frustration, nerves, determination, and Greatness!

This weekend I had the privilege to be part of what can be the magic of peace corps. We all suffer from frustration, things moving way slower than we could have ever dreamed possible, and the constant feeling as if we aren't doing enough, or at the end of the day (or our service) we won't have made any lasting impact. We are worried our programs will disappear as we move back home, that the people we work with will regress to their old ways, and as time ticks quickly away, we fear that 2 years really isn't enough time, we need more to get the real buy in and real sustainability. This weekend I however I was given the great gift of hope by a fellow volunteer whom I have started working with to give young Lucians the gift of learning to Pole Vault.

In St. Lucia we have pole vault pits, poles, mats, but until a year and a half again there was no program. A peace corps volunteer volunteer at that time started with 2 athletes which became four that he trained. Two of the males he trained won gold and silver at the Caribbean Track and Field for under 19 years olds event, Carifta. One of his female athletes set a national record for pole vault. All within a year of the program he had achieved this success, and he decided to make it spread to more kids. About two months ago he started working with the secondary school I work with training interested athletes how to pole vault for an hour a week at the school. For the past 5 weeks I have been joining him at Saturday sessions learning to vault and coach pole vault along with his beginning athletes of which there are about 7 kids, 3 of whom attend my secondary school. This Sunday we took a portable runway and the pits for pole vault to the streets outside of the main market in the capital of Castries and had all of our athletes that come to the saturday sessions, and a 3x Olympian that pole vaulted for St. Lucia have some fun. The day before the athletes trained with Dominic who was a 3x Olympian for St. Lucian for about 5 1/2 hours, and while the long training session tired out their coaches, the athletes came in ready to accomplish big things.

My 3 students all cleared their first heights, the two girls cleared their first two heights, with a lot of determination and grit. It was their first ever pole vault competition and they had only been training for about 6 weeks. From my school their was only one male athlete and he was the only one of the beginning male athletes to clear the first height of 2.5 meters. I will have to say after seeing them struggle and work hard and times they wanted to quit or thought they couldn't do it, it was a huge success to me, and I am ridiculously proud of them.

We also had the opportunity to set some national records on this great day in which 3 of our females tied for the new national record in women's pole vault. We also had a local Lucian record set on the male side. The biggest success though was the support of local coaches, and how into it fans were. With each jump the rather large crowd waited to see if the bar would be cleared, and if it was they would erupt in cheers. It seems as if the momentum is pulling us quickly forward, and there is a new hope that pole vault will bring forth new opportunities for our young athletes. There was even mutterings of future college scholarships abroad, especially for the women. I can only hope that things continue to be so positive, and be glad that I have the opportunity to be part of something like this.

Thanksgiving!

With Thanksgiving being the first big family Holiday for me in the Peace Corps, I definitely thought I was going to be crazy homesick. Thanksgiving just doesn't seem like it should happen without me setting the dinning room table, or at least directing the setting since I am the only one that knows how to do it in a house full of grown ups (Note to self when you make a child set the table for occasions , learn how they do it before they become a grown up so can make it look just as pretty when they aren't around). Baking should be a frantic 3 day event, and nobody should be able to eat until we are sitting down for the big meal, which is inevitably starting at least an hour late.

Needless to say I was concerned to see how it would all unveil while living in an island that does not celebrate our thanksgiving, and on theirs they do nothing. First of all I am lucky cause its a small island and there are about 20 other peace corps volunteers and staff, so I got my biggest thanksgiving yet. While the stuffing wasn't my mom's and there were no sweet potatoes or at least they were gone by the time it was my turn, I still got football, the american kind, way too much food, and friends. After eating almost eating 3 turkeys, at least 4 pies, the biggest chocolate cake I've scene, and everything in between, the fun wasn't over, it was time to lime, Lucian slang for hanging out. Some of us had food babies, others were in food comas, and I think the baby at least was not overly stuffed, but may have been the only one.

Most importantly I learned that Thanksgiving can be wonderful even if you don't have the right food as long as you are surround by family or friends. It may have been hot and we were Lucians, Americans, and a Bolivian, in one apartment, but we are all one Peace Corps family filled with love and support for each other, and that is really what Thanksgiving is all about.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Miss and Love you guys, and hope everyone got to spend their thanksgiving with important people in their lives!

Well thats was different, but we have Burger King!

In my last post I talked a lot about all the things that are different for me here living in St. Lucia, but I think sometimes, especially for the people that have never been here, it is easy to think that everything is ants and roosters.

First of all a look at the most notable signs of Globalization and more specifically Americanization.

In St. Lucia there are at least 2 dominoes pizza places, 3 KFC's that I know of, and I think 2 Burger Kings, and a Subway or two on the island for just about 160,000 people. We also have 3 Rituals, a Starbucks knock off, and a mini mall complete with an escalator, the only one I've seen on island! I have eaten sushi, and even befriended the chef, who studied in the states and is trying to compete on one of the chef shows to get his big break. I'm guessing right now you are thinking, it doesn't really sound like I'm roughing it that much and how you want to sign up for the peace corps down here, so you can have year round summer, beautiful beaches, and not have to give up pizza, sushi, or "Starbucks". While there is all of this on the island, it is expensive, and only up north, which is not where I live. To get to the closest of fast food places its about a 45 min bus ride, that is 7 EC round trip. If I want a whopper value meal its 20 EC, and sushi is maybe a once every 6 months treat. Most of the nice restaurants up north are really for the tourists and just like Peace Corps Volunteers, locals rarely go there to dine. If you compare this version of st lucia, with the one I described in the last post it seems like two different worlds.

