 Hello, good evening and welcome to your favorite show on national television, Crossroads, brought to you by the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports and it forms part of their virtual youth development program. As always, I am your host, Karim Nelson, joined by Jacques Wooding and a few other lovely guests this evening. Of course, you know, we're always having a packed schedule here on Crossroads and this week is no different. I hope my outfit says a little bit about what we are doing on Crossroads today. Our theme is youth and creole. So expect a lot of young people and expect a lot of creole, although we will not be doing the entire show in creole and I say that is unfortunate because Karim and I need to brush up on our creole lessons. But of course, those are things we will be speaking about in this evening show. So thank you so much for being here with us. Of course, Karim, take the floor, introduce all of us guests. All right, so we have a creole themed episode and we're going to be speaking about youth and creole. So tonight we're joined by so many hats. I don't even know which one to use. Youth advocate. Creole advocate as well. Creole advocate as well, Jakub Nesto. So if you want to tell the people who you are, just a short intro. Good night. My name is Jakub Nesto. I am the former Caricom Youth Ambassador, current USA Youth Ambassador. As you said, I've heard many hats when it comes to representing Senmush on an international level. And I do a lot of advocacy when it comes to marginalize youth, youth at risk, the LGBTQI community, children with special needs. When you have special needs, I would say differently abled persons. And I've done it all, sustainable development. I've really built my portfolio as a young person in development. Amazing. And of course, that is exactly what Crossroads is about, identifying young people like yourself who are doing so much and forming that bridge in which people can identify them and know, you know, we have young people working hard in St. Lucia. With everything you've mentioned, it's important to note that, of course, you're a fluent Creole speaker. So it's only fair to imagine that while wearing all those hats, you've been able to utilize the Creole language to broaden the number of people you're able to communicate with on these important issues. Yes, for sure. I remember I had a conference in Haiti and it really served me well. I've always been getting called as well from a friend in Dominica to do interviews for Dominican TV and radio as well in Creole language for you to understand and for the older generation. And I feel that it's really important for us to inculcate young persons in the diaspora when it comes to Creole, because sometimes it's under utilized down a hair in St. Lucia. But when you look at places like Dominica, Mathnik, St. Martin, Guadalupe and Haiti, they really have an understanding of how important a mother tongue is compared to what you deem as the official language of a country. Of course. And I think it's fair enough to note that Creole is a language, you know, for everybody who went to Sao Paulo when you do comms, they teach you the different types, the dialects, the this, the that. And you know, people say Patwell and shout out to Ms. John at Sao Paulo Community College because she's the one who's like, you know, Creole is a language, you can't just call it a Patwell, we went into the whole thing. So now you could find queer dictionaries, you could find lessons online, schools are about to start teaching it. And you know, it takes it so far away from what people would have seen the language as prior to, I guess, it becoming more sophisticated. All right, all right. You said so many things there's a lot for me to follow. But I think what I want to ask you about, I know you made a statement during your intro about it's underutilized there. So I just wanted to know what's your thoughts, your youthful thought on Creole in San Lucia, not just as a language for now, but as a culture. Do you think we appreciate it enough? What's your thoughts based on your observations? So what we need to understand is that Creole is considered a mother tongue. And what I mean by that is that it really helps build the identity of young people across the diaspora. We need to understand where Creole came from. Creole came from 17th century French vocabulary mixed with the different various languages of Africans. That was their way of trying to communicate with each other because as slaves, there was not really that dialect for them to speak in. So that is where our Creole heritage came from. And then, well based on what my grandmother and my great-grandmom said, it was used in their time as a way for the older generation to have a discussion amongst themselves, without the children understanding. So yes, you will have children, but you'd want your children to learn English because at the time English was really the main language in San Lucia. But the older folks kept on speaking Creole. However, what we've realized, well what I've realized right now is that sometimes Creole is being looked through a microscope, I would say. You would more find young person using Creole when it comes to slurs and you know, through what we call in the solution dialect, mepui, people. Well, let's be honest, mepui in Creole sounds way better than in English. But at the same time, what we need to understand is that we are literally killing the language that has really been supported by the branches of our forefathers. And something that we need to understand as well is that people look down on those of us who speak Creole because it's like, it almost seems derogatory to them that, oh, I'm speaking to you in English and you're speaking to me in Creole. Or we're trying to make, we have English stories. So why would you speak in Creole? And it's so strange because stories like to hear us speak Creole, but our own people don't like to hear us speak Creole. So it just comes from the place of ignorance, I would