Rounding Off The Story

Here it is, already December of 2012.  I am writing from my new apartment home in Sandy Springs, GA, where I hold down a job at Aptean, Inc.'s new global headquarters.

I am very thankful to God for directing my path to this new development, but even more so for protecting me and seeing me through my 27 months in St. Kitts.  As with all PCVs, undoubtedly, I had my share of experiences when I didn't know if I would even want to stay any longer, but with God's help, I got through the tough times, the scary times, and even the boring in-between times.  Now when I'm not tailoring a database query or constructing a Crystal report, I am daydreaming fondly of the sunsets at Shipwreck Beach Bar, or leading the kids in a math activity, or hiking the rainforest interior.  I never thought I would be subject to the same truth that so many other volunteers before me had averred: "You will leave realizing you are taking more with you than you left behind."  But now, just a couple months after returning to the States, I know this to be true for me too. 

It was my pleasure before leaving to participate at the 3rd Annual 2K Walk and 5K Run in support of the St. Christopher Children's Home, my second occasion to do so.   This time, however, I volunteered to man the t-shirt distribution table – handing out shirts to all registered runners and donors.  It was a great success, raising in excess of EC$200,000 for the orphanage's 2013 operating expenses.  Plenty of people, Kittitians, Brits, Ross Students, and PCVs alike all gather in the interest of contributing to the worthy cause, and it has been a great joy for me and many of the other Hashers to align ourselves with the annual event.  The 5K race spans the length of the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club course, reaching all the way out to Half Moon Bay.  I ran the course in 2010, and I can say with some degree of confidence that the assertion that the path is only 5 kilometers long is a lie.  I know when I reached 5 kilometers, and I still had at least half a kilometer yet to go.  Anyway, having occasion to help out at the Children's Home myself, I know what a blessing the knowledge that all the resources the home needs are taken care of will be to the sweet people that help out there, and also to the kids. 

Well well, it's a new (and final) blog header.  Just in time to celebrate over 10,000 blog pageviews.  Woo!

Keys to the Kingdom

I'm just going to leave this here...

This is the surprise gift basket that the UWI Project Coordinator in charge of the Smart Moves Strategy Board Games Summer Camp sent to my home yesterday.  Allow me to emphasize that this was a complete shock; she had requested directions to my house, ostensibly to send me a thank you gift, but I was envisioning something along the lines of a book or the long-lost Chess Display Board – nothing of this caliber.  And considering that I've been feeling under the weather the last few days, this came at an absolutely ideal time: I don't feel up to going out and grocery shopping, I can stock up on fresh fruits to combat this fever, and we are expecting a tropical depression to visit us in the next day or so.  (Barring power outages, I'll keep readers informed of the status here in the northeastern Caribbean.)

I went to church Sunday.  It was the first time in some months.  I've been having trouble reconciling God's plan for my life with my job search situation (sound familiar?).  The brass tacks of it all, and the part I have to come to grips with, is that whatever next step God has for me may not be revealed until the eleventh hour.  There is some precedent for this in my life, and so I would do well to keep the faith that, like He did this time over two years ago, He will have a next stepping stone waiting for me when it comes time to take that step.  With no clear vector from where I am standing, however, the reader will understand why it is so hard to stay positive in light of the prospect of time forcing me off my stone right into the river below. 

I'm working on the website for The Ripple Institute.  The ICT Department uses a rather sophisticated open source content management system called Drupal, which is more useful for corporate enterprise management of multiple websites and entities than setting up a simple non-profit web portal.  But the upside is that I am forced to sit down and learn a wholly different (and rather elaborate) system for creating an attractive and suitable website using software whose tenets will undoubtedly be transferable into whatever design work I find myself doing in the next phase of my life.  As for the website itself, though, I am exhausted by merely the prospect of having to plan out each of the 20+ different pages that will make up the core of the website, going through and (with no known shortcuts yet) creating and populating each one by hand.  What with the construction on the new house going up just a matter of yards from where I'm sitting at home, I feel a small connection to the 'locked workers toiling in the heat: they are building a house from the ground up, and I am constructing a website from the ground up.  And while one job is more physically taxing, both are equal parts invigorating and exhausting.  I'm just pleased to actually be working on something substantial after all this time of waiting on the ICT, to be honest.

Lastly, this is the link to the radio program that aired on Sunday at 2:30 on WINN FM.   It's called "Perfect Day" and my friend Dodd hosts the approximately 45 minute show.  To listen, just load the embedded player below.  Enjoy!

