Above: National Pole Vault Clinic to introduce the event to athletes and coaches in St. Lucia. This is another volunteer's project in the south of the island (near the stadium) and he had me come down to Coach during the 3-day workshop.

Above: My violin students crowded on my living room floor, copying down their music for the Gospel concert.

Above: A beach by the village I went to yesterday.

Above: Little Nasha!

Above: My Brownies at my house for our HIV Training Completion Party!

Above: Self Explanatory. This chart is the Talk of the Town! I often hear kids bickering on the streets and at school about who has more stars. The chart is missing about 10 of my other students....

At this point most Peace Corps volunteers are really itching to go home and reintegrate back into America. I wish I could say the same. Although I want to see my family and friends, I am so sad to leave Saint Lucia and Anse-La-Raye. This has been my home for over 2 years, the best years of my life and also the most testing, difficult, yet fulfilling years I’ve had. I find myself wandering the streets of the village more than usual, hanging out with friends in the village and trying to soak in as much as I can before I leave. I can’t seem to pry myself away from my projects even they are in sustainable mode and have taken over themselves. PCV’s are technically not supposed to do much during their last 3 months at site, but I can’t get myself to say no to my students who still show up at my door asking for a violin lesson because they memorized Minuet 3 or my Brownies who want to have just “one more activity” before I leave. I realize that I have so thoroughly enjoyed my work and experience in Saint Lucia that my projects do not seem like “work” but instead are my passion. I am truly blessed to have had such an incredible assignment for the past 25 months.

One of the other reasons I can’t get myself to stop working is because the Village Orchestra has really progressed over the past few weeks. It’s expanded to a full orchestra, with over 45 young members training for spots. My community partner managed to attain 15 wind instruments: trumpets, sax, clarinets, flutes, and has been hiring a wind tutor to come and teach a group of 15 young students to join the string section. It’s incredible that this tiny fishing village is in the midst of managing a full orchestra—winds and strings section (and of course the already famous village choir). I had a meeting the other day with my amazing community partner, Mrs. Deterville. After reviewing our most up-to-date proposals for maintaining funding for the orchestra, we sat on her porch for a long while discussing the project and how far it’s come since our first conversation about it (approximately 1.5 years ago). It’s literally evolved to a national model program for youth on the island, and will be expanded to start up in multiple more schools next year as an educational, anti-drug/anti-violence extracurricular program for at-risk youth. We were laughing because here we are in this tiny remote village and every other child is walking around with either a violin case or some kind of wind instrument. We’ve been recognized as the “music hub” of the island, Anse-La-Raye, and the music development program has really helped distinguish the community as such a musically talented place. It’s true too—these kids learn so fast, it’s amazing! It’s mind boggling how much can be accomplished in 2 years, and I am so grateful to have served in this community.

Right now we are sending out proposals to various ministries and companies to secure funding for a month-long summer music camp in the village, to commence in August. We are well on our way, and the camp is scheduled to begin next week until August 29. It’s sad I won’t be here for the whole camp, but it makes me so happy that this will have had so much momentum by the time I have to leave on August 17th. We are training the full orchestra for their official debut (with the wind instruments) on Sept. 29 for the Parish Feast; my community partners are regretful that I won’t be there to see such a culmination of my work, but really it’s so elating to think all my efforts are being taken over by the community and progressing forward when I leave. It really is the most fulfilling, rewarding feeling in the world.

Sidenote, I’m pretty sure most of the sponsors for the music camp are willing to fund us mostly because of all the violence that’s been plaguing the village this past month. Multiple shootings, machete choppings, people trying to light others on fire (long story), villagers raiding places to burn and destroy other villagers’ houses (again, long story), it’s been a mess. In our cover letter for sponsors, we definitely bring this violence trend to light and encourage companies to help out with the music camp so we can get the kids into a positive, constructive setting. I think it’s working! People generally feel bad for / fear Anse-La-Raye.

My orchestra just had yet another stellar performance at the village’s Gospel Explosion concert last Sunday in the church. The kids played “You Raise Me Up”, accompanying a group of young men singing the song. It was really special.

All anxiety aside, I’ve been really enjoying my last few weeks in the village. I’m pretty sure life can only go downhill from here, as I’ve been living the dream for the past 2 years here on Saint Lucia. Recently, I’ve been busy attending parties and dinners for PCV’s so we can see each other before everyone starts leaving. The first PCV leaves Aug. 1st, and then I leave on the 17th. I spend a lot of time playing football (the village women’s team is in the national tournament now), going on walks with friends, having people over for dinner, etc. Yesterday Louise came over and we cooked our infamous Bouillon (one-pot) on my coal pot. It took us 4 hours, but it was worth it! We used my machete to chop down green plantains from my yard, which was a little dangerous as we almost brought down an entire tree. Then I went to the beach last night for sunset and saw a bunch of leatherback turtle holes from laying eggs.

See you all in a few weeks!

Above is my neighbor and good friend, Urvin. He built my pull-up bar in my back yard last year (by "back yard" I mean 10ft X 10ft galvanize-fence-compartment that is infested with sea crabs). Anyway, Urvin is a really talented artist and makes all sorts of crafts. For the past few months, he's been telling me that he's making a little gift for me to remember Saint Lucia. I almost cried when he brought the final piece over one morning at 6:30am. As you can see, it's a little hand carved wooden boat with Rasta colors on the inside and it says Anse-La-Raye, Saint Lucia on the sides and the boat's name is, appropriately, LILLY. He even made a little stand for it and tiny oars. It's just like the fishing boats in the village bay; it's so beautiful! It was one of the most special gifts anyone has ever given me. He said he made it because he loves hearing me teach my violin students every morning inside my house before school, and he wanted to thank me for setting up the orchestra in the village. He said that hopefully if I go home with the boat, I'll never forget Saint Lucia and will come back to visit. I said there's no way in the world I'll ever forget Anse-La-Raye, and this boat was such a meaningful gift. I will cherish it forever! Thank you Urvin!

Above: Going to miss the freshly caught fish! Not going to miss my friends telling me to eat the eyes (they love those eyes!). Sidenote, was walking today and saw a sign in front of a restaurant that read: "Today's Special: Cowheel Soup". Any takers?

Above: Camping in Canaries , we came across this man named Hypolite. I had a baby machete and he had a papa machete so we decided to pose for a picture. He then proceeded to tell me I would make beautiful babies. Thank you very much, Hypolite.

It’s scary how fast time is flying by. I find myself frantically trying to fit everything I want to do into my schedule for my last few weeks on the island. Last weekend a bunch of us went camping in the jungle by Canaries, which was a blast (minus the 3” cockroaches that were crawling on me all night). Soccer training started back up a couple weeks ago, so that takes up my afternoons on the field. The national women’s football tournament starts on Saturday, July 11th down in Vieux Fort! Hopefully we'll make it to the semi-finals before my departure. It’s weird that my Close of Service date is set and in sight; everyday I get questions from a handful of villagers about my departure and when am I going to come back to visit and why do I have to leave and who will play the violin in church, etc. It’s overwhelming how much I’m going to miss this place. Part of me is hesitant that I will actually get on the plane home…

Violence has calmed down substantially in the village. No shootings, stabbings, machete choppings, or rapes at all this week! On July 7th, the U.S. Embassy had a party in Saint Lucia (the embassy for the West Indies is in Barbados) for Independence Day. There was only room for 5 Peace Corps volunteers to go, and I was one of the lucky ones chosen. It was probably the highlight of my year and a harsh wake-up call to the fanciness/formality of America. The party was at the Saint Lucia Golf Club, a place I’d obviously never been to and there were some interesting VIP’s in attendance. I met the Mexican Ambassador to Saint Lucia, the American Charge’d Affaires of the Embassy, and a pretty famous Calypso Monarch, to name a few. It was probably the most dressed up I’ve been since 2007, and at one point I found myself mingling outside with some guests and watching a pick-up truck full of Rastas drive by on the road. All I could think of was, wow usually I’m one of the people riding in the back of a crowded truck like that, what an eerie feeling to be on the other side of it for a night.

The orchestra has been busy performing for numerous village events. Last weekend we played at the Fish Fry again and made some money from the tourists. We played Creole and Reggae music with the steel pan group, the kids sounded great as always. Last night there was a Queen Pageant Show at the Primary School and the orchestra performed there as well. 2 of the 8 Pageant contestants were violin/viola students of mine and they both played their instruments as their talent, they did such a great job and held their violins up soo high! The orchestra will also be performing at a graduation ceremony on Sunday in the village. My Brownies/Guides troops have their HIV and Healthy Lifestyles Training Completion Party next Thursday! I’ll distribute their well-earned International AIDS Badges and I’ve also printed over 150 pictures of the girls during their Brownies activities so they can remember our fun times. I have a culminating parents meeting next week at my house with the mothers who have stepped forward to take charge of the group. I’ll be doing one final strategic planning session with them for uniforms, activities, and fund raisers for September, after I leave. Everything is finally coming together and I feel a sense of completion, although I will readily admit I feel and simultaneous sense of guilt in leaving my students and projects, even though it is time. I feel like I am leaving my home all over again…

Peace Corps already bought my plane ticket home; I’ll be flying into Boston Aug 17th and heading out to Martha’s Vineyard to meet my family on vacation until the 20th. Alyce Bertz had the genius idea that to ease my culture shock, I should go straight to an American island (Martha’s Vineyard), as if going to MV will be an island just like Saint Lucia. Yes, I’m sure Edgartown perfectly mirrors the village of Anse-La-Raye… I hear Martha’s Vineyard has running water though.

This past weekend I had some of my violin students over to my house for our monthly Pizza Party-- always a treat. Pictures posted below... Happy Father's Day Dad! Miss you.

The 'Do.

They made Carnival decorations for my house.

We kneaded a LOT OF DOUGH. Pizza and cinnamon rolls from scratch takes a long time.

We decided to make a video while the girls were doing my hair. Sorry if you don't speak Creole (who doesn't?).

This is video documenting a normal prayer session in the church next to my house. After dark, the congregation gathers for prayer meetings two or three nights a week. They got a new spiritual leader who says, "BA-BA-BA-BA-BA" over and over. He says the sound is supposed to open your mind and heart. Lucky for me I get to listen to it for hours at a time!

The original Peace Corps Mon Repos "MoPo" training group of Eastern Caribbean PC 77! There were a few fallen soldiers, but we muddled through to the end!

Documenting my famous bucket baths after collecting roof gutter water outside! Welcome to rainy days in the village... my Creole broom looks good.

Me and my friends, Johan and Junior posing with my most prized possession: the Purple Machete. Never leaves my side!

Me and my Brownies/Guides at our HIV Prevention Information Exchange Day in Piaye.

Sherlana helping with the handprints on the HIV Prevention Billboard for the village.

Another exciting week in Anse-La-Raye. At 11pm Monday night, a couple of jeeps came through the village and started shooting at a house where a drug dealer was hiding. Some of the guys went into the house and shot everyone inside, 7 total. 1 died instantly and the others are in critical condition in the hospital. They caught 3 of the attackers, but the others weren't found. So of course the police have been patrolling the streets of Anse-La-Raye especially at night with their bulletproof vests and guns; this coupled with the poorly worded media coverage "Anse-La-Raye is not safe; tourists shouldn't go there; it's the hub for hiding criminals and drug dealers" cannot be good for the community's development. Generally things have calmed down, although people are a little freaked out by all the violence in the community and around the island these past few months. 6 people died this week, and I heard on the news today there were 63 arrests for gang-related and violent activities. Machete choppings, stabbings, shootings, are not uncommon and the government is seriously monitoring the country's safety. Unofficial declarations of war agains the police force in a community up north called Marchand is definitely fueling the fire.

Anyway, all things considered I still feel safe and ok. I have no desire nor need to leave my community, I just hope the crimes will start to calm down. It's difficult when you know the people involved, and certainly the whole village feels it when something this grave happens. All the more reason to continue my work with my young at-risk students in the village... after all, the purpose of my projects is to help with developmental issues like these so kids won't grow up to be drug dealers and gangsters!

Life goes on. On a different note, two weeks ago my Brownies and Guides troop went down to the community of Piaye to debut their HIV prevention posters to an after-school group down there, hosted by another PCV. The two national television stations were there and my girls had the opportunity to present their posters and talk about their HIV and AIDS education training. They did such a wonderful job and as parents asked them questions at the end of the presentation, I was so happy to hear what they had to say. Someone asked one of my girls how she could apply the information we learned to everyday life. My 10-year old brownie surprised me by telling the person that everyday she goes to school and has a sense of fear that maybe someone will try to have sex with her. She said that now that she knows about HIV, she decided to wait to have sex until she is married and she will talk to an adult mentor if anyone ever tries to harm her. Yes! Anyway, after the presentations, I facilitated a parent discussion group with parents from Anse-La-Raye, Piaye, and Babanneau on parent roles in HIV Prevention, where we discussed the issues the youth face in Saint Lucia and how we can help the children make good choices. After lunch, we made a big billboard with handprints that says, "Joining Hands to Prevent HIV" which will be displayed at the health center by the entrance to the village so everyone passing through can see it! I'm so proud of the girls, they've done such an amazing job!

The orchestra is cruising along; we were supposed to perform at Fish Fry again tonight but we're not going to until next week, due to the activity in the village these past few days. I'm having a pizza party with my students tomorrow although I am out of cooking gas so we'll have to figure that one out... coal pot pizza?

