Surfing and fishcakes

I know that I haven’t talked much about the work I’m currently doing and I would like to share, but before I forget, let’s recap my weekend real quick. Essentially I limed my afternoons away, setting up a surf lesson for this morning.

Having only surfed with Sam on the West coast, I was a bit anxious about proving myself with a new instructor and a new surf spot – Freights Bay on the South coast with Christian and a group of EU diplomats (who are pretty cool). Even though I slathered on the SPF30 before heading out, I burned quite nicely. But it was worth it. When I’m out in the water, no matter how exhausted I am from paddling, it’s like I’m in my own world out there and life is good. I even watched a turtle stick its head out of the water and look around right in front of me! I rode a couple of good waves, one I even rode, thought it was over so I popped down then realized it was still going, so I jumped back up!
Burnt and worn out, I headed home to nap and make fishcakes for dinner, attempt number two at learning to cook Bajan.

I meant to make the fishcakes Saturday, but after forgetting baking powder and oil at the store, fatigue got the better of me and I tried them today. It’s essentially a fried ball of dough with spices, saltfish, onions, shallots and a bit of hot pepper – delicious! They turned out great ☺

Now back to another work week - but work is going fairly well. There are always challenges but I'm positive about the remainder of the placement. I'm working on a series of focus groups right now with teens to figure out how to engage this generation to talk and take action on issues that affect them, particularly using social networks. So far, a lot of interesting stuff coming out and a lot of social commentary that make my jaw drop! Apart from that, I got our office a social media presence with a Facebook and Youtube page, and trying to work on building up followers from around the region, particularly youth and those that UNICEF could partner with on projects. And I got the office using Prezi to make more engaging presentations for donors and stakeholders, which is fun for me and will involve some training of staff. Otherwise, as Tom, the Representative, joked at a staff meeting last week, he'll have to hire me as his personal consultant when I leave. Wednesday this week is the big meeting on presenting and discussing this year's Country Program Document (or CPD since the UN is very fond of acronyms) with Education and Social Affairs government departments in each of the (now) 12 countries that our office covers, since Anguilla was recently added. That's about it for an update right now!

And Melissa and I got a special (edible!) surprise from France this week, yummy! Gros bisous cocotte :D

And this is how happy I was to eat my first cheeseburger in months:

In case you thought a conkie was a shell

That would be a conk shell you would be thinking of. This one is a traditional Bajan dessert made with pumpkin, coconut and sweet potato, wrapped up and steamed in a banana leaf. You may remember me eating some around Independence Day (think same time I tried pigs tail). Sherri-Anne, who works at the UN, lent me a “Best of Barbados Cookbook” and inspired me to at least attempt some of the recipes. And why not start big!

So after collecting all the ingredients on Friday, I woke up Saturday morning with the intention of starting early. After remembering the warnings from others that conkies take all day, I finally pulled up two recipes I decided on - the one from Sherri-Anne’s cookbook and this one - and starting assembling the ingredients.

Step 1: Leaf hunting
Luckily we have a banana tree in our backyard, which has rebounded at least partially from Tomas. I tried to pick big, green leaves that weren’t torn much, so I could get good square sections to wrap the mixture in. I found out that you need big pieces so that the mixture doesn’t fall out everywhere. Didn't really get that until later on in the process. I felt a little odd out there with my kitchen scissors snipping away, though by the end of the day I would have to go out about 4 more times to get leaves. I scrubbed them off with soap and water and let them dry.

Step 2: Singeing the leaves (and that means fire!)
This one seemed pretty straightforward at first: take the clean leaves, put them over an open flame so they will get pliable to be able to fold around the conkie mixture. After burning up my fingers and a little trial and error - how was I supposed to know the leaves actually change colour when you leave them over the flame for the right amount of time? - I got the first batch of leaves singed. I started separating the leaves from the stalks, which I chopped up to use in the pots to create a steamer for these little guys. Cut 'em up in squares and on to the mix.

Step 3: Grating, grating and more grating
I bought a 3lb piece of pumpkin and used about 2lbs of sweet potato, and without a food processor or blender, and with the help of Melissa and the finest side of our hand grater, it took about an hour to get a pile of orange and white goop into the mixing pot. Mix that with the pictured ingredients (plus a pack of grated coconut) and you some delicious conkie batter! I put in dried cranberries and some raisins - normally its raisins and dried fruit or candied cherries but it can be whatever your heart desires really.

