Funnyquote Friday

The reception to my work on-island lately has been as variable as the weather this time of year.   In just the past week, I have been met with both extremes: at once I am praised and thanked for work I have not had a chance to do yet, and then again I am openly criticized for work that is proceeding on-schedule and showing great promise.  Fortunately I've managed to avoid becoming discouraged, or allowing my emotions to become equally mercurial.  Instead, I've managed to keep things in perspective here and maintain an even affect, though this was not particularly easy on Tuesday, when it wasn't just the students who were out to challenge my authority (although this happened in good measure) – it was a teacher as well.  Apparently responsible for the lowest-performing students in the sixth grade, she regularly sends three of her students for maths tutoring, which is two more than the median amount of all the classes.  When I went to pull out the three students as usual, she stopped me and casually informed me that she didn't believe her students were learning anything from me.  Stunned, I simply and politely responded, "Oh?"  She repeated, "I don't think my students are learning anything from you.  Do you think they are learning anything from you?"  I pointed out that, while the progress is slow, particularly for some students, that I believed that the work I was doing was indeed helping.  She requested proof: she asked to see the evidence of the work we were doing on paper for that day.  Since we have been reviewing for the Test of Standards (end-of-course testing) the last few weeks and have been working example problems on paper and in composition books, I obliged, though I was astounded at the gall and impertinence of this woman.  Shaken, I escorted the kids to the classroom, where they were no less unruly than the others had been that day.  We finished the session with less progress than I had hoped to achieve "under the gun," but since the work is largely cumulative, I presented the teacher afterwards with the notes sheet from our previous sessions.  She proceeded to quiz one of her students right there with the notes on the paper, at the entrance to her classroom, in front of me.  At this point I had had enough, so I walked away to collect my final gaggle of sixth graders.  She called after me, "Do you want to keep this sheet?"  To which I replied, "Yes I do.  I'll come back for it."

In my mind that day, I went through a dozen different ways I could have responded more assertively, esprit d'escalier that would have really stuck it to that careless teacher just looking for a scapegoat or someone to bully.  But I'm glad I handled it the way I did – I reminded myself of the support I have from virtually every other adult at the institution, and the positive strides several of the students have made in the handful of months we've been working together.  In this way I got over it in a few days, but I also don't plan to subject myself to that kind of unnecessary harassment again.  So believe me, if she abuses me once again, I will report her to the principal for unprofessional behavior.

My brother told me about a similar incident that happened to him at work recently, where a superior, tragically mistaken, alleged a lack of faith in his abilities.  I commiserated with him on the thoughtlessness of people no matter where you go.  I should have told him then that we have a saying for this down here, though I suspect it's not exclusive:

"Same s**t, different dialect."

Alternatively, I also have good news rife with positive life-changing potential.  I have recently made the acquaintance of a Dr. Izben Williams, former SKN Ambassador to the U.S., who lives on-island and who is involved in starting a youth development NGO in Basseterre.  His organization, picturesquely dubbed The Ripple Institute, has not yet launched and is looking for assistance in starting a website and online presence.  I received word of the need from a fellow PCV, and said I could help.  I've already begun work on ideas for logos, though I am waiting on the SKN Department of Information, Communications and Technology to identify and cordon the server space and domain for the organization's use.  There is no telling how long the turnaround on this largely simple task could take; fortunately, I can begin work of designing a simple website on my local drive.

As with everything I do here, the new work did not go unnoticed, and I have already received one proposition for website design assistance in the efforts of another volunteer.  This is fine; I welcome the sense of busy-ness that comes from having a full schedule, though I hope I can continue to create and problem-solve for as many groups as I can without sacrificing on potency.

Work at the AWANA chapter on-island is also going well.  A missionary couple from Indianapolis (this is their SKN blog) have set up the program at a church in Middle Island, and I go there on Saturday afternoons to be a team leader.  I never really got into AWANA in Hiawassee, even enough to be a Listener, despite my parents' diehard commitment to it.  But here and now, necessity almost demands that I be a Team Leader (Blue Team, so far) every week.  Though I must confess, I enjoy the Book Time with the children far more than either Council Time or Game Time.  I find it very inspiring to listen for the handful of kids that take the verses and activities in their books seriously enough to participate week in and week out.  Sure, there are the majority of the kids who didn't even remember to bring their study book, who are just there for the Game Time or the social aspect or for no other reason than their parents made them.  But every night I've gone, I've been able to find at least one boy or girl who was sharp enough and dedicated enough to have learned at least one section's worth of verses over the previous week, usually coupled with a willingness to study the next section for the half-hour we have devoted to Book Time.  These moments of successfully challenging the children and discussing the meaning of the verses with them has been more rewarding than I expected, and significantly more meaningful than simply watching our team outrun the other three teams around a big circle.

