Work and play

So many things, so busy since the beginning of this month! I'm home sick right now, but feeling a little better, I'll probably be able to attend the literacy workshop tomorrow. Hello vinegar and LLB, goodbye stomach pains (hopefully)!

The Vieux-Fort After School Programme is running! We have two dedicated regular volunteers, and Sister Mary Lee will be able to help out more regularly, as well as having generously donated some great maths flash cards and books. The participants have regularized, and the attendance has dropped a little and leveled off, so now when more children want to be in the programme, I can finally tell them yes! We have activities everyday after homework or academic work, including music, theatre, arts & craft, chess, and athletics. Speaking of theatre, the girls I worked with on Monday was the first group of kids here that really understood Charades and played it well once I explained it. We're also participating in an International Art Exchange, so over the next few weeks we'll create full color drawings of holidays celebrated in St. Lucia, then send them off and receive art from other students all around the world!

While things have been going pretty well recently in VFASP, for a few days a couple weeks ago things were kind of unstable. Ms. Casilda James, a teacher who had worked at the school 29 years, passed away. It was a very difficult time for everyone at the school and the family, so last week Vieux-Fort Primary put on an amazing Memorial Service. It was so touching, and I got to see sides of Ms. Cas and the impact she had that I hadn't yet learned in the year I'd known her. Rest in peace, Ms. Cas.

When not at work, Berney and I have been expanding our horizons. We have some new friends a couple towns away, where we've visited for dinner a couple times. The woman is French and a translator, so she and Bern have plenty to talk about with language experiences. The children are lively and instant friends.

Last weekend Bern and I climbed Gros Piton, the second tallest mountain on the island at a height of 2,619 feet. The cost was quite off-putting, though, and even though it was a good workout with better views, I'd rather not spend $70 EC for two of us to walk and have sore legs and feet. I can do that for free most places.

Last Sunday was Jounen Kweyol, so we dressed in our madwas and went into VF Town for some food and music. All the locals loved that we were wearing their national dress, and while it seemed like pestering at first, we realized soon that they were flattered at the compliment we were paying them.

Soon I'll have Mid-Service Training, where all of us on St. Lucia will get to see everyone in our group who flew off to other islands after staging. I'm looking forward to the reconnect, though I'll definitely be sad when I don't see some familiar faces. You know who you are.

Busy busy busy

I've been having trouble sleeping, I've been so busy! Before last week a lot of effort went into preparing for the Vieux Fort After School Programme (VFASP), and this past week a lot of effort went into making sure it got off the ground.

Well, it did! We had about 30 students each of the three days it runs, which is of course more manageable when there are more teachers and volunteers present. I'm especially excited that it started last week, because I could include it in my trimesterly report for PC. We still need to get some things in place, like more volunteers, regular club activities for half an hour after homework, etc., but it's great that the basic purpose is being fulfilled. Children are getting help with homework. When there are enough volunteers they get help from adults who already know the stuff, and when there aren't they get help from one another with key guidance from the adults that are around.

But even though this awesome thing is going on, it's been hard. Last weekend was so full of activity, from a fundraising concert in Laborie for St. Jude's to dinner in Balembouche (not the estate!) with a French family to another fundraising concert on Piaye beach--and all the house work and prep work that had to get done anyways! I haven't been getting much sleep for various reasons, and even twice last week I woke up from dreaming about writing lists and sorting out names and words, with children all around trying to help but being a distraction instead. Each day I come home (late, as you'll see in a bit) exhausted, but if I nap during the day I have an even harder time falling asleep at night.

So this three-day weekend was exactly what I needed. Berney and I went to Castries yesterday for a chess-training session, got a little shopping done in the market (mint! vanilla bean! miwi! roti!), and came back home for a quiet night. Today I made some vegan sloppy joes to take for our own cheap Oktoberfest at Sandy Beach, where we limed with Fae for a few hours. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to not leaving the house all day, and catching up on Heroes (since I didn't see the first three episodes of the season--I didn't have a working TV). Then it's back to some long days, but I'll be much more refreshed.

VFASP runs Mondays through Wednesdays until 4:30, so I get home around 5 or 5:30pm. Thursdays and Fridays, though, I still have to stay in Vieux Fort Town until about 4:30 because they're tearing down the remains of the hospital, and it's dangerous to be around the neighborhood with the asbestos in the air. They're working during the day, and then wetting everything down before people come home. So I need to find good reasons to stay around VF Town now. Or at least good places.

