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Yet Another great hike up to La Soufriere Volcano here on St Vincent
Or… you don’t know what you have until you lost it!
Let me explain… I am hearing so much complaining from people who are having snow… chaotic weather and aaah! I sure miss it… the cozy dark, Christmas carols which makes sense, the glögg and julgran, the family and friends, the lussebullar and lucia, the pulka (sled) and snowball fight. the living candles Carolas Christmas songs, the ham and rödbetssallad, my church, and my snow!
… every single day!, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, fika… When its always available and good and in enormous amounts, what can I do?! And it comes directly from the trees around… I am surrounded by banana-plantations … as soon as I go out there is like a 0.000003 percent chance that I will not bump into a tree filled with green and yellow bananas… So I guess its a good thing I like them otherwise I would for sure go mad about now.
me hugging bananas
So I am in the Carribean… but a part of dear Sweden still lives in my heart… So I made something Swedish… a pepparkakshus! (ginger-bread-house) Hurray, Happy Lucia everyone
yo
What is it these students actually do over at RVA and how does a normal day look like over there? Are they simply laying on the beach all day and stare at the beautiful palm trees?! These are but some of the many questions I was asking before coming here, so why not just come with a clear answer!
An ordinary morning we all hear the bell ring at 7 am. That is the signal for breakfast and initially we all where there a few seconds later. But now two months into the program one gets used and relaxed… well the right word would be that one feels more ‘home’ I guess, and so no one rushes around anymore, the Caribbean spirit of taking it easy is resting over all of us! Every morning one of us has to wake up at six o clock to make this breakfast… I know it’s early!
After breakfast there is what we call ‘morning action’, which means morning duties, but for some reason a lot is labeled with ‘action’ over here, don’t ask me why! The duties vary and we all get a different area to take care of every week. It can be cleaning the kitchen, halls or bathrooms, baking bread, gardening, taking out the trash or some other things. Obviously everything is what you make it and so the most daily routines can become a blast I you want it to… so fun!
Afterwards there is time for showers, Email-checking or a divine nap before the first lecture of the day. In my team most people has a tendency to be a bit late because why in the world would anyone want to have lecture without a nice cup of coffee?! … so a quick run into the kitchen, grabbing whatever comes to mind and the lessons starts. What we learn varies; it can be practical sessions, interactive discussions, classical deep going informative classes or even seeing documentaries. We cover a bunch of various topics, all to get as prepared as possible for our time in Africa later on. We even have language classes, some learn or better up their English, myself I am studying Portuguese… Why in the world Bob, of all languages? True there… well the reason is that in Mozambique where I am planning to go, this is believe it or not their actual language! So when going there I will in fact understand what in the world they are saying and hopefully talk back as well.
Afterwards it is time for lunch and then we either continue with more lectures, get time to study or going to community work. The community work is twice a week and for our team this means walking to a secondary school and teach the kids Spanish, Math’s, English, Computers, and helping out with sport activities. At first I thought this is a piece of cake… I am going to teach them computers… how hard can it be right! I mean I have been emailing for years now, can’t be much to it! Well little did I know, because first of all there is more preparation for one of these classes than I thought, then over here sometimes the students will just not show up and the complications can sometimes grow like there aint any working computers! Hurray I am teaching computers without any computers!
At 7 pm. We eat dinner and man am I usually hungry by now! After dinner there is time left for a meeting, maybe a documentary, or just hanging around the area playing ping pong, taking a late dip in the ocean, skyping with my folks back home, playing a game of poker, hanging around the Brazilians (they are quite a bunch of them here!) or just making a banana-shake in the kitchen.
Day is over…. Goodnight!
-Bob van den Eijkhof
An ant got under my computer screen ARGH!! I didnt know that was even possible… I felt mad and wanted to kill the little thing, but then it died right there under my screen… more ARGH! Its going to be there forever and ever… What a cruel world we are living in people!
Coming all the way from a big city –suburb in Sweden, St Vincent and the rest of the Caribbean with its untouched nature, warm climate, warm hospitable people and tourist-free surroundings this island surely is an ideal place. This also includes the small but yet challenging difficulties that goes with coming over here, such as the mosquitoes, cold shower in the morning, the seven o clock breakfast, hard work and let’s not forget the absents of my favorite TV program… it’s all a part of the… adventure here at the Richmond Vale Academy. But then again these minor drawbacks are long forgotten when being at the beach, snorkeling among the colorful fishes, freely eating fruit from numerous different trees, hiking to the waterfalls and hanging out with the people over here.