Peace Corps had our Close of Service Conference last week. It's our last all-volunteer conference, 2 months before our departure. Basically they taught us out to "dis-integrate" from Lucian culture and reintegrate into the U.S. of A. It was a lot of fun to see the volunteers from the other Eastern Caribbean islands that I came in with 2 years ago... we had a great time and it was nice to de-brief with everyone about our anxiety and confusion in wrapping up our services and leaving our villages. It's definitely bitter-sweet. I can't say I'm ready to leave Anse-La-Raye yet but hopefully the prospect will get better in time.

I'm scheduled to come back August 17th. Lilly's Culture Shock Rasta Party is at the Bertz's house Saturday, August 22. Everyone's invited. I especially can't wait to see my grandmother, Mary Morrisroe! I would like to publicly commend her for keeping up with my blog-- I'm so happy you read this! I loved your last letter, Mary! Miss you!

Well finally things are getting back to normal around here! The village lost water for 14 straight days due to heavy rain and damaged pipelines from the flood. Finally around the 9th day the government started sending water trucks to the village so that we could fill up buckets but that was almost useless as there was no systematic way of distributing water and we never knew when the truck would arrive. Anyway, the water is finally on at least every other day or so and things are settling down.

Below are a few pictures videos of my orchestra when they performed last month at the village Fish Fry with the steel pan. We were playing from inside the village square and the tourists/locals were standing around the gates of the square. We collected donations from the tourists and it was pretty successful. This was our second Fish Fry performance and the kids love playing at it! This time we played more Creole folk songs, so you can hear some of those. Enjoy!

Well yesterday was exciting!  Over the past week or so, some serious storms have been lingering over the island.  Obviously the village hasn't had access to pipe (running) water for about a week which gets exponentially worse every day.  Anyway, I woke up yesterday to the torrential rain and ran outside to collect water under my banana leaves and gutters.  I hoarded gallons of water in all my cooking pots and buckets.  I even filled up my toilet tank to flush my toilet for the first time in a few days, which was horrid.  I felt really accomplished.  Then Louise called me up and said Lilly come quick, the village has flooded.  I'm thinking, ok this has happened before no big deal, the streets will be a little wet.  Soon enough I'm over in the ghetto of the village (Pittibough street) and and up to my waist in dark brown water, watching villagers carry babies and toddlers and household belongings out of their flooded houses.  It was a mess.  The rivers on either side of the village got backed up and had broken, sending a rush of water EVERYWHERE, and the open sewage canals were clogged so the water just stayed in the streets.  It was hours before the guardsmen and ambulances showed up.  The streets were blocked, cars were trying to leave the village but the water came halfway up the sides of the vehicles.  Little kids were using old refrigerators to navigate through the flooded streets.  It was ridiculous.  All the villagers were walking/standing around, smoking and drinking and staying surprisingly calm through this fiasco.  Never a dull moment in Anse-La-Raye!  My house was fine, in fact my street was the only one that didn't get flooded although my whole front yard was entirely underwater.  I capitalized on the rain and took a gutter shower outside to wash my hair for the first time in days.  That was a luxury beyond comprehension.  Videos below show the flood in different parts of the village.  The one with the kitten is especially crazy; I was in the flooded street with my friends Keishma and Unafa and we see this kitten floating with the current, struggling to stay afloat.  Unafa saved it although I think it's traumatized for life.  Overall yesterday was pretty dangerous but a sight to see.  The village is doing alright today, the water has gone down and the rain has let up for the time being although I anticipate another few days for the least until the water comes back on.  I had to get to Canaries, the next village over, today for a meeting and the road between my village and Canaries is notorious for landslides and it's winding, steep terrain.  On the ride, I couldn't believe the dozen or so landslides blocking the roads.  One landslide in particular was so bad that a boulder the size of my living room fell onto the road, completely blocking it.  Apparently yesterday busses couldn't pass at all so they were letting passengers out at one side of the landslide and other busses had to pick them up at the other side to bring them into the next village.  The river beyond Anse-La-Raye, by an area called Au Pas / Anse Gallet completely flooded too, to the point were cars were backed up all the way up the mountain.  A cow died, it got swept into the river and drowned.   Anyway, that was yesterday.  Enjoy the pictures and videos.  I'm considering making a shirt that says "I survived the Anse-La-Raye Flood of 2009."

A view of the ghetto, a river running through it.  

[Above] Entrance to the village (right by my house); no trips to town today... 

[Above] Where is he going?  

[Above] Bridge street.  

[video one, below]:  A view of the ghetto, the view to the right leads up to my street.  [video two]:  by the field, a kitten was floating by so we snatched it up.  

  

Jumping off a waterfall in Grenada.

On the last waterfall at Seven Sisters... THAT was dangerous. SuperButterfly, the rasta guide for Seven Sisters wasn't there so we climbed it alone (BAD IDEA).

We finally made it to Anse La Roche, a gorgeous secluded beach on the north end of Carriacou.

Paradise Beach on the island of Carriacou. Union Island of the Grenadines is in the background.

Rachel (a PCV on Grenada) and I in Carriacou walking home from the beach.

This Rasta has been growing his locks for 30+ years. He gave us a ride in his pickup truck back from Levera Bay. We made a stop along the way to visit his goat farm where there were 3 baby goats who were only 30 minutes old!

Climbing a coconut tree in Levera Bay, on the northern tip of Grenada.

A donkey on the way to the waterfalls...

And a goat... I didn't kill this one though.

Me and Rachel, a PCV in St. Georges, Grenada overlooking Grande Anse!

Rachel and I hiking up from the Seven Sisters Waterfalls.

I had a bunch of vacation days saved up and decided to spend most of them during the Easter Break on the islands of Grenada and Carriacou, where I visited my Peace Corps friends who serve down there. The islands are about 50 miles south of Saint Lucia.

I realize it might seem like I go on vacation a lot but I really don't. Peace Corps requires volunteers to stay in their villages of assignment for the first and last 3 months of their service so I had to spend these days before the COS conference (Close of Service) in June. Grenada and Carriacou were amazing. I was shocked to see the significant contrasts between those islands and Saint Lucia. Generally, Grenada seemed much more developed. Most of the volunteers had running water, HOT water, and a landline phone/internet. The grocery stores were stocked with much more variety and lower prices, due to Grenada's closer location to South America. The accent was much different and nobody speaks Creole/Patois, which I found myself missing a lot. I stayed on Grenada/Carriacou for 13 days and had a great time, but I missed Anse-La-Raye so much. This is a main cause for my anxiety these days: knowing I have only 3 months left and realizing how much I'm going to miss my village when I finally return home. A part of me is still seriously considering staying in the village for another year or two or five. However, I'm really grateful for the opportunities I have this fall so I am *trying* to stay on track with my plans.

Due to heavy rainfall, the village hasn't had water in 5 days. All I can think about is if Swine Flu hits Saint Lucia, it would be terrible especially with the water issues since people don't wash their hands too much!

I took this video a while ago and have been meaning to post it. One night the village lost power which was terrifying due to the creepy screams and wails I heard coming from outside. I documented this night to prove the uniqueness of the village of Anse-La-Raye. I live right next to a church and they were having a prayer session when the blackout came. People started screaming and crying and I obviously had no idea what was going on. I locked myself in my house and waited out the drama with my machete in hand, wondering what was going on outside and wishing more than anything that I was back in Southbury, Connecticut for those 2 terrifying hours.

Turn up the volume and enjoy!

Toilet? My violin students!

Me and Louise cooking some boullion on my coal pot.

Tap water coming out of my sink: notice the clear, refreshing color.

Sweeping my house in my Creole dress with my Creole broom and Spice Necklace: Cultural Integration.

My Brownies and guides troop when we gave our HIV prevention presentation at Dennery village.

Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary on the island of Bequia, Saint Vincent.

Last weekend I went on a sailing trip to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with 4 other Saint Lucia PC volunteers. An Italian captain down in Soufriere gave all the Peace Corps volunteers on the island a deal for sailing trips on his 43’ yacht, so of course we took advantage. The trip was amazing, and Saint Vincent is beautiful (St. Lucia is better though, of course). It took us about 6 hours to sail from Saint Lucia to Saint Vincent, which was not that fun considering the waves were about 10-12 feet the entire way. But soon enough we reached the north tip of Saint Vincent, a stunning mountainous island which, as our captain informed us, was covered with countless marijuana farms that you could make out from the boat. We spent the first night at Walilabou Bay, which was the setting for most of the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean. The next day we sailed 3 hours to the small island of Bequia (pronounced Beckway) and anchored at a gorgeous harbor where we swam and explored. We went to the island’s famous Old Hegg turtle sanctuary which was actually a lot cooler than it sounds. They rescue thousands of endangered turtles and nurture them during the hunting season until they’re safe to go back in the water. Overall Vincy was nice; checked out a few picturesque beaches and just enjoyed our well-earned vacation together.

Coming back to the village after only a few days away is so difficult because I walk down the road and the villagers yell to me that they haven’t seen me in so long and where have I been and they thought I went back to America for good without saying goodbye, etc. It’s such an ordeal, and I have come to realize how delicate I must be when leaving my community even for a short while. I also realize I need at least a day after every vacation to reassure villagers that: no I would never leave indefinitely without telling them, and to explain to everyone who asks where I was and how the trip went. Welcome to life in the village… everyone knows your business!

The week after my trip to Saint Vincent, my projects really took off. First I had to prepare my Village Youth Orchestra to play for Children’s Sunday in church. They played a Creole song and another instrumental song for Lent. My students are really sounding great these days, and yes I realize I am biased but they never cease to amaze me at their diligence and focus when it comes to their violin/viola. On Wednesday, I was contacted to have the orchestra perform by the village square for the opening construction ceremony for the village bay repairs. Sidenote, the Japanese and Taiwanese are always funding huge development initiatives on Saint Lucia as a way to unofficially bribe the small island nation to support them as larger, powerful countries in the global scene. So, in this instance, the Japanese gave Anse-La-Raye a couple million EC dollars to repair the fishing bay, the jetty, fishing nets and tools, and the fisheries complex. Seeing as Anse-La-Raye is a fishing village and currently suffers from insufficient, outdated resources for its struggling fishing industry, this initiative is geared towards enhancing the village’s natural resource (as it’s located on a perfect little bay), thereby improving economic and employment issues. It’s a great project and definitely addresses some of the village’s most dire needs.

Anyway, there was a fancy opening ceremony to begin construction and they had asked the village youth orchestra to perform. It was last minute but I’m thinking, No Problem. Of course I was unaware that the Saint Lucia Prime Minister would be there, along with the District Representative and about a dozen other Very Important People. So I wish I had more notice to prepare the kids, but they still did a good job. We played a Creole song called Ti Manmay and the government officials loved it. My students and I met the Prime Minister and he was excited to hear of all these special little musicians in the village! What an opportunity for my students—to perform for the Prime Minister!

Tomorrow we are taking the Brownies and Girl Guides to the Sulfur Springs for a health walk and beach day in Soufriere. Last weekend we had a guest speaker come talk to the girls about good decision making and forming healthy habits. The girls are definitely learning a lot through the HIV Prevention / Healthy Lifestyles training program, thanks to the PEPFAR grant we’ve been sponsored by for the past 4 months. I’ve been holding Parent Meetings at my house, where mothers come over and I help them create a strategic plan, action plans, and responsibility delegations for the Brownies and Guides troop. This is imperative considering my service is almost done and I have to ensure the sustainability of my projects. I’m impressed how much these mothers are really taking responsibility for the troop now and are enthusiastic about maintaining its success as one of the most functioning groups in the village. One of the mothers told me the other night, “Don’t worry Lilly-girl, when you’re back in cold America you’ll get a Christmas letter from us with a picture of all the girls smiling in their Brownies uniforms. We promise you!”

Inevitably, I reflect a lot on the prospect of going back to the states in August and cannot believe I will eventually have to leave this village! If I could, I would happily stay here forever (and I’ve seriously considered it). But as my family and friends know, I have a lot to look forward to when I return and at this point I realize I need to reintegrate into the U.S. sooner or later. And of course I am beyond grateful for the opportunities I’ve been offered this coming Fall so I certainly cannot complain. But yes, it scares me to think I only have 5 months left… how did time go so fast? Ayay Ma vle pale kon-sa…

After not seeing my family for a year, we met up in Tortola for a sailing trip in January. Having not left the island since last February, it was overwhelming to be outside my village and out of my element. It was a harsh wake up call of the culture shock awaiting me in August when I finish my Peace Corps service. The sailing trip was fun: we chartered a 38’ catamaran for 10 days and visited all the British Virgin Islands. I found myself missing my village in Saint Lucia more than I expected, and realized how out of place I feel when I’m away from Anse-La-Raye. I never thought I would become so attached to my community, truly considering it to be my home.

Needless to say, it was nice to come back to the village refreshed and ready to resume my work and lifestyle. For Valentines Day, my community partner and I took the Brownies and Girl Guides troop to Dennery village, a large community on the east coast about an hour drive from Anse-La-Raye. The Anse-La-Raye troop brought our HIV prevention posters and taught the other troop about HIV and AIDS. I was so proud of my older girls (12-13 years old); they were great leaders and really showed how much they learned about HIV by explaining the causes and workings of the virus to the Dennery troop and answering questions after the presentation. Afterwards, we all had a Valentine’s Tea Party and the girls made AIDS Awareness bracelets/necklaces. It was really special.