In other news, I received my first invitation for an interview, a mere 2 months after beginning my most recent job search.  Paired with this positive if dubious revelation is the fact that today is, by my understanding, the final day to hear back from the company I applied to last month, the one that I had devoted my entire April's free time to completing the largely abstract deliverable assignments.  Since I have not been scheduled for a telephone interview with that organization yet, I wouldn't be surprised to find out very soon that I have been passed over once again.  Despite these inauspicious results, I'm doing my best to stay positive, and haven't lost steam in continuing to seek out opportunities.

I wasn't exaggerating before: we really have had back-and-forth weather the past few weeks.  After the warmest March in recent memory, and an April that reintroduced rainstorms to the dry island, May has enjoyed equal shares of both phenomena, and seemingly on alternating days.  It's that time of year (again) when one has to pack both an umbrella and a pair of sunglasses, in the event that both are needed in the same short period.

Photo Reel

It's so intense...

In a week graced with multiple rare acts of God, this last one was a pleasure to see: a double rainbow that popped up during a brief sun shower.  Just over the gardens to the East of my house, this picture was taken from my front porch yesterday afternoon.  At one point, the rain was coming down hard and fast on the right side of my porch, but the ground was completely dry everywhere on the left side.

The view of the Basseterre Harbor from atop the Ocean Terrace Inn

The weather was hit and miss during MST, when we volunteers spent the workweek in training at the Ocean Terrace Inn in Basseterre.  In this picture, of course, the weather is impeccable, but the other half of the time saw overcast skies and occasional drizzles.  That trend has mostly held up these last few weeks, and now mosquitoes are finding droves of lawns with standing water to repopulate.  The offshoot is that I can't keep my door open during the morning or evening for fear of letting in dozens of mosquitoes.

St. Kitts' 25 Most Remarkable Teens honored at Parliament, 23 November 2011

If I can be so forward as to say, the most important aspect of the 25 Most Remarkable Teens ceremony was the clear and dazzling display of government buy-in.  For a project that claims only one specific goal, to celebrate the positive achievements of today's youth contrasted against the seemingly endless flow of negative press bulletins and falling public sentiment, the program actually has many aspects that promote positivity and cooperation in the Federation, between youth and adults, as well as political parties.  For further details on the event, plus a retelling of each of the teenagers' remarkable stories, make sure to visit my colleague's blog.

What volunteers do in their spare time?

When an EC80 couple, good friends to me and so many around the island, were forced to end their term of service a few months early, we volunteers congregated at their abode to wish them well in their travels (and to clean up some of the household goods that weren't coming with them).  In this case, everyone was guaranteed 2 rolls of toilet paper, but everything else was first-come, first-served.  The said older couple has recently moved nearer their oldest son's family in Alaska; if they read this, I extend once again my sincerest best wishes.

Peace Corps (unofficial) motto

One of the changes in the mood following MST is the now constant awareness of the impermanence of the vast majority of things one does here, whether big projects or small.  I feel like this decidedly melancholy sense is doubled for those of us on islands that the Peace Corps will be pulling out from following our term of service.  However, when discussing it with my APCD, she related to me a peace that she has felt about the situation recently: paraphrased, she felt like our job, now, was to "leave with dignity," with the knowledge of a job well done.  By extension of the Peace Corps' mission, it's as much a victory as a concession when we move out of a country, and maybe St. Kitts and Nevis is ready to move along for a little while without us?

Revisiting my inspiration for joining the Peace Corps in the first place, and with a vote of thanks to Jesse Cline, here are two good illustrations of what I believe the Peace Corps will mean to me in the coming years.
Comic A and Comic B

Funnyquote Friday

Seen on a sign at Frigate Bay, advertising for home air conditioning sales and services:

"Your wife's HOT!!"

Well, I'm pleased to report that I have a bit of a swagger back in my step after the doomy gloomy first half of the week.  A few notable things going down helped to get me back in a positive frame of mind: First, I met with fellow volunteer (whose blog you can read here) who asked me to sign on with her "Remarkable Teen" recognition program, running through the Ministry of Youth.  I'll help put together a booklet highlighting each of the 25 students that have been selected for commendation, in a broad array of categories like "Scholar Athlete," "Civic Involvement" and "Fashion Design."  The booklet will be distributed to parents and community leaders, and a special session of Parliament will be called to honor the students in early November.  I met with my friend over lunch to discuss the project, and I was impressed, as always, with the scope and magnitude of the undertaking.  That, as well as being complimented on work I hadn't even submitted yet helped soften me up to take on the assignment.

Second, I was asked by another fellow volunteer to visit the National Museum on Thursday in order to discuss my involvement in their upcoming newsletter, which will feature renovations on the old St. Thomas's Anglican Church.  Ms. Mitchell, who works for the St. Christopher National Trust and is in charge of the newsletter, was grateful for my vote of assistance in either writing or copy design, and I'm expecting a note from her in the future with more details on how I can help with it.

Thirdly, and most exciting, the Serious Ting has been printed and shipped – I picked up my 5 copies this morning!  One will go to the office, one will stay at my apartment, one will come home with me for friends and family, and two will remain free-floating until I find a use for them.  And they turned out great: 40+ pages of full color photos alongside challenging articles written exclusively by Peace Corps Volunteers currently serving in the Eastern Caribbean.  I'm very proud of my involvement in the project, and look forward to participating once again for the next issue.  Even 3 shots in my shoulders this morning (HepA, HepB, and Flu Vaccine) couldn't bring me down!

Good to be back.  Also, someone's finally getting a little long-deserved credit, it seems.

Too School For Cool, Part 1

In light of six months in the Caribbean and 75 blog posts to account for it, I wanted to introduce today some new (old?) material that I've been working on for a little while – but due to my hectic schedule, I won't be able to squeeze it all into a single blog post.  (Notably due to the fact that the second half is, in fact, not finished yet.) So I opted to spread out the theme of "Six Months In Review" across three posts this week.  In the first entry of this two-parter, I present readers with this histogram of all of the previous posts on this blog, with the corresponding number of reader comments per post.

The post with the most comments, Lots of Things Going Down, is unironically also the post with the most pageviews in the blog's brief history.  The inset sorts all of the comments by author, and as the reader will notice, Jonathan and myself represent more than 50% of the concerned commenters on this blog.  All of this may be just a sly way to guilt those of you who have not posted comments yet to get around to doing so.  Or not; a sincere thanks, by the way, to everyone that has contributed and continues to follow along.

On a different note, sometimes I feel like my life is like a big Pac-man: gobbling up experiences and materials, and the majority of my attention is given over to focusing on the meanings and essences of each and trying to make sense of them, contributing to some anxiety when I get overwhelmed.  This has not changed in my life in the Peace Corps.  I know what those much wiser and more balanced in their life would say to me: I need to find make time to step back, step out of the stream of life, and spend that time instead in meditation and reflection.  I think my emotional balance and senses of self-awareness and self-confidence would all benefit from this choice.  Pray for this inspiration to carry over into practical application soon, as well as for continued motivation in each of my projects, especially those that are very, very slow to progress.

Hey, look what I found!  It's my PCV roomie's blog straight from Antigua & Barbuda.
(Pronounced an•TEE•gah and bar•BOO•dah, by the way)  He has a cool collection of quotes applicable to Peace Corps life as well.

Funnyquote Friday

Here's your quote, the first line to a poem read by a very self-assured young lady who was flexing her satire muscles at the Christmas concert at St. George's parish on Monday:

"Tonight, I bring a message for our
Very Anxious Times (VAT)."

The poem went on to explain how Santa could not afford to fill up his sleigh with toys and goodies this year, in view of the new sales tax.  Needless to say, it was met with resounding applause and raucous laughter.  Except, perhaps, from some members present.

Not much to add today.  I'm getting over a new sinus infection that cropped up on Wednesday.  Fortunately, some OTC medication seems to neutralize the symptoms, though I am still sapped of my energy throughout the day.  And in spite of this, I find myself going in to work today to hold a site meeting with my APCD and my IPP.  Also, today will include a luncheon to celebrate a co-worker's last day before retirement.

