I don't have an attic. The hundreds of bats that I live with live in my ceiling. Yes, hundreds. That means that the floor of the bats' home is the same wood that is above my head. Every morning at dawn and every evening at dusk, the bats can be seen and heard noisily entering and exiting my/their home. They screech and squeak loudly, and beat and flap their wings audibly. The bats bump into each other and into the walls which causes groups of them to crash into the floor below, which, as mentioned before, is also my ceiling. Every morning I am awoken at 5am. I lay in bed, hold my breath, and wait for the bats to come crashing through the thin wooden boards above me. Recently, the problem has become much worse. Hurricane season started at the beginning of the month and along with it came thunder and lightening storms. I quickly found out that bats do not like thunder. They frantically fly around, scream, and thump into each for the duration of the storm, which can often last all night. I didn't live in this house last summer, so I have not experienced bats during hurricane season before. For the first few months in my house I was able to pop earplugs in and say, "I knew when I joined the Peace Corps that I was going to have to make sacrifices of physical comfort, this is just one of those sacrifices." I no longer feel that way. Local neighbors and friends have assured me that my bat problem is not normal. Yes, bats are a common problem in the Caribbean, but if a local has bats move into their house they do something about it. I've lived in my house for 9 months and my landlord has done nothing to address the issue. When I moved in I did express my concern regarding the bats to him. He acknowledged that it was an issue and promised me that next summer he would remove the roof of my house and re-seal it properly so that no more bats could enter. Why did I accept a solution that was months away? I was new to the Caribbean and didn't really know what to expect. I should never have agreed to that. It doesn't really matter because I have now come to find out that my landlord never had any intention of taking care of the bats in the first place. We are in the heat of the summer now, quite literally, and I was told yesterday that there are no funds to fix my bat problem. Instead, my landlord wants to board up the holes in my roof. There are no holes in my roof, rather my roof is not properly attached to the ceiling of my house. The "holes" are wide gaps that can't merely be "boarded up." And if that's all he was ever planning on doing, then why didn't he do that in October when I moved in?! By the way, he also can't give me a date as to when he would have the house boarded up by.

I can't sleep at night anymore. Every morning I have to sweep up the bat feces that leaks from my ceiling. So I can't sleep, and then first thing in the morning I have to sweep up bat shit. That's not a good way to start the day. This problem has slowly been driving me crazy. I really feel like I have been driven to the brink of emotional distress. I'm suddenly crying all the time, and I am not a crier.

Does Peace Corps care? They say they do, but actions (or rather inactions) in this case suggest otherwise. Instead of moving me to a more suitable house, my Peace Corps Medical Officer got me a prescription for Valium. Valium is a highly addictive muscle relaxer. Does that sound appropriate to you? Because it doesn't to me. Peace Corps administration has made me feel like this is my fault. As if I chose to put myself in this position. I took matters into my own hands and identified a new house for myself to live in, one where a current Peace Corps Volunteer in my community lives (her service ends in August) as the next best place for me to live. The house is next to my homestay family and she has had no problems with her landlord. As a female volunteer, safety and security are very important to me and she has stated that she feels "very safe" in her current house. Will Peace Corps let me move in after she moves out? No. Because they've already assigned that house to an incoming volunteer who arrives in September. Peace Corps has chosen to give preferential treatment to a volunteer who at this point only exists on paper. They made this decision without ever engaging me in a conversation about it and I was told that I am, "not supposed to question decisions made by Peace Corps Administration." Call me crazy, but I would like to be able to throw my two cents in regarding an issue that directly affects me. Try as I might, I don't think I will ever understand the logic of that one.

What Peace Corps wants me to do, is find a new house on my own. I can do that, but I fear that I'll just be opening up another can of worms. I fear that I'll just be trading one set of problems for another. If I move into the house where the current Peace Corps Volunteer lives, the likelihood of me having problems is slim, because the current volunteer has had no problems. What I would like to happen is to have my on-island country director take his time and identity a new house that is safe for the incoming volunteer and take care of things in the correct order. The on-island volunteer should take precedence over a volunteer who has yet to arrive. He would have 3 months to identify a new house for the incoming volunteer. I on the other hand have only a few weeks, a few miserable weeks I might add because in the mean time I still have to live in the house with all the bats.

The message that I'm getting from Peace Corps is that they don't trust me or my judgement calls. It's very frustrating. Peace Corps is supposed to support me and instead I keep finding myself butting heads with them. I feel discouraged and slightly abandoned.

Also, I did some research on the elimination of bats. This is what I found:

HOW DO I GET BATS OUT OF MY BUILDING - WHAT DOES AND DOESN'T WORK?

Repellent devices are not effective. One Chicago manufacturer was fined $45,000 by the EPA for misleading claims about an ultrasonic device. In fact, when ultrasonic devices were tested by bat experts some of them actually attracted bats!

Moth balls are not effective because they evaporate quickly and require frequent replacement. Additionally, chemical toxicants should never be used to solve bat problems. In fact, it is a violation of federal law to use a chemical in any way other than for what it is strictly intended. Currently, there are no poisons or chemicals licensed for use against bats. Poisoning bats is illegal and, in fact, may create health hazards and liabilities for property owners. Poisoned bats will die inside the walls and ceiling, creating bacteria and odor, and dying bats may fall to the ground both inside and outside the property where they are more likely to come into contact with children and pets. Traps are not recommended and have actually been known to drive bats to the inside of a structure. Trapping is also extremely inhumane. They are positioned to block the exit of the roost and can quickly fill with bats as they emerge to forage for insects at night. Once trapped, the bats are unable to escape and those that fell in first become crushed as others fall on top of them. The filled trap then blocks the exit for the bats remaining in the roost, forcing them to search for another way out. These bats are likely to end up inside a business or residence, greatly increasing the chance for human contact.

The only safe, humane way to evict bats from a building is by exclusion, a method of using plastic mesh to create one-way valves that allow bats to leave the roost but then prevents them from re-entering. (http://www.batworld.org/bat_problems/bat_problems.html).

For now, I'm playing the waiting game. I'm hoping that my landlord takes care of the problem appropriately (he was given a June 30th deadline, the one thing that Peace Corps did help me with). My landlord has used the words "repellent" and "trap" which doesn't bode well for the situation to be handled in a proper manner...

Get me out of this house!

