Death of a smiley & News from SVG

Hey Readers,

Sometimes we are readily identified by the things we own--items that become associated as 'us'. One such item was this ridiculous umbrella I've been using for the past few years. Friends saw it back home and got their laughs, but I've had plenty of enjoyment using it here--where locals can spot me coming from far down the road and where rain is bountiful. This umbrella was a standard mid-size collapsible design with a black material spanning across the arms. What made it fun was the barrage of yellow smiley faces that blanketed the boring black material. Everywhere I went here, people were getting kicks seeing my funny-looking umbrella. It's quite fun watching smiles born from something else smiling back at you. Sadly, strong winds and regular use has taken it's course and the metal arms have snapped--beyond repair. I've already rigged it a few times, so I'm confident that it has run its time. Hopefully, this will be a small set-back. I'm already seeking out another umbrella....and yes, I plan to attach my smiley material on top of next umbrella. Rain is just liquid joy after all. ^_^

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So many ask me what's new with me here in SVG. Somethings can be said through my actions or inaction--but at times I think reflecting on what goes on here can also help illuminate to friends and family just the sorts of things you can find here, for better or worse:
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I'm spoken before about the underground economies of SVG--one of which is the marijuana production. I've seen its benefits to rural communities firsthand and its drawbacks to society in crime and other risks. Today I read for the first time an article that directly links government actions with this underground economy. So much could be said about this--I'll let you draw your own conclusions:

FINES: IMPORTANT TO NATIONAL COFFERS by Haydn Huggins

The State needs the money collected from fines imposed for marijuana possession. Chief Magistrate Sonya Young made this clear on Tuesday at the Serious Offenses Court after fining Wilfred Kelly [EC] $19,000. Kelly had pleaded guilty to possession of 34 lbs of marijuana with intent to supply. He was ordered to pay the court [EC] $4,000 in two days and the balance in four months. In default, he will go to prison for 20 months.

"Give me the money, the state needs the money," the Chief Magistrate told Kelly. before making her decision, Magistrate Young had asked Kelly's Attorney Grant Connell how much money his client could pay the court in part. Connell, suggested [EC] $2,000. Magistrate Young, however, insisted that the fine had to b much more than that. "I have to be paid, the police have to be paid," the Chief Magistrate delcared. "Now you see the nexus between marijuana production and the government coffers," Connelltold the Magistrate.

... In computing the fine, the Chief Magistrate had advance a value of [EC] $500 per pound for the marijuana However, Connell argued that the drug should be valued a [EC] $300 per lb because, "before the process of marketing begins, you must apply the lowest value because at that stage it (marijuana) is bush."

Connell has at previous court sittings highlighted the nexus between marijuana production and government coffers. He has also referred to marijuana as "our underground economy."

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The Obama fascination

I am sure that many nations across the world are still basking in change of the U.S. presidency. Regardless of the opinions of the people around the world--nearly everybody is talking about it. I read the 3 major papers here weekly. In each paper so far, there has been no less than 4 articles each discussing the inauguration. There are many more letter/opinion entries and columnist submissions, each offering supplementary views. I know that many U.S. Peace Corps volunteers are excited to see what changes will come about, but we are tempered with the reality facing our new president on the ground back home.

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Sex with a minor--difference of opinion?

Now I am not condoning any sort of under-age sexual activity. Heck with the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, people must be more careful than ever. However, I see a disparity between a couple of recent rulings--different judges, but still....draw your own conclusions:

In last week's papers, there were articles regarding a 67-yr old man who got 12 years in prison for having sex with a 7-yr old girl. It was commented that a term as such would keep him from doing such things again when he got out.

This week, I read about 3 men (ages 21, 20, and 17) who took a 12-yr old girl in their van to a back area and each had sex with her...and told her to keep it quiet, police business and all. It wasn't long before the story got out. These 3 men were put on 3 year probation; any other offenses and they would go to jail for 5 years. The judge said the oldest (21) should have known better. The judge also said, "I'm giving you all a chance to behave yourselves."

Seriously...I want to say more, but I'll keep my other thoughts offline.

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Somebody is speaking up about plastics recycling!!!

Hopefully the strange designs of life might have tossed another possible project out for a volunteer to grab. This week somebody sent a contributing letter into the paper about a call for plastics recycling and an attempt to create an awareness of the growing 'plastic culture'. This is very true here and disturbs many of the volunteers here. There used to be some sort of plastic recycling here, but I haven't been able to find out much about it yet. Recently, my boss (the APCD) asked me and a few others if we would be interested in starting another recycling venture--glass I believe. If I can find the writer of the letter, I might have another local resource to help mobilize the ground work.

