Centipede Central

I am Hitler to ants.

Like Ender before me, I have attempted and committed acts of xenocide against the Formicidae family.  They seem to wait in-season, for warm dry spells with not much wind, before raiding my living quarters.  But when they do, they do so in calculated strikes of overwhelming numbers.  I have had to put up with (not one, not two, not even three, but) four different entry points all around the apartment since before leaving for COS.  I'm convinced that they only travel in single file, in order to hide their numbers.  But they can't run away from the fact that I have doused, wiped and disposed of thousands of their brethren over just the last couple of weeks, and continue to wipe the floor with their bony carcasses (literally).

The tangible downside to having hundreds upon hundreds of ants in your house at once is that the sudden infusion of protein invites other unwanted guests, specifically the hundred-or-so-legged variety.  The reader will recall that before now I have been stung by a centipede while laying in bed, to no great or lasting discomfort.  On the night before I was scheduled to fly to Antigua, I had another run-in with my Chilopedal nemesis, this time with no evidence save for the familiar stinging sensation localized on my upper arm.  I snapped awake, turned on the light, and collected a glass jar from the cabinet.  I then carefully searched the environs, subtly pulling back one sheet at a time, removing a pillow here, an article of clothing there, until my bed was nearly clear – no sightings of any creatures scurrying back to darkness.  What to do now?  But then, I had an epiphany, and I pulled back the mattress from against the wall, and... BINGO.  There, vertically astride the mattress edge, was the offending centipede, standing at about 5 inches long, but boasting venom claws reaching at least an inch from its body.  Unlike its predecessors, this one exhibited no sense of urgency about having its location revealed, but instead displayed a decidedly nonchalant attitude about moving.  It was as if it was saying, when it saw me,

"Heyo!  Oh, it was me you's lookin' fer, dawg?  Ohhhhhh, I was just here chillin'."

I quickly captured the scoundrel, suffering a simultaneous foot cramp in my nervous excitement, but nonetheless successfully incarcerating the villain in his newfound glass prison.  Completely bereft of my composure at this point, and also carefully monitoring the sting for possible swelling, I decided I would do better to relax for an hour, until sometime about 3:00 in the morning, before trying to once again fall asleep.

When the time arrived, and my hackles had relaxed somewhat, I was carefully walking across my bedroom floor and the bridge of my foot crossed something long and substantial.  Nerves frayed already, I jumped, only to realize I had just stepped on my shoelace.  I breathed a sigh of relief and casually moved my shoe off to the side...  And there, under the shoe, was a grand inch-and-a-half cockroach that quickly scuttled to safety as my body flung itself on the bed, suffering from a mix of harried anguish and mock amusement.  And that is the end of my funny story.

Close Of Service Conference is now over, and I am returned home to St. Kitts.  Three days, four nights of being wined and dined at Jolly Harbor in Antigua was a good break for many of us, and it was, as always, a great joy to see all of my displaced compatriots for what will amount to the last time during our Peace Corps terms of service.  The training was largely logistics for exiting PCVs: insurance offerings, travel accommodations, medical clearances, and the like.  It was, actually, a lot of hard information to take in, and I expect a review will very soon be in order.  But in the meantime, I am swamped with work, most notably preparing for the weeklong board games camp that is scheduled for next week – I'll add more about that later.

COS Day 1

Have I got a story for you.  What do you do when the Dash 8 prop plane that arrives from Tortola en route to Antigua has three more passengers than the airline anticipated, limiting their passenger pickup in St. Kitts?  You take one for the team, let the others be responsible for your luggage (!), and spend the next eight hours chilling out and waiting for the next flight leaving for Antigua.  You buy a bottle of wine, cook a kick-ass dinner, and enjoy an afternoon on the island where nobody is expecting you to be.  And so that's what I and two other PCVs from my island did.  We waited out the booking mistake by Liat and went through airport security for the second time that day for a 9:40PM departure time.  But we arrived in Antigua safely, and didn't miss anything – our COS training was scheduled to begin at 9:00 the following morning.  And since we had missed out on the majority of the evening's opportunities to socialize and catch up on all the news, a few of us hung out until the bar closed at 12:30 and relaxed after a long long day.

