Carnival Time

More and more exiciting things keep happening – too much for me to include in a post without being long winded. I'll give you a brief overview. Alas, I must leave out many details.

The children's class was a pandimonium. All our plans always go out the window. We need powerful flexibility and need to match our plans up with what actually happens each week. I hope to start "Walking the Straight Path" with Teanna and the Millingtons or whoever else might come.

Saturday night was the start of Carnival. Halva, Becky, Cory, Cristina and I went to the (free) junior calypso competition in Warner Park. They sang wonderful songs about unity, education reform, a "Crime-Free Nation", and the "Signs" (of revelation) They are so intune with Bahá'u'lláh's message, it's ridiculous! Hearing the band that accompanied the calypsonians, made me want to play my trombone again. I wish I could play like them. God knows if I'll persue that in the future.

Despite uncertainties, the camp Ruby told us about actually happened. A gentleman from Trinidad trained about half of the volunteer counsellors on Sunday. The "Moving to Excellence" camp was on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The lunch being hours late made for a miserable Monday. But the next two days were enjoyable for everyone involved, I think. I taught "We Are Drops" to the third grade class. Both the students and the teachers copied it down for themselves! [UPDATE: Pictures]

Cristina's father is Christian. So she went home to spend time with family for Christmas, leaving Wednesday afternoon from Nevis. We took a dip in the cold Caribbean water with the camp organiser Mr. Ragoonanan after the last day of camp. That evening Ruby treated Darlene, Ruth, Ragoo and me to dinner at Fisherman's Wharf. The evening ended with sparkling apple-grape juice at the Bahá'í Centre. I felt like a ten-year-old that got to go out with his older brother and his friends because there was no one to baby sit him. I didn't understand 80 percent of the discussions because of the accents, but I had fun being out with the older "kids" having fun. I did hear Ragoo say, "Stay sweet, Leaf."

Tomorrow I will take Darlene to the airport. She returns to St. Maarten for now. Darlene is wonderful. She is reading Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh: Volume 4 and sharing such great insights. I love her. She makes me happy. I am also thankful for the chance to be by myself after being with others for so long. It will test what I have learned about cooking, teachings, living in St. Kitts.

Becky invited me to go Chirstmas carolling in Sandy Point. I saw some of the children I met at Becky's tutoring session and at Ruby's camp. I also met two Windsor students. I'm already making new friends! Yay!