Guinep, fi tru!

So perhaps some people are wondering, 'where did their cat get that weird name?' Blame it on the guinep fruit. This was one of the first new fruits I ate in Jamaica, as it was peak season when we first arrived. It has an interesting flavor, sweet with a kind of sour tinge. Here are some guineps I bought today, the first ones I've seen this year. They are just coming back into season now, which made me think OH MY GOD!! I've been here for a year already!
The guinep looks a little like a lime on the outside, but the skin isn't so waxy. Inside it is peach color, kind of gelatinous, like a leechee nut. That is the edible part. Then is the large white pit. Honestly there isn't much to eat on a guinep. You just peel off the skin, stick it in your mouth and suck the pulp part until it's just seed, which you dash 'way. Here is kitty guinep nibbling on the fruits. She didn't seem to like her namesake very much flavor wise, but she did bat around that stray one in the back for awhile.
It's been very hot here recently, even up in Malvern where it is normally much cooler, due to elevation, than the rest of Jamaica. Of course I work in Santa Cruz, which is know throughout Jamaica as 'hot as hell'. Literally. This is mainly because it is below sea level. I find it strange that I've now worked in two places that are below sea level. New Orleans and Santa Cruz. Of course New Orleans was far superior, if only because you have more than one lunch option. In Santa its chicken, rice and pea. That is the standard Jamaican dish, sometimes you can get the chicken baked, not fried, and that is a real treat. But you have to watch out because when you ask for it baked they are likely to try and give you chicken back, which is all bone. Jamaicans like to eat chicken bones. I was horrified at first and remember screaming, rudely, 'ewww we don't even feed chicken bones to dogs in the states'. But here everyone eats them, even little children. Many people don't want the breast because it has too much meat! Skinny women seem especially fond of chicken bones and there are big debates at work over whether bones are really a nutritionally necessary. You can guess where I stand on that.
Well I had some visitors yesterday! I haven't seen the girls in a long time because they have moved into a new house and don't come this way to go home from school anymore. Yesterday I picked them up from school and we went to register Cassanique at Munro Prep. Munro Prep is a very good school, it is probably the best school I've worked at. I'm always amazed at the difference in knowledge when I go there. The kids are so smart, and they aren't shy like the public schools. With smaller classrooms, young energetic teachers and real teaching equipment, it is an excellent opportunity for a child. I would really like to send Cassanique there next year. She will be entering fourth grade and getting towards a crucial time when her future is decided. I'm sure I've mentioned the GSAT before. This is a test given to all children in grade 6. It determines where you go to high school, also IF you get to go to high school, or if you go to all-age. All-age ends at grade 9, and most children don't matriculate on from that point. They are simply finished with school.
So we are trying to raise funds for Cassanique to go to Munro Prep, where she can do well and when she takes the GSAT she can get into a good high school. There is really no other future for children in this country. Two of her older siblings have already gone to all-age and they are only functionally literate. Let me know if you would like to help. We appreciate your support.