The Final Test

Then Tropical Storm Rafael (now Hurricane Rafael) passed through St. Kitts from late Friday through Monday, dropping torrential rains and causing mudslides all through Basseterre and around the island.  Since the center of the storm sort of hugged our southern coastline, the brunt of the winds came from the South, which means that Basseterre received a worse buffeting than usual.  Many of the primary North-to-South ghauts were completely flooded and drained water, mud, shrubberies, building supplies, and even cars into the bay!  A few of us volunteers had been saying we wanted to experience our very own lifelike hurricane, since our time up to now had been dotted with largely benign storms – it seems that we got what we asked for this weekend.  In fact, there is a sort of remarkable symmetry to it: when my group arrived on island in September of 2010, Hurricane Earl had just swept through the NE Caribbean, and the island was recovering from the shock of that.  Now, as I am preparing to leave, I am part of the contingent recovering from the shock of Hurricane Rafael.

In addition, I have been without running water since late Saturday, what with the storm knocking out the power for large swaths of time over the weekend and my neighborhood's water supply reliant on the water being pumped to the top of the hill I live on.  Usually this long after having power restored would be sufficient time for the water pump to have recovered, but the fact that it hasn't is indicative to me that it may be damaged and in need of repair.  Which means that my usual routines have been somewhat transformed: taking a shower has become bathing from a bucket, washing the dishes under cold running water has become soaking the dishes in room temperature soapy water, and washing my toothbrush off with running water has become saving potable water to rinse the toothpaste off.  Even things you wouldn't think about, like shaving or flushing the commode is different.  And this being the third day as such, it's doubtless I wouldn't have made it this far without the gracious help of my good friend Joy, who delivered a couple 10 gallon water containers to my apartment on Sunday. 

Current weather issues aside, I've been struggling to get myself over the hump to actually getting ready to leave.  I'm constantly pulled two ways about whether it's too early to pack something, whether it belongs in this suitcase or that, whether I need to pack it at all or leave it for the benefit of a friend or the next tenant in my apartment, etc.  It strikes me that this may be one of those "I'm not going to get to it until I feel the urgency pressing on me" issues.  So the over-under for when I get through packing is set for, I think, midnight Wednesday.  Mind you, my flight leaves SKB at 3:00 Thursday afternoon.  Now taking bets!

I've got some errands to run in town today: get some closeout papers signed and delivered to the Peace Corps office, close my savings account at the bank, and return the LIME modem that I am using to send this near-final update.  I already held my closing interview with my APCD, which went off without a hitch.  And after capturing some last minute photographs of my walk into town, which I am going to do this morning, I will be all caught up with my list of final things to do before leaving the island.  I have to say, though – I'm going to feel kind of guilty about the state that I'm going to be leaving the apartment in if I don't get running water with which to clean it up very soon.

Also, here's to the 200th post!

Funnyquote Friday

As I mentioned, I went to church last Sunday, where, during the Parish Notices segment (i.e. announcements), I was treated to this gem:  "Thanks to all the parishioners that donated to the youth fund drive...

"The vouchers you received, redeemable at Walgreens or Wal-Mart, are a token of our appreciation."

This unironic blurb earned a chuckle from the congregation that morning.  There are, of course, no Walgreens or Wal-Marts on island, and it's likely that the closest they could be found would be in Puerto Rico, a US$200 flight on LIAT from here.

Well, Tropical Storm Isaac did pass by here, waving his arrival on the Atlantic/windward side of the island, and waving his departure on the Caribbean/leeward side.  As I am on a hill facing the Caribbean Sea to the south, the brunt of the northern reaches of the storm hit my side of the island around 4:00-6:00 P.M. on Wednesday.  But being high up on a hill and also on the first floor of an apartment building, I have the best of both worlds: no flooding at all.  And even a full day later, the Caribbean Sea is still swollen, with waves buffeting the Bay Road in Basseterre relentlessly, washing up silt, sand, and kelp right onto the road.

No real news with regards to projects; it's slow going with the TRI website, but I expect to have things a little bit clearer come Tuesday of next week, when I am scheduled for my second meeting with our representative from the ICT Department.  That's it for now – here's looking forward to a productive weekend.

