Summer is finished. Time for school.

Time for SCHOOOOOL! Summer was nice here and I kept somewhat busy, but now it's time to get back to work! And I am actually excited about that. But first, a re-cap on my "vacation".

Week one: I developed and ran a summer music camp at St. John's Anglican School. I taught recorder to 13 students. The camp only ran for 5 days but man did they improve. Too bad they can't have 4 hours of recorder everyday. They would be little recorder masters in no time. But because there were 12 students and usually about 30 in the after school class, I am going to be teaching 2 classes this term. Beginning and advanced. I love music to death. I still want to get them marching though. How cool would that be!?!?!?
And I quick shout-out to Laura "Happy" McLaughlan, and everyone else who helped in donating 20 new recorders to the program. Now my students here can afford to buy their own instruments! (because they will be free)


Alright, so week 2: Summer Camp for the Father Mulligan's Boys Home. 7 other volunteers and I ran a week long summer camp for the boys at the home. It was so incredibly fun and exhausting! We did lots of typical camp things like games and team building and swimming galore. On the last 2 days we did a camp out with tents and all! In the morning of our camp out, I had told a camper that if he wakes up in time, to come wake me up and we will go crab hunting. BIG mistake. Who knew a little 10 year-old could wake up at 5:00 a.m. all on his own (no alarm). I thought I was safe in telling him I would go with. Whoops. So, at 5:00 a.m. we set out along the beach looking for crabs for like an hour and a half. We didn't catch any. Well, we caught one, but then they killed it. Hah! By the end of the week, we were ALL exhausted. But considering everything those guys have been through, they are some pretty awesome kidos! I can't wait to do it again next year.



Week 3: "The Hike". One of the volunteers from the 79 group had this totally awesome idea to do a perimiter island hike. Lets just say I'm glad it's done and I will NEVER do it again. It took us 4 days to walk/hike around the entire island. Day one we walked from St. Georges to Grenville, a 22 mile day. After day one I had the worst blisters I have ever had in my life, but we still had 3 days to go. Day 2 was Grenville to Sauteures, only an 11 mile day. Blisters started forming inside blisters at this point. (This was the most painful day by far) Day 3 was Sauteures to Gouyave, another 11 mile day. And day 4 was Gouyave back to St. Georges, a 12 mile day. I must say, day 4 was the hardest to get going on because I was home and I had to leave to go for another big walk just to get to town and take a bus home. Oh well, it's done and done! I motivated myself with a delicious smoothie the entire last day. "first walk 12 miles until feet are numb from pain, then mango passion-fruit smoothie" Day 5 was spent soaking my feet every 30 min. Day 6 was a beach party, not a good idea with open blisters. Oh well, live and learn!




Then came carnival! Who knew there was an entire country out there that likes to party as much as I do!? Carnival last for about 5 days starting off on Friday. Friday night we went to Soca Monarch, a music competition where soca artists performed their song and then were judged. In the end, the winner's song is played over and over and over and over throughout the rest of carnival. Saturday night I went to a pan (steel drum) competition. Another one of those live and learn experiences. It was neat to see but so extremely boring (compared to the night before). Sunday was rest day. And then chaos began! Monday morning we all met up in town to play J'ourvet in St. Georges. This is where you get together with a group of people and paint yourself all crazy. Our group played with Skittles, taste the rainbow, so we were all different colors. This event starts pretty early, 4:30 a.m. and drinking is involved. It was a blast! EVERYONE! was sooo happy! Everyone! That afternoon we watched the fancy mas parade and took it easy to rest of for Monday Night Mas. For this, we played with LIME (a cell phone company). In this event you parade down the street with your group (this time a LOT bigger group). Everyone who is playing bought a package that comes with fun little light up toys, a shirt, a whistle and a big ol' cup! We didn't get done with this until about 2:00 a.m. and someone had the great idea to take a bus to Grenville to do some more partying in the morning. After 2 hours of sleep, we headed back out to play some more J'ourvet in sauteures. We played with the pink band this time because they were the ones we passed first. Clearly we were picky. All in all, carnival was terrific. Exhausting, but once a year, totally fun!



That is my summer in short. But now I am back to work. I have soooo many ideas and new things to work for this term. I am very excited about all my work-sites at this point because each of them have so much potential. I hope I can organize my thoughts enough to keep it all straight. Right now I have lists of lists of lists. Gah!

On a similar note, anyone reading this who is a classroom teacher (preferably elementary level) interested in doing a pen-pal program? Through peace corps it is called World Wise Schools (correspondence match). In short, it's a two-year exchange of ideas, stories, pictures, and artifacts that helps U.S. students in the classroom learn about the people, geography, environment, and culture of the world from the direct experience of Volunteers living in other countries, and vice versa. Shoot me an email if you are interested. elkilgore@gmail.com or if you know of an AWESOME teacher that would be interested. (Too bad my EC friends are like all music teachers... not sure how that would work? But if you think it would I would love to hear from yoooou!)

I seriously miss marching, guess I am bigger nerd than I thought. When I get back, I am going to march my brains out, watch out!

Peace, love, and chicken grease!