The first day went by rapidly, with some training in facts about what happens to PCVs after their term of service is ended, as well as how best to summarize the long list of things we accomplished into resumé sized "power statements."  And I'll elaborate further on interesting things (when they actually happen) when I have more time.

Funnyquote Friday

During MST, when discussing the realities of living alone in a foreign country as expatriate volunteers, one of the subjects that comes up is relationships, perhaps intimate ones, with the people you find yourself amongst, whether host country nationals or otherwise.  And one of the strategies used by Peace Corps to give volunteers the tools to avoid any "rash" decisions is one that I was quite familiar with: listing the qualities of a potential partner before meeting someone.  This opened the door for one of my colleagues who has a penchant for undercutting the seriousness of a situation by, sometimes crudely, drawing attention to the absurdness of it all; as she pointed out,

"Don't date the local homeless guy
[just to date someone.]"

And so MST came to a close Thursday afternoon, and those of us staying behind on St. Kitts saw the Antiguan and Vincentian contingents off to the airport early this morning.  The training went over well, and I felt that we avoided, in large part, any time spent on superfluous topics or inapplicable teachings, though I fear that not everyone came away with the same assurance.  For my part, I was especially excited to hear about other volunteers' "One Thing That Worked," a five-minute summary of a project or activity that was met with positive feedback.  One example was a "juicebox wallet," a very chic/pop looking accessory that could be fashioned out of nothing more than a used juice box, some electrical tape, and a staple.  Not a stapler, a staple.  Moreover, the young woman who presented this fantastic and creative idea continued to apologize about it not being originally her idea, but that she had borrowed it from another Peace Corps Volunteer from Facebook.  All the while, I'm thinking, "Why are you apologizing? We all need to be pulling more from such an apparently deep pool of collective ideas."

In the end, the things I will remember most from my MidService Training will be the relationships with my fellow volunteers from Antigua and SVG: catching up with old friends, re-befriending new ones, and the surprising new developments in the lives of both.  I can't express how much I was looking forward to getting back together with everyone, a large group that I at once respect deeply, and again shake my head at, confounded.  Such a diverse group of people includes ones I am attracted to, ones I am repelled from, ones I look up to, ones who look up to me (though admittedly I may never know who those are, and am mostly projecting on that one), ones I trust, ones I don't trust, ones I'll always remember, and ones who won't remember my name, come Close Of Service conference in late July.

MidService Training

The first day of MST is over, and I (thinking it was still Monday) completely forgot about Tuesday Trivia down at Frigate Bay – so I ended up stranding my team for a third week straight.  But it's not really that big of a deal.

Instead, the first day was given over to presentations on Peace Corps impact in the Caribbean, specifically projects as started by volunteers in St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.  For the St. Kitts presentation, we held a faux "fashion show" in which each volunteer dressed up as an example of a functional area, e.g. Healthy Lifestyles, Culture, or HIV/AIDS awareness.  A video was taken, so pics and clips will soon be made available of this "hot, hot" event, so you will be able to see for yourself my colleague in his getup made entirely of red ribbon and condoms.  (That's not a joke – or an exaggeration.)  I walked out to the theme of Entrepreneurship, wearing various "accessories" to symbolize each of the initiatives on-island.  Overall, it was a success, and much delighted our colleagues from around the Caribbean (and staff, too!).

I also enjoyed spending the evening going through the initial planning of the next edition of the Serious Ting with my fantastic colleague serving on St. Vincent.  Speaking of which, I have a virtual copy of the latest Ting available on the web here.  So if you didn't have a chance to see it before, please check it out – remember I did all of the design layout for the magazine, and it's the first edition (to my knowledge) in full color for both cover and interior articles.

IST 2

Finished Inter-Service Training on Friday, so I'm officially all trained up for another six months.  Due up: Mid-Service Training, come November of this year.  Which reminds me– I need to ask off for the first couple of weeks of November for my brother's wedding.  I hope the two don't overlap...