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The wheel of elections will begin slowly....

The say the is a 2-party system here on SVG--the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the United Labor Party (ULP). There is truth that there are 2 parties represented in government. There is also a 3rd party--the Green Party, not to be mistaken as an environmental platform party. However, the 3rd party is not taken seriously at all here. There won't be elections here until the end of 2010, but already articles have started popping up about candidate selections. One intriguing article has asked for a '3rd' party, independent of the other 2 (should it have said 3?). There truly is a real political divide here--and it can be seen everyday.

We, the U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, have to be careful to walk a fine line away from party politics and yet be aware of where others might view our actions as supportive of one party or another. Simply having activities we may sponsor attended mostly by people of one particular party--the comess (gossip) could fly in the wrong direction and hinder our activities and projects later on. Sad, but true.

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Wondering about cash prizes.

Every week, I read entry after entry and see a plethora of hand-shaking photos of award winners from major companies here. Nearly all of these awards are cash prizes, often weekly draws to reward consumers for spending on particular products or services. Now, I'm not privy to the financial statements or public relations and marketing expenditures, but I do see how many people spend money here and what the ground culture is in rural areas. Often I wonder what sort of social/educational/and other initiatives could be funded if these businesses redirected these award funds in 'corporate social responsibility' action drives.

I'm fairly certain that the people of SVG would continue supporting these local and regional businesses if it knew the companies were supporting the public through means other than large checks. I will acknowledge that I do some things, such as a sports team sponsorship, but so much more could be done...

An analogy from an article in this week's paper stated, the company here is a tree growing from the community soil. I would add that a fertilized soil that surrounded the whole tree would enrich the tree more than patchwork spots healthy ground.

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And with that, I think I've babbled enough

Stay well and happy
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

movies

Once again, I stray from what I'm doing here just to share some thoughts on things I like...

As I get older, I find I'm becoming more engaged and interested in politics. So when a movie like Swing Vote came out, it's no wonder that I'd probably be interested in it. Watched it last night and have nothing but great things to say about it.

• Great cast--several bigger names, but all good actors that fit their roles well
  
• Sure, it is completely unrealistic in terms of 'could this happen', but it is very entertaining.
  
• Main characters were very believable and I really enjoyed seeing the jokes of how the political campaign machines move on the stances...when they think it will get them a win.
  

I could say more, but why?
Get out there and watch it. You don't have to appreciate politics to enjoy this good movie. Not an award winner in my book by anymeans--but the message is certainly there and kudos to the makers.

And just to wet the appetite on it, here's the trailer:


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Also....as I continue down the road of 'fanboy', enjoying the cartoons and comics of my youth, I followed a link sent by a friend to see the movie trailer for Thundercats. It is fanmade and as far as I know there is no plans to recreate this old cartoon into a movie. The effects used in this trailer are rather cool--but if you are not familiar or didn't like Thundercats before, you probably wouldn't enjoy this as much...




Stay well and happy
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

on my way to becoming a 'Spring Man'

Hey everybody,

Wow...crazy weekend. Plenty of rain here, sometimes hard and sometimes a fine rain that would just mist everything although there wasn't a rain cloud in the sky.

I'm kinda disappointed with myself at the moment...I missed a meeting, a big meeting for me. The group I'm attached to met on Saturday and they only meet 1/month. However, I was so busy ping-ponging around that I forgot about it entirely. There were many things I wanted to cover, but looks like I'll have to get it done another way. Sadly, I saw some of the group members on Sunday and nobody mentioned my absence or tried to call/remind me during the meeting when I had not shown up.

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I am almost done with the computers at our library...just a few tweaks and bugs to work out. One of my midnight oil side projects in the library has been setting an ebook library. Since I don't think people want to dig through files and folders to find the desired ebook, I'm coding a bunch of HTML pages so all a user would have to do is open firefox and follow the links to narrow what type of ebook they would like to view. Kinda wondering if this will be in vain. It's hard enough to get somebody to pick up a physical book, much less read one on the computer screen. However, this seems to be the best, fastest way to get new material for personal and student use.

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Saturday, I had the wonderful help from a man named Pess. He lives and breathes steel pan and traveled up to our village to help tune our old pan (the ones the kids were cleaning in previously posted blog pictures). They are really starting to sound nice and he even donated a brand new pair of bass drum sticks to our cause, avg. retail EC$65. Sure we don't have enough drums to make a full set for each type, but we have enough to gather attention and hopefully drive motivation both in the village and externally for support. We still need to find the proper rubber to craft the pan sticks, which I discovered surgical tubing is a great material. We also need to set a regular meeting time for some instruction--not easy at the moment, but work in progress. Our steel pan efforts will bear fruit eventually.

