Last set of the photos from the north

Standing on top of a waterfall with, from left to right, myself, Ian, and Stan, from New Jersey.

The lushness of the rain forest.

From the north and the rain Forest area

My friend Ian, from Massachusetts, on the left and Irene, from Barcelona. We're at a park in the north.

Pictures from the beach near St. Pierre

Cool looking red bugs.

Ants are everywhere in Martinique. I hate seeing them in the kitchen, it's an endless fight there.

There are lizards galore everywhere.

The beach in the north.

The view from outside of my friend Stan's apartment. Simply, a breathtaking view.

Turkeys running wild in Martinique.

Sign outside of an amazing buffet on the beach.

I was surprised by the number of cacti on the island, but their flowers are beautiful.

Everyday life and the past weekend

I’ll fill you in on what everyday life is like. It’s a lot slower than what I’m used to back in Seattle. First off, the biggest adjustment would obviously be not being around loved ones. I was living with 7 of my closest friends when I left so I had become used to being able to yell someone’s name out and I would here a response. Now I’m in a new place where I know next to no one so it’s very different not being surrounded by friends. The first week or two were tougher than I expected because I didn’t know people here yet. But with a little patience I’ve slowly been meeting people and finding my niche. During the school week I wake up and hour or two before I have to be at class. I usually treat myself to a breakfast of eggs, bread and jam, juice and cereal if I have it. Breakfast is accompanied by The Daily Show so I can keep tabs on what’s happening back in the United States. Thank goodness for Jon Stewart because he seems like the only rational voice in the room of national politics. He’s been keeping me sane as I look at all the insanity that has come with this election season. After breakfast I head off to school dressed in pants and a button up shirt with my laptop bag minus the laptop. The walk takes me about 5 minutes at the most to either school. Once I reach the school I head to the teachers lounge, say hi to the other teachers and then head off to my class for the next hour or two. I’m working between two and four hours a day depending on my schedule and the week. Sometimes that is nice because it allows for a pretty casual day and casual approach to life. Other days, though, it can seem slow, as if I don’t have enough to keep me busy, but after a month I’ve found rhythm for the week. If I need groceries there is a small grocery store next to one of my schools, but if I need more than the minimum than I have to walk down to the mall which is about half an hour or forty-five minutes away. It stinks making the walk back uphill to my house when I have an armload full of groceries. The mall has about everything I need in terms of shops or I can head the opposite direction toward Lamentin, the closest city to me. Lamentin has small street side shops and an open air market as well as my bank. It also has a nice library that is filled with air conditioning which is really nice to relax in after the nearly hour walk into town. Unfortunately getting around is harder than anticipated. Buses come when the driver feels like making his rounds. I’ve been told repeatedly that you can’t measure things in Martinique by distance but only by time. Something that might be 5 miles away could take 10 minutes to get to or an hour depending on the conditions. I’ve found a bus that leaves from the mall and can take me into Fort-de-France. Each leg of the trip can take anywhere from an hour to two hours depending on the timing of the bus. Once I’m there I usually hang out near the boardwalk and on the beach. I like talking with all the street vendors and the other people I’ll meet on the street. It was an excellent decision to grow dreads. My dreads endear me to everyone in the street; everyone approaches me with a smile and loves talking with me. It’s also made it easier to meet people because they like to talk to a tall, skinny American with dreads. It’s not everyday that people in Martinique get to see that. My hair has also helped endear me to my students too. Lately, thanks to the generosity of friends, I’ve been able to explore the county as well. My friend Jean-Michel who is probably 20 years my elder has been very open and inviting. He’s shown around the island and invited me to play tennis the other day. He has a wonderful house and has helped me to know the south of the island. The past weekend, I went to a dancehall dance competition with three other assistants. It was the world finals and an amazing but long event. In total it took somewhere close to five or six hours. It was a lot of dancing. Dancehall dancing is kind of like house dancing mixed with break dancing coupled with reggae influences. The competition was groups of three battling against another group of three where each has 30 seconds to do a routine. Each group alternates until both have done two dances. All the groups were very skilled and full of athleticism and imagination. It was a unique experience with teams from around the Caribbean and the world. Afterword, myself and my three friends headed to a party on the beach for the full moon which was beautiful. Imagine a cool comfortable evening where shorts and a tee-shirt were more than sufficient. It never got pitch black because the moon shown so brightly. The sea glistened under the moon light as the waves lapped against the shoreline while twenty small fishing boats floated gently a hundred yards off the shore. It was a magical scene, one that will remain with me forever. The next day after sleeping at my friend’s house which overlooks a hill side rolling down into a hundred-eighty degree view of the sea, we took off toward the north. It was my first experience northward which was beautiful. The north is very different than the south. It’s wetter and more forested. It’s a rainforest. It’s beautiful. I’ve had a chance to explore on the weekends and hope that continues. I work during the week and lay low then on the weekend I try to explore although Saturdays get dominated by soccer. So far I’ve had a chance to get know the island and am continuing to meet the people. The coming months should have plenty of adventures in store for me.