COS Pon Us

It's funny how PC training is one of those things that one finds repellent at the beginning, when it is forced upon us for weeks at a time, but then looks forward to by the end of service.  Now, instead of being a month-long ordeal of flipcharts, security briefings, cultural awareness sessions, and more flipcharts, it's all about reconnecting with our fellow volunteers who have been serving on Antigua and St. Vincent for the last two years, and a dose of inspiration and retraining at the same time.  (Nothing like a little sugar to help the medicine go down.)  So it is in Antigua for Close Of Service Training where I will find myself from Wednesday to Sunday this week.  I will, as always, attempt to keep readers abreast of goings on at training with a brief post of the day's events each evening.  But until then, the news from the week past:

Imagine if the Dream Team came to town one day to play an Olympic qualifying match against, say, Spain, in a best-of-three format set to last all day.  Everybody who could would, most likely, get off work in the interest of seeing this nationally heralded confluence of talent.  In fact, if the town is small enough, businesses and government offices that were savvy to this might not even bother to try and operate on that day, conceding priority to this once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.  That scenario is a little like what we saw happen in St. Kitts on Wednesday: earlier in the week, in anticipation of the West Indies Test Cricket team hosting New Zealand to a 50 Overs one-day match at Warner Park, the government called for a work holiday that day in support of the Cricket match.  And rather than stroupes, shake my head, and wonder aloud what could be so important about a Cricket match as to shut down businesses that day, I chose instead to embrace the deviation from regular life and go attend the match.  I certainly learned a lot, most notably all about limited-overs Cricket, and enjoyed having an excuse to sit out in the sun for six hours (10AM to 4PM).  Unfortunately, the Windies underperformed that day, and dropped a match 249-168.  In fact, the pummeling was so harsh and our home team's showing so dismal, that one PCV friend of mine tried to cast it in a positive light by saying, "Well, at least we came within a hundred!"

I had a very heartening meeting on Thursday regarding the board games summer camp, now entitled Smart Moves Summer Board Games Camp.  I will be primarily responsible for two things: first, beginning next week, a day-long training session for the volunteers, and secondly of course the actual Chess instruction during the camp.  I have overarching outline already prepared –

• MONDAY • 60 min. • Individual Piece Movements, Rules of Chess
• TUESDAY • 30 min. • Starting and Ending a Match, Check & Checkmate • 30 min. • Freeplay
• WEDNESDAY • 30 min. • Openings, Piece Development • 30 min. • Freeplay
• THURSDAY • 30 min. • Common Mates, Endgame • 30 min. • Freeplay
• FRIDAY • 60 min. • Freeplay

Possibly, if I think the students are mentally ready for this step, I may institute a short 1-hour tournament, maybe 4 15-minute matches, for Friday's session.  I have lots of prizes left over from working at the school, so I'll happily use those then.  I'm already getting excited about this endeavor, and about the prospect of sharing my knowledge of something very important to me with the young people of St. Kitts.

I hope you enjoyed the last couple of videos added; if you didn't get to see them yet, check the Videos page.  Otherwise, if you're like me and anxiously anticipating the following months' contributions (February through June), know that they are on their way and should offer further glimpses into my work here in SKN as well as the beauty in nature that can be found here.  Additionally, (and I keep forgetting to mention this) please pray for assistance in my finding a job, specifically that I might hear back quickly from the two organizations I currently have outstanding applications with.  Finding the motivation and the focus to continue to job search is getting increasingly difficult, and I'm rapidly wearying from the process.  Thanks, and don't forget to give me a shout on Skype if you're not busy.

Health and Happiness

I was down with strep throat last weekend – it was so bad earlier in the week that I had to go to the doctor's office.  To the relief of my swollen tonsils, I was given a prescription for amoxicillin and sent on my way.  My condition, while not so painful as to be debilitating during the day, was disastrous on my energy level and appetite: I found I could only eat about 2 small meals a day and had to separate those with 2-3 hour naps in the middle of the day.  And all this without a fever!  At the time, I couldn't make any sense of it, except to wait out the July 4th holiday (Peace Corps Staff must take this day off, which means I couldn't see the doctor that day) and hope it was only a case of strep throat.  The doctor, short of giving me a throat swab, opined that it was indeed strep, and not a worse infection.  Still on the antibiotics now, I'm back at work, though I still have mild symptoms in the evenings for now.

My landlord, longtime resident of New England, landed in St. Kitts yesterday, quite literally "out of the blue."  I had never met the man face to face before then, but he wasn't interested in getting to know me so much as apologizing for the state of the yard which, to his excited confusion, was "bad like he'd never seen it before."  He cited his ignorance of the degree to which the yard had been neglected, but given the constant reminders that I sent his way, this doesn't seem plausible.  Simply because he was incapable of imagining grass that had grown knee-high and thick as brush does not excuse him from being loathe to arrange to cut it for six months' time.  He will undoubtedly be staying in the unfinished two bedroom apartment adjacent mine, which means I will now have to manage my sound level a little bit more carefully.  No blasting dubstep electronica through my 6-inch speakers anymore!