I spent most of February preparing the village orchestra to play traditional Creole Folk songs for Independence Day. We collaborated with the Steel Pan group in the village, and about 15 of my violinists/violists have been practicing diligently in the Pan Shed behind the Primary School. On Friday February 20th, we all performed at the Fish Fry in the village and it was amazing. The orchestra and steel pan played 3 Creole songs together in front of all the tourists and locals at the street party. The villagers loved it and cheered on the little musicians, and we set out a donation box so tourists could give money to support the music program. It was a great success, and we hope to make this a monthly event. It was definitely a sort of culmination of one of the goals of the orchestra project, which was to give at-risk youth an income generating skill. The combination of the village orchestra performing for a community-based tourist attraction and raising funds certainly reassured the success of the project. My students loved it and they are particularly excited for next month since we’ll be performing Bob Marley songs…

Independence Day was a time I’ll never forget. A few weeks ago, I was asked by the village choir (the Cecilian Rays, a group I accompany on the violin often) to accompany them in an Independence Day activity. No problem, I’m thinking—a great way to participate in a cultural activity. I had no idea what I was getting myself into (as always). The choir was to perform a musical-type play called “Life in the Village”, illustrating the olden days lifestyle in Saint Lucia and performing traditional Creole folk music that embodies Lucian culture. Most of this music is undocumented and is passed down from generations by ear, so I had to pick up about 30 songs by ear on the violin. Since the performance was a reenactment of old school village culture, the only musical instruments to accompany the play were myself on the violin, a banjo player, and a congo drummer. The violin is an integral part of Creole music. I must say it was really fun learning all the music and jamming with these musicians. However, I was quite taken aback when the director told me I had to go to Castries to get fitted for my “costume”. I’m here thinking, uh oh what costume? Then I was told this was a pretty big performance and we would be going up to the national Cricket stadium up north and the play would be broadcasted live on national television. So once again, I’m thinking What Costume?! Well of course they dressed me in a traditional Creole dress to play all this folk music onstage with the singers/dancers. It was a sight to see. Talk about cultural integration… Picture of this ordeal is posted above. Yesterday I saw myself on TV and countless villagers excitedly exclaim they see me on TV too. I’m sure half of Saint Lucia is thinking, who IS this blonde girl dressed in a traditional creole outfit playing folk songs on the violin? It was probably one of the best experiences I’ve had on the island…

It was a Dartmouth Track reunion we'll never forget! Track stars Richard Cedrone and Melissa Machaj finally ventured to Saint Lucia to visit me! I can't explain how wonderful it was to see them and catch up after an 18 month hiatus. I've asked them to write their own versions of the visit to add some outside perspective to the blog.

RICKY'S POST:

1/17/09

As I sit here back home in New England where the temperature outside is in the single digits and even more snow is supposed to fall tomorrow, I'm missing the tropical paradise of St. Lucia more and more. This vacation was truly one of the most amazing, memorable times of my life, and I wish I could have stayed for months. I was really happy to be able to be able to stay in Anse-la-Raye, rather than taking a typical Caribbean vacation where you pay 500 bucks a night and stay sheltered in the resort grounds. Being a broke and unemployed recent college grad, this was great for my wallet, but also gave me firsthand exposure to the true character and culture of the island.

First off, I have to thank Lilly for being the best hostess anyone could have asked for. She planned out an action-packed itinerary for us weeks in advance making sure that we got both the tourist and Lucian experience. And she went out of her way to make sure Machaj and I were comfortable and well fed. Speaking of which, she's a surprisingly skilled chef. I'll be honest, I was expecting to have to survive on bananas and coconuts all week. But instead, I woke up almost every morning to a warm loaf of corn or banana bread and a mug of cocoa tea or a PB-Chocolate-Banana shake. I can't wait till she gets home and opens up Lilly's Caribbean Cantina so I can chow down on rice, beans, and cucumbers or tortillas home-made from scratch. Meliss had her hand in a lot of the cooking too, so I don't want to sell her short. I, on the other hand, played the role of dishwasher throughout the trip and occasionally veggie-chopper, when the girls would let me near the food.

I found mostly everyone I met on the island to be very friendly and welcoming. Walking the streets, people would call out "Welcome to beautiful St. Lucia!!" I'm not sure exactly how, but apparently they could tell just by looking at me and Meliss that we were tourists. Also, people tended to be a lot friendlier to the girls. Guys were always calling out "Ehhhh ehhhh" or "Hey Beautiful" or "It's raining outside, wanna cuddle?" I, on the other hand, got no love from the ladies. Oh well, in some ways St. Lucia isn't different from the US at all I guess.

I think my favorite activity was the hike up Petit Piton. For those that don't know, the Pitons are a pair of mountains that have become one of the most recognizable landmarks of the island. In between the two is Jalousie, the beautiful white sand beach that we visited twice. Gros Piton is a tourist attraction with well kept trails that people can pay 50 EC to hike. Petit is the taller, steeper, more perilous twin brother. Fearlessly, Lilly, Justin (a fellow Peace Corps volunteer) and I snuck onto the trail, ignoring the threat of a fine from a few Rastas. What we encountered was the most grueling, treacherous 5 hours of hiking that I could have imagined. Each step took you up about 3 feet. And while we ended up about 50% of the way up after the first hour and a half, it took just as long to traverse the last quarter, which was pretty much a vertical climb. There were parts of the hike where if we had fallen, our lives were literally in danger. I almost turned around at one point that I thought was impossible to keep going up, but Lilly somehow found her way up and compelled me and Justin to keep on. The view from the top though was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, and made all the suffering worthwhile.

I also really enjoyed being an honorary girl guide for one afternoon. I know Lilly appreciated Machaj and me helping make puppets so that she could concentrate on the HIV awareness posters with the older girls. I have a lot of respect for teachers and anyone else who has to deal with big groups of young kids on a daily basis now. I have to admit, I was worn out after only a few hours. But I had a blast, and the work that Lilly is doing with the group is outstanding. In such a male-dominated culture, these girls will benefit tremendously from being educated and empowered at a young age.

So anyways, in conclusion, and as a way to mentally relive the trip, here is a list of everything that I will and will not miss about St. Lucia. Irie bossman, nou kay we.

What I will not miss: rooster alarm clocks; no Taco Bell or MTV; soca music; sweaty, rollercoaster bus rides and the nausea that always follows; cold trickle showers; waiting; sketchy tourists; spontaneous rainstorms

What I will miss most:the grapefruits; karaoke; livestock and stray dogs roaming the streets; snorkeling and crystal blue water; the exchange rate; Piton beer; hitchhiking; the sunsets; Elena's Italian Ice Cream

MELISSA'S POST:

Live. Eat. Pray-EH EH EH

I have taken out my rusty writing skills to try and best describe my personal experience reflecting the first week in the village of Anse-la-Raye from a temporary Peace Corps perspective.

I had no idea what to expect, though I joked with some before arriving that I only hoped that Lilly had a flushing toilet. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Lilly had a wonderful little house in the heart of the village (yes, along with a flushing toilet). However, if I could sum up my reaction to the things experienced during my first week (as evidenced by a multitude of photos with my startled/fearful expression...thanks Lilly haha), it would be complete confusion. I was shocked to see the houses made of scrap metal, stray dogs who wandered the roads and water that was murky and scary to even dip a toe in, let alone drink. This was in stark contrast to the beautiful new cars on the roads, cellphones in the hands of children and an abundance of channels on cable that outnumbered mine at home. I was confused how a village or even the island in general could have such developmental gaps. I felt as though fundamental issues to a quality of life such as clean water in the ocean and faucet were ignored or at least disregarded.

I kept asking questions about everything but was at a loss for the answers I was given. Being from the developed world, we are told that life in limitless, there are no borders to our potential and hard work is rewarded...or at least karma comes around. Being told "it's not in the cards" for those unable to get a basic education and "40% are unemployed" were hard for me to simply acknowledge instead of react with a "reasonable" solution I felt could simply solve their problems. While I have always known that everything comes in shades of gray, I learned quickly that development cannot focus on one area alone and especially not at the rate that naive idealists like myself expect them to happen.

On a side note, Western ideas regarding simple things such as the domestication of dogs broke my heart during my stay. Although, what made my view the "right" one? Either way, my heart goes out to the puppy in Lilly's neighbour's backyard who cried all day and night...poor puppy :(

While I felt a bit awkward the first few days of my visit, the locals were so friendly and welcoming. The village has a definite character that has come from its very interesting residents....from Robert the vagrant to the Snake man. Despite my obvious hesitance, I found the village to be one of my favourite spots in St. Lucia. And yes, the Fish Fry is better there than in Gros Islet. Well, perhaps they could look at hiring the man who balances the tin can on his head while dancing....it's an act that's hard to beat haha :)

Anyways, while the first week was probably the most interesting of my life....no gas, no water, bucket showers, coal pot cooking, the longest church services EVER, I learned the importance of embracing things as they come and enjoying the moment no matter how frustrating or confusing it may all be. Ultimately, it comes down to acceptance and cooperation of all during difficult times.

Peace out.

Love, Cherish (my rasta name...thanks Scar)

Well this was certainly a Christmas to remember. I vividly remember last year’s holiday season (Dec 2007), an uncertain period of my life filled with feelings of isolation, cultural confusion, and missing my family more than I could explain. So much has changed in the past year: I’ve grown to know the village of Anse-La-Raye as my home and family, and the holidays this month were so special and memorable.

I killed a goat on Christmas Eve, talk about cultural integration. A friend of mine showed up at my house early that morning to bring me up to the mountains next to the village. We walked about 2 miles up the hills to meet a lady named Shabin, who had killed 11 pigs the day before—more or less the village animal slaughterer. The funny part is that her husband is a strict Rastafarian and doesn’t eat meat so he apparently gets upset when she kills all these animals. Anyway, we’re up on the hill and here comes Shabin and some others dragging a screaming goat to the rocks. I was petting the goat while the others were preparing for the kill, the goat was very nice and sweet. Then 5 of us held the goat on its side on the rocks as a man stabbed a large knife through it’s neck, wiggling it around to make a golf-sized hole. I had the important job of holding the Tupperware container under the knife/hole to catch all the blood that was draining out slowly and HOT from its neck. The blood is used to make a dish called Blood Pudding-- a tasty holiday treat! The goat continued to kick and scream with its tongue out for a solid 15-20 minutes until all the blood drained out. Overall it was disgusting. I was there holding this container of blood under this suffering goat which we were all going to eat the next day, and everyone is yelling out orders in Creole. Nobody was speaking English, which certainly put my Creole skills to the test especially when they were telling me to do something during the killing and I’m there saying, “pale dous-ma, mwen pa kopwann-ou!” (speak slowly, I don’t understand you). In the end, the goat died a miserable death but we all have to eat so it was necessary. And I must emphasize that NOTHING goes to waste when they cut this animal up. They even cut the head off to make “Manish Water”: you boil the head in a pot of water and feed the broth to your husband to keep him from cheating.

We all sat around as the goat was strung feet first hanging from a mango tree, and cut to pieces. Picture is included, please don’t be mad if you are vegetarian. Afterwards, we brought all the meat down to a nearby river to clean. We used sticks to turn all the intestine tubes inside out to scrape off the leftover fecal matter in the river. Yum.

The next day, Shabin had me over to her little house to teach me to cook the meat. I sat there with a baby in my arms and surrounded by a few little kids and tiny kittens in the small crowded kitchen as the goat stewed for 2-3 hours. Shabin taught me the marinade and how to prepare an array of ground provisions. Since I was the guest, I was given the prized goat heart and hard and soft liver parts. The heart was grainy and stringy with arteries still around it. It was… interesting! What an experience…Bon Fet Noel, kabwit-la. Merry Christmas, goat.

Midnight mass was from 11pm-2am. As always, I played violin at all the masses, and they were really nice services. I had some village friends over for dinner on Christmas Eve. Afterwards, Louise told me my Christmas gift was that she would do my hair for Midnight Mass. Sidenote, Midnight Mass in the village is basically a fashion show—people go all out dressing up for it. So Louise braided my hair all crazy and I was terrified to wear to Church but I did and of course everyone loved it, which I thought was funny. I obviously have no fashion sense here in Anse-La-Raye.

School’s been out for holiday vacation so I’ve been holding violin lessons at my house during the day, and every day this week we had tutors from the School of Music come to the village to teach the kids Creole folk music. They did such a great job, and learned two popular folk songs which they will perform at the National Cultural Center for Independence Day in February. They worked so hard last week that I had a party for them at my house which was really fun and successful considering there were over 15 little kids stuffed in and around my tiny house. They all helped make the dough and arrange the pizzas, and all the little kids were amazing at cleaning all my dishes, my floor, and tables! What wonderful helpers! One of them, a 10-year old boy, said to me, “I had a great time at the party, Miss Lilly, but next time I’m bringing my own steel wool so I can do a better job on the dishes.”

The village ran out of cooking gas for about a week after Christmas. No gas = Coal Pot time! Cooked every meal on my Coal Pot which means that if you’re hungry, it’s a sure thing you won’t eat for about 2 hours because that’s how long the coal pot takes to do anything. Ridiculous but let’s face it there wasn’t much else I could do and it’s nice to cook outside. I have Louise over often enough that we just sit outside by the coal pot and chill while we cook as villagers walk by my yard gate, yelling, “Eh-Eh Lilly’s using a coal pot!”