The schools also function in a bizarre two world sort of way. The secondary school I currently am working with has a computer lab with about 20 computers, maybe more all with internet access, but the teachers do not have access to a computer in their rooms to type up grades, the principal and the counselor don't have internet in their offices, the Vice Principals office is so hot that she can't work in their, its even too hot for me to be in for more than 10 minutes. On a side note, none of the schools have AC except in the computer rooms. In the sports world we have a high jump mat, discuses, javalins, shot puts, all kinds of sports balls, recently we received pole vault poles, agility ladders and hurdles, but no gynasium, basketball court, playingfield, track or really anywhere on compound to set up sporting activities beside a hill that is constantly muddy, and the "parking lot" which is really just an open area covered in tiny stones.

Sometimes especially at a first glance, it seems as if there is so much and that things are very similar to the states, but after closer examination there is a lot that is lacking, and a lot of innovation that is needed to make things work. A lucian friend of mine put it this way we're a poor nation, that thinks its rich. I think that really sums up the socioeconomic status of st. lucia.

In other news, I am learning to pole vault from another Peace Corps, so I can possibly be a pole vault coach. I also got to go to a recording studio to hear a friend record a radio commercial she sings on, and I started painting finally. Life continues to be ridiculous and interesting, and I frequently have to laugh at some of my more comical situations. The kids keep me going ,and my friends remind me that I'm not superwoman and I can't do every thing. I'm not sure I've accepted that one though.

The pictures are of Jounen Kweyol, which highlights lucian culture, the fish is stuffed with fish stuffing, I'm eating a crab boulin, the event in the village of Soufriere, and one of my paintings.

Wait you don't think thats normal?

From talking to some friends recently I realized that I have come to accept and find normal certain aspects of my life, that 9 months ago I definitely wouldn't have. Some of these I may have mentioned or you may have already heard, but I hope it gives you some insight into my life. I also hope you don't think I am really gross.

There are a stream of ants crawling on my wall, maybe I pull out the bug spray to get rid of them, but since its the rainy season now, its more likely that I do absolutely nothing. Ants in my sugar, bread, water, honey, or whatever other food they got in to, no problem ants don't taste like anything, and if you ask a Lucian they are good for your brain. I eat my ants with every meal. Finding a cockroach belly up is a happy moment cause it means that are dead or close to it, no need to get the shoe.

I just swept my floor, thats barely any exercise, so why is it that I am dripping, no pouring sweat from my entire body. My fan clearly isn't doing a good enough job at keeping me cool, its ok though because my fan in my new lover, I love it even when it lets me down. I defintely choose to ignore the Lucian warning that sleeping with a fan on you during the night will make you sick, its all lies I tell you.

After my nice sweeping workout, I go to take a nice shower, what no water today, its okay I have my perfect one bath bottle set aside already. All it takes to get so fresh and so clean now a days is 1.5 liters, maybe less.

Now that I'm clean its time to greet the world, I open my door and find roosters and chickens running around, sometimes they are even so bold to come on my porch, o there goes a goat/lamb walking up the road. Shortly after I am greated by children calling miss miss, sometimes followed by the question when are we going to play the game, this is how the refer to monopoly. If I'm sitting on my step, everyone that passes says good morning or good afternoon, maybe even asks how the heat or the rain is treating me. If they are a friend they take time to chat, remember nobody is ever in a hury anywhere so they always have time to say hello.

As I return home there is a pile of stuff on my balcony quickly the neighborhood children inform me that some person came by and left fruit for me because I wasn't there. The kids always know what happens at my house because as I've been told and witnessed they come and play on my porch waiting for me to come home and talk to them. No these are not my children, I don't even work with these children at the school, they just live near me and stop by all the time. Sometimes we make things together, which is nice because pretty much anything we make together they think is really nice, it may turn out absolutely horribly but they still say Miss its really nice.

This doesn't even begin to cover the complete randomness my life can be sometimes, this is literally just the normal weekly happenings.

St. Lucia won this round, but i got in a few good hits...

School has been in session for 3 weeks now, and last week we started practice after school for football, basketball and netball. This was a huge success in my mind, the kids seem excited to play, the teachers/coach seem into it and it overall seems like a good time. Of course this success came with some obstacles. Two weeks ago as we went to print the permission slips for the kids to stay after school the printer was out of black ink and the copy machine was out of ink all together, the computer that had the document on it does not have internet so you can't email the document elsewhere to print, and you can't put a thumb drive in the computer cause it has some kind of virus. The following monday, a day I try to work from home so that I can get planning type work done, I went up to the school to make sure that the consent forms had been printed and given out to the students, neither had been done. So I spent the next two hours getting the forms printed due to ink and other issues. Thankfully the kids got them before they went home for the day.

As I get home that evening tired and hungry because I was running around all afternoon and hadn't eaten lunch, I go to put my vegetable lentil soup on the stove using a packet of vegetable soup flavoring sent from the states. I am really hoping the lentils won't take long to cook, after about 15 mins I go to check on the soup and the flame gets all bajigity on me and then goes out. My gas ran out and no one with a vehicle is around at that moment, so no soup for me. Thankfully I had just bought bread and had a can of tuna for just in case situations so I had dinner still.

Tuesday the football team practices and it seems like its a good group, we just have to figure out transportation for the kids that normally take a special bus to get to school. I of course forget to ask my friends with vehicles to help me get gas, its a BBQ grill gas cylinder that you buy from the gas station so I kinda can't just walk to pick it up. That means pb and j for dinner.

Wednesday is my big day to start coaching, I'm the boys basketball team coach. A few of my boys come to check me at the school and tell me that they wouldn't be there that first day, so I ended up only have 3 guys come of, which is no big deal cause basketball isn't big here and anything is a start. After school ends we get a ride down to the court, and when we get there the one hoop that we have is bent upwards. Of course this is st lucia, so it doesn't mean that there won't be practice, we instead tip the hoop down and attempt to fix it. Its isn't completely fixable so the rim, but we try to play on it anyways. Now my main focus is trying to figure out how we can get the hoop fix or get a new rim. It becomes a goose chase of who is actually in charge of maintaining the courts, then finding out it they are actually going to do anything about it, which of course I won't be flat out told, and then if they won't find money to get a new rim. It happens to be convient timing however because I'm already working on a grant proposal for the sports program, so that can just get added to the list, if whoever is in charge of the courts isn't going to fix it or doesn't have the money and are ok with it being taken care of my a third party.

