BLESSINGS of Living In St. Lucia

We are blessed like CRAZY down here! Here are just a few of the blessings that we enjoy down here.

1.       Supportive school faculty- The principal and supervisors have demonstrated in just the past two weeks that they will do anything for us, whether it is to drive us to places we need to go, bring us fruits and vegetables from the market, and checking in on us to make sure we are alright. We are so well cared for here, which is huge when family and loved ones are so far away.

2.       Church- I love attending Trinity Lutheran Church. The two pastors and members of Trinity are extremely welcoming and make us feel right at home. People are constantly offering to give us rides and teach us how to cook Lucian food. I am excited to be a member of Trinity Lutheran Church for the next year!

3.       Roommates- I am blessed to have Tanya and Kirsten as roommates. Not only do they cook delicious food (huge bonus for me…) but they both put up with my weird quirks and odd humour.

4.       PANCAKES!- Even though we are living in a foreign country, we can still make pancakes, mac and cheese, popcorn, and tacos—my comfort foods here. As much as I love trying new foods, it feels good to be able to make food from home.

5.       Technology and WIFI- I am very lucky to have WIFI at both home and school, which makes communicating with my family, friends, and boyfriend much easier than having to rely on hand-written  letters  every few weeks. Technology is a blessing!

6.       17 students, assistant teacher, and co-teacher- I am blessed to have 17 grade one students this upcoming school year, as well as an experienced assistant teacher, Teacher Allison, and supportive co-teacher, Teacher Darnelle. I have a great feeling this will be a wonderful and enjoyable school year.

7.       Location- First of all, our home is gorgeous. Tanya, Kirsten, and I all have our own rooms and bathrooms. Plus, there is plenty of space for visitors (hint hint…) Second, our home is a minute walk from school, a seven minute walk to the grocery store, and a fifteen minute walk to banks, grocery stores, shops, and two malls. We live in a safe neighborhood and we can walk to pretty much wherever we need to go.

8.       Beach- They say here in St. Lucia that wherever you are, it’s only a ten minute walk to the beach. Tanya, Kirsten, and I were advised to be careful of some beaches which were not safe. We walk 30 minutes to “The Ramp”, which is a very populated (safe) beach. Jumping in the water feels AMAZING after the long walk. How many other people can say they go to the beach at least three times a week?

God is good. All the time. I look forward to seeing all the ways God blesses us this next year! 

Challenges of Living in a Foreign Country

It is AMAZING to live on a beautiful island like St. Lucia, but there are also several challenges I am facing living in a foreign country.

1. Communication- This is probably one of my biggest challenges right now. Even though people in St. Lucia speak English, the accent and pronunciation of certain words makes it difficult at times to understand. One example of this is that the word "ear" is pronounced like "air." (I am hoping and praying that I will pick up part of the accent during my time here, because it sounds awesome.) When we first arrived, I had to focus very hard on the speaker to understand what they were saying. Now, it is a little easier to understand, but I still find it challenging to follow conversations when nationals talk to other nationals, because they speak faster with each other than they would talking to Tanya, Kirsten, or myself.

2. Food- Food is ALWAYS on my mind. Food is my passion. We have access to lots of amazing food down here (sugar cane, coconuts, the most delicious bananas on EARTH, passion fruit...) but I miss a lot of food back home. I talk about this all the time, and I am probably driving my roommates crazy, but it is so hard to see people on pinterest and facebook posting delectable recipes and pictures of food back in the states. I have made a list of all the food I will eat during my three week vacation back home for Christmas, and it gets longer every day. I am pretty sure I will gain all of the weight I've been losing back in those three weeks.

3. Heat- At the end of each day, Tanya, Kirsten, and myself are WIPED OUT due to the heat. It's a real thing. Especially after walking 30 minutes to and from the beach, all we want to do is each something, rinse off, and go to bed. It's a hard life... ;)

4. Early Sunsets- The sunsets are beautiful here. (We have yet to watch a sunset from the beach though...) We are living in a safe neighborhood, but we have been advised not to walk outside at night. Right now, the sun goes down around 6:30 pm. In a few months, the sun will be setting around 4:30. Because it gets dark here so early, we are limited to staying at home when it gets dark. We do have access to public transport, which we have tried twice so far, so if we needed to go somewhere after dark, we have a way.