Overall the holidays were great here in the village. It’s hard to imagine that this might be my last Christmas in Saint Lucia. We’ll see. Who knows where in the world I’ll be next year at this time; all I know is that this past holiday season topped all others and I am so lucky to be in this village. Ricky and Melissa visit Dec. 30 - Jan 13th, can't wait to see them! More updates to come...

You know it’s almost Christmas in Anse-La-Raye when you wake up at 4:30am to the sounds of the choir singing Christmas carols around the village until sunrise! I must say it is much nicer than the rooster crows, although those inevitably follow the caroling. It captures the charm of the village, it really is beautiful.

One of the pictures posted above is of some of my Brownies who made puppets at our recent HIV and Healthy Lifestyles training program activity. We will use these puppets in an upcoming session on values and decision making, where the girls have to use role-playing to manage risky situations and avoid peer pressure. The program is going really well: attendance is great and the girls thoroughly enjoy the activities! The older girls made a presentation to the Primary School on World AIDS day, where they presented their HIV prevention posters and explained risky behaviors, how you get the virus, and how the virus attacks the immune system. They did such a wonderful job! The posters are now up in the Primary School so other children can learn from the girls’ HIV training program.

Another picture is of about half of my orchestra in the Parish Hall after orchestra rehearsal one day. I am so proud of my students, they are doing really well. This past week we performed at the National Cultural Center for a Christmas concert—the kids played Christmas carols (I taught: Oh Come All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, Jingle Bells, and Jolly Old St. Nicholas). School is out for the holidays so this week we are having rehearsals every day with a few musicians from around the island who come to the village for workshops on traditional island Folk music. The students will learn 2-3 folk songs, which we will perform for Independence Day in a couple months. The kids love playing their instruments and practice assiduously! They show up at my house starting at 7:00am for lessons and they get so excited when they earn a star on the infamous Star Chart on the wall—my progress assessment where kids color in a star whenever they memorize an assigned song. This Friday I am having all my students to my house for a pizza party (made from scratch of course) as a reward for all their hard work!

This weekend was great. Friday I went down to the small community of Piaye in the south of the island to meet up with some other peace corps volunteers to make Christmas cookies. On my way there, I met a guy named Snake Man who told me to touch this potato sack he had with him. So I did, and it starts moving all weird and I asked him what was inside. It was a boa constrictor he caught in the mountains behind the village. Saturday there weren’t any buses running on the island due to a national holiday so I hitchhiked for about 4.5 hours all the way back to Anse-La-Raye and at one point was in the back of a pick-up truck huddled under a tarp with 4 Rastas in the pouring rain (the driver knew me from Anse-La-Raye and graciously helped me get home safely). Finally made it back to the village and played in the Soccer-o-rama that my football team organized for the past few weeks. We had a solid turnout and although we didn’t win in the tournament, we raised funds for the upcoming season and had a great time at the event.

Today my village friends showed up at my house early this morning and persuaded me to skip church to go on an excursion. The three of us hiked to a small beach called Anse Gallet about 2 miles from the village. It was so beautiful and tranquil, plus we swam for a bit in the river right next to the beach which I think is the first fresh water swim I’ve had in about 17 months. We had no food so we found some grapefruit and sweet orange trees along the way, climbed them, and gathered a ton of fresh fruit for the day. Picture of this is posted. At the beach, a rasta gave me some freshly caught eel and crab to eat which was delicious. I'm trying to go eel fishing at the same beach next week. This island is paradise, I love my life.

I am also SO EXCITED for Ricky and Melissa to come visit!!! They get here around New Years and I can’t wait to see them and show them the island. It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone from home (about a year since I’ve seen my family). I miss you all! Vini a visite mwen!

Irie tout moun, nou kay we.

Just wanted to post some pictures… I’ve been pretty busy lately with my projects, football, and events around the village. Football is unfortunately over, as we lost our last game—just missing the semi-finals by one place. We tied 6 games and lost the final one, so disappointing! It was a great season though and I had a lot of fun playing with the girls. Every weekend, I’ve been doing the PEPFAR-funded (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief grant) HIV and Healthy Lifestyles training activities with my Brownies and Girl Guides troops, parents, and group leaders. Pictures posted above are from our exercise day hike to Pigeon Point, a stunning landmark on Saint Lucia. We all hiked the mountain then one of the parents did an “exercise routine” with the girls at the top. Everyone had a blast, and we spent the day at the nearby beach afterwards. The project is really successful so far. Last weekend, we did HIV poster-making with the girls at the Parish Hall. They did an excellent job and loved the activity. The little Brownies (age 7-9) made a poster about what HIV and AIDS stand for, showing what each word means. The older girls (age 10-14) did two posters: one on behaviors that put you at risk to getting the virus, and one on how HIV affects the immune system. The next day, we organized a mother-daughter ice cream party in the village churchyard where each girl brought a parent/aunt/sister to present their poster. This was an exemplary capacity-building activity, as each girl taught the guests information about HIV. Last week I also celebrated my 23rd birthday! Some of my girlfriends from the village came over for dinner then we went out to karaoke. I also had a party at my house with some village friends this past weekend, which was a blast. I got a Spice Necklace for my birthday from my friend on Grenada. It’s a crazy necklace that you can smell from about 15 feet away and instead of beads, it’s made from nutmeg, cloves, and about 50 other spices that I can’t name. This week will be pretty hectic, as I’m preparing the village orchestra for 2 performances this coming weekend! Also looking forward to Thanksgiving next week, as all the PCV’s from the island are meeting up in Dennery village for an American feast. Irie, nou kay we.

If I were to characterize the month of October it would be: NO WATER. Over the past few weeks, a bunch of tropical storms passed by the Windward Islands which caused some serious concerns for the village. Rain = no running water. There was a point where the village didn’t see a drop of running water for about 15 days straight. Every time it rained, I would gather up my pots and buckets and run outside to put them under my banana tree leaves for the rain water droplets. I really need to make a rain catcher from my gutter on my house. Anyway, the clean part of the river alongside the village is about a 2 mile walk away but even that was dirty from all the debris swept down from the mountains behind the village. So I had to make due with my little pathetic rain-catcher set-up under my banana trees. It worked; I survived. I was not happy though and after a week of not washing my hair I got desperate and splurged a bottle of my cherished rain water to rinse off my hair. I want to make an announcement to the U.S.A. to never take running water for granted. Irie.

About two weeks ago, a storm passing around the island brought huge waves to the west coast, and Anse-La-Raye was put on warning by NEMO for flooding on the bay street, which is the street over from my house. Sidenote, the village is 3 streets X 3 streets and I live in the middle one. So NEMO was telling my street and bay street to evacuate because the waves were coming over the jetty. I wasn’t about to go to Canaries (the neighboring village, about 30 minutes away), because that road is notorious for landslides during inclement weather, so I stayed put and waited out the flood warning. Obviously everything was ok, but a few areas flooded and all the fishermen had to bring their boats onto bay street, which was a mess. Picture of this is posted above.

This past weekend the island celebrated Creole Day, which is a national holiday devoted to promoting the country’s traditional culture. Everyone dresses up in traditional Creole clothing, eats traditional meals out of Calabash dishes, speaks Creole, and dance/party Creole-style. I went down to the tiny village of Piaye in the southwest of the island with a few other Peace Corps volunteers to celebrate the holiday. There were hundreds of people there; it was a really fun time. Picture of this is posted.

The Brownies and Girl Guides HIV and Healthy Lifestyles training program is still going really well. We had a sleepover a few weekends ago in the Community Parish Hall devoted to values/decision making and how it relates to HIV. It was a great success; I had trained some of the parents to help out with facilitating and we had some really enlightening discussions with the girls about the pressures they face in school and around the community (at such a young age) and ways that we can come together to figure out ways to avoid peer pressure, especially relating to sexual activity. Although these girls are merely 8-13 years old, I learn so much from them. The daily hardships they face in this culture and society are arduous to say the least. Girls as young as 8 years old are being pressured to have sex, and molestation is not uncommon. Not to mention, think about the living conditions here, where many family members live in small, undivided houses. In such a highly sexual culture, children are exposed to sex at a very young age. Marriage is not very common here, so girls especially see their fathers and mothers with multiple sex partners; this causes an array of misconceptions and confusion about holding healthy values about sex, and knowing the extremity of the risks involved (i.e. the staggering rates of teenage pregnancies and HIV). The girls are so open to discussion and are eager to learn the facts about HIV and making sound decisions in such a testing time period of their lives. This project is amazing, I can’t explain how much it is changing my life (and theirs, hopefully!). This weekend we are going to Pigeon Point to do a hike and go to the beach; the theme is promoting healthy lifestyles and proper exercise. I asked one of my girls in the village today if she was coming and she stopped me and said, “Miss Lilly, I wouldn’t miss any of our activities for the WORLD.”

The orchestra is also cruising along. I am currently teaching the children the St. Lucia national anthem and also starting them on Christmas carols. The village will have a Christmas concert in December and we were asked to perform. Also during the Christmas season, the community choir wakes up around 4a.m. on the weekends to sing carols around the village early in the morning. I’m hoping we can incorporate the orchestra into this tradition, and maybe have them play in the village square or do something special like that.

The national soccer tournament I’m in with the village women’s football team is not going as planned. We’ve tied 4 out of 4 games. We are desperately trying to make the playoffs. Last weekend Anse-La-Raye finally got goal posts, a first in years for the village. We had a home game and needless to say the ENTIRE village showed up. I’m not nearly as aggressive in the games as the St. Lucia girls are, and at one point some Rastas watching the game from the side of the field start screaming at me, “Lilly, tifi (girl), play like you’re BLACK!” Ok… apparently I need to work on this.

As I now realize I only have about 9 months left of my service, I’m realizing that I don’t know if I can leave this island. I can’t explain how much this village has changed my life. I am so blessed to have this experience and have so many friends in the village who truly embraced me here. I learn more here on a daily basis about development and social issues than I ever thought possible. I can’t imagine going home. Maybe another Peace Corps tour after this? Another 27 months in South America or Africa? All I know is that I love my work and my simple life and this experience. Nothing can top this! What to do next… Mwen pa sav, nou kay we.

It's been 5 days since my last shower. No water in the village. Well actually that is not true; the village is currently on alert for flooding. A tropical wave is lingering over the island, which means extra stormy weather, no running water, and warnings for landslides/floods. Yesterday I was giving violin/viola/cello lessons in the Primary School and it was pouring rain outside, the electricity was out, and there was terrifying thunder/lightening outside. All of a sudden the teachers are ringing their bells and telling the children to run home quickly because… the village is flooding! So we all had to go home before the roads were covered in water. Anse-La-Raye is very prone to flooding, as the village has open canals running through each street which fill quickly, plus it’s surrounded by mountains so all water ends up in the village. I must say, all this flooding is a tease to me because I haven’t had running water all week and have been showering with a pathetic supply of water from my Nalgene waterbottle, which is miserable sometimes, but what can you do. I realize it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything so I’ll give a general update on my projects:

Community Youth String Orchestra:

This now has over 23 young members, all students in the Primary School (ages 7-14). We have 18 violins, 4 violas, and a cello in the village, which the students bring home and practice diligently. It’s kind of funny considering this is the poorest village on the island, yet it is sporting more string instruments than probably anywhere else in the West Indies. I hold lessons in the morning before school, during school music periods, and after school. Weekends are devoted to large ensembles where we learn Bob Marley songs and jam in my tiny house. Two weeks ago, we played Amazing Grace at the church and the children did such a great job. The congregation broke out in applause but then got yelled at by the priest because… no clapping allowed in church. I’m teaching the students traditional Creole folk music for National Creole Day, coming up later this month. I’m so proud of my students; the orchestra program has really taken off and the kids treasure their instruments. They are so enthusiastic and their faces light up in lessons. Not to mention, it’s an incredible improvement for the village as it makes this community stand out as a musically talented village, now filled with all these little musicians who are learning an income-generating skill to fall back on for the rest of their lives. We are working towards developing a repertoire of Reggae music so that the kids can perform at the village’s weekly Fish Fry (our tourist attraction and 80% of the village’s economic stimulus) in the months to come.

Brownies and Girl Guides Troop:

The Brownies and Girl Guides troop I coordinated setting up earlier this year is proving to be a great success. With over 30 members, each decked out in their beautiful donated T-Shirts (thanks again Teri!), the group gives young girls in the village opportunity to build self-esteem and confidence, enhance camaraderie, and learn practical life skills. Before this group, there were virtually no extra-curricular activities available to young girls in the community. We recently were approved for a grant through PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) to hold a 10-week training program in HIV Prevention and Healthy Lifestyles. It’s an interactive, hands-on approach to teaching the girls about HIV and Healthy Lifestyles, aimed at creating positive change in the community. For instance, instead of teaching them about exercise, we’ll take them on a hike to Pigeon Point. Instead of just teaching them about the food pyramid, we will give them nutritious cooking lessons. Additionally, the program includes a comprehensive HIV prevention component, where the girls learn all about the virus and ways to decrease their risk. They will continuously make posters about the information they learn to post around the community in high-traffic areas, like the health center, community center, schools, church, etc. so that villagers can learn from their findings. Last weekend we had our first activity, where the girls made HIV “Factbooks”. It was amazing, the girls were so interested and energetic. Picture of some girls with factbooks and a page of a factbook are posted above. Also, parents have signed up to volunteer to help out at activities, which means each week I hold meetings at my house where I teach the parents and helpers about the HIV information we’ll be relaying to the children, so there is a lot of hearty capacity building, a Peace Corps favorite! This weekend we’re having a sleepover in the Parish Hall with all the girls, and we’ll be doing HIV skits, making AIDS ribbons, and also a session on values and decision making. By the end of the 10-week program, the girls will have earned the International AIDS Badge to culminate their hard work. I absolutely love this project and find it to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my Peace Corps work.