If there is one thing that IST is actually good for, it's the (albeit mild) external motivation to take a second look at stalled projects, consider some alternative routes for success in those projects, and the very welcome inspiration to create some new projects at the same time.  I jotted down notes on a few new ideas, as follows in order of closeness to actualization: (a) scheduling a Teacher training in Math Activities before the start of the school term in September, (b) start up an IT training course at the NSTP, possibly in combination with another PCV who has experience in PC hardware repair, and (c) a boy's abstinence club under the auspices of St. George's Anglican, in conjunction with the junior priest there, Fr. Christopher Archibald.  I don't have any personal experience in Youth ministry, but I think this kind of thing would be pretty simple, as long as community buy-in was high and activities were kept diverse and entertaining.  I'll keep everyone updated, of course, but in the meantime, pray for motivation and fortitude to finish my current projects before fully diving into these others.

VOW honours 100 women of Nevis

I did get to go to Nevis on Tuesday, as expected.  On the left is the promotional poster my fellow PCV and I developed over one 6-hour session.  The first 2 hours were spent just trying out different ideas and creating corresponding blank templates for the art.  Since the project will eventually be printed onto 2' x 3' posters, signed (by yours truly) and sold, the blank image was set up to be 24" x 36" at 300 ppi – a mistake, since the resulting filesize would be 1.85 GB.  A simple "save" command in the GIMP of a file that size took longer than 5 minutes.  We eventually settled on a more feasible 100 ppi, to be expanded upon completion if necessary.  The final product, about 6-7 times larger than the image to the left, is still 7.5 MB, one of the largest PNGs I've ever made.  The revealing of the artwork came on Thursday, and was well-received, according to my sources.  Certainly the Institutional Partner on Nevis, who led the event, was pleased with the result.  The design for the woman came from previous artwork that Voices of Women had used in previous promos, but the trace of Nevis and the collage of photos is all original work for the poster.  Here's hoping that my fellow PCV and VOW, her women's empowerment NGO can utilize the project as an effective fundraiser.


I just went through my backlog of photos, so I'll post a small collection from a different event for the next several posts.  (Yay pictures!)  Today's batch is from all the way back in March: St. Patrick's Day, to be precise.  I visited a fellow PCV's class at Sandy Point Secondary for the afternoon and tried out a couple of my Math Games, to much appreciation, participation, and excitement.

Playing "Honey Comb Home" with about 20 second-formers from SPS.

The tactile experience of rolling the dice was a positive causal-relation activity, easy for the students to grasp.

The teacher, after watching one class, got excited enough to get involved in the second round.

Afterwards, we all went down to Old Road to celebrate St. Patty's Day and engage in some local dominoes action.

"March"-ing Forward

And just like *snap*, IST is over...

The last day was, for my part, far and away the most productive, what with scheduling an elective seminar with a local guidance counselor (i.e., a very cerebral, analytical person, complete with training in emotional intelligence; so just my type of expert!) on the topic of how to make projects more sustainable.  My Iron Band idea was a natural choice for the example du jour, and so I got to further discuss my vision for what that project is capable of, as well as set in writing some calendar dates for moving ahead in that project even without having the instruments in-hand, or what I might rightly call "Plan C." (for inCredible!)

Normal life begins again with tomorrow's plans to take my Math Games into the school another time in order to pilot the curriculum.  I'm looking forward to another day on my feet, but I expect some mild tangible rewards in the end akin to last week's experiment: perhaps one teacher will comment that she didn't know that a deck of cards could be used to teach algebra so effectively; perhaps one teacher will have some constructive advice for the next time I lead these activities; perhaps one student will comment on how fun he thought the activity was, and that he was looking forward to me visiting his class again sometime.

Whatever the outcome, I have increased faith that we are headed towards good things in so many of my projects, and this month especially holds great potential for early spring budding in each and every one of them.

Happy 50th, Peace Corps!

A change of pace for today: the APCD from Antigua was our guest for the entire training day, and we learned about a method for beginning, maintaining and measuring cultural behavior change.  Useful for weeding out deeply set, perhaps ill-conceived or even destructive cultural behaviors, I believe the training will come in handy if I need to introduce any programs of this sort at my school.  Primary school age is exactly the right time to go about combating any anti-social behaviors, since kids are still receptive and malleable at that age, and I have the unique distinction of being an outsider, who (unlike so many other cultures) Kittitian kids are actually more willing to listen to, share with, and speak honestly about sensitive issues.