Funnyquote Friday

As you may know, I've been heading up the Chess instruction at the Smart Moves Strategy Board Game Summer Camp at the University of the West Indies open campus this past week.  This morning I return for day 5 with the 20+ 10-12 year old kids from the greater Basseterre, and pray that I don't lose my voice from all of the talking, whispering, and shouting that I've done over the last five days.  And despite the kids' anticipated rambunctiousness, I've found that, on average,

• 50% of the students really love the game of Chess, get excited about learning something new, and look forward to Chess class every day
• 25% look on it as more than a game: the allure of the deeper meanings in Chess and the desire to become a stronger player is in their eyes
• and 25% are more or less ambivalent, content to come to class and play with the others, but not particularly enthralled about the advent of Chess as a hobby

A funny practical offshoot of dealing everyday with all three groups of students (usually in the same class) is that they all relate to me differently.  The top-performing 25% hang on my every word, and often seek out my attention for things that only loosely require it.  Furthermore, when a student from this subgroup happens to be a girl, (recall, this is the 10-12 year old range) they are oftentimes unabashedly seeking my attention more fervently than is, perhaps, appropriate.  Take, for example, when one girl took notice of my hair, and at one point reached out, uninvited, and grasped my (now relatively long) goatee, saying "I like your hair and all –

"But this... this has to go."

It's been a very rewarding week for me, as you might expect, and equally exhausting.  Even as I write this in anticipation of the day's events, I can't fathom yet another 8 hours with the students.  That said, I have been duly blessed by their cooperation and buy-in to my Chess teachings, particularly the ones that have taken off on their own and seek to challenge themselves further.  I look forward to trying out a possible mini-tournament, every hour on the hour for the four students at a time that I am hosting in the Chess classroom.  I'll let the readers know how that goes with my post next week.

Well, it must be hurricane season again, because we're already starting to get alerts for possible hazardous storm systems coming up from the Atlantic.  The first big one that is approaching is predicted to pass South of us, though as we know oftentimes the storms tend to gravitate North when they approach the chain of Lesser Antilles.  Still, as I was telling others, I would welcome the excitement of a little mini-hurricane: it would be the first one I've experienced since living in my own apartment.  But I don't want to jinx myself either, of course.

Funnyquote Friday

In response to a local in-party dispute regarding the duties of the Deputy Prime Minister / Minister of National Security, our esteemed current DPM the honorable Mr. Sam Condor gave a public address that I had the pleasure of listening to part of on the bus. At one point, however, serious discourse on political fair treatment and the responsibilities of political office took a turn for the comical when he uttered this intro:

"... as Benjamin Franklin, former US President,
famously said, ..."

I couldn't help but chuckle at that, but I fear I was the only one on the bus that did.

With Tropical Storm Ophelia looming on the horizon, nobody knows if our weekend is going to be shot yet.  Although NOAA has the projection cone bending further and further north as the week goes on, so we may be in the clear.  Even so, my weekend trip to Nevis with my girlfriend will have to be postponed.  But there is some vacationing in the works even so: the tickets for my trip back to the States for my brother's wedding have been purchased.  So I am officially set to be in and around Atlanta from between the days of October 31 and November 11.  Or Halloween and Veteran's Day, for those of a variant nomenclature.

Things keep rolling here.  I might just have some updates regarding the work on the Math Activities booklet in a few weeks.  I'll certainly have some updates on the Library Reorganization Project sooner than that.  On the other side of the coin, give me a shout sometime –  Skype or otherwise.

Well, That Was Weird

An entire weekend gone, (*snap*) just sitting at home and waiting for Tropical Storm Maria to pass.  We volunteers were, naturally, held at "Standfast" level of emergency alert all day Saturday, the day that it was originally scheduled to pass.  When everything had mostly cleared late that day, we were given the "All Clear" announcement.  Curiously, this did not correspond at all with the severity of the storm, which had indeed diverted North at this point, but nonetheless had a minor tail of stormy weather that was headed our way on Sunday.  But even then, expecting some degree of thunderstorms, wind, and rain during the day, it did not arrive until late Sunday night and into Monday morning.  The offshoot of all of this is that I got little to no exercise both days, and somewhat restless sleep both nights.  It's odd to think that, while hurricanes have been known to throw schedules completely off the rails, even the mere threat of them can sometimes be just as vexing.  Not to mention disappointing: I was looking forward to facing another storm on my own, and maybe even capturing some of the ferocity for a highlight movie.  But that proved to be impossible this go-around.  Maybe next time?