Last March, a local woman approached me to help organize a banana leaf art camp for children to take place over the spring break from school. Curious about banana leaf art myself, I told her that I would love to help. I attended a couple of workshops with a local artist, Nzimbu, who specializes in making banana leaf art (he's also a master steel pan drummer!). He stressed the importance of teaching young people skills that utilize natural materials found around them, and also the invaluable experience of learning how to make things with their your own two hands. Banana leaf art is a craft that originated in Africa. It's created by cutting shapes out of dried banana leaves and attaching them to a background. Here is an example from a Rwandan artist:

Nzimbu has some really nice pieces that depict Caribbean people and landscapes, but I unfortunately don't have any images of his work.

Below is what the dried banana leaves look like in their natural habitat. The dry brown leaves at the bottom of the plant are the ones that we use. The dried leaves come in variety of different shades of brown. The rougher bark of the trees can be used too. See the green bananas on the right side of the image? In a couple more weeks those bananas will probably be picked, boxed, and shipped overseas. The bananas are picked while they're still green. They don't turn yellow until they're in boxes and are safely on their journey to your local grocery store. It can take up to 2 weeks from the time the bananas are picked until they become the plump, yellow bananas that you and I know. Boiled green bananas are a popular local dish, but I haven't developed much of a tasted for them. They're pretty bland. I'd rather just wait for them to get ripe.

Overall, the banana leaf art camp for children was a great success. Camp started every morning at 9am, although it may as well have been 7am because that's pretty much the time that kids would start banging on my door asking me when I was going to be at the craft center to help them. I'm telling you, the kids were that excited about it. I don't know if it was the banana leaf art itself that they were so excited to do, or if it was simply that they were excited to have something, anything, to do over the break from school. As soon as I arrived at the craft center, we would start the day by using found objects to create instruments and sing songs. Discarded plastic bottles filled with stones become maracas and old buckets and sticks were turned into drums. We made a mean little band if I do say so myself!

Surprisingly, none of the children had done banana leaf art before. The great thing about banana leaf art is that most of the materials are found in nature and don't cost anything. Using the banana leaves also made for a nice segue into explaining to the children why it's important to take care of the environment. Here are the children and their completed banana leaf art pieces. Look at how proud of themselves they are!

On the last day of the camp we tie-dyed t-shirts. The Ministry of Culture donated a bunch of materials to the primary school I work with, and lucky for us, in the box of materials were a bunch of containers of old school powdered cloth dye. Perfect. Because, who doesn't like to do tie-dye? Even the woman who helped organize the camp tie-dyed a shirt! Afterwards it dawned on me what a cliche hippie Peace Corps Volunteer I was that week, but all in all I think I'm OK with that.

Due to the success of the banana leaf art camp I was inspired to write a grant to get materials to hold another art camp for kids over the summer break from school. I just found out this week that my grant was approved! I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'm blatantly stealing this from another Peace Corps Volunteer's blog (thanks Geoff!).

This musician is from Jamaica, but the song is very popular in St. Vincent and is just as relevant here.

Here are the lyrics. Good luck with the dialect.

(Intro)

nuff people come to jamaica and nuh know how we live

think Seh EVERYTHING nice through we full of vibes and think

dem say want feelin to dem heart when dem get fi overstand di real thing yeaah

(verse 1)

Mi deh ya a town one day

A par with a white man weh come all the way from norweigh

And him turn to mi and say

How comes Jamaica full of so much screwface

Same time mi lift mi head to the sky

And a tear drop fall from mi eye

Mi Say my youth come we go out for a drive

Mek mi show you why mi cry

(chorus)

Look pon di gully side

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Look at that hungry child

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Look at the school weh deh youth dem go fi get dem education

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Look at the conditions of our police stations

Do you see anything fi smile bout

(verse 2)

Same time the bredda say

How can a nation be living in this way

And the next thing him say

How can the government play so many games

Same time mi heart fall to the ground

Cause theres much more where that comes from

Certain place they are worse dan slum

Youth man come

(chorus)

And take a look pon Riverton

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Look pon Payneland

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Flankers, Mobay and Saffras Heights in Nos Spain

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Hope Flats, Kentiyah, Mottom Bay are all the same

Do you see anything fi smile bout

(Intro)

nuff people come to jamaica and nuh know how we live

think Say EVERYTHING nice through we full of vibes and think

dem say want feelin to dem heart when dem get fi overstand di real thing yeaah

chorus

(verse 1)

Mi deh ya a town one day

A par with a white man weh come all the way from norweigh

And him turn to mi and say

How comes Jamaica full of so much screwface

Same time mi lift mi head to the sky

And a tear drop fall from mi eye

Mi Say my youth come we go out for a drive

Mek mi show you why mi cry

(chorus)

take a look pon Riverton

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Look pon Payneland

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Canterbury Mobay, March Pen Road ova Spain

Do you see anything fi smile bout

Nuff likkle place deh ya inna jamdown today

Weh nuttin nuh did deh fi smile bout

What is Free Trade and why do we want it?

Basically, free trade is an economic policy designed to reflect true supply and demand, and to price products accordingly.

A comment from an earlier post urged me to start thinking about NAFTA and it's effect on the Caribbean. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) was created by the governments of USA, Canada and Mexico in 1994. This video is a good intro to what NAFTA is and what it was designed to do: http://www.5min.com/Video/What-Should-You-Know-10-NAFTA-30882950

I have to assume that NAFTA was created in response to the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1993 so that North American nations could compete with the newly formed power. The EU, in the name of free trade, abolished preferential trade agreements that existed between Caribbean and European nations. In St. Vincent that meant that preferential trade agreements that existed between the island and Europe were nullified. St. Vincent's economy was heavily dependent on agriculture, particularly bananas that were exported to Europe, and its economy virtually collapsed in the mid-90s due to these decisions. It was the EU's decision to phase out preferential trade agreements with St. Vincent, not NAFTA's (i.e. not American suppression as someone had suggested in a response to an earlier post).

How is St. Vincent recovering from the loss of the banana industry? Slowly. It's still the contributing factor to the high unemployment rate on the island (22%, http://www.svgtourism.com/channels/1.asp?id=12). The tourism sector is developing, mainly in the Grenadines, but there is still a lot of work to be done if it is to become a viable source of jobs and income for the main island. The European Union has invested over US $90 million in helping St. Vincent overcome the loss of the preferential trade agreements.

Does NAFTA as it exists truly support free trade? Not really. Any governmental market intervention resulting in artificial prices doesn't reflect the principles of supply and demand, and therefore doesn't reflect the principles of free trade. Has NAFTA been beneficial for North American countries and the Caribbean? I don't know and I can't really find any straightforward answers. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has expressed interest in joining the yet to be formed FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) as a way to compete with NAFTA and the EU. This move seems to be controversial and is opposed by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who is helping St. Vincent build an international airport to increase tourism. Does NAFTA need to be reformed? Probably. Do American policies negatively affect some countries? Unfortunately, they do. Is it America's fault that the banana industry collapsed in St. Vincent? No, I don't think so. Is free trader really a good thing? I'm not sure. Will I think twice when I hear the words "free trade" from now on? Yeah, I will.