These are the bizarre things that keep life interesting in the Peace Corps, here they have kind of become normal, and don't really faze me anymore. It amazes me at how patient and willing to wait for things I've become. The other day I waited for over an hour just sitting on the side of the road waiting for friends to pick me up, when I looked at my watch and saw how long I had been waiting I couldn't believe that it had been that long. I'm just on island time now I guess.

My kids still come check me regularly, next week we are supposed to make cookies which should be a lot of fun. Life is good in general, its still hot and my fan is my best friend, but its better than being cold. Miss everyone at home.

Its hard to believe 6 months have passed!

This morning as I woke up sore for hiking through the bush for 6 hours the previous day, I was nervous about how the day would unfold before me. I had a staff meeting at the secondary school to discuss the coming school that starts tomorrow. The previous week I had a meeting at the primary school start 3 hours late, and a meeting at the secondary school start 1 1/2 hours late. So as I roll my sore body from bed my head is filled with thoughts of will this just be another meeting I'm given stones to hold.

After I pay my rent I decide to take the bus instead of walking the 15 mins to school cause its hot, and I'm in jeans cause school is casual till the kids get there. I just check weather.com and it tells me the real feel for st lucia is 102, and I wore jeans, I guess I've gotten used to the heat. I get to the school about 5 mins before the meeting starts, and to my suprise there are other teachers there already. Then an even bigger suprise for me, we started on time...ok it was 5 mins late, but here thats on time, if not early. Granted a lot teachers weren't there, and a lot never showed up, but who cares the meeting started on time and only lasted an hour. The best part though was when the principal said there will be 3 classrooms just for english and 3 just for math, this is a hige victory because it allows the english and math teachers to create a much more student friendly environment, now the trick is to get them to do it. The other challenge is that the students show up tomorrow, and the rooms will definitely not be ready for optimal learning by then, but it seems that is normal here.

Next it is over to the primary school to make sure the schedule I've created works for the principal. She isn't there, so it means using my phone credit, something that isn't really a big deal, but everyone here including myself sees as a big deal. People will actual call someone and hang up after the second ring so that they call you back, and phone calls tend to be brief and to the point with very little chit chat to save money/credit. Schedule works for her, so another success of my day, its only lunchtime so far so good. Now I'm trying to figure out how to best decorate math and english classrooms for students that are 12-18 years old but do k-4th grade level work. If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know.

I'm excited to get back into the school routine, see what happens with the welfare lunch program, my afterschool sports program, and the literacy and numeracy stuff I'm putting together. It'll also be nice to see my kids again.

I've finally gone out hiking, I did two smaller trails, and hopefully will be able to conquer some of the tougher ones before too long. I also had the chance to go sailing for the first time, just kinda got lucky with that, it was a lot of fun. I made pizza with my kids, in which they tried to tell me I was doing it wrong, of course 9 year old Lucians know how to make pizza better than me. The one was very knowledgeable about it he even knew you had to put flour under the pizza so it didn't stick. I'm not really sure where he picked that up. I also went with some friends on an around the island, ate lunch at a great view point, relaxed in baths, and played beach football, a nice way to spend a sunday. Most importantly I discovered a new beach that is one of a short list of favorites, by dicovered I of course mean it was the first time I went there, its not a secret beach or anything.

Well now its off to help a friend move. Ciao

Summer Time, and the living is busy!

So here I am thinking, sweet summer time, I mostly work with schools so things should slow down a bit, boy was I wrong. It seems I am every bit as busy with work, but because its summer, my social life has exploded. I really just want to lock myself in my home, and turn my phone off sometimes, of course the invites are always for good things so how can I say no?

My days for the past couple of weeks I have been spending teaching life skills, and basketball at summer camp. While the camp may not have been put together as well as I would have liked to have seen, its has been fun and I've gotten to know a bunch of kids and grown ups from my community that I may have not met otherwise. I rotate groups for life skills, but I have mostly the same kids everyday for basketball, which is a lot of fun. We start with a few skill drills, then we play my favorite game knockout, which they love too, even though sometimes it takes a long time for the kids to put the ball in the basket. After that we play a little 4 on 4, which makes me wonder if that's what it looked like when I first started playing. The kids forget to dribble and just run with the ball a lot, and double dribble all the time, but its a lot of fun. I try no to play with them because it just wouldn't be fair to what ever team I'm not on, plus if I play I miss a lot of the little things that the kids make mistakes with and may need help on. There is one girl that consistently shows up and plays with all the boys the other girls tend not to stick around the whole time. It was a proud moment for the female athlete in me when she got picked second amongst a group of 10-12 year old boys.

I also have found a running buddy, and we run in the evenings 4 times a week, which not only lets my exercise, but lets me explore new parts of the Valley, its a rather sprawling area. The other day I found a hill with a great view, granted its a massive hike to the top, especially when trying to run it, but once on top you can see all of the valley and the ocean. Its the only place in the valley I've found so far that you can see the ocean from. I'm still playing basketball with the guys, and enjoying it, unfortunately its a little less regular that I would like but better than nothing. The other day I ended up playing barefoot, which made me feel like a true Lucian because the young people do everything barefoot. I also played tennis this morning, which was well interesting considering I don't really know how to play tennis, none the less I had a great time, not sure I can say the same for my much more experienced friend I was playing with.

After tennis, it was off to a grant writing seminar all day with the counterpart I am working on my after school sports program with. It was a really great seminar, that really made both of us think about our project a lot more, and also gave us a lot of help to get our proposals right! The only down side is it means a lot more work, thankfully I'm really excited about this project so I don't mind it at all.

