The 'Faces' of J'ourvet - Cond.

The 'Faces' of J'ourvet

J'ourvet!

What can I say besides it over! A picture says much more than words so I've posted a bunch to give you a overall view of what it was like in the way of the number of people. Nothing can describe the sound!

I was awakened at 5 a.m. as the the first double-decker flatbed, hauled by a tractor, rolled passed my apartment. Let's see if I can describe it. The top half holds the singers and extras. The bottom half is the band and enough sets of loud speakers to blow out Yankee stadium - and that's just one band! "Troupes" of Kittians are formed from area communities. They meet up starting about 1 a.m. at a predetermined location and the party starts. They get their troupe t-shirts and all the free booze they want. At about 4 a.m. they start 'dancin' their way into the 'Circus', Basseterre's city center. I lay in my bed and felt it actually rise off the floor with the bass reverberations. Even with my ear plugs firmly in place, it was if they were singing at the foot of the bed!

After a quick shower, I grabbed my camera and headed to the Circus to get a seat at Ballyhoo overlooking the festivities. The waitress couldn't begin to hear what you ordered for breakfast so you just point and gesture! By 6 a.m. troupes and flatbeds were coming about every 10-15 minutes, every band singing a different song, the troupes yelling, singing, dancing. It was amazing, overpowering and totally deafening! I stayed for about 2 hours and then just gave up - thinking I had completely lost my hearing, plus my camera batteries were running low. I came back home but with the circus only 3 blocks away and the flatbed bands doing a continuous circle of downtown, it was like I never left. Forget turning on the TV or radio or even an iPod. All you hear was the bands. My windows shook, my floors bounced and this continued until 5 p.m.

Need I say that the revilers got progressively more inebriated and joyful...and louder? The police were out in full force and at one point water hoses and billy clubs came out. But all in all, the entire day was a celebration of the Kittian people and I think every single one on the island participated! What does J'ourvet actually mean? What are they celebrating? I asked numerous locals and got numerous answers - all different. The start of Carnival seems to be the most common, along with the Caribbean celebration of Boxing Day. Whatever it is - it certainly was a PARTY!

I've uploaded a bunch of the 'faces of J'ourvet' to give you just a taste of what being here was like. Enjoy - I did.

ReAnn

Pictures:
1) If you look at the front of the flatbed you'll see the entire thing is speakers!
2) This picture was take from my balcony about 2 p.m. when a big troupe went by.
3) The flatbed band just outside my apartment
4) A troupe coming into the circus as the sun came up!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Two very different days and celebrations. Our youngest volunteer has the unfortunate birthdate of 12/24. My cousin Nancy has the same date of birth and I know how much she felt her birthday got sorta passed over during all the Christmas rush and good cheer. So for Lauren, I agreed to fix her favorite meal - lasagna! Ed and Georgia made homemade meatballs and sauce, George brought the fixings for a huge tossed salad (avacados are in season - yum) and Kelly & Mike brought 2 huge loaves of garlic bread. Jim brought 'holiday cheer' and my Kittian friend Grace baked her island-famous rum cake for desert - and we were all set, if not for your typical Christmas dinner, one that delighted everyone and was delicious. Love the picture of Lauren with one big fat candle stuck in the middle of the lasagna and as you see, the rest of the group was very merry indeed.

Christmas morning dawned a little cloudy and very windy. I had been invited to the ex-pat community Christmas Day Brunch on the Beach by Linda and Fred Nottingham, folks who live here full-time, but originally from Wisconsin. She brought her chedder-head hat and he his Packer beer coozie and many darts and arrows went back and forth about da Bears and the Pack! I met so many nice people, enjoyed the Bloody Mary taste-off, turkey with all the fixing, delicious salads, home-baked cakes and pies. The weather cooperated and though very different, thoroughly enjoyed sand in my toes instead of snow. We had the party at Shipwreck beach mid-way out Frigate Bay. The restaurant that is normally open was closed for the day so we got the benefit of their tables, beach chairs, and thatched potta-potties! From the pictures you'll see that there were several nice-sized yachts and one beautiful 3-masted schooner sharing the beach with us. Met people from France, St. Martins, Germany, the States, Barbados - a truly international Christmas.