Apparently the world has finally begun to go green. As my best friend put it, "Crazy Obama is really getting shit done! Going green is freakin' everywhere, every company." Thanks Court. I wasn't sure what was happening back in the U.S. since my absence (not true, actually I'm obsessed with checking CNN.com headlines) but still, that's good news to hear. I decided that I needed to do my part to help the world go green, so I organized a beach clean up in my village. I'm not sure why, but the kids in my community LOVE beach clean ups. I made announcements in all of the classes at the primary school where I work and you should have seen these kids. Their eyes lit up like I had just told them they were getting free ice cream or something. But no, they were excited to pick up wet garbage. Good stuff. All of the art classes I taught last week centered around the earth and not-littering in preparation for the big day. These kids are some of the biggest offenders of littering that I have ever witnessed. In hindsight, a "schoolyard clean up" wouldn't have been a bad idea. The idea that the litter was killing the fish in the sea though really seemed to get through to them though. Fish is the staple of almost every one's diet here so it was easy for them to make the connection. After school on Earth Day, Wednesday April 22nd, we hit the beach armed with trash bags. So many children showed up, close to 50, that we were able to clean most of the beach in an hour! After the clean up chaos ensued as the kids started taking their clothes off and jumping in the clean sea. They worked hard, they deserved. Happy Earth Day.

The beach before the clean up.

Some kids getting in on the Earth Day fun.

Enjoying the CLEAN SEA!!!

I got some interesting responses from my last post regarding corporal punishment and violence in St. Vincent. One response in particular made me wonder if my assumption was wrong. What if there isn't a causal relationship between corporal punishment and crime? I spent the better part of today doing research online and this is what I came up with.

In an article that appeared in an issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association, psychologist Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff, PhD, of the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, studied both the positive and negative impacts that corporal punishment can have on children. Using data collected over a 62-year period Gershoff found, with the exception of one non-negative outcome, corporal punishment negatively affects children and can lead to increased aggression and anti-social behavior. The one non-negative outcome of corporal punishment is immediate compliance in stopping the unwanted behavior of a child. Yet, she went on to say that a one-minute time out for a child is equally as effective in stopping unwanted behavior as corporal punishment is. In a response published along with the Gershoff study, George W. Holden, PhD, of the University of Texas at Austin, states that Gershoff's findings, "reflect the growing body of evidence indicating that corporal punishment does no good and may even cause harm." (http://www.apa.org/releases/spanking.html).

The Center for Effective Discipline states that, "academic achievement is a risk factor in the use of corporal punishment of children and corporal punishment of children is related to decreased internalization of moral rules, increased aggression, more antisocial behavior, increased criminality, decreased mental health outcomes, increased adult abusive behaviors, and increased risk of being victimized by abusive relationships in adulthood," (http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=tenthings ). Furthermore, according to the National Crime Prevention Council, "while illiteracy and poor academic performance are not direct causes of criminal behavior, young people with insufficient education and/or poor literacy skills are disproportionately found within the criminal justice system," (http://ncpc.typepad.com/prevention_works_blog/2007/05/education_as_cr.html). Not all children who experience corporal punishment will underachieve in school and go on to lead lives of violence and crime, but their chances of leading healthy and responsible lives are in fact diminished. Children who are misbehaving in school need to be taught right from wrong, they need a nurturing environment that fosters growth and promotes overall well being. Hitting a child does none of these things. Teaching peaceful conflict resolution should be of the utmost importance at school and at home. Hitting a child is often easier than taking the time to explain to them why their actions are bad, most children who are hit don’t ever really understand why they should stop behaving badly. Instead, they fear being hit again so they don’t perform that action when the authority figure is looking, but as soon as he or she turns away the child misbehaves again. A child who grows up thinking that it’s OK to hit other people could very well grow up to be an adult who abuses his spouse or child, or could even go on to participate in even more violent activities.

How can we as a people be aware of these facts and still not think that there is a link between corporal punishment and violence in a society? I'm not saying that corporal punishment is the only factor that contributes to high crime and murder rates in St. Vincent, and America and the rest of the world for that matter, but it definitely is doing nothing to help the situation. Everybody likes to point fingers at the American media and pop culture whose influence, yes, is undeniable, but why not control the one thing that we know yields NO positive results whatsoever and instead NEGATIVELY affects children and society?

The socio-economic conditions and the drug trade in St. Vincent are indeed major factors that contribute to violence on the island and should not go without mentioning. I am not trying to claim that if there was no more corporal punishment on the island that violence would cease to exist, it would not. The issue is much more complicated than that. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has an unemployment rate of 15% and is also the largest producer of marijuana in the Eastern Caribbean. Almost all of the marijuana used in the region originates here. Marijuana, both growing it and selling it, has penetrated the economy of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Parts of the population now depend on marijuana production, trafficking and money laundering as a way to make a living (http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/namerica/stvincentgrenadines.html). According to a report by the UNODC entitled, The Threat of Narco Trafficking in the Americas, “there appears to be a strong relationship between the high rates of violence and the drug trade” (31-32). The report mentions St. Vincent, but uses Colombia as an example to show that as drug cultivation decreases so do the murder rates. In Colombia murder rates have declined, from 67 per 100,000 in 2002 to 39 per 100,000 in 2007. These results correspond with the number of hectares under drug cultivation declining from roughly 160,000 in 1999 to about 99,000 in 2007 (www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/OAS_Study_2008.pdf). This report is really interesting and is worth reading in its entirety. Another great source to look into regarding this subject was published in 2007, A Joint Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank and can be found here: www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Caribbean-study-en.pdf.