Busy, busy at work today – the A Ganar Datacard is up for submission once again, so my job just became more hectic overnight.  A very basic Excel worksheet, the Datacard is just A Ganar's streamlined method for collecting and rapidly organizing the pertinent data that marks the overall success of a given program implementation.  However, for the likes of the NSTP, this sort of data entry demands are not the usual fare, and since the necessary data that goes on this Datacard has not been regularly maintained during the collection phases, a mad scramble to conjure the correct input mere days before it is due is the m.o.  Further, it is my boss who tries to do the rounding up, but she is so busy with answering phone calls, attending offsite meetings and handling special requests, that she hardly has the time or presence of mind to do these menial bits.  I am required for nothing more than simply interpreting and inputting the data once it becomes available, a job that really any office lackey could handle, if there were any other person trained (and willing to learn!) on handling MS Excel.  The reader will recall that I did lead a couple of trainings in basic MS Office applications just last summer here at the NSTP for my coworkers.  However, since none have had occasion to use it since, I am still the only one who works with it regularly and can boast any sort of comfort level with it.

No word as yet on my prospective employer's hiring decision.  I am becoming increasingly disconcerted by their extended silence, it being now a week since I sent a contact e-mail their way.  All in all, the process involved in getting hired by this little non-profit, and the valuable time they have hijacked from my last half-year on island has been thus:

03 April
Application submitted
05 April -  28 April
Completed assignment deliverables
May
Wait for interview selections
May 29
First-round interview
June 05
Second-round interview
June 12
Reschedule third-round interview
June 19
Third-round interview
July 02
Send last contact letter

It's a harrowing ordeal, going through the hiring process.  I shudder when I think that my latest contact e-mail is sitting in an employee's inbox, and all the while he's thinking, Oh how laughable - he still thinks he has a chance at a job here!  I'm not even going to bother responding, I'll just let him sweat it out.  For a company that was careful to alert its applicants when they were taking an especially long time in May to make a decision, it seems inhumane to have waited to respond to my personal e-mails now that I've gone through the interview process.

Oh, and I almost forgot.  Here's the January highlight video, only 21 weeks late.

Funnyquote Friday

The office I work at in Basseterre, the NSTP, is in an old, decrepit building that is heavily infested with termites, among other vermin.  We've looked for other locations to move to, but the government, as a rule, cannot afford the down payment on a nicer office space.  The room where I work, the computer room (also the only climate-controlled room in the building) unfortunately has a wood floor in lieu of the more common tiled concrete floor, and in certain places the wood is sinking, warped, cracked, or quite literally falling through.  When Betty, the transient cleaning lady came by one afternoon and stuck her head in to the computer room, she stumbled on the threshold when it nearly gave way under even her meager weight.  She frantically exclaimed,

"Oi! [Prime Minister] Douglas ain't got no money
to look out for me?!"

We EC82 Volunteers received a welcome surprise on Wednesday: Close Of Service training, scheduled for the third week of July, will be held in St. Mary's, Antigua.  So I get to see everyone a third time and experience a third EC island, making this an experience I'm very much looking forward to once again.  COS is intended to help us, in the words of our Training Officer,

1. Reflect on, share and celebrate your experiences in the Peace Corps.
2. Develop plans for your remaining Peace Corps service as well as your readjustment to the United States.
3. Consider your short- and long-term goals, and determine options for life after Peace Corps.

... particularly in view of our remaining three months of service, which will be immediately in front of us come July.  In related news, judging by the guest list, my class of EC82 has diminished from its high-water mark of 28 down to 24 – that's only four volunteers lost in 22 months of service!  To give you some idea of how much I feel connected to the group, my first reaction to seeing the list was one of shock at what felt like a bunch of PCVs missing – but, in retrospect, I can now tick off the four in my head.  So that's an 86% retention rate - not too shabby!

I've spent a lot of time at The Ripple Institute this week, and I got a lot of work done towards a number of projects that promote the institute's public presence.  The new building sign will be hung on the office this week (barring any setbacks) and the logo (seen right) has been completed, approved, and finalized.  With this out of the way I was able to create official copies of the letterhead, enrollment form, and government NGO license.  The work there is rewarding, and something closer to what I had envisioned myself doing in NGO development on island.  And even though my time is more and more rapidly coming to a close, I hope to be around just long enough to see the Institute open and start functioning at capacity.

