Tasting St Lucia

the FLAVORS of St Lucia...
Though my pallet has not changed while living on this island.....I still love a good ol' american cheeseburger, french fries, and a milk shake, but we have had the oppurtuntiy to broaden our horizons you may call it!
People commonly ask us...what do you eat in St Lucia...well here it is!
We have tasted things that we may never get to taste again, and several things I personally NEVER want to taste again.  At any moment in time, I could walk outside and pick a different piece of exotic fruit to munch on for the day.
Some of my favorite fruits now, are things I had never even heard of before...aki,  coco cooli, sugar apples, guava, five finger (star fruit), avocado, bananas, coconuts, mangoes....the list could go on forever! Many people here survive off whatever fruit is in the season at the time. 
...Mangos are my favorite!

Fruits I never want to even look at again....Rose apple and Tamarind!! GROSS! Just say no, if you are ever offered Tamarind Candy!

Funny as it sounds...one of my favorite things they make here is St Lucia is Mac n Cheese! Yeah I know right....they make the best baked Mac n Cheese you will ever have, and they call in "Mac Pie".

Makin Mac Pie with some friends!

 



Other popular favorites are "One Pot"...basically you put anything and everything into "one pot"...which usually ends up pretty good!

They drink whats called "Coco Tea" and dumplings...hot choclate on steroids...rather than opening a packet, stirring and adding a marshmallow, you grind the coco stick, use cinnamon bark, and whip up some homemade dumplings...60 mins later! ha ha...you have "hot chocolate".

St. Lucia comes from an area of the Carribean called the "West Indies", and there is definitely an Indian influence on there food..."Curry" and "Roti" (similar to a burrito, potatos, currry, and meat wrapped in a soft shell) are dishes you can get almost anywhere.

Lucians love there bread.  There is a bakery on every corner...and in every direction.  It comes from the French influence here...they eat long skinny, white loaves of bread. 
One of my favorites things are called "bakes", funny as it might be though...bakes are a scone type bread that is most commonly fried. Figure that one out for me!

 

 Frying up some bakes!

 

Fish...or chicken....(bones included).  I never thought I would eat, shark, stingray, barcuda, turtle, or dolphin...but if they catch it here, they eat it! More often than not...locals just chop it up, bones and all and cook it.  I have learned to chew carefully!

Salt fish and green fig (green banana) salad. Imagine a potato like salad with a mayo base, and thats what you get.  Salt fish is dried, salted, preserved fish, used in alot of dishes.  The salt fish is soaked to rehydrate it and then chopped and used in countless dishes.

They eat potatoes here in St Lucia, but more often they use Breadfruit, Dasheen, Green Fig (green bananas) or Plantains as there starch. All pretty similar and used in many different ways....just like the good ol IDAHO SPUD!

Breadfruit.

My favorite response when I tell people where I am from, "oh...where the potatoes come from!" YES...even half way across the world, in St Lucia, Idaho is known for there POTATOES!

 

Bought at our local lucian super market!

 

Unlike America, you often eat what gets put in front of you here.  You don't always have a choice whether you want this or that.  I have learned to just say a short prayer, pop it in my mouth and chew.  Sometimes its good and sometimes its not so good, but being picky just doesn't fly here!

You learn to adapt and adjust to your surroundings when you are in a forgien place, and even though things may come as a shock at first...you learn to make due and get the most out of your experience. But one thing is for sure...I'm excited to have some good Taco Bell and McDonalds soon!



sometimes being DIFFERENT is ok....

Not many times in my life have I wished I was black....EXCEPT when I am on the basketball court, until now! I thought I stood out among the Polynesians in Hawaii, but this island has taken it to a WHOLE new level. I find myself everyday WISHING I was not a tall blonde white girl, just trying to survive. As hard as I try to fit in, every attempt has failed me so far. I have moments of forgetfulness and think I blend right in (until I look in the mirror or at a picture), but it doesn't take long to remember the truth. Let me tell you why.....

In the beginning, everyone around me LOOKED black. That sounds funny, but I saw color. The longer I am here, color disappears and I no longer see color I just see people. Just like motor bikers who pass on the highway wave, every time I saw a white tourist I nodded, and I'm sure with a look of desperation, my face said..."hey...we are the SAME!"

Though I do not see color, I cannot hardly leave my house without being reminded I am a WHITE GIRL!

For starters, my crazy drunk neighbor does not even let me forget. Though he has finally stopped asking if I have a boyfriend after 6 months....he stills calls me "my girl", asks me to come over and see him, and while offering to carry my groceries tells me he wants to marry me.