I think a better education system could make a big difference in St. Vincent. The most recent census taken by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Development of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, states that in 2001 enrollment in secondary school was only 47.2 % for the age group 15-18. That is a staggeringly low number. Education can be a very powerful tool for change and can be particularly positive for youth in helping them acquire the skills they need to be responsible members of society. According to the same census mentioned above, 60% of the current work force in St. Vincent are considered to be “unskilled workers” with low pay. Imagine what an educated population in St. Vincent could do. Would a child who is encouraged to become a doctor or lawyer or business executive choose to drop out of secondary school to make some fast, but dangerous cash in the drug trade? A well-rounded education could teach the youth that a life filled with materialism and consumerism may not be the best choice, and that material wealth does not equate happiness. Students need to be challenged to think critically and to engage in activities that benefit the community as whole and not just themselves. There is a “gimme” attitude prevalent in this society. Everyone wants something for nothing. I do not think that the children here understand the meaning of hard work. The concept of getting out of life what you put in is non-existent to most of them. This is where I see the link between corporal punishment in the schools and violence in St. Vincent. Because of corporal punishment children are discouraged instead of encouraged to succeed in school. A child who is hit for asking too many questions may one day stop asking questions. A child who is repeatedly told that he is stupid will start to believe that he is stupid. A child who is abused and neglected at home goes to school and is abused there too because no one ever takes the time to teach him the right way to behave. I’ve seen the light go out of a child's eyes after he's been hit. The child immediately shuts down mentally and stops learning. Is there a connection between corporal punishment and violence in a society? Yes. Is it the only factor? Definitely not. Are the lives of Vincentian's worth taking the risk? I don't think so.

I couldn't bite my tongue any longer. I had to say something. SOMEONE had to say something.

For 7 months I have been quietly standing by and watching innocent children get whipped by belts at the school where I work. It's not just the belt that the kids are assaulted with, often times a stick is used to hit them, and when that's not near at a hand a swat in the head with a bare hand is used instead.I was silenced first by shock. During training I was warned that the Ministry of Education in St. Vincent supports corporal punishment and that we as volunteers should be prepared to witness that. For a long time I accepted this behaviour knowing that I came here as a witness to another culture and that I must be respectful of their customs and ways of doing things. I quickly replaced feelings of shock with an attitude of denial. The teachers slowly convinced me that I was being foolish for not beating the children, and I was the "silly American." Haha she doesn't beat them! My thoughts then went something like this, "Oh, the belt is soft it doesn't hurt that bad. And the kids ARE really out of control, maybe they do need to be beat."

Something snapped in me this week. During my time here I have became close with a few of my students. One boy in particular stops by my house often to practice reading or sing me the latest song he learned at church. He's a naturally curious child, he asks alot of questions and has a hard time sitting still. What child doesn't? At school this week I was walking into his classroom to speak with his teacher about something, when I saw him being lashed with a long black leather belt (this belt in particular is coveted by the teachers and is passed around from class to class as needed). He was sobbing as the teacher was violently whipping him. My heart racing, I held back tears and turned to exit the classroom. It was no longer ok. No child should ever be hit like that. For any reason.

I went into the teacher's lounge to gather myself, where a couple of other teachers noticed how visibly upset I was. I explained to them what happened and they laughed. After realizing that I did not think it was funny, they began comforting me and explaining to me why they need to beat children. They said that really, they beat the children much less now than they did 20 years ago, and that they only use it as a last resort. Maybe it is less than 20 years ago, but they don't use it as a last resort. If anything they use it as a first resort for minor misbehaviour. They then proceeded to tell me that the reason why it's so violent in America is because we don't beat our kids. They think that America is more violent than St. Vincent because of all of the violence they see on the news. I had a very hard time convincing them otherwise.

I looked up murder and rape rates in America as whole, St. Vincent, New York City, and Phoenix, AZ to see if I was completely off-base. This is what I found:

USA

2007 Population: 301,621,157 (US Department of State)

US murder rate: 4 per 100, 000 people (US Justice Department, 2004)

US rape rate: 40 per 100, 000 people (US Justice Department, 2004)

Phoenix, Arizona

2008 Population: 1,541,698 (local census)

Phoenix, AZ murder rate: 9 per 100, 000 people (FBI)

Phoenix, AZ rape rate: 39 per 100, 000 people (localcencus.com, 2005)

New York City, New York

2007 Population: 19,297,729 (wikipedia)

New York City murder rate: 7 per 100, 000 (FBI)

New York City rape rate: 13 per 100, 000 (FBI)

ST VINCENT

2007 Population: 118, 00 (US Department of State)

SVG murder rate : 36 per 100, 000 people ( The Vincentian)

SVG rape rate: 112 per 100, 000 (UN)

St. Vincent is CLEARLY more violent than the U.S. According to statistics cited by the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a March 2007 report, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has the third highest rate of reported incidents of rape in the world (UN / World Bank Mar. 2007, 12).

It's easy to blame the violence on the drug trade and gang warfare, and yes I do think that these are important factors that shouldn't be ignored, but, to me, there is a clear link between the violence that takes place at the home and at the school, and the extremely high rates of rape and murder on the island.

At least there is a dialogue now between the teachers and I regarding this subject. I gave one of the teachers this print out on why corporal punishment is bad: http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=tenthings

Ten Things We Know About Corporal Punishment Poor children, minorities, children with disabilities and boys are hit more frequently in schools, sometimes at 2-5 times the rate of other children. Corporal punishment has been abolished in more than 100 nations of the world. Corporal punishment teaches children that violence is a way to solve problems. Research shows that this message is taught to those who inflict pain, those who receive it, and those who witness it. Corporal punishment of children is related to decreased internalization of moral rules, increased aggression, more antisocial behavior, increased criminality, decreased mental health outcomes, increased adult abusive behaviors, and increased risk of being victimized by abusive relationships in adulthood. School violence has not increased since paddling use has declined. Violent crime in schools has declined dramatically since 1994. The annual rate of serious violent crime in 2003 (6 per 1,000 students) was less than half of the rate in 1994. Academic achievement is a risk factor in the use of corporal punishment of children. Corporal punishment reinforces physical aggression as an acceptable and effective means of eliminating unwanted behavior in our society. Significantly more school shooting deaths were found in states allowing school corporal punishment than those who do not. There is overwhelming evidence that harsh interventions are damaging to children, both emotionally and physically. The effects of such trauma may be compounded when a child has preexisting learning difficulties. When schools respond to these challenges using harsh methods, children can be further traumatized. School corporal punishment is more widely used in states in the south and southwest and in rural districts rather than urban and suburban districts.

I know I'm not going to change the world, but I can't silently watch it fall apart either.

