The countdown begins...

One month left! Trust me, this is not said with excitement (more like a long droned out whine followed by a sniff and a tear). I'm not going to pretend, if you had asked me about 4 months ago I would have been jumping to leave. This year has been everything but easy. However, if there is one thing I learned this year, it has been to live in the moment, to appreciate where you are, when you're there, and getting everything out of it...Regrets are useless. So here I am, one month from leaving the place that has been my home for the past 7 months. Things are busier than ever as I desperately try to finish all the study circles and junior youth books before leaving. As my wise mother said last night, it's okay to spend the beginning without being too busy, but if the end isn't busy, you leave feeling like it was a waste of time, so I fully intend on working until the last second I'm here...so enough of what's going on in my head...what's going on in French Guiana???
This weekend was our first one spent in Wagi Pasi in over a month and half and I have to admit...I missed the hammock. What I didn't miss however are the gigantic spiders!!! They will definitly be an integral part of my memories of St.Laurent, though not a good one. Just before climbing into my hammock on saturday night we noticed a large black thing moving across the net of the hammock...we spent the next half an hour running after it trying to kill it.

Luckily Oginio came to our rescue, but we still failed and it disappeared into the night...creepy legs and all...to go find some other unfortunate victim.






The next morning we washed in the creek as usual. The thing that really struck us was how much kids help out their parents without even being asked. The fact that on the weekends it's perfectly normal that you go with your mother to the creek to wash clothes and dishes goes so contrary to North American society where it feels increasingly like kids constantly have to be reminded to help and even get rewarded for it. There are many things we have learned from being here and I think when we go home we'll be a lot happier about helping out with house work...espcially since none of us will have to walk half an hour just to do the dishes.
We then lazed around the "carbet" where we had slept and had some breakfast before heading off for classes.




And I got spend time with my baby Jackie, who I absolutely love and adore and want to take home with me.
She has such a strong character and she walks around the camp as if she owns it. She controls all the little boys in the camp and even her older brothers are a little scared of her. Oh yes, she's two and half.

This week will be extremely strange because of school holidays and classes being moved around, but I hope to be able to post more pics in the days to come. For now though people, stay away from spiders.