May and Random Thoughts

So this is the testing term at school. Going through public schools and having to take proficiency tests, I thought I knew what pressure was when associated with a test. When I was working in Cincinnati at Boys Hope Girls Hope and the 8^th graders had to take a test to determine what high school they went to, I realized my tests weren’t that bad. But even those tests were to get into a good private school. In St. Lucia, the grade 6 students take a test that determines what secondary school they go to for the next 5 years. That’s some pressure! Not all these schools are equivalent, so really you’re taking a test that determines your future. However, at least now all the students get to go to secondary school. There was a time, not that long ago, where if you didn’t do well on the test, you didn’t get to go at all.

It being the testing term means that I’m not doing computer club after school, because I had students that were skipping lessons to come. (Grade 4 also has a huge test which they are taking today, so it’s not just one grade.) This, however, give me more time to plan for activities this summer and the last two weeks of school. The last two weeks, again this year, are throw away weeks because the ministry has planned teacher trainings during those weeks, so we’ll have about 3 teachers for the 155 students. Not a really good ratio, so I’m seeing what kinds of large group activities that we can do that don’t cost anything! Field days, scavenger hunts and things like that look like they’ll be on the agenda. I’m working on a video because our project plan for the Eastern Caribbean is up for review. I’m going to show what the volunteers have been working on this past year!

It’s kind of weird. When I got here I was counting up how long I’d been here. Once I hit the year mark as a volunteer it went more towards counting down. I can’t believe I only have about 10 months left. It’s going so fast.

Catching up!

Wow! Time flies! This month has been going fast. We stared out the month by taking a group of kids to the beach for Labour Day (the first day in May). We had fun, but got rained out in the end. Then some of my PC friends threw an engagement party for Luthur and I. We had so much fun! It was amazing to see how many people showed up to support us. This month is reading month at school, so I'm holding a creative writing workshop at the school on Fridays. The kids are enjoying writing, and are really creative when you let them be! This past week I was "up north" all week at the VAC meeting and MST. VAC is a group of us that get together with PC senior leadership to go through any issues our islands are having. MST is when you're a year into your service, all the volunteers get together and refresh. It was a great time and very much needed. I think one thing you don't see on PC blogs is how much of a struggle it is at times. In PC you have the highest of highs but also the lowest of lows. It was good to get together with other volunteers that are facing some of the same struggles you are!

What I don't know

At every stage in my life, it seems to me, that I learn how much I don't know. When I went to Jr. High, I though I knew a lot, but I learned that there were still things I didn't know yet. Then I went to high school, of course by this time I was pretty smart (or at least I though so!), but then I met people who were smarter, better, and more talented. After high school I went to college, what could they teach me? Didn't I already know most things? I learned that there were subjects and conversations that I couldn't even comprehend (aka Mr. Axton's Philosophy of Religion class). After that, I graduated and went out into the real world, where of course I would share my "vast" knowledge with people who had a lot more knowledge and experience than myself. I realized again how little I knew. And then I joined Peace Corps, so I could share some of my knowledge and skills in another country. Oh, you would think I would learn!
I have learned moer in this last year that I have probably contribusted. I have learned from the kids to be hungry for knowledge. I have learned from the teachers to do your best with what you have, from the principal to take advantage of every situation, from Lousie determination, from Luthur that your situation does not determine your future, from the guys on the block to appreciate beauty, and from my neighbors how important relationship are and to take care of each other.
I look forward to what I will learn in this next year and hope I can keep an attitude of learning for the rest of my life.

Spring Break, Poems, and one year

I am so excited! Today is the last day of school for two weeks! What am I going to do you might ask? Well, being the planning I am, it's most already planned, but being in PC I know that I will have many surprises along the way. Luthur still has work most days, but he does have Good Friday off (yes, he's making me eat fish, but at least it's fried and in dough, plus he's rewarding me with cocoa tea!) and Easter Monday off. Overall it will be a good break!

This last term we did poems during computer club. Here are one of each type of poem we did:

Cinquain By Britney

Please

Help me
I am begging 
My shoe is  stuck
Britney

Haiku By Abigail

My brother is cute

He told me I am so rude
We are so happy

Limerick By Goddel

I wanted to buy a new shoe

So I could go to the zoo
I swim to shore
To go to the store
And the little black bird said coo-coo.

