I Believe

Whilst in a Monday meeting with my coworkers at the NSTP,  we were discussing the upcoming graduation ceremony for the A Ganar graduates.  I pointed out that I would be busy that Saturday volunteering at the 3rd Annual 5K Run for the St. Christopher Children's Home, and wouldn't be able to make it to the graduation.  And when the theme "I Believe; I Can Achieve" was discussed, I was inspired to contribute a poem in lieu of attending.  So I spent the time in the meeting composing the following poem; it was all done in about an hour's time.

My friends, my mentors, they encourage me;

My parents, my teachers, they want to see

The best come through in all I do

And show the world that I, for true,

Am worth the sacrifices they’ve made.  For

This I believe; I can achieve more

When I study those that want me to succeed.

The finish line looks far away,

But I’m being careful not to stray

From the path that takes me to the top.

Until I reach, I nah gon’ stop.

Some may doubt, but in my soul,

I believe; I can achieve the goal

That I have placed before myself.

In school, I’d fight and sweat and strive –

But thanks to A GANAR, I thrive

On the knowledge that I can do my part

To forge myself a brand-new start

Preparing myself for life’s big test.

I believe; I can achieve my best

By taking seriously the chances I’ve been blessed with.

I may not grow up to be rich,

My clothes may wear at every stitch,

But I know that yet still more import

Is found in whether I’m the sort

Of person the highest riches affords.

I believe; I can achieve rewards

In heaven and earth by doing my best every day.

I was favored with the attendance of over 50 friends, neighbors, and fellow volunteers at my 'Thanks and Goodbye' party on the evening of Friday the 28th.  Waking up at 6:00AM to start the cooking and going all the way through until guests began arriving around 5:30 that afternoon, I was almost completely spent even before the fun began.  But with the help of my good friend who showed me the ropes in preparing each of the local dishes on the menu (i.e. Cookup, Ginger Wings, Breadfruit Salad, Macaroni Pie) we got through it and was able to serve everyone who showed up looking for some good food and a good lime.  The Peace Corps and my work office were both well represented, and plenty of other friends and neighbors showed up and stayed until 10:00 that evening, just as the Tiki torches began to die out.  It was a success in the eyes of all the guests, and I took the rest of the weekend to recover.

I have but 10 days remaining in the Caribbean.  Some things left on my last minute to-do list are getting wrapped up presently: I went by Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor and purchased the portrait batik of a SK rum shop that will hang in my office, whenever and wherever I have one.  I submitted my health insurance application today, a small benefit when returning home after two years abroad.  Additionally, I was able to negotiate a discounted rate at the Royal St. Kitts Golf Course in Frigate Bay, and hope to take advantage of it this Thursday.  Aside from those three things, I'll have the first half of next week to complete any remaining trivial things before catching my flight back next Thursday the 18th. 

Various Forms of Buyer's Remorse

My office's Internet Service Provider, The Cable, has been out of commission for over a week now – which means the NSTP has been paying for internet that hasn't been available since Friday the 11th! Which is also why I've been forced to cut back to this two-updates-per-week schedule.  I know sometimes things go wrong for cable and internet companies, and it is a lot of lines to monitor and manage, but a service outage of more than a day or two is unacceptable.  And it's island-wide!  It's a good thing Cable & Wireless provides my internet, or else I wouldn't be able to transmit this missive over the web atall.

I cooked barbecued pulled pork on Saturday.  It was a bit of an involved process: purchasing all of the ingredients before Saturday morning, like brown sugar, Kraft barbecue sauce, and Shur-Fine (the local off-brand) apple cider vinegar; getting up at dawn to make it into town and the meat market by 7:00, where I selected the hog from whence the 4 lbs. of shoulder meat was hewn.  Then I seared the pork, warmed a pot with the ingredients, and began the pork simmering at 8:45.  Then it was just a normal Saturday of doing nothing but chilling at the apartment and watching a pot simmer for eight more hours.  I managed to wash my dishes, get some sudoku done, some reading, and watched a few more entries from my Hulu queue.  Good times.

I have this unusual dilemma to confront tonight: my time is torn between two competing interests in late Tuesday night activities.  The first is football (soccer), which I have not been able to attend for some weeks, and I've been promising fellow footballers I would try to make it tonight.  The other is Tuesday Trivia, held at a hotel lounge at Frigate Bay, and for whom I will be responsible for generating and asking questions a week from now.  Both begin about the same time, after dark, and go until late evening, thus the two are mutually exclusive activities.  Both I need to negotiate a lift to.  Which social responsibility do I act on and which one do I shirk?  It's a conundrum.