I generally prefer to take showers at night. After a long day of sweating, sunscreen, and bug spray a shower before bed is pretty much necessary. After a recent such dusk time shower, I went back into the bathroom after bathing to comb my hair. During the two minutes or so that I had left the shower to dry off and get dressed, the bathroom had become INFESTED with bugs. We're talking hundreds of bugs. They were crawling on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor, and coming out of the drains. They were EVERYWHERE. I screamed, literally. Nobody came to my rescue. Then I got to wondering, what if something really had been wrong? One of the major draw backs to living alone. I eventually got a hold of myself and sprayed Raid all over the bathroom, shut the door, and held my breath. When I opened the door ten minutes later the insects were no longer squirming, but were motionless in defeat. I bleached the entire bathroom and poured boiling water down my drains. I didn't know where the bugs came from, I assumed the drains because a lot of them had collected there. I hoped it was a freak incident and tried to forget about it as quickly as it had happened. That night I made sure my mosquito net was tightly tucked in on all four sides, and I slept confidently in my little cocoon. The next day, after another evening shower, it happened again. And again, I screamed. Still no one came to my rescue. This time I called my landlord and persuaded him to come over to help me figure out why this was happening. While I was waiting for him to come over I did a google search on bathroom bugs and discovered that I have termites. The swarming breeding kind. Great. I told my landlord this and he didn't really believe me. He was like, "nah, they're just coming out because of the rain." I'm like, "it rains here everyday! WHY would they just be coming out now?" I found this picture online so you can get an idea of what I'm dealing with: http://www.allpestservices.com/termite_swarm.jpeg

It's been over three weeks now since the termites took over my bathroom, and my landlord has yet to call an exterminator. I rarely use my bathroom at night now. I seriously contemplated peeing in a bowl in my living room once to avoid having to use it. This can't be healthy.

I came across this on change.org and it got me thinking. How much are we really individual free thinkers and how much are we just a product of our times? Even Lincoln couldn't escape where he came from...

http://immigration.change.org/blog/view/the_complicated_lincoln_and_our_post-racial_society

I'm blaming my current addiction to Six Feet Under on the fact that I haven't produced much work in the past few weeks. I'm on the last season so I should be more productive again soon. And someone sent me some new gauche paints! Getting new paint is like getting new shoes. I can't wait to see where they'll take me.

Tuesday January 20, 2009 marked an unforgettable day for Americans and for the rest of the world. Two million Americans and over a billion people world wide watched on as Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America. In a nation and world where racism is still real, where women are still fighting for their rights, and where religion still divides many- Obama delivered a message of hope and change. A new era for America, and a new era for the world began that day.

Obama's inaugural address called for action and accountability on the part of Americans, "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."

Watching Obama swear in that day, in a black nation standing in an open air bar overlooking the Caribbean Sea, I never felt more proud to be an American. Witnessing St. Vincent's reaction to the inauguration was inspiring as I could see what his presidency represents to people all over the world. Obama was elected to office because many Americans believe that he is the best man for the job, regardless of the color of his skin. His presidency sends a powerful message to the rest of the world- one of freedom and equality for all. This message is not to be underestimated.

While thinking about freedom and equality I do have to wonder just how far we as a nation have really come. Will America ever be able to elect a female President, a Jewish President? Muslim? Chinese-American? Gay? As much as I like to think that America is place where equality, acceptance and peace reign, I believe that we still have a long road ahead of us before we can truly claim the title of "land of the free."

In Obama's words, "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task." His message is a call to service and action, together, we as a nation and as a world, must work together toward creating change that will benefit our future and future generations to come.

Change: http://www.change.org/

This morning I was awoken by the sound of a man blowing loudly into a conch shell. I've learned that this sound signifies a fresh catch by the local fisherman. I live close to the jetty where all the fisherman dock their boats so I hear this sound frequently. Fresh fish is a staple of almost every one's diet here and it is pretty much always available for a good price. Except for the occasional meals of saltfish that I have in town, I don't eat much fish these days. People laugh when I tell them that I don't know how to gut a fish, as if this is a crazy notion. I'm sure the fishermen would cut the fish into fillets for me if I asked, but for now I'm avoiding that embarrassment. Tomorrow morning I will most likely be woken up by the church bells that ring every Sunday morning at 6am sharp. I think they ring the bells for a much longer period than is necessary. I suppose the goal is to wake the entire town an hour before church begins so that they will all arrive for church on time at 7am. Luckily I always have my earplugs close at hand (thanks to the bats who live above me) so I just put them in my ears and go back to sleep.

This morning I occupied my time by making banana bread. I had a bunch of overripe bananas and decided to put them to good use. I've been wanting to make banana bread for awhile now since there are bananas all over the place here, people literally give them away for free. I didn't have baking soda for a long time though, only baking powder. Apparently there is a big difference between baking powder and baking soda (something about a chemical reaction with the ingredients that causes them to act differently when heated?). So while I was in town yesterday I finally picked up some baking soda. Below is the recipe I used. It turned out very moist and banana-y.

Ingredients:

2 1/3 c. overripe mashed bananas (about 5-6 bananas)

1/2 c. butter (1 stick)

3/4 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

2 c. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg (optional)

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (my oven doesn't have temperatures on it so I set it to a medium heat, but I wouldn't recommend baking this way if you don't have to, I burn things often). In a medium size bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, mashed bananas and vanilla. Stir the banana mixture into the dry mixture, turning just enough to moisten. Don't over stir or the bread will come out dense and dry. Pour the mixture into a greased bread loaf pan. Bake for about an hour. The bread should be dark and crisp on the outside, but soft and moist on the inside.

At noon I met Molly (the other Peace Corps volunteer in my area) and some of the neighborhood boys by the jetty to go swimming. The sea was a little rough today so we didn't stay in the water too long. If there are any waves breaking on the beach most of the locals won't go in it because they think it's too rough. Even if the waves are only a couple feet tall they don't like it. This way of thinking must be rubbing off on me because now when I see the smallest waves I think that's it too choppy to swim in, when in reality it's perfectly fine. Alot of the locals simply "soak" in the water or "bathe" in it which is like wading and splashing around. Both of which are probably not to fun to do if the water isn't calm, so I understand why they don't like the waves.

After swimming Molly and I made some homemade salsa and mexican pizza. We're getting pretty good at this whole making things by scratch concept. Then we worked on the garden she has at her house for a couple of hours. We pulled some carrots she had growing in it, but we mainly picked weeds and got the soil ready for planting tomorrow. Molly was brave and cut some bananas down from one of her trees with a cutlass. It took a few swings but she got them down. An old woman came by and cut some bananas down for herself, it took her one swing. Everyone here makes it look so easy. I'm still scared of the cutlass. Maybe someday I'll have the guts to use one myself.

When I got home I did the obligatory once a week pick up of my house. I straightened my desk area and picked up all of the clothes that had somehow managed to find themselves draped over my living room furniture. While I was cleaning I found a $50 bill in my couch cushions. I did a double take at first, but then it dawned on the me that yesterday one of the little girls who comes by my house alot stopped by and asked I had found a $50 bill anywhere. She came over yesterday morning to show me something and was only here for a couple of minutes so I told her that I didn't think she left it here and that I hadn't seen it. As soon as I found the $50 bill tonight I ran over to her house to give it back. Her mom was out front so I gave it to her. She said that her daughter had cried so much yesterday that she threw up. I felt awful.

