Island Dispatches

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

This is my last day here on Dominica. I don't know if I ever will make it back here again, and saying goodbye to my charmed Caribbean life has been bittersweet. Little did I know when I started my Peace Corps service how much this island and its people would change me, and how much of my heart I would leave here. Goodbye Dominca, you will always have a big place in my heart and I will never forget you.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

CARIBBEAN ART!

Here are a few of the art projects I have completed this year with the children at St. Luke's Primary School....

collaged parrots...

Painted rocks for the gift shop...

"Beautiful OOPs" drawings....


Printing with leaves we gathered....

kinders paper plate butterflies

drawn and painted sea turtles...

and a collaboratively collaged flower...

Sunday, February 8, 2015

The Postcard Project

Last summer, inspired another Peace Corps volunteer's project from Africa I read about, I began the POSTCARD PROJECT for all my art students. I started by asking Facebook friends, family, and all the folks on my email list to send my art students at St. Luke's Primary a postcard reflecting something about where they lived, and promised we would create postcards to send back to who ever sent us a card. The response was tremendous! Soon the postcards starting arriving in my Peace Corps mailbox---it was exciting to see each one (and, I must admit--I sure enjoyed getting all that mail!) and read what folks wrote to my students. So, a big SHOUT OUT to all of you who participated and sent us cards!!! The children enjoyed reading them, and in the process learned about various areas of the US.

Here is the completed map with postcards (so far)

The next step was to obtain a big map of the US---I finally resorted to asking a fellow PCV who traveled back to the US to bring me one. My original idea was to place the cards on each state but I soon saw that would not work as the cards would cover over the whole map. I wanted the children to be able to read the cards and handle them, so I made a pocket to hold each card and used red yarn to point where the card came from. This system worked great, so I kept adding to it as cards arrived.

My home state of Alaska is well represented, with cards from Anchorage, Juneau, Sitka, Port Alexander and Gustavus...

A student busy drawing a card to send to the US...

the East Coast has cards from Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York


the West Coast is well represented, with cards from Washington, Oregon, California, Mexico, and then inland-- Arizona, Idaho and Montana

2 cards the St. Luke students painted to send .....


and a few West & Midwest states : Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri,

a 3rd grader drew and colored this card...

We even received several cards from other countries, including : Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Canada, Greece and Sweden

The students were quite excited when they received hand painted cards from a Middle School Art class in Moraga, CA--over 20 handmade cards with messages on them from kids near their age! they were thrilled. Here are a couple of cards they made to sent back to the Middle School students....we sent some already, but have more to send...

All in all, this has been a fun and informative project for my students. They really enjoyed creating postcards in a variety of mediums. We are still making postcards to send to folks, so if you have not received one yet--just be patient please---you will get one eventually.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Carnival Time Again!

Carnival masks!!!! but before the ties are attached..so holding them up...

And we are making carnival masks ! to see the carnival masks we made last year go HERE. Last year's masks were created entirely of paper--this year we are using colored feathers and large amounts of glitter. Wow! I think all children love glitter---and my student's at St. Luke's Primary are no exception.

A kindergartener (or Grade K, as they call them here on Dominica) boy sprinkles glitter on his mask. For this age, I started with a paper plate for the base--which I cut to shape and cut eye holes in. The children first colored the white paper plate with markers, then glued the feathers on. I spread white glue on and they spinkled giltter...

the next step is to add ties, which must wait until the glue dries...

For the 3rd - 6th graders, I created a mask template which they traced onto nice astrobright paper, then cut the mask base out. Then they glued colored feathers around the top edge, and then sequins (more bling!) around the eyes---and at the end adding glitter.

They were all very pleased with how these quick simple masks looked when finished!

Carefully sprinkling gold glitter.......

and wow!!!!

the art classroom is now filled with carnival masks as the glue dries---masks are everywhere!

And at St Luke's Primary we were blessed to have a young girl compete for the honor of being designated 2015 Carnival Princess---and she won! she worked very hard to perfect her speech, dancing & martial arts talent display and other requiredments, and all the practice paid off! Congrats!

Friday, January 30, 2015

Some Veiws Around My School, St. Luke's Primary.

Friday, December 5, 2014

A Very Merry Caribbean Christmas!

Hello dear readers,
Please do enjoy my Caribbean Christmas Holiday slide show ! these are all photos that I have taken in the last few months--including the ones of students and teachers and the art they have created and it is my pleasure to share them with you so you may see a glimpse into my life here. I am traveling to the US for a nice long visit this month, so will resume posting in January.

Make your own free slideshow

Saturday, October 18, 2014

A Multi-Cultural Celebration

At St. Luke's Primary School we had a wonderful Multi-Cultural Celebration to honor all the various nationalities we have attending and working at our school.

Parents, teachers, and students from the many nationalities attending the school created displays about their country of origin. We have about 17 nationalities at our school, and many of them had nice displays. Each class went around in a group to each display while the parents or students or teachers talked about their country of origin. It was a really fun and educational day for all the students, parents, and visitors who attended.

I helped one of the parents--whose children have dual US/Dominican citizenship---with the US display. Most people cooked food from their country to go along with the display--I baked an apple pie for the American display. I was really pleased to also hang up the Postcard Project and explain it to all the parents and visitors to our Celebration; the US map and US postcards got plenty of great attention from everyone. The Dominica Public Library: Roseau also brought books by American Authors courtesy of their "American Corner" which is maintained by the U.S. Embassy on Barbados. At the end we (the presenters & teachers) all shared the great food from all the countries.

Here are few highlights from the event...

The US display : the students & parents from the US made informative displays about US Holidays, Native Americans and the Statue of Liberty.

I drew this turkey for the US display, and talked about our Thanksgiving Holiday.....

I baked an apple pie with imported apples...

Students looking at the US display....

Some students enjoying the Postcard Project. Awhile ago I started this project : I asked my FaceBook Friends and family, and e-mailed friends and asked them to send me postcards from their town in the US which reflected something about where they lived. I promised that if they included their address on the card, I would send them a postcard from Dominica made by my art students. I received quite a few postcards--and they are still arriving! I then made a display in my art classroom with a big US map----with lines to the town or city where the postcards are from---and I placed the postcards in pockets on the wall so the students can take them out and read them.