Bugs of Lore and Tugs-of-War

Alright! I finally got around to testing out my miniature charcoal grill at the house last night on a no-expense-barred dry run with Caribbean Jerk Chicken.  It turned out way better than I expected – it was bold-flavored and spicy, just like jerk chicken is supposed to taste.  The texture was a little grainier than I was hoping for, so maybe I go a little bit easier on the flour next time.  But other than that, it was a grand experiment in lighting charcoal with naught but newspaper, lighter fluid, a dozen matches and faith.  (Only three of which are actually flammable.)

More updates from the CreepyCrawly files: I've been getting much better at killing mosquitoes, sometimes tallying upwards of 5 a day.  And of course I wash my hands afterward.  But the vermin that stole the show this week was the Mother Of All Cockroaches – this sucker was two inches long, and was hella fast.  Its end was the flat end of a flyswatter when it dared to venture from beneath the couch for too long.  And the fun doesn't end there; I was greeted with surprise guests in my garbage bin yesterday, cleaning the house in preparation for a guest.  What were the ants lining up outside to find at the bottom of my garbage?  A litter of grubs! Yes, this certainly made my day.  It all came to a crushing end, however, when I Raided their lair and swept the confines clean of any infestation.  (I hope.)

The initial stages of the Iron Band programme were pushed back to next week, as this week at school is almost exclusively devoted to Inter-House Sports Day, held on Friday.  I'll be there all day helping out with the races and other events.  I'll make sure and grab some photos and video for the highlight reel this month, so each of you can experience your own Sports Day.  It's a major to-do here on island: every school plans their own full day of events, featuring the best athletes the school can boast in a variety of competitive heats, everything from the very legit track races to the less-so tug-of-war.  All of the community attends, many in the interest of getting an early peek at this nation's future track and field stars.

Two Empty Ends of Coconuts...

In a display of superior turnaround time, the pictures in this entry were taken (drum roll please...) last night!  In a widely publicized and highly anticipated experiment in the kitchen involving sharp knives, fish flanks and coconuts, I spent the better part of yesterday evening preparing a rather large helping of Coconut Fried Fish.  I took the liberty of putting together a picture compilation of the procedure as well, starting with the extraction of the coconut juice and meat:

After draining the coconut water into the container on the left,
I broke the shell into two halves by dropping it on the floor (no kidding!)

Using a rather simpleminded technique of scraping out the meat with a knife,
I managed to produce enough coconut shavings for my recipe.

Before and After of the knifing-the-meat-out method before resorting to
prying the meat off of the shell with a spoon.

The final collection of coconut meat; all of those good
coconut shavings!  I'm going to have to find another one.

The process took a little longer than I expected; getting all of the meat out of the coconut took about an hour.  And during it all I felt like quite the historian, finding myself in a situation where countless other humans thousands of years ago found themselves: upon being presented with a fruit not before experienced, having to decide how on earth to extract the delicious contents locked within.  I was pleased, therefore, to succeed in my attempts, though not without the help of a simple tool and a tile floor.  Progressing at last to the cooking portion, I populated the line in preparation of frying the fish fillets:

Dousing the fish fillets in coconut milk and egg whites before coating with
flour and a breadcrumb-coconut blend ensured superior coconut frying goodness.

The final product, after adding the flash-fried fish to a pan of fresh
vegetables simmering in coconut milk and citrus juices.

And look - a novelty cup to boot!  A souvenir from my uniquely island experience.

It was a fun experiment, though much more demanding than any of my previous cooking ventures.  Perhaps, in the future, purchasing pre-shredded sweetened coconut is the way to go?  On the other hand, I wouldn't get to add to my collection of awesome island drinkware.  I'm shooting for a set before the end!

P.S. Don't be the guy that asks, "What about the other half?  Don't you already have a set?"  It has a hole in it, silly!

More Goings Than Comings, It Would Seem

Here are some pictures from a dinner a few weekends ago at Fisherman's Wharf.  We volunteers wanted to wish our friend Pilar goodbye; she was visiting on vacation and her time had been exhausted.  So we gathered at "The Best Catch In Town" to thank her for her friendliness, positive attitude, and generosity of spirit.  Overall the food was okay, though certainly pricey.  But it's a well known attraction for tourists and locals alike, so it's nice just to say that I've been there.  Some say the lobster is the best on island – maybe one day I'll find out.