Step 4: Packing those parcels
This is the most fun part! And also took even longer than the grating, since I had to repeat step 1 and 2 about three or four times after grossly underestimating how many conkies the batter would make. And I had a few casualties where the banana leaf split while I was folding them. In the end, I had three pots with the banana stalk steamers set up inside them going at once. I heard different cooking times depending on the recipe - anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours. But I read that the conkies get fairly firm when they're done so I just waited until the leaves got darker and opened them up to check. Without anyone to ask, I just winged it!

Step 5: Steaming and sampling
So after two ronds of steaming, and burning the bottom of two pots from not have enough water, I ended up with about 25 pretty looking conkies, 2 that broke while cooking and stuck to the inside of the pot, and 6 that burst a bit out of the leaves. I thought I'd photograph the ugly ducklings of the bunch. Started just after 1pm and finished just before 7pm, with one very messy kitchen. I lay them all out to cool but was hesitant to sample - what if after 6 hours of work, I had made conkies that would either disgust or offend people? This was almost a national dish! Luckily a friend of my roommate Julie, a Bajan, dropped by an sampled one. And I quote: "That's a good conkie." Phew. Fears curbed, I set about dividing them up to give to people in the office, to a few friends and of course, for us! I can't wait to see the reaction of people :)

Now I just need to find some coconut ice cream to top it off - and it will be heavenly!


UPDATE: I brought conkies over to Copper and Agatha's place (where I snorkel, fish and kayak on weekends) and got a really enthusiastic response :) Copper said they were really good, and even said I make conkies better than some Bajans he knows. One of Copper's daughters said she loved it. Left some for Avalon, who was fixing the fishing boat I caught the big fish on. Bringing some to work tomorrow!

Hard to say goodbye

No no, I’m not leaving here any time soon. But I am saying goodbye to a really good friend here, who is really a big reason why I have been able to experience so much of the culture here. Not the time to be selfish, and I really do wish Sam all the best in the UK; you never know when you might see someone again. If the connection I share with a pile of wonderful Americans who I met in Tanzania is any indication, I know that you make the effort to see people you care about – and it’s always more than worth it. Looks like I will need to venture off solo to find more things to do. Or become extremely fluent in Spanish.

Our last weekend hanging out couldn’t have been complete without a pass off of knowledge of how to make the best fire for roasting breadfruit. I can guarantee a beach fire with roasted fish and breadfruit to any island visitors :) I had another surf lesson that went really well. On Friday, I watched this inspiring surf movie Riding Giants about big wave surfing emerging in the U.S. It was absurd! So for Saturday’s lesson, I was probably a little too pumped. After about 30 minutes of paddling around and trying to catch a wave, Sam took pity on me and started helping me out with timing. I’m telling you, I can pop up, ride the wave and pop down – but catching the wave requires reading the ocean. Not so easy!

Other than the surf, I ended up going with Sam up to Speightstown, the most historically significant town in Barbados, where Brits first landed on the island. The coastal winding streets displaying colonial architecture now contrast with modern hotels and resorts. Even though the island is relatively small, the size of Ottawa with less than half of its population, there are still so many places that I haven’t seen yet! And I got my first glimpse of the all-inclusive tourist life and got a chance to use some of their goods! I got my first sailing lesson – though I’m nowhere near ready for a real regatta – and it was really fun just coasting along the beach. After another breadfruit roast, Sam convinced a friend to let me water ski for a few minutes, which made my legs feel like jello. Another tidbit I found out this weekend is that there is a festival going on in Holetown in a few weeks – and there is a 7km afternoon race. Motivation to keep up the running! And to ignore the CONSTANT ice cream truck bells I hear everywhere. I’m telling you, I hear them in my sleep – it’s my official anthem in Barbados!

So this week, I get to learn more about what it feels like on the other end. How it feels to say goodbye. Time to keep things in perspective and make my favourite caveman proud. Time to hone by exploration skills and pretend iza Bajan!

Happy Errol Barrow Day!