I've also gotten to do some fun an cool things in the past few weeks. Last weekend I baked a cake from scratch with my kids, it didn't come out right though, the cake tasted more like bread...I blame the recipe we used, but maybe baking cakes just isn't my thing. The kids really liked the homemade chocolate icing, even though it was grainy because of the freshly grated cocoa. They of course wanted to lick every bowl and every plate that had icing on it. On Sunday, I woke up at 5:45 so I could get to a friends green house before it got to hot to spend my morning harvesting cucumbers. Its this really peacefully relaxing process because its just you walking through these rows of cucumbers cutting ripe ones and putting them is a massive nylon bag. In about 2 and a half hours with collected about 700 lbs of cucumbers, which then get shipped off(in a plane) to the UK so they have fresh cukes in the grocery store. I even got to go to the depot where you drop the boxes off for shipment. I hope to be able to continue with this process regularly, but I never know what will come up. After being a farmer it was time to change into my nice clothes and head over to a friend of mine parent's wedding reception. Definitely glad I brought more than one nice non-work outfit. His parents had been together for 25 years and were finally deciding to get married, it seems that that a lot of people get married after they have kids here, but when he first told me I will have to admit I was a bit confused.

The weekend before that we had a going away camping trip for EC 77, the group of volunteers that came in two years ago, and will be leaving in about a month. It was a lot of fun, we camped on the beach, and lucky for me the morning of my birthday I got to wake up on the beach with the sun rising over a little forest while I went for a swim in the ocean. I will have to say that may be my favorite way to wake up, and definitely not a bad way to begin my birthday. After cooling out and having pancakes cooked over the fire, I began the trek back to my home with 2 friends that spent the day with me relaxing and eating the best meal of my life, handmade ravioli with spinach, mushrooms, and goat cheese, with a roasted red pepper cream sauce. The fabulous birthday dinner was made possible by my wonderful parents/Aunt and Uncle that donated to the Aria Birthday fund. By the way you will also be buying me my first ever real paints so I can make that transition from pastel to paint, very excited about that!!! Not only did I have great food, and friends, but by far the best part of my b-day was not only that my kids remembered that it was my birthday, but the youngest one picked me flowers from her yard and got her mom to help wrap them up. The second I got home they all came to wish me a happy birthday, they had been waiting since the morning when they sadly came to check me and discovered I wasn't home. Of course I also spent time reading and just relaxing with my 4 regular kids, and even made my friends join in on the reading to them when I had to work on cooking.

Before all of that was Carnival, which is really a month or so long, but the main event in Castries is in mid July. Its pretty crazy thousands of people dress up in these elaborate costumes, some rather scantily clad, and dance/walk through the streets for hours. I will have to say the highlight came from seeing three peace corps staff members jumping up in a band, which means they were in a specific group that all had the same costumes and they were dancing and partying in the streets. All the villages have smaller versions of the main thing in Castries, and there are lots of other events associated with it. They have different local music contests and the such, one of which not only did I go to, but I also knew some of the musicians playing. The panorama is what I went to, its a collection of different steel pan/drum groups from around the island that play pieces that they personally arrange.

I think those are pretty much the highlights of my life over here the past month or so. I just finished reading a great book about life in the islands called Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, it really gives some great insights to the two sides of island life and I highly recommend it to get a better feel for the unknown part of island life.

The pictures from above are the flowers my kids gave me, my birthday dinner, the fun with cake, and harvesting cucumbers. Please note that the bottles in the last picture are of malt, which is a really thick nonalcoholic drink that fills you up and quenches your thirst. At first I hated it, but now when I'm hot, thirsty, and working hard its just what I want!

Basketball, Exploring, and proposal turned in!

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!!

Brownies, French Monopoly, and Art

A lot of people have been asking me about what my typical day is like, and while I would say that everyday is different and special in its own way, I'll give it a try.

I get up at around 7 during the week, an hour that seems ungodly early, but to Lucians means I'm sleeping really late. If only they knew that sometimes on weekends I sleep till 10, a completely normal hour in my mind, but if my neighbors knew that they would think I was deathly ill. Oh yes, they will party till 4 am and still wake up before 7, I swear they don't sleep which could explain why everything happens at a slow pace here. But back to my typical day, after breakfast, ironing my clothes, and making lunch I usually am running late because I couldn't get my butt out of bed, so I hurry off to work. Me being in a rush also makes my neighbors think I'm strange, not to mention that I walk the 10mins to work instead of taking a bus, another thing that is unthinkable. It sort of makes sense though because you can get sweaty and wrinkled walking to work, of course that happens to me even if I take the bus so I might as well save the money.

I then spend the next 7 hours trying to meet with teachers and the school counselor to plan out projects and figure out what other things the school needs help with, or I guess should say which things are the top priorities. Number one on the list reading, the kids can't read, the teachers don't really focus that much on teaching them to read, but everyone tells me its the schools biggest problem. So obviously I'm starting to work with the special ed teacher to create a literacy and numeracy program, step one for that get the principal on board. The principal is big into sports which is great for me, and we just gave out a survey to the kids about their interest in different sports, and the responses are really positive, now lets see if they actually want to participate next year. Kids without food is also a big problem and we came up with a hypothetical budget and wow does feeding kids get expensive fast, so now its time to figure out funding. If it happens to be a day I'm at the primary school I work one-on-one with two students that struggle reading words like had, what, where, ect...or helping the fifth grade boys with math. My new movement at the primary school is to change the teaching styles around so 3/4 of the the students by the time they are finishing 6th grade will no longer be below grade level for reading and math. We had a staff meeting today where we talked about it. The principal was verbally on board as were a handful of teachers, but lets see if they really embrace it and work with me to make this change.

