship (The Adventure of the Seas to be specific.  I’m sure someone I know has been on that ship).  The drive from Castries to Soufrière takes about an hour and half and is very windy as you have to go through the mountains.  I’m usually pretty okay with car sickness, but I made the mistake of sitting in the back of the van and I quickly began to feel nauseated.  It didn’t help that our driver was in a hurry because we were running a bit late.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit that after about an hour, I had to ask the van to stop so I could get out.  Let’s just say I had to eat two breakfasts that morning. 

The rest of the drive went by without a hitch, though, and we went straight to the hospital in Soufrière.  The hospital is not very big and is really more of a clinic, but it used to be a great deal bigger before it was damaged by a hurricane.  It is a very nice building and is only a block away from the sea!  When we arrived we met two more of Lisa’s staff, Nisa and Francillia.  Then we started giving presentations to the people waiting to see the clinic’s doctors.  Nisa and Francillia both gave similar presentations to the one Mary Anna made to the preschoolers about the 6 food groups.  Each of the students also gave a short presentation about a topic we had prepared the night before.  My topic was dengue fever prevention, as it is in season in Saint Lucia right now.  Other talks included: flu prevention, diabetes prevention, water safety, and exercise. 

Once we were done at the hospital we walked around Soufrière a little so that Lisa could get some things done for work.  Then we got back in the van and went a short way up a mountain to reach a beautiful little restaurant called The Beacon.  It was  lovely, open air restaurant with a gorgeous view of the Pitons, the two largest and most iconic mountains on Saint Lucia, and Soufrière.  We had an amazing lunch of fried butterfish, potatoes, coleslaw, plantains, and green banana salad.  We also had some nice, fresh golden apple juice to drink.  The meal finished off with some really tasty cherry-topped cheesecake and vanilla ice cream.

After lunch the driver of the van took us around to the tourist sites around Soufrière.  We went to a small waterfall with a little botanical garden attached.  It was not the biggest waterfall in Soufrière, Diamond Falls, so it was less busy.  It was still very pretty.  A lot of people brought swimming suits so they could swim under the waterfall, but we had our nice clothes on and could only put our feet in the water.  Then we went to see the sulfur springs.  Again, we couldn’t go into the mineral pools, which all the Saint Lucians said were very good for your health.  Instead we went up to where the spring comes out of the volcano.  The smell was very strong and not pleasant, but it was really cool to see the steam coming off the spring and the desert like plants surrounding it.

Then it was time to head back to Castries.  I took some anti-nausea medication that Griffin brought so the drive back was much better.  It did make me very sleepy though.  We did have a little incident on the drive back, however.  The gutters along the roads in Saint Lucia aren't covered, so there are deep canals along the sides of the road.  Well our van tried to get by another vehicle on an especially narrow road and we got the front passenger (left side) wheel of the van stuck! Some neighborhood men and Lisa helped to push while the rest of us sat in the back right side of the van to weigh it down and give it traction. Voila! We were free! The hole thing only took 10 minutes!  What an adventure! We got back to the apartments at about 5 PM and rested for a while.  At 7:30 PM, Richardson drove Lekei, Griffin, and I to a local internet café so we could try to get more reliable internet.  However, the internet was moderately expensive and we couldn’t use our own computers, so I decided to take my chances at the apartments.  It worked well enough for me to get a little Skyping in and to do a bit of research.  Hopefully it will get better over the next few days so I can get research done for my presentation on Wednesday at the Health Ministry.

A note to my family: We have to go to Soufrière.  It’s right next to that beach mom loves so much between the Pitons and there’s so much to do.  Lisa’s staff gave me a lot of recommendations.  I got the number of The Beacon from Lisa so we can eat there.  You can’t beat the view.  She also said to go to Diamond Falls because they have a better botanical garden leading up to it.  Also, Nisa assured me that the drive north from Vieux Fort to Soufrière is much easier to handle than the one we took from Castries, so hopefully I won’t get sick haha!  Nisa also said her sister works in the spa at Coconut Bay.  She said she would friend me on Facebook so she could give me some suggestions of things to do.