Despite these challenges, there are so many blessings here, which I will write about at a later time! It is comforting to know that God is with us throughout any challenge and that He is blessing our work.

The Market

This morning, the principal at our school and one of the teachers picked us up to go to the market in Castries, the capital of St. Lucia. Castries is about a 15-20 minute drive from where we live on the north side of the island.
The market is quite the hectic place. There are so many smells all at once, it becomes a little overwhelming. We started by the fish section in the outdoor market, which is definitely the smelliest part. When we stopped for fish, the three of us foreigners almost immediately became the attention of many men. A few called to us, and one even came up behind us and talked to us, but we just ignored him. First of all, we were wearing our sunglasses, which helps like CRAZY to ignore people. I know that sounds really weird, but it helps a ton! (I felt #fierce.) Second of all, I had a hard time trying to understand all that was being said by the men. It makes me feel almost dense to not be able to understand what people are saying to me. Many nationals talk too fast for me to understand, and the accent at times makes it difficult for me to understand the first time around. Communication is probably the biggest challenge for me right now, but hopefully with concentration and practice, improvement will come.
My roommates and I were able to purchase a variety of fruits and vegetables for very reasonable prices, compared to prices in the grocery store. The principal was so nice to buy us coconuts! The man selling the coconuts sliced into the coconut with a large knife. (If I would have tried, I would have definitely cut off my hand.) We first drank the water from a straw, and then the seller hacked the coconut in half, so we could scoop out and eat the coconut jelly that is inside. Until today, I really had no clue what was all up in the coconuts. Now I know! I have not yet tried the coconut jelly, but maybe soon. We bought sweet peppers, watermelon!!!!, pineapple, mangoes, cucumbers, and lemons at the market today. I am extremely excited to eat the watermelon tonight for supper! It's the small things that make it feel like home here.

What We've Learned so Far

I have been given the incredible opportunity to teach for one year in St. Lucia. I am living with a friend from my college, and another teacher from Canada who has taught in Vietnam. Today is our fourth day on the island and so far we have learned many things:

1. I stick out like a sore thumb. And I always will while I am here. I have white skin and blonde hair. When walking down the street, people will stare. Better just get used to being stared at when we are in public.

2. I do not understand electricity and voltage and wattage at all. So far we had burned out our coffee maker and Magic Bullet because the converters do not always work for every appliance. I can't really explain because I do not understand. Just hoping and praying my crock pot makes it out of St. Lucia unscathed.

3. Sometimes it is OK to greet people. Other times, you are better off being rude. For example, at the beach, random men will come up to you, either to sell you something or to just be creepy. My roommates and I are learning how to not be so nice (as Mid-westerners and Canadians usually are) and dismiss these people with a "No, thank you" or completely ignoring them.

4. Similar to #3, I learned that if you do not buy conch shells from the random man selling from his paddle board at the beach, he may attempt to run you over with his paddle board. I was firm with him that I did not want to buy one, he eventually floated away, and then a few minutes later was floating past, narrowly missing me. Granted, this may have been an accident. A "excuse me" or "watch out" would have been nice.

5. Grocery shopping is hard. Especially when paying in EC (Eastern Caribbean), the currency used down here. 1 US dollar is equivalent to 2.67 (or so) EC. For example, a can of soup was about 4.75 EC, which to me seems like a lot for a can of soup. But when you convert it to USD, it is only about $1.75. Our last grocery bill was a little over 100 EC, which seems like a lot of money, but it is only about $40 US. Being a frugal person is hard here, since most food is more expensive than in the States. A head of broccoli is roughly $24 EC, $9 US. No broccoli for me...

6. Grocery shopping is hard when you don't know how to cook local food. Or just food in general. PERSONAL GOAL: Learn how to cook.

In general, the teachers at our school are very welcoming and will do basically anything for us to make us happy. They drive us to stores and help us figure out service plans for our phones. Living in a different culture feels like being lost. I am very much enjoying the time I have spent here so far, and I am eager to learn more and begin teaching!