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| The steaming lava in the rain. The volcano erupted over 4 years ago. |
Sunday, we went to the East of the island to see ‘la lave’. That was my word of the day, after seeing the amazingly impressive volcano ‘lava’ that descends into the sea on the East coast. There is an active, very large, volcano in the East of this island...which, from what I understand, is responsible for creating this little rocky dot in the Indian Ocean. Around this huge beast of a volcano, are various other little peaks. One of these little peaks erupted in 2007, spewing lava down to the sea. Nobody lives in that area, so nobody was hurt but it was the process after the eruption that is most impressive for a volcanic virgin like myself! The lava covered a large part of the road that runs around the whole coast of the island, it was 25m deep in places, but in other parts, it was hollow underneath the apparently solid rock. This evidently causes huge dangers for rebuilding a road...not to mention the intense heat that the lava produces. It took 8 months after the eruption before cars could drive on the newly made road...before this point, tyres would explode due to the heat from the lava. Evidently, the depth of the lava had to be tested too, in case of any lurking hollow craters underneath the apparently safe road. The result today is very spectacular. On Sunday, it was raining, even today, 4 and a half years after the eruption, I could feel the heat from the rock and it steamed impressively when the cool rain hit the rock.
I also visited the beach in Saint Leu, on the West coast with family friends of Nathalie. I’ve been told that the safest places to swim here are in lagoons. A barrier coral reef stops any famous ‘requins’ (sharks - there was another attack yesterday, the shark broke a canoe in half and left the man completely unharmed!) It also serves as a wave break so the water is calm and very swimmable inside the barrier. So it was at Saint Leu that I had my first snorkelling experience on the island. Beautiful coral with all kinds of brightly coloured fish, with (a little too much) sun on my back made for a very relaxing swim...when I finally surfaced, Thierry, Nathalie’s husband, asked me how I found the snorkelling and he said that actually the lagoon at Saint Pierre is apparently much more impressive!
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| Grand Galet Waterfall: all the water comes out of the rock through a series of tunnels.
My ongoing challenge of finding accommodation continues! Nathalie has very kindly just told me today that she’s happy for me to stay here with her until the end of October. Yesterday I found an incredible apartment in Terre Sainte, the old fishing village on the other side of the river to the ‘capital of the south’; Saint Pierre. Slap bang in front of the sea, mezzanine bedroom, completely furnished and a very reasonable price...I was très contente! It’s available from January, so I’ve booked it for the second half of my time here. Until Christmas, however, I’m still trying to find something. With about 85 assistants on the island, everyone searching at the same time, not enough properties available at a reasonable price, it’s a bit of a competition! But I’m very grateful as I’ve been very lucky with my two mentors at each school, who’ve been so helpful and welcoming.
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As for my French, I think it’s getting better! Nathalie knows exactly when I’m tired, she jokes with me every evening as I can’t form proper sentences in French in the evenings! Anything important has to be said in the morning when I’m awake and my brain is working properly, by the evening...I’m not so understandable! But, it’s great because I basically speak French from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. Although I’m getting to the stage where my English brain doesn’t work very well either now! Nathalie enjoys learning new words in English, since she’s an English teacher, half the time, I can’t think of the correct word to teach her in English. It bodes well for my own lessons where I have to teach teenagers! But Thierry laughing at my accent or having a joke about a ‘faux pas’ is what language learning is all about, for me. Going back to ‘school’ next year is going to be difficile!
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