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Sunday I attended my first Vincy funeral, which just so happened to be here in Spring. People from all over crowded outside of the church where a service was held. I remained at an outside window or conversed with others outside...would have taken photos, but I had forgotten to recharge my remaining batter. >.< The funeral procession went the entire length of the village from one end where the church was to the far other end at the cemetery. It was a slow march with drums, steel pan, singing and dancing. People here remain festive to celebrate a person's live during the funeral.

The cemetery is a steep hill and I was one of the casket bearers helping carry the coffin and remains up to the top...perhaps 150' up 60 degree hill. It took 8 men to do the job and I have a nice bruise forming on my left hand from the weight and pull. After the body was lowered to the ground, everybody stays while the hole is fully covered and then flowers and candles are placed at the mound. I used a back hoe to help pull dirt down and fill the hole. Some people remained to dance and sing in a closely knit circle around the grave.

Afterward, we came back down to the house of the affected family and had a small party. Many people thanked me to for helping with the funeral and I heard many people talking about how I am always around to get involved with things in the community. It's a good thing and they are saying I will be a 'Spring Man' in no time.

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Scott, another volunteer, got to be my first overnight guest. He came up from his village Saturday afternoon so we could work together on a Peace Corps effort and so he could experience some aspects of what I do here. He arrived just in time for the pan tuning, got to go the banana processing Sunday morning, enjoy some community food, and lime a bit at a party.

Yes, we did also get some work done. He and I will be leading a section of our next Peace Corps training update mid-February--we call it In-Service Training (IST). Our topic will be Resource Mobilization. At first, we really were not sure what that was, but apparently our APCD (boss) Mr. Cool seems to think that he and I have been very good at figuring out where to go, who to meet, and what to do in order to 'get the ball rolling'.

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Tutoring is going along nicely. I started giving homework to them, which should be due this week. Let's see how many actually even tried to finish it. I just got donated a large (3'x2') white board and markers that will come in very handy. Originally, the idea behind the tutoring was to simply expand on what they are already doing in their classes....homework, further explanations, etc. All of they known they should bring something they need help with, however nearly everybody shows up just looking to learn something. Many don't even bring a pencil or paper which is driving me batty, but I'm dealing with it.

I don't want to do set lesson plans because of the diverse grade levels and learning needs represented in the groups. If we don't have specific things to work on, I've been improvising a few game/activities for them to do that haven't gone too bad. The kids seem to like them, but I need to develop new material because a few are already growing bored of the other stuff. I'm trying to negotiate time to get the librarian and the kindergarten assistant to help out, at least with the literacy...should work out well.

Literacy is a challenge. Many of the kids can't do phonetics, sounding the words out, and that takes up lots of individual attention. So while I'm seeking help for that, I'm trying to get the 'up-to-par' learners motivating into reading. It is a cultural fact here that most Vincentians simply don't read unless they have to...one reason why there are hardly any bookstores here (textbooks not included). I tried to get the kids to read some short stories written by a local Caribbean author that were tailored to their age group (8-10), but they fiercely rejected my attempts. It would seem that anything beyond what I might think to be a 1st grade book is completely ignored by them.

I am considering trying something out of the box...comics. Perhaps kids would react nicely to the pictures small patch word grouping. It could also get them involved with the facet of story-telling (depending on the comic) and I might be able to involve some reading comprehension/retention skills. I'm hoping it could become a gateway into regular books. Not that I'm trying to say that comics are in anyway inferior to a short story or novel--simply a different form of art. Now the tricky part will be trying to find out how to get comics in their hands...

I am also thinking of making my own Scrabble-like board game. I'd love to buy a few, but they are really expensive (EC$120) for us to simply purchase and I'm not sure when I could get around to trying to raise some funds otherwise. However, we have an actual wood shop business here in the village and I think I could get them to cut me a few boards and a bunch of 'word tiles' from plywood. Ghetto? Sure it, but it will do the trick and help with the spelling and their creative focus. Yeah, I don't really see students here pushed into their own creative thinking/learning/questioning. Just learn what listed and spit it back out kind of learning.

Anyways, plenty to do...work to be done. I still have my first community organizations meeting to be held tomorrow night to work on, tutoring to prep, and a list of other things for today--wish me luck.

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

Things not to forget--sunscreen and patience.

Hey wonderful readers out there...

