Day 8: The Final Countdown

Its Thursday… everyone is tired… heat-driven exhaustion has finally kicked in with a hint of dehydration but that never slows us down! Today is our final day with the Mountainside School and that means only one thing… RECORDER DAY YAAYYYY! I mean… yay.

Breakfast was really neat with cornmeal dumplings, scrambled eggs and callaloo. As a special treat our host Lenny brought mean two cashew apples. I was curious earlier in the week about cashew apples and what they looked like. Come to find out there is only one cashew nut per apple (no wonder they are so expensive) and the nuts are completely poisonous until roasted! The apple however is very juicy, very sweet and very dry like a fine dry wine. The flavor is a cross between apple and pear.

School went by quick considering all we did was recorder lessons grades 4-6. Lunch was fried chick and rice with beans… pretty simple day.

What I do want to talk about is the food at the schools. The kids have a thirty minute break from about 10:15-10:30 daily. During this time there are multiple concession stands open but all the stands sell are soft drink, very sugary juices, cookies, candy and chips and this is all the kids eat during this time every single day. Today was rough on us teachers; they ran out of bottled water so all we had to drink were the sugary soft drinks and juices… the juice’s ingredients? Water, sugar, and citric acid that’s all.  Ugh.

Lunches seem to be the healthiest meal these kids get… and possibly the only full meal they will get all day. Think of that sometime when you throw away leftovers.

The kids introduced me to a lizard they call the “Ko-ko-mung” it has a proper name and when I find out I will try to update this. But the lizard dwells in palm trees and is usually brown and green in color with a yellow , sail-like fin that extends from their neck when they feel threatened or its mating time. This one was about sixteen inches long from head to tail and bright green… awesome what you can find out here.

Tomorrow we visit the school one final time just to donate all the supplies and say our goodbyes and then we will be visiting the primary schools where kids ages 3-4 begin their studies! Stay tuned!