Adventure to St. Kitts!

My dad came to visit me for my two week Easter vacation this year and boy did we have a nice time. We headed up North after Easter Sunday (had a mini program with my primary children at church – we shared the 12 symbols of Easter) to spend the night with my host mom. Early the next morning, we bravely hopped on a LIAT plane and flew to Antigua where we had an 8 hour layover. With plans of seeing the island of Antigua and going to swim with stingrays, we were denied by the immigration people to leave the airport. We went upstairs to the desk attendants who tried to help us get out but we soon realized that it was pretty hopeless. I guess we didn’t have the right connections since it was under the discretion of immigration whether or not we could leave for the day. So we enjoyed our layover spending the day at the airport which was pretty small and for one of us, very cold. They have great AC. Finally, it was time to arrive at our final destination and just a 20 minute flight later, we were in St Kitts! We spent 4 days at a lovely resort, too lovely because we struggled finding reasons to even leave. Lots of relaxing beach time under cabanas, delicious food, spa time and massages, hunting for diet coke, and socializing with the pride of cats that lived there. We tried to feed one the cats some of a pizza we were eating and it resulted in a vicious mauling from another cat. To this day, we do not know if that cat survived and our conscience got a little heavier each night when we did not see it. We did venture out into the “real world” one morning to take an island tour. It was great to see what another Caribbean island is like. We saw the Brimstone fortress which was impressive, some gardens and local artwork, a museum about the song Amazing Grace (don’t ask me what it has to do with St. Kitts, we didn’t see a connection worthy of a museum) some black volcanic rocks, lots of remnants of sugar cane plantations and MONKEYS! Although there were quite a few guys walking around with monkeys in diapers for the tourists, we were able to see monkeys in the bush. St Kitts, which is a nickname – original name is St Christopher, is more flat with a few mountains in the middle and is much smaller compared to St. Lucia. They also speak an English dialect and I failed at many attempts to try and pick some of it up. The time flew by and soon we were back to brave more LIAT flights (for those who are unfamiliar with THE Caribbean airline, its famous for being unreliable).

The rest of the time we had, we relaxed and enjoyed the sun at the beach. We did make a massive Mexican dinner for all 8 missionaries in the branch. We had everything (enchiladas, rice, beans, chips and homemade salsa) and for dessert I made tres leches cake. It was my bad to assume they had at least heard about this delicious milk-soaked cake…when I gave it to them, I got comments that it was interesting and different. My favourite was that it was the moistest cake they had ever had to which one elder shouted “It’s wet!” But they ate all so it must have been ok.

Overall, a restful and fun break from school. But Dad had to go and I had to get back to work. From the first day back at school, I have been busy working on the workshop and also subbing for my Grade Two class whose teacher had surgery and will most likely be out for the rest of the term. The money for the grant has arrived so we have finished ordering all the materials we needed online, all of which should arrive before May 18^th. We can only pray! I have started teaching Self-Reliance classes again through the church. This time my course is My Job Search which is learning skills to introducing yourself, networking, interviewing and resume writing. My class is small but they are hard-working which is more important. My piano student I am teaching after school is doing very well too. She is determined and I know she will be able to play on her own before I go.

My neighbour who lives at the back of the house recently got a kitten and a puppy. So I designated myself as the groomer/part-time caretaker since they are not getting “proper” attention. I was able to convince their owner to buy medicine for them, he didn’t seem to understand the need. They also get bread and rice to eat so I will keep trying to persuade him to throw in some protein some how. They came infested with bugs and malnourished but are now looking healthy and happy, for the most part. I also have my neighbour’s dog Monty on my route so it’s becoming an animal clinic around here. I could ignore it but I guess I can’t lucianize myself completely, even after all this time.