Maybe I'll elaborate more on this sometime, but until then, the February highlights video is complete.  Leave a comment if you like it!

A Welcome Change

Well, not bad for a first day of IST, all things considered.  Institutional Point Persons, our NGO or school counterparts were encouraged to attend today's session, and both my IPPs made showings, however at staggered intervals during the day.  So in all, I really only ended up with one 20 minute segment out of a whole day to participate in the proceedings with just one of my two counterparts.  And while this made it a bit awkward at times, the benefits of getting to meet everyone else's counterparts once again was helpful and somewhat refreshing.  Also, spending time in the glorious Kittitian tradition of singing each others' praises was somewhat rewarding as well.

One IPP in particular stole the show.  She is a social worker specializing in AIDS awareness and prevention – nothing unusual about this, as I have met several since being on island.  However, she actually lives the shamelessness one has to adopt to overcome the taboos and social proclivities of discussing sexual health.  And she even goes beyond that, to the point of simply overcompensating.  Going even beyond the realm of practicality or expediency, every single thought she broached or contributed was a metaphor pregnant with innuendo. (Emphasis added to reinforce that this is in no way an exaggeration.)   To the sophomoric mind like the one I bear, this was met with astounding amusement, however I can confidently say that the sentiment was not universal.  It goes a long way, in my mind, towards reopening the questions of gender equality in our respective societies, since I fear the reactions to her interjections would not have been the same had she been male.  But that is just my opinion.  Ask me about it sometime if you care to know more.

Amongst the hubbub of volunteers telling other poignant anecdotes, I discovered I am unique in possessing one talent in particular: I actively involve myself willingly into lots of diverse things – at work and otherwise.  Not to compare myself with my colleagues; I merely observed that a goodly portion of the positive things my coworkers, counterparts, and cohorts (PCVs) thought of to say about me were things that didn't directly coincide with my projects, but rather (1) helping clean up the NSTP building and site, (2) visiting and documenting an NSTP class graduation on a Sunday evening, (3) helping out at the Queen pageant (that is, a fund raising beauty pageant at my primary school), and of course (4) joining a troupe for J'ouvert, which has been mentioned before by other parties though was not mentioned today.

I spent Saturday over on Nevis, and had a great time helping break-in the new home of a fellow volunteer at her housewarming party.  I met some old friends (can they be old friends, if I met them under six months ago?) and made some new friends there.  An even do' dey be on Nevis, me be tinkin' dat me be seein' dem again soon.

Funnyquote Friday

Yay for what I believe will be my last PST post! Here's your quote:

"For the next activity, I want you all to pretend...

like you can work together."

The tongue-in-cheek humor of our esteemed NGO Development instructor managed to lighten the mood for some of our number, after being confined to a little training room with the same people for far too long.  But with the end of training comes pictures of Happy Moments in PreService Training!

P.S. I've just seen my new apartment!  It's wonderful.  Hold out for new pics very soon.  I can't wait to get to cleaning it, decorating it, and making it my little corner of the world for the next two years.

I Passed!

My final APCD assessment took place yesterday, and my assessors concluded that I would be "highly recommended" for Peace Corps service.  The bottom line: I will be sworn in on Monday as a PCV member of EC82.  The ceremony will draw top Peace Corps staff from St. Lucia, host families and co-workers, and even, perhaps, the Governor-General of St. Kitts-Nevis.  I will be working with fellow volunteers to compile a slideshow of activities and experiences from our brief time on island, which will be aired at the ceremony.  I, of course, will share the resulting video with readers following the event, as well as any pictures or video from the event itself at least by the end of the month.  We volunteers will be expected to learn the SKN national anthem!

My final day of training took place today.  It was kind of a tough end, since our schedule placed a workshop on dealing with at-risk youth as our last subject, which was an emotional subject to tackle.  But I am finally free to concentrate on job assignments, projects for school, developing after-school extra-curricular activities, moving into my new apartment, planning meals for the next week, budgeting money for my phone, household appliances, and groceries, running errands in town...
Whoa! Looks like it was easier pushing all these things back with PreService Training as an excuse!  Who knew?  But that's okay, the other side to finally filling up all of my week's time with projects and duties is that I finally have a week's worth of time to fill up.  And I think that's the consensus among my fellow Kittitian and Nevisian trainees: everyone is staying positive with PreService Training behind us, and learning to live on our own "island time" in front!