Finally, Berney and I recently celebrated two years of annoying each other constantly, regardless of proximity. :) I made a dinner that was special but not nearly as good as the lamb a month ago, along with a chocolate chip cookie cake with mint icing. Today we wrapped up the celebration with the rest of the lobster someone gave us as a consolation prize for getting ice thrown at us at the beach.

Oh. And both pairs of my work shoes broke. :(

More work, more play

It seems I'm so busy now that school is out and I'm not going to a different school everyday!

Last week I went to Dennery to finish up the Barrier Analysis surveys (we're officially done with surveys in both locations! Hooray!) with MaryEllen and Haley. I don't exactly enjoy data collection (I'm too introverted to like it, though this is the third time I've had to contact large numbers of people--first was when I worked for the Census a few summers ago, then a year and a half ago when researching for my BA thesis), but knowing that data collection means data analysis is what keeps me going. That step is scheduled two Fridays from today :D

When I got back into Vieux Fort Town that Monday I was just in time to see the VF bands jump in our local Carnival parade. Today (Tuesday July 21st) concludes Carnival season. Several of the smaller Eastern Caribbean islands have staggered Carnival seasons, while Trinidad is the only one with the correct time (just before Lent). This is so that no one loses out on tourists.

One great group of older women started wining in line, and ended up falling down all over each other!

Tuesday and Wednesday last week I volunteered at Camp Lajwa ("Joy" in Creole), a retreat for children with disabilities. Tuesday was for the families in the south of the country, and Wednesday everyone met up (including those from the north that held their regional camp the Sunday prior) at George Odlum Stadium in VF. Honestly I didn't expect to have nearly as much fun as I did, despite the disorganization on Tuesday and the late meals both days. Seriously, it was a great time.

Friday I went with Fae up to the Gros Islet area. We originally intended to go to "Outrageous: Sexy in Black," a Carnival fete that featured all this year's big Soca finalists, a party to last until sunrise. Then we found out that it cost much more than we were previously told, so along with Fae's lifelong friend Tricia we hit up Rodney Bay and the Gros Islet Jump Up (the best time I've had at the Jump Up, with all the top Soca songs thumping until 2. Though I'm sort of sad we missed out on the real Carnival events, we totally had a blast! We got a free round of drinks from a bartender where Tricia sings sometimes, because it was her birthday (for true!).
A couple of their friends joined us, including Jason (a Rasta version of King Julian from "Madagascar"). The best part of the night was when all five of us were piled into Tricia's small SUV, and Jason realized that the CD playing was Jason Mraz. He flipped out--because he loves Jason Mraz so much! Each song he would listen for 30 seconds, and demand the next song be played, "Pull up, pull up!" At the next bar we went to, he went so far as to request Jason Mraz songs be played instead of the typical Soca or Dancehall songs that dominate St. Lucian night life. Just before we took everyone home for the night, a trip to a chicken and fries stand was necessary. While Fae and Tricia stood patiently in line, Jason called out to the server repeatedly "Ten dollars backs, five fries!" Chicken backs are popular here because they're cheap, and as a Rastafarian Jason is a vegetarian, so he was giving the order for the two ladies and himself, of course!

Sunday I went all the way upstairs to my landlady's apartment for her grandson's birthday party. I forgot to get a picture of the card I made for him; I didn't get a gift because I didn't find out until the evening before. Thomas turned 5, and everyone wins!

Great food, delicious tamarind juice (it's my favorite local juice, it has so much flavor), lots of sweets--ice cream and cake of course!
The past couple days I'm just using to wind down and get serious work done on things I've been needing to type up, like my reviews for the IBG Phonic Programme and the After School Programme, both at VF Infant School. This week will be another very busy one, with a meeting tomorrow, minor surgery on Thursday, and an overnight farewell beach bash for EC77 (the PC group before ours). So it was definitely nice to take a couple days to stay at home in cocoa-tea-with-dumplings weather (lots of rain, a small tropical wave) and just watch the final Carnival Jump parade on the local TV stations.

Bonus: Dancing to "Suzette" at Camp Lajwa!

