Goodbye Barrouallie!

Today we said goodbye to our home for the past three weeks, the town of Barrouallie, and packed our stuff up to move to the island of Bequia.

We have gotten to know and love many of the locals in Barrouallie, so it was hard to say goodbye, but we know we’ve made some friendships that will last forever. On Monday night we were invited to the twins’ home (Omora and Somora) for their birthday party, which was a lovely last lime (party) at which to say our farewells. We let loose with plenty of fruit cocktail soda and sparkling grape juice and a gigantic homemade flan prepared by Tania.

Our camp last week went fantastically! It was run at the local secondary school, which is about a 5-minute walk from where we are staying at the primary school. Each of our students was in charge of designing, planning and running one class, and helped out in many others. The schedule was as follows:

Monday
Andy – Pencil Drawing
Kaleigh – Music Making and Singing
Gabe – Capture the Flag

Tuesday
Mike – Card Games
Sade – Makeovers and nail polish / Frisbee Golf
Julia – Gatorball

Wednesday
Jamel – Make Your Own Board Game
Tania – Volleyball
Chris – Football (American)

Thursday
Hanna – Abstract Painting
Margaux – Bracelet Making
Paul – Soccer

On Friday we took a camp-wide field trip to the Northernmost point on the Island, to see one of the most breathtaking places in all of the Caribbean, the Owia Salt Ponds. They are sheltered from the strong waves of the Atlantic by striking volcanic rock and are surrounded on three sides by lush green hills. As the waves from the Atlantic hit the rocks, the salt water washes over the barrier and into the salt ponds, continuously supplying fresh salt water.

We ended camp on Saturday with a beach bash at the beautiful Mount Wynn beach, which is located two towns south of Barrouallie.

Finally this week we have some sad news. We have lost one of our intrepid members. Last Friday Julia was running across the school grounds, stepped on something the wrong way and broke her foot. She will be okay, but Julia, her family, and the trip leaders came to the conclusion that her health was the number one priority, and that the best place for her to heal was at home in Spain. We all miss Julia’s beautiful smiles and warm personality.

We miss you all and hope your summer is as exciting as ours!

We will see you all in just a little over a week. OFF TO BEQUIA!!!

On the way back from Mount Wynn

The whole group at Owia

The spectacular Salt Ponds

More Photos!

Update #2: Student Notes

Bridge Caribbean Families and Friends,

Greetings from Windsor Mountain!
Our Caribbean Team is doing great...they are enjoying the rich culture and beauty of their St. Vincent Community and continually growing as a team.

Student Notes:

Margaux - enjoyed hiking La Soufriere, the Island’s Volcano, and learned a lot about the culture at Carnival (both Mardi Gras and J’Ouvert). She also loves “chillaxing” (chill + relax) and our sunset swims at the dock. We’re proud of the way she really brings the group together and tries to involve everyone!

Chris - Overcame his fear of heights in climbing a steep patch of rocks on a hike to Dark View Falls. He surprised us with pizza as a treat for Jamel’s Birthday, and in the process, accidentally discovered how to make play-dough! Chris is doing a great job integrating himself into group life.

Gabe – Enjoyed the volcano hike. He is also learning to understand the local dialect, island patois. It sounds like English, but it really takes a while to get the hang of it. Go Gabe! He also loves to care for and play with our adopted group mutt, Moose Face.

Tania – Has a soft spot for the local babies. She has stepped out as a group leader, modeling respect, and volunteering to do whatever needs to be done. She’s also learned that when you set your mind to something, you can achieve anything.

Julia - Gets along well with everyone in the group, and loves exploring new parts of the Island. She also boogied down dancing at J’Ouvert.

Sade - Enjoyed talking to the local park ranger, Leon, on the hike up the Volcano. She had a blast shopping (for both camp supplies and souvenirs) in Kingstown. We’ve also been blessed that she is a great listener for the group members.

Paul-Antoine – Is getting to know the rest of the group better, definitely improving his English, and making us all laugh with his silliness. He had fun playing in the waterfalls at Dark View Falls. He has also been stepping up in the last week to help with a lot of the cooking and other group chores.

Jamel - Got a Snow Tiger cake for his birthday and really loved it (see picture)! (Snow Tigers being a creature discovered at Carnival that the group has turned into a mythical figure). He enjoyed some downhill sprinting in the rain with Mike, and is making his leaders proud in the swimming department: he is starting to get the hang of the front crawl.

Hanna: Really enjoyed the Volcano hike. She learned a lot about Kingstown by exploring during supply shopping for camp. She wants everyone to know her name is spelled without an “H” at the end! She has become a team role model and the other members of the group look up to her.

Andy - likes to explore different parts of the island, and is always willing to lend a hand with tasks/activities/chores. He takes a leadership role in getting things done and motivating the group.

Mike - Was the first to the top of the Volcano during the hike. He is learning to play (and love) Backgammon. He showed us his dance moves at the Carnival (J’Ouvert), and really likes the adopted group mutt, Moose Face.

Kaleigh – Also enjoyed dancing at J’Ouvert, and clearing her mind by taking waterfall showers at Dark View Falls. We have also enjoyed the way she shares her personal experiences and enlightens the group to different ways of life.

Remember to keep checking the Blog for updates on the team by our leader Kelly Morr. Your next student call home will be on Saturday the 19th of July, and be looking for the next email update in your inbox on Tuesday, July 22nd.

The Week in Review

It's been a crazy week here in St. Vincent. We've seen many of the natural wonders of the Island. We toured Dark View Falls, an amazing two-tier waterfall in the north of the Island, and we hiked La Soufriere, a 7-mile hike with a 3.5 mile, 3000 foot ascent (we were shocked to find that after walking through a tropical rain-forest for two hours, it was actually quite cold and misty at the summit.)

We've also been learning more about the culture here on the Island. We've made friends with many of the local children, and have become particularly close with the twins Umore and Somore. Their family has been kind enough to invite us to lunch the past two Sundays, and they have cooked us some amazing local chicken and fish dishes. We've also been experiencing Vincey Mas, both in Kingstown and our local village, by dancing to crazy Soca music and just enjoying the jovial atmosphere.

This morning we started our Friendship camp with local youths! The camp is set up at the local high school, which is a short walk from where we're staying (at the primary school.) We were a little nervous at first when no one had showed up 15 minutes after start time. 30 Minutes after start, however, they began to appear. Apparently, because it was raining many of the local students didn't leave their houses on time. The first day of camp turned out to be a great success!

Kaleigh shared many America folk songs during her music class, Andy impressed us all with his artistic abilities during his pencil drawing class, and Gabe shared his energy and enthusiasm for a camp-wide game of Capture the Flag.

The rest of the week, the rest of our group will be sharing their wonderful and diverse talents with us and the local community, culminating with a big community beach-bash on Saturday.

We miss you and hope all is well at home!

Enjoy a few pictures of our adventures: (There are several more uploaded on our flickr account, as well: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27923306@N02/

Hello from Barrouallie!

A quick hello from all of us! We moved from Kingstown to Barrouallie (pronounced Bar-uh-lee, preferably with a Caribbean accent). on the 3rd, and have been living in the primary school here in town. We have been planning for our summer camp, which starts on July 14th, as well as been interacting with the local community (especially the children), and exploring the natural beauty of the Island through sunset swims at the warf, and excursions to local waterfalls. Tomorrow we are planning on hiking up the island's volcano!

On Monday and Tuesday we took excursions back into Kingstown (it's about a 40 minute drive from our town) to celebrate Vincey Mas. Monday was J'ouvert, which was a huge dance party in the streets with face/body painting and Soca music. Tuesday was Mardi Gras, and featured a costume competition and parade, with eye popping, colorful costumes.

We miss everyone at home and hope you are having as wonderful a summer as we are!

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Update # 1: Friendship Camp Preparation

Bridge Caribbean Families and Friends,

Greetings from Windsor Mountain!
We apologize for the slight delay in this our first update. Our Bridge Caribbean leaders inform us that our team is readily enjoying the St. Vincent community and making friendships fast.

