Day three of our travels was jam-packed! We started off with a trip to a local school in Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, and we then did a really fun scavenger hunt all around the city.
We woke up early and left around six in the morning with breakfast packed on the bus. The bus ride was about an hour long along with some unexpected traffic. Something that we have learned as the days have gone by is that Martinique lacks traffic lights and busy intersections the way that we may be used to in the United States.
Once we arrived at the school, we were immediately greeted by younger students who were participating in their physical education class. Many of the students were eager to practice their English and greet us in ways that made us more comfortable.
We split into two groups and were sent to a variety of different classes. While both of these groups were with students of similar ages to us, we had different experiences with each subject. The first group went to a French class, which was similar to what we may experience in English class in the U.S. The second group went to a business class where they presented a documentary they have been working on alongside some social media posts.
Afterwards, both groups went to a two-hour long math class. Unfortunately, we left slightly early in order to interact with some of the younger students during lunch time. We were able to eat their typical daily meal which consisted of fish, broccoli, potatoes, and a donut for dessert. After conversing with many of the students, we were able to better understand what their schedules looked like and how it differed from ours. Something surprising we learned was that they have many vacation weeks off throughout the school year.
After our very enthusiastic and unforgettable day at the high school, the bus took us back south to the city (where our bus driver made a fantastic tight turn around a round-a-bout) and we met up with one of our guides, Jessica.
Jessica split us up into four groups and gave us each a randomly chosen name that was also a native flower of the island. She explained how we were doing a scavenger hunt. We were given a single clue and a map. We had to use the clue to find our next destination in the city!
Jessica informed us that each spot we were going to go to had a partnership with JD Agency (the name of the group that is guiding us this week), and they were happy to give us our next clue once we found their locations.
At exactly 1:00 p.m., Jessica set us loose, everyone figuring out their first clue. Each of our groups had a different system with each other to get through all the locations the fastest (for example: while someone solved the puzzles that were included on the clue cards, someone else was figuring out the next location we had to go to).
The four locations (in different orders) were a museum, a library, a lunch spot/cafe, and a theater. At the museum, our clue card told us to take a picture with a cutout of a warrior who was native to the island St. Vincent, another island in the Caribbean. Also at the museum, we had to learn how the only two French countries in the Caribbean are Martinque and Guadeloupe.
In the cafe, the man behind the counter told us about his restaurant; it’s similar to what we know in New Jersey as CAVA, a build-your-own rice bowl system. The library had such a beautiful interior – at the top there were stained glass domes and on the sides of the walls there were famous authors’ names. We had to do a crossword using their names; this was a tricky one for some groups.
The theater was named after Aimé Césaire, a famous politician and mayor of the city, who was a socialist, book author, and poet. Some of his poems were engraved on the steps that led up to the room that had his belongings and his office.
Some of the French speakers in our group today felt very proud of themselves for being able to communicate with the students and the people they saw along their mission of the scavenger hunt. We all thought that the people on this island are very accepting and very expressive, even when they had no idea what we were talking about in our broken French-English gibberish – we were still able to communicate! Today was our most event-filled day, with two big activities and so many people to see and so many things to learn about this tropical island!