Right now I am sitting in my living room with the door open as two boys play on my porch with my basketball. They are playing a mix of basketball and football (soccer) and the only thing that keeps this from being a typical afternoon is that my girls are missing and I am not reading to anyone. The basketball is not allowed to leave my porch because the ground outside will most definitely result in one flat ball, and I use the ball to go down to the court and play with the big kids.
I have recently been fully accepted into the men's basketball circle, which means that I now get phone calls when they are going to play. Its my favorite way to spend my night, about 8-10 guys and me go down to the court around 7pm turn on the lights and play till 9 or 10 at night. Its a nice work out, a good way to make friends, and it helps me work on my game, you know just in case I decide to use my college eligibility when I go to grad school :). I also think I officially have the respect of the guys after I took a hit from a 6 foot solid guy, and asked him if he was okay...his reply was "I should be asking you that.
The other weekend I went with two friends to try to see an archeological dig site, unfortunately they were covering it up with dirt just as we arrived, o well. The day still ended up being a really cool day, we walked past some horses grazing in a field, and of course decided to pet the young ones. We also went exploring around some more isolated beaches, and just had a really relaxing day.
On Friday I turned in the proposal for the after-school sports program I have been working on to the Principal of the school. This is the first successful step of hopefully many to getting this program off the ground. Additionally the teacher I am working with on this project decided to not go to study next year so we can work together on the sports program, which is a huge success for me. Without him it would be nearly impossible for me to create a sustainable and successful program.
This weekend for fourth of July we played American football and had a BBQ at our country director's house, with a group of volunteers from 40 years ago that were having their reunion in St. Lucia. It was really interesting to here their stories about how things have changed and how a lot of things are pretty similar in St. lucia, and with their Peace Corps experience here. The best part I think was having a hamburger, it was massive and phenomenal. Plus for those of you who don't know I stopped cooking meat for myself, which makes having any kind of meat a special treat for me.
Yesterday the 6th Graders at my primary school had a graduation dinner, and I couldn't believe how big of a deal it was. Everyone was really dressed up, the girls looked like they were ready to go to prom, hair done, nails done, fancy dresses, it was impressive and surprising. I never really thought of primary school graduation as a big deal cause almost everyone at least graduates from high school, and most of my friends at least graduated from college too, but until 3 years ago a lot of kids didn't even go to Secondary school here. When I thought about it that way it made a lot of sense, most of those kids will never graduate from anything besides secondary school, and some of them unfortunately may not even make it to that point, so last night was a really big deal here.
Its the beginning of summer vacation here now, so I'm hoping that things will slow down a bit, but if the past few weeks are a suggestion of what my summer "vacation" will be like, my summer will be more exhausting that my school year. So far I just am helping out with a few summer camps, collecting research on literacy and numeracy teaching techniques, working to get computers in the community center, and of course hanging out with "my" kids. Here's to hoping that the summer months give me a chance to do some hiking and laying by a beach!!