Don't mind me, I'm on overtired...been up all night at my community library working on the computers here. They wanted me to reformat them and 'pretty' them up on the software, but I totally underestimated 2 things--the SLOW dsl internet and Dell's silly issues with providing the proper drivers. Yeah, the whopping 1.1mb cable internet has been nothing less than awesome at my house, but the dsl takes more time than when someones says they're coming just now (island humor).
--lesson in patience.

A couple of good 'ol homies back home asked me if I was on a 2-yr vacation....I do work a bit...see:

Friday was my ping pong day in town. I met with reps from the National Parks Authority (NPA) and talked about some legislation that is coming up to create marine and terrestrial protected areas. Very cool; even better that they'd like my input on some of the documents. ^_^ Jumped over to the Solid Waste Management Unit (SMWU). They do the garbage and sewer work here, but they spearhead a very limited environmental education work in the schools. I learned their green outreach is actually a collaboration of many government departments. Great idea, as long as the politics keeps to a minimum. That's a usual killer of many things here. Bounced over to the Education Project Management Unit to arrange (again) getting the internet connected at our local primary school. The computers and 95% of the wiring is done. If I had the wire and connectors, I'd do it myself no prob. Headed to the Community Development Office. All the regional officers usually come into town on Fridays--strangely, I didn't see anyone I knew while I was there. Confirmed our Monday (today) meeting with their supervisor, who was the only one in office.

After a quick lunch, I hit up Projections Promotions (PP) to do a bit of research on the old steel pan group that used to play here in Spring. PP originally helped fund and structure the group and I learned quite a bit. Traveled to the Social Investment Fund (SIF) office to drop off some requested documents. One such document was a library operation/maintenance plan that was due from our local library project before I even got here. I was supposed to work on it with members of the library team--but I got the honor of doing it myself. lol...with my typical flair to fill up paper, I hit 17 pages and then nobody wanted to review it--too big. ^_^

Later in that afternoon, I met with my boss (Mr. Cool) and chatted for a bit. He asked me and a couple others here to contact our fellow PCVs on St Kitts. Apparently, they are working on some sort of plastic recycling project there--I haven't gotten any further details on that yet and there might be a similar project opportunity here with glass bottle recycling. Last meeting of the day--supposed to meet a guy by the name of Boomie, who is the president of the national pan movement. I was hoping to pick his brain a bit and learn about resource locations, but he forgot about our meeting. oh well...long day

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Saturday, I took 4 of the boys in the village to the beach. This time however, we had a bit of a twist. I told them if they wanted to come with me, we had to pick up garbage from the side of the street all the way down to the beach. Of course, they complained and bossed each other around--but we still managed to collect around 8 plastic grocery bags full. Sadly, that barely denting the massive amount of litter.

Street pick-up + a couple hours at the beach + forgetting the sunscreen = lobster head and pain. >.< Ended up lying down for a few hours...learned that razor shaving the head with sunburn is an interesting level of ouch.
--lesson, don't forget the sunscreen--even if we don't like the stuff PC is supplying.

A couple of the kids came over for some help with long division in the evening. I nearly lost it when one of them kept staring at me and saying all the wrong things. Now, simply being wrong is understandable and that wouldn't make me upset. But when I point at a number and ask him what it is; he tells me something completely different; and then he looks in a random direction--over and over and over... well you get the idea. He knows how to do this stuff, sometimes. It's like a lightswitch for him. Anyways....
--lesson....more patience.

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Sunday was supposed to be farming a bit with my landlord, Mr. Charles. But due to some rain that didn't happen. The usual Sunday lunch with the host family and caught the end of a football competition before starting on these computers.

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Today...
The guy to hook up the school internet didn't come...really makes me want to do it myself...mur. The community development meeting with the volunteers and officers didn't take place--nobody showed except me and I don't count cause I was working at the meeting location. Good news though, some electrical inspectors came--so hopefully we'll be getting current restored in my lil training area. Nice.

So, for those that say I'm on vacation? Perhaps--but there is a bit of work to be done inbetween the waterfalls. ^_^ Gotta try and finish these computers and get ready for tutoring. It's math today, 3-6. And then a well-earned nap.

stay happy and well.
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

Bequia New Year

New Year celebration this year was spent on Bequia--the first Grenadine island to the south of St Vincent. It is also the largest of the Grenadines and about 1 hour away by ferry. This was my first trip there and it was quite the experience. Even though it was the same country, the people and atmosphere in general had a different attitude--not to mention much cleaner!




I really enjoyed all the little garbage cans along the roadside, each decorated differently and with signs in several major global languages.

