Life Goes On: Up and down and all around.....and Rule #1

Been a crazy week. Can't even recall what day it is from time to time, since I bounce around so much lately.

Yes, I'm still scrubbing the steel pan. It has been a very long process and the results are slow to come. The kids are excited, but I've been losing help with it given all the other community activities starting up. We have series of events for the Christmas holiday called 9 mornings. You can find more info on what it is here: http://itsninemornings.com/video/ While most of the activities are held in the capital, Kingstown, we still have some things energizing people here in Spring Village. A few people have organized what are called 5-ah-side sports competitions for netball and football (soccer). Most of those are running games every day until Christmas I believe. Also as part of the 9 mornings, most of the villages of SVG participate in what we call the 'lighting up' where each village decorates with holiday lights, props, and other festive decor with a particular theme and are judged accordingly. Our village chose the theme "expanding the joy of Christmas", but I'll be honest to say that most of use are not creative enough to figure out how to make that a visual message with lights. There has been much McGuyver-style rigging and the lights are expected to launch tomorrow night. We will have other activities, food, and music then as well. Because of all of this, most of the kids have left me cleaning the pan on my own...that and they really just want to start playing with them now but they are not ready yet and attention spans are faltering.

I've also helped at our regional area football competition finals last Sunday and the awards ceremony last night. The game was played well, but near the end sportsmanship took a dive. It is very unfortunate when grown men lose their control and begin to fight on the field. Sports is a major components of people's lives here and most youth look up to sports figures--both professionally and locally. It is a shame when those role models act in such childish ways. That wasn't the only fight of the night. As we were cleaning up from our usual social fund-raiser after party, some drunk guy decided to take one of the empty bottles I was carrying in bins and smash on another nearby guy. The second bottle he grabbed missed the target and smashed onto the case I was carrying--covering me in glass shards. No, I wasn't really hurt--just a few scraps and I didn't come into contacts with other open injuries (HIV safe!) Yes, I did follow up with my boss on it for those concerned. Again, I was more upset with the potential for stupid actions among people. The results from the actions of a few had caused our sports association to find a new venue for our awards ceremony as the local police would not allow us to have another social in that location. Bogus, but understandable given circumstances.

It seems as if a project might be forming...
I am making the required contacts to have a rather dilapidated old community library in dire need of repair under the ownership of the Catholic Church negotiated for sale to the community. Once it is ours, I will work to raise the materials for repair and I've already gotten the support of the tradesmen in the village for labor. We will plan to rebuild this structure as an annex of the community center which will hold the steel pan and other instruments as a music center. Should this turn into a project, it will take some time until it could actually be completed--updates will come as things develop.

Our local area tourism group is planning a cook fund-raiser for tomorrow night at the lighting up ceremony. I will be helping with the prep and labor. Should be good times. Although I'm happy to be working with this group, I will say that we are very disorganized and for the most part a wish-washy committed lot. I hope to help instill better structure and spirit into the group--again a long term thing for sure. Honestly, I don't know why this tourism group is separate from another greater regional association. The larger group's North Leeward name implies they would cover the village area of Spring Village, but still we have a segregated smaller group. The larger group is much more organized, established, networked with other contacts and does just about everything I'd hope our smaller group could aim for. Keeping them as our example will be a striving goal for this NGO development.

This past Thursday-Saturday morning, I met with many of us to hike the volcano--Soufriere. It was a great experience and one worthy of it's own blog. The next day after the hike, Saturday, I went back up to Dark View Falls with Scott and Steph--it was a good time and we harvested some tasty grapefruit from a tree for breakfast. After the other 2 went back, I stayed at Dark View to meet with my village's adolescent group who came up for a day trip activity. They teamed up with a nearby village of Troumaca's youth group for a picnic. I learned that there is a 2nd falls above the main falls of Dark View and I climbed up a small trail to see it. I didn't have my camera (boo), but I think it is better than the main--very pretty.

Today was a meeting with an IT Business group and interested locals who either already have a business or have start-up business ideas that would like to receive help and training on how IT and e-business can boost their business ventures. Keeping in good Vincy practice (although they were not Vincy--Finnish and German), the 9 am meeting started at 1030--but outside of that it was a good meeting and I had the opportunity to talk to them more on the side since I'll be instructing computer classes very soon.

Although my schedue as seemed rather full--I would expect most of my 'work' activities to come to a near grinding halt. Most of my expected duties require working with others and groups; with the holiday season here, things come to a veritable stand still. I'm not sure what to entirely do with myself during that time--yeah, I'll be festive with everybody else. Yet, I feel compelled to my workaholic nature to do something 'productive'.

I'm not sure if it is hearing all the variations of Christmas music on the radio--both original songs and Caribbean adaptations--but I've felt the draw to listen to lots of classical music lately. I have a decent assortment with me and have been enjoying its dancing melodies while typing this tonight.

And now for the following, the favorites--pictures: