A Trip to the Farm with "Dr. Rick"

My friend "Dr. Rick" is a veterinarian who lives and works here on Dominica. We went with my friend J to the farm where "Dr. Rick" keeps his goats and helps the farmer with his pigs. We drove up the Layou River road into the mountains where the farm is....

we drove by this cliff on our way up the river road...

and past this beautiful old estate house....

crossing the Layou River...

and eventually arrived at the farm---I think this is a field just planted in "Irish potatoes"

there were plenty of pineapples growing on the farm....

and Dasheen....

Taro is called "dasheen"in the English speaking countries of the West Indies and is cultivated and consumed as a staple crop on Dominica.

the farm raised quite a few pigs....

the baby piglets weer so cute!

Rick beside the Moringa tree...

Moringa is a herb with many healthful properties...Moringa is an important food source in some parts of the world. Because it can be grown cheaply and easily, and the leaves retain lots of vitamins and minerals when dried, moringa is used in India and Africa in feeding programs to fight malnutrition. The leaves are rich in protein, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and minerals. Learn more about moringa HERE.

Rick picked us some juicy ripe pineapples to take home...

some more views of the farm---this farm was large and diverse, and Rick said it was a model farm for the island...

coconut palms grow everywhere...

Rick owned some goats---this baby goat, or kid--was really sweet...

On Dominica this is called "spinach" but it is really amaranth---the greens are cooked like spinach, and made into the national dish of Dominica---Callalou soup.

 

After a very nice farm tour we headed off up into Kalinigo Territory ...

where I snapped these photos along the coastline....

This was a really fun day for me --and informative also--thanks to my friends Dr. Rick and J....

here is J--at his keyboard singing us all a Christmas carol before we left....thanks guys!

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Sperm Whales!

When fellow Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) Maria's parents, Sandy and Tom, visited Dominica and I found out they were going out on a whale watching tour--I asked if I could tag along. Here are some photos from the splendid day off shore Dominica on a whale watching boat with others.

Some of you who know me may wonder why I wanted to go see whales when I had already seen so many whales in the waters of Southeast Alaska? Well, I had never seen sperm whales, and I was really wanting to get out on the ocean here in the Caribbean---this short ocean trip proved to be one of the most pleasurable days so far in my charmed Caribbean life.

Dominican shore line as we leave...

I always have loved watching the ship's wake...

Dominican mountains from a distance...

the boat's skipper at work

Tom and Maria on the look out for whales....

Thar she blows!!!! (photo by Maria)

the crew lowers a sonar listening device to help locate whales by their cries...

and the whale dives....(photo by Maria) our skipper managed to get the boat up fairly close.....

My new friend, Sandy, enjoying the salt air....(she is also a knitter!!;-)

the salty warm breeze, whale sightings, and just being out on the ocean made me so happy---hence the big smile! a big thanks to Tom & Sandy (and Maria) for including me on this delightful day of their vacation here...

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Color wheels, rainbows and butterfies! oh---and angels!

I was a bit lax about posting here in November/Dec---the days just got very busy like the holidaze tend to. I was taking photos however----here are some of the art projects we worked on at the school...

We studied some color theory---here are some color wheels the children painted--with primary and secondary colors. They learned about secondary colors by mixing them from the primary colors.....

The kinders, 1st, and 2nd graders created rainbows using oil pastels and paint---an oil pastel resist. The gov't printing office gave the school 4 big boxes of ends of papers--all various sizes---so I designed this project with this blue paper---(quite a long rectangle)---in mind.

the kinders and 1st graders also created happy monsters one day! we used a straw to blow the runny paint around then added the face...

see my happy monster?

We also created symmetrical butterflies---using thick paint and folding the paper, then cutting out the butterfly we had traced on the back of the paper...the kids loved this project. It  was fun to hear their ohhs! and awws! when you unfolded the wet paper and saw the lovely colors repeated....

Now the art room walls are looking nice and bright with the children's art!

The school held a Christmas Fair the last week of school in December. I created a craft table for the fair and the children had fun gluing sparky sequins to stars, Christmas trees, and angels.

working on her star....

look at my angel!

working on her Christmas tree...

look at the star I made!!!

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Chapter One, My Charmed Caribbean Life...

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Owls and Fans

For the past couple of weeks the little kids (grades kinder, 1st, 2nd & 3rd) at the school have been making paper fans and cutting and gluing owls in art class. Here are some results. The kids love both of these projects and approach each class with enthusiasm so we have loads of fun.

we made fans with crayon colored paper, glue and popsicle sticks

here is the fan partially folded out...

voila! her is the fan completely folded out into a circle--they loved this! this young girl is a 4th grader who came by after school and saw what the littler kids were making and wanted to make her own fan--so I gave her the materials and this was her result,

Next we made owls using only circles and triangles cut from colored paper and glue...the little kids needed many reminders to not use too much glue (and oh! how I wished I had some glue sticks, but instead I have a whole gallon of Elmer's glue;-) but they had fun making these and were very proud of their results. The second and third graders cut out their own circles for the eyes--practice with scissors! but for the 1st and kinders I cut out all the pieces and just had them glue.

I love how she added eyelashes!

All in all ---it was a very good, fun, and creative week in the St Luke's Primary art classroom. I never pictured myself as an art teacher and so I am happy to discover how much I enjoy teaching the children here on Dominica Island arts and crafts. I guess I never realized just how much I have learned over the years by just being creative---thank you Peace Corps for putting me in a place where I am passing on what I have learned...without having to get that art ed degree I would need in the US to teach art.

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