Tour of Castries’ Pre-Schools

Wednesday we left for the Health Ministry at 7:15 AM.  We made a deal with the guy who drove us home Tuesday night, Lucius, that he would pick us up and drop us off every day for $50 EC (Eastern Caribbean, also known as XCD, and comes out to about $25 USD) per day.  The first thing we did when we got there was go over to the bank and pull out some EC from the ATM.  I don’t know what we did, but after the five of us left they put up a sign saying that the ATMs were out of service.  Oops!  Stupid, rich American tourists took all the cash from the ATM, right? Oh well.  Then we went up to Lisa’s office and waited for her staff members to arrive.  Lekei and Ursula were waiting to visit several primary schools and a clinic with Melva, while Dr. Hansen, Griffin, and I were waiting to visit some privately owned pre-schools in Castries with Mary Anna.  During our wait, we sorted gifts that Lekei and Ursula brought for the children.  They had rulers, watercolors, erasers, markers, and anything else a kid could want.  We also went through the interview questions Griffin needed to ask the preschool teachers to complete her capstone.

When Mary Anna arrived we left the Ministry on foot.  None of the pre-schools were very far away and it was interesting to experience the less tourist-y parts of Castries up close and personal.  The first pre-school we went to was called Serve’s Early Childhood  Education Centre and was one of the more up-scale pre-schools.  It was snack time when we arrived, so we went to the pre-school coordinator’s office to interview her about the health, nutrition, and physical activity levels of the preschoolers. She was very passionate and informative.  Then we got to watch Mary Anna give at least 40 kids under five a presentation about the six food groups in Saint Lucia: staples/ground provisions, fruit, vegetables, animal products, peas and beans, and fats and oils.  Once that was finished, the kids sang us a song.  It was so cute! If you know me, which if you probably do, you know how big of a deal it is for me to gush over kids, but these kids were so adorable.

We visited three more private preschools in Castries that afternoon.  The format was fairly similar, except I helped Griffin with her interviews while Mary Anna gave her presentation to the children in another room.  Finally, after about 4 hours of standing and walking (thankfully I wore flipflops and not my flats that gave me the blisters), it was time for lunch.  Mary Anna was so kind to us and woke up early in order to prepare a lunch for us to share in her office that afternoon.  We had seasoned chicken, lentils, Chinese cabbage with ochre and pumpkin, and freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.  Then, Mary Anna treated us to a taste of her homemade wines!  She makes a red wine out of a grape called a Jahmon that only grows in Saint Lucia and only for a small amount of time every year.  The taste was completely unique.  She also makes a dessert wine that is a combination of guava, cherries, and golden apples.  It was very sweet, but not in a sickly sweet.  After lunch we walked back to the ministry, grabbed some fresh fruit from the market, stopped at the super market to pick up supplies for the rest of the trip, and made our way home.

Once we got back to the apartments something wonderful happened: There was hot water for our showers!  YAY! It was very exciting!  Then, in the early evening, Janna told us that Richardson was preparing coconuts for us if we wanted to try some.  Of course I said yes immediately.  Coconuts are not my favorite, but I am always open to new experiences, and, at my insistence, Griffin joined me downstairs.  He cut one of the coconuts so that we could drink the coconut water out of the coconut itself!  I got it all over the front of my shirt the first time I tried.  Then he cut it open and showed me how a coconut that is not ripe yet has a layer of jelly on the inside. I tried it and thought it was gross.  So slimy! But Rianna, Janna and Richardson’s seven year old little girl, got a spoon and scooped all of it out like it was the tastiest thing on earth.  Finally, Richardson cut open a dried coconut and got some of the sweet coconut meat out for us to eat.  This is the fresh version of the coconut we use for baking in the United States.

