Overwhelmed and packing

I've been doing some reflecting this past week on what it was like to come to St. Lucia. Part of this is because I went down south and saw the airport I came into, part is because we're getting ready for our group coming in the end of January, and the other part is because I'm getting ready to take a trip back to the states in 2 months to see my family. If there was one word to describe what I felt that day it's overwhelmed. I had no clue what I was getting into, where I was going, and what the heck I was doing on this small island that I had never heard of until about 6 weeks before this! But I am oh so ever glad that I decided to come. I feel lucky to be on St. Lucia and in the village I'm in. The people are awesome and love PC! They look out for me and make sure I'm ok. I get to take my time and learn the language (I suck at languages, but I really want to learn kweyol so I'm learning phrase by phrase word by word as I need to use it or what to understand what someone else is saying to me).

When I was packing last year to come (which I did the day before I left) I had no clue what to bring, so I looked at blogs to get ideas as went according to the PC packing list as well. There are a lot of things that I wish I brought, some things that I wish I didn't bring, and some things that I'm super glad I brought! (PS this list also serves as my Christmas list for my sisters and parents as the things that I wish I brought I'm either going to be buying at Christmas or getting as presents!!)

I'm so glad I brought an accordian file folder! All those papers that you get a PST (pre-service training) add up. I was glad I brought it to keep things organized going back and forth! I love all the skorts I brought. I have to "dress up" aka buisness casual, every day for work. It's really hot, so the couple pairs of pants I brought usually say in my drawer (though all the guys wear dress pants and polos) and I wear skirts and skorts to try and keep cool. I'm also really glad I brought shirts that can be dressy or casual depending if I put them with shorts or a skirt. A really cool packing tip I read was to pack things in kitchen containers. This was really helpful because those containers are expensive. Before I left, my aunt gave me this "beach bag." I never thought I would use it; however, I use it everyday and it's almost worn out! I even had to sew the handles on to reinforce it. I use it for shopping, the beach, carrying my laptop around, carrying other things around, and going to pick fruit. I'm also super glad for a couple other presents I got. I love my kindle! I also love the baby powder that I was given! So helpful! Oh, and my computer was a necessity! I'm also really glad I brought a present for my host family. My host mom is amazing. I still go and see her whenever I can.

Things I wish I didn't bring: so many socks. I got some new black socks before I left home and haven't even opened the package. The PC packing list said we needed passport pics for local permits and stuff, yeah, that was a waste of my money. I also brought clothes that were a little too big for me. I've lost some more weight while being here, and so they're really too big for me.

So if I could have brought an extra suitcase I probably would have! So here's what I wish I had brought: A football or some type of sports equiptment (an in with the kids as well!), more daily clothes and shorts. I brought plunty of work clothes, but not enough for around in the community or at my home. My buisness suit. There have been at least two times when I would have worn it. Personal hygine products: body wash, shaving cream, ect. These thing are all really expensive. I did get some shaving cream on sale! More shoes and clothes! I can never have enough of these. At least once a week I wish I had another pair of sandles because mine have already worn out (I ordered some tevas and am picking them up at Christmas!).

So as I'm thinking about going back to Ohio for Christmas, I get kind of sad as well. While I miss my family and can't wait to see them, I would love to see a Lucian Christmas and I'm going to miss my island home for two weeks. Maybe next year my family will come and see me :)

2nd grade, football, computer club!

2nd grade, football and computer club. You might wonder what all three of these have in common. My crazy week!
Tuesdays I'm at the infant school school (for the school day, I have computer club at the primary school in the evening). I'm supposed to be doing a computer class for their kids, but since they're still working on getting their computers set up, I haven't been staying. This week both of their grade 2 teachers called in sick, so the principal asked if I would take over one of the classes (she later informed me it was an all boys class). I said sure, and thus started my day which reminded my why my father does not have all the answers to my life. (Dear Dad, I am not cut out to be a teacher no matter how much you think so.) Those boys were crazy and wouldn't listen to anything I said. We accomplished a couple things though! Some of the students now understand how to "borrow" when doing double didget subtraction, and they wrote some sentences about a picture I drew! All that from 9-2:30!!
Thursday we had a football match in the afternoon. The school is broken up into 4 houses that play sports and compete against each other. So we had two different games. I have never seen anyone so excited about football! The students were cheering, running around, and having a lot of fun! The village came out and watched. They were cheering for thier favorite team as well! It was more excitment than I ever saw at a football game before (and my sister made it to state finals!). The second game when to shoot outs. There was soooo much pressure put on these students. There were people lined up around the 18 (and kept coming closer and closer to the goal!). Next week is the finals! I can't wait!
Computer club is in it's fourth week! It's going great! The kids are really excited about it (they love playing games on the computers). I have about 50 kids that come to the club (the school has about 180 kids)! Needless to say it's crazy!! But I love it!!

Thanksgiving in October

So last Monday was Thanksgiving. Since there were no traditions that I could find for Thanksgiving, the Boys and Girls Club aka The Superstars Club! decided to go to the beach! We had a great day with 19 kids taking part in our outing! It was fun, crazy, and I wouldn't have been able to survive without Louise and Luthur keeping track of the kids, making lunch, and keeping everything on track! They're the ones that really made this happen.

Life has been soo busy lately! But I love it! I'm hoping things get settled down this month with computer club and get into a rhythm so that way I can focus on the library. We're so excited to be getting the books for the library! (So if you haven't had a opportunity to give yet please do!)

I visited a new church this morning (the Penacostal church right in front of my house). I've been singing with them for a while now (their service starts before the one at the Catholic church that I've gone to) and really liked going there. There is also a Baptist church in the village that I would like to try out as well. I felt more at home in the Penacostal church than I've felt at the Catholic church (the people at the Catholic church have made me feel at home, it's the style of preaching, the songs, and just more all around what I'm used to). But life here in the Caribbean is going great! Keeping busier that I ever thought I would, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Time to go meet with the SuperStars Club! And life continues on...

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.