Exciting week

Last Saturday I went to the joint birthday party for Julius, Ellery, and her daughter Jovanni. I spent a lot of the time in Randy's room hanging with him and Fae, and watching Da Ali G Movie. After that I went out and hung out with the old people (they're my friends too), dancing and eating--"breakfast" was served just after midnight, and was what would normally be a weekend lunch spread. There was cake, and of course plenty to drink throughout the night. It was a great time, overall.

Earlier that afternoon I also got a package from my dad--a framed picture I gave to him a long time ago, and some Godiva chocolate bars. Packages are always very exciting :)

On Sunday I went to the movies with Fae, Randy, and a couple of his coworkers. It was a long trek up there, with waiting for people to get ready at each part (even I was a few minutes late getting to Fae's, but that wasn't much of a problem for anyone, since Randy wasn't ready for another half hour or so). We watched Transporter 3 (I've seen the first one, and I guess there was a second?). The experience was pretty much exactly like going to a theater in the States, except that the hot dog I had was actually good (and the bun, especially). Unfortunately, the movie was at 7, so I didn't get back until late, so for two nights in a row I ended up only getting a few hours of sleep. This week I still haven't been able to catch up on it yet, but perhaps tonight.

Today was exciting because I met with Sister Mary, a nun who works assisting schools all over the south and west of the island. Luckily for me, she lives in the convent here in Vieux Fort, and what's more, she wants to start an afterschool program! So today we met and talked about what we expect out of it, who and what we'll need, and we'll meet again on Monday. I'm really glad she's here, since this is something I've been wanting to do but have been feeling too stretched between three schools all week to get some time to really get it going. Her goal is to have it running by mid-February, which is a tall order, but I'll do my best to make sure it happens.

PCV/JOCV Conference and Barbeque

Today was awesome. Yesterday was awesome too. Maybe tomorrow will be awesome, we'll have to wait and find out.

Yesterday I went up to Babonneau to spend the night with Ashley so I wouldn't have to get up super-early to get to the conference on time today. I met up with her and Scott, Lois, Elaine, and Karen, all PCVs, at a faux-Starbucks cafe by the cinema. We chatted, ate, and had gelato (!!), then Ash & I went back to her place. We stayed up talking girl-talk (not Girl Talk) and exercising. It was nice to chill with someone one-on-one, since I haven't done that in a long time and that's the kind of interaction I've been craving lately.

Today we went to Rodney Bay to a hotel where volunteers from both US Peace Corps and the Japanese Oversea Cooperation met up, met each other, and shared presentations to stimulate discussion about the issues we're facing as volunteers in St. Lucia. JOCVs do very similar work, and have a similar mission to the PC. I really enjoyed both presentations I sat in on, one about the Maths Achievement Program two JOCVs have been working on, and one about Libary and Reading Programs that two PCVs have been working on. They gave me a lot of insights and ideas for what I should be doing in order to get some of my project ideas accomplished.

Afterwards, we were supposed to go to Gros Islet for a beach BBQ, but it started raining so the JOC Country Director very generously volunteered his house, which was only a ten minute walk from the hotel. Altogether there was a lot of food, from what the hosts provided and what we bought for the cookout. The best pictures I got were of food (you should expect this by now of me), so here they are:

Veggies, dips, delicious cookie and brownie by Sam (the PCV who organized the event), green tea cake made by one of the JOCVs, and THE BEST SUSHI I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE I am not kidding I don't usually like sushi that much but dang this was amazing. It was homemade, btw.

American contributions to snacks!

And the main course. I had a cheese veggie burger with pickles, ketchup, lettuce and hot pepper mustard. Justin and Ashley were concerned about the amount of the pepper mustard on my burger bun, but it left my mouth only mildly warm. It was delicious.

I ate about 27 cookies and brownies, as did everyone else along with all the other food. We went home stuffed and very happy.

The best part, though, was when a bunch of the JOCVs practiced one of their traditional dances for us. They'll perform it next Saturday when they host Japan Day at Town Hall in Castries, to share their culture with the people of St. Lucia. This is called the Fishermen's Dance, and it's sure to bring in lots of fish!

