T-Day....so full...so good.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
So what are you thankful for? Do you know? Do you need to think about it for a moment?

Today was a good and very filling day. But let me backtrack to last night.

Brandon and I made the trek from north leeward to the Mespo on the Windward side to go see our pal Shelby--the secret keeper of apple pie making. We had ourselves a blast making apple pies entirely from scratch....lots of dough, green apples, and plenty cinnamon & sugar later we were doing awesome We made 5 pies, but only 4 made it to the feast. Of course, we had to taste test the pies for scrumdidiliumptiousness and it most certainly was. We even had apples filling mix leftover and we super snacked on it....I think we need a dentist stat. I haven't had that much sugar in a long time and we got mega-giddy. ^_^ Shelby fed us an awesome chili she made the night before and fried up some breadfruit chips to go with the guacamole we we also made. It was a blissful food night. In the morning, I climbed an orange tree and helped pick some lemons in her backyard to make for a super breakfast, but it couldn't compare to the yummy times awaiting us. (pics below)

The Taiwanese (Republic of China) Embassy had approached Mr Cool, our boss, about opportunities to become more involved with the Peace Corps. It wasn't long until the Ambassador offered to host our Thanksgiving Day event and join their volunteers with ours. The Taiwanese have 4 volunteers on St Vincent, each working in a very specific area for 2 years. The Ambassador is currently working with the Vincentian government (and after his gov't) to begin crafting their volunteer program to be more similar to the Peace Corps model of local community residence and activity. How cool is that? We were informed that the Taiwanese have a strong civil society and take great pride in their international outreach. They are certainly quite active here, much to the benefit of the Vincy people.

All of the traditional American dishes were prepared by volunteers (except for a pie and cheesecake) and the Taiwanese contributed their own native dishes. It truly was a feast to behold and no offense to my fellow volunteers to worked hard on their dishes--but I totally pigged out on the Taiwanese food! There were many vegetarian options from both groups. The atmosphere was very pleasant and the climate was great for the day. There was so much food leftover that the embassy provided us with little plastic bags to make our own take-away. Wonderful! So I currently have some very tasty treats awaiting me in my fridge for tomorrow. ^_^ (pics below)

In other recent stuff
--This was in the newspapers from this past weekend, but I forgot to mention it previously. I found this both funny and scary...
Recently, 2 boys--11 and 12--managed to sneak into the airport after dark over the fences, cross the tarmac, gain access to a jet that was staying overnight, feast on snacks and drinks, and fall asleep to be discovered the next day. Now that is a bit funny for kids, but think of what they could have been...scary.

--I wanted to hang out a bit with the other volunteers after we had our T-Day celebration, but I had to get back to my village for a 5pm meeting. I got there a bit late, 25 min or so, which many Vincy's would still consider on time. Who was there? Nobody. >.< Could a couple of people gathered and dispersed before I arrived? Those who were in the area for other reasons told me that nobody else had been around there for awhile. That was the only downer today and it was an important meeting for a tourism group I'm working with.

--Got into an interesting topic later this evening. There is an upcoming netball (similar to basketball and typically played by women) tournament and there was a woman arguing with a man about the required uniform to play the game. She said that her team would like to have the permission to wear pants (I think we could have called them shorts) as part of their uniform instead of short skirts. The man said that he is going strictly with the rules which are international and declare that women must wear the skirt as their playing uniform. It got rather heated and was my first sighting of a gender inequality--since boys who played didn't have to wear skirts. A previous tournament hosted by other people did allow women to wear pants upon request. This time the woman said that she felt it was indecent for a christian woman to wear such things--even with tights underneath. After I left them later, I asked a couple younger (potentially more open-minded women) in the village about their stance. They promptly defended that women should wear skirt regardless and men wear shorts for netball. Puts a spin on the gender perspective.

And now....pictures. ^_^
--oh yeah, I'm rapidly earning the nickname, paparazzi. It's fun to have a nickname, but I haven't figured out if it is given in fun or annoyance yet...














So Good...

Warm welcome from Ambassador Lee

Showing us US states with the names in Chinese. Way cool.









They were surprised at how well I could use chopsticks, even right or left handed

What appeared to be a small racket was actually a bug killing device of coolnes. ^_^

They doubted my ability to eat pumpkin pie with chopsticks.....I won. Btw, hats off to Steph for making a super scrumptious pumpkin pie.