After school comes the fun part of my day, not so ironed clothes are quickly replaced for my standard basketball shorts and whatever t-shirt is nearby, seriousness gone, and its time for small children to start showing up at my house, they are so much more fun then adults, kids rule and adults drool. At some point I will leave my state of denial and accept that I am now an adult, but I'm not there yet, and I think my behavior sometimes would suggest I am still 10. I have four standard kids that come over everday, if I have a study session then there are 10 6th graders at my house instead. My the normal four live within shouting distance of me and know the second I get home from pretty much anywhere. We usually just read together, but on monday I bought the cheap version of monopoly, which here is the french version from many years ago, its in broken english, uses the franc, and feels like it will all be torn apart within a few weeks, but real board games are expensive and the kids don't seem to be bothered by it. Yesterday we, me and the 4 regulars, built a small table out of the boxes my milk comes in and a cereal box so we had a place to rest my french monopoly. We started playing after the "table" was complete which was a bit chaotic because the kids had no idea how to play, after a bit of a headache and one of the 2nd graders not knowing what happened to their money pile we called it quits with plans to play again the next day. Of course this prompted the two 7 year olds and the 5 year old to start running around in circles in my living room, I have a big open space that's perfect for such activities. Of course then I decided it made the most sense for me to catch them and carry them out of my house and pretend to throw them out, a game that quickly turned into me being a monster. I think I added monster sound effects to encourage that progression. The game ended with one of the children being a monster and eating the rest of us and us all becoming monsters. If that wasn't enough for one day the playing moved to the porch where a game of mr freeze or something like that started. Its really just freeze tag with a different name. Playtime finally ended when it got dark and I kicked the kids out. Today we continued monopoly which everyone seems to be getting, the addition and subtraction and banking aspect is hard for them, but that could be partially due to the large numbers needed to make french francs worth something. Tomorrow we are continuing the game where we left off, and may make some pretend money that the kids can earn by doing things like reading or writing stories and then can use to buy lollipops or other things that I make or are at my house, who knows maybe I'll sell them my drawings for their cardboard money. To top things off today I made some baller brownies from scratch with my Lucian cocao stick.

After the kids leave me alone, if I don't have a meeting in the evening, I figure out something for dinner usually a concoction of whatever I made a ton of early in the week and a random collection of vegetables and fruit. Then I talk to friends, read, and draw. Lately I have been doing a lot of drawing, mostly with pastel, but I also did one in charcoal. I'll put some pictures of the ones I like more up. So that's pretty much a day in my life, give or take some activities. Also I'll put up a picture of me after some of my kids put flour all over my face.

Leatherback turtles and more!

Its been awhile since I've last posted, so there is a lot to inform people of. Some ridiculously fun, some frustrating, and other really rewarding.

As some of you know there has been a teachers and civil servant strike in St. Lucia, it ended friday but lasted two weeks. There is about a month left of school with only about a week and a half till exams start. There were really mixed feelings about the strike from St. Lucians including the teachers because the kids have national exams and they are missing critical preparation time, but there was also the principal of workers right and getting what people felt they deserved. For me personally it was frustrating because I was just getting started on some projects at the school and this slowed things considerably for me. Hopefully in the next month I can get to a point with my counterparts that things will be in place enough for me to do a few things over the summer and have things running by the beginning of next school year.

The plus side of the strike is that I had more time to catch up on things that were being neglected and to spend with neighborhood kids. I made cookies with about 7 kids in my community ranging in ages from 5-12, and it was really a great experience. We all just got to be silly, and I think it was a new experience for most of the kids. Of course they asked if we could do it every week, and other kids heard about it and wanted to be invited next time.

A few days later I went for a walk in the community with five 12 year old girls, it was sort of a safe time for the girls to talk about anything both with themselves and with me, which makes me so happy that they are comfortable enough to open up to me. I'm think of starting a girls group to talk about important issues and give them something fun to do.

The kids really make my life so much more enjoyable, there are a lot of frustrations of working with grown ups here, and sometimes I come home completely defeated and drained, but then one of my kids comes over to say hi and say the sweetest thing and life is good. For example when I was reading to a five year old, she turns to me and asks if I'm going to come back after I go back to where I came from. After I explain that I won't come back to live here again she says Miss when you leave all the children in the Valley, no all of St. Lucia will be very sad and miss you. Another child told me that my pastel belonged in a museum, and a child I work on learning to read asked me if I could work with him everyday. I already feel like I'm making a big difference for the kids that I get to work with, its incredible to think about.

I also have now been to all 3 fish frys on the island, really they are just big street parties by the beach, if you go earlier in the night they are more food focused, but by the later hours when all the locals go its just a party. There are a lot of fun, some more so than others because they are more dancing orientated, the music and dancing is different from home, but I think I'm learning.

This past weekend I decided to go turtle watching with some of the Japanese volunteers and other peace corps. Of course I decided to go about 45 mins before we needed to meet the group, it just wouldn't be any fun if there was planning involved. The beach that we went to is really isolated and completely off road, I think we even drove through a creek. First a little background on the leatherback turtles, they average about 4 feet long and 3 feet wide with flippers span about 6 feet, they have been around since the Cretaceous period about 110 million years ago, are the fastest reptiles (in water not on land), and can dive to greater depths than other reptiles. Sadly they are a critically endangered species, which means the are close to extinction in the wild, part of this is due to predators that eat baby turtles, and part of it is that people steal the eggs for different reasons throughout the world, and that they eat trash in the ocean because they think its food, this causes them to choke and die. The leather back turtles come onto the beach in the middle of the night to lay their eggs, so you just have to walk to beach back and forth until you see one. Fortunate for us a turtle came on the beach before 11 so we didn't have to wait all night. The turtle then uses its back flippers to dig a hole about 2-3 feet deep to lay the eggs in. The eggs are about the size of billiard balls and she lays close to 100 of them. After the eggs are laid she tries to cover them and begins her slow journey back to the ocean. Its really an incredible thing to see, especially when you think about how long the animal has been around and that it may be something in 50 years nobody will be able to see anymore.

The pictures are of the leatherback and honey harvesting.

Honey Harvesting and more!

The pictures are of my place, Briana you can stop harassing me now, and of the brooms I made to sweep my apartment.

Yesterday I harvested honey, it was pretty sweet. Its kind of scary at first cause all these bees are flying all around you, and your instincts tell you to swat at them, which would be a bad idea I think. I had the full protective gear on and even got to extract the honey from the combs. Of course that is followed by getting delicious fresh honey straight from the hive, sooo good. Later in the afternoon, I helped move parts for a greenhouse to a friends farm. Not your typical mothers day, but a good day regardless.

Last weekend I went to the fish fiesta, basically a big party on the beach, sadly the music choice does not consist of Britney Spears which is hard to handle, a party without britney just isn't a party. I went with a bunch of peace corps friends, and then the next morning we went on a 5k walk, always a good idea to walk at 8 am after being out till after 2. Needless to say we came in basically last place, but at the end there was this beautiful waterfall. It had rained a lot so the it was overflowing with water, so we couldn't get really close to it.

Work is going well, basically at the secondary school I'm going to do life skills and character building groups, and also organize extra curricular activities...along with anything else that comes up. Since I'm around the girls seem to be getting more involved with sports, before there were no female teachers that were involved in any sports. Everyone seems to slowly open up to me, and I am even beginning to learn how to play the keyboard through my help/interaction with the music class.

I'm still playing football and basketball after school, but that might slow down cause I am starting a study group for the exam the 6th graders have to take to get into secondary school, which is in a month. I'm off to pay bills, get groceries, and plan for a meeting, hope life is going well...miss everyone!

Beaches, football, cockroaches, and lizards

I'm finally starting to feel like a peace corps volunteer. Last week I woke up tried to turn on my water and realized I had none, not even a drip came from the pipes. Thankfully I had filled up a few big bottles the day before which last me the day, and by the afternoon the water was flowing. I made sure to buy a big bucket with a lid so I would at least have 5 gallons if I was withou water again.

A few days later I walked out into my living room to find a lizard scurrying across the wall, and last night I fought of an infestation of cockroaches. Of course the cockroaches freaked me out I saw at least four, and I feel there were many more. I sprayed to much big killer that I had to leave my house, and I now have roach pellets all over, thanks to the help of my host family. Now that is more of what I expected when I signed up for the peace corps, hopefully the roaches don't come back.

On the work front, my days are filled with incredible joy and frustration. The kids especially the little ones always bring a smile to my face, I live for their shouts of miss Aria miss Aria. One of the children I am working one-on-one with at the primary school was working on reading with me, and after we finished he was so excited that he wanted to share what he learned with the class, the whole class knows he can't read and the all clapped when he finished. He also asked if I could work with him everyday, which broke my heart because I have to be other places and can't at least at this time. Two girls at the secondary school didn't want to participate in PE class because well here girls don't really play sports, after a little convincing they decided to play and by the end of class they wanted to play more and even said they would like a girls football (soccer) team.

After school I am usually playing basketball with kids down by the main catholic church where I live about a 20 min walk from my house, or am playing football with the younger kids at the playing field just 5 mins from where I live. I also am learning a game called netball, which is basically basketball without any movement when you have the ball, in other words its nowhere near as much fun. A few evenings a week I have meeting with different community groups to help me meet people, and to help with different projects.

For the people that went to Greece together and went on that hike the last day we were there, and at the end there were orange and lemon trees next to a church. If you remember at all what I'm talking about I picked an orange and scotty took a lemon, but when I bit into the orange it tasted like a lemon. Well I've recently learned there are sour oranges and it was some mutant orange, but a sour orange I ate. Just wanted to share that bit of info.

I made pumpkin bread last night, it was delicious, and even my host sister, that don't like pumpkin enjoyed it. I also learned that a bag of lentils may look like a small amount before you cook them, but within an hour will be enough to feed 4 people lentils straight for a week. I am constantly learning new things, and with each blunder I have to laugh a little.

Well I'm off to meet some friends at the beach, the perks of living on a tropical island. Miss everyone at home!

Ps I don't have regular internet, but check it about once a week so keep those emails coming.

On to the next stage!

I completed training on Friday, passed all my different assessments, so I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on Friday. We take an oath of office, have a little ceremony that community partners, host families, peace corps staff, and current volunteers will be at.

I'm also moving into my new place on tomorrow, well sort of tomorrow. I had to go get the electricity switched on, and I"m not sure whether or not there will be power in my place yet, so my host family said that I could still sleep at there place tomorrow night if I need to. I'll definitely move my stuff in tomorrow, and start to set up. I only have a week to completely move in, which seems like a lot of time, but I have to buy a ton of stuff and get it from the capital on a bus and for some stuff 2 buses, so its not one quick trip to pick up everything I need. My place is a two bedroom, but with only one bed. I figure I'll use the extra room as a work out/art room, and if someone comes to visit an air mattress may be acquired and put in that room.

Last night I made a broom with my host dad for my new place. Its pretty cool and the Tawnya leaves, kinda like a palm tree, for the broom come from his garden in the hills. After that I went with my host family to a neighbors house to play games, and it ended up turning into a dance party. The whole evening was a great and really started to make me feel like part of the community.

Since I'm moving into a new place, I will be without Internet for a while there. It could be as short as a week, or much much longer. I will still be checking my email at the peace corps office, but I won't be able to be as connected to everyone as I have been. Miss everyone, and hope life is bringing joy to everyone.

Easter Weekend with NO easter eggs!!