Other Updates:

Women’s Football Tournament: I’m playing right mid-fielder on the village’s soccer team, we tied the first 2 games of the national tournament. The village just got goal posts so we are anxiously awaiting our first home game. Too bad the field is now flooded…

Other big news, I finally used my Coal Pot last weekend. One of my Girl Guides, who is 12 years old, came over to my house and showed me how to use it. It was inevitably overrated. I had to fan the coals for a good 20 minutes with a banana leaf, and then used my oven rack as a grill to set the vegetables. They kept falling into the coals so I fed the lost vegetables to the scary crabs who invaded my garden. The whole ordeal took about 1.5 hours to cook the vegetables, but I guess it was worth it. I mean, it was a Sunday and lets face it, it’s not like I had anything better to do. I think I’ll get better at it over the next year. If not I always have my neighboring children who know 100X more than me about this kind of stuff… they go, “Miss Lilly you have no idea how to do that, do you?” Story of my life.

The summer came and went; I can’t believe how fast these past few months have flown by. School starts on Monday, which I am excited for because I can tie in my projects with the Brownies/Girl Guides and the Youth Community String Orchestra with the school calendar, curriculum, and support. The PEPFAR grant proposal I wrote with my counterpart for the Brownies HIV training program looks like it’s going to come through, so we are very excited about that! And the orchestra is doing a wonderful job; we just learned Buffalo Soldier last week. Other than that, still working on the same projects, and I was asked by the Village Council today to help them write a strategic plan which I will start with them next week.

A few weeks ago, all the PCV’s of the Eastern Caribbean islands were flown into St. Lucia for the infamous Mid Service Training, a three day affair where we all reunite for the first time in a year and discuss the past 12 months and our upcoming year. Peace Corps put us up in a Pastoral Center up north, where I had my second hot shower of the year and enjoyed a dilapitated air conditioner (but air conditioning nonetheless), which literally felt like I was in a high class spa. I’m not exaggerating, hot showers and a.c. are now instilled in me as luxuries beyond comprehension and I am confident that I will never take them for granted after these 2 years in the Peace Corps. Anyway, it was great to hang out with the volunteers from the other islands and hear what they’ve been up to in their villages. About 12 volunteers came to my house for a few nights, and 4 of them stayed for a week (picture of some of us posted above). It was entertaining to see 12 smelly pcvs stuff themselves into my tiny house; some of them didn’t fit and had to sleep outside on my steps, which worked out fine until we found 2 huge spiders the size of a grown man’s outstretched hand. Not irie. Anyway, all things considered, it was an absolute blast and although I’ve only known the volunteers from other islands for the initial 3 weeks in the Peace Corps during training, they are truly lifelong friends. It’s incredible how close we all are, based solely off our experiences as timid, sweaty peace corps rats, struggling during our early days in the Caribbean. We all partied at the Fish Fry in my village, and went to the beach a lot during their stay.

8 of us hiked Petit Piton (picture posted above) later in the week, which was by far the craziest hike I’ve ever done in my life. It’s the 3rd highest peak on the island, but it is definitely the steepest of the mountains. Literally this mountain is 2500 feet STRAIGHT UP. I’d like to think that I’m accustomed to the 90 degree temperature here on the island, but I swear I did not know that it was physically possible to sweat as much as we did. We barely got halfway up the mountain and it turned to straight rock-climbing, with boulders over 20 feet tall, and only scraggly ropes hanging down from them for us to climb. We all impressed ourselves with our strength to climb in a situation where it was either: go up or fall off the mountain. It was really hard, but awesome. Took about 4-5 hours, which isn’t bad. After the hike we crawled over to the warm mineral baths near the base of the trail where there was a beautiful waterfall of warm mineral water and natural hot tubs. The next day I could barely walk.

On Friday I made arguably the best purchase of my life and got myself a local Coal Pot for the equivalent of about $3 U.S. I will post a picture once I find the lady in the village who sells coal (I’ve been searching for 3 days now). Now I can light the coal pot in my front yard and cook my dinners outside, saving $$ on gas and livin la vida local at the same time. A fisherman in the village is supposed to be bringing me some fresh Red Snapper once he catches it… sometime in the next few days.

Yesterday I went to visit my homestay family in Mon Repos, my first village. It was great to see my host mom and sisters. Little Kessy is coming for a sleepover party at my house next Weds-Friday. She is now 9 years old and we are still best friends. I sat with my host mom for a long while during my visit and she couldn’t believe how “local” I’ve become in the past year. We conversed in Creole (Patois) for most of the time, and she was howling laughter at me, the white girl, speaking the language better than her 17 year old daughter. Anyway, they loaded me up with golden apples and breadfruit pie and it was great to see my old home from last year when I first arrived on the island.

Later this week I am heading down to the airport with the other PCVs to greet the new batch of volunteers who will be starting their service. We can’t wait to meet them! Peace Corps didn’t place anyone in my village, which surprised me but I guess it wouldn’t affect my life here much anyway.

Haven’t had running water in 5 days straight. My dishes are overflowing the sink, I have no clean clothes, and tonight I get to hop into my spaghetti pot to take my wonderful bucket bath.

But at least I have a Coal Pot… beat that!

I heard about some pretty crazy information today. Apparently, Anse-La-Raye was featured on the news a couple nights ago for having particularly poor tap water, among the worst on the island. Ok, I’m thinking, this is something I already knew, and to remedy the situation I use my handy Brita filter (I am aware this probably has minimal effects on the water, but it makes me feel better about myself). What I didn’t know, however, was the severity of the tap water situation. Ready for this? People in the village have been complaining because they are finding small fish come out of their tap. Small fish: coming out of sink taps and water pipes, the same ones that I drink from and bathe in and cook in. I’ve been drinking the tap water since I came to the village; I started off boiling it to sanitize it but then got lazy and just used my Brita. I think after hearing about this fish deal, I’m going to start splurging by buying bottled water. I can’t believe this nonsense. I mean, actually, I can believe it because at this point nothing surprises me, even small freaking fish in the drinking water. Water quality tests in the village are poor, to say the least.

Other big news in the past month: Laura Jane Plummer, one of my bestest friends from good old Dartmouth Track and Field, came to visit me for 8 straight days of fun and adventure. I must say, it was one of the most enjoyable weeks I’ve had on the island. We did everything from mud baths at the sulfur springs up in by the volcano (picture posted above), to staying in a hotel for a night in Gros Islet (where I had my first hot shower in 6 months: heaven!), to enjoying a night out on the town with a boat full of Navy shipmen and random Rastafarians, going to the Fish Fry and dance hall, and we even went farming with some Rastas up in the mountains behind the village, where we cleared a field for about 5 hours with our machetes and planted passion fruit trees. It was so much fun, and I miss her a lot! Come back Laura! I must publicly commend her for being the perfect guest; she was very easy going and open minded, my village LOVED her, and she even started learning some of the Creole Patois. Her favorite phrase is: Ki te mwen bat mize mwen, ale, wonje ko’w. (Translation: Leave me alone, go and fix yourself up). This is a handy phrase to say to the rastas in the ghetto who always call at girls. Also, the water was in our favor during her visit and she only had to take one bucket shower. It’s too bad this bucket shower came at the most inopportune time, when we were gross and muddy after farming. It all worked out though. Lauuuurrrrrraaa!

On Laura’s first night here I brought her to the village’s Queen Pageant show, an annual event that precedes the island’s big Carnival celebration (happening this week). Anyway, this was an exciting show because my little orchestra and I were asked to perform at it (pre-show picture posted above). So I spent the past month or so preparing 8 of my violin students by teaching them Bob Marley’s “Is This Love”. I wrote out the music in basic format and the children played the background notes while I played the melody solo with one of my more advanced students. The week beforehand, the children and I all rehearsed with a band up north, which was such a treat for the kids, they really enjoyed the process. And the performance was awesome; the village loved the music and the show was televised so, once again, many people are calling me telling me they saw me on tv. What’s really cool about this performance is that since the whole village (and people from all over St. Lucia) saw the performance, they are asking us to do more performances. The ultimate goal is to have the kids learn enough reggae, folk, and other island songs so they can start playing monthly at the Fish Fry, as an income-generating event. This will be an incredible opportunity for kids to learn at a young age an income-generating skill that they can fall back on for the rest of their lives.

Also, the Ministry of Education came through and granted Anse-La-Raye Primary School 8 violins, 4 violas, and a cello to supplement the already growing community orchestra. Now I will have over 20 students to manage and train, and eventually we will start playing as a group in church and at village events. Very exciting!

My other projects are going well. Brownies and Girl Guides are anxiously awaiting their t-shirts, which will be arriving this week, we cannot wait! The girls are so excited to wear them! Next month, we hope to start HIV education, life skills development, and healthy lifestyles training with them. My counterpart and I will be writing some grant proposals for this training next week. The village’s Youth and Sports Council is well on its way with the youth leadership training program, which is going very well. Every week, we have guests come in to train and educate the young people of the community. It is working out nicely.

It’s unbelievable that my one-year mark is quickly approaching! This year has flown by. I realize that I need to really manage this next year so that I can get everything finished on time.

I would like to preface this post by sending a public THANK YOU to Teri, again, for offering to donate the Brownies / Girl Guides t-shirts to the girls in the village. After two tiresome carwashes, we managed to raise $347 EC which was short of what we needed for the t-shirts. Teri’s selfless donation was incredibly uplifting here in Anse-La-Raye and the girls are ecstatic to get their shirts. Plus now we can use the $347 EC we raised to hold activities for the girls, such as HIV education and life skills sessions we had planned. Thank you again, we really appreciate it!

These past few weeks flew right by and it is unbelievable that we are already in June. It’s crazy to think that an entire year has past since I graduated from Dartmouth and starting my packing list for the Peace Corps. I am amazed to see how much has changed in 12 months. I can confidently say that my decision to join the Peace Corps was one of the best choices I’ve made in my life.

I’ve posted a cool picture of Anse-La-Raye above; my house is at the bottom left. Anse-La-Raye has been very hot lately. Temperatures are steadily around 90+ degrees, and I am sweating profusely as I write this. Hurricane season officially started June 1st, and I am nervous for these next few months, considering the hurricanes that past through/near the island last year. Hopefully it will be a calm year. It’s been raining a lot lately.

Last week I lost water and it was extremely uncomfortable. I couldn’t wash my hair for a week straight and I felt gross. I had to take bucket showers with my big cooking pot which, trust me, is an arduous task and one that doesn’t make you feel very clean. Picture of my “shower” last week is posted above.

A couple of weeks ago, a few Peace Corps volunteers and I headed up North to Grand Anse, a secluded beach on the Atlantic coast which is famous for its turtles that come to lay their eggs March-May. We brought our Coal Pot and cooked some dinner on the beach, and stayed up for most of the night walking the beach searching for turtles. After some time, we found a leatherback turtle and it was probably the single most incredible creature I’ve ever seen in my life. It weighed over 700 lbs and was estimated to be over 100 years old, according to the locals who we met on the beach. Picture of this monster is posted above. It was an awesome experience and I will definitely be going back there again next year.

This past Monday, a few of us went to Canaries (a neighboring village) to go to the waterfalls back in the rainforest. It was absolutely beautiful—the water was the cleanest I’ve seen on this island. We had lunch back there then made the 4 mile walk back to Canaries, stopping along the way to climb the surrounding trees, collecting heaps of grapefruits, bananas, and cocoa to snack on. It was great.

Lately I’ve been back in training with my football team after a month-long hiatus due to my ankle injury. Apparently the island Football Association announced that a women’s tournament will start hopefully by the end of this month, and continue for the next couple of months. So we’ve been training hard; yesterday we did sprints for literally an hour and I am a little sore this morning. I love working out with the girls though, and I think we are going to do really well in the tournament.

Overall, everything’s great down here. Special thanks to Mattie and Jadah for sending me the most incredible package (again—they just keep getting better!). I felt like it was Christmas, and it’s amazing what a few new shirts, soap, candy, lotion, and letter can do for my spirits down here. I feel like I won the lottery. Thank you so much, you have no idea how happy that made me!!

Lastly, if anyone wants to visit, please email me! The best time to come would be after September, so start planning your trips! Do it!