Last week, and now by default this week, was to be set aside for looking back, a week in review in a sense.  But I have not got around to completing my third trimesterly Volunteer Report Form yet, so I don't know what I would write about yet.  I guess it won't hurt to delay the festivities one more week.  I want to do it right more than I want to do it on time!

I mentioned that my hair has gotten longer; even this has some unusual consequences for me.  For example, I have neither dust bunnies nor cats in my residence, yet a cursory sweep around the apartment uncovers occasionally substantial hairballs.  Furthermore, keeping the mane under control in this climate is proving to be difficult.  What with the constant heat and humidity, the frizziness of my locks tends to skyrocket, creating this shift away from what I am used to it looking like in the states to what it begins to resemble here if I am not careful.  My friends like to tease me about my clear vanity over something as trivial as my hair that day, and I just take it.  But to me it's the difference between "this person looks smart, sexy and professional" and "there's absolutely no way I can take this person seriously."

I'm trying to update my résumé currently, in preparation for job hunting all of next year.  It may be no surprise to anyone that I find it mildly challenging to put into brief terms exactly what I do here.  At the moment my descriptions of things I've accomplished feel like the bare bones of my job description; I suppose the goal for the next year is to add some marrow, tendons, muscle and flesh to those bones.  It's a daunting prospect, but it's not impossible.  Indeed, I look forward to finding out what projects hold for the long run.

TS Irene Does Her Thing

Let's start with the good news: My girlfriend, a second-year student at the Ross University Vet School, did well enough on her final exams to pass each of her classes, and indeed raise her overall GPA.  She will thus be allowed to continue her schooling here in the Caribbean.

...That might be about it.  In what proved to be a very difficult weekend for both of us, there were not a lot of upsides to lean on, apparently.  What followed this happy news was Tropical Storm Irene, which effectively knocked out all on- and off-island travel for all of Saturday and Sunday.  The flight that my girlfriend had been scheduled to leave on was booked Sunday, and summarily canceled.  However, apparently contrary to standard airlines procedure, she was not contacted regarding the cancellation, and did not find out about it until she checked online at the recommendation of her school friends, most of whom were also vying for available flights to the States.  By the time she checked, the earliest flight available was Thursday, four days later than originally scheduled.  In lieu of using her local phone and rapidly running down the minutes, she needed to get to a landline at the school, something that under the conditions of the storm proved to be difficult: we hitched a lift with a friend, whose car ran headlong into the first 18-inch deep puddle it saw, and flooded.  In a drive that takes less than 5 minutes, we were stalled outside the gate to the Ross University parking lot for about 15 minutes.

When we finally got to the student center, the facility was happily open to students, but naturally most of the services, including the coffee shop and telephones, were unavailable.  With no phone, breakfast or dry feet to comfort us, we walked about a quarter of a mile in the storm to the on-campus dorms, where we were able to use a friend's phone to call American Airlines.  By this point, nearly an hour after checking online, the first available flight out of St. Kitts left Saturday.  Over the course of a long and fretful conversation with the sales representative, even that changed to the following Sunday, meaning that all American Airlines flights were booked solid for a week.  What with students all leaving at the same time, in addition to the usual travelers, plus the two daily flights that had been canceled, my girlfriend could not book a flight in the time that she had to leave.  Unwilling to pay full fare for a trip that would now last, at best, 5 days, she refunded her ticket and is now looking for ways to occupy herself in the two weeks she has free now.

All this might have been enough to deal with, had it not been for an incident, somewhat existentially comical in nature, that happened Saturday night: while laying in bed, she heard creaking and cracking under her, and presumed the cats were being particularly vigorous and unrestrained in their faux boxing.  But instead, when she looked, she observed a perceptible incline in certain tiles on the floor of her bedroom, both directly under the bed and around the large vanity dresser.  She quickly jumped out of bed to safer, not-sinking ground, and alerted her landlady to the increasing displacement in the slope of her room, and the subsequent cracking of tiles at the joints.  Naturally, her landlady dismissed it, citing a similar incident in an adjacent apartment the previous summer.  This scenario would cause any reasonable person discomfort, but doubly so to one who was dealing with the realities that she will not get to see her family as planned, in conjunction with all of the stresses and concerns over the most difficult semester of graduate school she had faced yet.  The poor girl felt like the ground really was sinking right underneath her at this point.

So what all this means for me is that I was stuck away from my apartment for the duration of the storm, and even stuck in it for some.  Fortunately, though the rainfall was torrential, the winds and flooding were not destructive, and the island and my apartment look not too worse for the wear.  I had never planned on leaving my apartment through a storm without my being there, however, and a few oversights may yet come back to haunt me: I left my grill out on the porch after preparing Grilled Jerk Chicken on Friday night, and the exterior window in my kitchen was left open all weekend, ensuring that my previously-clean dishes got an extra washing, and the floor accumulated just a smattering of moisture as well.  By all appearances, everything else remained dry and intact.  Though I was caught off-guard this time, I'll be extra cautious and prepared to get even a last-minute lift back home in time for the next big storm, whenever that may be.

Funnyquote Friday

Catching up with a good buddy of mine Wednesday night on Skype, and mentioning that the Peace Corps is phasing out the program on St. Kitts following my term of service, led to this gem:

"So they figured, [after you,] how could they do better?"

Something like that.  Whatever the reason, though, it's true that my class of EC82 will be the last bunch sent by the U.S. Peace Corps to St. Kitts and Nevis for the foreseeable future.  The disappointment that each one of us volunteers feels is, as you might expect, a fraction of what the host-country national stakeholders feel: projects, burgeoning NGOs, government institutions that have all recently been approved for a new PCV have since been told that their request, while always subject to last minute change, will not be honored.  This change is most likely due to the combined effects of the manifest limitations on the government agency's budget, and the continued rise of living expenses for volunteers (and indeed, everyone) living in this corner of the world.  Speaking just from personal experience, the purchasing power of the average individual here is very small, despite the image that everyone and their kid walks around with a Blackberry®.  Curiously, this seems more often true than not; as first-world amenities come to this developing nation, so does the vanity of having, and more importantly being seen having them.

As for updates, where to start?  The island did experience the threat of Tropical Storm Emily late Monday night and Tuesday morning, but was thoroughly underwhelmed when it only skirted our island to the south, headed for Hispaniola.  I had taken special precautions, "battening down the hatches at the fort" as it were, and was prepared to be awakened at 3AM by what could sound like a train passing just outside my window.  Instead, the electricity came back on at precisely 10PM, never going out again, and it only rained off and on over the course of the night.  We volunteers were on Standfast mode, prepared in the event of a sudden call to consolidate at one of the hotels in town.  This did not happen either, (wisely it seems now,) and the rest of the week has been a calm week like any other in the Caribbean.  Why, Emily didn't even throw off our work schedules: Monday and Tuesday of this week was a national work holiday for SKN in honor of Emancipation Day.  And the long weekend is perfect for revelers to partake in Carnival-styled festivities on Nevis, known as Culturama.  I was not able to see the events this year, but will keep my schedule open for next year.

In other news, the long weekend guaranteed that I finish up my work on the newest issue of the Serious Ting, expected for publication at the end of this month or the start of next.  I'm simultaneously very proud and very tired of the work that went into this issue.  It was my first experience laying out an entire magazine, composed of 40 pages of content, and the outside and inside covers, making 44 individual 8 1/2" x 11" layouts in the span of around 3 weeks.  And while each on is, barring instruction otherwise, set up to be in full color, the big question mark now is whether or not we have the budget to accommodate that luxury.  Time will tell, I guess.  At least there is some talk about hosting a virtual copy on the internet, free to readers.  Should that pan out, I will certainly post the link here for all of you – I recommend it heartily.  I'm also thrilled to say that I finally found a forum for my crosswords, in only my fourth attempt to get one published.  They are high quality, matching all the rules of the best newspaper crosswords (i.e. no less-than-three letter words, every letter goes to two words, radial symmetry) and is to the New York Times puzzle what Junior Varsity football is to Varsity.  So I'm surprised it has taken this long.

That's it on my end for now.  Did I forget anything?  Post a comment!

Do They Have a 4th of July in SK?