Well, the interview did not happen as planned on Tuesday, but it was rescheduled for the following week.  The company posted some new videos on YouTube this week, however, so I was able to catch up on some history and additional info that will hopefully serve me well.  Please remember me this upcoming Tuesday afternoon, when I will field questions from the co-founder and Senior Vice President of the company.

Under Pressure

Ughh... I woke up this morning with sinus pressure strong enough to knock me out.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't recognize it for what it was until after I left home, or else a quick dose of sinus medication would have most likely restored me to my normal self.  But, instead, it's off to work feeling like my head is about to implode and my body drained of energy.  But I think I can still be productive, somehow.  Lately I've been spending the days at the NSTP office entering A Ganar trainees' attendance into the corresponding spreadsheet and calculating their training hours.  Not very engaging or inspiring work, but it takes a little bit of pressure off of a few others around here, freeing them up to deal with the countless other demands of maintaining a government agency while also implementing an island-wide youth program in the high schools.  So I'm happy to help out.

I was the recipient of a grand surprise this weekend: it seems that for the last x months the water bill for my building has not been paid. 

I was caught unawares,
They approached my home in pairs;
My bill was in arrears,
Confirming all my fears.

It took no less than three representatives from the Water Department (and a fourth to drive the get-away car, apparently) to inform me of the outstanding balance in excess of XCD 2,000.  Since I've never had the pleasure of meeting my landlord, he's certainly never personally signed a contract/lease agreement with me, and so in the... (calculating)... ninteteen months I've lived here, there has always been the possibility of this happening.  My neighbors, my APCD and I have always operated under the assumption that electricity and water were included in the rent.  Thankfully, this was confirmed when we finally managed to get hold of my landlord, who lives Stateside and tragically does not ascribe to the standard practice of employing an agent to manage his property down here on the island while he is away.  Instead, my lawn is turning into the untamed bushlands, and my water pressure is at risk of being cut off.  While no definitive resolution has yet been reached, we were successful in contacting the landlord and informing of the urgent nature of the situation.  Incidentally, my future rent payments remain canceled until such a time as the matter is concluded.  I'm not at all keen on the idea of picking up and moving to a new location all of a sudden, but I'm prepared for the possibility of such a necessity.

I enjoyed a long weekend this time last week, in honor of Whit Monday, taking advantage of the chance to release some of the pressure of all the projects I have going on right now.  Since a former PCV's parents were on-island, we took a big group down to the Southern Peninsula for an early summer Sunday at the beach.  It was a delightful romp for all of us, and pleasantly reminiscent of Memorial Day weekend Stateside.  (It always helps to have a bit of a reminder of home from time to time.)  Then a few of us capped it off by enjoying hot dogs and watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  It almost made me a little homesick! (almost)

My fifth trimesterly report is off, leaving just one more come September.  I was on the beach at Nevis on Saturday to finish it.  Those of us PCVs still here on St. Kitts are looking ahead to July, when our Close of Service week-long conference will be held.  This we know – what remains to be seen is whether our wishes for it to be held at any island not St. Kitts will come true.  If historical precedent is any indication, the St. Lucia staff will attempt to make arrangements with a hotel in St. Vincent, far far to the south of here, before pulling out and booking last-minute reservations at the Ocean Terrace Inn in Basseterre.  For my part, at least 79% of the appeal of COS is the chance to see all of our PCV friends from the other islands one last time.  But I'd sure like to augment that with the 21% appeal of getting to see a third Caribbean country during my term of service here.

The reader may recall that I was scheduled for two interviews the last couple of weeks.  The interviews went well, and indeed I am preparing for a second-round interview tomorrow.  I am highly reluctant to say more about it at this time, for fear of overexciting myself and adding more pressure to my performance.  God has already protected me thus far; I can't say enough how much it has eased my mind during interviews knowing that each one is not the end all be all of interviews, even for just that month or week.  Going through the process with two organizations simultaneously has allowed me to remain comfortable and just be myself during the interviews, and the effects are much more positive results, I hope.

Well, that's all the updates I have for now.  It's back to entering endless arrays of students' Present or Absent marks and adding up their training hours.  Then I need to make time for more work on this Ripple Institute website – it's shaping up nicely enough, but I still haven't made contact with the ICT Department yet.  All this to say nothing of organizing a training day for teachers volunteering at a possible Chess Camp this summer, and... oh! I need to contact the people in St. Lucia associated with the Chess Club there, and request info that can be used to persuade government officials here in St. Kitts.  And I need to do all of this soon, or else I fear that the trust these people have put in me and my ability to efficiently and effectively do this work will slip.

...No pressure.