Press Release: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1339 . This past Tuesday, I had the incredible opportunity to meet the Peace Corps Director… of the world! Yes, Anse-La-Raye had the privilege of welcoming Director Tschetter to the island of Saint Lucia on a trip he took to the Eastern Caribbean. He only visited 6 sites in all the EC and Anse-La-Raye was one of them. He came to the Primary School, along with about 10 other Peace Corps staff members (including the Country Director and the Head of Peace Corps Recruiting), and met with us to discuss projects in the village. After a hearty and typically formal introduction by the school’s principal and the choir, we gathered them all inside the school’s new computer lab and updated them on Anse-La-Raye’s happenings and progress. After explaining my projects to the group, I highlighted the Community String Orchestra program I’m working on and had 4 of my young students play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the violin. We had been practicing diligently for this performance for about 2 weeks and it really paid off, the kids did an excellent job! Plus cameramen were there for the island’s news station so we all made the headline news for the day. I went to Castries the next day and literally about a dozen people stopped me and told me they saw me on TV, playing the violin with the little kids. Yes, I was famous for a good 5 minutes here on Saint Lucia. If you want my autograph, please mail a request form to my secretary.

After the presentation, we all made our way down to the South part of the island and all the island’s Peace Corps volunteers got to have lunch with the Director and his posse. It was delicious. Afterwards, a few of us headed down to Sandy Beach and hung out for a while, then made our way back up the East coast of the island, completing a tiresome around-the-island tour to get back to our villages. Overall, meeting the Director of the Peace Corps was such an honor. He and his co-workers were so kind and easy-going, and they were truly a pleasure to talk to. It was an amazing opportunity, and Anse-La-Raye was lucky to have them here!

Last weekend, I went to Saint Lucia JazzFest with a couple of other volunteers. It’s an internationally-renowned event in which the island offers a 4 day weekend of hosting famous musicians and singers. We went to see Dionne Worwick, Angie Stone, a Cuban band which I forget the name of, and Wycleff. It was awesome. The concert took place at Pigeon Island, a historical landmark in the north of the island which is absolutely stunning, so the atmosphere was great. And the music was wonderful; we all had a great time. Picture of this is posted above.

On Saturday, the Girl Guides troop I’m in the midst of helping to set up had their first fund-raiser as a group, and it was a great success! We decided to hold a Car Wash on Saturday morning, with a goal of raising money to pay for Brownies / Girl Guides t-shirts, which cost $15 E.C. a piece (about $5 U.S.). Needless to say, this is financially burdensome to many families in the village, so we figured we would try to raise funds to pay for them without familial input. The girls were so enthusiastic, it was wonderful. They all showed up at the village’s bus shanty Saturday morning with buckets, rags, and washing soap. We had made signs with the girls a few days earlier so we all stood on the side of the road, near the bus shanty, and screamed at every car that drove by. At first, business was slow. But eventually, we got 32 girls lined up on the side of the road, screaming out CAR WASH! to the passing cars. The cars couldn’t ignore us, and soon enough they were lining up to get washed, for $10 (or best offer). In fact, there were some points were we had too many cars to wash; it became really difficult because the girls had to keep running to the public water pipe down the street to fill their buckets, then run back to rinse the cars. Incredibly, even the young boys in the Primary School were helping out, taking over the tiring chore of carrying water in buckets from the water pipe to the cars. It worked out really well, and in 3 hours we raised $230 E.C.. I think we are going to do the car wash again next weekend to pay for the remaining amount for the t-shirts (we need about $220EC more). All the kids had such a great time though, so I think it will be another success. Picture posted above.

My other projects in the village are keeping me pretty busy. The Physical Education program I’m running in the school has been really successful; in the past 3 months, 71% of my students have improved their mile times. In terms of the Community String Orchestra, we are still waiting on funding / trying to find funding. But we already have about 10 kids in the village who have purchased violins, so I am teaching lessons almost every day (see picture!). The kids are learning violin really quickly. I was asked to play in a Queen Pageant show in late June for the village, and I think I’m going to try to teach my violin students some Bob Marley songs for that.

Lastly, my ankle is healing very slowly and is pretty annoying at this point, 4 weeks into the injury. My two big toenails are ready to fall off due to other soccer injuries. I will keep you posted on this development.

One last Saint Lucian story: As always, I went to church this morning (Sunday) to play violin for the mass. The priest was about 35 minutes late. A rooster found it’s way into the church and onto the altar, where it hid behind a side altar for most of the mass, clucking and making all sorts of noises. As the priest was preparing communion, the rooster flies out of nowhere about 10 feet into the air, just missing the priest’s head, plummeting onto the floor. What? Yes, welcome to Anse-La-Raye mass.

Pictures posted above are of my back yard. Now you can see my beautiful pull-up bar. Other picture is of the Rasta, Michael, who came to my house a couple days ago because he heard from someone in the village that I needed to get the crabs out of my backyard so I can start planting my garden. So he shows up at my house with this wooden crate which ends up being a homemade crab-catcher. He puts a mango peel in the box, and the idea is that the crab will come out from his hole and eat the peel which will cause the box to close, catching the crab inside. Michael asked if he could have the crab to sell after it gets caught. I said definitely! So random…

Also, other pictures are of me and my friends Suspect and Louise planting my garden the next day. We were out there all afternoon and it was such a fun time. Suspect is a farmer back behind the village so he knows everything about gardening. I learned so much! So far we cleared out the area in my back yard, dug up the soil, and planted lettuce, pepper trees, and pumpkin. Suspect is going to let me come along and work with him on his farm for a day sometime in the next couple of weeks; can’t wait!

Last picture above is of me at Sandals! I tried to get a shot of me in front of the bride and groom who were getting married behind us. I had won a free dinner there about 5 months back so Justin, a fellow PCV from up in the mountains, and I went together and pigged out. We ate so much food, and it was absolutely delicious. Seriously, we stayed there for about 6 hours, strategically eating and drinking little bits in each restaurant so we could maximize the free dinner! It was a success. Afterwards, we luckily got a ride back to my village around midnight and went to the fish fry for a while, which was packed and fun. I miss Sandals a LOT right now.

Last weekend all the Peace Corps volunteers headed to the southern tip of the island, to the village of Laborie, to celebrate a fellow volunteer’s birthday. I hadn’t been to Laborie since Phase Two of training (back in August) and it was nice to visit my second homestay family and local friends over there. My old homestay family loaded me up with mangoes and tomatoes from their farm. All the volunteers had an awesome party on the beach for the whole day, where we played cricket, swam, ate grilled fish, and drank rum. A typical St. Lucian celebration! We all had such a fun time, and it was wonderful to go back to the southern part of the island. It’s incredible how different the north is from the south on this island. Anse La Raye is so compact and, well, poor, and is an area of mountains and valleys and bays. Laborie, on the other hand, is much better off in terms of its economy and living conditions, and it’s primarily a farming community so the air is very fresh. I realized after my visit down south how Anse La Raye is really polluted, much more than other areas of the island.

After the beach party, a couple of us went to Piaye, a neighboring southern village to stay for the weekend at a volunteer’s house (Jessica). We went to a beautiful waterfall back in the rainforest where we jumped off rocks into the naturally formed freshwater pool. It took us a good 45 minutes to hike there, but it was well worth it. There were a bunch of locals at the falls when we got there and they graciously welcomed us and fed us tons of food they made inside a cave. Seriously, they brought a bunch of cast iron pans with them and cooked their food on top of a fire inside a cave by the waterfalls. It was great until the Rastas got too drunk to function and started climbing the rock walls surrounding the waterfalls and jumping 40+ feet into murky water. Not irie. Overall though, the weekend was so fun and I loved visiting the south of the island.

Monday morning, I came back to the village and had a normal day. Until football practice. I was playing on the dirt field with my football team, and we were scrimmaging in a pickup game. Hopefully by now you have a feeling of how much of a contact sport football is here. So I was trying to get the ball from my friend Exina (like the Warrior Princess!), and somehow I managed to roll my ankle really bad. I felt something tear and was on the ground unable to get up. My teammates and coach came over and helped me up, but I knew something was wrong. Next morning, I couldn’t walk and my ankle was really swollen so I called my medical officer and she made me go to the Emergency Room because she said it sounded like something was broken or fractured. Yikes. So I hobbled over to catch a bus and made my way to the Capital. I waited 1.5 hours at the bus shanty because Peace Corps couldn’t find its messenger/driver guy to drive me to the hospital. And all the while I was thinking, great, I broke my ankle! Even worse, some Lucian men had the nerve to hit on me at the bus stop even though I was crying and visually in pain… I told them don’t bother me—now is definitely not the time, and no I will not marry you! Finally I got to the emergency room. I must emphasize here how utterly nerve racking it is to go to an emergency room in a foreign country, especially when you’re all alone. Not cool. You may or may not recall my previous trip to the emergency room, when I had an allergic reaction to roasting cashew nuts in the mountains with some rastas back in September. Anyway, this emergency room is not what I’m used to in America. It is literally a small room with four green curtains that separate a tiny space into 4 tinier curtain rooms. So I’m laying in this little curtain room for about an hour, waiting for the X-Ray technician to be found, because apparently the hospital couldn’t find him—they said maybe he was on his lunch break or out with his buddies? We didn’t know. I waited by myself on the hospital bed, looking up at the flickering fluorescent light above me, crying at this point because not only am I in the emergency room, but the freaking hospital can’t find the X-Ray guy. What! I called my parents and they were comforting. A nurse gave me a block of ice to put on my foot. An hour later, the x-ray man was found and I was wheeled down to the X-Ray room. Thankfully, no breaks. But I did manage to tear the ligaments and thus am stuck with a pretty annoying sprain.

There is, however, an upside to this injury! Most of the villagers have seen me limping around the village with my ankle all wrapped up and I think they feel bad for me, because about a half a dozen people have brought me all sorts of food. Yesterday 3 different people brought me heaps of mangoes. I am in mango heaven. Someone brought me plantains. Someone brought me a seasoned pepper tree and a sweet potato that is literally the size of my head. Picture of this is posted above. Random food, but very nice. People really take care of me here; it is such a wonderful feeling. It makes me realize how lucky I am to be in a village like this. And even luckier to have such a surplus of mangoes!

Pictures posted above are of the Infant School’s annual Sports Day. Similar to the Primary school’s, all the little students in the Infant School participate in fun competitions out on the field. On Thursday, all the children went on a Health Walk up Au Tabor Heights. On Friday, we had a whole day of activities, including potato sack races, fill the bottle, jump til you drop, lime and spoon races, dress for school, three-legged relays, etc. It was really fun and the kids were so excited to participate. After Friday’s activities, Jessica (a volunteer from Piaye—southern part of the island) came to Anse La Raye with her friend who was visiting from home. We all went to the beach Friday afternoon for a swim, then went out to the Fish Fry later that night. The next day we all made our way down to Laborie for the weekend…

Soccerama

After training for the past few weeks, the village’s women’s football team participated in a soccerama yesterday, and it was a great time. The name of the team is the Anse-La-Raye Sting Rays, and this is the same team I’ve been playing with since I arrived in the village in September. It’s an eccentric group of young women, and we train on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays on the dirt field during the off season (season starts up again in September). Anyway, we played at this soccerama tournament yesterday in Micoud, in the southeast part of the island. I’m going to start describing this by giving you an idea of how people view time here. Or don’t view time. I had to miss playing the violin in church, but the team had agreed to meet at the bus stand for our transportation at 10am so I was there right at 10. Typical punctual American. Let me just say that the tournament was supposed to start at 10am, and it is 1.5 hours away. So already we are late. 10am and I am the only one at the bus stand. 10:15, still the only one. 10:30 a teammate shows up, but sees nobody is there so she said she’ll be right back (this is a trap: whenever St. Lucians say this, it means they’ll be back in an hour or two!). 11, one person is there. 11:30, 3 people show up. At this point, the tournament people in Micoud are calling our coach, asking where we are. It was supposed to start 1.5 hours ago and we still have a 1.5 hour drive to get there. 12pm comes around and finally we scraped up 11 players from the village, found them, put them in the bus, and made our trip down to the south of the Island. We finally got to Micoud and we were 3.5 hours late. I’ve gotten quite accustomed to this time issue here, but I must say that it never ceases to surprise me how little people regard time in the Caribbean. Sidenote, one of the players couldn’t come because she had to take a shower. Yes, at 12pm we called her and asked her if she was coming and she said, “I can’t, I have to bathe right now.” A very odd excuse. Cultural differences, I guess.

Anyway, the tournament, once we finally got there, was an absolute blast. We had such a great time and did pretty well too. There were 5 teams and each played each other for 20 minutes. Each game win got 3 points. The two teams with the most points got to play in the finals. We won 4 and tied 1, so we made it to the finals. I played every full game, at right midfield. Another sidenote, this is not high-school-friendly-style soccer. It is just about the roughest sport I’ve ever played, even more so than when I played ice-hockey back in the day. I mean, we got there and I heard that the referee was actually checking girls’ nails to make sure they weren’t too dangerous. Every time I play football here, I get scratched like crazy. During one game, a girl from another team and a goalie from another team got into a fist fight. I’m talking an all-out fistfight right there in the middle of the field: punches, kicking, wrestling each other to the ground, more punches, etc. I’ve never seen an actual fist fight between two women before. Try watching that, knowing that you’ll have to play that same team in less than 20 minutes. It’s pretty intense. Anyway, Anse-La-Raye did really well but during the final game, we lost 2-0. In our defense, we didn’t have a goalie so we had to put someone in the net who had no idea about the position. If we had a goalie (she couldn’t come, we couldn’t find her), we would have won no doubt, but we came in second place instead. The team won $150 EC which will go towards the club account for the future. We also got silver medals. And a case of Malta (?).

