We are excited to share with you we are faithfully trusting in God and moving to St. Vincent, in the Caribbean August 13 2012. Here we will be developing leaders in the church and teaching the Gospel to students at Windward Island School of Evangelism (WISE)! We know God has been preparing us for this opportunity and we desire to faithfully follow His calling.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We hope you all have a great
Thanksgiving with your family and friends. We were able to spend the afternoon
with the Wurdeman family and a visiting adjunct teacher. We had all the fixin’s
including: turkey, potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin pie!It was different having our first
Thanksgiving ever away from family, but we couldn’t have asked for better
people to spend it with!
We have so much to be thankful for here are some in no
particular order:
The health of all of our family
All of our supporters
A blessed marriage
The opportunity to serve in the Caribbean
All of the WISE students and faculty
Skype (to communicate with family and friends)
Coke and Snickers (Maddie), Cherry Sours (EK) It’s nice to
have those familiar tasty treats around
Access to a beach (Much different from our lives in
Missouri)
Well EK and I had a first this week: we cooked and ate iguana! In St. Vincent iguana season is from October to January. People hunt iguana by catching them with their hands or using a small spear like weapon. Since the season has opened we often see local hunters standing on main intersections displaying their catch of the day, trying to sell the iguana to the people passing by; most of the time the iguanas are still alive!
I mentioned to our preschool assistant, Mrs. Marshall, that I had never had iguana. Mrs. Marshall likes to spoil me a lot to make sure I have the full St. Vincent experience, so the following week she came with iguana meat for me. Lets say it was one of the most intimidating cooking experience I have ever had, but it was worth it to say we have tried iguana.
Iguana Arm
before cooking
frying up the iguana
To prepare the iguana I placed it in hot water then removed the skin (it just peeled off). Then I added it to the pan with oil, garlic, leeks, salt and pepper. Then I squeezed 2 sour oranges over the top. The flavor was really good, the tail was the best part kind of tasted more like fish. The rest of it tasted a lot like chicken.
Tether ball
Our last adjunct teacher, Micheal Brown, brought in a tether ball and the students worked together to dig the hole and pour concrete and poof we have a tether ball. None of the students have ever played before so we all had fun testing it out!
The student council lead our fellowship time this weekend which was a lot of fun. We played blanket volleyball!
Today was a good day at WISE Preschool. We drove to a local bakery so all of the kids could see how bread was made. They all had a really good time looking at all of the equipment and smelling all of the fresh bread. Last week we learned about our 5 senses so it was a good time to practice our sense of smell, sight, and taste...they were kind and gave us lots of yummy treats to try! We tried to not use our sense of touch, some succeeded at this better than others :).
all the kids looking at the workers mixing dough!
Eying all the bread!
MMMM! They said their bakery makes about 80 to 90 lbs or white bread a day!
Remember when you were in elementary school and your
teachers would ask you to make to compare and contrast by making a list? Well I
thought I would retreat back to my younger years and do the same with SVG and
the USA!
Many people ask us how St. Vincent is different from the
United States.Here is a short list…along
with some similarities!
United States
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Drive on the right side of the road
Drive on the left side of the road (or in the middle because many of
the roads are very narrow and curvy)
Missouri-lots of flat areas to ride bike or go on long walks
Lots of places to walk but almost all are HILLY!
Electricity is reasonably priced-we run AC all day long, have
dishwashers, dryers etc.
Electricity of very expensive here, therefore there is no central AC,
but only units, we have a switch that turns on our hot water heater so we
only have hot water if we turn on the switch, and no dyers-we hang all our
cloths out to dry.
110 watt outlets
220 watt outlets
In Missouri we were days away from a beach
In SVG we can see the beach from our house and its about a 20 min
walk/5 min drive!
Wal-Mart, Starbucks, McDonalds on every corner
3 KFCs on the island, 1 Subway, and 1 Pizza Hut, oh and 2 Ace
Hardware stores. There are lots of local stores that sell various items, but
no one stop shops.
Cable TV
Cable TV-we thought we were going to miss all of the presidential
election adds, we were wrong, they show them here too!
US Dollar
Eastern Caribbean ($EC) for every $1 US there is $2.65 EC
Hunt deer and turkey
Hunt Iguanas (season is October 1 through January) and lots of
fishing!
Drove everywhere in our own cars
We walk a lot to the grocery stores and also take public
transportation. We use the school van sometimes as well.There are vans everywhere for public transportation
and it costs between $1 EC and $1.50 EC (so about 30₵ to 50₵)
May see some loose dogs or cats from time to time outside
Goats are everywhere! Along with dogs and a few cows here and there.
Squirrels everywhere
No squirrels
Primary language is English
Primary language is English!
Four season (cold and warm)
2 seasons (rainy and dry) but always warm, since we have been her it
usually always gets to around 85 or 90 degrees.
Few fruit trees
Almost every tree is a fruit tree: avocado, golden apple, sugar
apple, breadfruit, mango, papaya, banana, and lots more.
This week we had a fun filled weekend all around here at
WISE! On Saturday, October 27, St. Vincent celebrated its Independence
Day.For those of you asking who are
they independent from? They gained their independence for Great Britain 33 years
ago; however GB still produces all of SVG’s money so you still see the Queen
every day when you pull out your coins or dollar bills!
On Thursday we celebrated the holiday with the preschoolers
since school was closed on Friday for the holiday. The kids enjoyed eating
cupcakes and making decorations like flags and hats. We even did a little
parade around the preschool.
How most of the kids ate their cupcakes
marching in the parade with their flags
sporting their blue, yellow, and green hats
Since we had Friday off EK and I enjoyed a 3 day weekend
which was nice, we were able to go to the beach for a couple hours on Friday afternoon
and we had beautiful weather.