say. And you would find that you have a lit a lot of persons with high portfolios in society who do not really practice the Creole language. And you would find that in the school setting, you know, if you speak Creole or you make a joking Creole, you send to the office, like it's those miniscule things. So really and truly has society become too in depth to really and truly the importance of Creole in the solution context and the contribution to its culture, I would say definitely so. I think that's such a valid point you made about having things communicated at higher levels of society. I think it was so important during our fight against COVID-19 that we had these messages going out in Creole that updates every day and the information on how you could protect yourself from COVID-19 because we have to admit there is a section of the St. Lucian population at this point in time who does not speak English. And that's not something to be ashamed of. That's something we need to celebrate and we need to meet these people where they are. Yeah, we need to because sometimes they will not really know what's going on. You see all those releases, they're in English, not it's like almost like they're they're sectioned off from society. I know you mentioned you learned from your grandmother and your mother. Have they ever like echoed those sentiments of being like felt like left out because like sometimes information is not catered to them because they speak Creole or you know anything like that. Most of the older generations feel that we as young people are really out of touch with them. We tend to think that everything we need to do with your technological standard when it comes to the use of English. But you need to understand their perspective where they came from. They came from a time where green banana well banana was called green bull and in those times I'm sure that well we had Cessna Descartes in that time for sure. She was really heavy in the Creole movement. So obviously Creole was really the main thing. So I would say as news reporters as anybody doing any show it would be very important if you have at least the Creole translation maybe in the transcript on the bottom of the screen so they can read etc. But then that's a different discussion. It's for me it's easy for me to speak Creole but it's a different thing for me to read Creole and that is where the national language policy that ministry was um thinking of drafting together with Camdo in 2021 when there was the whole um deliberation process with teachers across the Caribbean so that we could develop a language policy that would cater to the influence of the Creole language in the primary and secondary school would be very pivotal because what you find is that islands like Dominica, Magnick etc. they have the framework in place already. So it's just us copying that same framework however we need to tailor fit it into the solution education context. But what we need to be mindful of is that everything bears a course. So yes we may want to teach Creole language in our schools etc. However we need to be cognizant of the hidden course behind it. You would have to develop your teachers and teachers. Teaching development is already something that sometimes in the education system you find that you don't get those many opportunities for growth as a teacher. So for me to learn to speak Creole etc. I mean it's costly. The other thing as well is certification. How how valued would be the certification in Creole and which countries would be willing to accept it. So would it be a partnership with alias for said would it be a partnership with ui so it becomes something more stream based when we look at it from the students side as well. Would business hire you because you speak Creole whether it be for news or would there be a special news segment for young persons and its own in Creole or radio. Like we need to look at how widely we can utilize Creole in the solution diaspora. When it comes to music and upcoming artists using Creole to connect with young people because some of the things that you would see in Creole sounds way better. We have a Creole dictionary that's the start already if we have a dictionary it means that there is a framework in place already. All the words can be found in the dictionary so why not make Creole something that is being taught in schools and it's very pivotal that we do it from a very early age because children are like sponges so the more drops of water you give them the better they take it in so that's firmly my belief. Now you made some points about teachers and about young artists now recently on Crossroads we did feature Desiree and we know that he's been putting in some work this Creole season and he did put out a video I believe we have packed so let's check out this recent release from Desiree. Music It'll be okay. But why are you crying? So it's all right. Very very talented, Desirelle is very talented and we have to admit that one of the ways that young people are reigniting that interest is really trying to understand what these songs are talking about because you have to learn the language you know what the artists are saying, whether you're listening to Denry Segment, whether you're trying to tune into Calypso or whether you know you're checking out projects from great minds like Desirelle. For sure, for sure. So do you think that music has a part in, I guess, attracting young people to learning the language? Would you say that? In a sense, I would say yes, however we need to understand that although we get the harder some things, we tend to learn something from some certain things. But yeah, Creole in the artistic side of things is very important. I actually have a play, I was contacted by Dr. Travis Wicks to contribute to a play. It's called Mue Mue Monrypo, something of that sort. But it's strictly in Creole and I'm really excited to be working on that piece. And I have done a few other pieces in Creole as well, but those things are out of St. Lucia. But yeah, it