“Look One There!”

It is the second to last week of school! I am so excited for summer holidays. We are finally finished with testing this week and students get to relax and hang out while teachers correct. Next Wednesday is the big graduation ceremony for the Grade 6 students who are moving on to Secondary school. I have been asked several times what I am wearing. It must be a very formal event. Now is also the time teachers take their students on tours. I went with Grade K and Grade 1 to the police station, health centre and the fire station. While the presenters didn’t try to use child friendly vocabulary, the students were excited to see the fire trucks, sit in the ambulance, and even go to the holding cell to see people who were arrested recently. They had another tour the next week to a rainforest. I loved it! I haven’t really had a chance to do a rainforest tour and it was amazing. The trail was slippery due to the moisture and moss but we all survived, no falls or snakebites. We did get to see some parrots, the Amazona Versicolor, the national bird of St Lucia. They are difficult to see so we were very lucky. We may have seen more flying through the canopy but the students and teachers were so excited, they were screaming and shouting “Look one there!” I may have to go back for a more tranquil and quiet experience.  🙂

I also got to make another cake, this time for a preschool birthday party. They love Dora here. Also, since I have made it a full year in St Lucia now, all the fruits I remember trying when I arrived are now in season again. Since I don’t have the seasons to mark the time passing, the fruit seasons are the next best thing. Right now there are lots of wax apples, star fruit, akee, mangoes, pineapple and passion fruit. (wax apples look more like pears, very juicy and waxy…akee are strange – little green fruits with a removable shell and orange flesh that you chew off of a giant seed, very very sweet)

This summer, I am planning on having our school library open every Wednesday. The students are excited and all vow they will come every week. I do not know if they will come. They have never had any summer programmes or activities before. I do hope they come.