My alarm blared, I groggily opened my eyes, rolled to the other side of bed, my t-shirt clinging to me from sweat. I swore to myself I was buying a fan on Monday, this was ridiculous. I have to keep saying to myself yes, when I joined the Peace Corps I signed up for hardship, but why make it harder than it had to be.
As I bobbed under my mosquito net, all I could think of was highly caffeinated coffee from my Italian French Press. Why does eight am always feel so early down here? Glorious Coffee! With my eyes barely opened, I stumbled to the bathroom. I jiggled the lever to flush the toilet. Nothing! I turned the faucet on the sink, nothing again.
This was getting old. Everyone says the draught is over, but if it’s over why is it I don’t have water this morning? I grabbed a bucket full of water, and dumped it down the toilet, first problem solved, now to wash my hands. I walked to the kitchen, opened the cupboard under the sink and lugged out a jug, crisis averted.
My percolator was starting to bubble, coffee is ready! Of course my favorite mug was dirty, and I had no water. I only used the mug for coffee the morning before, what could it hurt to use it again without washing it? As I sat in my chair checking my email, and waiting for the caffeine to kick in, I tried to process what I needed to do for the day.
It was Saturday, and since I joined the Peace Corps, I had this desire save the world one child at a time, or maybe I had it before the Peace Corps. Either way it meant I gave up my sacred Saturdays to work with kids. No sleeping in! No staying in bed till noon reading or hoping that horrible hangover would go away. I had little kids waiting for me to teach them how to play basketball, at nine in the morning. In the afternoon a bunch of teenagers owned me, I was supposed to teach them how to pole vault , but sometimes I just wanted to go to the beach.
It was 8:20, I was supposed to leave in twenty-five minutes, and I still had to eat, bath, and create a practice plan for basketball. Please caffeine start working now!
So maybe I’m a little late, I walked out the door at 8:55. I walked past a father of a kid I work with, and said good afternoon, clearly 9 nine am is the afternoon to me. I hope he didn’t think I was drunk, and about to go be in charge of his child.
The little boy who walks to the basketball court with me was waiting patiently; he told me he was worried I left without him. As we strolled to the main road, I was hoping we would get a ride; otherwise we were going to be really late. Why is it that small children walk so slowly? Thank god after only two minutes of walking a truck pulled over to take us down to the court. We arrived with seconds to spare.
The second I walked in my door after basketball, I peeled off my sweat soaked shirt and laid down on my yoga mat, exhausted. It was only 11am, why was I so tired? I had an hour and a half to make food, eat, put together packets for my pole vaulters, and create my pole vault practice plan. I didn’t want to move.
I half rolled to my fridge looking for water, none. I pulled myself to my feet and stumbled to the sink, turned the facet, no water there. I knew I couldn’t make it through an afternoon in the sun without water. I guess this meant I had to walk down to the shop to buy some, and maybe a box of macaroni and cheese for lunch.
After inhaling the entire box of macaroni and cheese, then checking the box to see just how many calories I had consumed, I figured it was a perfect time to lie on my yoga mat and read. It’s not as if I had time to relax, I just wasn’t ready to move. By the time I was ready to move, it was time for me to leave, but I still had things to do.
I walked down to the highway to catch a bus, 20 minutes later than I should have. While I walked, I tried to figure out how long I could wait for a bus before I had to try to hitch a ride, fifteen minutes. Maybe I should just try to hitch right away. As I got the road there were a group of guys at the bus stop that have told me in the past not to hitch, so I figured I should at least wait a little while for a bus.
A bus finally came, and after the 45 minute journey I was at the stadium. Only 4 athletes were there at two pm, when training was supposed to start. I definitely started panicking. It was my first day as the head coach of Pole Vault St. Lucia, and the first training session since the Peace Corp Volunteer that started the program had left. Where are the athletes? Did they quit just because Andy left? Are all the nay sayers right about this program falling apart? Great this was all my fault. Calm down, relax, and remember to breathe. It’s going to be okay, a lot of the athletes are always late, just give them time.
My fear was for nothing, by the time 3pm rolled around I had 11 athletes at training.
At the end of training, when we are leaving, one of the athletes points over to the thousands of dollars worth of pole vaulting poles, that are just sitting out on the track. In the midst of babysitting the eleven 12-18 year olds I completely forgot about the poles. This just leaves me feeling incompetent and like a failure. Practice was a complete mess, and on top of that I can’t even remember to put ridiculously expensive equipment away.
It seems that feeling like a failure is part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer. Then again maybe feeling like a failure is part of any development work. Trying to create something out of nothing, with no support stuff inevitably leads to things not running smoothly, to things falling apart and being a complete mess, but I guess at least we are all out there trying to be that difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment