Mystery Holes- Solved!
Warning: The following is not for the faint of heart. I am not sure if I want to write this for fear no one will come to visit me while I am here, but since I’ve set up the suspense, I must follow through. The mystery holes belong to small, cute, white-feathered ground doves that chirp pleasantly and are easily tamed. They are in their summer feeding grounds now but will be returning to the island soon. I wish that were the case.
The moment I uttered the question to my neighbor N, I knew I wouldn’t like the answer. “Why, those holes are where tarantulas live!” was her reply. “But they only come out if it rains.” she added quickly as she saw the look of disbelief and discomfort on my face. Now, I’m not an arachniphobe by any means but I’ve never been around spiders any bigger than a daddy longlegs let alone ones with venomous fangs or ones that have more hair than me.
The skeptic in me thought maybe N didn’t know what she was talking about as she has only lived here for 25 years, so the next time it rained, I grabbed a flashlight and cautiously tip toed out into the yard to have a look for myself. The rain brings out the tree frogs and I saw many of these small frogs on the grass making their pleasant chirping calls. “That’s really who makes the holes!” I tried to convince myself. “Tree frogs that live in the ground! Yes! That’s it! It has to be!”
But then, I scanned my flashlight to see if I could find a frog in a hole and the beam caught what I didn’t want to see. There, at the opening of one of the holes, were the spindly, hairy legs of a tarantula reaching out into the night. Its little eyes caught the glare of the flashlight and in a moment it was gone. I came upon another hole and saw a second spider peering out. The third sighting convinced me that N was right as this time it appeared that the spider was retreating into its den with a frog! So much for my theory!
The next day, N called to say here brother-in-law had dug up a tarantula’s hole while gardening and captured the occupant. I grabbed my camera and snapped away at the slow moving spider. N went on to say that they are not a danger to people. They tend to stay out of houses especially those up on stilts like mine. She did say that they like to crawl into shoes and that’s how she was bitten once. “Just like a bee sting!” she grinned. So now, I am in the habit of knocking my shoes together before tucking in my tender, tantalizing toes. That’s all you have to do, as well, when you come to visit so don’t worry.
I am still interested in getting the croquet set and thought it would be a neat challenge to play barefoot croquet in the rain with headlamps. Anyone game?
Thursday’s competition was between 8 semi-finalists from Antigua and two from our sister island of Barbuda. My students carried books with them to keep them occupied during the down times. I had some time to chat with some of the other teachers who accompanied their students and was pleased at the commonalities that we share as colleagues despite our varied experiences.
Thursday’s reading selection was from the newspaper and, therefore, did not have as much opportunity for dramatic expression. It did have more challenging vocabulary and many of the contestants stumbled over words such as: ‘Halcyon’, ‘distinguished’, ‘officiated’, and ‘mediation’. Our E performed valiantly and in the end tied for third place with a student from Piggots Primary School earning herself a trip to the island wide finals on Friday. Yet another field trip for our class?
The principal and I agreed that three days out of school would be too much for the class and so E went on Friday with her teacher from last year. We anxiously awaited the news and tried to find the contest on the radio where it was supposedly being broadcast. Soon after lunch, one of the girls shouted, “There’s E!” and the whole class piled out the door to greet her as she came across the courtyard. A smile of relief was on her face as she announced that she did not win but came in second by one point! We all showered her with comments that showed how proud we were of her and her efforts. The class is now excited about holding a school-wide reading competition based on what we had seen.
On Tuesday we reboarded the bus for the trip to the House of Culture. We arrived early and then had to wait for a while before all the student groups from the island joined us. Eight different schools were competing and all wore their full dress uniforms. Soon, the MC introduced all 10 competitors from Zones 3 and 4 as well as the no-nonsense panel of judges comprised of retired school teachers.
All competing students were ushered to a room out of earshot of the podium, then entered one at a time, stood on a cinder block riser and read the prescribed piece with as much effort as they could muster. Our classmate did a wonderful job reading the story about a child with a bad case of hiccups who looked to her parents for help. E read with great expression and brought a round of giggles when she replicated the actual hiccups in a high, shrill voice.
The last reader finished and the judges took time to tally their scores. My class was getting itchy after sitting for so long without moving. Finally the MC announced the 4 winners who would advance to the semi finals on Thursday. We were ecstatic to learn that E was selected. Back to school for another round of quick permission slips and talks with the principal and E’s parents to plan for the next unannounced field trip.
Mystery Holes
My lovely cottage with the view here has a wide green lawn that slopes gently downhill away from the veranda. There are a few flowering shrubs around the perimeter and a large dildo cactus (true name, for real!) in the middle. I’ve thought it would be a great spot for a challenging game of croquet so I’ve been keeping an eye out for a set.
Throughout the lawn are a series of perfectly round holes the size of a quarter. There are one or two of them every ten square feet. The curious mind that I possess had me peering down into one of them recently trying to figure out who or what had created it. I stomped lightly around the hole hoping to rouse out an occupant but to no avail. There are many small lizards here and land crabs as well and maybe they could be responsible. Stay tuned as I work on the mystery.
In the third week of a new teaching job here, I was approached by the office administrator, who informed me of an island-wide reading competition for students in grades four and five. The best oral readers from all of the primary schools in Antigua were invited to a series of ‘read-offs’ where students would be given a portion of some unforeseen text, allowed 30 seconds to read it to themselves and then read it aloud for a panel of judges who award points for pronunciation, attention to punctuation, dialogue, expression and rate of delivery. The best oral readers are to succeed through local semi-finals, advance to the island wide finals and then travel to Dominica to compete against the best readers from all of the English speaking Caribbean.
With the help of last year’s grade four teacher, I was able to identify the best fifth grade reader to enter the contest. Forms were filled out and the next day we were informed that the entire class would be invited by the Ministry of Education to attend the competition and root for our classmate and a bus would be provided at no cost. What could be better than an unplanned field trip! The class was very excited. After a flurry of permission slips and a quick practice session with E, we were ready to head to the ‘House of Culture’ for Friday’s competition.
On Friday morning, we had a wonderful assembly at school to observe the World Day of Peace and soon after were called to the front office to board the bus to the House of Culture. When my group of 16 excited fifth graders in full white and blue uniforms entered the bus, we were greeted by children in brown and beige plaid uniforms from the Buckley’s Primary School. When we arrived at the House of Culture, we were informed that the competition was postponed because there was no current- the power was out- and we would be contacted when the event would be rescheduled. No worries, this is Antigua and back on the bus we piled and finished off the day in ordinary fashion.
