Sweet, Sweet Country

During the Christmas holidays, Aunt Kelly always comes for my sister and me in Kingstown, St Vincent, to take us to her home in the country*. We sometimes stop at Orange Hill Estate and take a tour of the farm and great house there. Mr Joseph, one of the farmers, always rewards us with a dragon fruit if we can spell the name of any fruit he points at.

When we go to Sandy Bay, we get many types of fruits from Aunt Kelly's neighbours, especially the older women in the community. They always say we are strong and fit. They often tell us that we should continue to eat go, glow and grow foods to stay that way. When we visit Mama Silvia, Aunt Kelly's church sister, at the Fresh Foods Market, she always squeezes my sister Joanne's round cheeks. We think it's so funny.

Mama Silvia loves when we visit her. She gives us lots of tangerines, oranges, mangoes, breadfruit and bananas. She says if we eat lots of fruits and vegetables, our skin will glow and we will be the healthiest children at Kingstown Primary School.

The many fruits are sometimes sweet and sometimes sour and always delicious. When we return home, we share them with our parents and tell them about our wonderful time in sweet, sweet country.

*country ‐ a word or term used to refer to a rural area.

Questions related to this story can be found in the Carlong Integrated Assessment Papers (CIAP), Language Arts, Book 3, on page 22.