The lasagna dinner on Friday night went well; it was a delight to spend time with friends.  I fear the lasagna itself could have used more seasoning, though.  Mom caught my error: Italian seasoning alone wasn't enough to bring out the tangy sauce flavor, it needed some singular herbs like Oregano or Basil as well.  Anyway, I'll know for next time, and hopefully when that time comes I won't have to warm up the pre- cooked dish in the oven like this time.  Anyway, as with so many of the dishes that I have been experimenting with, there's certainly room for improvement.

Additionally, it seems that one of our Peace Corps Response Volunteers will be taking early leave from his post here in St. Kitts to pursue different undertakings back in the States.  So we'll be marking his leave with another get-together this upcoming weekend.  I, for one, will be disappointed to see him off early; I shared in some delightfully deep and occasionally tacky conversations with him the last few months.  You know, it occurred to me the other day that, when my close of service comes at the end of next year, there may not be any PCVs staying behind to wish me off!

Funnyquote Friday

Thanks for the short hiatus; I'm ready to get back to business.  And starting us off is your quote for this Old Year's Friday:

"I think it's just despicable that you're in 

a short-sleeve shirt and shorts..."

Give my grandmother some credit: she has been stuck in North Georgia in seven inches of snow and sub-freezing weather for a week.  And the cabin fever and uncomfortable chills can make for some serious envy for those of us struggling with 75° weather, 12-hour sunshine and ocean breezes. 

And now for the news from Peace Corps Land.  The country directorship of the Eastern Caribbean region changed hands, on schedule, as we were told it would.  Remarkable, however, was that the new director visited us here at St. Kitts and brought with him some disruptive news: the new batch of EC83 PC volunteers scheduled to start in February of 2011 have been reassigned to different posts, leaving the Federation with no incoming PCVs for at least one year.  This means that upwards of 10 NGOs on island, including the Ministry of International Trade which I have started teaming up with on an island-wide entrepreneurship program, will not be receiving their promised 2-year volunteers.  (Which means, in their case, that I'll probably be picking up a lot of the duties that were intended for the newbie.)  Presumably, requests for 6-month response volunteers can still be made, though nothing is certain.  Since a dearth of funding is the primary culprit for choosing to send the volunteers to other EC islands, we volunteers remaining on St. Kitts have a few concerns yet.

Christmas Eve dinner at a fellow PCV's house in Middle Island was a great holiday joy.  Never have I ever spent Christmas away from home before, but I cannot imagine an easier first step.  Everybody was pleasant and cheerful, the food was unparalleled, and Santa didn't do too badly either!  With a gift exchange at the end of the evening, I walked home with a sheet of rum cake – a very merry carb-filled Christmas indeed.  Also, a note to self: Christmas enchiladas a must in future years.  Who knew that not only were the colors naturally festive, but also that they paired well with everything?

I did have a traditional Christmas meal with my host family, but it was on the afternoon of the 26th, which worked out fine for me.  I was pleased to see them, bake a homemade, homegrown pumpkin pie for them, and fill up on a solid holiday meal before staying up all night in preparation for J'ouvert.  For which, after some deliberation, I decided to join the Digicel-sponsored J'ouvert troupe, which many of my friends, and about 500 people in all, also marched.  We started from Bird Rock at about 2 A.M. and marched the Bay Road over several hours, joining up with 4-5 other large troupes and all congregating at the Circus by dawn of the 27th.  Paint, noisemakers, and cups littered the streets where thousands of people had spent the daybreak (J'ouvert means daybreak in French) dancing and marching to really, really, REALLY loud soca music.  By the time I got home that morning, I had to decide if whether my refrigerator was running double time, or if my ears had not stopped ringing yet.

Well, I guess that's about it.  I'm staying busy with projects that I lined up for myself before the winter holidays, and the weather is still so perfectly acceptable that I can conceivably go to the beach or hiking in the interior any day I want, and don't have to wait for a warm weather day.  And now, for those of you that were good this year and read all the way to the end, here is the December highlights video.

Funnyquote Friday

Your quote this week is by my PC comrade on Nevis, directed at me:

"Your references are always lost on me."