has, there's a lot of room for growth, but as much as there is room for growth, we also need support. So that is where Ministry of Youth Development and Sports would need to come in and Ministry of Culture, etc. So that's where the business community would really need to tap in. You find that the business community is more focused on youth who have already established themselves. So upcoming youth who maybe want to broaden the language in Creole through artistic means, they do need valuable contributions. And as young people, we need to learn to support our own the same way that we support others out there. And that is something that, let's be honest, it doesn't happen in St. Lucia at all. But I know, I know recently, you know, one of the, on October 17th, one of the Flower Festivals, like I'm La Marguerite, I was, I was but you know, but often sometimes maybe I would say a forgotten part of our Creole culture. In schools, I know, especially at the primary level, there's this heavy emphasis on it, you get dressed up, you do whatever. But then following that, it's like, okay, you know. So what are your thoughts on the Flower Festivals? I'm going to, before you respond, we have to mention La Wars as well. Right, right, right. So what between these people, we want no smoke? I'm on the purple team, but you know. So that's a very interesting question because as a child, I participated in a lot of the La Marguerite and La Wars festivities. And it was really interesting for me because it teaches you the folklore of St. Lucia, I would say, and really the history behind it, where those two would battle out. And well, you don't really see La Marguerite flowers around. But at the same time, we need to understand that we're changing. We're in the 21st century, things that would have made sense before, don't really make sense now. And we live in an age of technology. So young people wouldn't be interested. So now it would be up to the creative industries or the people who put on the shows to think of ways of how do you get those types of outdated ideas and idealists to really be inculcated into the technological age. So that is where you would maybe have young persons now marketing what is really La Wars and La Marguerite. So how do you get young people on board? How do you get the creative industry on board? Do we update the dress? Do we update the roots? Is there a certain venue? Or do we make it like a play where you have La Wars and La Marguerite fighting? Or in the school, is there a specific day where you have children just really learning about the meaning of La Wars and La Marguerite? Do we explain to tourists about it so that they come on those days because we put on plays, we put on activities. A lot of things that we find wouldn't make money. Tourists would be so interested in it because these are things that they are not, they are not, they have not really been introduced to. And the sad thing about it, I always say Saint Lucia has the potential to generate a lot of GDP. But then the people behind the ideas and the institutions behind it, they have really a one vision mindset. So really and truly, that's out of it honestly. Like young people really need to take the grass. Even at the circle level, have you all seen anything when it comes to La Wars and La Marguerite? At those institutions, no. I mean the teachers would dress but then do you encourage the children to dress? Like there are so many things that we can do. I mean you don't do it forcibly but I mean once you, the thing is once you constantly do it, it becomes ingrainings to one memory. I think that's certainly a discussion to have in terms of cultural tourism because when you think of things that you can only find in Saint Lucia, these are things that bring people in from all over the world. You could have people coming in to do documentaries about it. You need to celebrate your own culture before the rest of the world can celebrate it. I mean there's so many things you could celebrate in Saint Lucia. The rarest snake in the world is found in Saint Lucia. So there's just so many other ways you could branch out. Yeah we could and I find that something we don't do enough until someone else recognizes us. We don't want to do it ourselves but I wanted to touch on something you mentioned. I think it's very important. You spoke about like evolving culture or updating it. Based on conversations I've had, you know some, I was still not to say this but old heads, older heads, they're a bit more, they're a bit more resistant to the culture changing. If someone is trying something new they would say, you know, you're changing you know what made us us. So is that something that you have been exposed to, is that a mindset you have experienced or anything like that? So what we need to understand is that as much as we may want to introduce new concept into all ideas it doesn't necessarily mean phasing out the old concepts. The old concepts would better serve the older generation. The new concepts would better serve the new generation. So we need to find a way to balance the two. When we create activities etc we need to look at it from a two-way point of view. Create something where young people would be engaged and would be interested in coming to unsupporting and something where the older folks would come to into supporting. Let's take Juniquial for example. Juniquial has a really rich cultural past however you would find that young people and older people participate really well when it comes to Juniquial. So the questions we need to ask is why is this and what is in the Juniquial framework that we can implement or institute into other activities across the island. When we look at, I remember when it was time for jazz, jazz was a huge thing. That is where our creole heritage would really come in as well. When it comes to theatre, arts, plays etc that is something we can look into as well. Also when you have assemblies, maybe a creole assembly once a month, miniaturists and sports could create a newsletter