You did what!?!

So far in Peace Corps I've done several things I would have never imagined. Some crazy, some just crazy to me...enjoy!

1. Get my immunizations in the middle of the street...with everyone watching! The dr was in a rush, I said it was ok, so I got two shots (flu and my second hep A) in the middle of the street. Far cry from mom having to trick me into getting them in 7th grade!

2.Hich hike. I've always done it safely (with someone else) and usually taken rides from people I know. I've found it's really fun to ride in the back of a truck!

3.Helped get a magazine published. This one is still in progress. I got an email shortly after I swore in about the Serious Ting which is the Peace Corps Eastern Caribbean magazine, so I signed up to help however needed. So not only do I have a story in it, I helped edit some of the articles in the magazine, and I got bids, approved the copy, and am picking the magazines sometime this week!

4.Asked for directions and learned to speak up. I've never been one to ask questions. Ever. I hate asking for directions or showing that I don't know something (I think it's the Faison in me). Almost daily I have to ask where something is, ask for help, learn something new, or speak up and tell the bus to stop (yes mom, I've progessed from kindergarten when I missed my stop home and didn't tell anyone).

5. Learned to laugh at myself. I think this one is key. I always took myself too serious and never learned to laugh at mistakes I made. I always just got embarassed. While I still get embarassed, I've learned to laugh at mistakes and take them as learning experiences.

I know that there are more things that I've done that have been "crazy" and I will do many more while I'm here. I'm learning and growing every day. I love it!

The good and the bad

Being a PCV is not like what I thought it was going to be. There are more ups and downs, moral decisions, completely bored straight to completely craziness, more building children in ways that I didn't even imagine when I was signing up for PC. I'm beginning to realize that I cannot express all that happens to me in a blog. Peace Corps is one of those things you have to live to fully understand. Even each Peace Corps experience is different!

This week of school has been amazing, busy, crazy, and awesome! First of all I got to celebrate my 26th birthday in St. Lucia on Monday! I was so ready for 26. This week I have been working on the computer lab, getting ready for computer club, setting up more computers, getting the kids to sign up for the boys and girls club, as library assistants, and begging them for patience about the computer club :)

Two of the kids asked me for help with math, so right now we're working on addition flash cards after school. So many projects so little time! It has made this first week fly!!

Victories!

Thank you to everyone who gave to the project for the school library! We met the goal of $500, but Hands spent $1000.00 on books for my school, so if you didn't give and would still like to please do!

It's the little things that make everything worth it here. Last night I was hanging out with one of the PCVs from Castries that came down for the evening with some friends. When she was getting ready to leave we went and met the person she came with who was talking to some people from the village. Her friend introduced her to the guy, then the guy from my village looked at me and said that he didn't know my name but he knew that I was theirs. AKA I live here :) It was great!

Things are coming together for the 50th anniversary celebration and the other projects I've been working on these past couple of months. September is crazy because most of them are getting in full force or wrapping up this month. The magazine I've been working on is getting printed, the 50th celebration occurs, the project to come up with a project histroy on St. Lucia kicks off on Friday, VAC elections are Friday (which I'm running in against one of my friends), and those are just side projects that have nothign to do with my real job at the school! School starts, we're stating computer club, we're hoping to start a school newspaper, the library is going to get up and running again (which means new library assistants to interview and train), the library is going to get cleaned and we have Literacy day next week!!
But as for tomorrow, I'm going to the beach to celebrate my birthday, and I'm having two of my friends over on Monday for my birthday dinner (tacos!!).

I hope September is good to all of you as well!

HELP!!

Wow! The school year is here and I can't believe it! We start school on Monday (my birthday by the way). So in honor of my birthday, the kids I'm working with, and the new school year, I am asking you (yes you) if you to HELP!! I have been working hard here for next to nothing (it's called being a volunteer, in fact I was looking at camp jobs and there I would make almost as much in a week as I do in a whole month here). Because of my sacrifice, I am asking you to sacrifice as well. I have posted a couple of times about the library that I'm working on here at the school. Well, we need books!! Books are super expensive down here and a lot of the books we have are not age appropriate (trust me 4th grades don't care about Madeleine Albright).

If you just give the amount of your favorite book, that would help me so much in my work here! I now have a we pay page: https://www.wepay.com/donate/141730 It is easy to give and would help the kids here. I was listening to some of the teachers talk the other day and they were talking about a 4th grader who cannot read. If I can get books in that the kids are excited about, I can help them learn how to read those books and improve the reading levels of those kids that can read. Check out Hand's Across the Sea's website http://www.handsacrossthesea.net/ They're an awesome organization!

Please donate, and consider it my birthday present.