Well, it wouldn't be me if I wasn't confusing my friends with obscure nerdy pop culture references.

Not a whole lot to post about today.  I'm going to get a real PC haircut tomorrow, trading my services in multimedia presentation preparation for a free, quality 'do.  When living on as tight a budget as we have to on St. Kitts, you learn to find the lowest-cost alternatives for just about every good or service.  In the states, the time/cost trade-off leans heavier on the saving time side, willing to front the extra cost to avoid having to shop around for a better deal.  Here, with little material resources and vastly plentiful time resources, the trade-off swings dramatically in the other direction.

I have some takers for The Chronicles of Narnia for my birthday in two weeks.  I've been looking forward to seeing this movie since before I left, and so Murphy's Law is due to strike when it becomes clear that the release of the movie on St. Kitts has been delayed or somesuch.  But maybe I'm being overly pessimistic; I'm sure we'll have a good time even if the movie falls through for any reason.

I am going to try my hand at Curry Mutton tonight, so wish me luck!

Yay animated gif.

Unfavorable Expectations

I figured out what I want for Christmas this year.  So if you want to get me one, just hold on to it until I get back to the States, since I won't be allowed to use it here until I am released from service.  (Thanks, you're the best!)

I've been having some bad luck with expectations lately.  Cooking expectations, project expectations, and other expectations more or less dramatic.  It should come as no surprise that stresses one faces in Peace Corps service have a tendency to sneak up on you, even when you are actively resisting their effects.  It's like continuing to hack down the same weed in your yard over and over, even as the roots spread out underground and unnoticed.  In my case, these stresses have come in the form of falling short of my own expectations, even expectations I had previously regarded with little concern.  As readers will recall, I've been very pleasantly surprised with my cooking ability, enjoy the freedom, experience and experimentation, and at a rate of two nights per week I'm not burning out of it quickly either.  But I noticed something last night after frying barbecued chicken legs: I was disappointed that they weren't better than they were.  This despite the fact that for a spur-of-the-moment decision to cook them, and for my second try at frying barbecued chicken, they turned out very tasty and mixed very well with the fresh vegetables and rice.  Yet I was hoping that they would soak up a little more of the barbecue flavor.  Really, they just didn't have enough time to marinate, or else they no doubt would have.  But the results were very satisfactory all things considered, and I shouldn't have allowed myself to feel down about them.

Similarly, I have some faulty expectations with a project at my school attachment.  The library reorganization project was and still is a challenging undertaking, pitting me, my best efforts, and a handful of students against a room full of disorderly and dilapidated books with a lot of inertial resistance to change.  So what if it took more than that first day to unshelve, sort, label, catalog, and reshelve all 1000+ books?  That doesn't mean our first efforts were any less fruitful just because we did not completely finish on that day.  I recognized, even at PreService Training, that marrying my own expectations of my performance on projects with the expectations of my counterpoints would prove challenging for me.  I know now, as I feared then, that my own expectations for myself tend to be higher than practicality will allow in my situation.  My timetables are far shorter than the typical Kittitian approach to productivity, and while I have not faced any particular resistance to setting my own schedule for things, I have been left disappointed when unable to finish a project in its anticipated time allotment.  This is ultimately harmful to my morale and to my motivation in proceeding with the project, and all because of my own presumptions of what defines "productivity."  So when I ask for prayer for patience, this is what I mean.  The ability to slow down my natural anxieties that I am not living up to my mandates, and instead acknowledge God's guidance in all of my projects here.

I miss everyone, but not nearly as much as I will during Christmas.  So find some time this month to give me a shout out on Skype; my birthday is in two Mondays, too.

Funnyquote Friday

Seen on a jewelry outlet sign at Frigate Bay:

"Sometimes it's okay to throw stones at women."

I hope everyone finds this quote in good humor.  It certainly lends itself to a certain disregard for historical sensitivity, but I'm all for remarking on odd cultural proclivities in good faith.  Right?

It's been a challenging week.  Between the march last Friday, the hash on Saturday, and the library realignment on Tuesday, my legs haven't had time to recuperate enough to pick up running Mattingly hill again.  My resolve is far from wavering, but the circumstances have demanded that I push my regimen back another week.  I'm looking forward to an especially relaxing weekend, and preparation for Thanksgiving dinner at a fellow PCV's house here on St. Kitts.  I'll be in charge of the green bean casserole!  So Mom, don't forget to e-mail me that recipe.