Slave Memorial

Below are images from a slave memorial near the Diamond beach where during the early nineteenth century a slave ship run aground and killed everyone on board, including hundreds of slaves. It's a series of sculptures honoring the memory of the slaves killed by the negligence of their captors. It was a very cool and powerful memorial.

Behind the memorial is my friend Jean-Michel who, along with his wife, were kind enough to take me around and show me the island.

A day of swimming and snorkeling at Diamond beach.

The hill side below is called the sleeping woman. You can see her legs as they descend into the ocean and her head as the highest point on the hill with the body nestled in between. Really a cool natural formation.

Ferry to the south

The view from the ferry looking out into beauty of the sea.

Below is what is called a 'Rasta' catepillar though in reality not the true Rasta catepillar which exists elsewhere.

Looking from the ferry toward Fort-de-France.

It's been a month

I can’t believe it has already been a month since I left for Martinique. It seems like just yesterday I left and each day seems to go by faster than the last. Everyday seems to be better than the last. It took a while to get adjusted to life here maybe longer than I expected, but I’ve really begun to enjoy my experience. I’ll write a couple of updates because it has been a while since my last long post. So I’m going to write about the schools again. Since my first week I’ve had more freedom in my curriculum and I’ve been taking over the classes by myself. It has been fun to have control over my own classes and to get to know my kids more. Teaching has been kind of slow because I’ve been to so many different classrooms with different groups of kids. As such I’ve only been able to do introductions with most of the kids in light of the strike that happened last week. Although the kids like to talk a lot to their neighbors, they’ve been pretty open about talking when the times come. I’ve been asking them pretty simple questions like ‘what’s your name?,’ ‘How old are you?,’ ‘Who is your favorite musician?,’ ‘What’s your favorite TV show or Movie?,’ What is your favorite hobby?’ I went around to each student in all of my classes and asked them these questions so I could get a sense of who they were and the things that interested them. Hearing their responses, I was surprised at the low level of their English proficiency because many had studied English for close to ten years. Maybe it was my accent or they were just intimidated by having a native speaker in class, but some students struggled at times. I encouraged them and each student had a chance to respond. The questions were ones I knew they had seen before so they were able to handle them despite the occasional difficulties. When they did have problems it was with questions they weren’t prepared for. A handful of classes were lucky enough to have me ask them what they thought about the retirement reforms and the strikes. When I asked them why they agreed or disagreed with the decision to change the retirement age, some had a hard time thinking on their feet. Others showed a pretty good handling on English and provided good responses. What I’ve realized through asking these questions was that most students need confidence and a willingness to speak. When they had confidence and were willing to talk they showed a good ability. So that will be my goal in the coming weeks, give the students confidence and encourage them to practice speaking. With those two things, they will make a lot of progress.