Who was this lovely gentleman, you may ask? Errol Barrow was the founding father of Barbados, so why not celebrate his birthday – any excuse for a good, family BBQ Bajan-style! Unfortunately, the UN only gets a certain number of holidays so we had a rainy half-day of work, but as soon as 1pm rolled around, my roommate Melissa and I hopped on a bus to the West Coast, to Roadview, St. Peter, to enjoy the rest of the beautiful day with our friend Sam’s family. With juice and chocolate in tow, we had no idea the home cooking that was awaiting us. Sam had mentioned something about roasting breadfruit and fish, but the wood slotted oven built from sliced scraps would have made any caveman proud! The gist of it is that you build up the oven around the breadfruit, set the thing on fire, and wait for it to fall apart into ashes. Then the veggies are ready. And somewhere in there, you throw in some aluminum-wrapped sweet potato, a whole coconut and seasoned whole fish. While we watched it all be built up and fall apart, we sampled some fresh fried flying fish (tongue twister!) and bonita fish. Yum!

But the best was yet to come. Caveman’s ingenious bonfire yielded amazing roasted breadfruit – which reminded Melissa and I of ugali but better, with a dip of ketchup, pepper sauce and butter. How can you go wrong! And the roasted coconut was really nice as well.
And as the piece de resistance – the roasted fish were out of this and we revenged it right out of the foil. It felt so good and natural to eat stuff right out of the ground and sea. And a lovely sunset dip in the Sea to end off the day. And Saturday had even more down-to-earth cooking after Melissa and I went out to learn to catch big fish. After seeing some crazy looking splashing not so far from the boat, we circled around a few times before I felt a tug. After enlisting some help, I pulled out an 8-pounder – not bad!

Melissa steered the boat for a bit, but I’m not so good at that stuff, so I just played around with some flying fish that we caught earlier – flying fish is the national animal of Barbados and they have very large fins that spread out to allow them to jump out and almost hover in the air for a split second. I guess pretty fun to catch with nets.

And after that excitement, another bonfire was set up and, after guts were removed, roasted the flying fish “in their jackets” and got the 101 on de-boning, taking off the skin and what not to eat on the inside. Taking the skin off and dunking them in the saltwater provides as much seasoning as you need on these babies. Needless to say, I’m eating a lot of fish and loving it.

Caribbean Cricket

Not your grandpa’s 3-day cricket that breaks for afternoon tea. I’m talking about decently exciting 20/20-style where each team bats for 20 overs (think innings where only 6 balls are thrown) and each time runs are scored, dancers are wukking up and people are jumping out their seats and waving 4 or 6-run mini-posters! Overall – a surprisingly fun atmosphere! So Wednesday night Canada was playing Barbados at the Oval downtown, so with a (patient) Bajan friend in tow, I was off to my first match. First off, I was told that cricket wasn’t dissimilar to baseball, except that you only run back and forth in a line with wickets (tall stick things) at either end. But what I didn’t know was that one team bats the full 20 overs (takes about an hour and a half) before the other team takes over.

We arrived a bit late for the 8pm game but it didn’t end up starting until closer to 9 – typical Bajan time. Barbados was up first, so after a barrage of questions about what has going on, I was finally starting to understand. Mostly I just liked cheering and jumping up with everyone else! But the rain wasn’t holding up so the game was interrupted about four times in the first half, so a lot of what I watched was this:

So what do you eat at a cricket match you might ask? Fishcakes with pepper sauce and Banks! I think I might be mildly addicted to fishcakes. It seems like a large number of people from the Canadian ex-pat community came out to the game as well. Here is a highlight of why I was cheering for Barbados and keeping my nationality a little hush-hush:

Coconuts 101

In the spirit of positivity, I really had a great week and a really nice weekend. Of course the week it had its glitches – embarrassing myself in my first Spanish lesson, finding out that more friends have ulterior motives – but work and meetings with Trinidad and Tobago colleagues went well and I even got to present my work on social media at the all staff meeting on Thursday. I was happy with how it went and received a lot of positive feedback, which gave me a bit of natural high the rest of the morning! My weekend started early with a tour of Parliament and Harrison’s Cave in the afternoon. Parliament was cool, just essentially a smaller version of Canada’s Senate and House of Commons, but with all the same silly formalities. The Caves, advertised as a “must see” for tourists in Barbados, was very beautiful but a little too built up. I love seeing natural wonders, in a naturally wonderful place. Glass elevators and fancy Segway trams aside, the winding tunnels of stalactites and stalagmites, with carved waterfalls and calcium deposits made me wonder how Barbados came to be formed geologically – which luckily they showed in a film after the tour.