So as Christmas ends and the New Year approaches, from a little island, with the waves of the Atlantic crashing on one side and the Caribbean jewel-tone waters lapping on the other, I send to you my warmest wishes for a very blessed, peaceful and joyous holiday season. No matter what our varied religious beliefs, for all of us it is a time of year for reflection; time to spend with those we love and hold dear; time to look up at a midnight sky and realize the same stars twinkle on all of us. It's the time of year to give thanks for what we have, and share with those than don't. It's the time of year to look forward to what could be, and plan for what will be. It's the time of year to hug those we know well, and hug those who really need one. It's the time of year to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to the wonders that surround us each and every day. It's the time of the year to embrace life, love, joy and happiness, and be grateful for the peace and blessings, no matter how big or small, that come our way.

Take care of each other....

ReAnn

How can it almost be Christmas?

Saturday morning and because of the holidays, no golf lessons this morning. The kids have been out of school for the past week and roaming the streets along with thousands of tourists off the cruise ships.

Last week we had 3 ships docked at one time - that's 9000 sunburned, bored, under-dressed tourists. Why do older men think they can wear 'mussel shirts' or no shirt at all, and roam around a capital city's main square? Or women parade around in bikini tops and really, really short shorts? First, big bellies without a proper covering is really ridiculous-looking. And would these vacationers dress like this on a summer day visiting NYC or Chicago or LA? No! Just because they are on vacation doesn't give them the right to not respect the capitol city of a Caribbean island or it's people, who really are quite conservative and cover themselves in long sleeves, suits and ties even during the hottest times of year. Sorry for the rant, but I am embarrassed for my fellow countrymen and women and try to stay far, far away from the 'Circus' when the ships come to town as I don't want be thought as a 'tourist.'

That said, HELLO. Last night was the official opening of Carnival. I'll say this only once - LOUD! A huge party for children was held just outside my door and about a 1/2 block down. About 300 kids and parents, music, screaming, laughter rolling through the air until midnight. Tonight is Calypso Night at Warner Park. George has invited me to attend a private 'rum punch' party at Ballyhoo and so I am getting the my chores done early today. I was invited to the luncheon hosted by the Deputy Prime Minister, Sam Condor, for the island's talented youth on the 28th and we'll be celebrating Lauren's 'unfortunate date of birth - Christmas Eve' with a lasagna and homemade spaghetti and meatballs dinner (her choice) here. Christmas Day nothing is planned, but the 26th is J'ouvet so I will most certainly have lots to tell and pictures to show next week.

Now I want to tell you about one of the really fun things I'm doing. Through the Peace Corps, we can sign-up to 'correspond' during our 2 years of service, with a classroom back in the States, sharing our adventures and answering their wonderful questions. I have been assigned Nancy Dowdy's English III (aka American lit) class in Barren County, KY. They are a small group of students - struggling readers – but great kids and the majority have never been outside of Kentucky. Barren County is in Glasgow, Kentucky (named the # 1 Rural County to live in America in 2007). Their questions are funny, insightful and it's so nice to be able to tell them about what life is like living on a tiny island in the middle of the Caribbean - which they had to look up on an Atlas - very hard for them to comprehend!

After being 'yelled at' for not including any pictures last week, I'm attaching one that George took from the street up to my balcony (Kelly, me & Lauren) and one a fellow diner took at a delicious, traditional English Roast Beef dinner we had at Ballyhoo a few weeks ago. (Lauren, Ed, Georgia, George and me). That's all for this week, but get prepared for the coming 'tales of Carnival.'

