You've come a long way...

I've been here for a little over 6 months. Let that sink in a bit. One quarter of my scheduled service is done, and it's gone by in such a hurry. I recently read an article that states how people who live closer to the equator live more in the present since their cultures never had the need to plan ahead for the changing of seasons, and because of this their sense of time is different. Time seems to go by much faster, and it is absolutely true. It seems I am always facing the end of a new week, with certain objectives accomplished and others put on hold. I have been enjoying myself in my community and am beginning to feel like a part of a much larger family than I could have imagined. I meet new people in my housing project and the first thing they want to do is proudly introduce me to their network of friends and family (well, the real first thing they usually want to do is buy me a beer, which I'm agreeable with). I've had the privilege of attending fishing trips, hikes, house birthday parties that last until the sun comes up, sports days, football matches, and afternoon dance parties with the people I've met. 

One thing I am very excited about is a visit by my younger brother Jaycob in a couple of months. He'll be out here for two whole weeks. That's 2 weeks of me not working and being a tour guide, which I love doing. This will be the first time my brother has visited a different country, and he is also a bit of a worrier when it comes to new places. Therefore, it will be my goal to give him the biggest culture shock of his life! No, that is not very nice, but it is brotherly. I'm actually happy to have family on the island, especially my brother. 2 weeks is a lengthy enough time to be able to show him all of the key places on the island and get some quality beach time as well. 

And with that, I will be done for right now. I have so many pictures and video that I need to post soon, so maybe one whole post in the near future will be media. 

Workworkworkworkwork...

Obviously I have not held up my end of the bargain to post more frequently. Oops... Wait! I have a defense. It is exceptionally hard to sit down and pick small pieces out of what is going on here to write about because it is part of a much larger context. I compare it to a snapshot of an arrow in flight. Sure, you've got an idea of what the arrow looks like, how big it is, etc., but you don't know its velocity, its trajectory, or its beginning and end points. When I talk to people back home and they ask me what I'm doing, I'm tempted to just say "Living, and living well". So I could sit here and tell you about my Carnival experience, or what I did for New Years, or struggle to put into words what it's like to simply walk to my bus stop and the people I run into along the way, but it wouldn't completely justify those experiences. Instead, I will talk about some of my projects for this term. I'm much more busy than last term, and I like it.

The Dept of Sport has been mandated to hold a symposium for coaches, teachers, ministers, and stakeholders on the island, and I am one of the 7 people on the board to plan and implement this symposium, which will be held on the 16-17 of February. My role primarily will be to develop a multimedia presentation to showcase the past, present, and future of the department. So, I will be going around with some coaches to collect some footage of practices and use some of the thousands of pictures I have recently digitized in a slideshow.

At my school, I am helping out with their sports day practices. Every second term the schools have their own sports day, where they divide up into "houses" and compete against each other in track and field events. Right now I'm helping teachers with timing practice runs and keeping the kids in line for the most part. It's pretty fun, and the kids really get into it. I also would like to get a hiking club off the ground after school and use this to do an exchange with my friend Kahri's class back in Danville, IA. Perhaps our kids can teach each other about the different plants and animals in our respective areas.

One other fun project that will be starting up is a hiking club for boys with a fellow PCV in St. Pauls, just a few villages away. We are asking the teachers to select 2 of the best boys in their respective classes to go on an hour-long hike every other Wednesday.

There was a time during the winter break where I felt like I wasn't doing much, but now that school has started again I am feeling like I'm actually helping out with something. I mean, that's what I'm doing here anyways, right?