From Martinique and Guadeloupe
Dear Friends and Family,
I hope everyone is well! 🙂 I realized it’s been over a month since I last let everyone know how I’m doing. And it’s been a packed month!
My housing situation has continued to be nice. I’m living with a French student studying for her masters in law, Emma, another assistant, Rod, and his girlfriend, Charlene. We’re all becoming friends. I’ve met more language assistants now as well which has been lovely.
Emma stayed with some family friends before finding this apartment. Those family friends take her on a hike nearly every weekend – and she’s invited me along for a couple. It’s been a lovely way to get to know the island better! Martinique has a surprisingly wide variety of landscapes. We’ve done part of the Cap des Trace hike along the southern coasts — which allowed us to see the transition between the Caribbean coast and the Atlantic coast! There is a mini desert there, cacti and all. There’s quite a difference in waves and color of water between the different coasts.
We also hiked the end of Presqu’île de la Caravelle, which is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast. This was a gorgeous hike: our perspective on Martinique kept shifting, but was breathtaking every time. We lunched at Baie de Tresor (Treasure Bay) just before the end of the walk.
I’ve also visited Saint Pierre which was the capital of Martinique before it was destroyed in the 1902 volcano explosion. The ruins from the volcano are still around, the city has just sort of been rebuilt around it. The two buildings that you can still see the form of are the prison and the theater. The theater was designed by one of the people who designed Opera Garnier in Paris. Obviously the gilt and most of the design is gone. But it was fun to move through the space in a way you normally wouldn’t. Saint Pierre is a nice small town now, but never went back to the importance and size it had before the explosion. Two English language assistants live there, one from Brisbane Australia and one from New Jersey.
Also in Martinique, I’ve toured and done tastings at a few rum distilleries. I’ve learned a lot about the process and tasted some things I would never be able to afford to buy! (Always nice to get a taste of the highest quality). There’s actually quite a lot of variety in rum and there’s separate English and French traditions. Visiting these distilleries which are often in sugar plantations has given me a lot to think about how we present history as well.
I bought a snorkeling mask and tube and have had wonderful luck in seeing turtles, fish, and coral in Anse d’Arlet and Anse du Four. Hard to even begin to describe how amazing it is to be swimming along and suddenly see a sea turtle below you! Here is a link to some of my gopro footage of one of the turtles: https://gopro.com/v/G15nb7Q5P7XEO. It doesn’t quite do the turtle justice but you can see them!
Teaching is still in it’s slow haphazard start but the Toussiant holidays are over and so it’s possible I’ll get into a routine before Christmas. I can give a basic outline of what’s happened so far. School started later this year than normal (by a week or maybe more I think) so although my work contract started october 1, teachers and staff were still in the midst of start of the year organizational issues. On top of that, the students were in a Group A/Group B and Week A/Week B organization in order to limit contact and risk of covid exposure. Schooling online is difficult even in the best resourced schools, and if there’s faulty internet or teachers are asked to teach two classes simultaneously (one online and one in person) its just a big old mess. For me, this means I met bunches of students in my first month, but only a few groups I saw for a second time. Teachers are also understandably stressed and trying to play catch-up and get their students up to the level they should be at. After the Toussiant fall holidays, we’ve moved back to everyone being in the classroom. I’m not sure how good this is in terms of the pandemic, but it will hopefully ease some of the organizational stresses and help students learn and get back up to speed. So likely in the next month or so I’ll really get a feel for my classes, students, and what I want to do with our time together.
I’ve just come back from a week-long holiday in Guadeloupe, another island which is a French overseas department. I traveled with four other assistants. We had a great time! Guadeloupe is essentially two large islands linked together by a small amount of land and a mangrove. We divided our time between the two islands, half on Grande Terre and half on Basse Terre. We saw so much but the highlights were definitely the hike to the Chutes de Carbet and my baptismal dive in the Jacques Costeau marine preserve near Pigeon Island. Both were absolutely gorgeous! All my dive footage is on my gopro so I need to start sorting through it before I can send any of it. I enjoyed diving, although part of the time was just focused on getting used to the sensation. But I had a good instructor who helped me figure it out and guided me. We also toured and did a tasting at an artisinal cacoa and chocolate house and hiked to the top of La Sourfriere, Guadeloupe’s volcano. Unfortunetly La Soufriere’s summit was under heavy cloud cover so we saw basically nothing. But the hike had some lovely plants and half of it was a type of cloud forest so that was cool. But, it’s odd to have climbed a volcano and not really have any evidence of having seen the volcano-y part.
I keep planning to spend some time working on my films and photographs but I’m doing so much that I haven’t gotten around to it. But hopefully soon I’ll be able to show you all a more complete picture! I’m very happy (and feeling very lucky) to be where I am now!
Sending all the best and love to you all,
Janet
November 13, 2021
Janet goes places, sees things 
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