As noted, some of the pictures from Wednesday's post came courtesy of a fellow PCV who served on St. Kitts, but who I did not have the pleasure of meeting myself.  Nonetheless, feel free to visit his blog.  He is a talented photographer and has lots of cool pictures of the Kittitian interior.

Some Tricks, but More Treats

I'm officially submitting my application for honorary membership in the Olympia Academy, posthaste.  I require nary a response to be assured of my immediate acceptance.  The inspiration comes from my recent acquisition of a copy of Walter Isaacson's biography of Albert Einstein, wherein the author recounts Einstein's core group of fellow physicist philosophers that would stay up nights and talk and charlar about... well, physics, philosophy, and no doubt some other topics as well.  Unfortunately, such a congregation I have not yet found on island, though I am continuing to search away.  I still require the services of Skype to take advantage of the willingness of friends both in the States and on other islands that share my penchant for deep discussions, but LIME assures me that they will be able to install a cable modem at my apartment by Tuesday.

As many a reader may have noticed, this past weekend was Halloween.  The common traditions associated with the predominantly U.S. holiday are not observed here in the islands – instead, a slightly similar glorification of pranks and trickery loosely associated with Guy Fawkes (mostly in the form of lighting firecrackers in the street, day or night) takes place the last week of October through to the first week of November.  But the dearth of familiarity did not stop a half-dozen of us PCVs from getting together, baking sweets like fudge muffins and rice krispie treats, and watching Halloween movies like Casper and Shaun of the Dead.  Nobody dressed up this time; it's underrated hard to pull off, since there are no costume shops (at least not geared towards Halloween costumes) and we couldn't be expected to pack anything so frivolous.  All in all, it made for a delightful evening, and I didn't face a bit of homesickness until I went into the office this morning and explained all of the familiar details of the U.S. tradition to coworkers...

I was true to myself and did my running this morning before work.  Furthermore, I was pleased with my performance: I ran for a full 20 minutes, going in my estimation around 2.5 miles in that time, and walked the last mile.  I ran from my apartment at Mattingly along the bypass freeway all the way to the Monkey Hill roundabout, which is about halfway down the SKB airport's landing strip, and back.  I plan to continue this habit 5 days a week, maybe meet my friend at Sandy Point to run Brimstone Hill on Saturdays, and rest on Sundays.  I'm staying realistic, which is to say I'm not going to get overly upset if I'm not able to maintain that regimen for long; alternatively, if it works out and I get bored, I want to eventually add push-ups and sit-ups to it as well.

It was brought to my attention the other day that I have not shared with my readers the nature of public transportation on island.  Since I myself am prohibited by the Peace Corps from either operating a motor vehicle or even riding a motorcycle while on island, I am quite subject to relying on public transportation every day I need to go anywhere except grocery shopping.  So here's how it works: there are two forms of for-hire transportation available to the public, taxis and buses.  However, one is not immediately differentiable from the other – both taxis and "buses" are actually full-size 16 passenger vans of every color under the sun and with large, garish script on all sides declaring the handle of that bus. (For example, some buses on that frequent my route are "Mr. War," "Sacrifice," "Big Blue," "Hulk," "Up 2 De Time," "Passion," "Jehovah Jireh," "Crunch Time," et al.)  The only real way to discriminate between Taxis and Buses-For-Hire are their license tags: Taxis read TA #### and are yellow, while buses read HA #### ("H" for "hire") and are green.  And it's vitally important that one discriminate between the two: a bus will take you three towns over for EC$2.50 or to the other side of the island for EC$3.75, but a Taxi will take you anywhere on the island for a mere... EC$45.00.   So no taxi riding while I'm here!

The bus names are a kind of cultural touchstone here; not only does it serve to differentiate bus drivers and their services (it works, too: some buses won't fill up at the terminal because people recall which ones don't have air conditioning, have bad tires, etc.), but it also is a form of expression and abject pride for the bus owners, many of whom willingly go by their handles in public and around town when not driving their buses.  In fact, it's given me time to think about what I would want my bus to be named, were I to have my own.  And I think that, short of settling on only one thing, I would want it to read, "All Dem Tings" in the drippy goo font that is so popular in that circle.  Have a different idea?  Post the name to your own virtual bus here.

MIG's created a blog.  So read it if you want.  I mean, I don't know what he thinks he has to say, and it's not as interesting as mine, certainly, but... whatever.

Also, 0 Comments on the video? Really?  I put a lot of effort into that, people!