It does not matter how far, how fast, or where I go running, without fail there seems to be a different group of men cat calling, making kissing noises, and yelling after me "hey SEXY lady!" (and trust me, I don't look "sexy" when I run!)

I can rarely pass the vagrants (bums) on the street, without them reaching out and begging me to shake their hand, them calling after me "I love you", (...oh please no!)…oh wait, and them "telling" me to give them money. My mother only made that part worst for me...when visiting here in St. Lucia, I lost track of how many times she gave this one particular man money….he knows me even by my car and calls me buddy!

One afternoon I was approached by a good looking guy on a bike…the first words out of his mouth were “me and you would look good together, you are beautiful!” 

Laughing I said, “well that’s nice of you, but I’m married…sorry!”

“…so you are sure there is no chance?”, he said with a smile.

The second time I was approached by a guy on a bike, the exchange was not so innocent.  If I had not been caught off guard by his offer, I may have pushed him off his bike.  Needless to say that the men here are not the most wholesome and innocent!!

The loud kissing sounds, the “hey sexy ladies”, the “my girls”, the “I love you’s”, and the marriage offers….have just become part of my everyday experience here.  Not a day passes that I am not told I am beautiful by a complete stranger.  As appealing as that sounds, those gestures have simply become a reminder to me that I am a WHITE GIRL!  No matter how hard I try to blend in, and forget that I am not black, I don’t imagine the men here will let me forget!!

But being the WHITE GIRL isn't always so bad.  Sometimes being just alittle bit different...is ok! Its experiences like these that make it all worth it......

 

Picking Mangos with my favorites nieces and nephews! They love when I bring them surprises from Idaho...I think I have officially become there favorite auntie! 

 The church donated a bunch of camping gear and cooking stuff to this group of girl scouts.  The couple times they have visited the church, they won't leave me alone :) Combing (braiding) my hair, bugging me about when I am going to "make" my own babies, asking me about Idaho (where the potatoes come from), and I LOVE every second of it...and LOVE all of them!

 Jillian (my friend Jannels niece) brings a smile to my face every time I see her.....she runs towards me with arms out stretched, yelling "Liiinnnndddsseeeey"!

...why are you here??

To be honest…after slipping through immigration three times prior to this, I had begun to believe I just might be able to worm my way out of any situation, that I just may be able to go Visa/extension free for the entire 18 months here, that the Lucian government would not succeed in taking every penny I own….boy was I wrong!

We returned to “paradise” last Sunday.  Every time I prepare to come through immigration I have a routine…fix my hair, wipe my eyes, straighten my clothes, all the time giving myself a silent pep talk to bat my eyes, smile big, and “Play Dumb!”  As I stood in line next to Brandon I knew we were in for it before we even got to the front of the line.  To my misfortune, 6 out of the 7 immigration guards checking paper work were women…my regular routine, a WASTE OF TIME!

We stepped up to the window…”passports please?”  After standing in silence for what seemed like hours, watching her flip back and forth through the pages of my passport, robotically looking for something that was apparently not there, she looked up at me and asked…

”Why are you here?” 
I replied with the only logical answer…”to visit my husband who is in medical school.”  Immediately follow she responded with…”when are you leaving?” 
With a smile I replied…”within the next few weeks, I have not yet purchased my ticket so I am unsure of the exact day.”

And that was all she wrote….

Brandon and I were escorted promptly to the back, also known as fDETAINMENT, where we were commanded to sit down.

Question after question…

Officer…“Why are you here?”
Me…”To visit my husband who is here going to school?”
Officer..."...but why are you here?"
Me....(thinking are you for REAL?)..."to be with my husband."
Officer…”Why do you want to see him?”
…..”ummmm, (with tested patience) because he is my husband.” (forcing my eyes not the roll back into my head and willing myself to not bust out in laughter!)

What seemed like 100’s of repeated questions, some mediocre attempts at intimidating me, and my butt getting sore from the hard chair, the immigration boss hog came to a conclusion.

I would have to pay basically 500 US dollars for the time I had been here “illegally” and had to book a plane ticket home, (so that I had a date that I would be returning to the states), on the spot…which means I did not get the best deal at all.  Until I came up with the money for both of these things, my passport was in custody, and the last thing I wanted was for them to hang onto my passport...who knows if I would ever get it back.  So just as they commanded I paid up.