For dinner I made some Annie's macaroni and cheese that I got in a christmas package that just arrived this week. Once you try Annie's mac and cheese you won't be able to go back to Kraft. It's that good.

That pretty much sums up a typical Saturday for me in St. Vincent. Tomorrow I will do some planting in the garden and will get my lesson plans together for the week. I have a pretty busy week coming up. I have all my regular art classes, plus on Tuesday I'm going to an emerging young Vincy artist's lunch in town. It's a group that has formed at the local community college. I'm not sure what exactly it is that they do, but I'm excited to learn more and hopefully get involved. I also start Spanish lessons this week. I'm going to be taking Spanish classes at the Venezuelan Embassy in Kingstown on Tuesday and Thursday nights. They're free, so I figured why not? My Wednesday after school reading group resumes this week and so does Brownies. The lazy days of December are quickly starting to fade.

As hard as it was to be away from my family and friends and all of our holiday traditions, I'm so glad that I stayed here this year and experienced the holidays as the locals do. Christmas is a major holiday here as most of the locals are Christians. They have many different denominations - Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, etc. It's interesting that Christianity is so big here because it's a religion that was forced upon them by slave owners. There was a theory among slave owners that if you could convert your slaves to Christianity that they would become harder workers. The Africans were then literally stripped of all their native tribal practices and were forced to become Christians all in the name of making more money. Because of this the islanders have lost so much of their sense of history and identity. Now people don't even know what part of Africa they're from or what type of religious practices their ancestors participated in.

"9 Mornings" is the biggest holiday tradition here in St. Vincent. It's unique to the island as its the only place in the world where it's celebrated. From 4am-7am on the nine days leading up to Christmas Day there are carolers, dancing, christmas lights and street parties. I was only able to get up twice for all of the festivities. Getting up at 4am to party is not an easy thing to do! 9 Mornings is a tradition that started in the early 1800s. On Christmas day the plantation owners would spend the day at church and give the slaves the day off. Slaves weren't allowed in the church so they threw their own celebrations in the streets. From there it morphed into what it is today.

Villages all over the island celebrate 9 Mornings a little bit differently. I attended a formal 9 Mornings event in the Capital of Kingstown and also a less formal 9 Mornings celebration a few days later in my home village. I took a couple mornings off in between so that I could get some sleep! Most of the locals don't attend all of the 9 Mornings events, but they try to make it to at least one or two of them. In Kingstown there was a christmas lights display and a stage where various activities took place. A school choir and a dancing troupe performed the morning that I was there. In my village the main event of 9 Mornings took place on Saturday Dec. 20th. A party truck carrying a dj drove up and down the main road from 4am-7am. There were about 200 or more people following the truck and singing and dancing. I live on the main road so there was pretty much no escaping it. I took the video below from my front porch before joining in on the fun. Many of my neighbors, students and some of the teachers I work with were also dancing in the street.

Depressingly, I had to take a beer away from one of my 5th grade students that morning. At first when I saw her drinking out of the beer can she told me that it was empty and that she filled it up with juice. She's a good kid so I believed her. They re-use bottles and things here all the time. I've even seen teachers carry empty rum bottles to school to fill with water and use as a pitcher. I saw the same girl again about an hour later and she was drinking out of a different can of beer. That's when I realized that it wasn't juice after all. There was another Peace Corps volunteer with me who took the beer from her and we explained to her that if she drinks beer that her brain will stop growing and that she will never get any smarter. I hope that scared her enough to stop drinking for awhile. I don't know where she got the beer from, and I also don't know why we were the only two adults to do anything to stop her from drinking it.

A couple other Peace Corps volunteers came up to my village to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with me. It was inadvertently a vegetarian Christmas and it was delicious. The two volunteers who stayed with me are both vegetarians (for health and environmental reasons). Floris, a neighbor, brought me a dead chicken on Christmas morning that I had to politely decline. I hated turning down the chicken because it was so kind of him, but I knew that he could use the chicken much more than I could. I gave him some christmas cookies and he left happy.

My homestay family (the family I lived with for 2 months when I first got here) also stopped by on Christmas day. They dropped off a bunch of local Christmas food that included ginger beer, black wine and black cake. I'm going to post the recipe for ginger beer in the new recipes section of my blog. That was my favorite Vincentian holiday treat. If you like ginger then you'll really like it. I'll post the recipe for the sugar cookies I've introduced St. Vincent to also. One of the ladies in my village even wants to start making and selling these cookies she thinks they're so good! I went a little crazy with the christmas cookies this year and passed them out to alot of my neighbors. The photos below are of my homestay family delivering christmas food to us (I love my homestay family!). The next one is of my neighbor showing me and another volunteer how to make sorrel out of some local flowers. We are cutting the middle part out of the flowers. Sorrel is another holiday drink that the locals make. You boil the red rubbery flower petals from the sorrel plant along with ginger and cloves to a make sort of spicy juice. If you could get these type of flowers in the U.S. I would post the recipe because the juice was really good!

The holiday season has come to an end and I head back to school tomorrow. I will continue teaching art and will also be teaching some computer classes. I'm looking forward to having a routine again and also spending more time with the teachers and children.

I hope everyone has a great 2009! I wish you all the best in whatever it is that you're up to these days!

Thanks to Shelby Kimbrough, another Peace Corps Volunteer currently serving in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Vincent now has a version of Twas' The Night Before Christmas all its own. Good luck luck interpreting the local dialect everyone! It helps to read it out loud. Here are a few starters: winding = dancing, cutlass = machete, and pickney = children. This adaptation was printed in the local newspaper last week, way to go Shelby! Happy Holidays from SVG!

Twas e night befo Christmas

an all tru Hairoun

All nayga was windin to

e new Soca tune.

De cutlass heng on e front

porch wit might

Ready to chop jus in case of a fight.

Nine marnings dun now,

all dat sweet bacchanal

An mammy bin kill e fat holiday fowl.

E breadfruit dun roas an

e pickney bin lick

Der was nottin to do, ‘cept

wait fuh St. Nick.

E pickney was sleepin, tree to a bed

Wile torts of guava jelly in dey head.

An mammy in she kerchief

and unclo in he cap

Had jus settled in fuh a

lang winter nap.

When out in e yard der

arose such a drum

Dat mammy jump up an

yell ‘Rain ah go come”!

She run to e window to

close up e shutter

Bu instead see a man in a red Christmas sweater.

“Way yo a do”? yell she a

e man in she yard

“Leave arwe or me chap you real hard!”

Bu e man only smile

in he red Chrismas sweater

Which mus a bin hot in

e tropical wedder.