Funnyquote Friday

Oh man, I almost forgot to post today!  And one of the best weeks I've had here on the island wouldn't be complete without a great new (code for old) quote from April's issue of Serious Ting.  As the reader knows, I was the Design Editor for the second issue running, solely responsible for designing the graphics and layout of the 40-page, full color magazine.  As the previous Editor-in-Chief was on board for the second issue to deliver a couple of articles, one of which was on the "Origins of Serious Ting" which were previously shrouded in mystery, I had worked closely with him and so was not unpleasantly surprised when I discovered a little Easter Egg of sorts in that article.  The line goes like this: "As with other past design editors, [Andy Montgomery's] work in the Ting was a prequel to a long career in graphic design...

"... (Are you reading this, Chris?)"

I nearly fell out of my seat with laughter when I proofread the article the first time.  So, yes, I am reading this and with the requisite amount of glee.  I ended up choosing to move the shout-out to the small comic box adjacent that section of the text, for more comedic framing; to see it for yourself, check out page 3 of Serious Ting Volume XXIII, Issue 1.

So what made this such a great week?  Well, I was primed for a very humbling Tuesday, wherein a nexus of four separate long-term demands had settled onto that same 12-hour period: a maths tutoring session with the Beach Allen Primary students, an change in my status on a very important job application, a first interaction with my contact at the ICT Department, and a Team Trivia Quiz that I was co-leading that evening.  Curiously, in the end, the only thing that did go down as planned was the last of the four.  It was raining Persians and Poodles that morning, so I could not justify the half-hour walk to the school.  And after the debacle there last week, who knows? – maybe it was for the best.  I never did hear from anyone with regards to the ICT Department and their help in preparing server space to host our new website, so I made sure and followed up on that Wednesday.  And as for the job application, I received an e-mail notice at 12:15 the following morning stating that the company had, for the second time, delayed the decision to narrow down its candidate pool.  In unrelated news, I'm getting better every day at dealing with or else ignoring the fears and anxieties of ambiguity in a job search.  So I had most of the day to, instead, prepare a kick-ass quiz for the 18 people that showed up that night.  *sigh*

But then, out of nowhere, a very uplifting Thursday sprung upon me like a swift feline predator.  I spent the better part of the morning untangling the cobwebs in the part of my brain where my HTML and CSS knowledge resides, and managed to crank out the navigation frame of the website I am designing for The Ripple Institute.  ... LOL – the link – it didn't work, did it?  You know why it doesn't work?  'Cause I'm still working on the website! Anyway, even a basic framework is better than nothing, and I'm confident that the project will flesh itself out nicely over the next few weeks, but it won't go live until I am actually able to meet and discuss the specs with a representative from the ICT Department.  Once that happens, of course I'll make the new pages available here.

After this, I did the grocery shopping for tonight's dinner of stir-fried Barbecue/Teriyaki Chicken and Veggies on Rice and prepped for my interview at 1:00 with an organization looking for a Graphic Arts Designer.  It went very well; so well, in fact, that I was late leaving my house to go to the airport and join my friend in picking up her parents at the airport.   But! I ran into Karl, a fellow Hasher (that's a runner in the running club of the same name, btw) who gave me a lift out of the hot, hot sun all the way to the airport.  Finally, with the day's duties fulfilled, I relaxed and agreed to meet up with everyone at Sprat Net to welcome the island's newest guests.  A perfect day!  What could possibly go wrong... barring, perhaps, getting locked out of the car I was hoping to ride home in.  Oh well – another adventure, another excuse to ride the bus home.

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.

Funnyquote Friday

A good-humored prod made at me on the interwebz the other day:

"Woo Peace Corps! Even lower down the
totem pole than UNDP!!"

I agreed to puppysit for a friend while the Ross Veterinary students are on break.  My new charge is a three-month old island Rottweiler named Ty, who is planning to adopt a Peace Corps couple as his guardians.  But until then, I am the one responsible for pulling the little twerp's nose out of every avenue for mayhem and destruction it can find.  And we both seem to be doing an admirable job of living up to our roles.

I'll be so happy to unwind this weekend with no more thoughts towards these application assignments that have consumed my time and will for job searching the entirety of this last month.  I have completely finished all four deliverables, (1.5 page Statement of Purpose, 4 page Procedural Recommendation, 4 page Application Review, 3 page Performance Analysis) but the damage has been done to my central nervous system: my brain is fried, and I intend on getting back to full strength with a weekend of R&R.

I enjoyed my first mango of the season this morning.  Bright yellow with dark spots means it has fully ripened, and I'm looking forward to the multitude of similar offerings from the mango tree at my office all this month.  In due time, the flamboyant trees will start to fill their canopy once again with needles, creating a large shady haven below their branches that enjoys a 10° cooler atmosphere than the air around it.  Also looming on the metaphorical horizon is this year's hurricane season, when the tourists stop coming and the midday rains and gusts come instead.  My understanding is that scientists are anticipating a light season this year, though judging by their recent gaffes, (at least as far as St. Kitts is concerned) we have every reason to take this year as seriously as any other.