in strictly creole something that the older persons can go to. Recordings of the older generation giving their lives and what they did in creole only so that we can archive that information. There is so much that we can do to keep history alive but history is slowly phasing out I would say and we don't really cherish those moments. Even just having a youtube or a tiktok page as a ministry of education would really serve well but then older people are more into the visual things. So going into the community, doing outreach programs in creole, even when you have the health fairs, marketing that in creole is pivotal, having the doctors speak to them in creole. The same way we try to have that balance when we have persons speaking French, Spanish etc and we're trying to understand what they're saying and we're trying to accommodate them is the same way we have to accommodate those creoles. See all valid points you are making and what a place to make them other than on crossroads because we know that the people who need to hear us certainly listening and if they're not listening they're getting sent a link right now for them to tune in. Right now we'll do full quick break you're watching the eighth episode of crossroads your favorite show on national television we'll be right back. Welcome back and of course you are watching crossroads like Terim likes to say your favorite show on national television I know that is true for a lot of people. Today we have a very special segment added to the show where we're giving you a chance to win some prizes just to answer some very simple creole questions of course this show is about having discussions among the youth and we are joined by another young person who's on your face crossroads. She's here for the first time but I don't think this segment is the right one to get into everything about Miss St. Auge but welcome Krista how does it feel to be on crossroads? It feels good. Hi guys I appreciate all the madras around it's beautiful. It's fantastic I feel like part of the set I don't think everybody else got the memo but I'll look up for you all this week. I'm the only one I didn't get that's fine. All right so we're calling this our creole trivia segment I can call it my brainchild right so we have four questions for the viewers and I'd like to invite the two of you to possibly you know bring some you're not allowed to give away the answer but if you know the answer in your mind you could give me a little thumbs up or something. If I know half of the answer can I give you a thumbs up? Right. We're not taking half answers. Okay all you to do that as well we need the full answer so the question will be asked in English but you need to answer the question in creole you can comment the response down below or you could send us a DM on Instagram that's the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports on Instagram indicates this is an answer for crossroads and your answer in creole or quail right? Right so question number one this should be an easy one if you've been watching the local news you got you ready? I'm ready I'm ready. Question number one what are the two host communities for the Jeune Quaiol 2022? Now we might know the response in English everybody will know the names of these districts in English but you have to answer a quail you can put those down in the comments below or like I said DM us on Instagram Krista you look like you're you're thinking you're thinking I'll give I'll give one hint one of them is the best community oh my god I'm showing his colors and I am from one of those communities so that's just a that I think that's a very big hint your your the viewer should know I think so okay question number two now I think we got a hint from a very popular song last year around the quail season um question number two is how do you say pumpkin in creole they're singing the song already I know they're already singing the song yeah I can see it already you know certain people from denry you're not allowed that's something artists from denry he's not allowed to participate we have to draw the line somewhere should I give a hint for this one I go ahead um shout to I think that's a that's a that's a hint that's a very big hint so yeah that's a very big hint remember we have prizes up for grabs so be part of our creole trivia here on crossroads do you think you know the answer let's continue you know I have questions for the two of you okay so what is a a zabuka zabuka uh now you know what it is I feel like this thing's too easy for me so I'll give um I'll give you a chance you should go ahead I feel like I was boasting because he does not do that no I I know the answer yes it's um avocado you forgot the english version it's an avocado you know that happens to me as well I'll know the name of something in creole but trying to speak to somebody outside of sains wusha yeah and I tell them oh there's a what are you talking about yeah but I got it though I got it good job good job cream and krista what is uh you have your fingers make sure she knows I can't disappoint my grandmother okay okay you walk by a table and you hit your talo what part of your body did you hit my talon yes my talon is it my talon is it like my foot what part of your foot yeah what I mean what's the name you see you know it's your heel but you know close enough but you knew the word in creole exactly now our third question is another part of the body I think we're out fourth though I think we're out fourth question okay we'll talk about comfort on another episode our third question for our viewers remember your first question was what are the two host communities for june quail 2022 your second question was how do you say pumpkin a quail your third question is what do you call your knee in creole now we do not want your whole leg we do not want your shin we do not want your thigh we want your knee specifically you comment that down below you dm us on instagram and your final question you want to need to know two things for this one