The Good, The Bad, and the Gorgeous

I forgot to mention in my last post that when in St. Paul's parish on Saturday, I myself finally got to go Dung By Betty for a late dinner.  And it lived up to the hype – it's hard to beat the warmth and filling sensation from the heap of carbohydrates in a satisfying platter of chicken and chips.  (That's, of course, fried chicken legs and french fries with cane sugar ketchup.)  So that might have to happen again, whenever I'm on that end of the island on a weekend.

Tuesday was its own story, a deluge of frustrations, glories, disappointments, and surprises.  It all started with a vain attempt to install a wireless cable modem in my apartment, a two hour exercise in futility.  Somewhere between the technician arriving at 9:30 and him leaving at 11:30, it became clear that mere access to the two coaxial jacks in my apartment was not enough, and the entire wiring had to be investigated.  However, this involved searching the adjacent apartment, since my cable is apparently at the end of the line, and nobody residing there has access to the adjacent apartment.  Moreover, my property manager could not be lifted by phone, and it is presently unclear whether or not he even has the necessary keys.  The sad offshoot of all this is that I probably won't have internet access at home for another week at the least.

I explained to my school that I would be arriving later that day, and so they were expecting me around noon when I arrived.  However, my contacts both had arrangements over lunch break, and so I found myself again admiring the simplicity and elegance of Plan A but resorting instead to Plan B.  In this case, I walked into town, where I had a few errands to run and could pick up lunch for cheap at the bayfront. When I got there, I found both shops that had exactly what I was looking for... closed.  I did manage to secure some lunch, however, in the form of Ms. Moore's exquisite salt fish fritters and passion fruit juice.  Yet another example of a day-brightening meal, but one that my arteries can only handle once per month or so.  (Compare it to eating a BK® Whopper for lunch.  Would you do it two days in a row? No.)

I somehow worked myself back to school, where my counterparts were ready to sit and dialogue with me on the various projects I am spearheading.  Right now, those are the Math Games and Activities collection that you have heard of here before, and the improvement and expansion of the school library.  I have made a gesture of good faith in both projects already, showing my willingness to move ahead with the project and my comfort level with the implementation with respect to both.  Now, I am mostly waiting on my school counterparts to make a similar display of commitment, in the first case actually trying out a handful of the math activities that I have developed and recording notes for their improvement, and in the second case nominating a handful of students that would be willing to help take on the project of improving the school library.  Who knows, at this stage, what timing will be involved in either effort, or whether or not either project will get off the ground?  Patience is the key.

So ultimately what needed to happen at school did, and I found myself trucking back into town to try those shops again and to catch a bus back home.  Lo and behold! Both shops are open for service, and had exactly what I was looking for: double-sided wall stickers for hanging things on concrete walls, and about 30 yards of fishing line to hang a curtain of CDs in front of my washing machine and appliances.  (I don't know that I can be more specific than that now, but pics soon will clarify.)  So with the bus back home, I discovered that my electricity was out.  And just when things were starting to look up!  I still had several hours of daylight; in theory that's enough time to still cook dinner for myself and a friend, but after hanging the Federation flag and the world map on my wall, and grocery shopping for that night, I was left with about an hour-and-a-half of daylight – not quite enough time to prepare vegetables, marinate mushrooms, boil water and cook rice, sauté the vegetables, and fry mahi-mahi patties.  So we lit a few candles and waited for my neighbor to get back home.  My neighbor surveyed the situation, walked out to the fuse box, and replaced my apartment's fuse with another one, and Ding! everything worked just fine.

I was able to wright yet another miracle in the kitchen, this time with an objective judge not myself.  Despite the difficulty in trying to recreate the success of a seeming fluke the second go around, and the fact that I was partially cooking in the dark, I think the pan-fried mahi-mahi on rice with veggies and marinated mushrooms turned out very pleasing.

Did I mention I cooked for myself last night?  So, all in all, everything worked out as planned except for the internet installation.  That's the happy ending!

Funnyquote Friday

Here's the quote for this week, paraphrased,

"[Much like the Red Cross,] in this day and age
and no matter where you are in the world,

Blackberry® can save your life."

