Donnie's Visit & Terrible Gas (Not related!)

As I mentioned in my previous post, Donnie Stuart, a friend of mine from Middlebury, paid me a visit for part of his spring break a couple of weeks ago. It was great to catch up, here about college friends, as well as attempt to show him some most of the hot spots in St. Lucia during his short trip. One of the highlights was climbing Petit Piton, one of the tallest mountains in St. Lucia. What started as a relatively moderate hike turned quite intense part way up, as we were forced to do a bit of rockclimbing using ropes. The scattered rain didn't really make the climb much easier either. The view from the top made it well worth it, however, as we could see not only all of Soufriere but also Gros Piton (another nearby mountain) and all the way down to the Southern tip of the island. Other highlights included a couple of trips to the beach, a rainforest walk to a nearby waterfall, a mud bath at the sulphur springs/volcano (all my wrinkles are gone), dominoes, and watching a bit of March Madness (yay Kansas!).

I went with the Catholic Youth Group to an event in another community last weekend. It was aimed at trying to revive youth involvement in the Church, which is lacking in many parishes. It was a good event, but we had quite an interesting trip back to Fond St. Jacques afterwards. On the trip back someone kept passing the most terribly smelling gas on the bus. At first nobody said anything, but after awhile all the windows were open and everyone was accusing someone else of being responsible. After paying close attention to the Patois (Creole) that was being spoken, I picked up enough to realize that they were speculating as to whether or not I was the culprit. I responded, "Awa! Ou fou!" (no! you're crazy!), and then told them in English that I wasn't capable of producing such rancid smells. A little while later, after my sense of smell was bombarded once again with a wave of something not so sweet, I turned to my neighbor and sternly told him to "Chebe tou bonda ou!" (Hold your butt!) People really got a kick out of that. I guess learning all of the parts of the body in my Patois lessons came in handy after all...