Catch Up and the Spider Incident

So I apologize to those of you who have been checking for a new post. the last two weeks we were super busy with placement reports and midterm evaluations and then we took off for the weekend so lots to write about!

Quick catch up. Friday (Ap 15) we participated in a march downtown to protest child abuse. Although I ended up carrying the small child I was with to prevent him from the abuse of marching all around smoking hot downtown, it was for a good cause. The local school children took up the chant “ Love us, kiss us, don’t abuse us” A pretty good message!

On the weekend we found our way to darkview falls, a two tiered waterfall that was quite impressive.  You have to cross a precarious looking bamboo bridge to get to the actual falls and some of the bamboo looked like it had seen better days! When you got across you were at the first waterfall then you had to cross the river and climb a very steep set of stairs to the second falls. When it wasn’t swamped by tourists off the cruise ship it was a beautiful sight. We were quite surprised to find though that in the river falling down on us were mini lobsters????? Any biology friends want to take a stab at that one?? I think the best part of the day though was that we managed to do the whole trip (bus fare and park entry) for only 12 EC (~5$ canadian) versus the 75$ american the tour company charged all those cruise tourists!

Tuesday night (Ap. 19) we had some excitement we now refer to as the spider incident. Silan and I were up late writing seating evaluations for some of the children at the center (for my non OT readers it’s a  report covering children who require a wheelchair discussing how they are able to sit, any physical deformities effecting it and all sorts of details about their wheelchairs and what they need or have). I finally finished mine at 1:30 and opened the door from our bedroom into the dark living rom where our supervisor (Christina) was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Illuminated by the light coming from the bedroom I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen (we are talking the size of a hockey puck!!!!!!!!) scurry towards Christina’s bag and into the darkness.

I grabbed a shoe but could not see it anymore… panic set in. I grabbed my flashlight and Silan but we could not see the spider. (At this point Im getting pretty worked up!)  After creeping around trying to shine our light around Christinas bag and much deliberation over whether or not to wake her (at one point we discussed the idea of barricading ourselves in the bedroom, every man for themselves…) we decided we had to wake her incase she woke up to us creeping. We convinced her to get out of bed, and began the hunt. Finally we moved her mattress and found the HUGE spider hiding between the mattress and the wall right by where her head had lain.

I smashed it with a shoe and it did not flinch but instead it scurried up the wall. We had to resort to an all out attack using a firm broom to smash it off the wall from a distance and then a thorough shoe smashing. After all this I turned around and realized Silan and Christina had left me to fight the battle and had retreated to the other side of the room. Moments later while we were trying to calm down, we saw it move its leg again and once more the smashing ensued. 6 hours later justice was served when we saw a gecko carry off the spider remains for breakfast... I think I need to invite more geckos into the house!

What a great way to start my bday, a big long report and then an even bigger spider!!!!  I did enjoy my birthday, last wed though. It was adorable to see our non-verbal children singing or playing instrumental versions of happy birthday for me as the staff provided more vocals. Down here there is more then one verse to the song. There is the standard happy birthday to you verse. Then to the same tune and pattern,  the” may god bless your soul” verse. And they wrap it up with the “may you live to see more” verse which after the spider incident I felt was a completely warranted birthday wish. 

RAIN DAY!

This weekend we decided to hit up the private resort island, Young Island which according to the website is “just 20 yards off the coast of St Vincent.” I’d give it at least 100 yard but definitely swimmable if the ferry hadn’t been free. The snorkelling is bragged about all around St Vincent.

 We called ahead and booked the ferry, bought stuff for lunches at the Saturday market and when Sunday morning rolled around we made our lunches, Silan hand washed all her laundry and hung it (along with our bed sheets) on the line outside. As we left the center, clouds began to roll in. By the time we made it to Tokyo (the downtown bus loop) the sky was dark grey and the wind was blowing. We got to the ferry dock half an hour early and the sky just opened up.