This little gem had my fellow trainees and I rolling (figuratively) on the ground with laughter.  The situation was this: at the Youth Parliamentarians' meeting on Sunday, one young gentleman regaled us with a beautiful poem about the island of St. Christopher that he had ostensibly memorized.  However, after reaching a particular point he could not recall how to continue, and after attempting once again and reaching the same impasse, he deftly consulted his Blackberry for the next line.  And in the same serious voice, while we were anticipating the continuation of the ballad, we instead are met with the glorious witticism intoned above.  Later that evening, when representatives of the Red Cross were being recognized for their contributions to society on the island, our very clever and charming host pointed out that, like Blackberry, the Red Cross can also save your life.

To business: I shy from saying "I gotcha...", because there was, as with all things I do, a degree of truth in my vision of, perhaps one day, getting a ring in my left ear.  But the reality of the situation is that while I am a representative of the Peace Corps, and especially before firmly ingraining myself in the community here, to do so would be counterproductive to my goal of being approachable to all types of people while differentiating myself from common stereotypes of Americans.  Thus, the primary intention for posting my idea was to create an impetus for readers to feel compelled to post their comments – a sort of internet ice breaker, if you will.  And it worked.  Thanks to each of you that posted your thoughts, and to each of you that considered but decided against it, I say Remember, it gets lonely here shouting at the blogosphere, so I appreciate some two-way conversation now and again.  And it's free, so take advantage.

Before I forget, my friend is in St. Vincent and she keeps a blog as well, which contains a fantastic slideshow of many of the sights I have had the pleasure of sharing in St. Lucia.

I went to my work attachment at the NSTP (the National Skills Training Programme) yesterday, and enjoyed a staff meeting in the morning where they officially welcomed me to work and where we officially said farewell to the PCV preceding me in that capacity.  It was a joyous sort of goodbye, with a review of accomplishments since having taken him on board, and the wish for happiness and fulfillment in his future pursuits.  I feel very welcome there, and am quite comfortable with the idea of working there for the next two years, God willing.

Give Me a Call!

I just remembered – I got the prices checked out, and calls that I receive on my cell here are indeed free for me.  For those wondering, this is an issue not because I am cheap, but because I am running a very tight budget.  To give you some idea, a 45-minute phone call to a U.S. cellphone would run me my week's allowance.  But I do not pay for calls I receive on my phone, so do not worry about that – worry only about what it might cost you to call a cellphone overseas.

My phone number is 1 869 665 6027, and feel free to give me a call any evening after 5:00 EDT (which is the same time as here, by the way, until daylight savings time ends).  And while you're at it, check out my friend's blog.

A Little Serendipity

My training class of Kittitian and Nevisian trainees met with our Institutional Point Persons yesterday afternoon, which made for a high point to the end of the day.  Lots of positive energy as each of us met our project supervisors (many for the first time) and discussed the ways we could help our respective schools and nonprofits for the next two years.  It turns out that my supervisor is also an avid chess player – yet another serendipitous match!

And speaking of serendipity, I'm coming to find out more and more what it means to have faith in God's ability to meet my emotional needs.  It's very challenging to go through training on island: you spend a day with familiars trudging through very general community development curriculum, and when you're through and exhausted, you catch a bus back to a world where you are a stranger.  In that moment, the feeling of loneliness or the dissatisfaction with this or that is the strongest.  And in spite of the flattering attention I receive from the squadron of mosquitoes apparently breeding outside my bedroom window, the need for familiar companionship (and in my case, preferably of the female persuasion!) is overwhelming.  But the reality is that even under the best of circumstances, there is no way to get around that these first few months, when I am living with my host family, apart from spending time with them.  Which I enjoy very much, please don't get me wrong – but they are busy folk as well, and are not always available to dote on poor old me.

Even in the face of this difficulty, however, God sees my need and has, on more than one occasion already, placed someone or something in my path to help alleviate these longings.  Last Saturday, it was my host family sister who invited me to the movies.  (Sorry, MIG, but I won't need to schedule TCoN:VotDT with you, since it looks like I'll be able to catch just about all the movies I want to see over the next two years, and in a nicer theater, and for about half the price to boot) Monday it was a currently serving Kittitian volunteer (check out her blog here) who invited me and a friend to the docks for a late-afternoon drink, yielding both a new acquaintance, and a nugget of cultural integration: I can mix a local Shandy now!  And then today it was running into a married couple who are also current PC Volunteers on the island (check out their blog here) who I had been trying to get in touch with anyway, because the gentleman is currently preparing to leave the very post I will be assuming at my assigned nonprofit.  So that worked out surprisingly well.