but I think the first one is very easy to know we've had so many songs letting us know what this is and of course you would have been learning this from primary school preschool maybe but you might have not learned it in creole we want you to tell us the colors of the saint lusion flag in creole in creole it might be too easy for you to get it in english yeah I mean you know take a good look at the crossroads set but anyways some of the colors are present yes so those are your four questions your four questions are what are the two host communities for june quail 2022 what do you call pumpkin in creole what do you call your knee in creole and what are the four colors of the saint lusion flag now you don't need to answer all of the questions soon but you can answer all the questions to flex and let people know that you do know your creole but it just takes one correct answer for you to go away for a price of course we will be announcing those prizes on the next episode of crossroads so our viewers know when to come collect so can I can I like after the show answer the question karim is bad from participating but you know think of your answers we obviously have some more treats for you and recently we did feature another local talent her name is omiga and she was such a pleasure to have on crossroads she did a cover of one of the greatest creole songs dasa hill i'm willing to die on this is one of the greatest creole songs taken this cover from omiga swim presses with her vocals i think she did a great job with that song sometimes you know when they say the remake comes it either great or it's not so great and i think she completely blew it out of the water and yes i said water because she had that fishing club in there she might have to take me on a trip with her of course crossroads is a collaborative effort we could never deny that so we just want to take a moment to say thank you to everybody who has come on board to make crossroads a success that includes everybody who's been featured on crossroads so far and of course our sponsors that is the ministry of youth development and sports government information services i see gis people already looking at me yes i see all of you and we appreciate spending time with you on the set every single week of course thank you to kfc as a well who has been a sponsor of us from day one thank you to event saint lucha for helping us set up our beautiful set i think you like events is always there for us it looks really nice from our first set to the new set we have already transitioned to and of course thank you so much to dbs tv where you can watch the crossroads rebroadcast on saturdays at 10 a.m and just one of those sponsors you mentioned was the ministry of youth development and sports and as you know the ministry of youth development and sports has a lot going on a lot of work um so i think it's now time to show mid motion the taiwanese government granted the sum of 146 000 ec dollars which will go towards the youth economy to assist our young people in becoming active participants in wealth creation and nation building team volleyball saint lucha are the 2022 eastern caribbean volleyball association champions they won the british virgin islands in straight sets the ministry of youth development and sports hosted a retreat for physical education teachers the retreat comes amidst efforts by the agency to foster greater working partnerships with all of its stakeholders saint lucha takes food place in online intercontinental prison chess championship it was their first showing but inmates of the bodily correctional facility place food following participation in the online intercontinental prison chess tournament great stuff the ministry is certainly keeping busy and we love to see that you know as taxpayers but of course we are continuing on with our theme youth and creole i said youth in creole in my mind you know by youth and creole and something we spoke about earlier on was the involvement of youth in music and the ability of music to entice young people to learn more of the creole language of course so they can understand what their favorite songs are saying and of course we always know that people who are behind the magic so our newest guest joining us on the crossroads set for the first time hopefully not the last time is jason da rius jason how are you feeling being on crossroads i am feeling good i am feeling awesome i'm enjoying the vibe i'm enjoying all the madras and everything around me so it's a vibe all right vibes of course of course okay so jason i'm sure everybody is familiar with your work i can say that confidentially but they might be thinking of you as jason da rius you know bringing them the news in the evening and the morning and the midday times you know every time all throughout the day you know he keeps busy but you're having a different capacity you are here as a producer jammin entertainment so you know tell us a little bit about you and how long you've been a producer right so like you said before people might know me from the news um that's the nine to five i was keeping informed um but in what i do in my free time or what my passion is rather is i have a love for music i'm a producer um you might know the name jammin entertainment or head attack we be jamming in any i guess vocal song and um we've well i've been in production for probably about 12 to 13 years now it's been a long journey working with many different talents and like i always tell people send lucia has a wealth of talent and i feel like at the time that i started like these people need an outlet these people need to i don't know you need to see the talent that's in lucia has to offer so i feel like there wasn't much of that going around so i was like okay what what is needed what is necessary okay we don't have much recording studios there's um actually how something happened so we could expose that talent to the rest of the world and lo and behold we played a very significant part in the development of denry sangben