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.

Who would have thought?

During PST (pre-service training) we were given a lot of information. One thing we were given was a sheet that talked about the ups and downs of being a volunteer and the different stages. I thought, "I won't follow this, I'm the exception." I only bring this up because of something that has happened lately. One of the stages on that sheet was somthing that you thought you'd gotten over and wouldn't bother you really getting to you. These past couple of weeks, that has happened! It's something little that has just been able to get under my skin over and over. Who would have thought how valuable that little piece of information was in realizing that this is normal :)
Computer lessons are finished for the summer! It was great fun, but I'm glad to get started with the school year! This September is going to be CRAZY! It starts with school and my birthday (on the same day), continues with Luthur's birthday, getting the PC EC magazine printed, more meetings than I've been in ever, and the 50th celebration of the Peace Corps. It's going to be a lot of fun, but I'll be glad when it is over and life can return to normal, whatever that is!

Summer, Summer, where did you go?

The summer is coming to a close. While the weather is still the same, school is about to start...well, September 5th (on a side note-how dare my birthday not be a holiday in St. Lucia while it is one in the US? I mean really!?! And the first day of school as well lol!!) so it's coming. We have one week of computer lessons left (which went very well!! The kids showed up for them and learned a lot!), one week for teacher planning, and then SCHOOL!!
It's kind of nerve wracking starting a new school year.We're starting new projects, continuing old ones (like getting the library books in October from Hands Across the Sea http://www.handsacrossthesea.net/ please check them out and consider helping us if you haven't already), and changing some things up! We'll see how it goes!
I have a bunch of meetings coming up (I don't think I've ever been to this many meetings in my life!!) about our 50th celebration for PC and other projects.
I'm continuing my war on ants (not Aunts, because I love my Aunts), and I will win! So if you have any ideas on what I can do to kill them all please let me know!!
And...for those of you who think alls I do is go to the beach, I've been swimming once this entire summer! (And I live 1 1/2 blocks from the Caribbean.) Oh, well! I can always make that a goal for the winter :)

Short Term Missions

I've never really been a fan of short term mission trips. That's not saying they don't do any good. I've just never really liked the concept. (Now my older sister met her husband on a short term mission trip and for that I'm glad!) Maybe I have a little too much of my father in me. As he has always said, and this is paraphrased, why not just send the money over, use local people to do the building projects, and then reach the local people by giving them jobs and ministering to them while they are working and how you treat them instead of asking someone else to pay for your vacation. This concept has only been strengthened while I've been living in St. Lucia.
Now you could say, why Sara, you're living in St. Lucia and working on tax payers dollers, how can you even say this? We're paying for you to be there. Notice, I did not say long term missions. I said short term. I'm here long term. One of Peace Corps Policies is that they don't place a volunteer in a place that a local could be employed in. If I wasn't here, no one would be assigned and getting paid to be doing the work I am doing.
The longer I am here the more I think it is important to understand the culture you are in. If you do go on a missions trip and preaching, ask the missionary or a local to go through your sermon with you to make sure it is sensitive to the culture you are going into. That it is applicable to that culture. Learn as much as you can about the culture you're going into.
I live in one of the poorest villages in the country. I've seen people here jump at the chance to work (there has been a lot of construction going on the last few days and people have been working hard). So, examine the reasons you're going on this trip. Would the money be better spent hiring local people? What are you going to do? Is it taking a job away from a local? Running camps is a great thing because what I find most is that we need voluntary manpower for activities for the kids.
All in all, just make sure you're doing more good than harm, building the community (both the one you're going into and the community of believers), and not just a good feeling for yourself.
Feel free to disagree and leave comments as to why :)