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"I am allowed to redefine what forward movement looks like for me" -Morgan Harper Nichols

 I am definitely in a period of redefining .  What does "success" look like here?  What are reasonable


expectations to have for myself and my service?  How do I best care for myself while serving my community?  

The past couple of weeks have been intense at school as we've been finishing up what's called the "school based assessment" portion of the standardized test that grade 2 completes this year.  It's a writing portfolio composed of a book report and a narrative writing piece.  It has also been one of those times where I am participating in something that goes against everything I know and believe about teaching and learning.  But my purpose is not to change or overhaul the school system here so I find myself trying to figure out ways to infuse a little learning and care into the situation.  Trying to do the best with what I have, where I am. 


One part that was enjoyable is that the students get to draw cover pages for their books.  I snapped these two pictures because the one on the left just makes me laugh (he wanted to draw a dog pooping, LOL) and the one on the right shows the artistic talents of one of my students.  Now that we are done with this task, I'm hoping to get back to working with my small groups in the near future.  Since we are still having an issue with the 2nd classroom that we use for grade 2, the 2nd class has been moved into the room that I use for my lessons.  So until we get back into that other space, I think my lessons continue to be on hold...

Even with all the madness at school, I got a couple opportunities to go out for some fun.  On the way out for chicken and fries (see note below) last Friday, my counterpart was like "I want to show you this pretty spot"--she then took us (me and Alexis) to the place you see on the lower right of the collage.  Pretty didn't even begin to describe it--I was just mesmerized.  Yesterday, the two grade 2 teachers, myself, and Alexis went over to the other side of the island for a lime.  We took a little passenger "ferry" (top picture of me) to where we got food.  The views were lovely (3rd picture down) and we all felt relaxed.  


A note about chicken and fries: while saltfish and green fig is the national dish of St. Lucia, I really think it should be chicken and fries.  Here most people do not like to cook on Friday evenings; a lot of folks will go out for chicken (or seafood, pork, ribs) and fries.  In some of the more urban places, there are shops or even food trucks that have the food.  But here where I live, its folks cooking the food literally in their back yard.  There is a place not far from where I live that makes the most incredible ribs and fries and their own homemade tartar sauce (with lots of garlic).  I had the wings for the first time last week (they didn't have ribs, lol) and they were also amazing.  Best part--you get a whole lotta food (enough for 2 meals) for 22ECD.  And in full disclosure, their Pitons are always ICE cold, LOL. 💓


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