Let me take this opportunity to wish each and everyone who reads this blog a very blessed and Merry Christmas and a joyous and prosperous New Year! This will be my very first holiday season not spent in the company of at least one of my boys and my friends. It's going to be really hard but the phone will ring and we can share our joy and happiness and love with our voices.

Until next week - take care of each other!

ReAnn

The Holidays are coming...

Which means that everything on-island(s) just shut down! It's Carnival, J'ouvert, Christmas, New Years, Boxing Day - all rolled into one big Party Time! Mostof the locals take vacation time that lasts for 4 weeks, returning to work a couple of days after the last big parade on January 2nd. Did I mention that it's party time? That means the consumption of large amounts of alcoholic beverages, VERY loud music played off the back of flat-bed trucks from speakers that are taller than a very tall man and reverberate the windows in houses that they pass by. And every single parade route goes right beneath my balcony. It's been suggested that I pack-up and move out-of-town as sleep will not be an option as the music goes 24/7.

As to my health, which so many of you have been so kind to email me asking about, I've recovered from my bout of Dengue Fever. Still tried and take 'little naps' to get through the day, but feel fine and managed to lose another 8 pounds - down almost 25 since joining the PC. My landlord has installed a huge lock on my bedroom door that locks from the inside and everyone is making a huge effort to lock the downstairs entry when coming and going, so I feel much safer.

Today is my weekly lunch with Wingfield Estate owner, Maurice Widdowson, and afterwards he has agreed to take me out to Christmas shop at his Caribelle Batik store at Romney Manor. It won't replace my dreams of shopping for hours at TJ Maxx or a mall, but it will help!

That's it for this week. No pictures this week as I really haven't been out-and-about but will be sure to include lots the next couple of weeks as I chronicle the holiday season here on St. Kitts.

Take care of each other....

ReAnn

What Next?

After the break-in and then a great Thanksgiving, you would have thought my life would have been back to normal, right? Wrong! Sometime in the not-so-distant past it seems I was bitten by the nasty, white-footed mosquito that carries Dengue Fever. I'm the 5th Peace Corps volunteer to come down with this really nasty fever in the past month.

But before I got sick, I finally had a day at the beach! Can you believe last Sunday was the very first time I've spent the day in the water snorkeling and sunning on the sand and drinking a few Carib's under the palm trees? The pics are of Cockleshell beach which is the north end of St. Kitts. Very nice, great restaurant, good snorkeling. And I finally saw my first Green Velvet monkey that roam the islands here. Everyone talks about them, but I had never seen one until driving back from the beach one casually walked across the road. No picture opportunity - pooh!

So back to the dreaded Dengue. After a very busy day on Nevis on Monday and a beautiful sunset on the ferry ride back, I'm sitting working Tuesday afternoon with another PCV when my teeth start chattering. And things got worse from there. Headache so bad you want to just take it off! Your whole body aches - every bone and joint feels like it's broken. Fever runs about 102, your get an itchy rash, you don't even want to look at food and so tired all you want to do is sleep - but you can't - because it hurts to lay down. There is really no treatment except a strong dose of Tylenol, cold showers, lots of liquids and rest. It supposedly runs it course in about 2 weeks and I'm on day 4 1/2.

The PC nurse calls and stops by daily, runs me to the hospital for daily blood tests (if your white count starts to drop drastically, into the hospital you go.) George made me home-made soup and the younger crowd came over and did my dishes. So I'm being taken care of, but I HATE BEING SICK!

Haven't been able to do much work either, as just too tired. But the big project I'm working on on Nevis is progressing and the website I've helped design went live yesterday http://www.nevisfilmfestival.com. So life does keep on going. And I will get better - hopefully sooner rather than later!

Well, this is about all the energy I have to write this week. Until next time...

Take care of each other.

ReAnn

Pictures:
1. Sunset seen from ferry on the ride back from Nevis
2. The north end of St. Kitts, with great salt pond and Nevis in the back ground
3. Aaron, Chris & George enjoying a day at the beach
4. Cockelshell Beach