Lesson learned…next time you are planning to stay in a country illegally, whatever you do…AVOID female immigration officers, because the routine, only works on MEN!!

 

(YES...this picture was taken in detainment...I could not let the experience pass without a picture to remember the moment.)

 

 

...Called to Serve...

If I had been asked a year ago to share a "MISSIONARY" experience....out of desperation I may have come up with some story from my life that could be stretched just enough to do the job, but it would not be easy.  Today, if you asked the same question….it is hard to remember a day passing without a missionary experience.  Missionaries, sharing the gospel, and missionary experiences consume a majority of my time!

I have developed a new found LOVE and APPRECIATION for Sister Missionaries in the past 7 months.  I had no idea before coming to St. Lucia the blessing missionaries can be, not only to those receiving the gospel for the first time, but also to those who were born into gospel.

Basically from the day we stepped foot on this island, the missionaries have been blessing our lives by, eating my cookies, enjoying our cool house, hitching rides in our car, dragging me along to share the word, using our computers, drinking our cold clean water, and crashing our house when they need a quick break from the world….ha ha, which I love every second of….but they have also blessed me with their faith and diligence, their knowledge, there love and support, and there example.

I was so relieved and reassured that you really can find The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints anywhere in the world, just days after arriving in St. Lucia, when Elder Mecham and Elder Rami walked towards me with those white shirts, ties, and little black name tags.

There was an instance connection, bond, and love between Sister Weaver and I, which I doubt will ever be broken, even before I found out she was from Rexburg, Idaho. It was almost as if the Lord had placed her here in St. Lucia, to be a comfort, a guide, and an example to me of how I could make the most of my experience here. 

Sister Udall made me laugh, whether she was trying or not.  We all know how healthy it is to laugh, and we ceased to have a dull moment even when sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My love and passion for Hawaii and Polynesian blood runs deep, Elder Rivers, who is a Laie boy, taught me that even when life gets tough and it seems to be too much to bear, by following the Gospel of Jesus Christ, being faithfully, and enduring to the end, we can all be happy.

Last but not least, Sister Stephenson loved to do my dishes. There is no greater blessing that someone who loves to do your dishes! Ha….Sister Stephenson’s testimony touched me and her willingness to share her talents, drove me to practice and share my own.

Missionary after missionary has touched my life while being in St. Lucia, and without their love, diligence, and example…I can honestly say I may not have survived.  Missionaries are not just an instrument in Lords hands to preach the gospel….their purpose goes far beyond that.

Growing up in a Mormon community, opportunities to preach the gospel are limited…not so much once you get outside Idaho/Utah, even more so when you move out of the country.  Not a day passes, where I have not had the opportunity to share my beliefs, whether by preaching or by example.  Some experiences are good and some are bad, some are funny and a few have been sad, some come with a memorable story to share, and some I will never be able to forget.

Some of the hardest tears I’ve ever loved to cry came right before I watched one of my best friends, dressed in white, walk into the water and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, and be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  After months of questions, pouring out my heart, and testifying…words can’t express the joy that filled my soul.

I was invited by the Sister Missionaries to come meet Jannel, just a couple weeks after getting to St. Lucia, and we clicked from the get go.  She had just had her first few lessons from the missionaries the week before when I came along.  Over five months time, lessons, turned into more lessons, which soon turned into lessons and one-on-one games of basketball, hikes, more lessons, bonfires, swimming lessons, more lessons, and hanging out. The more I got to know Jannel, the more I learned about myself, and the more I wanted her to receive the knowledge and blessings that make me who I am. 

Jannel asked some of the hardest questions I have ever been asked, she created some of the toughest scenarios that can be imagined, and she milked my knowledge and understanding bone dry…the only thing for me to do was, testify.

 

Jannel has been a member of the church for almost three months now and is teaching the gospel principles class in our branch.  Though it was not instantly, but over a short period of time I have seen how the Holy Spirit can change lives.  Since Jannel was baptized, confirmed, and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, the light within her brightens every day.  Jannel’s qualities, of Faith, Courage, Confidence, her willingness to stand alone, her testimony, Knowledge, Fun Loving Heart, Acceptance of others, and Persistence….which were present before she was baptized, have become increased tenfold, those qualities now make up who she is. 

The day of Jannel’s baptism I promised her several things, but one thing I hope she never forgets is…

“It won’t be EASY…but it will be WORTH IT”

 
If asked to share a missionary experience today…I may have a hard time deciding WHICH experience to share, but I know there is one experience I will NEVER forget.