Overall, yesterday was so much fun. The soccerama was awesome. It was a party and tournament in one: there were probably over 300 people from Micoud there to watch the tournament, music was blasting the whole time, people were getting wasted and pestering from the sidelines, it was hilarious. I had such a good time with my team, the girls are such a fun group and it was a real team-building event. Can’t wait til the next tournament!

Can’t believe it’s April already… not that months matter much down here because there are no seasonal changes, something I’ve gotten too used to. 85 and sunny everyday. It’s been nice being on the 2-week long Easter vacation from school. It allows me more time to write proposals and meet with people or groups. This past weekend Peace Corps invited the volunteers and chosen community partners to attend a life skills training workshop which was really informative. I know it sounds like I’m always at training, but it really isn’t that often. Anyway, this training helped me and my community partner put into place a project plan for the year regarding a leadership development training project for the Anse-La-Raye youth group. After we set up the plan, we met with the group’s advisors and put together the project proposal for funding through PEPFAR, a grant available for HIV/AIDS prevention and education. The interesting thing about this grant is that you can be really creative with how you present your proposal. For instance, at first glance one wouldn’t think that getting a DVD player and television for a youth group meeting room would help decrease their risk of getting HIV. But, you’d be surprised. If we use that DVD player to show weekly movies or training videos and prompt these at-risk teens to discuss issues affecting the youth, they will become more perceptive to everyday decisions that affect their health and lives. Plus, if they are inside watching a movie on a Friday night instead of out in the ghetto buying drugs or having sex at, say, 12 years old, they are less likely to get HIV. With time, enhancing social interactions in healthy, risk-free environments will decrease teens’ risks to contracting the virus. It’s all inter-connected. Anyway, this is an example of how seemingly small projects can have a big effect on the development of a community.

Overall, life is good in the village. The village’s women’s soccer team started up training again so I go to practice as often as possible. We have a soccerama competition this Sunday in Micoud which I am looking forward to. I’ve been going to the beach a lot and swimming since I have more time now that school is out for a bit. I am also thoroughly enjoying my new pull-up bar.

Lastly, I would like to give a hearty shout-out to Jadah Chatterton-Richmond for sending me the most wonderful package (her second!). I’ve never in my life been so thrilled to eat peanut butter cups and Cadbury cream eggs. The package was an American Easter in a box. Isn’t she nice? Thank you Jadah, a letter will be coming shortly.

I hope spring is finally arrived for everyone in the States. I miss seasons! And my friends and family! Hello everyone.

School is out for a two week break so thankfully I’ve had some time to settle down and take a breather. The Primary School ended the term with their annual Athletics Competition, in which the students broke up into 5 different colored teams (“houses”) and took part in various running events. The village’s field was painted with a track and lanes, and all the age groups had their short and long distance races. I, along with about 5 other men, was a stop-watch timer and spent the day in the blistering heat timing race after race. Picture posted above. It was awesome, and I enjoyed watching my students run, especially after the 10 week physical education program I’ve been working on with them. I must say, preparing the children for the races was fun and it paid off. We had done a lot of work on starts, sprinting drills, endurance, breathing, and even baton-passing for the relay races so I think the phys. Ed. program was helpful. Next week I will be passing on a proposal I’ve prepared onto the Ministry of Education to try to get more sports equipment for this term’s physical education program. So far we have a gravel yard and… that’s it.

Wednesday and Thursday brought huge warnings to the island for severe weather. Anse-La-Raye and the entire West Coast of the island were predicted to have 15-18 foot waves. I was scared, especially considering the entire village is at sea level and my house is less than 100 feet from the water. The swells off the village only got to about 8 feet or so, yet the front part of the village, about 50 feet from my house got flooded. Picture of this is posted above.

On Saturday morning at 5:30am I woke up to go to a health walk with one of the organizations I work with. It was an activity we planned to try to test, in a sense, the mobilization of the club’s members by seeing how many people would participate in a morning exercise event. Nobody showed up. Well, 4 people did but these were the same 4 people who planned it. So the club didn’t do the walk. Typical. But, two guys from the village (one of the guy’s name was Reggae which I think is an awesome name) asked me if I wanted to go for a “loop” around the Anse-La-Raye full constituency and I said, hey I’m up at 5:30am anyway, I might as well do something. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This “loop” ended up being a 12+ mile adventure. We ran the first 5 or 6 miles, then ran/walked the rest. It took us about 3 hours, and we stopped at the waterfalls behind the village on our way back which was cool. By the time we finished, my legs felt like they were going to collapse on each other. It was pretty tough but the scenery was beautiful and I felt good the next day. Sore, but good.

Sunday was Easter, which meant I played violin at 3-hour masses on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Lots of church. Too much church. Some friends and I went to the beach afterwards on Sunday and threw the football around for a while (thanks Max) and swam. Holidays are the toughest for me here because I think about home, family, and friends the most. I realize how much we often take for granted little things in life, like having dinner with family, or spending time with people you’ve known for longer than 8 months. I think I’ll always hold this newfound appreciation for being home after my 27 month service is up. Peace Corps is an extremely isolating experience, mainly because you are plopped into a village of people who know little about your background and past—who only know 8 months of your life. For me, the loneliness and isolation I get from this aspect of my experience is the hardest part of my service.

Anyway, on a brighter note, I am very excited because I started making my own yogurt which is a huge deal for me. This is going to save me upwards of $6EC a week, or $2 U.S. Nice. It’s a lot easier than I though to make. If someone asked me a year ago if I ever saw myself making yogurt from scratch, I would tell them they’re crazy.

I was recently informed that due to my scarce entries, blog morale has steadily decreased. I will make every effort to write more updates. Internet access is worse than ever: I am down to once per month. I will try to keep updates on my jump drive so when I can go online, I will just dump out all my entries at once. Dump, Dump, Dump, Bertz’s and Charlotte.

I just got back on Saturday from a perfect sailing trip with my family. Mom, Dad, Max, and Charlotte all met up with me in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, where we hopped aboard our chartered 38’ Catamaran named Sigh. We sailed around the islands for 8 days and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We snorkeled with 4 foot barracuda off the boat. Charlotte posed for pretend family photos. Mom told me I need to eat more apples and steaks, so I will be going to search for those at the market tomorrow. Dad said BabaBouey-BabaBouey a lot and talked nonsense on the radio (very much illegal in the boating world). Max got angry at me for stepping into the 1-foot by 1-foot kitchen in the galley when he was frying onions, but he was only mad for a second. We all had such a fun time and the Virgin Islands are beautiful. Overall it was an incredible trip, and I cannot explain how nice it was to see my family for a week. I don’t think I’ll be seeing them again until September or December.

Adjusting back to the village after such a perfect vacation is tough, but it’s all part of the job. I came home to find out that the old man who rings the church bells in the morning died of an asthma attack. He was my best friend’s (Louise)’s mother’s husband. I played violin at his funeral yesterday. I also went to the school for my daily Physical Education classes with the students; we practiced relay races, strength training, and suicide runs. They love running. The village has their annual Athletics competition this Friday, so all the children are really excited to participate in the long and short distance races. I’ve also been keeping busy with some proposal writing. I’ve been serving on the steering committee for the village’s newly launched Community Development Association, aimed at deciphering the village’s biggest problems and creating strategic plans to remedy each issue. This is a 15-25 year task. And it’s quite ambitious, considering the current state of the village. I’ve assisted the group in writing an Environmental Education Development Project proposal for materials and funding, which I completed this morning. I am also in the process of helping a stakeholder in musical development in the village write a proposal to fund a music center for Anse-La-Raye, which would be huge. We already identified 3 families in the village who are willing to buy a violin each, so that we can start with a modest string program and build up from there.

Also, I have had a pet gecko in my house since the day I moved in here and it is getting a little too comfortable. He lives behind my couch and goes to the bathroom about twice an hour. So when I came back from vacation, there was a lot to clean up.

The chickens ate up all my little plants in my garden. I think I can salvage the melons and the onions, but the tomatoes and carrots are done. I will try again once my friend named Suspect gets me the planting soil he promised me from his farm.

More updates to come… keep checking! It’s hard for me to tell who reads this anymore… anyone? (Besides Dad and Charlottte)

**PICTURES POSTED are of my dinner last week. Most of my neighbors are fishermen so I guess it’s not that surprising when one of the girls who always hangs around my house—her father came by and gave me a whole bag of fish. I was really excited about this until I peaked inside the bag and saw those little fish eyes staring back at me. Not exactly a filet of fresh salmon… I didn’t know what to do with it so I kept it in my freezer and thought about it for a week. And finally I asked one of the women in my walking club what to do with it. She graciously piled my arms with a bunch of green figs (ground provisions) and sent her little cousin to my house to help me prepare a fishy St. Lucian dinner. It ended up being pretty good. Weird, but good.

It’s pretty incredible that I’ve been here for over 6 months now—nearly 25% done with my Peace Corps service, yikes. The weeks and months have been flying by, and I guess that’s a good sign. I don’t want it to go by too fast though. Blogs are few and far between due to no internet access. It’s been really tough keeping in contact with everyone but I hope you all know you are missed. A lot! Here’s a brief update on my life:

A couple of weeks ago I had a training workshop with the other Peace Corps volunteers on the Island. It was nice to see all of them; we stayed at a nun’s convent up north for 3 days and it was beautiful. We had some pretty tedious training on Project Design and Management, learning the in’s and out’s of the community development cycle, helping people and organizations to identify resources, recognize priorities, establish goals, objectives, indicators, create action plans, timelines, budgeting, the works. This is the format that PC volunteers are supposed to follow as community development workers, and I think it’s a great model, it’s just unbelievably difficult to implement in my setting. Nevertheless, I came back from the workshop ready to tackle my projects. I’ve started with the library program in the Infant School—I helped set up the library last term, and now it’s time to implement it’s use in an improved literacy program for the infant school students. I also am fully enjoying my project in the Primary School: the principal asked for my assistance in setting up the school’s Physical Education program, so I went around and interviewed every teacher to see what kinds of needs were expressed, and what they hoped to see from a P.E. program. I was surprised to see that I could manage to put together a complete project outline for the program based off of mini 5-minute interviews with the teachers—not an easy task. The program started this week though, and so far it’s off to a great start. I’m introducing an emphasis on healthy lifestyles and exercise—a must considering the staggering statistics of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in the village. The kids are so enthusiastic, and many of them have begged me to join the little exercise club I’ve pulled together after school with a dozen or so women in the village. Sure enough, a handful of kids consistently come to my door at 4:00pm every afternoon, pick my guava tree, and yell for me to come out for our daily exercise—usually a 3 or 4 mile walk or a run. Depending on which route we take, sometimes we’ll come back with our arms filled with grapefruits and cocoa we picked on our walk. You’ll never go starving in St. Lucia. The women I walk with are great too, and this time is usually the optimal Patois lesson for me.

In the evenings, I either have my violin lessons with students, tutor struggling kids, or entertain friends or children who often stop by my house. Almost every night, I have a meeting with an organization or club I work with. I’ve joined virtually every club in the village and am assisting them in using more strategic planning and devising action plans to help their club move forward. Same goes for the Youth and Sports council, another big project.

Other than work, life in general is always exciting here. Last Friday I was at the Fish Fry with my friends and we were standing on the street, watching karaoke (inevitably entertaining). All of a sudden, some white tourist lady across from us starts screaming for help—her husband (who was lying on my friend’s front door—right next to karaoke) stopped breathing. She was trying to hit his chest to get him breathing again, and I was panicking watching all of this unfold. Most of this panic came from the crowd of locals who surrounded the man, nobody helping, everyone just looking on at this emergency. I got the people some bottled water from a store and by then the man seemed shaken up, but at least he was breathing again. Then, of course, some crazy man from the village comes to the poor guy with a bundle of bay leaves to “cure him” with his voodoo. Some other local gets really mad at this and decides to throw the voodoo guy over the gates into the village square. But the voodoo guy’s shirt got caught on the spikes of the village square gates, so he’s just dangling there with his bay leaves, trying to get loose. By the time he gets up and re-assembles his crumpled bay leaves, he has a huge stone in his hand, threatening to throw it at the crowd who is now laughing at him. Meanwhile, I’m trying to register all of this and make sense of it. But I soon gave up because it made no sense—this is Anse-La-Raye for you. Crazy place. Oh and the guy who stopped breathing eventually left and I hope he is ok. Lesson #1: never drink St. Lucian spiced rum.

I’m currently being tortured by a mosquito so I’m going to sign off here. Plus I’m terribly distracted by the Baptist church that is in session—about 5 feet from my house. Praise the lord! Halleluliah! (Repeat that for 2 hours straight and you’ll know how I feel). Until next time, bon swa.

Pictures above are of my new best friend, little Miss Kelly. Her other name is Linsey, so you can call her that too. Or Urskin. Why people have so many names down here is a mystery to me. She is over at my house all the time. She does my hair for me sometimes. She is 5 years old and can say most of the alphabet, except she always misses the letters N and S.

My life is pretty much perfect down here. My new house is awesome. Friends are always over and my neighboring kids are basically my own children. They come over all the time and play with the slinky my parents gave me (thanks Dad).