After our adventure with the coconuts our night took a bad turn.  We had no internet access last night and I was unable to work on my homework for this course, for other courses (which was due that night), or skype with Aaron or my family.  The wireless at the hotel connects to the computers, I have great reception, but there seems to be no network connection.  Richardson has been calling the company on our behalf to try to get it working again.  I got as much homework done as I could and  then decided to cut my loses and get some sleep becaue we had a long drive ahead of us from Catries to Soufriere the next day.   I’m sorry I haven’t been able to do a blog every day that I’ve been here, but I’m keeping up as much as I can.  My blog about today will be up tonight or tomorrow sometime.  I hope you’re enjoying!

Schedule

Hey everyone,

Here's a quick post with my schedule for the next week or so for you guys to see.

Wednesday, December 4^th:

            - Go to preschools with Mary Anne, Griffin, and Dr. Hansen

            - Go to the grocery store and the bank

Thursday, December 5^th:

            - Laundry day!

            - Go to hospital in Soufriere with Lisa

Friday, December 6^th:

            - Go to the market in Castries

            - Attend Lisa’s training seminar for teachers

            - Go to a fish fry

Saturday, December 7^th:

            - Free day; homework and sight seeing

Sunday, December 8^th:

            - Go to the Beach with Janna and Richardson and their daughters

            - Have dinner in Janna and Richardson’s apartment

Monday, December 9^th:

            - Tour schools or clinics with Melva or Mary Anne

Tuesday, December 10^th:

            - Attend Lisa’s nursing workshop

            - Work on presentations

Wednesday, December 11^th:

            - Presentation at the Health Ministry

Thursday, December 12^th:

            - Cuthy picks us up from Summer’s Inn at 9 AM and takes us to Vieux Fort

            - Go to the beach and have lunch at The Reef

            - Presentation at St. Jude’s Hospital

            - Dinner at the Sugar Plantation

Friday, Decemeber 13^th:

            - Free day

Saturday, December 14^th:

            - Family arrives! First day at Coconut Bay 

St. Jude’s Hospital, Traveling to Castries, and The Health Ministry

Yesterday morning we woke up early and got ready to tour St. Jude’s hospital in Vieux Fort with George Lee, the hospital’s volunteer coordinator.  He picked us up at 8:15 at the guest house and we drove about five minutes to the hospital.  The actual hospital burned down in 2009 due to faulty wiring, so for the past four years, the Saint Lucians have been running the hospital from an unused track stadium.  The hospital is located in the hallway running underneath the bleachers and has two wings, one on each side of the track.  The setup is actually quite impressive, given the circumstances.  They have a triage center, a couple emergency rooms, several operating rooms, and an entire half of one wing dedicated to specialty areas such as gynecology, acupuncture, optometry, dentistry, etc.  Although many walls are made of plywood partitions, it is obvious that the hospital staff has made the most out of a bad situation.  In fact, just this year they were rated the best hospital in Saint Lucia, despite the fact that there is a large, fully functioning hospital in Castries!

We spent the morning touring the hospital and speaking to several employees.  We got to know the head of nursing, Nurse Charles, who was in her fifties and didn’t look a day over 35.  That seems to be a trend here: the people are gorgeous and healthy, and they age so beautifully! It  must be something in the water.  They also dress very nicely and don’t seem to be bothered one bit by the heat, while I wilt after five minutes outside.  I’m jealous! Anyway, we also spoke to Cherianna Philip, the Assistant Nursing Director about the challenges facing the hospital and the progress on construction of the new St. Jude’s hospital.  We are going to tour the construction site with her next Thursday! Finally, we spoke to a Renee Thompson, who is a Jamaican finishing her thesis on nutrition at St. Jude’s about how we can help her create materials for the hospital.