With the surf not so ideal, I opted to learn a little something about coconuts. Who knew they would be such a complex…fruit? Sam was asked to pick coconuts and do some trimming at an old (and adorable) German lady’s place so I tagged along to get what Sam dubbed a “coconut education.” And now I will bestow my newfound learnings on y’all.

Essentially, there are three main stages that a coconut goes through while it’s on the tree. When the fruit is still young, it’s green, smooth and the coconut water inside will be at its prime and the flesh is really just a gel at this time. And generally you see alcoholic drinks being served in young coconuts. Over the next few months, the coconut starts drying out, becoming more fibrous and getting brown veiny spots on the outside. The water tastes sour or bitter but the flesh inside is getting meaty so it’s apparently at the best for using in coconut bread. Finally, about six months after the youngin’ popped up, the “old” coconut, with most of the water gone, will be ready. After hacking off the outside and middle fibers, the core is what we see, at home, as a coconut – with a hairy, hard, brown shell and white flesh. I had no idea! Part of me really wanted to learn to climb the tree, but Bajans learn from young so I think I will leave that to the professionals.
Topping the rest of the day off with snorkeling, napping on the beach, fish soup and ice cream, I got introduced to the indigenous sport of Barbados. Want to wager a guess? Road tennis! Take the look of a ping-pong tabletop, enlarge it on pavement and combine it with tennis rules and you got road tennis. Apparently the game has been played here for close to 50 years and now a few other nations are jumping in too. I can see the appeal – super cheap to play, you can draw up a court almost anywhere and it’s a pretty good workout. It looks like this:

I should get to practicing some Spanish so that I don’t stick out like a sore thumb in lessons next week!

Hasta luego!

Christmas in Canada

Why would you trade the warmth and beaches of the Caribbean for the cold, barrenness of a Canadian winter?! Are you crazy?!

Apparently so. So now that we’re past a discussion of my sanity, I had a really wonderful and energizing time in Ottawa over Christmas. I have to admit that getting off that plane that first night, I thought I could never be warm again. I definitely have a better appreciation for new Canadians and winter visitors – it was as if my bones were cold too! Needless to say, my weakling ways wore off (mostly) after a few days of being back. I got to enjoy a bit of snow, make new friends and spend some quality time with old ones, reconnect with my family and get my fill of Canadiana – though I forgot to have a poutine!

Seeing friends and family over the holidays was a privilege, something I don’t always get to do when I’m abroad. But this was the first time I actually had two separate lives running parallel and active at the same time!

I couldn’t help but be curious about what roommates and friends in Barbados were doing and get the scoop on what I would be going back to. Don’t get me wrong; there was nowhere else I would rather be than home for the holidays. It was just over in a flash and now I’m back in the swing of my Caribbean life, though there seem to be more challenges than I remember. But my new years ‘resolution’ (not big on the formality of making one) is to seek positivity in my life and be responsible for my own happiness. All that to say: I plan on not letting others affect my ability to enjoy life. There are always people who want to put you down, who treat you as though you are a lower human life form and who see only what they can gain from you.

So here I am, starting my first full week back to work and to life on a small island with an unwavering optimism that, while being tested, is making me feel grounded. Plus, we have UNICEF colleagues from Trinidad and Tobago coming in this week to make sense of our new programme for this year – quite the challenge to merge two offices. And Patrick, my supervisor, hasn’t once called me Julie this year! UPDATE: Scratch that, he did this morning.


Welcome back to Barbados! Looks like everyone is coming for a visit:


Side story from the trip back: On a positive note, while overnighting in Toronto Pearson Airport on my way back here, I helped an elderly Chinese lady who couldn’t speak a word of English to go across terminals to catch a flight to Hong Kong. She sat beside me on the flight from Ottawa and after landing she latched on to my arm and never let go, pointing excitedly at the boarding pass in the pouch around her neck. So without so much as a word, I took her up and down escalators (did I mention this might have been her first time out of China), on moving sidewalks, trying to get to Terminal 3 where international airlines depart from. So we hobbled onto the skytrain and got off in a deserted corridor. It was at that point that my heart sunk. I never checked to see if her baggage was going all the way through! What if her bags were still in Terminal 1?! Luckily the woman at the Cathay Airlines counter could speak with her, and after outfitting her with a wheelchair (why hadn’t I thought of that?) and a pin with her seat number, she told me that indeed her luggage was on the plane. Phew! And I got a heartfelt thank you via the Cathay translator. At least I only had 7 more hours to kill before my morning flight!