Saturday we got up bright and early and headed downtown with
the Wurdeman family and the visiting adjunct teacher to check out the
Independence Day Military Parade. It was a different parade then we were used
to. It was in a large outdoor stadium, and the military stood out on the field
and marched around, along with a marching band. So there was no parade in the
streets.There were lots of snow cone
stands, popcorn stands and even cotton candy! We decided not to get anything
since it was 8 am but we enjoyed watching all of the kids get their goodies.
Later that day Amanda Wurdeman and I planned a Harvest
Festival for the students.Because there
is no fall season here there is no tradition like this so we thought the
students would enjoy it and we were right! They went bobbing for apples…which
by the way was the best entertainment of the night…had a 3 legged race, played
limbo, and pinned the nose on the pumpkin.We made some rice crispy treats for snacks.I figured everyone has had at least 1 (or 100
like myself) rice crispy treat in their lifetime but many of the students had
never had one before—they ate them all up!
Below are some pictures of these fun events!
The military at the parade
Someone selling flags, USA and SVG together!
The kids lining up for snow cones, oh and it wasn't raining, people are using umbrellas to stay out of the sun
Bobbing for apples
EK getting ready for the 3 legged race...he lost
Limbo time
Limbo winner celebrating his victory, all the students were really happy for him :)
First I have to apologize it has been so long since my last post. We have
officially entered the rainy season here in St. Vincent and I think due to that
our Internet has worked off and on for the past two weeks and it conveniently
would not work every time I sat down to write on the blog.
Today, however, is a bright sunny day with clear blue skies! When it rains
here it usually doesn't rain all day long but it does rain hard. Our apartment
has a tin roof; EK and I laugh whenever it starts to rain because we know that means we have to
yell if we want to speak to each other and if we are watching a movie we know
it's no use because the rain is so loud we can't hear it.
In St. Vincent many people walk everywhere or use public
transportation...and people do not like walking in the rain. Just like in the
U.S. if it’s cold, people here say you will get sick if you go out in the rain,
even if it’s 80 degrees outside. Whenever it starts to rain you
see people quickly retreating under store fronts or seeking refuge under
neighboring houses. I teach dance every Thursday to girls in the community and
this Thursday was another rainy day. I assumed no girls would show up for dance
because of the rain but when I arrived there were about 10 girls waiting under
the carport...I guess that means they are enjoying dance class :).
We like to go on walks a lot and on Friday I had some girl time with the
other missionary, Amanda Wurdeman, we went for a walk around the
area we live. We got some funny looks because it had been raining off and on
that day...like I said people here don't go for walks in the rain, even if you
have umbrellas.
One good thing about the rainy days is the "cooler"
temperatures...I think it is the closest we will ever get to fall! This is our
first time not experiencing a change in seasons, we have to remind ourselves it
is almost November and not still June.
We are so thankful to be here and serving in SVG
and continue to feel the love and support from all of our supporters! Hope
everyone back at home enjoys the cool fall days and colorful leaves while we
enjoy the cool rain and luscious green surroundings!
A Closing Fun Fact: EK and I usually eat lunch everyday
with the students which is a great time for us to fellowship with them. They
have shown us new ways to eat things, specifically spaghetti. The students LOVE
to put ketchup and mayonnaise....yes I said mayonnaise, on their spaghetti. I
have tired one small bite, it wasn't too bad but I will stick to the
"traditional" spaghetti. EK has not been brave enough to try it
yet...
I wanted to introduce you to the WISE preparatory students today! If anyone did not know I not only teach the college students at WISE, but I also teach Monday through Friday to three and four-year-olds. This preschool was started by WISE to serve the children and families in the community; and most of all to share Jesus to the little children. It is a half-day preschool from 8:30 to 11:30. Amanda Wurdeman is a head teacher along with myself and we have an assistant, Mrs. Marshall, who is from St. Vincent.
While God teaches us patience everyday with the kids, particularly those who like to climb and crawl on the tables...we are also filled with joy being able to watch them learn. They love to sing and Amanda has taught them songs like "Jesus Loves Me" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." It's a blessing to hear them sing these songs throughout the day to themselves. We say a prayer before snack time everyday and their favorite part is to shout "AMEN!"
We are working on teaching them letters (ABCs), numbers, colors, shapes and more. Some of their favorite things are playing with play dough, stacking/sorting blocks, playing with toy trucks, and playing outside. As of now we have 7 boys and 3 girls.
We ask that you will be praying for the preschool, for the children and their families. In St. Vincent preschools have to be certified by the Ministry of Education. One of my earlier posts discussed our first meeting with the Ministry. At that time she did not certify us and gave us some suggestions on things to change in our preschool. However, she said we could still open but we would need to contact her later for her to come by and finish the certification process. Last week we contacted the Ministry of Education to set up another appointment. They explained they will perform a "surprise" visit. Therefore we do not know when the investigator will come. We are ready to complete the certification process so we do not have to worry about it any longer. We ask that you pray the investigator will treat us fairly even though we are an "American run" preschool. That she will see we are teaching the children daily and providing them with appropriate learning and play materials.
Here are some pics of out little ones!
Having fun during craft time!
Here is a video of some of the students at snack time.
We charge a minimal fee for the preschool (approximately $11/month) because many of their families do not have a lot of money and are living in homes without electricity or indoor plumbing. If you would like to help sponsor one of our preschoolers please contact me at ekandmaddie@yahoo.com and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have! Your sponsorship would help go towards the daily cost of the preschool, children's uniforms, snacks, school supplies, etc.
