Happy Independence Day SVG!

Hey readers!
It's been a crazy week, that's for sure. Plenty of things going on—both here and at home.
--CONGRATS!
Not sure if I should be doing this, but I want to shout out the Congrats to a particular couple of homies back home that popped the question and said yes. Who? Find out yourself. Haha, that’s my way of trying to cover myself incase they didn’t want it announced. Oh well, cat’s out of the bag. ^_^

--SHOES!
So, anybody who knows me should know that I am not the world’s biggest connoisseur on shoes. In fact, they would also know that I am certainly not a fan of ‘open’ shoes. I like ‘em able to complete cover with grip—like sneakers. Well, I have 2 new types of shoes that go on both ends of the footwear spectrum. A few weeks ago, I got what everybody else would call galoshes; here they are called water boots. They are almost up to my knees and green; got them from the banana association, so I know they are good stuff. It took a bit of saving from my training money (EC$35), but it makes working in the fields here SOOOO much better and more enjoyable. Cleaning muddy sneakers sucks. >.< During training, I would work sometimes with my hostdad in the ‘backyard’ farm and nobody really saw me in them. Lol…there were some crazy looks from the locals when they saw me walking down the main street in my water boots and ‘bush’ clothes. It was a good thing that they get to see me in such a way that I can say—I am one of you. Well, I’m not yet but after 2 years I’ll probably be a bit closer. Hopefully if I budget right, I’ll be able to afford heavy rubber gloves (EC$20) and a cutlass with a sharpening file (EC$20-10). The cutlass is pretty much a machete with a blade partway down the back edge and a pointy tip. I love my water boots and they are great! I was supposed to go up to the mountain farms to work with the banana farmers this morning, but I never got picked up. : ( Talked to them again and I should get another chance soon.

The other pair of shoes will be more of a shock to the friends and family…but where what I called a necessary evil purchase. I got a pair of flip-flops. I hate them, but they are surely useful. I hate the floppy on the foot slap sound and how they kick back mud, sand, and other small bits. I don’t like how the foot is uncovered and how easily I’ve already stubbed and cut up my toes, not to mention how easily filthy my feet get. Mur. However, they are great to quickly slip on if it starts to rain and I have clothes on the line—found out rained on clothes get smelly when they dry. They are also very good for the beach, as I was getting very tired of having sandy sneakers. So I reserve them for certain occasions and still love my sneakers 100-fold.

--Happy Independence SVG!
Monday was the actual 29th Independence Day of St. Vincent & the Grenadines although the event was celebrated across the weekend. People here proudly displayed their colors of yellow, green, and blue. Patriotism is shown on different levels, much like our displays back home. Soca music, the Caribbean flavor, was played more than usual on the radios. I saw a few people making ‘bamboo cannons’ and heard a few go off, but didn’t see any when they actually fired. That is the local sort of firework, which involves putting oil into a piece of bamboo. I didn’t really see any fireworks like we’d know them from home. Something to note from what I’ve learned so far…and sometimes I wonder if this is a reflection in the general attitudes of the younger Vincentians when it comes to national pride. Whereas the people of the U.S.A. had fought a war over their independence, the people of SVG peaceful negotiated and earned independence from Britain—transitioning from a colonial state to a member of its commonwealth.

--Mustique!
As part of the Independence Day celebrations, a few of the US and Canadian volunteers got on a ferry for a special holiday celebration trip to the Grenadine island of Mustique. Some may know this place to be vacation home to the rich and famous. I’m told that Mic Jagger and Shania Twain, as well as several celebs, have massive homes there. No, I didn’t get to go on any little tours and I didn’t see anybody famous. In fact, in terms of the people around—it seemed rather drab. Granted, the locals were great and they reassured us that the tourist season is just starting and the fact that it is a private island does limit who comes and goes. Visually, the island is stunning. It is the first of my Grenadine experiences and the overall look of the place could have gone on any stereotypical brochure for the tropical Caribbean. White sandy beaches, rolling blue waves, and lush greenery were abundant. I was surprised, but I saw lots of cacti not far from the beachfront. Apparently they grow in this climate nicely. The sand was so fine that it stuck to everything and plenty of it came back home in the crevasse of my trunks. I still get nervous when I swim out in the open waters, but I went out a decent distance with a couple others. I can swim, but I need to become a stronger swimmer and practice more. Of course, I ended up with fairly mean sunburn between the shoulder blades—but I’m building a rather solid tan already from being outside so much. We didn’t have much time on the island, so nearly all of it was spent at a place called Macaroni beach—I have no clue why it is called so, but took lots of pics—and another place, the famous Basil’s Bar & Restaurant. I didn’t have any drinks or eats at Basil’s—it was out of my budget, but the look and layout was cool. Every year they have a large blues festival, maybe I’ll get to go someday.

