Money!

This past week I went to St. Kitts for a couple of days. I realized that the value of money has really changed in my mind. While looking at souvenirs, which were priced in USD (US dollars), and having to pay (as I am currently paid) in EC (Eastern Caribbean), I realized how expensive things really are. Say you are walking down the street and see something for $5.00 USD, that same thing for me is $13.50, which might not be so bad; but take a look at a simple souvenir t-shirt for $20.00 USD. That would cost me $54.00! (Exchange $1.00 USD = $2.7 EC) While as an American traveling, that exchange rate is great! You’re like, “oh, my money is worth so much!” But as someone who lives, works and gets paid in EC, that conversion back is like, “oh no, that thing is so expensive there is no way I can afford that!” Take into mind that this is also on a PCV (peace corps volunteer) living allowance.

I’m not writing this to complain. I realized that when I was signing up for PC I was signing up to be a volunteer. I write this that you may remember and think of the local people when you are traveling. Be aware of the actual cost of things, and be aware of how much the USD is actually worth.

*Pictures coming soon...hopefully!

Say What!?!

It has been another busy week. I had disaster preparedness/first aide/cpr training on Tuesday of this week. It was an optional overview, and since my CPR training expired in August, and I'm nervous about hurricanes (we're almost through the season!!) I attended. It was a good training, and I'm glad I went!
I spent the night in Castries, and then attended IST II (In service training 2) from Wednesday until Yesterday. I learned more in some sessions than others, and made some great learning assessments about myself, how I learn, and different teaching styles.
On my way to IST I saw the first car pulled over by a police officer here. I was shocked. Over 10 months here and a car was finally pulled over!
I am now getting ready to go to St. Kitts for a couple of days. I am anxious to get back to my community being gone for so long. It was hard to go back for less than one day and then leave again. But the next time I have to spend the night out of my community after this trip is when I go to Ohio for Christmas! It doesn't feel like November. The trees are green, with leaves on them. It's warm (sometimes it feels cool! aka in the 70s with a breeze!) I love it though!

November 28, 2011

The election has been called! Yesterday the Prime Minister announced that the election is going to be held November 28, 2011 (it had to be before March 2012).
Being here through election season I have learned a lot about parlimentry government. I learned that Prime Ministers are not elected. I have learned there are not elections every year (something I took for granted. While I've voted around 7 times, a person my age here has voted once.).
I am most excited that the election has been called because that means I can wear red for Christmas!! The political colors here are red and yellow (there is a third party that is green, but the two major parties are red and yellow). I have not been wearing these two colors since around August/September to avoid being labled as part of one party or the other (Peace Corps is nonpolitical). I have some really cute shirts that are these colors, so I'm really excited to be able to get them back out after the elections (even though I'll probably still wait a week or so after the elections to wear them).
So while it's elections tomorrow in the US, we have elections here at the end of the month. Happy Voting!

P.S. While usually I am EST, since daylight savings time took effect, I am one hour ahead because we don't observe daylight savings.

Jounen Kweyol

 Corn on the grill. It's not the same and as sweet as corn in the States, but it's good!

 The stage here in ALR!

 Some of the venders and the street. Later in the day, this street was so crowded that you could hardly walk down it!

A beautiful rainbow (there was actually a double rainbow) the other day!

Wow! Again, it is crazy here. We just celebrated Jounen Kweyol. ALR was a hosting community which means that people from all over the country came down. Jounen Kweyol is the celebration of the Creole culture. It was a lot of fun to see everything that happened! I have more pictures on my fb page.
I talked to someone that Friday who grew up in St. Lucia and always comes to visit during Jounen Kweyol. He asked me where I was from. I said Ohio. He said Cincinnati, Ohio. Turns out he grew up listening to a radio station from Cincinnati in St. Lucia!
It has also been one year since Hurricane Thomas hit St. Lucia. We've almost made it through another hurricane season (the end of November is the end of it). Watching the weather and learning the patterns has become a lot of fun for me!

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...