Carnival!

My body hurts! Yesterday was jam packed with dancing and singing in celebration of St Lucia's carnival, and it also just happened to be my birthday. It's gonna be pretty hard to top this next year!

Covered in mud, and I don't care!

My day started at 2:30am when I woke up to attend J'Ouvert, which is basically an early morning kick off party for Carnival. I headed out with my friend, Grace, her host brother and some of his friends. We spent the first hour or so just observing and trying to figure out how people dance the way they do. You basically have to have full control of your butt so you can move it in every possible way without the rest of your body moving. Despite hours of practicing I'm still not able to wine. I'm pretty sure some people laughed when I tried. I don't blame them!

As the sun started to rise we made our way further into Castries, down to where the judging stage is for parade of the bands to dance and see the bands.The bands that were walking in the morning weren't the bands that were competing in the afternoon, but they were all about fun! One of the bands covered themselves and others in mud. We were the "others!" I was just standing innocently on the sidewalk and some chick just came up and smeared mud all over my chest. It only got worse- my arms, legs, face, hair, clothes, and inside my ears! That last one was only discovered several hours later.

We spent several hours listening to the same four songs- Kabawe (the rum shop song), Balanga, Whining in a Circle, and the song of this years carnival, Hurt It. Still don't know what it means but I found myself just randomly yelling "Hurt It" along with everyone else. The party finally ended a little after 7am and we all piled back into the car, trying our hardest to keep the mud on our bodies and not the seats. You can probably guess how well that worked!

After a power nap and a bucket bath, which for the record is pretty useless when you're caked in mud,  it was time for the REAL party! Three of us got a ride down from my mom just in time to see the first band come through. The whole parade lasted a few hours, and just when you thought you saw the craziest person another band came by in a skimpier bikini, men on horseback dressed as Trojans, and of course somebody dropping their head to the floor and shaking their butt in your face. Because obviously.

While walking around we found a discarded belt with fringes and neon gems. So naturally I told my friend to grab it and then I wore it the rest of the day. I've already decided I'm jumping next year just so I can be covered in glitter, gems, and feathers!

It was also really funny to think that many of the people jumping are total professionals outside of Carnival. In the US you'd probably be judged for wearing the types of outfits I saw in public, and depending on your job you may even lose respect. But here it was just part of the celebration, and in this situation anything goes! My kind of people!

 Throughout the rest of the afternoon my group of 3 continued to acquire friends as we walked further into Castries, until I ended up seeing most of my new PC friends, which was all I really wanted for my birthday! And in true St. Lucia style we packed 10 of us into my host mom's SUV, including one person standing through the sunroof. Quite possibly the most fun I've ever had on a car ride!

 I got really lucky with this nation-wide birthday party, and I want to send a big "thank you" to everyone who came out and made my day extra special. I LOVE PEACE CORPS!!!

Trying to have a costume with
these colors when I jump!!

So excited to dance!

Me and my cool belt that we found.

The Baby Incident

So much for updating once a week! I’ve been pretty busy with training, exploring St. Lucia, and just being a boss, so here’s one massive story/photo dump. I give you permission to skip to the end for the best part!

In the last few weeks I’ve been to the sulfur springs in Soufriere, which is basically a black, smelly hot tub that’s heated by a volcano, and to a few different beaches, including Pigeon Point, which is my new favorite. At Pigeon Point, some people from my group met this guy, Edward, who was octopus hunting and brought them along for the experience. They got octopus, cuttlefish, and a few types of unidentified fish. I’m definitely trying to find Edward once I get me snorkeling gear!

For the 4^th of July one host family decided to have a barbecue, which was probably the best idea anyone has ever had! We ate a lot, danced a bit, played some card games, and had an overall awesome time. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, our host decided to set some steel wool on fire and swing it around like some sort of sparkler on steroids. It was all very American.

Alright, so now that I’ve gotten that update out of the way I figure I should probably let you know about the work I’ve been doing so you don’t think I’m just bumming around 24/7. That’s just the weekends.

In training we’ve talked about a lot of different things- health and safety, cross cultural differences, education, etc- but in the last few weeks our main focus has been literacy training, which is what I’ll be doing for the next 2 years. This pretty much entails dumping a bunch of information on us as fast as humanly possible so that we have everything we need in order to do our jobs. For me, most of this is review because I studied elementary education as an undergrad and then speech pathology as a grad student. So I’ve got this whole education thing down.

Other people, not so much. There are quite a few of us who have never taught at all or taught much older students, and they’re getting several years worth of college in just a few weeks, so naturally they are feeling overwhelmed. I’d probably be crying in a corner eating ice cream if I were them. That being said, we are getting really great information and honestly I don’t see how else they could provide us with so much given the short amount of time the PC allots for training. I think in the long run it will be very helpful to have had so much info, but for now it’s feeling like a lot.

Because we’ve been so stressed my rooftop has become increasingly more popular. My host mom has an amazing view of the ocean and sunset, so anytime we have a bad day at training several of us just go and watch the sunset on my roof. So it’s pretty much on a daily basis. This week was especially stressful because we are planning for model school next week, so on Friday I had a pretty baller rooftop party. Well, pretty great until “The Baby Incident.”

M host mom’s best friend’s daughter, Tara, needed a place to crash with her 17month old for a few days until her new apartment was ready so she stayed in the spare bedroom at our house. On the night of the rooftop party my host mom and Tara left to go do something, and we continued living our lives.

After about an hour or so, one of my friends went downstairs and discovered that they had left the baby home, presumably thinking we’d be home and able to check up on her. Except nobody told us. Not only that, but the baby got sick and puked on the floor and all over my friend. So I’m having a grand ol’ time on my roof and then I just hear a very nervous “Christinaaaaa,” and I turn around to see my friend covered in puke, holding the baby over a bush so she can continue puking. So then I grabbed the baby, got puked on, and nearly slipped in vomit trying to get her to the bathroom. Thank god for my friends because they all helped to clean up the mess, and I don’t do well with other people’s vomit. We’re lucky it was just the baby’s puke that we were cleaning up. My host mom and Tara come home just as we’re finishing the clean up, of course, and laughed about it as I wiped carrot chunks off my dress. Maybe this is a difference in culture, and in retrospect it was kind of funny, but that night will forever be known as “The Baby Incident.”