Following our tour of the hospital, George Lee took us to a small hotel with a restaurant named Kimatrai.  We at on a large veranda overlooking the bay and the fish market and had the most wonderful food.  I have been trying to eat local dishes, so for lunch I had the Mahi-mahi special and some amazing grapefruit juice.  We lingered over dinner, and realized the time too late.  We still had to go to the store to put minutes on our cell phones before meeting Cuthy at the guest house to go to Castries!  We ended up being over half an hour late to meet Cuthy, but the wonderful man was so patient with us.  We loaded up all our belongings in his tiny van and squeezed in for the one and a half hour drive to Castries.

On the way to Castries we stopped at a look out called Mandele Lookout Point to take pictures.  It was gorgeous! It over looked the town of Dennery and the Frigate Island Nature Reserve.  There was also a charming little building for tourists.  At least at first glance it seemed charming, then you realized they charged people $1 to go to the bathroom!  Good thing I didn’t need to go.  We finished the drive, and after getting stuck in some traffic and getting a bit lost, we finally found where we are staying.  The Summer’s Inn is GORGEOUS beyond all expectations and the owners, Janna and Richardson Leon and their two daughters, Kijahna and Rianna are so accommodating and friendly.  It is located about 20 minutes away from Castries in Beausejour, Gros Islet.  Griffin and I are sharing a room again.  We have two full sized beds, a couch, a dresser, a TV, a kitchenette, a dining table, a full shower, and our own personal veranda! There is also a lovely veranda at the front of the house with a beautiful view.  We went to the super market last night and got a few provisions and snacks and then we rested.  Unfortunately, I had to stay up late finishing homework for my other classes.

Today was another productive day.  I woke up at 7 AM and went out to have a fresh grapefruit and some guava mango juice out on the front veranda.  It was such a lovely way to start my day.  We had to be at the Health Ministry at 9 AM, so Richardson drove us and Janna to the bus stop so she could teach us how to ride the bus into Castries.  Using the bus isn’t too confusing, but remembering where the stops are and how to get to the Ministry once you’re off the bus is difficult.  Also there is a good amount of walking to the bus stops both ways.  Unfortunately, I wore my black flats today and they gave me terrible blisters on my Achilles tendon in the first few blocks.  Ouch!  I guess they weren’t broken in enough.  I had bandaids but they wouldn’t stay put.  I plan on wearing flip flops and changing into nicer shoes for the rest of the trip.

Once we reached the Health Ministry we spent the morning talking to our liaison Lisa Hunte Michelle, who is the nutritionist there.  Just like everyone else we’ve worked with on the island, Lisa is so friendly and accommodating.  They are all so grateful to have any help we can provide for them. It really makes me feel like we’re doing good work, which makes the work more enjoyable.  We also spoke to Sharon, the Chief Medical Officer, and Natasha Felix, the Head of the Education Ministry about what we could do to help them.  They had a lot of great ideas and were very passionate about their work.  We are going to do research and present evidence-based procedures for physical exercise and healthy diet to be implemented in the preschools in Saint Lucia.  They will use our findings to conduct workshops for the preschool teachers in order to include regimented physical activity and a healthier diet into the preschools here.  Finally, we met with Mary Anne and Melva, two of Lisa’s staff who travel to clinics and schools to talk about nutrition.  We will be touring schools with them several times in the coming days in order to get an idea of what they do and what they school and health systems are like.  We will also be getting information to include in our presentations. 

After that, we went to lunch with Lisa at a place called Auberge Seraphine.  I had another tasty local meal, this time with chicken, white sweet potatoes, and juice with passion fruit, grapefruit, orange, and lime (YUM! The juice here rocks, guys).  After lunch we decided that we weren’t brave enough to travel on the bus by ourselves, so we took a cab back to the apartments and had some free time.  I took a nap and did homework.  Then Griffin and I had dinner before everyone gathered in our room to work on figuring out our schedule for the week and outlining our presentation.  The good news of the day: There will be a maid coming in Thursday who has offered to do some laundry for us for $10! Sold!  I have to get some more homework done now, but I’ll write again soon. Miss you all!