Daily fruit and bread

Quenets, a very nice tree fruit for warm August afternoons

Here’s what Quenets look like. They’re juicy sweet and tangy delicious, although these are from the end of the season and not the very best looking.

Coco loves baking cookies.

mmmm, good.

Last night we went on a long swim at sunset. on our way back to shore, after the insect chirps had grown loud and the sun had long set, and the water dark, Olivia was stung by a small man-of-war, a kind of jellyfish. She was brave in spite of the pain and the dark and we made it safe back home. After a few minutes with vinegar water on it, the sting was gone.

School Parents Reunion

This Saturday morning we gathered at 8am with all the parents of kids in our school to listen to the principal and to discuss issues facing us. Last November, there was an earthquake that damaged one of the 2 school buildings, so the older elementary school kids have been relocated to other schools nearby. Some issues that parents raised were around how we can drop off and pick up our kids and still get to work on time, when they are at schools 20 minutes apart. The service that keeps kids before and after school has kids sit in chairs without desks until school starts or until parents pick up kids. Because this service (called La Garderie) is run by the mayor’s office, the principal said we needed to talk to them about providing the kids better service. A parent compained that the mayor had refused even to accept a letter with questions regarding the services of the Garderie. Another parent offered to organize parents to pay for fans in the often hot schoolrooms, but was rebuffed that this too was the sole responsibility of the municipality, and that parent involvement like this was not allowed.

There is a PTA-like group that puts together the school directory and helps parents answer questions of the school. However, that group doesn’t seem to have much power. Hopefully we’ll get to see and know how the school works well. Parents are not generally permitted on school grounds during school hours, so that’s something new for us. The teachers seem great, and we’re looking forward to getting to know them better. We’ve been able to chat with them briefly before and after school, and feel confident that Olivia and Colette are in good hands and will be able to learn well.

Our Library

I visited our town library in Francois, with Olivia and Colette. It’s in an old colonial building in this fairly small town which has one main street, a mayor’s office, a church, bank, two small grocery stores, two pharmacies, a shoe store, two clothing shops, a nice book store, and two bakeries that make good pastries. The library is nicely maintained and air conditioned — inside, ornate woodwork is painted in light yellows and €blue. A few days before school started, it was quiet and empty. Upstairs is a media center with 3pcs and newspapers. We got library cards, which my girls still think it’s hard to believe are free, and they checked out their first books in French. Mostly cookbooks. They had a 30 minute feast online. The feel of this library is universally welcoming, the books whisper to us, actively appreciative of all our iideas and dreams–looking at them we see into a mostly new and foreign language, asking for possibilities and the unknown to open to us. I choose a book by St. Exupery, Terre des Hommes (1939) (Wind, Sand and Stars).

In our small library, you can only check out a few books from this single branch. And here they use the good old method of hand stamping the return date in the back of the book.

We’ve also found that the Seattle Public Library has about 2200 books we can download and read from our computer here. Olivia’s been enjoying The Lightning Thief and Coco’s been reading Jane’s Adventure. It feels like our Ballard library is here with us.

Sunday on the island

Here’s an example of what a full day can be like here. This morning i woke up at 5am, went for an early run, beginning in the barely dawning dark. Looking for a new route up into the hills was easy as i could see the several paths of streetlights from the open coast up to the ridgeline. I took a new path, up past the bakery where fresh baguettes and pain au raisin are made daily, then up to Bois Soldat, (Soldier’s Woods) from there I meandered around, past a number of barking but chained dogs in the lush countryside. Mangos and breadfruit hung heavy from many trees. The dawn arrived boldly at 6am. I passed the occasional pedestrian, typically an older woman waiting for a small bus to go to church. They all wished me bon courage. Eventually, after climbing about 1000 feet from the shoreline where i started, i reached the ridgeline that gave spectacular views of the land, hills, and small islands. A crisp rainbow extended over Diamond Rock (where in 1804 a small British naval force was stationed for 17 months) out to a gentle gray cloud of mist.

After making it back home, I went for a half hour swim in the bay to cool off. Olivia and Colette had a nice breakfast, listened to the Lightning Thief audio book we downloaded from Seattle Public Library, and played in a makeshift tent we’d made.

At lunch we went to my Aunt’s house, then made an impromptu boat trip to see other cousins who were having snacks and coctails in a fond blanc (a shallow sandy area that is ideal for standing and swimming and appreciating the turquoise water). Olivia went collecting shells on the beach and found a few shards of pottery, probably from a recent visitor, but possibly from the Arawak Indians that lived here a few hundred years ago.

At 3:30 we headed back and had a nice lunch outside. At sunset we had a light dinner and kids did homework and studied.

First Day of School

Olivia and Colette were a bit unsure about how the first day of school as English speaking students in a french school would go. As it worked out, it was a hard day and a good one. Both girls have good teachers in the school of 400. There are 21 teachers, so an average class size around 20 students, which is very nice.

Getting ready to learn

kids wear uniforms at school here.

Finding a Home

We looked at 5 places before choosing a 2 bedroom apartment on Pointe Jacob, close to our cousins, with a view of the bay and access to the water. We have most of the ground floor of a large house, with a terrace and yard and plants around. It’s comfortable, open, and quiet. Although smaller than our ideal, the location was perfect, and many have said we were very lucky to find a place here, as people often search for many months to find spot in this area.  From here we can walk to visit many cousins, and are close to good schools.

Setting up the apartment has been a good deal of work. It’s unfurnished, and we needed to buy a fridge, a washing machine, oven, table, chairs, shelves, etc. My cousins helped a ton, letting us borrow beds, a nice sofa and easy chairs, silverware, pots, fans and more.

At dawn, as the night sounds quiet, roosters crow in the distance as the sky grows pink orange. The sea is most calm at dawn. Today it is a perfectly evenly fractured reflection of the sky, tapering to a darker line at the horizon. A cat bird meows, and many other tropical birds begin their songs, with chirps, peeps, and sssseh’sssseh. Another bird sounds like some kind of monkey.