Also, Happy Birthday Jerry Rice; here's to your many accomplishments.

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...

There's Math Everywhere!

I'm really excited about coming up with new math activities and games, especially since I found out today that Peace Corps encourages the dissemination of that kind of material to other islands and countries, so maybe my ideas will be useful for many, many others as well!  I'm pulling ideas from experiences with board games, math games I learned in grade school, and ... dreams I had last night. (Seriously!)  Who knows where inspiration for the next one will come from?  Hopscotch?  Cribbage?  The shape of Nevis Peak?  Halloween?  There's math everywhere!

Which brings me to another point: if anyone has any ideas or memories of fun, engaging, and educational games that can be used in a classroom setting using only a chalkboard, dice, a deck of cards, poker chips, origami paper, or anything like that, Please Please send me a description.  This goes double for fellow PCVs reading this, since most of you here in the EC are youth developers, and have some training in classroom activities.  Of course any submissions would receive full credit for the submitter, and you'd be helping me in one of my objectives here on St. Kitts!  Not to mention the help to students like the ones in this video!

Also, a PSA for readers: I've gotten reports that there is an occasional hiccup when would-be commenters submit their comment and, for whatever reason, it does not go up.  Please be aware that, while I do have the ability to moderate comments, I have only exercised this ability when people have included personal info like e-mail addresses.  Please do not think that I have removed any comments due to content, or any personal reasons – I welcome all your thoughts!  Please keep them coming!

I miss everybody, and I look forward to speaking to many of you on a more regular basis when I can set up a Skype account with a more permanent internet connection.  I'm on Eastern Standard Time here, at least while the US is on Daylight Savings Time, so it should be very easy to coordinate times for virtual visits.  Anyone that is interested, shoot me an e-mail sometime.  In the meantime, don't be afraid to write or call me on my cell, even if just for a few minutes.

Pictures from the 5K Run around the golf course on Saturday:

Hashing Out New Lessons

On Saturday I participated in the 1st Annual St. Kitts 5K Run & Family Walk for the support of the St. Christopher Children's Home!  I'll obtain some pictures and video from the event soon, so keep checking.  The scoop, though, is that I came in at 28:00 – a whole 4 minutes longer than I was shooting for.  So while I was disappointed with my performance, I still had lots of fun with fellow volunteers and the on-island running club that call themselves the Hash House Harriers, apparently an international known quantity.  Now known to me, as well.

I have a presentation to give on Tuesday; it's my assessment of a nonprofit here on island.  I was able to accrue tons of material, so my only real concern is keeping my time under 15 minutes.

A thought: I'm at that point where I'm starting to learn approximately one important new thing each day.  Whether it be about myself, the culture, the island, my job, or my circles of influence, I am taking in lots of data and, with clarity of mind, am able to infer the truth in the lesson.  More importantly, I am finding willing ears to share these occasional revelations with, a necessary means for me to obtain that clarity of thought.  So without making it sound too ethereal, I am grateful that God has put people in my path (host family, fellow volunteers, co-workers, PC staff) that are actively helping me adapt at an even quicker rate than I was before.  In summary, I guess you could say that I am gladly still on the upswing of the typical culture-shock wave. (Pun completely unintended.)
How about those Jackets?  Getting it done in the fourth quarter!

Finally, for your viewing delight, pictures of my host family:

Funnyquote Friday

Seen on a sign at the strip at Frigate Bay:

"If you like it up North, stay up North."

A slightly darker quote this week.  The context is: at the strip where lots of fun (and some questionably legal fun) goes down, basically the message is, "Don't judge me."

Not a lot to add, just the usual plea for continued prayer for strength of body, mind, will, and character.  If I can get very personal for a sentence, I have been having a bout with my anxieties for the last few days, basically echoing the struggles I was facing in the States before starting down here.  Please pray that God would take from me this anxiety and replace it with the assurance that He has a plan for me here, and more importantly, will see it through.

