To See What God Sees

Sunday evening EK and I were enjoying a run to and from the beach, well EK was enjoying it I was trying to survive the hills, and something caught my attention. There was a group of people across the street from us waiting at a bus stop. There was a middle age man who appeared agitated and was yelling at the woman sitting next to him. Then I saw him rise up his hand and started hitting her. She was holding a little girl, both the woman and the child started screaming and crying. I said to EK "I think that man just hit that woman." We stopped. The angered man repeated his action. There were three other men at the bus stop and a man who was pulled over in a van, all were silent and took no steps to intervene. EK quickly crossed the street to attempt to calm the man down. The man continued to try and harm the woman. I accompanied the scared, crying woman up the street to try and get her away from the situation. EK was eventually able to talk the man into getting into his friend's van and leaving.

The woman and her 4-year-old child, who was tightly held in her arms, were very shaken up. We accompanied them back to the bus stopped. We were able to pray for the woman and her family. We waited with them until a bus picked them up to take them home.

Please know that this is the first time we have ever seen anything like this since our time in SVG. The purpose of sharing this story is not to paint a bad picture in anyone's mind about this country. However, I know there are families ALL around the world that experience this, and there is no one around them who is willing or able to provide support. Please lift this family and other families who are in abusive situation up in prayer and that God would provide safety and hope.

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

Thanksgiving filled with Blessings!

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)

Our education

Air conditioning

God’s grace

Electricity

Hot water

God’s provision

Roti and Roasted Breadfruit (local dishes in SVG)

And many many more!

 

Iguana and Games

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!

 





Field Trip Day!

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!

Compare and Contrast

Then vs. Now

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.

 

Weekend Events-Independence Day!

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 :)

Here Comes the Rain!

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...

A picture for proof!