Back to the questions that I asked earlier, I’ll give the responses that most of the students gave so that you can have an idea of the interests of my students. The majority of students were 16 or 17 years old and had studied English for 7 to 10 years. Most students liked Rap and R’n’B as well as Reggae, Dancehall and Zouk (local music from Martinique). Many of the favorite artists that I heard were Rhianna, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Alicia Keys. In addition, kids really like Bob Marley, a group called Vybz Kartel and many American pop artists. As for TV, the students love the Simpsons, Desperate Houswives and Pimp My Ride. Another favorite was a Brazilian show ‘El Diablo.’ Kids also like My Wife and Kids, Dr; House and a plethora of other American shows. As for movies, Fast and the Furious topped the list for many kids in addition to American Pie and Saw. For fun, most boys played soccer and everyone played some sort of sport, swimming, basketball, track, and handball. Most kids loved the internet and liked watching TV. Most loved music and either loved dancing or singing. Hearing their responses it became apparent to me that they were near identical to American high schoolers in terms of their interests. They held more in common with their American peers than they realized. They are also big time consumers of American pop culture which came as a surprise for me. I’ve spent so much time in the counter-culture movement that it’s bizarre to step into a world of American pop culture consumers. So I’m excited to show them that there is more to America than just pop culture. I’m looking forward to the coming weeks with the students and encouraging them to speak. I think that they enjoyed me and I hope that continues. I hope that I’ll be able to help the students and I think they’ll make progress. It’ll be a fun few months.

Strike

So we felt the force of the strikes this morning. I woke up to find that both the schools that I work at are blocked so there's no school today. When I was in Grenoble doors were literally blocked with garbage cans and whatever furniture and movable objects were around. It doesn't seem like the blockage at my schools is quite as forceful nor as grand in scope but there is no school today. We'll see what the future holds because in the last 5 days high school students have become highly involved in the strikes across all of France. Truck drivers joined the strike today and have blocked or made the traffic on highways inch along. This could be a long strike depending on what happens in the next couple of days. The Assemblée Nationale (AN) (similar to our House of Representatives) already voted on retirement reforms while the Sénat (France's upper house of congress similar to the Senate) vote on Tuesday or Wednesday about whether or not they approve the retirement reforms. Depending on what happens in that vote, we'll see what happens in France because if the Sénat passes the reforms it could spell problems for the government because the government has not been popular in recent years and has become extremely unpopular in the last year especially with the retirement reforms. Almost certainly the ruling party will be out during the next elections which might be next year. Thus, the strikes might behave differently than if it was at the beginning of a presidential term because President Sarkozy is seen as inept and in someways a lame duck president. The prime minister has continually stated his support for the reforms as he is in charge of domestic policy while the president is in charge of foreign relations though the president nominates the prime minister. France will run out of gas soon and we will see how that affects the country and politicians decision to take different action. Right now my schools are blocked today I would imagine tomorrow and maybe Wednesday depending on when the Sénat votes and the outcome of the vote. Otherwise I'm doing fine, the strike shouldn't affect my salary as strikes are common place within the French system especially in the education system

More new photos from Fort-de-France

The photo below looks down a canal that feeds in from the sea with downtown being on the right and residential areas on the left and deep in the background.

Looking left from the canal above you can see the hillside filled with houses below.

New Photos from Fort-de-France

Here are a series of photos that I took during a Sunday in Fort-de-France. It was a fun afternoon in the sun because the streets are dead on Sundays with everything closed. Thus, I head free reign of the city.

The two photos below I took with timer on my camera. Both look toward the naval base pictured below.

Below, looking down a pier that is closed off toward the south side of the island.

Below, Looking back down the boardwalk toward downtown.

Similar to earlier photos, but looking out toward the old naval base. Unfortunately, it is closed to the public most of the year. I'm sure the view from the end of the base would be amazing.