 And now, some pictures from sunrise:

Funnyquote Friday

Your quote for the week is a sign on Church Street just outside my parish of St. George's Anglican:

In truth, this wasn't that funny to me, but a friend pointed it out as being deceptively ironic, so hopefully it is sufficiently funny to readers.

Big news!  I'm scheduled to be on Nevis all day today, filming a gender awareness march directed by a fellow PCV there.  So I get to take the ferry across and see the other 1/4 of the Federation.  I am very much looking forward to it; I've met so many fantastic Nevisians already in my time here on St. Kitts, that I want to find out what all of the hype is about.

In other news, cooking has been going well; I made delicious tacos complete with homemade salsa last night.  Fun!  Come to find out, however, that a little onion goes a long way, so I definitely need to go easier on the onion next time.  Additionally, I'm giving the passion fruit juice experiment a second go-around, since the last try was kind of disastrous.  So I'll get back to readers on that in due time.

I finally finished hanging all the new/clean curtains in my apartment.  The improvements in the arrangement of light are immense: my bathroom is far more lit up now with a set of half-length sheer curtains for half-length windows that match the kitchen's curtains, and my bedroom is finally dark in the morning thanks to a new set of sufficiently-masculine semi-opaque beaded curtains.  So apart from drilling into the concrete wall, which my neighbor said he has the hardware to do, I am quite nearly done with internal improvements.  Now to just decide what to do with the 36" CRT sitting on my floor.  Anybody with suggestions for pumping a digital signal through to A/V cables?  It'd be great if I could watch DVDs on the monitor without having to finance a DVD player...

Funnyquote Friday

Your quote for today comes from my fellow PCV and friend from Halfway Tree, referring to her internet connection:

"If the wire reaches everywhere in your house, 

it counts as wireless."

Well said by someone who carries a generous portion of the requisite Peace Corps optimism.

I am enjoying full-fledged DSL internet at my apartment, finally.  And the plumber came by one morning this week and fixed my hot water knob in the shower.  And I cooked for myself again!  So I am riding high on the shower tower of Skype hype and flour power.

I cooked on Tuesday, this time I fried some eggplant I purchased at the Basseterre market, which opens about three mornings a week and one afternoon when the produce boat from Grenada comes in.  The inspiration came from another time gone by when friends Patrick, P.J. and I found ourselves on campus for summer semester and the need to cook.  Patrick's favorite dish is none other than Eggplant Parmesan, and we teamed up to produce a satisfactory portion for dinner and, in the process, set the smoke alarms off in a deserted Freshman dormitory.  So the Atlanta Fire and Rescue got to appreciate our cooking as well!  I still remember the cooking instructions, and so I used that experience to guide an attempt at fried eggplant with sauteed vegetables on white rice with lentils.  Success?  Let's just say it was infinitesimally better than... edible.

I picked up some passion fruit at the market as well, and am waiting on a friend to show me the right way to juice them.  In case the reader does not know or forgets, this is what the inside of a passion fruit looks like:

So part of the fun of juicing passion fruit is holding back one's gag reflex in the process.  But the end result is so worth it, it comes at an easy cost.

The commercial was a success.  And more importantly, the ensuing Healthy Breakfast Cereal sale was demonstrably successful, to the point that the students ran out of cereal to sell within the first hour of opening.

Progress at my primary attachment, the National Skills Training Programme, is progressing, if slowly.  I am loosely scheduled to submit the fully revised copy of our new career development material by the middle of November, so more updates are sure to follow this month with regard to the reception of my suggested changes and added clip art.  Following that, I'll put together some interview materials to be used to gather post-service information from previous clients of the NSTP, eventually culminating in statistics and success stories to be used towards acquiring funding.  Also on the docket: setting up data collection systems to accommodate these new data, as well as transferring a large portion of the NSTP's stock of manuals and textbooks to electronic form for accessibility and preservation purposes.

I ran again this morning, making it the third time this week and in three different directions.  This time, I took the dirt road that parallels the main road going west from Mattingly, and ran all the way until I was North-South even with a visible cell tower on a mountain, a displacement of about 1.75 miles by my estimation, whereupon I came across a donkey that was hogging the whole passable portion of the trail.  So I turned around and ran back.

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!