E man belly real roun

along wit he bum

He nose like red mango

fuh all dat strong rum.

He beard lang and white

just like a new rag

An he drogh on he back a

big scarlet bag.

He reach in he bag and he

nar mek a soun

Wile he a lay plenty of gif on e groun.

Toys fuh e pickney, a fish fuh e cat

An fuh mammy a red an blue Church-gwine hat.

Den fas as iguana, he turn an he run

An he jump in e front of a idloing van.

An as e van drive, he yell out e rear –

“Ah bussin it, Merry Chrismas,

yo hear”!

December marks a slow period in the Caribbean. Schools go on winter break at the beginning of the month, business offices seem unhurried to get things done, monthly community meetings are put off until January and there is a general sense of things decelerating until the arrival of the New Year. I’m trying to enjoy this leisurely pace of life, but I am often bored or filled with guilt for not having more to do. My flexible schedule this month has allowed me to be able to visit Peace Corps Volunteers on the other side of the island and to do some exploring of my own which I think has been a good change of pace for me. The first 3 months that I was here I was so busy with training and adjusting that I am just now settling into my new way of life. I'm finally reading all those books I brought with me and have mastered cooking on my gas stove (at first I burned everything that I cooked on my stove top). My community is starting to feel more like home everyday as I now know just about everyone that I pass on street. That's a good feeling.

A highlight of the month was walking across the volcano, La Sourfriere or "Soufray" as the locals call it. It means sulfur in French. I stayed with some volunteers on the east side of the island in Georgetown on a Thursday night, it took my about 3 hours to get there by van. We got up early on Friday morning to allow plenty of time to walk across the volcano and end up on the other side of the island by nightfall. Conveniently just on the other side of the volcano is my village, Chateaubelair so I didn't have to travel to get home. It took about 8 hours to walk up and over the volcano, but that includes a detour of about an hour to hike down into the crater. Not going to lie, I was a little scared as I descended into the crater, but it was worth it. I've never seen anything like it. There was steam rising from cracks in the rocks and the smell of sulfur was overwhelming. The end of the hike leads you threw a bat cave and out onto a soft black sand beach. Nice.

The photos below are of La Soufriere (it's the first indent in the mountain on the left), The Crater of La Soufriere- the mound in the middle is hardened lava from the last eruption, the next one if of the path that leads down into the crater. Can you tell how steep it is? That's me inside of the path leading down into the crater, and the last one is from the top of volcano looking out at the Caribbean Sea.

I love Thanksgiving. Yesterday the Taiwanese Embassy here in St. Vincent hosted a Thanksgiving party for all the Peace Corps volunteers on the island, and it was amazing. Everyone from our group made American Thanksgiving dishes, and our Taiwanese hosts cooked traditional dishes from their homeland. I cannot remember the last time I had so many different types of food to eat. Rice and lentils with whatever vegetable I happen to find in town that week is usually what my meals are made of. To have both Asian food and Thanksgiving food on the same day was seriously overwhelming. I literally ate until I was so full that it was painful. The picture is from round 1 of 2 at the dessert table, I just couldn't get enough pie...can't wait for next year!

I had a good meeting with my Brownie troop today. I did a session on HIV/AIDS with the girls because this coming Monday, Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. The Caribbean has the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS transmission in the world, second only to Sub-Sahara Africa. The rate in the Caribbean is so high because Haiti is included in that count, but HIV/AIDS is still a major concern on St. Vincent and all of the other Caribbean islands. We reviewed information about HIV/AIDS and in lieu of red ribbons made red macaroni necklaces as symbols for AIDS awareness. The girls in the photo are working hard on their necklaces! You can never go wrong with kids and macaroni.

Things are beginning to wind down in anticipation of the Christmas season. I'm done teaching for the semester and am looking forward to using the break as a time to plan for next term's classes. With the limited resources here I'm really going to have to get creative with the art projects. The break will also hopefully give me some time to explore the island, there is still so much that I haven't seen.

Big news! I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. I've been living and working on my own now for about 2 weeks. My 2 year assignment will be up in October of 2010. The reality of being here for that long is starting to sink in. I'm still very excited to be in St. Vincent, but the length of the assignment was hard for me to fully wrap my head around until I was actually here. Now that I am here, I completely understand why the Peace Corps wants you to commit to 2 years of service- if your service was any shorter you wouldn't be able to accomplish anything. Now even the 2 years almost doesn't seem like enough. Change is slow, especially when you talk about sustainable development. It can take so long to get a community just interested in an idea, but then you have to get an organization to support you, and funding, and all these other things that don't happen over night. On the other hand, 2 years is a long time to be away from home, friends, family, technology, the media, new books, music, and Mexican food. So far nobody has left from EC78, that's what Peace Corps refers to my group of volunteers as, it stands for Eastern Caribbean group 78, and yes I know that number is crazy high, I've been told it's because they had alot of smaller groups here in the 70s and 80s that specialized in agriculture and arrived several times a year. For some reason the Eastern Caribbean has the highest drop out rate in the Peace Corps, even higher than Africa, but so far we're going strong.My new place is centrally located, clean and comes complete with lukewarm water! No more cold showers for me. My landlord bought a new bed and stove when I moved in so I didn't have to deal with the old ones that were here. I have a pretty spacious living room that opens to a front patio that overlooks the main road of Chateau. I hang out on my patio most mornings and evenings when the sun isn't so hot. Now that more people know me I'm getting called out on the street all the time. Lots of good mornings, good days, good afternoons and good nights. It feels good. Much better than the, "white lady!" followed by children pointing that I got in the beginning. I feel really safe, the police station is directly behind me, I could literally throw a rock at it and hit it. It's still pretty hot here but other than that I can't complain about anything. Some things did take getting used to. Like having little green lizards constantly crawling on my walls. They're totally harmless and eat bugs so I leave them alone. I did put up a mosquito net though just in case one decided to crawl in my bed. I had a dream the other night that there was a cockroach crawling on my stomach, and then I woke up and there actually was a cockroach crawling on my stomach! Aaahhh!! yuck. I got the chills just thinking about it. I didn't sleep the rest of the night and put the mosquito net up ASAP the next morning. I also have bats, like probably a hundred bats living in my roof. I can hear them fly out every evening at dusk and then fly back in at dawn. This is pretty disturbing because I can hear them crawling around in the ceiling above me and bumping into things and squeaking. I sleep with earplugs and tell myself that it could be worse and I could be living in a mud hut somewhere.My work schedule here is starting to come together already which is nice. I'm trying to leave some room for all the random projects that pop up though. There was recently a teacher's strike that lasted 2 weeks and ended as a stalemate. The teacher's didn't get their salaries raised and were forced to go back to class. I'm not sure if it accomplished anything, but at least the kids aren't hanging out on the block indefinitely anymore. I started teaching art classes to all of the grades last week. It has been really well received and all the kids have participated. The major challenge is getting them to think outside of the box. One kid will draw a rainbow and suddenly every paper in the classroom has a rainbow on it. The younger kids learned about colors this week and the older ones learned about reading facial expressions (emotional intelligence and non-verbal communication skills). I had them practice drawing facial expressions, vexed was a favorite emotion amongst them. I had another volunteer come help me set up the computer and listening lab so hopefully computer classes will be taking place soon too.