Acrostic By Shernia

Smiles with you

Interesting
Shares with you
Teaches me
Easy to hang with
Reveal your secret to

Autobiographical By Genesis

Genesis

fun loving carefull
brother of jay
who loves football games and jay
who feels good to feel safe
who needs love family and friends
who gives hope care love
who fears the dark, ghosts, and dogs
who'd like to see the zoo
who dreams of my father
a student of Ms, Kate Popo
Christmas

For computer club we had 82 students that participated and 55 that came on a regular basis!

One year from today is my COS (close of service) date. Time has flown by so fast this past year. I can only dream of what this next year has in store for me. There will be the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I will learn, teach, and change. This will be a great year!

I'm trying...

After a year of being in St. Lucia, there is still something I haven't gotten used to. It's not the high prices of certain foods I like (1 lb of strawberries for over $20), or not seeing food that I do like (snow peas I've only found once in a whole food like store in the north). But as you might have guessed, it does have something to do with food! I have not been able to get used to the fact that some weeks (or months) I can find things, such as stick of butter, sour cream wheat germ, and honey, and other week (or for several months) it's not available at any of the 3 grocery stores I check! I think of sticks of butter as a staple because I love to bake and it makes it so much easier to measure. I know that sour cream is not considered an essential, but to see it once in a while just drives me crazy because I expect to always find it! However, I deal with it and eat my tacos without sour cream and measure out my butter using my measuring spoons. Sometimes, I think the grocery store just likes to tease me and let me get used to things and then pull it away!

Visa

While I'm outsite of the US, I try to keep informed about what is going on there, the hot topics, pop culture and such, so that way I'm not completely out of touch when I get back. The news became important to me while I was in college, news around the US and world news as well. There has been a case in Florida of a teen girl overstaying her visa and it was ruled she and her sister are to be deported. From my understanding, she was there on a visitors visa and stayed without renewing it (and I'm pretty sure visitors visas have time limits, such as you can only stay for so many months and then you have to leave and come back). So now a community in Florida is fighting for her to get to stay.

I am getting ready to go through the visa process for a fiancee visa. It is a long process that takes time, money, and a ton of documents. Would it be easier for us to get a visitors visa for my fiancee to come to the states? Yes, it probably would. It would take less time, money, documents, and headache. But that is not the type we're going to file for because we want to stay there and it's lying. I've had people tell me to just get that type, go to the states, get married, and then file for him. That's untruthful and not right, so we're going to go for the type of visa we want and need, even if it is more work.

You may wonder how these two cases fit together. I'm in a different country and we're going for a different type of visa; however the end result will be the same. She wants to stay in the states, but her mom did not get her the right type of visa to stay there. We are working hard on the correct type of visa because we want to be able to stay there. Since I have been here, I've heard dozens of stories about people being turned down for even visitors visas or student visas for one reason or another. I've heard stories of people who have masters degrees that would like to stay in the states, but are unable to. If this girls mom files the right type of paperwork, I have no issue with her staying, but there are people in her home country that are going through the correct methods to get the correct visa to come to the states. My question is this: why should you be the exception and jump in front of everyone when you disobeyed the rules?

Now I am all for uping the quotas so that way more people are able to come to the states legally. But I think this debate about making people who came into the states illegally legal takes a whole different turn when you know people trying to get to the states legally.
What do you think?

Living in the moment

"Wherever you are be all there. Live to the hilt every situation that you believe to be the will of God." Jim Elliot

This is something that is really hard for me. I am a planner. Which obviously means that I look to the future to plan. The future being later that day, week, month, year, or even the next couple years. While this is not a bad trait, in moderation, for me it can become obsessive to the point where I miss what is going on around me. I was sitting on a bus the other day thinking about how I just wished the bus ride was over and I was in town. Then it dawned on me, I'm not always going to be living on an island in the Caribbean, just enjoy the view. While planning is good (and I have a lot to plan for right now!), I still can't let it take over my life or I'm going to miss the present and what God has to teach me here and now. I'm going to miss the smiles on the childrens' faces, their greetings, the joy of the people I interact with each day. I will miss all this and I don't want to.