The last picture above is of a street party I went to last week. It was a toy sale for the children in my village, and after the sale, every single kid was running around with those candy cigarrettes and toy cap guns. Such educational toys! Anyway, at this party, people put up a huge pole on the beach, probably around 30 feet tall. Then they covered it with 5 buckets of grease and put a bag of rum at the top. Whoever got to the top of this greasy pole won the bag of rum. This was probably the most entertaining thing I've seen since I've been here. I have a video of everyone falling down but the video is too big to load. Hilarious though.

Tomorrow all the peace corps volunteers go up north to stay at a convent for a reconnect training for 3 days. My project report of my village was 16 pages long and I'm so happy I'm done with it! I have to get back to my village now--I'm in the capital currently-- but I will upload some past blogs that I never posted. So check them out, they are listed under November 18 and December 2. Enjoy!

I felt it necessary to devote the title of this post to the roosters in my village. The roosters are really incredible animals. If one cock-a-doodle-doo's, it sets up the entire village and soon the whole place is crowing with rooster cries. It's a little disturbing and is a serious problem. I'm finally getting used to them and can sleep at night. My first night in my new house though, I got maybe 20 minutes of sleep. The roosters were insane plus I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Thankfully, the next day a guy who lives near my came to my house to put up my mosquito net and since then it's been perfect. I moved to my new house down in the village Dec. 26th. I absolutley love it. It's a cute little St. Lucian style house on Church Street. Friends and children stop by all the time, which is different from when I lived up on the mountain. It was isolating up there. My yard has plantain trees, lime trees, guava trees, and a seasoned pepper tree, awesome. This past week has been packed with parties for christmas, baptisms, and new years. It's been a lot of fun but I am pretty worn out from all the partying. My girlfriends helped me make my first Bouillon the other day-- a one pot st. lucian dish. It was pretty good. I have so much leftover though, so I've been making lunch for the children on my street every day. My parents and brother visited last week and we had an awesome time. The picture attached is of us at Jalousie, a little beach in between the Pitons. Lastly, if you haven't noticed, I don't have internet so I apologize for not keeping in touch. I check email about twice a month now, so if you don't get a response, be patient!

Sorry about the delay in the blogging. It seems something, goats or rats maybe, ate up my ethernet cable that was strung to my neighbor's house. I'm very upset about this. I'll be moving to a new house down in the village in January and I hear I might be able to pick up a wireless signal from across the street. But until then, internet access is very limited.

Until then, here are the top stories of my life:

1. Earthquake hit St. Lucia last Thursday, it was a 7.4 and one of the biggest in years. It hit off the coast of Martinique, our neighboring island. It was pretty shaky and scarry! I searched the ocean from my balcony for a tsunami that thankfully never came.

2. I got stung by a jellyfish Saturday when I was at the beach swimming. The sea was all rough and weird because of the quake.

3. I got offered free drugs by a guy with gold teeth yesterday on my walk to the village. But I guess this is somewhat normal...

4. I ran the Sandals 10k a couple weeks ago and it was the most painful experience of my life. I ran a world record setting time of 64 minutes. Beat that.

5. My parents and brother are coming to visit on Thursday for a week and it's going to be a paaartay.

6. Some guy in the ghetto of my village got beat up by his girlfriend's cousin, who used a hammer as a weapon, because the guy had beat up the girlfriend and he was getting him back. Very nice.

7. I move to my new house in the village in the last week of December. No more 2 mile walks everyday.

A couple of days ago, I was walking down the hill to my village and a souped up, flashy car stops beside me. A man inside with gold teeth and dreads proceeds to hit on me for about 10 minutes, driving slowly next to me as I walk. First question (and obviously very relevant!?) “Are you married?” I respond, Of course I am, you’re not? Second question “I’d like to take you out sometime”…. Not really a question but still I respond “Oh, that’s too bad-- I don’t like to go out.” Third question “Are you living here?” Yes of course. And last but not least, the icing on the cake: “I can get you drugs.” Score! What a catch! I mean, he had me at the married question, but now drugs are available? Yes! I turned to the man, who was smiling with his gold teeth and I said, look at me—I’m walking to the village in professional clothes, carrying a violin, a blatant Peace Corps volunteer—does it look like I do drugs? And he thought for a moment, and sadly responded “No.” All of this conversation, by the way, was occurring on the busy street, his car on the opposite side of the road so cars had to go around/through us the entire time. I just don’t understand it.

Other exciting news: I survived my first earthquake! On Thursday, there was a pretty big earthquake 90 miles deep off the coast of Martinique, our neighboring island (I can see it from my house). The earthquake was a 7.4 and they felt it all the way in California, it was that big. I was alone in my house and thought the world was coming to an end. Everything started shaking and at first I thought it was construction work or I the clothes dryer was on high. Then I realized I’m not in America and I don’t have a dryer. And the shaking got worse and worse. I ran outside, along with most of the people on my street and everyone was freaking out. It lasted for about 30 seconds maybe, with a few aftershocks. It was pretty scary. I spend a while out on my balcony afterwards, searching the ocean for a tsunami that thankfully never came. It was all very exciting.

Went to the beach yesterday and the waves were abnormally large, I wonder if that has anything to do with the earthquake? Or maybe the currents were just weird, because there was a lot of debris in the water. I got stung by a bright blue jellyfish. It hurt pretty bad and I ran out of the water and saw it clinging to my stomach. I had to peel off its tenacles from all over my body. It itches a lot today.

My family is coming to visit on Thursday and I am very excited! Off to church and then a day of relaxing…

I had a pretty eventful and enjoyable weekend. Friday night I went to the Fish Fry in my village and had a great time. I was just liming around, watching my local friends sing karaoke at the corner rum shop—a typical good time. I met one of my students’ mom and another girl who was my age; they somehow recruited me to sell peanuts and popcorn with them around the village at around 10pm so I went with them. It soon started to downpour and we had to run for shelter. Somehow we wound up in some kind of shop run by Rastafarians that had posters of Haile Salliese (spelling?), the sort of god of Rastafarianism. Bob Marley was blasting right next to my ear and I was surrounded by Rastas with dreads down to their waists—all of them just chilling, listening to Bob Marley. Eventually I realized I was more or less in the middle of a drug dealing shack so we ran away.

Yesterday (Saturday), me, Andy, Jessica, Sam, and Eric all went to Justin’s house (all fellow PCVs) who lives up in the mountains in a tiny village called Forrestierre. It was absolutely beautiful—the scenery was unbelievable. We were so high up that it was actually pretty chilly too, a first since I’ve been to this island. I met Justin’s neighbors who have kittens which are literally the size of my palm, so cute—born 3 days ago. His neighbor told me they would give me a kitten if they survive. Cross your fingers! We all slept over Justin’s place then woke up at 4:30am this morning to get to Gros Islet to run the Sandals-to-Sandals 10k race. Quite possibly the most painful activity I’ve voluntarily done since hiking Gros Piton. 1,300 people registered for the race and it was crazy. And far. I don’t think I ever really understood how far 10K was. Now I do. By the 5K mark, you are seriously reconsidering your sanity for ever signing up for something so awful. By 6K, you see someone who is obviously obese and looks incredibly un-athletic and you wonder to yourself, “How in the world is THAT person in front of me?” Then there are all those young kids who are wearing jeans and backpacks but are indeed running the race… all excess attire included. They spring for 40 seconds then walk, then sprint with all their friends, then walk in exhaustion, continuing this cycle for the full 10k. I hate those kids! It just doesn’t seem fair to run the race like that, but to each his own I guess. I ran with Jessica the whole way, and let me tell you I’ve never been so proud of myself. We only walked 3 times, for about 10 seconds each time. So we ran pretty much the whole way (given, it was a very sloooow pace). I picked it up at the end because I saw some, ahem, “larger” people in front of me, and I refused to let anyone noticeably out of shape beat me. As I was nearing the finish line, I saw the ambulance rushing to a man who collapsed in a puddle of mud, wailing a god awful cry in agony, as if he was dying. I felt his pain. I must remind you that even though the race started around 7:30am, the air is so thick and heavy and it’s about 90F degrees outside, the sun burning your skin. I finally finished with the world record setting time of 64 minutes. I’ve never been so happy! It was surprisingly rewarding to finish a race like that, and I was really proud of myself.

Now for the best part of it all… During the awards ceremony, Sandals Resorts (the sponsors of the race) were saying they wanted to see who could yell “Sandals 10K” the loudest—since the television cameras were there—and the winners would get a free dinner for 2 at the Grand Sandals Resort. My Peace-Corps-budget eyes popped wide open at that offer, and Jessica and I screamed for our lives. One huge thing you have to learn to realize as a Peace Corps volunteer is that you must lose every ounce of dignity, pride, and shame in your body/mind. Otherwise, you won’t survive. I learned this about 2 months ago when I realized I lived on top of a mountain and would give anything to get a ride up in the middle of the blistering hot afternoon (when walks are most brutal). I had to learn to put down my dignity and hail down any motor vehicle with wheels, even if it means sitting in the back of a pickup with live (or dead) animals, 10 other desperate villagers, or cement, or whatever. Anyway, I wanted that free dinner more than I could explain. I mean, have you seen the picture of the grocery store in my village? So, Jessica and I screamed our hearts out, yelling “Sandals 10 K, Sandals 10K” at the top of our longs. And…. We won! Yes, you are looking at the winner of a bottomless, very free dinner at a beautiful resort. Jessica and I are extremely happy. It made every step of the race worth it. Well maybe not those steps on the 2nd steep hill… that was awful. But still.

Now it’s time to relax and rest. Big week coming up… lots of work to do.

I leave my Friday schedule open each week so that I can have an open day to meet with people or organizations. Yesterday, I went with Ben and Justin—PCV’s from Fond St. Joque and Forrestierre—to Castries. We met with the director of the St. Lucia School of Music to see what opportunities were available to bring back to our villages. It was a very successful meeting and I think I’ll be working with the Ministry to implement some kind of music program in Anse-La-Raye in the upcoming months. After our meeting, the three of us decided to venture further north and check out the famous Pigeon Point—one of the most picturesque places on the island. It was gorgeous. We hiked a short 25 minutes to reach the top of this point, and the view was unbelievable. I could see all the way to Soufriere’s Piton’s and everything in between. After chilling on the top of Pigeon Point for a couple of hours and admiring the view, we went swimming at a beach at the base of the hill. I would like to thank Congress and all my American taxpaying friends for making this lifestyle possible for me.

[Picture posted is a part of the road I walk down everyday to get to the village.]

So yesterday I was at SuperJ’s, the grocery store I go to in the capital once every 2 weeks to get my food, and a woman comes up to me as I’m picking out grapefruits and says, “Excuse me, may I please touch your hair?” I looked at her and just stared blankly for a few seconds, wondering how exactly this grown woman has no shame. I let her, reluctantly. Then I muttered “Mwen PA an chyen-an.” I’m not a dog! She looked surprised and then walked away. A small anecdote that is surprisingly unsurprising in my current life. This week flew by, I had a lot to do. My schedule is really picking up, which is good because I’ll be starting my projects in January—so soon! I was asked to substitute a Kindergarten class on Wednesday because about 4 teachers were somehow absent. It was the most stressful day of my entire life. I’ve never heard the words “Miss Lilly, can I go poo-poo?” so many times in one day. The children were out of control. They were punching each other, crying, screaming, stabbing a crab that somehow got into the classroom, disappearing, farting, you name it—all day long. I finally took them into the library and read to them for a while and that calmed them down. By the end of the day I started enjoying their company; little kids are hilarious.

On Thursday, I had a very successful meeting with the Foundation Sports and Culture club, which I am in the midst of trying to revitalize. Apparently I’m on the executive committee now… We are planning a games night for the community to welcome back club members next Saturday. I had a development workshop with all the teachers on Friday, which was somewhat useful. We mainly discussed assessment and evaluation in the school systems. A big issue I have with the standardized tests in primary schools here is that since there is such a high illiteracy rate, many children in grades 4-6 get falsely identified as being “slower” than they are because they can’t read the math questions. Numeracy is separate from literacy so it is unfair to children who can’t read the math tests. They should have guides to read the questions for them. I have a handful of 6th graders that I am tutoring now who don’t know the alphabet, who can’t even write letters. They are much better at math, but they can’t show it because they can’t read the tests. This is a problem with the system… Friday night I went to an awesome music festival in the old sugar mill behind my village. It was a cultural exchange music fest with bands from St. Lucia and Martinique. The power went out for about 1.5 hours at the beginning, during which the whole crowd sat in the pitch black dark, waiting for the electricity to come back on. Typical. Finally it came back on and the concert was a great time, the bands were good. Yesterday I spent the day up north with some key leaders from my village at the Youth and Sports Council Symposium. The Council in my village has been dormant for over a year, leaving no recreational or social activities for the villagers, especially children. 50 people confirmed to say they would go to this meeting to try to figure out some solutions to getting the council back on track. 5 people showed up. We went around the village trying to get people to come, and eventually got 9 total. Us 9 people spent the day from 9am-4:30pm in a conference room thinking up action plans for the village youth and sports council. It was a daunting and tedious task, but we got a lot done. I will be working closely with the executive committee to develop these action plans and implement more structure to the organization. This is going to be huge for the village. Overall, it was a great week. The water came back on this morning after it being out for about a week. Brutal. I’m doing all my laundry today in my ghetto washing machine tub, if you can even call it a washing machine. It’s basically a bucket that has a motor spinning the bottom, splashing around water. I have to rinse off the detergent at the end of the cycle and wring out the clothes by hand. I miss washing machines a lot.