Training is starting to wrap up, which is to say we have less than two full weeks left of PST schedule, and only three or four more full days of training regimen.  So hopes are high on that end, and just enough to keep us buoyant through the heavy homework and presentations we are expected to make in the coming days.

Lots of Things Going Down

In a good way.

Brimstone Hill Fort

The Northern Range and cannonade from Brimstone Hill

For those that were concerned about my appearance changing while down here, I am finally starting to see a little color on my face and forearms.  Here's the rub, though: unless I'm at the beach, I'm generally in business attire.  So if I come home with a tan at all, it will be the most awesome farmer's tan you have ever laid eyes on.  And on a related if unconnected note, the more I look in the mirror, the more I see a small, tasteful ring in my left ear.  Is the heat getting to me, or am I on to something?  Let me down gently with your thoughts and comments here.




 Went up to Brimstone Hill on Saturday.  A beautifully preserved and renovated fort from the English colonial period, built in the 1600s.  It offered some Pirates Of The Caribbean-esque thrills on the inside and some one-of-a-kind views of the western quadrant of the island on the outside.  My class of EC82 went there for a cultural history training class, where we enjoyed singing some local folk songs and learning about colonial life on the island.  You could even see St. Eustatius and Saba from there, our neighboring islands to the Northwest.  They are part of the same island chain as St. Christopher and Nevis, but are Dutch territories.  They hold a population of 4000+ combined.

Sandy Point Town and St. Eustatius in the distance

The Federation is excited about 27 years of independence!  Activities have been held nearly every day this weekend.  On Sunday, my fellow Peace Corps and I were invited to the St. Kitts National Youth Parliament Association's monthly meeting, where we were graced with beautiful artistic expressions of music, dance and poetry, each laced with a grain of social commentary.  At the end, the Peace Corps as a whole was thanked for its contributions to the state in recent years.  Moreover, the SKNYPArians volunteered their 40 hours of expected community service to each of the state services represented there, and I know a few Peace Corps ears perked up at that point.

Afterward I attended the Federation's State Service for Independence, a sort of special mass at the Roman Catholic church in town.  All of the state dignitaries are there, the Prime Minister and his cabinet, many legislators and judiciary, the military, diplomats, the consular corps, and other public servants.   In addition, my host father sings in the National Massed Choir, which performed three beautiful arrangements of A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, the Lord's Prayer, and a spiritual.  They were a hit; the congregation in its entirety was very pleased and impressed.  About halfway through the mass, my Anglican church's assistant rector was asked to deliver the message, and he spoke for a full hour on this year's theme, "Strengthening Families for Positive Nation Building."  Never have I ever sat on a wooden pew and listened to as moving or challenging a message for a full hour before.  But the audience was captivated and, some I believe convicted, by the call to stronger family life in the islands.

Got stuck with a whole load of homework this weekend.  I don't think it was meant to offset the fun we are having during the long weekend, but it effectively tempers our attitudes to some degree (probably for the better).  Training has been somewhat repetitive this past week, but the promise of only three more weeks is keeping most of us afloat.  I face the spectrum of challenges from day to day, but maintain a positive attitude and confidence and optimism for the near future.  Thanks for each of your continued prayers.

A Little Serendipity

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

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

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

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

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

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

Promoting World Health – One Dead Mosquito At A Time

And here I thought I was getting better acclimated to the bountiful mosquito population – not so.  I woke up this morning to find not one... not two... three mosquito bites on my face.  They are not swelling and as of yet not immediately visible, but after 15 days in the Caribbean with no bug bites on my face, one would like to think this was a steadfast trend.  No.

Visited my school attachment today.  Hundreds of bright, cheery students greeted me at 8:30 this morning, and I took it upon myself to visit each of the classrooms for a half-hour or so to observe the faculty and answer some questions I had about the challenges of primary school in St. Kitts.  It went surprisingly well, and I managed to make some new friends and contacts there.

Got some laundry done yesterday, finally, so I'm not wanting for anything right now, excepting perhaps familiar company.  I'll get to join my host family father to choir practice tonight, so that should be an additional positive experience.  I promise I'll get pictures of everyone tonight and post them soon.  The island of St. Christopher (a.k.a. St. Kitts) is beautiful and I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on it.

Still On That Initial High

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

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

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

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

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

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.