The other half of the trip was the ride itself. The ferry ride over was absolutely nuts! There was food, drink, and music pounding the whole way. I’ll go on record to say that the whole day I only had 3 beers and one shot (out of a passion-fruit rind), so I wasn’t a wild drunk. People were dancing and having a great time. I thought the ride over was fairly wild, but the return trip blew us away. That evening, all the new volunteers got broken in Vincy-style. Ok, now I’ve said that people here dance…..but for the most part there is only one style of dancing. It is called ‘winding’ almost identical to the ‘grinding’ seen in clubs back home, only that some winding makes most grinding look rated-PG. Now most of the volunteers don’t crazy when we wind and are certainly on the innocent & fun-loving side of the things, keeping it rated-PG. Yes, I was winding a bit—but honestly, I’d prefer a more ‘regular’ kind of dancing that is more interactive with the dance partner and doesn’t feel like I’m trying dry hump someone. Sadly, it is expected as a guy to be involved with this sort of thing and helps gain respect and even prestige among the male peers. Nearly all of the men in our little group had plenty of winding experiences. Sometimes we helped rescue our female companion volunteers—who were quite often sought out by the local men. Yeah, the girls winded a bit too…but I think most of them shared my desire for good dancing fun that didn’t feel so explicit. Unfortunately, if you want to dance and hit the dance floor…better stay with one partner and keep to yourselves. Otherwise, it’s considered fair game on the dance floor. Sure, people get plenty turned down—both men and women—but the offers from both sides will keep coming.

We got back into town much later than we expected and were super lucky to catch vans home. They don’t usually run on Sundays and I think part of our luck was due to people moving about for the holiday. After I got home, I couldn’t really sleep and went out to socialize a bit with my community members. There was a Jamaican artist—Ginjah?—headlining a show down at my local beachfront, so I checked it out. Well, turns out that I didn’t get in since I didn’t want to spend the EC$25, that I didn’t have anyways, on a ticket and I’m glad I didn’t. Found out, as I’ve heard is a bit common for shows like these, the artists tend to start really late—I got there after 11 and he hadn’t taken the stage yet. They also don’t use live bands typically and sing along with cd music. Now I’m not sure, but that is almost karaoke-like and I certainly wouldn’t want to pay for that kind of performance. I’ve heard some people love the shows and others, like me, would want more out of it. Either way, they tend to draw big crowds and most have a really good time. Only stayed about an hour, no drinking or dancing, and it got me some positive face time with some people in the area.









--Getting Involved
I think I’m finally getting a bit more ‘in’ with my community. Sure, I’m still in what many might call our ‘honeymoon’ faze, but I am feeling a bit more settled. I haven’t gotten out into our community as much as I’d like, but I am recognizing faces more often and remembering the names to them. People, not just the kids anymore, call out my name when I pass or when I say hello to them. The van driver will sometimes drop me off next to my home instead of just at the bus stop. I think part of this has been due to a good location of my new apartment and the fact that many people walk by it.

Unfortunately for some reasons still unknown to me, my landlady has decided that she does not wish to rent out the apartment further and my boss is searching for a new home in the village for me. There are a whole host of ups and downs to this—but I’ll remain positive and hope that my new place, wherever it may be, will be suitable and as good of a location as this one….although there are rather few places to rent in a smaller village.

Probably next week, I’ll be starting tutoring sessions. I had talks with the local primary school principal and will meet with primary school teachers in the morning. I’ll most likely be tutoring 4 days a week, 2 hours each day—each broken into 1 hour blocks. Monday/Wednesday will be for the primary levels and Tuesday/Thursday will be for secondary levels. Hopefully, I will identify people within the village who will assist in tutoring sessions so that we may reach more students. I’ll also be working more with the Ministry of Youth to revive the old 4-H club in village and hopefully create a big brother/sister type mentoring project. This will take quite a bit of time before that becomes a reality, but is something for the future. I hope to take more of a backseat role in these so I’ll have time to focus on my community organization development, but these things are sorely needed here as well.

Already, I am digging in with my primary group—SUDO—and building ties with another group, who will be responsible for managing/maintaining tourism project for the nearby Cumberland beach. I’m also peeking into an activity session organized by the government backed Adult Education Unit. As of tomorrow, they will be hosting cake baking and decorating training for enrolled participants. This program will hope to provide the technical skills that could aid a start-up business should the participants so desire. I’ve gotten the keys to the community center and will soon be working on cleaning up a large storage room and transforming it into a ‘community organization center’ room. Here CBOs, as they are known, will be able to come and gather—hold meetings and workshops as well as have space to keep documents and other project materials. It will also become my unofficial office I suppose. Good times. The next real trick will be to work on the community calendar project…to help everybody learn what’s going on where and when and so some spaces are double used. The community center is decently-sized, but within the past week has claimed to host 3 different meetings around the same time on the same day. Fortunately, these won’t need the same rooms, but none of them know about the other meetings….this could be problematic and this is exactly the sort of reason why we need this calendar up and running.

Wow…this is lots to read huh? I suppose the rest will have to wait until later. Unfortunately, the dsl internet seems to go up and down lots here and I pre-typed this Tuesday evening around 7-8pm. The internet was down at the time of this posting and hopefully won’t take too long for me to come back to the community center where I use the internet and post this.

I cast my absentee vote into the mail…..do the right thing and go vote by Nov. 4th. It matters less to me who you vote for, but more importantly that you go and cast your vote.

Stay safe and well everyone.
Ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn