Totally Unrelated but had to share!!

This post has nothing to do with St. Kitts, but I needed to share this with all of you. 

For those of you who are unaware of "TED Talks" -I urge you to become aware.  They are 15-20 minute videos by some of world's most amazing thinkers and doers.  The themes and subjects are diverse, but all are progressive.  I have been jaw-droppingly astonished and/or enlightened by a number of them.  Most recently, I stumbled across this one and had to share it.   

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_savage_rumbaugh_on_apes_that_write.html

The talk is on a species called bonobos.  Never heard of them?  Neither had I.  They are found only in the Congo and are simply an astonishing species.  They pretty much make chimps look like single-celled organisms.

I dare you to deny evolution after watching this.  Oh wait - now I can link this to St.Kitts! religion! 

A co-worker asked me the other day if I believed in god.   I wasn't about to lie, but didn't want to offend so I casually replied, "No."  
"Oh, so are you an atheist?" he enquired with a light-hearted smile.  He must have thought this was impossible and was somewhat of a joke, because when I replied yes, he almost fell off his chair: "What?! You mean you don't believe in the father, son and the holy ghost??!"
"uh..nope."
"So, what do you believe in?"
I was very tempted to say "dinosaurs".  But I bit my tongue.
"What do you think happens then when you die?" he continued.
"Nothing.  I live, I die, I turn into worm food."
Silence.
"I'm not saying I am right, " I added, "and that you are wrong - for all I know there is some higher power." 
I couldn't say God with a capital G, but I think 'higher power' was suggestive enough to placate him while maintaining my truthfulness. 
 He was shocked by this.  I wonder if he had actually ever met an atheist before.

It is important, we are told time and again, to be culturally sensitive when working in another country.  I completely agree with this, but I think it is also important to be truthful.  As much as I must learn to respect others viewpoints, they must also learn to respect mine.  It is a mutual relationship.  I think sometimes people in this field forget that.  Now, I would not have brought up or offered my opinion on religion had I not been asked, but I am not going to lie if I am.  I will however tread carefully and respectfully.
I will not, for example, show him this video.

Patois and parlance

A little historical fact:  St. Kitts was the first island in the Caribbean to be colonized.  The English were the first in and immediately set to exploiting the land for its capacity to produce large quantities of sugar cane.  Well, their slaves did it, they just sat their with whips.  The French, Dutch and Spanish all took a number of goes at usurping control, but ultimately all failed.  As a result, St.Kitts-Nevis is now an English-speaking country.  Or so they told me.  For the first few weeks I was here, I would be sitting on buses or walking in town and not be able to understand a word people were saying and thought it was their thick accents, only to later learn that it was because they weren’t speaking English – they were speaking patois.

Patois essentially means a local dialect; it is not officially a language and many countries have their own patois, Jamaica’s being the most famous version.  Some people don’t even consider patois to be a dialect and see it just as a bastardization of English, but trust me, it’s NOT.  I challenge any of you to understand what the hell they are saying; you could probably understand Farsi better. 

This island language has, however, taken on a life of its own.  Over the years, different versions have evolved in communities to the point that people from different areas must now converse with each other in English to be understood - which is a plus for me!  St.Kitts English is however, still influenced by patois commonalities.    First and foremost, is the subject/verb placement and verb conjugation; the verb “to be” is NEVER conjugated.  It is always just “be.”  When wondering on a person’s whereabouts, for example, “Where is he?” or “Where are you?” would never be heard, it is always: “Where he be?” or “Where you be?”  Or you can just leave the verb out altogether.  The response to “Where he be?”  would be, “he gone.” 

The pluralization of nouns is also widely ignored, as is the past tense.  Also, there is no such word as “my” or “your.”  “My” is always replaced with “me” and “your” with “you”, pronounced like “yuh” - in fact, even spelled like “yuh.”  Carib, the top-selling regional beer, is brewed here and their slogan is: “Like Yuhself.”  The other thing is the re-placement of letters in English words.  Everyone here pronounces “ask” as “aks.”  

I would sound like an idiot if I employed this manner of speaking, but I have tried to conform a bit by using the word “stay” rather than “stop” and saying that someone is “off island” rather than saying they are away or out of the country.   But, the turn of phrase I find the funniest is their replacement word for announcing their presence.  If you are coming up someone’s front walk or if knocking seems to be doing no good, you don’t call out “Hello?” you call “Outside”   It makes me laugh every time.       

But to be Kittian what you really need to do is “struck your teeth”.   Women especially.  You make fish lips and suck air in till it makes the sound of a balloon slowly losing its air.  You do it to show your displeasure.  And you do it often.    And then you follow it up with an indignant, “I tell you!!!” or “I’m telling you!!!”  Being indignant seems to be a favourite pastime for women here.  It is not that they are an unhappy or a sour bunch by any means, they just enjoy expressing themselves and putting in their two cents.  

 Though here it is more like two dollars.     

Kittian Observations Part II:

Annoying Kittian thing #2 – radio.  They never let a song play – the DJs yell over the music, blast what sounds like air-raid sirens during the middles of songs, or pause the song to yell during it – this contintues for the whole duration of the song.  .

Unexplained Kittian thing #4 – the vast majority of streets do not have a name.  And I don’t just mean they are missing the street signs, they simply don’t have a name.  And the houses don’t have numbers.  If you are getting a delivery, or a friend is coming by you simply have to provide landmark directions: “when you reach the top of the hill turn right, at the third house after the big mango tree on your left you take another right, then at the turquoise house you take a left up the hill and mine is the seventh bright yellow house on your right.    

Cute Kittian thing #3 – you can still use cheques here! Remember cheques?

Cute Kittian thing #4  -  kids always respond politely and say good morning or afternoon 

- if they don't they would probably get smacked. 

Religion Religion Everywhere

I have, in previous postings, made reference to the prevalence of religion on this island.  I don’t know however, if I have conveyed the true depth that “the Good Lord” plays in daily life, so I thought I’d take a moment to paint you a little picture.   

(As a forewarning:  I do not mean this to be disrespectful; coming from religious-sterilized Canada, I am simply in gobsmacked amazement at the role religion plays in people’s lives here.)

The island is predominantly Protestant, with Anglican, Presbyterian, Moravian and Seventh Day Adventist being the most popular denominations.  Regardless of what church they attend (and trust me, they attend!)  religion is a central part of life here. 

First of all – most everyone seems to pray.  And not just a quick cursory ‘Thanks for the food, God - Amen’ before meals, I mean rolling out of bed each and every morning to reverently do their  “daily devotions”.  And if kids don’t do it at home – or even if they do – they will do it at school.  Extensively.  Even in social situations, I have never heard anyone swear on this island, the most common phrases seem to be “Praise be to Jesus”,  “God is good!” or “Lord give me strength!”  When someone sneezes and they say “Bless you,” they mean it quite literally. 

The most common radio station on the island is Dominion Radio, the Christian station, and at my work it plays constantly. 
From 8:30-9:00 it’s local gospel music – women praising Jesus through off-key harmonies.  From 9:00-10:00 it is “The Old Time Gospel Hour” which consists of some passionate man preaching and sermonizing.  

(I did learn the other day that it’s not “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of doubt” but “as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”  I like mine better. )
From 10:00-11:00 it is country gospel hour.  (Just when I thought country music couldn’t get any worse....).  From 12:00-1:00 its religious-based news.  From 1pm-2pm is more sermonizing.  (My favourite quote of the week:   “God is a gentleman; he wouldn’t force himself on you”....ummm...is it just me, or did they just compared God to a rapist....?!)

At about 2pm, the woman at the desk next to mine declares it is “sleepy time” and turns on her own collection of gospel music to sign along to and perk herself up.  This is not to say the radio gets turned off, or down, oh no – I simply get radio gospel on my left and my co-workers gospel serenades on my right.

All around the office are inspirational Christian verses: on calendars, posters, coffee mugs, in frames, tapped to desks, posted on bulletin boards....Email are signed off with “Have a Blessed Day” and bibles are stationed at every desk.  It was a full week at work before I realized that the repeated reference around the office to KJB was not an acronym for a work project but to the King James Bible.

Last week, we had a retirement luncheon for our boss.  Every person’s farewell speech included quotes from scripture – recited off by heart.  Although, there was a dispute on the wording of one passage, but no worries, they could consult the Bible - they had it downloaded on their Blackberrys.     

The open religiosity of St. Kitts may be at odds with my Canadian mind-set, but I did discover one common religious link recently:
Last week, I accompanied 3 of my co-workers on unannounced visits to home-based nurseries.  As we approached a house, one of my co-workers remarked, “the home owners will all probably run and hide when they see McKinley coming up the walk with us!” The other two laughed at this apparent joke.  My co-workers are all black, so I guessed that it was in reference to my skin colour, but I didn’t get the joke.  When I asked why someone would hide, my co-worker responded: “Cause when a white person you don’t know comes to the house it generally means only one thing: Jehovah Witnesses”