This evening is set aside for seeing off a fellow volunteer who is heading back to the Midwest via Puerto Rico.   She has come to be a good friend of mine, someone I admire for her poise and droll disposition as much as her charm.  I wish her good fortune and faithful friends who were as thoughtful and inclusive to her as she was to me.

Funnyquote Friday

As I mentioned, I started a job search late last month.  Since part of the payback for volunteering for the government of the United States for two years was that I would receive certain non-competitive statuses in my applications, I have been applying to public service jobs as well as private sector positions.  As such, I am using USAJobs.gov to guide my search for analyst openings, and in the process of filling out an application for one such opening, I stumbled across this little gem:

I learned something about myself yesterday: I could run a 10K in the shape that I'm in right now.  Even in high school, being a cross country runner, my training rarely ever exceeded running 5 kilometers, or 3.1 miles, and as such I've never really pushed myself to try for greater distances.  But, bitten by the fitness bug recently, I took to running as far as I could yesterday morning, but slowing my usual breakneck pace down to a casual 10 min/mile.  You know what happened?  I ran as far as I could one way (which amounted to about 1.5 miles along a trail into the next village), turned around and ran back, then kept going for another 1/2 mile, and looped around and came back again – all while maintaining my starting jogging pace!  I wasn't even spent by the time I was finished!  Tired, a little, yes – but I believe capable of lasting another 20 minutes at that pace.  In fact, I'm going to test my theory one day next week, when I have an hour to spare in the morning.  I've never run 6.2 miles in one go before in my life, so if when it happens, I'll report back accordingly.

It's Easter break here already, which means I have today (Good Friday) off from work, as well as Easter Monday starting next week.  I learned this well from last year, as the reader might recall I did not know this going into the long weekend, and I ended up being the only one showing up for work on this day a year ago.  This year, however, I have my act together: as you read this, I'll be hiking in the interior rainforest, effectively combining some good sightseeing with getting in shape and spending time with some great people.  I might even take some good pictures, too.

Oh, and if you did not get a chance yet to check out the newest edition of the Serious Ting, please click the cover art to the left to be magically transported to an external website that allows for online viewing of periodicals and downloading in PDF.

Schrödinger's Catalyst

You know why I don't like "putting myself out there?" Because it forces the issue.  It begs the question.  It demands a snap judgment.  And all too often those judgments of late have been "No," "Not interested," and "Look somewhere else."

When I'm faced with any situation with only two actual outcomes, particularly when one outcome is in my interest and the other is not, the first decision I must make is whether or not I want to get involved in the deciding – "putting myself out there" as it were.  But what I realize now is that if I had any reason to be confident in an outcome being favorable for me, it usually meant I could afford to be patient with the deciding, and refrain from involving myself in the goings-on.  The converse, then, being when the odds are not in my favor, tends to lead to a speedy denial of my good fortune.  This phenomenon, occurring several times this past week in various aspects of my life, has been a source of great frustration for me, since it seems like despite my greatest efforts to the contrary, nothing I do has any meaningful effect on the outcome of someone's decision – even when that decision is in regards to my fate.

My job search, for example, feels like scaling a 20-foot rock cliff with few, if any, handholds.  Looking up at it from the bottom is daunting and demoralizing.  I have no climbing gear.  I have no compatriots calling down to me from the top.  I have no guides giving me advice from the bottom.  The only thing I do have is a map of the suggested route to the top, but like all maps, it doesn't give feedback on whether or not my toils are amounting to real progress.  For that I have nothing but my eyes and my fear of looking back down to tell me where I stand.  Even my search for a mate parallels this metaphor with unpleasant precision.  Yet society demands that I keep trying, that I keep offering up my fate to others, regardless of how well-equipped they are to make such influential decisions.  Wouldn't this company be better with me at the helm of their internal financial controls?  Wouldn't that company?  Wouldn't this girl be happier having the loving support of a man who is sensitive to her feelings and needs?  The answer is almost always yes, and has been for those few who have tried, but until another risks taking me on, I float on a deep pond of indeterminacy, making no headway in any particular direction.