being very consistent in that i guess genre of music and just bringing the vibe the music the creole energy to send lucia and the rest of the world by extension i've worked with the likes of well my main artist would have been um serban smithy and a lot of the other guys in the denry basin um pablo everybody and i've worked with talents a lot of his so-called talent are in st lucia um you have your seed deals you have your azuras you have cupid i've worked with a lot of the artists there and a lot of the producers and beat makers there as well um so for me it's just uh keeping that vibe keeping that energy alive and just setting the mood and the atmosphere for whatever season we're in here in st lucia all right amazing and you're doing fantastic work from the time you started mentioning the artist i think people are finally clicking oh yeah we be jamming because we certainly be jamming in and now we're jamming on crushers i wanted to say that as well now in light of june quay all we know you and the artists you work with go the extra mile to put out creole music every year umpa eating something different every year um there's a new dance i remember everybody was doing bipod for a long time you know so bansuas known for his moves and he decided to you know bring us in so we're happy to be part of the process i want to know from you as ja denry as well um what role do you think it plays um making creole music for me making creole music especially in this day and age where you will hear people say in that the creole culture the creole heritage is kind of dwindling or dying down especially amongst our youth i mean it creates that outlet for a lot of our youth and a lot of our newer generations so actually learn a lot of the music learn a lot of the phrases a lot of the connotations um and it's just a way to keep that culture keep that energy keep that heritage alive erin sen lucha and for me in particular when we actually sit down in a session and actually write creole music because it would be difficult to actually spell any creole words what we do is just write it down make sure we understand okay this is that word this is how to say but what we actually go and probably upload to streaming platforms or youtube or something that we have the actual spelling we'll have to go in the creole dictionary and it's like a learning process for all of us at the end of the day and um certain things like like was mentioned before like it would have a a better taste a better sound a better feeling um sounding in creole as opposed to english you get more vibes out of it and even in my daily dialect as well i still speak um i throw a little bit of creole in everything that i do certain times and it just helps to like really ground you as a sen lucha more or less so making that contribution to a sen lucha society i mean it's really heartwarming that we could actually do that and actually set the piece for our creole season and just keep that flame burning for our creole culture here in sen lucha so it's a really heartwarming thing all right and you you spoke up you said something very interesting you said setting the piece yeah now i would i don't see historically but historically creole season we know something really always happens religiously jammin mighty serbans of course yes um so just speak about um that relationship um you have with those guys and actually making the creole music with them because i think at this point it's something that people actually look forward to like what is jammin and serbans going to put out this yeah it was a creole anthem for this year so just so just speak about that and that's what we've been getting a lot you know like every creole season people look to us to actually see what what the mood will be like for junior creole what the mood will be like for creole heritage month um but it's been a long journey really it started with the whole i guess beginnings of denry segment just throwing in the creole into all the music that we do but in terms of um doing full on creole music and folk music i mean denry is a very cultural place we have all around these times right now we have solo bands playing we have that la wars and amaguris festivals coming through we have a deep sense of culture and pride in our creole language in in those communities so it's only natural for us to pick up and let and share to the rest of the world like i said um so for us is just to put that in our music and people gravitate to it instantly because that's creole that's us that's in lusia so why not so for us like i told you 10 11 12 with i cannot even remember how long we've been doing this um but throughout these years um we found that there was really a lack of like digital creole music or a feeding of some sorts so what we would do is literally just probably just take that creole because you know in the solos you have the drumming right and remember in school you used to be drumming on an uppercase eruption so what we kind of did was just to digitalize that and having those creole connotations or those words from our forefathers being parts of those solo groups we just kind of took that um information took that kind of vibe and just incorporate it into that music because we figure people would love that too i mean we love it why why wouldn't people love it you understand so it's been a journey it's it's been a thing we just kept tested and continued doing it up until the point that rule more or less the only i guess production i was putting creole music out for a time but the lawn bill thankfully now a lot more people are doing it and it's a good thing that more people are jumping on the bandwagon especially our youth um we see dove i'm putting out creole music you see a lot of um like tally boy a lot of the other guys actually contributing to the creole season as well um i mean for this season i think we put out probably 10 or more tracks and we still have some some material to put out still and i don't know every time you you hear your song being played on the