Just another day here.  There were some fireworks at the OTI, but no plans for big celebrations apart from some volunteers heading down to the beach.  The policy is such that, as we are U.S. Government volunteers, we are allowed to request the 4th of July off as a home-national holiday – I just had no reason to ask off yesterday.  Instead I was happy to begin poring over the most recent course records of the NSTP in search of contact information useful in bolstering their client database that I prepared for them.

For my part, I am enjoying my first day of summer vacation with my first morning run in half a year, and by lounging in the sun (real tough here) for a couple hours.  I promised myself that, come the next visit to Hiawassee, I would actually have something to show for my time in the sun– (and thanks to the backlash from Arlene, water–) -drenched Caribbean.

I was invited by the primary school I volunteer at to attend their graduation proceedings next Tuesday.  The good news: a catered dinner precedes it, commanding EC$95.00 a head to non-faculty, but they waived my fee.  The bad news: the MLB All-Star Game is that evening, and I was looking forward to getting to see that this year.  /whine

My girlfriend got sick with a hacking cough this weekend, so I spent the better part of it trying to nurse her back to health.  At least she felt up to seeing the new X-Men film with me on Saturday night.  Conclusion: it really is the best one of the five, by a little bit.  Go see it for a cheesy action flick.

Funnyquote Friday

Here's your quote:

"Did you know that there is a tropical 
cyclone formation right over you?"

Thanks, Mom.  OH THAT'S WHAT THAT SOUND IS.

But in all seriousness, I of course appreciate everyone that monitors the weather down here for me, especially since it is entirely possible that there could be a serious storm in the Caribbean and I might not notice until it was either too late or simply because it missed the island of St. Kitts.  However, in the case of Tropical Storm Otto, we definitely felt the worst of it.  Some even compared it to the effects of Earl, though fortunately the bad parts were mostly intermittent for the last few days, and not continuous for four days.  I know for my part, while my home stayed quite dry, listening to the wind-accelerated rain blow in sheets against the roof was like listening to a subway train pass in the next room.  We PC trainees were put on our first "Standfast" alert last night, so that was an exciting experience in finding something to do while the power was out.  I did manage to get a little reading done, played some solitaire, and... uh... I mean, I did homework.  Yeah, that's it.  Got caught up on shadowing homework.

Truly, though, shadowing went well yesterday.  I visited a nonprofit in Basseterre whose mission is very similar to my worksite's mission, in the interest of learning about their own competencies and abilities.  As I suspected, while there is some small overlap, the two organizations really have specialties in different vocational sectors, implying that cooperation between the two would result in an improvement in capacity of services for all parties.  Which means I'm excited about future cooperative initiatives between the two organizations.  I also have NEMA left to visit, the Kittitian equivalent of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.  I expect they will be very busy, which means I caught them at either exactly the right time or exactly the worst time... We'll see.

Looking forward to a productive weekend – I intend on finishing the math activities booklet (I am currently standing at 10 completed activities, and I want at least 12) and spending either Friday or Saturday evening with friends, maybe even catching The Social Network, which starts tonight here on the island.  Thanks again to everyone for the comments; I read them religiously and am always excited to see a new response.  I'll be moving into my own place as early as a week from today, so I hope to have Skype set up by next weekend, assuming no internet troubles.

There's Water Everywhere!

I'm getting even more excited about these math activities.  I know, I know, I'm such a nerd, but at the same time, it's meta-exciting to know that I can get this excited about what should otherwise be an incredibly boring exercise in expanding curriculum.  But I am excited!  I've already come up with seven different ideas on my own, and I want at least a dozen to present to the school when I see them next week.  I'm leaving space below each activity for teachers to add input, thoughts, parts that worked and parts that didn't work so that I can improve on these before compiling them all for future Peace Corps use.

The storm here is pretty intense, and has already caused some collateral damage to the Bay Road.  See what the Bay Road used to look like:

We were so young and naïve then...

And see what it looks like after heavy rains, strong winds, high waves and flooding:

I said consummate V's,  consummate!

... and apparently sea monsters.  But seriously, about a 20-foot section of the sidewalk adjacent the Bay Road fell into the Caribbean, and that hole has since expanded to a 40-foot section, and so our daily jaunts into town from our training center must be in a new and different direction.