Tomorrow I might go over to Albert's house. He's a bus driver (the first one I met, he taxis for Manman) who lives down the road, and he invited me to come over to chat with him and his girlfriend. I also need to start practicing my tortillas for Thanksgiving, so I'll walk down to Super J and back for flour and shortening (which will be my exercise for the day--it's about 35 minutes each way at a brisk pace).

Swing Dance Party!

So yesterday we did indeed host a swing dance party. Well, there was only about an hour total of dancing, but the party lasted for several hours. Two fellow PCTs, a married couple who are also living in the neighborhood for the time, came by, and many of my host family's friends and family.

We started with a full lunch for everyone--fish, saltfish, breadfruit, black beans, rice w/ vegetables, avocado, fried magombo (a lot like plantain), shredded carrot, sliced tomato. It was all very good. To drink of course we had the rum punch (recipe below!) and some grapefruit/lime/sour orange juice made from fresh fruit.

After lunch I taught a short lesson for 8 people (there were more than that many there, but they didn't want to dance). Most people picked it up really quickly, including my point person's young daughter! Not many people danced after the lesson, though. Fay was a very good follow for me to work with to demonstrate the steps and some turns. After the lesson, for the most part, the only dancing was a few of us just moving around by ourselves. Everyone was impressed (and surprised, those that didn't know I like to dance) by my moves. I'll see if I can get a video up later.

After a while I switched the music from a swing playlist I made to a band my brother plays with, The Neoprimitive. Everyone liked that music, too, and the different kinds of dances you can do to it.

After the party my host parents and another couple took me to a (free) "country and western" dance so I could see what it was like, since I had mentioned it before. Well: the music is very loud. There weren't many people there since it was early on a Sunday night. There's pretty much only one kind of step that people do to the music (box step), and no turns or anything. And the songs all sound the same--old country music. After an hour we left. It was pretty boring, to be honest. I don't think I could do more than an hour and half unless I were with friends at such a dance.

All in all yesterday was very busy, so I was very tired by the end and still am today! Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment, then I'll go to my school internship like most Tuesdays during training.

quick mid-week update

I was supposed to have an assessment of sorts yesterday while at my internship, but the person who was going to assess me couldn't make it. So I'm expecting a call from him to reschedule for tomorrow, although I have a shadowing assignment with another PCV tomorrow, so I'm not sure how it'll all work out. If we had had more time & info about the activity & assignment I don't think there would really be a problem, but here we are. Flexibility is one of the PC qualities emphasized, after all.

I got a package from my mom today! It's very exciting. I have clothes--more t-shirts, shorts, pants & such. Thanks mom!

I'm nearly done with The Hobbit, and next I will move on to God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Vonnegut. I like reading. :)

On Saturday I was bitten many times by mosquitoes. There are small red spots all over my legs still left, but even worse, there are a couple of very red patches where I must have been bitten by a spider or something. These spots itch still!

During training up in Castries we've taken to playing "Suzette" by Herb Black, the Soca Monarch for 2008--it's an award-winning calypso song, in other words. Well, when you listen to the song you have to dance to it if at all possible. So I've gotten plenty of (toned-down) wining and shaking and "bat-bat"ing in at the office. Here's a good video of it, since you can see also what the schools here look like from the outside. It's hilarious and awful though that he's singing this song for kids, and having them dance to it. Try to figure out what the song is about. Check out the blue video on youtube too, it has the song with full music quality but no video.

Manman bakes cakes (like coffee cakes, but moist and better than any kind you'd find in a store), and they are delicious, and it's a good thing I'm moving out in two and a half weeks, because I'd get fat really quickly otherwise.

Pictures finally!

Our bus upon arrival in St. Lucia. Look at all those smiling faces!
This is for Jesse. It's masons! No, I don't know. This is in Castries.
A view of the surrounding area from the first night in St. Lucia. Our building was up a hill, so plenty of sweat went into getting luggage (and ourselves) up and down.

This was the dining room at the pastoral retreat center where we stayed at first.
Dinner on the first night overseas: fish (kingfish? something...), green fig salad (just like potato salad), salad w/ lettuce and cucumber, spaghetti, bread and butter.

The last night in the pastoral retreat center, the band that played for us. Lovely music.
Elaine dancing with some of the staff's kids to the music.
At the Stress Out Bar. Yeah, I know--"heeeeyy guys" expression on my face--I was blinking!
Sea grapes!