Mmm!
Today we went to the Trinity waterfalls… (because there are three of them) after a 2 hour hike in the jungle one reaches this amazing place… like a mini hidden paradize, obviously we took a refreshing dip in the clear and clean water…. yes surey, I could actually drink from it and it tasted jummy (for my tummy). So tomorrow the school begins, we will get an introduction to everything. The team consists of 5 Brasilians one from Costa rica, one from Germany, two from Hungary, two from mexico, two from south Korea, one American, one from Holland/Sweden… and uhm one I dont remember now…. So yeah its like a DTS all over again =)
[Press on the picture for a larger view... jao!]
oh bye the way I have got a pet, named him charles… but thats for next time.
Peace/b
After my first day at the beach noticed something very weird… I was on my way getting a sunburn !! yes me sunburn!.. so I thought I might as well not be in the sun to much for a day…. but hey guys this is Barbados!! But now my troubles are solved… a guy on the street sold me this Aloe Vera, in front of my eyes he pressed the juice directly from the plant into an empty rum-bottle. So sunny here I commy hehe
YEEAAA. I have got in contact with some people I will study with in St Vincent (God thank you for facebook!!), and they are apparently already there. So here are 2 wonderfull pictures (thanks Lucas). First one is an overview of the school and the second one, a nearby villagecalled Chateaubelair Village, a small place in the black sand beach… did you hear that… mmm.. Did you know they recorded Pirates of the Carrabean over here!
Now I dont know about you but I am seeing palm trees… Palm trees man!! … I will be touching Palm trees for a half a year, I love Palm trees AAAH.
So as far as I know Jeroen is right now in Washington State hanging loose with his new WIFE Sandhya… (or “new wife”..! sounds like has has seven older ones.) They had an amazing time in Santorini.. Jeroen I have seen the pictures and they are goood. Right now they have moved into their new apartment which has a pool and a gym. Yes, where they live the average apartment has these life-necessities! (Jeroen I am not jealous at all) And as far as I know they have already been to Ikea eating swedish food… because as we all know to be true… American food suck! hehe. Here are some pictures of the newly weds. First their wedding day, then the two next ones are from Chicago where they had more parties, and the last one from their honeymoon. (press on the picture for bigger size)
Not THE last weekend but the weekend beofre this one that is… last weekend I was with Bas and Mika (yeah Bob.. we know it says it the headline dude!!) hrm, So anyways they were here in Upplands Väsby while Linda (the misses of Bas) was checking out their new House in Göteborg where they soon will move into, beacuse as I mentioned everybody is mooving nowadays. Its like this amazing trend!… wanna be cool -then move! (press on the picture for bigger size)
Yes its crazy. First Jeroen left to the states with his new wife, Then I am leaving to St Vincent and then Bas leaves with his Linda and MIKAAA to Göteborg. And like that was not enough now Emilia is leaving today to go to Malmö…. AAAH! Whats going on!? Had a great last meal with Emilia the other day. Så Tack Emilia för att du är så ****** bra !
The wedding was amazing. My little brother just got married, managed to say Yes (as did Sandhya his WIFE) It all started in Sofia Church and Ended at our home here in Upplands Väsby… The feast at Stora Essingen also was a success with lots of family and friends from all over the world congratulating the newly weds. And as the picture shows it ended with an Indian tradition were the mothers from each family gave presents to each other and the couple aswell. By that time it was 2 o’clock at night and as you see Sandhya and Jeroen look tired and happy. Now they are of to Santorini, Greece for their honeymoon and then they are of to Washington ….
ps, Jeroen you still owe me a wife ;)
On Friday Jeroen will get married. CRAZY. I mean he is my little brother and getting married, moving to the states… my little little tiny mini insi pini brother! So Anyways, Today Bas and myself had a great time together planning (I wont tell you what) … but it is going to be great for sure. The evening ended with us three brothers chilling alone together and suddenly in stillness realizing that this moment ain’t coming back for a long time. Our family is spreading out all over, Jeroen to Washington State, Bas to Göteborg, me to St Vincent…. all at the same time too! Mamma-Caramba!
Well the family vd Eijkhof is for sure Changing life direction… but still heading the same way *blink blink*
