Belated Valentines

15 February 2012

Happy Belated Valentines Day.  Our valentines was pretty uneventful as it is not a holiday that is much celebrated here.  A couple of people mumbled “Happy Valentines” as they walked past but I did not see one heart shaped balloon, box of chocolate or teddy bear.  I must admit that was kind of refreshing… I’m not a big fan a valentines and its consumeristic ideal. I would have LOVED to have woken up beside the one I love… my husband… on valentines though.  I won’t complete though, as I did wake up to a wonderful scene here in Jamaica… blue skies, green fruit trees blossoming, gorgeous mountains.

This week has been pretty uneventful as we fall into our routine.  The kids are finally in the groove of their school work and now wake up eat breakfast and get started working  without me even having to tell them.  We did have our first rain on Sunday.  It was amazing… the smell, how warm the rain drops were, how the sun still shined. We really enjoyed the rain.

One of our banana trees soaking up the rain

Our mango tree soaking up the rain

Shortly before the rain the kids had fun playing in the water outside.  There new friend came over to play and they all had a blast getting wet using empty juice bottles.

Kids playing in the water

Class on Monday and Tuesday went great. My students continue to be engaged and involved. The class is increasing in size as well as more and more students (who are in fact enrolled in the class) start to show up. The past couple of days have been really good for Nay at preschool as well.  What’s not so good is when he comes home… I pick him up after lunch, around 1230p each day, right after lunch but right before nap… he is tired and cranky.  His new thing is not letting me put him down for a nap, only his ‘bro bro’ can.

Joshua putting his baby brother to sleep

Today we did splurge on some delicious snacks.  We tried some new juice made from a citrus fruit known as June Plum.  The taste is really hard to describe.  I can’t compare it to any American fruits. The juice was really good while after walking in the hot Jamaican sun, but I’m not sure I could just pour myself a glass of it and enjoy. I also bought us some doughnuts from the bakery in the bookstore.  They were really good but really thick. The icing was melted also… I’m not sure why they even attempted to to put icing on any pastry considering how hot it is here.  Unless you plan to enjoy your pastry in the bakery (which you can’t by the way because there is nowhere to sit) you are just going to have melted mess like we did.

New juice we tried today

Melted icing goodness on our extra thick donut

We learned today that a lizards squeak is a very unpleasant sound AAACCCKKK! You have to hear it to understand I guess. I used to tolerate the lizards but having this one squeaking right now is seriously making me rethink that.

I look forward to seeing what the rest of our week has in store for us.  We received and invitation to go up into the mountains this weekend.  I hope that pans out and I look forward to telling you all about it.  Until then.