First Week in the Classroom

So last week was my first week in classes. It was very exciting for me to be able to begin my reason for being in Martinique. It was a thrill to walk into the classroom with students waiting eagerly to hear me speak. The closer and closer the day came that I would be in the classroom the more and more excited I became. I was ready for this new challenge of teaching and was very excited to give it a go. I spent much of the first week at my two high schools in classes where I would not be teaching, but was there to introduce myself to English classes that would only meet me that one time. I presume the goal was to have me meet as many kids as possible to energize their desire for learning English. They would then know who I was and could talk with me in the hallways in the coming weeks. It was an interesting experience that first day because my first couple of classes were a bit rambunctious. One class had just come back from gym class so they were full of energy. It was interesting to see the way the students interacted with the teacher and how the class functioned as a whole because it was less disciplined than I thought. Kids would talk more and listen less than I expected so I knew early on this was going to be a new experience. I seemed to command more of their attention than I anticipated. I soon realized that I was the one seen as exotic and foreign. It's difficult to come to that realization on my own because leading up to my departure I was thinking I'm going to a new and exotic place. For me that was true but for the rest of the world that is currently around me, I am new and exotic. Because of my exoticism, the students listened to me and I had fun interacting with them. I spent about an hour in 12 different classrooms where, for the most part, I would introduce myself and say where I'm from. I would mention my reasons for being in Martinique but wouldn't say too much more than that because I was told over and over again by teachers that my goal is to get kids to talk. As such, I would spend the remaining majority of class time having the students ask me questions. If they were to quiet or I needed to get their minds thinking I would ask them about Martinique or their experience. Most of the questions pertained to my interests and my hobbies, but they asked about Seattle and general American culture. They asked about the movies, music and tv shows I like. They were very excited anytime I mentioned something that they liked a lot. A huge student favorite was anytime I mentioned the Simpsons. The whole class would light of with my smiles and everyone would begin talking to their neighbor until order was restored in the classroom. I would get goofy questions like 'Have you ever done spring break?' (meaning the MTV style spring break in Cancun or wherever else that happens). They would ask me about how close the movie American Pie was to real college life. With questions like these I assured them that this was not the experience of most college students maybe a bit to their dismay. They asked me about Obama and my opinion of him. They were big fans of his, but when asked if someone like Obama could be president in France they were all in agreement in saying no. It was interesting to talk to the older kids because they felt more comfortable and were more willing to speak in English so I gathered from their classes that people in Martinique didn't feel like they mattered to much in the politics of France especially with Sarkozy as their President. There was a general disdain with the current French president and his relations with the Martinique and France's other outer departments. They were most excited by the fact that I knew reggae and dancehall music because both are hugely popular on the island and is usually what is heard blasting from cars and headphones. They also listened to a lot of Zouk music which is a local music that is very popular. At the end of the day the students were excited to see someone in the classroom that was close in age to them and someone who had similar interests to them. I think that familiarity will aid me greatly in the coming weeks and months. At the end of the week I was exhausted from standing and talking but each day I came away feeling good and was happy to be engaging in cultural exchange with these students. I enjoyed it and I think they enjoyed the change of pace that came with my presence in the classroom. It probably helped that I delayed the handing in of whatever homework they had due that day.

I taught my first two classes by myself today, Monday. I had everyone introduce themselves and talk about some their favorite musicians, tv shows, movies and hobbies. I had two classes and introductions lasted most of the class. The students today were a bit stubborn at times because they loved to talk to their neighbor when it wasn't their turn to introduce themselves, but when it came time to participate everyone did a good job. After the first week and today I have come to realize the importance of classroom management and keeping the students focused. I will be working on ways to that in the next week as I prepare a curriculum for the following week. The remainder of the week I will be in classrooms continuing to meet that classes that I will be working directly with and will continue with introductions until next week when I start a curriculum. I'm looking forward to it and I hope that I can help the kids improve their speaking ability.

Final set of photos of street art in Fort-de-France

The image below is the front of a discotheque. I liked that spiralling nature of the white against the black backdrop as shadows from buildings across the street from the piece cut the work of art in two, light and dark.

The photo below was on the side of a building not far from the parking lot graffiti art. I liked it because it was on contrast to much of what I had seen in the street up until that point. It has a more abstract feel and I like the choice of colors by the artist as well as the choice of subject.

The final two photos below round out the graffiti art found in the parking lot.

More Graffiti Art from Fort-de-France

These photos continue to round out the wonderful graffiti art in Fort-de-France that I mentioned in the post below.