Today is the first day of my four day weekend we have off good Friday and Easter Monday. Today was filled with fishcakes, kinda like crab cakes with fish instead, its a good Friday tradition here, one I don't object to. Last night they had a washing of the feet mass, this morning a walk of the cross or something like that, tomorrow is a midnight mass, and obviously the Sunday mass. I'm planning to go to the midnight mass because I'm told it is a nice one that isn't too crowded. Catholicism is a huge part of life here, so its important for me to at least go to church a little to integrate. Plus the church takes an active role in community activities, so I need them to help me help the valley.

Its definitely nice to have this long weekend to relax a bit from training, which we all want to be over, but I've still managed to keep myself busy. Tomorrow I'm doing an island tour all day, then I am going to the midnight mass with my host family. Sunday I'm hoping to go to the Carifta games, which is a tournament for all the best high school track athletes for the islands. My host dad talked of going with family, otherwise I probably won't go because I don't want to go by myself. As for Monday I'm volunteering to help with a cricket tournament to raise money for a community center. For a game I barely understand I seem to doing a lot with it...it seems like its fun to play, but its a ridiculously long game to watch.

I'm almost finished with training, just a week left till our final assessments and we move into our own places!! We then have a few days to settle in, buy things we need, unpack, and then swearing in. Of course after that is the fun part, actually being a peace corps volunteer and doing what I came here to do.

I miss everyone, and hope the weather isn't too dreary wherever you are!

Cricket player warming up at the big cricket match

My host dad cutting up sugar can to eat.

Coconut complete with a spoon to eat the coconut jelly with made from the coconut.

A coconut tree in the banana fields, with a banana shack underneath it.

My host dad holding eggs he found in he shed at his garden.

Let's plant a coconut tree!

That there my friends is a picture of the coconut tree I planted. My host dad has a garden, which is really more of a farm, up in the hills, so of course I had to plant a coconut tree when I went up to see it for the first time. The garden is really cool, bananas, grapefruit, lemons, limes, passion fruit, plantains, sugar cane and a bunch of other things grow up there. The place is also really remote and peaceful, so I definitely want to go up there and help out. One of the goals we created for me is to learn to carry a whole big big bunch of bananas on my head like the locals do. I also saw my first whole cocoa fruit on my visit to the garden. Its a red and orange cylinder that looks kind of like a squash.

I also recently went to help another volunteer in my community run a bingo night at a community center that a volunteer helped create from an old laundry. The center is literally a cinderblock room with tables made of plywood place on cartons or crates . It was a really good activityto see what things I work on will really be like. Plus it is a center that I am expected to work with once I'm sworn in.

This is a big week for all of us Peace Corps trainees in St Lucia, we have to implement a service learning project at the school we are working at, and of course things our going wrong. I was assigned the day before spring break, weeks long here, to do mine, a day that now has become a teacher workshop day as of yesterday, so I'm trying to get the kids to school anyways. We'll see how that works out.

Fortunately the following day we someone weaseled into getting out of our lessons to go to a really big cricket match. Then the next day the other island volunteers are throwing us a beach bash, which should be a lot of fun.

Well its way past my bedtime, I miss you all and hope everything is going well for everyone!

Exploring, Learning, and Becoming a Lucian

Here are a collection of banana trees, the purple

flower at the bottom is how the bananas start to

grow.
Above is one of the views as I ride the bus to and from Castries.

The extended host family and me with Castries behind us.

A town up in the hills of the Valley, where I live.
.
View from my host families balcony.

Fish Heads and Pig Snouts!

I've now tried fish heads and pig snouts. The fish head was fried, I fried it, and complete with eyes. It was by far the best part of the fish, but scary to eat. The pig snout I didn't know I was eating, until afterwards and I was telling my host mom I enjoyed it. I told my peace corps friends that after we are in our own places, I'll fry up some flying fish for them, but only if they eat the heads.

Other than interesting food, I'm going to try to address some questions I've been getting a lot of in emails. First of all I do have a cell phone! I just got it today, incoming calls are free for me, but outgoing calls are really expensive. I guess that's what skype is good for.

I did finally make it to the beach, a beautiful beach with a cemetery on the other side of it, rather strange, but it was easy for all of us to get to. I went with most of the other trainees after we went to the saturday market. It was a nice lazy day complete with my favorite local drink lemon shandy, a mix of beer and lemonaid.

As for more information about where I live and the conditions I live in, well I basically live in the rich part of a farming community that is pretty poor. It is about a 15 min drive from the nearest beach, but its a beach you would not swim in because people in the village use the ocean as a toilet. As for the closest good beach I'm not really sure. The island is pretty small, and if I had a car it would be really easy to get to a lot of beaches, but having to use the bus makes it more time consuming to get to some of the better beaches I know about. If you walk around the "neighborhood" you'll see a wide range of things: rum shops, shack house, nice houses, field after field of banana trees, a lumbar yard, a police station, but mostly plants growing.

As for my current house, I'm in a 3 bedroom place with my own room and bathroom. Peace Corps requires that I have my own room, which really makes sense for what I'm here for. I think it would really hard to be effective if I was sharing a room, because I really need time to process everything I do. Even when I'm just relaxing I'm learning and working, so the only time I really relax is when I'm alone. It did initially make me feel really awkward though because here I am with my own room, while my three host sisters and host nephew share a room. We have wireless in my host families home, and when I move out I want to get Internet because I really need it for research purposes. Additionally if I want to use skype it would be really hard to speak freely anywhere else because my every action is being watched, partially because I'm an outsider, partially because I am one of 2 white people in the valley, and because everybody is watched closely.

It seems that at the end of training I will be moving across the street to a two bedroom place, I haven't seen it but my host mom says its nice, and if that doesn't work I know of other options...the peace corps takes care of the logistics I just move in.

So far I've had running water whenever I need it, but am told that it is normal to not have water for a while. Sometimes you don't have water because its too dry, it floods, or something blocks up the tank. The mosquitoes haven't been too bad, I've managed only to get a little sunburn, I'm managing with cold showers (they're only bad in the morning when you don't want to be up and the sun hasn't warmed the water at all), and I'm loving not having AC.

