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.