HOMEWORK Q & A

ANTIGUA CUSTOMS

Marriage and Family

Parents and churches encourage marriage in preference to other types of relationships. Weddings are occasions for special celebrations. The church is filled with flowers and other decorations, people wear formal dress, and after the service there is plenty of food, music, and dancing.

The extended family forms the heart of Antiguan and Barbudan society. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles often raise children for parents who live out of the country for economic reasons. Families are large and living space is often shared between nuclear units. No matter what the living arrangements, family ties are strong and there are frequent gatherings. In Antigua, people like to joke that everybody is really related to each other if one traces the line back far enough.

Children are highly prized and bearing or fathering them is valued by all. The traditional two-parent family is typical, but it is not uncommon for a young unmarried woman to have children and live with her parents. In such cases the baby’s father provides financial support and is encouraged by both families to be involved in the child’s life. Half-siblings live with their mother, and it is not uncommon for a woman to be the head of the household. Men may have children with different women and never marry, and some women choose to remain single parents.

Eating

Tropical fruits (coconuts, mangoes, and pumpkins) and vegetables (yams and potatoes) grow well in Antigua, and many people keep small gardens for growing vegetables, but most food is imported. There is some fishing, but hotels are increasingly expanding into the spawning areas of the mangrove wetlands, threatening future catches.

The basic diet consists of rice, “peas” (beans, usually red beans or white pigeon peas), meat (usually chicken, pork, beef, or goat), and fish, plus fruits and vegetables. During mango season, it is not uncommon for people to “turn their pots down” (cook less) and eat large amounts of fruit. At Christmas time, bright red sorrel fruit is mixed with sugar and spices in a delicious tea. Antiguans boast that their local pineapple (called Antigua Black) is the sweetest in the world.

A popular dish is seasoned rice (rice, peas, vegetables, and meat with seasonings). Fungee is a bread made with maize meal and okra. Doucana is made with coconut, sweet potatoes, flour, sugar, and spices, and is served with spicy saltfish (dried cod). Pepper pot, a spicy vegetable stew, is prepared in many different ways, the recipe varying from home to home. Specialties include Johnnycakes (sweet fried dumplings), souse (pickled pigs’ feet), and “black pudding” (blood sausage). Fast food is making its way into the national diet, and sidewalk vendors sell roasted maize or peanuts as snacks.

During the workweek people start the day with a simple breakfast of fruit, porridge, or eggs. Most workers stop for a full meal at midday, either in the workplace, at restaurants, or at home. Boys and girls usually help with cooking at home. “Coal pots” (clay ovens) are often used to cook food; they are placed outside the kitchen. Saturday is a busy day for chores and errands, so people might buy barbecued chicken or fried fish at the market for the main meal. Evening meals are light if the main meal is eaten at midday.

On Sundays the family has a large breakfast. Later, grand preparations precede an evening meal for members of the extended family at which roast pork, lamb, or beef is served. There is usually more than enough food, some of which is given to the relatives of those who could not come. After fishers have returned with a good catch, a pot of “fish water” (fish stew) is often shared among family and friends. At church picnics or celebrations many cooks cooperate on a large scale, serving such dishes as “goat water,” a spicy stew made with goat meat.

Socializing

Antiguans and Barbudans are generally informal in greeting one another. “How are you?” or “Hi” is common, but friends also use variations such as “What’s up?” or “How you do?” or “Alright?” The response to “Alright?” is “Okay, Okay.” The general “Good morning,” “Good day,” “Good evening,” and “Good night” are spoken at appropriate times of the day. People do not like to hear their names called out in public, so a discreet “psssst” is often used to get someone’s attention. A quick “hey” or “yo” is also common between friends.

Most Antiguans and Barbudans address friends by first names, but an employer is addressed by a title (such as “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” “Miss”), and nonsocial exchanges between people (such as between a customer and a shopkeeper) are kept on this level. Children and young people address their elders and relatives as “Aunt,” “Uncle,” or with an appropriate familial title.

Male friends use various hand-slapping, fist-touching, and thumb-locking handshakes as well as extended handshakes. A brief conversation might be conducted with hands together. A man waits for a woman to extend her hand before shaking it.

Antiguans and Barbudans use the term lime or liming for the time spent relaxing and chatting with each other. Most visits occur on weekends or after work. Appointments or plans are rarely made; people sitting in the yard or on the porch are usually willing to chat. Much socializing occurs in public, perhaps as the result of a chance encounter, or among men meeting to repair a fishnet or women who are washing clothes or shopping. Neighbors often socialize while preparing meals.

When calling at someone’s home, a person often approaches the gate and shouts “Inside!” The occupant then comes out to greet the person and the two may spend the entire visit on the porch. Friends or relatives will often be invited inside. It is polite to offer light refreshment such as fruit juice or herbal tea. Visitors often carry fresh fruit from trees in their yards to share with hosts. Visits can be of any length, and hosts rarely ask guests to leave. Whole families may visit, especially among relatives. More formal entertaining—for example, to celebrate someone’s birthday or graduation—is usually by invitation; on such occasions guests usually bring an appropriate gift.

Recreation

Antiguans and Barbudans have a passion for sports. Cricket is the most popular, with both organized matches and informal games played during the November-to-May season. Antiguans are very proud that the last two captains of the West Indies cricket team, Viv Richards and Richie Richardson, are from Antigua. Soccer and basketball are popular the rest of the year. Girls are less involved with sports than boys, but they compete in netball (similar to basketball) leagues. Water sports remain the domain of tourists and some of the upper class; most Antiguans and Barbudans do not swim. At beach parties, they “sea bathe” in shallow water.

Antiguans and Barbudans enjoy music and dancing; anyone with a good sound system can get a party going at a restaurant or picnic. Church choirs (with mostly women as members) are numerous, and they practice regularly. Other social activities for women usually center on the home or their children’s activities.

Dominoes and draughts (a form of checkers) are popular with men and boys, who play on tables, set up under trees or on porches. A direct link to the nation’s African heritage is the strategy game Warri. Complicated stratagems are required to win the game by capturing the opponent’s 24 seeds (four each in six cups).

POLAND CUSTOMS

Marriage and Family

Young people who start work after the minimum required schooling tend to marry earlier than those who continue their education. Newly married couples often live with their parents for a few years and may be given other financial assistance.

Urban families usually have one or two children, while rural families often have three or four. In most households, children are given considerable responsibility from an early age. Because both parents usually work outside the home, the children often prepare their own breakfast and go to school by themselves. Older children clean the home, sometimes cook meals, and often care for younger siblings. The economic situation of most families demands the equal involvement of both parents in raising the family and working outside the home, although women still take most responsibility for looking after the home. The majority of women have jobs outside the home. The elderly are often cared for by their adult children.

 

Eating

Because work and school begin early, many Poles have only a light breakfast with coffee, tea, or cocoa and sometimes cereal, taking a sandwich along to eat at 10 or 11 am. The main meal is served sometime between 2 and 4 pm, depending on what time people return from work—people who are not at work or school would eat the main meal earlier and would not have a mid-morning snack. The meal usually consists of soup, meat or fish, salad, and potatoes. Fruit juice compote, pastries, and ice cream are a few popular desserts. The compote, usually homemade, is a combination of fruit juice, fruit, and water. A light supper follows around 7 or 8 pm.

Some common dishes include pierogi (dumplings with cream cheese and potatoes), uszka (a kind of ravioli) served with borscht, bigos (sausage, mushrooms, and cabbage), braised pork and cabbage, poppy-seed desserts, and cheesecake. Bread is purchased several times a week, sometimes even daily. Bread, dairy products, and canned fish are plentiful, and pork is more popular than beef. With the switch to a market economy, more food in greater variety is available, but prices are much higher and many families spend a large proportion of their income on food.

Poles eat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. It is good manners to keep both hands (not the elbows) above the table during the meal, and not to start eating until everyone has been served and the host or head of the family has begun. People tend to talk relatively little while eating, but it is usual to stay at the table for conversation once the meal is finished. At both formal and informal dinners, the host will often propose a toast to the guest, and the guest is expected to reciprocate.

 

Socializing

Adults generally shake hands upon meeting. Occasionally men still follow the tradition of kissing a woman's hand. When introducing a man, one uses Pan (“Mr.”) before the last name; for a woman, the term is Pani (“Mrs.”). A professional person’s title is used before his or her last name. Only the person’s title is used in formal conversation or in business. First names are used only by mutual consent between adult friends, but teenagers and children are called by their first names. Women often greet close female friends by kissing their left cheek, then right cheek, then left again. Some common Polish greetings include Dzień dobry, which means “Hello” or “Good morning”; Dobry wieczór (“Good evening”); and Do widzenia (“Good-bye”).

Unannounced visits among friends and relatives are common, particularly in rural areas. More formal, longer visits are arranged in advance. Poles often invite friends over for dinner, or just for cake and tea, and they like to have formal parties on special occasions. When invited for even a short visit, it is customary to bring a gift of an odd number of flowers, which should be unwrapped before being presented. Guests may be entertained at a kawiarnia, or café, which offers a variety of French pastries in addition to its own specialties; such visits often last several hours. However, it is more common to invite guests to meals at home, due to the long-standing tradition of entertaining at home and because of the expense of eating out. Because Poles generally go to work early in the morning, evening visits on weekdays do not usually extend beyond 11 pm. On weekends, however, guests stay later.

 

Recreation

Soccer is very popular in Poland; the people also participate in track and field events, cycling, table tennis, skiing, basketball, volleyball, and various individual sports. Bridge is a favorite card game, and Poles enjoy socializing with friends and relatives, watching television, going to the cinema, and attending concerts and other cultural events. In the fall, people go into the woods to pick mushrooms. The mushrooms are then dried and may be used to make uszka for Christmas.