Anyone would tell you that it feels so unnatural to expect these sorts of happenstances, but as I try to keep my eyes open to God's workings around me, I can't help but wonder if that is exactly what God is saying to me right now.  Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God says that the Great Planner who calls us to join Him in His work uses prayer, the Word, circumstances, and the church in order to speak to us.  I believe this is one of those times that he has used identifiable circumstances to point me in the direction of a truth I will need very desperately over the coming years.

 Sorry to those I have not spoken to on the phone in a while – my host family's NetPhone, which is set up to provide local calls to the USA, has been glitchy as of late.  As soon as that is resolved, I'll be able to communicate more freely via telephone.  I'll also consider adding Skype services to my repertoire just as soon as I have a steady wireless internet connection.  That might not happen until I find a place of my own, but I don't mind because I'm awfully busy right now as it is.

Allow me to thank everyone again for their continued prayers, and please continue to remember the Clem family and their tragic loss.  God's peace be with them right now.

Still On That Initial High

... Don't know how much longer it's scheduled to last, but I'm holding out for more.  PreService Training is starting to feel like the chain-pull at the beginning of a 2-year-long roller coaster ride: Slow and steady at first, dealing primarily with nerves and not psyching yourself out, before a long series of ups and downs that are practically out of one's own control.  But that's one of the reasons I'm here, right? To give up control.

Before I forget, be sure to read up on my pal Andrew's blog - he's a gifted comic and it shows in his posts.  He's on the other side of the island from me (6 o'clock to 12 o'clock), so the only times I get to see him are during training, but that's okay, 'cause that is all I can stand of him anyway. (oh snap!)

Drinking lots of water here.  Around 3 16oz bottles a day.  And of course I'm sweating.  But the heat isn't overpowering for me, and the mosquito bites have toned down, thanks to a fresh bottle of OFF! and a fan in my bedroom.  Also, I come bearing news about a neat custom here.  Perhaps many of you have heard that on the hottest days, it's good for you to eat hot soup?  I had not, but it's common practice here to have hot tea in the morning and hot soup for lunch.  Why?  Wouldn't that be uncomfortably hot in 90°+ weather?  It turns out that, while your body temp does increase almost imperceptibly, it's enough to where the air feels cooler, and it's quite refreshing.  MYTHBUSTERS: CONFIRMED.

 We were given our school attachment assignments yesterday – I will be working at a primary school one day a week for as long as they need me.  I hope to get in touch soon with the volunteers from St. Lucia who have instituted a chess program in their primary schools, so as to borrow curriculum and advice/inspiration for an analogous program here on St. Kitts.  Barring that, I've always got a new soccer ball.

Pics of my host family and St. Kitts soon.  In the meantime, new blog header!

Slow Day

Slow day today, as we just have final medical clearances (with hepatitis and typhoid vaccinations for many of us) and some IT business to attend to.  Peace Corps uses Microsoft SharePoint, for those interested, and it comes highly regarded but unfortunately presents a challenging login interface that has the built in security of an attempt limit.  Consequently, our IT professional is getting a bit of a workout.

Be sure to check out my new friend's blog (she is a yoga instructor, and she has some pictures posted) for additional info on activities down here at 15°N latitude.  As for the weather, it is constantly in the 80s with very high humidity and an intermittent breeze.  I have had the opportunity to visit the beach one day for about 20 minutes, and the water could not have been cooler than 80° F.

Also, if you're wondering why I am suddenly more available online, it is because one of our intrepid crew recently discovered that the office lobby has a wireless router hidden from view.  So now it is the popular evening hangout among my fellow trainees; I generally try to find a group to socialize with instead, like on Monday night a few of us sang songs to guitar, on Tuesday night we walked into town, on Wednesday night I played Cribbage with a couple others, and on Thursday night I stitched my new PC patch onto my laptop case (pictures soon, I promise!).

Some things I have learned already: the capital city of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and the city I will be living in, Basseterre, is pronounced in two syllables.  (bass-TEER) The islands that many of us are at are considered Windward Islands, as they are adjacent the Atlantic Ocean and regularly receive the gale-force winds during hurricane season.  As opposed to the Leeward Islands, which are west of us (Aruba, etc.) and don't receive those winds.

Feel free to send any questions and I'll try to get an answer back soon.  You can comment, or find my e-mail address on my profile page.