Cane Bay Fish

Atlantic Needle Fish

Wednesday was not happening for the blog. i've been collecting a lot of underwater pics from Cane Bay and around the island and decided to publish some of them. This morning was one of those sparkly days that just makes you fall in love all over again. i swear the fish know us.

Atlantic Needle Fish

i have been trying for months to get photos of Atlantic Needle Fish and finally got two acceptable photos. Not the best but not the worst either. These guys usually swim in schools along the top of the water and don't let you get very close. i suppose if i had more elaborate equipment the quality would be better but i really don't like being encumbered with a lot of stuff, especially while swimming. These are representative of what we see when a school is in.

When trying to take photos i'm bobbing,

Really unusually blue Blue Tang

the fish are moving,

Juvenile Red Band Parrot Fish

the ocean is jostling and it is a miracle

Yellow Goatfish

that some of them are clear. This guy has these whiskers that he uses to forage for food. He is another fish that has been making me a victim for months.  He lurks around sandy areas, probably hears my camera and puts on a sensational display of the use of his whiskers. But does he leave them out long enough for me to shoot...nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Yellow Goatfish

In fact this morning he appeared to be mocking me after i'd chased him for forever. Someday i will have a delightful capture of his whiskers. The Butterfly Fish are also pretty elusive. There are three kinds

Banded Butterfly Fish

the Banded,

Foureye Butterfly Fish

the Foureye,

Foureye Butterfly Fish

and the Spotfin. Usually these little guys swim in lovers pairs. i actually hear myself thinking that they should stop trying to sensor my brazen attempts to publish their hypnotic beauty and hold still.

Spotfin Butterfly Fish

But they are proven evaders...defying my fearless pursuit.  Not only do you hardly ever see them but when you do they delight in sensational avoidance behavior. Someday i will have a better pic.

Black Durgons

The other guys that are also hard to photograph are the Black Durgons or Triggerfish. When you get really close to them, which is hard to do, they have this really fine wondrous yellow coloring that pops out. It is barely visible on the fish at the top of the photo because they hardly ever expose it.

Sea Cucumber

Sea Cucumbers aren't fish but they are pretty stunning and worthy of display. They spend most of their time on the bottom but Art brought this one up so we could get a closer look.  Like cats they are guaranteed to land just right even after twisting and turning on the way back down after release.

Whitespotted Filefish

Whitespotted Filefish

Sometimes the Whitespotted Filefish provocatively flashes its spots and sinful colors. You wouldn't think it possible that this could be the same fish but it is.

Spotted Trunkfish

The Spotted Trunkfish always looks so tantalizing how many out there would try to remain inconspicuous enough to watch it go about its routine? i'm still startled by the new things i keep seeing.

Peacock Flounder

All these fish that camouflage themselves exude mystery.

Stoplight Parrot Fish

Even after all these years i doubt the word boring would ever be used to describe a day swimming here on St. Croix.

Christmas Tree

PS i purposefully left out the eye-popping turtles that inhabit our waters...maybe someday they will get their own blog.

Blue Tang

See ya next week...double click the pics for a better view.

St. Croix's Agriculture Fair 2016

Line up for Armstrong's ice-cream

Food and drink

is really important when you go to the Ag. Fair.

But knowing where to get the best can sometimes create a bit of a muddle.

Booth 28...best goat stew, seafood kallaloo, saltfish and johnny cakes.

A friend and myself usually buy two or three seafood kallaloo's that we then share. This way we can figure out who has the tastiest.

We listen to music while we eat and then stroll past the booths.

At the far end

we check out the plants and produce.

Then outside for the farm animals.

This year had some lovely cows,

sheep,

goats,

pigs and

the

exotic

birds. The chickens were well represented and i wonder how many parents will later wish

they hadn't bought those cute little chicks.

The drumming by this group was pretty outstanding;

they put on a great show in the field.

Some of the

displays were a kick

and just checking everybody out

is always fun. Ag fair was good this year and i'm looking forward to next year already.

See ya next week.

Crucian or English?

Like it or not communication is one of the most profound activities we practice on a daily basis. How we communicate is intimately connected with the language we first learned to speak at home.

Heidegger claims language is the “House of Being” but if i were to try and talk Crucian i would not be at home. If i were to write in Crucian i would not be at home…granted i have learned to understand it but i’m useless trying to communicate in it and i’m definitely not at home speaking or writing it.
 

i’ve been thinking about this a lot because i tutor young adults whose first language is Crucian or Spanish and not English. They, unlike me, are not at home using English to study, learn or even speak. They speak to me in Crucian, they ask questions in Crucian, they look for direction in Crucian but then i have the audacity to ask them to write their essays in English.

One of my devoted students yesterday asked me why i didn’t speak Crucian. i told her i felt silly trying to speak Crucian, i wasn’t comfortable etc. She first asked me how long i had lived here then she dared me by saying, “But you understand it why don’t you speak?” i admitted i did understand and had no problem listening.  But them to give her an example of how awful i sound i asked her to say a sentence and i would repeat it. She did, i mimicked her, she cracked up and i said see…i’m terrible.

i'm a terrible Crucian speaker in the same way that she struggles with writing and speaking English. It doesn’t come naturally, she wants to write the way she talks but she can’t if she wants to get a high school diploma. i'd like to talk Crucian but its a real risk for me to even open my mouth and try...i'd feel like a fraud.

Students on St. Croix are required to write standard English, read in standard English, express themselves in standard English and excel doing it even though their daily discourse at home and school occurs in standard Crucian.

So think about it, most students on St. Croix are actually doing all their studying in a foreign language. In fact teachers that are from the islands teach in Crucian but expect the work to be done in English. How confusing is this?
 

i’ve been grappling with this for a long while because i believe that an entire student population is at a real disadvantage when it comes to learning. English is not their first language. They don’t speak it at all if they are not required to interact with someone who does and even then they don’t speak it. Why should they? Their language is Crucian not English.

There are no books written in Crucian except for a dictionary that i know of…but i bet if there were they would blow us all out of the water.
 
i wonder, and maybe some of you do too, if the low scores we continue to witness island wide are more connected to learning in a foreign language?

See ya next week

Mardi Croix...St. Croix 2016

Mardi Croix

has become

a lovely tradition

on the

North Shore

of St. Croix.

Vendors, paraders

and party goers

turn out

to watch

the only

parade

that travels

alongside

one

of the

best

beaches

on

the

island.

There was

a large

turnout

this year

and the

mix

was fun. The food and drinks were abundant. The music made

your bumsie go

and everyone

looked like

they were

enjoying

themselves.

See ya Wednesday.