School's out for summer...dum de dum de dum

Yup, that's it. Osh had his final (half) day at school today and doesn't go back until 1 September. He had Monday off (the Queen's Birthday, although ironically although Mexican Independence (cinco de mayo) and 4th July and Thanksgiving all warrant special events in the local hostelries HRH gets no such special treatment!) and then just half days this week.

Last Friday was the school's Mass (one at the beginning and end of term) and Osh behaved well, the kids all sang heartily but I'm sure the reading for the day (any woman who looks at another man commits adultery etc) was somewhat beyond them (!). They finished off with Salve Regina which I've not sung in years and I was shamed by the kids who all sang it word perfect from beginning to end without a hymn book!

Tuesday was taken up with a birthday party for one of his classmates - the second such party in as many weeks. Wednesday was prize giving and a little play. Osh had been given the part of the crocodile and Ms Ocampo asked me to make him a costume. Given his usual reluctance to take part in these events she clearly felt unwilling to dedicate the time to making his costume for fear that it would all be in vain. So last weekend I constructed a fabulous crocodile head (suitably large enough to hide his face so he didn't have to look at the audience). I needed to get to work (more later) and instinct told me that he'd do much better if I wasn't in the audience. I was right. I arrived to get him at noon to discover that not only had he been given an achievement award for PE and Art, but he'd done exactly as directed in the play too! Smiles all around. Thursday was more fun and games and when I collected him from school today the place looked like a bomb had gone off in it: toys everywhere and water too!

Osh thinks it is very cool to finish school a good 3 weeks (and more) before his old English class mates. We have about 2 weeks before we leave for Canada and then the UK and I'm hoping to get him some sailing lessons in before we leave. Our first task, however, is to enter Dave in the Dog Show.

The Turks and Caicos Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has it's annual dog show tomorrow and Dave (a very adorable potcake) is going to be entered by me and Osh. Tim (Dave's owner) has gone to Canada for a week so we are looking after her (yup, she is a she and those of you that have ever seen The League of Gentlemen will understand the Dave reference, for the rest of you, just nod and and say 'Oh, Ah and fancy'!). We are taking her to the beach this evening for a romp and just hope she doesn't get her lovely glossy coat tooooo messed up for tomorrow. A potcake is the name for the local breed of dog. They are called potcakes because they were fed the caked on remains from the cooking pots, the island has a considerable problem with feral dogs (potcakes and mixed breeds) and the TCSPCA works had to spay and neuter them. Dave was a rescue potcake.

In other news: I've got myself a little volunteer work at the Dept. for Environment and Coastal Resources indexing the many articles that have been printed in the island's magazines on environmental and archaeological matters. This is great work: I had to tweak the current database, I get to sit in an air conditioned office for hours reading articles and chat to Brian Rigg who used to manage the museum on Grand Turk and is an endless source of fascinating knowledge about the islands. Brian is a master of all trades and embroiled me in a snake pickling exercise on my first day in the job! There are plenty of pygmy boas on the islands (about the size of a pencil) but fewer and fewer rainbow boas which can grow up to 5-6 feet long. They are not poisonous but a sizeable chunk of the population here are absolutely terrified of snakes and will kill them at first sight. This particular snake had risen into the air on the teeth of a bulldozer on one of the construction sites a couple of months ago. Fortunately for the snake, all the workers ran a mile and one man called Brian to report that they'd found this snake (about 4' long). Unfortunately, the snake had a huge gash in its neck which was sewn up by the local vet. Snakey was fine until 2 weeks ago when he finally succumbed (to his injuries? no idea) and shuffled off his mortal coil. Brian and I pickled the snake in alcohol to preserve him....pictures below.

Summer is well and truly cooking at the moment - the temp. drops to about 30 degrees at night indoors and is up to about 36 during the day (way hotter outside of course!). But tomorrow is the Summer Solstice and as of tomorrow night the nights start drawing in (hurray)...ie gradually less and less time for the sun to bake the walls of the house cooking us slowly inside!