My presentation of my assessment of a local nonprofit went well on Tuesday, despite the fact that it took me 20-25 minutes to deliver.  It was just a very long presentation!... much to the dismay of my fellow presenters, perhaps.  My instructor liked it, anyway.

Being careful to stay dry...

Funnyquote Friday

Lots to post tonight, so here goes:

For your funnyquote of the week, here's a flipchart post from PreService Training at St. Lucia by our Country Director, citing the trappings of some of us here in paradise.  ------------------->


For the first item, I am indeed here in Basseterre, St. Kitts, with my wonderful host family.  They are both college professors, which makes for excellent conversation and a perfect pairing for me.  Certainly God was involved in the decision to see me to this sweet family, and I am thankful for His wisdom and his perfect plan for me.

Apart from having to clean up some spilled shampoo in one suitcase that was a day late in arriving, my transition from St. Luica to St. Kitts has been mostly seamless.  Unfortunately, people on the island have been busy cleaning up from the recent strike of Hurricane Earl, and so those of us just moving to the island are showing discretion and mercy in our expectations for typically available services, which might be electricity for some, clean laundry for others.

I am in a very positive frame of mind, very thankful that I was delayed by the hurricanes for only two days.  Training continues as usual, and I was able to open a new savings account at the RBC here this morning as well as add minutes to my new local-service cell phone.  For those that want to call me on it, I will first check that calls from outside the network/country will not use up my very limited supply of minutes.  If I can receive calls for free, I will post my phone number here for everyone.

Thanks to everybody for your positive comments, and for your continued prayers.  If the statistics hold, in just a few weeks I will experience some more severe culture shock, and with God's help I'll get through it okay.  Everything is very expensive here in the city, so running a budget is nearly impossible.  Please pray that God would continue to bless me with provisions so that I can serve him here free of fear.

Peace Corps Limbo

On a Tour of Laborie, St. Lucia

Great news!  Tropical Storm Fiona will have passed the islands soon, and that means that those of us heading up to Antigua and St. Kitts & Nevis will be leaving dark and early tomorrow morning.  We're all very eager to meet our host families, and I'm especially eager to get unpacked and settled in my new home.  I will be living in the city limits of Basseterre, and I expect it will be a short walk to my work site.  God has blessed me by providing me a place to stay and learn the cultural dos and don'ts for a few more months.

Main Street, Laborie, St. Lucia

Training on St. Lucia the past two days has been mostly uneventful, but even our Training Director said that if we weren't leaving tomorrow, she didn't think she'd be able to hang on to our collective attentions much longer.  Probably true.  But we're ready to leave this Peace Corps limbo of being moved from place to place while we're waiting for the weather to behave.  Some have gotten rather down about the circumstances, but the way I look at it is that being waylaid by hurricanes should be part of the training for Eastern Caribbean service anyway.

So I'll be very busy tomorrow, meeting everyone and spending time with my new temporary family, so don't expect an update for just a little while - pretty soon I'll set up a routine to where I can post every other day or so.

Being Flexible

Arriving in St. Luica

So I'm sure that many of you have been following hurricane Earl, and if you have you know that it is currently hovering over St. Kitts, effectively delaying our arrival there.  The Corps volunteers already there have been consolidated to a safe house, and we trainees are marooned on St. Lucia to endure overcast skies and soft breezes.  Those of us going to St. Kitts are hoping for it to pass soon, so we can meet our homestay families.  Instead, for today we will take a historical tour of a nearby city and wait out the storm.  Just another example of being flexible.

Looking Down over Castries

Said goodbye to the St. Vincent trainees this morning, a melancholy goodbye to some very good friends made in a very short time.  But the good news is we will all get to see each other again by MidService Training.  And those of us going to St. Kitts are starting to bond a little stronger - I'm happy to say that we NGO developers on SKN all get along just fine.

The schedule right now has us doing a day of training in St. Lucia on Tuesday before flying out early Wednesday morning.  All of us not going to St. Vincent will take the flight to Antigua, and the 10-or-so of us going to St. Kitts will have a layover at the airport before flying to Basseterre.  From there our families will pick us up at the airport; all, that is, but my good friend, who will yet have to take the ferry from Basseterre to Charlestown, Nevis.

Thanks again to everyone that is in prayer for me.