Hullabaloo Travels

Jounen Kwéyòl (Creole Day) was celebrated this weekend in St. Lucia. It is a celebration of the Creole heritage that celebrates and tries to preserve the language & rituals that are a part of the local Caribbean history. We started the day by driving to Alex & Philippa’s house at 7:30 AM. We packed in Sabrina & Kelvin also and drove up to Desrameaux for their version of the celebration. Breakfast at a roadside stand (Peter & Skeeter’s mom & dad’s home) included salt fish, boiled cornbread, plantain & Spice (a potent rum that is infused with local spices). After breakfast, we drove up to the settlement and got the last parking spot before the police blocked the road to thru traffic. A short walk was guided by the blaring speakers with island music. Roadside stands were cooking and selling Creole dishes. Pigs were hanging, Octopus was boiling, corn was roasting & a demonstration of log sawing was a feature attraction. We were walking up the road to see what we could find out about the promised live birth by a local woman. It was supposed to happen on the main street for Jounen Kwéyòl. Never did find that, but we did watch them pressing cane by hand to get sugar cane juice to mix with 160 proof rum. I got to bounce up & down on the pole while a man fed the cane under the press to squeeze out the juice. The work was worth it as we were rewarded with the sweet rum drink. We lasted till about 1:00 PM & returned home to pick up the freshly painted swim platform. Spent the afternoon mounting all the hardware.