A big issue is that there really isn't much for the kids to do after school, especially the girls. In an attempt to get some of the kids out of my house (I'm trying really hard not to run a daycare) I've decided to help form a girl guides troop at my school, it's the local equivalent of girl scouts back home. It's only once a week, but at least it gets some of the kids involved in community work and doing good deeds.

One highlight last weekend was running a 5k with the kids. Running here is killer! It's all hills and these kids are FAST. Usain Bolt is from the Caribbean and I'm telling you it must just be in their genes because they way out ran me!

I've been congratulated multiple times on Obama's win. Everyone here LOVES him. I was able to watch the election thanks to the U.S. Embassy in Barbados who organized an event for all the volunteers to attend. The worldwide support of Obama is really phenomenal and it's cool to be able to see his international impact firsthand.

I will end with a video from the Police Youth Concert I went to last weekend. I love the boy on the left.

Pictures! This is my host dad and my host brother. They are busy in this picture trying to crack open some nuts we found on the beach. I think they were almonds. Pretty good. The photo on the left is of Dark View Falls, about a 15 minute walk north of my village.

I am currently living in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. St. Vincent is a lush green island with black sand beaches and tropical waterfalls. Someone described it as looking like Jurassic Park and I think they got it pretty close.

I'm at my host family house right now (yes, they have cable and internet, and considering that I didn't have cable when I was living in NY that's an upgrade!). The city I'm living in, Chateaubelair, is on the west side of the island, the side that borders the Caribbean Sea instead of the Atlantic which makes the water over here much calmer than on the other side of the island. There is a black sand beach that is a 2 minute walk from the house I'm staying in. Because Chateau is so big (3,000-4,000 people) Peace Corps has decided to place 2 volunteers here. Most communities on the island consist of several hundred people and have only 1 Peace Corps volunteer serving in them. The other volunteer in my village arrived here last year and has another year to serve. I'm feeling very grateful that she's so close and it will be nice to have a partner to work with on larger projects. She has also become my jogging and swimming buddy so it looks like I'll get some use out of my goggles and running shoes! Most of the volunteers on island I've met so far have been really outgoing and seem to have gotten a lot accomplished. The group is very diverse, lots of different ages and backgrounds.

Chateau is about an hour and a half away from the main town of Kingstown. In order to get there I have to take a bus. By buses I learned that they actually mean small vans packed full of 30 people that blast reggae music. The vans have their names painted on the front, Soldia Boy and Ninja are just a couple of my favorites. The roads are full of hills and wind around the coast, making for a long and sometimes painful ride. I try to get a seat next to a window whenever I can so I can try to breathe air that isn't warm and sweaty, but sometimes that plan backfires and I end up inhaling gas fumes through the window instead. My right shoulder is currently bruised from being pinned against the side of of the van for an hour and a half. There is also no bus schedule. One morning last week I waited 2 hours for a van. In the rain. The next morning I walked out my door just as a van was driving by and I was able to hop on. It all levels out.

For those of you that have been worried about hurricanes, I haven't been too affected by them. We've weathered a few tropical storms and depressions but have had no real threat of an actual hurricane. There are some volunteers currently in St. Kitts who may unfortunately have a brush with Omar. I'm crossing my fingers that they don't and everyone remains safe. The tropical storms and depressions cause a lot of rain on St. Vincent though. Because I'm located on the west side of island I usually don't feel the affects as greatly as the east side of the island. There have been floods, mudslides and fallen trees on both sides of the island in the past month. I don't like to take the vans into town on rainy days because the roads can be pretty treacherous. Vincetians don't like the rain and everything pretty much shuts downs when it begins to pour. Kids wear winter jackets when it rains even though it's 80 degrees outside. Schools usually call half days when it rains and everyone is sent home. The rain comes down in sheets here and you can see it approaching from the mountains, locals will say, "Rain ah come wedded up," when this happens.

Some other fun facts about my life: I don't have hot water. At the end of the day it can be refreshing, but waking up to an icy shower can be tough. I eat fish everyday, sometimes even for breakfast. The avocados here are the size of footballs and I will be very sad when they go out of season. Sadly, mangoes too will soon be out of season. The sun sets at 6pm and rises at 6am making for a very long night. My host family and I have been watching the presidential debates, we make popcorn and drink sparkling cider. I really lucked out with my homestay family. They really have been nothing but great and I'm honestly a little sad to be moving out. Luckily, I will be living only a short walk from them.

I swear in on Monday Oct. 20th and move out of my homestay this weekend. Look for another post soon, I'm expecting to have internet in my new place.

There has been a slight change of plans. I have been re-assigned to a different island, I will now be serving on the island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It's much farther south than St. Kitts and Nevis and is close to the coast of Venezuela. St Vincent and the Grenadines is a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth of Nations. It also happens to be where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, needless to say the island is beautiful and comes complete with a live volcano.

I'm sure you're all wondering just what exactly I'll be doing down there, and I am too as the Peace Corps likes to keep job descriptions pretty vague! Basically, my job will consist of working with school staff to create new programming geared towards HIV prevention, nutrition, environmental conservation, civic awareness, job skills and whatever else I might come up with. The goal is to empower communities to achieve better economic self sufficiency and improved quality of life by supporting local projects and training residents. I will have more to write on this in the weeks to come so stay tuned!

The islands are pretty well developed as far as technology goes. I'm bringing my computer in hopes of being able to secure an internet connection at my home. If that's not possible I'm crossing my fingers that the school I'm working at will have access to the net (I'm sure it will). Cell phone are also easy to come by and I hope to have a local service soon after I arrive.

Just wrapping things up here in NYC before I leave for the Eastern Caribbean to serve in the Peace Corps. I'll be here in NY until August 13, then I'm stopping back home in Phoenix for 2 weeks before I take off for St. Lucia on Aug. 24. I'm training in St. Lucia for 12 weeks and after that will be living on the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis for two years...feeling pretty lucky at the moment!