Monday, August 30, 2010

Here I am, Rock you like a Hurricane

Lesson #3,462 in Humor and Flexibility, the Peace Corps Way:

For all of you who haven't been watching the news, Hurricane Earl has just finished ripping through the northern Leeward Islands, which, of course, includes St. Kitts. Due to this, we were not able to leave today as planned. Both my group and the Antigua group had to stay behind and see off the St. Vincent crew leave early this morning. It was definitely bittersweet to see off a group of people who I've spent hours and hours each day with since last Monday in Miami. I wish them well on their projects and can't wait to hear updates from them about how they're getting along in their communities. 

After they all left, the 17 of us who couldn't fly out went on a little field trip to the south of the island to the community of LaBorie. It was great to see a more realistic-sized town that I will be living in. We met a current PCV who worked with an NGO, and one of her projects was developing some tourism activities in the area. They had a small community center with some native artifacts that I took great interest in. Then we had a walking tour guide given to us by local from the community. It was incredibly hot and sunny, but absolutely beautiful walking down small roads and along the beaches among the fishermen weaving their fishing traps out of bamboo strips. There was also a very quaint church built in the late 1700s that I really enjoyed walking through. There was also a very long beach with a man-made reef structure built just about 15 feet from the water's edge to protect a childrens' swimming area. It was just incredibly tempting to just take off my shirt and shorts and go for a swim, especially when the kids started asking us to. Another incredible sight was being able to see the island of St. Vincent from the beach, and I think it all made us think of our friends who were on the island getting settled in with their host families. We all waved, but I don't think they saw anything.

I was pretty speechless for the duration of the trip. My mind kept wandering. I was mostly anxious and have felt ready to move on for the next step in this process. I have to keep telling myself that I've waited over a year for this moment, so what's another day? I also kept telling myself how lucky I am to be in this part of the world by myself with no worries except, of course, the ones that will greet me at my job. But at least I will finally feel like I'll be making some kind of difference again, no matter how minute that might turn out to be in the beginning. 

Also, my camera battery died, and without a charger there won't be too many pictures posted here for a little bit. That is definitely priority #1 over the next several weeks. 

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Right Where I Need to Be...

Well then, I have been on St. Lucia for about a week now and honestly, as the days go by I have never felt more right about any decision that I have ever made. I have met some amazing people, seen some of the most beautiful scenery, and have sweat more than I ever have in my life (as hard as that is to imagine), and I haven't even made it to my island of service yet!

Before I go any farther, here is a video that my brother John did about my last weekend in the states. I watched it and it made me very happy to see members of my family, but it also goes over some of the reasons I joined the Peace Corps, which will be a good reminder to me when things inevitably get tough.




Now, on to the exciting stuff... the all-encompassing assignment! I was always nervous about the fact that I have gone through this whole process of applying, being accepted, and then actually flying to the Caribbean before I knew what my job would entail. I mean, it's not like any other job. How many interviews have you done where they don't tell you what you're going to do, extend you an invitation, and then expect you to take that job? I guess that goes with the territory. But anyways, I'll be working in the capital of St. Kitts, Basseterre, which has quite the colorful history of colonialism and being destroyed by natural disasters and rebuilt. Exciting! I will be working with the Department of Sports for the government strengthening some current programs they have going, as well as starting some new projects that they have requested. One of these projects is helping to design a webpage for the Department, which, I have to admit, is the second-most intimidating feature of my post (second to, of course, learning the rules of cricket). So, I have a request... anybody who has any good advice on either webpage design OR learning cricket are encouraged to contact me. I took an html class my freshman year of high school, but those were back in the days of more hair on my head and zits on my face.

On a more personal note, I am accomplishing my goals of trying new things as they come up on a regular basis. I have been doing yoga (!) almost every day with the fantastic instructor Camille, and if we were volunteers on the same island I would be knocking on her door 3 times a week for sessions. And fried plantains = deliciousness. In fact, every way I have had them is great. chips, fried, baked, whatever. I really hope my homestead host is a good cook, because I hope to be in the kitchen every night learning how to cook up these fantastic looking fruits and vegetables on the island.

Well, that about does it for me this evening. I realized I really need to take more pictures, so perhaps I will make that a priority tomorrow before *gulp* Tropical Storm Earl might make the sky a little cloudy. It is time to commence the evening guitar circle with earlier-mentioned Camille and Christa, the latter of whom might be better than me at guitar after only 8 months of playing, which I doubt more and more. Until then, the next post will be from St. Kitts!

Monday, August 16, 2010

The ol' Bait and Switch

My time is coming fairly rapidly. One week from now I will be in Miami with a group of hopefully equally excited and perhaps somewhat confused future volunteers. My confusion was only heightened after today. Since receiving my invitation, I was expecting to go to St. Vincent and the Grenadines since, well, that's where they told me I was going to go. Over the weekend I received an email from the APCD of St. Kitts and Nevis, welcoming me to serve there and wanting to contact me. I responded back with some confusion, as I thought I had was on my way to SVG. This morning I received a call from the placement office in DC stating that, due to an error on their end, they told me one thing and the island staff something completely different. Yes, you may be telling yourself, the Peace Corps is indeed a government program. I guess this is the reason they say you should be both flexible and have a sense of humor about serving. So it's off to sunny St. Kitts and Nevis, which isn't so bad after all.

After I sorted all of this out and was able to do a little research about my new island of departure I received a phone call from the APCD of St. Kitts to discuss a few things. I know a little bit more about what I will be doing. Originally I was going to be working out of a school, and now it appears I will be working with the Department of Sport in St. Kitts. Imagine that - me, teaching kids about sports! Guess I'd better learn how to play cricket after all. So, now it's time to pack up this week and make sure I have everything I need. I guess this process has gone a little too smoothly for myself; there had to be a snag somewhere before I left. I was frustrated to learn all of this information today until I realized that if I would have known from the beginning where I was going to be I wouldn't be so upset about it. But anyways, my next post will be in the Caribbean! (hopefully!)