It looked like we may have picked the wrong day to bask in the sun at the beach resort. By the time the ferry came it was still pouring down so when we got to the island we took shelter on a hammock and read till the rain stopped. We managed to get about an hour of half decent weather which included about 15 minutes or 

partial sun but we being hardy Canadians, snorkelled anyway! The water was still warmer then Vancouver!

The fish were quite neat. We saw fish of all shapes and colours. At one point we even found a group of white fish that if you stood in one place and wiggled your toes, they would come right up to your feet. Despite my fear of the ocean and just about everything in it, I decided this was a great thing to try.  And regardless of what Silan may or may not post on her blog, when the fish got close enough to try a nibble of my foot, I handled it with utmost dignity. I most definitely did not scream into my snorkel or jump way out of the water. I must have reacted much cooler and braver then that!!!

All in all a decent day but the worst rain we have seen yet. We did manage to finish our trip with a sample of the islands famous rum punch in the form of an "Island Special". And when we got home we found Silans laundry absolutely drenched on the line. We ended up draping our entire apartment in clothing and using a hair dryer to dry our sheets before going to bed!

(Us laughing at the ridiculous day!)

This morning we got up to another drizzling day and headed around the corner to the center. Today was supposed to be our day of observing the staff at helping hands, trying to get a grasp of the goals the staff have for each child’s rehab. As we rounded the corner we knew something odd was going on because the school bus was still parked in the driveway when it should have been out picking up kids. The center was locked and the office upstairs was still closed. The really odd part was that the front gates were still locked and none of the staff members had shown up either.

As we headed back to our apartment to call Annis (the woman in charge of the center) to find out if there was another holiday we weren’t aware of, I jokingly said to Silan, “Maybe there’s been some national disaster that we don’t know about”

I had no idea how right I was. As we got back to our place our phone was ringing, Annis called to tell us that due to the high volume of rain, rivers were overflowing, roads were flooded across the island and mudslides were washing houses down embankments in the countryside. 

They really could have used a water management expert like
 Brian Symonds!

 St Vincent schools were declared closed for a RAIN DAY!  Ah well, what’s another day off in paradise.               

Don’t worry Mom and Dad, we were nowhere near the danger and it actually hardly rained for the rest of the day!

  

Sunshine and Wheelchairs

Silan and I spent the rest of the week unsupervised as the center was closed. I ran around snapping photos of the place these ones are by Dads request)

 

We kept ourselves busy completely revamping wheelchairs. This is no easy task here because without a stock pile of wheelchairs to work from, spare parts are hard to come by. We managed to salvage a few laterals, tracks and joints from an odd assortment of old British chairs from the school for children with disabilities down the road.

We spent hours brainstorming and trial and erroring. I feel like I now understand every nook and cranny of these wheelchairs.

(Silan testing head rests and hard at work developing a plan)

With a little sweat and blood and a whole lot of dreaming of power tools we managed to come up with solutions we were convinced might, sorta, kinda work……. I gained a whole new appreciation for Heip and Charlie, the trusty wheelchair techs I had access to at GF Strong. I think I owe those boys a gift when I get home.

After a few gruelling days of working in the hot center we managed to get out for an afternoon of Beach Parliament (a brilliant Caribbean idea where you take any and all important matters to the beach and conduct all business from the sandy shoreline!)

Suprizingly we did manage to get our work done before being approached by locals offering us `tours`and informing Silan she needed to change her name because no one here has ever heard it before and therefore its no good.

OT's On The Road

So last week the center was closed for the childrens spring break. We did a home visit on Monday where we basically took school to the home of a boy who is no longer able to make it to the center each day. 

It was an interesting experience as houses in St Vincent don’t have numbers and lots of streets don’t have names so directions my go something like this:
 Take a leeward highway bus (which doesn’t have a schedule or designated stops).
Get off in Peters Hope (the equivalent to Kitsilano, aka a general region)
Head up the hill after the shack (a roadside shack is pretty common).
It’s the peach house at the end of the second gap (gap= side street, every other house is peach)

We managed to get only one gap away from the house before calling for directions, the mother came outside and directed us through the neighbour’s yard to her place safe and sound! I can’t imagine delivering the mail around here!

Also I have been astounded by the steepness of the roads around here, basically heading straight down a mountain slope! On many an occasion I have had to stop myself from making the very Canadian statement “this road must be killer in the winter”! Because of course with no snow or freezing temperatures, the winter looks very much like the summer around here.

Exploring our new home

This week after work our main goal was to get settled in our place and to get familiar with the town.  Each day after work we had to rush downtown because the market and most of the grocery stores close at 5 so you have to hurry if you want to get fresh foods. Nicole had already had a little experience with the local markets and finding her way around town so we relied on her to be our guide for the first few days but by now Silan and I are pretty good at pretending to be locals.

We stand out fairly easily here though as we are still very pale and have yet to meet other tourists. Apparently there is a rumour going around St Vincent that all white people have a ton of money so we find ourselves having to constantly barter to get prices that locals would normally be charged! Someone should really let them know we are students and that the rumour is not true!

Thursday after work we were invited to join the students on their bus ride home to see where everyone lives and to check out the island. The driver promised to drop us off at Indian bay beach when we were done the tour so we were practically racing to get on that bus! The bus was an interesting experience as it did not have wheelchairs on the bus or custom seating so the children had to be propped or buckled in place but they all did surprisingly well on the drive. We saw a ton of the countryside and I had my head out the window snapping pictures every 10 seconds.

 The beach was a welcome treat! The water here is delightfully warm and the salt content is so high that you float very easily. Our landlord came to join us for a swim and give us a ride home. I , in turn was able to give him some swimming pointers and now I am going to teach him and his wife to do proper front crawl. Good thing Silan is a swim instructor to, I may need back up!
(These pictures were taken after our swim as the sun was setting.)

The locals seem fascinated by Silan, I guess they don’t meet a lot of Asian people here. One older man we were introduced to opened his conversation with Silan with the line “nice to meet you, you are looking a little Chinese”. He followed that by making a racist Asian joke: “Is it true that when chinese babies are born their parents throw a tin can down stairs and what ever name the can makes is the babies name?” Another guy just pointed at her eyes and said “I like this”. Silan doesn’t seem phased by the attention but Nicole and I have been kept amused!

 

Can you blame them for being amused by this!?!?!?

Friday night we went out to Heritage Square to “lime” with the newest American Peace Corp volunteers.(Lime is a local term that means a whole lot of things but most commonly it us used equivalent to Canada’s Hanging out or relaxing) We tried our first street food lovingly called “chunks and peas” sold by a rasta out of a basket, and tried the local beer sold by our 13 yea old bar tender at "Eli Bar".

Nicole is convinced the people of St Vincent are the 

most fashionable people she's ever seen, but after snapping

this shot of a leotard over white jeans, Im just not convinced!

Saturday we got up and had our first attempt at riding the buses. Here the buses are 15 passenger vans (at my highest count we actually had 22 people in ours) that drive at break neck speed (no speed limits here) and pick up and drop off where ever people are standing along the road. We managed to survive the bus, get to Georgetown and find ourselves a guide to help us hike to the top of La Soufriere The largest of St Vincent’s Volcanoes.

This hike was a 3 hour trek that was like the Grouse Grind, multiple trips up the wrek beach stairs and a jungle safari combined. Needless to say we were very sweaty and very tired by the top but the view was totally worth it. 

It started off downhill, not a good sign when you know how high you have to climb!

Some of the steepest stairs I have ever seen

And then the uphill started.....

Beautiful exotic flowers all the way up.

View from 1/4 mark

View from 3/4 mark.

We made it!

Looking down into the crater.

Sulphur still rising from the dome.

View from the highest point in St Vincent.

Nicole and our guide peeking over the edge.

Its a long way down!

After this hike we spent Sunday relaxing on the beach and letting our bodies recover!!!!