All this, to say nothing of the single worst scenario: being trapped somewhere in the middle of being selected and being rejected.  The ambiguity alone is enough to make one distrust every life truth he clung to before subjecting himself to the whim of another.  Do Human Resources reps not remember what is was like when they began to search for jobs?  The two weeks..... four weeks...... two months...... four months (?!) between first contacting a company and receiving a final decision from them is unnerving and, frankly, inhuman.  Do girls know how dejecting it feels to be calmly explained to that I'm not their "type," only for them to be whisked away by the next guy that comes along, often in my company? (Especially when that guy is the same guy... twice, three times, now four times running...)  I have to remind myself that I am subjected to a very specific (read: small) social environment down here in SKB, one that I will be relieved to have extricated myself from when the time arrives.  But until that happens, I take solace in just having a little apartment space all to myself, where no one else has sway over me.

An aural reader would say that I have a lot of negativity surrounding me right now, and I'm not exactly clear what I've done to invite that upon myself (apart from putting myself out there, which is already having a negative impact on my continued ability to do so).  Despite this, I find myself buoyed by some unseen force, preventing me from slipping into another depression like I was wont to do so often last year.  I credit this shield from disaster to the faithful prayers of my friends and family back home.  When I was struggling with my roller coaster of emotions last year, I discovered after the fact that my Sunday School class had disbanded previously.  Confident I was a frequent standby on the prayer requests list there, I was suddenly shown that I didn't have a SS family to lift me up on a weekly basis anymore, and I believe I felt the effects of that (or more precisely, felt no effects because of that).  Now, however, that has changed, and I want to thank everyone that continues to remember me in prayer – without your love and support, I would be an ineffectual basket case down here.  As it is, I'm at least a somewhat effectual basket case.

Can't Tag This

I chose to follow some good advice for today's post: for what may prove to be my longest update so far, I'm not going to bore you or take up bokoos of space on my front page by listing the whole thing.  Instead, it's going to be available "below the fold."  So if you are interested in reading this week's latest intrigue, Why I Don't Use Facebook, please click the "Read More" link below.  Else, keep reading this otherwise normal post and enjoy your day.

I took to heart some other good advice and got a haircut on Monday, and am constantly reminded of it everywhere I go (even from strangers who ostensibly recognize me, but I don't recognize them) – but in a good way!  In fact, some of my friends indicated the change was very beneficial, saying the 'do looks "really, really good" now, whatever that means.  I did, of course, meet with a few awesome people who lamented the passing of the shaggy mane, but I assured them that it would have a fair chance to return in 8 months' time.

I kind of feel inundated with small things to do – apart from my job search, which is inseparable from a small sense of urgency and priority, I have these innumerable small tasks to think about, each too small to focus on but too relevant to ignore.  The stress isn't getting to me, though; someone out there in Internetland must be praying for me, because I've been emotionally buffeted all week since last weekend, but have managed to keep my head above water, so to speak.  I'm not getting down on this job search, either, though the progress is slow and, as always, ambiguous.  But maybe a third bit of advice explains well the reason for my buoyancy: it is always easier to search for a job when you have a job, or as in my case, something to do with your time.

Congratulations to all of you (I guess?) for reaching the next milestone on this blog: 7,500 pageviews!  Thats 83.33% of the way towards earning a special reward for your consistency.  Keep reading, and don't be afraid to use any media sharing apps to spread the word.

Clear Enough to See the Bottom

I kayaked across the channel on Sunday for the second straight year.  My fellow PCV from Boyd's Village and I teamed up to usher across the 130 swimmers participating in the StarMile 2.5 Mile Swim Across the Channel.  We took off from Cockleshell Beach, St. Kitts this time, and swam southeasterly towards Oualie Beach, Nevis, which is the reverse direction from the previous 9 years this competition has been running.  The result was a slightly more difficult trip across, since we had to face a strong current that was about 30° against us, as opposed to in our favor.  Still, the winning time was no worse than previous years, with the fastest swimmer coming in at ≈68 minutes, an astounding pace.  Even kayaking for 2 hours is wearisome (mostly on the wrists and glutes, I've found), and with the majority of the swimmers in at that point, we decided to float ashore as well.  As for Peace Corps representation, this year we fielded just one swimmer and three kayakers, but we encouraged the participation of three friends-of-volunteers and one former PCV.  It is a little disquieting to think that this time next year, there will be no official Peace Corps representation at this fun and challenging local annual event.

I'm going to say that my job search is in full swing, despite not having any replies from the dozen-or-so applications that went out last week.  I am finding ways to keep myself productive, both when I have leads and when I do not.  For example, the latter half of this past week I spent designing my first Graphics Arts and Design résumé, which incorporates a number of alternative elements, like very casual language, humor, logo graphics, and color!  As it is merely an attempt to get me noticed and, hopefully, stand out a little bit from the crowd, I took a lot of liberties in achieving that end.  Of course such action risks being ignored by employers who are interested in someone with more coursework, job experience, or professionalism in his/her CV, but I opted to have a little more in the way of fun and self-expression in this particular work.  And now that is finished, and I can apply to the more artsy positions I have been examining, I find myself with several more leads to once again begin this week with.  So God has been good in keeping me positive, and in seeing fit to use circumstances and my fellow Christians to guide my search thus far.