And now from the leaders…

Orientation 7/1- 7/2: hmmmm...first night, we played some games including something called the dance move name game. The following day we explored Kingstown, and the students explored the central vegetable market and found fruits they had never seen before. We also talked with the very informative Peace Corps volunteers about the island and its cultural issues, and had time to relax and enjoy Indian Bay beach.

Barrouallie 7/3 –7/9: We have been hanging with the local kids a ton and every night we get to watch the sunset with our Caribbean community at the wharf. We hiked to Wallibou Waterfalls on Sunday and on Monday we caught the very lively Vincy Mas in Kingstown.

Tomorrow we plan to hike to the beautiful La Soufriere Volcano on the north of the island. You can follow this link for a little more info and to see what we will see: http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/stvincent/soufriere_vin.html

Student Notes:

Hannah - Is fascinated with Caribbean culture and is taking every opportunity to learn and bond with our St. Vincent friends. She is impressed with the simple lifestyle of St. Vincent and the contentment with which people live.

Margaux - has become an essential part of the group through her team building skills and by keeping an eye out for the morale of everyone. She challenges the team to do their best and keeps us laughing. The other day she amused the whole group with her funny faces during a staring contest with Mike.

Andy - is well liked among the group. Recently he has been learning to swim. He went out with Adam and even swam a few strokes without life jacket! He also had his first experience attending a religious meeting when we went to a church service.

Tania – Fell in love with Indian Valley Beach and was impressed by St. Vincent hospitality. She has been a great help translating for Julia (our student from Spain) and has taught our group a little Spanish in the process. We have been impressed with her mature reflections on our experience.

Mike – Mike and Margaux’s staring contest continues to be a highlight on our trip. And Mike keeps us infused with the Windsor Mountain Spirit by sharing his ideas and energy with the group. The other night he made us all an amazing Mango Chili.

Paul-Antoine - Is teaching French to the local kids and enjoyed an opportunity to speak on the radio at the radio station. The radio guys joked with him in French and he responded in English. He also impressed us by teaming with Margaux to cook a great dinner of chicken and rice with a French sauce. Yum.

Sade - Had a great time at J’ouvert at Vincey Mas. She is an excellent team member and builds relationships quickly. She is also very good with the St. Vincent children and she reached out to comfort Moses (a little boy in our friendship camp) when he was feeling bad.

Gabe - Loved our expedition to the Wallabu Water Falls. He has great energy and had a gymnastics competition with several of the kids. We have also noticed his long late-night philosophical conversations with many members of the group

Kaleigh – Is Windsor Mountain songs and music to St. Vincent by teaching the guitar to the St. Vincent children. She is also expanding her culinary palate and trying new things, mixing her food more! She also loved our MMT in Barrouallie.

Julia – Loves the sights and sounds of our community. She has been taking sunset swims and trying lots of new Caribbean fruits

Jamel – Was really excited about his first time ever on an airplane and loved having the window seat on the trip from San Juan to St. Vincent. He is always smiling, keeping us cheery and joking with the group. He loved exploring Kingstown during Vincey Mas and he found a Snow Tiger costume!

Chris - Kept our energy up on the flight down and has been teaching the other students new techniques in the kitchen. He was initially having some trouble adjusting to group dynamics, but seems to be doing much better and really enjoying his time here.

Over the next two days our team will continue to final preparations for friendship camp. All students will call home tomorrow night, so you can hear some of the great stories yourselves!

Kingstown!

We all made it safe and sound to Kingstown, St. Vincent. We will be here for orientation for two days, before moving on to Barrouallie (pronounceed Bao-relly) to start setting up our summer camp.

If you need to get in touch with us for any reason, please contact the windsor mountain summer travel office at:
1-800-862-7760. They will know how to get in touch with us, and will do so as soon as possible!

Students will be calling home for just a short check in today (if they did not do so last night). Our next call home date is July 10th.

Hope you all are having a fabulous July thusfar, we will continue to post on here as often as possible, so check back for updates!