Things are going really well so far, my primary school kids make me feel so loved, the secondary school kids make me use my mind, and my peace corps people keep me sane and balanced. Bon swe!!! Thank you for all the emails I really do appreciate them even if I don't respond to all of them, I love hearing about everything that's happening!!

Oh, so thats how that grows!

In the past week I learned how a pineapple, banana, guava, mango, cashew, papaya, and many other things grow. Most of them just grow from trees and aren't really that interesting, but the banana and the pineapple are magical. First of all a pineapple bush, yes bush, only produces one pineapple at a time, and the pineapple grows out of the top of the bush. Of course my host sisters think I'm crazy for being so fascinated by this that I felt the need to take a picture of the one in the front yard.

As for the banana the magic behind them is hidden by the blue bags that cover the fruit in the fields I pass many times a day; however when walking with my host mom around the valley, mainly a farming community, I got to see some of the plants without the blue bag. The bunch of bananas start as a big purple flower that is closed up and as it opens little groups of bananas begin to grown, then the next layer, and then the next, I'll have to bring my camera on the next walk because you have to see it to understand how incredible it is.

Besides being shown all the fruit trees in the yard by my host dad this past weekend, I ] was also taken to the pizza place in the closest town, Dennery, which also happens to have Karoke. Be careful though because you will inevitably have to suffer through some old school, from 50 years ago, country music. I have no idea why but really old country music is huge down here. To eat the pizza we went up to an overlook so you could see the beach below with the town behind it, a rather impressive view for being off the main highway.

I have finally stepped on a beach, but I really only stepped on it and looked briefly out to the ocean. I think this weekend all of the trainees are refusing to lime with a purpose (structured and purposeful hanging out that the peace corps thinks we should be doing to integrate) and taking a day to lay on the beach finally. I mean we've been on a tropical island for almost 3 weeks it’s about time to be on a beach!

I went to church on sunday, I know who am I? It wasn't bad and I feel like it really helped me to get my face out there in a positive friendly way. I later met people who said they saw me at church. On the plus side after church you can buy ice cream, so that made it well worth it.

After church we went to a 60+ culture pageant, where I saw old ladies do Lucian dances, and wear traditional clothing. The most important lesson I learned however was that something you would expect to take a hour maybe two in the states will last about 4 here, and nobody leaves before the end.

I worked with an elementary school this week, the kids all want to be my friend, and I feel like I will definitely continue working with the school through my 2 years. In just one day I already started to get attached.

Today I had my first reading group at the secondary school, it went relatively well. I was given a different group than I originally thought I was getting, so my reading material wasn't as appropriate as originally planned. Everything down here is about being on your toes, and expecting the unexpected.

On to the Homestay

I've been at my home stay for a few days now, and feel like I'm beginning to fit in with the family. I have 3 new sisters from 6-19 and a nephew that is one in addition to a mom and dad. Everyone is nice and is working hard, maybe a little too hard to make me feel welcome.

My new town is inland a bit and is a more rural community in the Dennery quarter. I've started meeting the neighbors, which isn't hard because my new mom introduces me to everyone we pass, plus it is pretty much mandatory to greet everyone you meet on the street (this is not the case in the capital) or when you get on the bus. I take the bus into two a few times a week and its about a 45 min ride to get into town and then a 30 min walk or another bus ride to get to the peace corps office. The bus ride isn't too bad cause its a straight shot and everyone always has a seat cause the buses are really jut big vans, plus it is a beautiful drive.

I still have not been anywhere near a beach, which seems like a sin because I've been on this island paradise for 10 days already. I have signed up at the library and opened a bank account however, and am begining to learn Kewyol, French Creole. Tomorrow I visit my future work site, and hopefully am not thrown to the wolves immediately, but given some time to figure things out.

Pre-service Training

I'm currently sitting in a convenant after our easiest day of training. We finially had the first opportunity to go into town, which is the capital city. We had administrative and health training this morning, then spent the afternoon on a scavenger hunt throughtout the city. We discovered upon asking for help finding our goals how friendly people are here. While wandering after fininsh the scavenger hunt, it seems that you can get everything in the Capital that's in the states, its just may be more expensive.

We have been staying and training a bit out of the city at a retreat center, that is run by nuns. Its a beautiful place up on the hill so you can see Casteries and the ocean below. The nuns cook amazing meals for us, so we are getting a little spoiled for the future. We have hot water and showers in our rooms, I can't believe it, granted that hot water drips out and changes to cold quickly. The weather is in the 80's, and can get a bit hot in the sun, but we don't really have more than 15 mins outside in the afternoon cause we're busy with sessions.

So far its been a great experience, a little more taken care of then I expected. The other people I'm with are a lot like the AU population, there are some really awesome people that you could see being best friends with and others that are like where are your social skills?

We had one girl not get on the plane from Miami to here. I actually had dinner with her the night before and talked about the peace corps not being for everyone. She seemed pretty cool, but wasn't going to my island and it seemed like the right deciscion for her.

I found out that I will be living in a east coast town that every says is a lot of fun, and have a big fish fry. I will be working at a Secondary School, but don't know what I will be doing exactly. It seems like a really good placement for me and I'm pretty excited about it. Monday we seperate from the other island volunteers and moving in with our home stays, which should give us our first culture shock. It seems like it will be really helpful for us, so we can learn how to cook with lemons bigger than grapefruits, bread fruit, amoung many of the other native things here I have never seen.

Leaving

I figured I should set up a blog before I leave for the Peace Corps, so well everyone back home can properly stalk. I'm really getting excited to leave, but am a little nervous about whether or not I'll be able to fit two years worth of stuff into my backpack.

Island life will official start on Tuesday, and it looks like it will be a nice 80 degrees so sorry to all of you anywhere cold. Letter writing, world saving, permanent warm weather, among many other amazing things here I come.