radio especially in creole and everything it like i said it's just rewarding and i wouldn't have it any other way honestly so that has been the journey and that's what we'll keep doing just as our contribution to keep that creole thing alive now you did mention you've been doing this for a while and i have to throw it back we have to throw it back here on crossroads to one of my favorite projects that you had put out for the creole season it was one of the jammin entertainment quail medleys and it featured two artists who may not look quite the same at the moment but you will be able to tell who they are from this video let's check it out um Now if you enjoyed that and I'm sure you all did you can check out the full video on YouTube it's Jammin Entertainment Creole Medley and of course you said you've been putting out projects this year and there's still projects to come I mean Juniper is right around the corner people are getting in the vibe they're setting up their playlist so how can they check out the new music? Alright so for all the new music you can check out various streaming platforms you have your Spotify, Apple music and for the more recent ones while we put out in time for Juniper Creole because we don't have much time before they get uploaded we could always check them out on YouTube via the page Jammin Entertainment and all new stuff goes on there so apart from that just follow on Instagram Facebook and you should be updated with everything that you need to know about Jammin Entertainment. Of course and I think we barely scratched the surface with you so we'd hope that you would be a guest on a future episode of Crossroads as with all other guests this evening but thank you for coming on but for now we're going to take a short break because when we come back we have a very very special segment so just stay tuned and when we get back we'll have that in store for you. Wondering when the sands of time will give way to a tide of change and for yesterday and today to become a new tomorrow for a time when her son can kiss the cheeks of your loved one and her stars can twinkle in her honeymoon skies when her earthly embrace will reassure and calm your soul and her unique view can change your whole perspective. I think she has risen to meet new challenges and to provide safe harbor to all who reach her shores but her hopes and dreams still stand shoulder to shoulder a precious reminder of experiences yet to come numerous take you. Who let her sense of adventure set you free. Welcome back and thank you for joining us joining us again. Sorry if I'm a bit novy right now because we have someone else in the chair actually we have the brains behind Crossroads and his hair to make a very special announcement I have no idea what the announcement is but to make a very very special announcement so I would like to pass the floor to Barry our producer. Thank you very much Karim and I too am feeling quite a bit shaken up tonight I think it's a bittersweet moment for me being here I must say that I really enjoyed the Creole segment I'm still learning I'm still catching my Creole vibe but I'll get there but this evening I think it's only fitting that I appear here to say goodbye. Crossroads St. Lucia is losing its female host Jacques Wooding who's been with us from inception when we started in February of 2022 and we are bittersweet we are sad to see you go but we are also happy that you are going to new beginnings and so we couldn't let you go without at least a farewell and so I want to ask Krista to come and they say give people their flowers you can go ahead and present give people their flowers while they are alive and this is exactly what we're doing this evening I mean Karim how do you feel about this? Well can I hold this for you? That looks heavy you know well obviously you started with me and in fact you're the one who you know the audience may not know but the one who convinced me to be on crossroads so I like to thank you for that it's been exciting a journey certainly there are times where I may falter that you have picked up and you are really an integral part of the show I mean as always crossroads will carry on but we're just at another crossroads. I think the name is just hitting but we will surely miss you and wish you the best on you know your greener pastures. Any words for me Lucia? What do you want to say to send Lucia quickly? I just want to say thank you so much for always tuning in and thank you so much for making crossroads such a journey I've definitely learned from all the feedback we've gotten from members of the public it's been amazing working with the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports and amazing working with GIS I feel like I've met so many amazing people along the way from the people we've interviewed to everybody who's made everything happen backstage and I'm looking forward to see where crossroads goes after this you're not getting rid of me so don't take me out of the group chat. I'm still a part of the team I just won't be on camera anymore but I'll be watching. Yes is that a teardrop I see Carrie? I have no idea this was going to happen but thank you so much. The SSA Crossroads has we have two episodes in November and then we'll pull season one down but Jacques thank you so much the Ministry of Development and Sports on behalf of my Permanent Secretary Miss Caroline Eugene my Deputy Permanent Secretary then Director Miss Mary Wilfred who has been a strong pillar for crossroads and the entire team of the ministry of course our Minister who loves crossroads the Honourable Kensan Kazimé we say thank you so much for what you've brought to this set and the lives that you've touched and we wish you all the best. Thank you. I think St. Lucia thanks you. I think I should just for one final time say thank you so much for tuning in St. Lucia this has been Crossroads Episode 8 and of course the team is looking forward to seeing you on the next episode but for right now have a great evening we'll see you next time.