Not a whole lot going on at work lately – the A Ganar program is off the ground, and appears to be running smoothly so far.  I was informed by my contact at the Beach Allen Primary School that I wouldn't be needed for the next several weeks, as the students begin their first wave of testing on Tuesday, and then Easter break takes them through to the 23rd of April.  So I have a little extra time to get caught up on secondary projects that have been on the back burner so far this year, like finalizing and publishing the Math Games booklet for distribution on-island.  Also, job searching.

Also, a happy birthday shout-out to Jonathan.  As it turns out, 23 is quite a versatile prime number.

Funnyquote Friday

When interviewing secondary school students who had applied to join the A Ganar program starting this month, I got a lot of bland, run-of-the-mill responses to typical interview questions like "tell me about yourself," and "how do you see yourself in five years?"  This made the thoughtful and clever responses all the more enjoyable for me, since it tended to reveal a glimpse into the character of the interviewee in a way that 90% of the questions were unsuccessful in doing.  One question that tended to cajole the most peculiar answers was, "Think about your island country of St. Kitts and Nevis: what is one thing that you like about it?  What is one thing that, if you could, you would change about it?"  One particularly spirited girl had a unique response to this, saying that she loved everything about her country, from the beautiful landscapes to the knowledge that her family and friends were there with her.  She added, with a straight face,

"Now if only the White people would stop coming."

I was completely unable to suppress a chuckle at this.  Caught in the moment, I was hardly offended, but instead filled with mirth at the layers of irony in this statement.  I know, I thought, darn tourists crowding up our island, bringing their pasty, untanned legs, their sunglasses, and their silly money.  And then to have the vacancy of mind to say this right in front of me, sans malice or insinuation at all.  It was priceless!  I think she was my favorite student to interview.

I saw Mom and Dad off en route back home after spending a week-and-a-half here on my little island.  I'd say we managed to fit in 97% of everything I could even think of doing, and that with taking Thursday off after the volcano hike.  (Yes, you read that right - Mom and Dad get some GamersCorps points for scaling the tallest mountain in the entire country.  Kudos!) 

In fact, here was our itinerary - for posterity, but also so you can see what you could've been doing last week in the Eastern Caribbean:

  MONDAY

• Circumnavigate St. Christopher island
• Visit Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor
• Visit Fort George at Brimstone Hill
• See Black Rocks, Dieppe Bay
• Lunch at De Green Valley Pub, Cayon

  TUESDAY

• Walking tour of downtown Basseterre
• Visit Mr. Zach Nisbett's cultural heritage museum
• Walking tour of Port Zante and Amine Craft shops
• Lunch at Ms. Moore's (Saltfish fritters and bottomless Passion Fruit juice!)

  WEDNESDAY

• Hike Mt. Liamuiga (2:30 hours in this time)
• Lunch at Cooper's of Dieppe Bay

  THURSDAY

• Recuperate

FRIDAY

• Ferry to sister island Nevis
• Visit Horatio Nelson museum
• Circumnavigate Nevis island
• Lunch at Oualie Beach resort, snorkel and swim at the best beach in the federation
• Visit Chrishi beach for pictures and refreshments

  SATURDAY

• Run/Walk with Hash House Harriers, the international running club

  SUNDAY

• Visit St. George's Anglican Church
• Grill Jamaican Jerk Chicken for guests 

With just a handful of other notable excursions that followed, but the bulk of the trip's activities were handled in the first week.  From a planning standpoint, everything worked out perfectly - my parents were never overworked to the point that we had to go somewhere and they didn't have the energy, and we never ran out of time to fit something in that I felt was essential.  So I consider the visit a success!  And I know they had a really good time getting a feel for what life was like down here (life with trans, anyway!) and getting to meet all of the people that are involved in my day-to-day.  Bar none, I feel like everyone here was pleased to make the acquaintance of my parents as well, which came as a bit of a surprise to me - with so many people to meet, it's only typical that there is one or another awkward encounter to shrug off, but not this time, I think.

I'm using today to get back into a regular routine - and hoping that it is a quiet day to offer a soft lead-in to the weekend.  With no Serious Ting to work on anymore, I turn my attention anew to my job search.  Kicking off a few months later than anticipated (I originally planned to start in November), I have finally screwed up enough of my courage to hit the hunt hard this weekend.  Please pray that this motivation and steeled resolve doesn't wane in the face of insecurities borne of ambiguity and inevitable rejections.