Some Amazing Views

Yesterday, Cory dropped me off for work, and as I was getting out of the car, I happened to glance out towards the Caribbean Sea. And this is what I saw.....a huge rainbow out over the water



Then I noticed a little sailboat nearby that was headed towards the spot where the rainbow touched the water



And as I continued to watch, the sailboat sailed right into the rainbow



So pretty!


Then Cory and I went to lunch together in town right by the port, and we saw the most amazing yacht I have ever seen in person.....it had its own helicopter!!! Check it out




And here it is again with a giant cruise ship behind it, for some size comparison



And finally, when I was done with work and back home for the day, we saw yet another rainbow from our apartment

Carnival and J'ouvert

First some info and history.....then pictures and video....

"Carnival in St Kitts is celebrated from about the middle of December to early January and features street jamming, carnival shows, parades of troupes, bands and folklore. A major highlight of St Kitts carnival is 'J'ouvert Morning', where revelers party and dance in the streets to the pulsating sounds of the steel bands, brass bands and hi-fi sets. The jamming starts from dawn on December 26 until the last band stops playing. Since carnival in St Kitts takes place during the Christmas season, there is a double reason to celebrate. This time of the year is by far the most festive time on the island."

-Carnival and J'ouvert as described by a Caribbean website


Here is more information from Wikipedia.com:

"J'ouvert - a contraction of the French jour ouvert, or day open (morning) - is a large street party during carnival in the eastern Caribbean region. J'ouvert is celebrated on many islands, including Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
J'ouvert (pronounced 'joovay' locally) involves calypso/soca bands and their followers dancing in the capital cities of the various islands. The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise when revelers have tired out or been bludgeoned into submission by strong rum. Part of the tradition involves smearing paint, mud, or oil on the participants known as Jab Jabs. This is done in remembrance of a civil disturbance in Port of Spain, Trinidad, when the people smeared themselves with oil to avoid being recognized."


And now for the pictures.....

My co-worker Tregenza is part of a troupe every year for J'ouvert, and this year he invited Keith (the Director of Campus Living at Ross), Cory and myself to join him. We received t-shirts, water bottles, bandanas and masks, and we were told to meet at 4:00am for the start of the festivities.
Here we are, bright and early, ready to go....the name of our troupe is Extreme Warriors



Basically, this is how it works once you start marching: A giant stage piled high with huge speakers gets pulled all through town by a tractor really slowly. The speakers are blasting Carnival music at full volume, and you either go in front of the stage or behind it, dancing away to the music. This picture shows all of the people in front of the stage, it is coming up behind them



At the back of the crowd, bringing up the rear, is a truck full of beer, rum and coke, vodka...all sorts of drinks. Whenever you want more, you just fall back to the truck, hand them your water bottle to get filled, then jump back in with the crowd. Here are Cory and Treg getting their bottles filled as we head out.



Keith, Treg and myself, following behind the music truck



I finally found someone to put paint on me!



Following the truck and the crowd into the center of town, the Circus





People people everywhere! We had about 600 people in our troupe!




Here is a video of the entire experience....a bit long, but worth a viewing




Whew....finally home!

Christmas in the Caribbean

It's Christmas break! Cory finally finished all of his final exams (he got an A in every class....a 4.0!!!), and now he gets 3 weeks off for Christmas break. Since we are staying on St. Kitts over break, we decided we would make some money and watch people's pets over the holidays while they were off-island. Cory also volunteered to help take care of the animals at the zoo downtown AND the birds at the Ross University aviary a couple days over the break as well. So as you can probably guess, we have been quite busy.

Here is an example of what our schedule looked like on December 23rd:

Visit 7 eight week old puppies and their mom first thing in the morning, cleaning up lots of poop and letting them outside for exercise, having them climb all over us with their sharp little claws

(if we could have a dog right now, this is the one I would pick...she is so sweet!)





Next we visited 4 large dogs (Casey, Ace, Onyx & Chavez) and 1 cat (Charlie Brown) at another house nearby, letting them out to run around and wrestle




Then we visited 3 kittens (Matti, Nyxxie and Fiona) we are watching, giving them some attention and playtime


Then, we went downtown to a makeshift little "zoo" where Ross students volunteer to care for the animals. We cleaned out all of the food and water bowls for all of the animals, including monkeys, tortoises, an iguana, doves, chickens, guinea hens, ducks, a peacock, and a very angry goose. Then we fed them all sorts of good food that we had picked up at the grocery store for them.
(I didn't get any pictures because the guy who owns the zoo doesn't allow pictures...I had to sneak my camera out for a sec just to get the short video below)



This is the guy who owns the zoo...he is cutting open some coconuts for us for Christmas so we can drink the milk




Then, we went to Cory's campus to visit the bird aviary. We swept out the cages and cleaned all of the food and water bowls for all of the birds, including Amazon parrots, love birds, parakeets and cockatiels.





(Don't worry, the yellow on our faces is paint from Carnival, not bird poop)




Then, after a very short rest at home.....it was back to the puppies again, back to the large dogs, and back to the kittens for their evening visits.

Whew!! What a lot of work.... thankfully, all of Cory's volunteer obligations happened to all fall on the same day just twice during the whole break.


Besides taking care of every animal on St. Kitts, we have also had some time to relax a bit as well. We had very nice Christmas Eve....enjoying the 87 degree weather while sunbathing, swimming and snorkeling in the Caribbean!! Very different from what we are used to, but nothing to complain about!




This is how we spent our Christmas!





Can't beat the views!




Me and Teresa enjoying the sun and warm water



After all of the fun in the sun, we met Holly, Brian and Joleigh for dinner at a restaurant called Jasmines inside the Frigate Bay Resort. We were the only people in the whole restaurant at first, so they seated us right next to a live Christmas tree. The smell was AMAZING! There's nothing like the smell of a fresh Christmas tree to make it really feel like Christmas!




Joleigh was so cute in a santa hat!





Finally, we got home, talked to family on the phone and listened to them opening presents, then opened a few presents of our own. Here is Cory opening a Christmas tree ornament from his Mom, it is Santa laying in a beach chair wearing board shorts.



Then on Christmas day, we were invited to Tregenza's family's home for Christmas dinner. Tregenza is my co-worker at my new job, we have the same position and were interviewed and hired at the same time. Treg and his family live in a town called Sandy Point, which is very close to the Brimstone Fortress.

Here is the street where his mother lives...the large hill in the background is where the Brimstone Fortress is located



And here we are at Treg's aunt's house, enjoying our enormous plates of food with Treg and his nephews




After eating, we all went out into the side yard of the house, and they showed us how to play cricket. Here are some shots of Treg's aunt and his nephew taking turns at bat




And here is a quick video of the cricket madness




Coming soon....pictures and lots of video from Carnival!!!