One thing was for sure...I certainly didn't feel like a minority anymore. I'm not sure what the tourist population would be in the off-season, but everywhere I looked there were happy tourists speaking in a multitude of languages. It actually seemed a bit odd to me, having spent most of my time in my rural village lately.

We stayed at the Traveler's Inn, a cute little place with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and nice balcony. Our 1st day there, we wandered a bit to a great little vegetable market, got some ice cream, and of course....the beach. Most of us went to Princess Margaret Beach--land of white sand, blue water and good times.

We made friends with a couple locals--T'Shaun and Carlos. Carlos took a few of us for a ride around Princess Margaret and Lower Bay Beaches in a boat that he built--very cool. Turns out we'd be seeing the both of them on and off during our stay there.

On the way back from the beach, we came across a boley tree. Most boley look kinda like a giant apple, bigger than a softball--but are harder. I'm not sure what can be done with the insides yet, but they can be hollowed out and designed into decorative bowls. Laird, one of the Canadian volunteers has already started making several boley bowls that look great.


Later that evening, we warmed up the festivities with some card games, dominoes, and general fun.


We wandered for a bit, watching the local fun at the waterfront hotels and eateries.

Steel pan players outside of Gingerbread


Some of us stumbled upon this beach side eatery, The Green Boley, that I now feel has the best roti I've had in SVG so far. Their chunks and potato roti is delicious--even before I put lots of pepper sauce on it. We met a fellow, George from Georgia, who speaks 7 languages and enjoys sailing all over. He shared some stories with us about his experiences around Bequia from the past 20 years. Scott and I also picked a couple more boley from a small tree nearby. These boley are more pear shaped and I hope to make mine into a water jug.


Further down the street we came across an light up section. The Christmas Village was a whole section of the main and a side street decorated with holiday lights and themes--just like the lighting up back on the mainland.

We ended up at a beach side bar, Devil's Table with live music until the countdown and fireworks.

It was rather packed in the bar area >.<

We got a full fireworks show that lasted quite awhile. Once those stopped, several boaters joined in--firing off several flares.

The celebrations continued on at a place called The Reef. They had a cover charge--which really wasn't worth the price. Unfortunately, this was the only real 'event' going on into the late night. We stayed and danced a bit, but the place eventually got rather crowded. Even as we were walking out around 330, there were people lined up to get in.

Of course, we slept in just a bit the next morning. After another round of tasty roti back at the Green Boley, most of the crew decided to hit the beach again. Scott and I opted to hike to the turtle sanctuary about an hour away. We could have taken a taxi, but we both preferred the walk and enjoyed taking the extra time to see the sights along the way.

This was a side beach on our walk. Notice how all the trees and bushes are slanted toward the island. There was a constant wind blowing while we were there and has probably conditioned the plants to grow under it's strength...amazing.

Finally we reached the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary. It is a small place run by a family, independent of any government help. They collect baby turtles after hatching and raise them in captivity, attempting to keep them strong and healthy and allow these endangered turtles a greater chance of survival. According to them, the Hawksbill sea turtle will lay a clutch of eggs around 75-100 and they reach sexual maturity in about 25 years. Sadly, only 1/1000 usually reach that age...which mean the fast track to extinction. With their program, they raise as many as they can until they are about 5 years old. Since they started around 1995, they've released over 800 turtles into the wild. Sure not all of them will reach breeding age, but that's one heck of a boost. They also raise a few Green Sea Turtles too. ^_^


These lil guys are only a couple weeks old.

Their mascot. She was grumpy and liked to splash people, but she was friendly with me and I got to pet her. ^_^

This one was rescued after losing a limb, probably due to fishing nets.

haha, they don't let the kids touch them...they can bite

He showed us how sharp the beak is, danger points on young ones, and where the yolk cord attached. Way cool.

If you couldn't guess...the turtle sanctuary was my favorite part of the whole New Year's trip. I had known about it before we came here and it was my secondary reason for coming along. Scott and I both plan to help out how we can, which will mean scrubbing tanks and turtle shells at the very minimum. I hope to lend some other support as well--to help them find financing and bring attention to their project via the internet. While I know that I need to spend much of my focus on my village and area activities, this is simply something that I feel I really should do. Gotta see if I can negotiate some transportation with the ferry though...there is no way we volunteers could afford the trips back and forth on regular ticket prices if we were to go even a few times a month.

That evening we regrouped and set out for pizza at Mac's. It was really good--although I would contend that I enjoyed the pizza Steph made during Christmas was just as good. ^_^ And the garlic bread they served was superb. lol...either that I've simply forgotten what really good garlic bread tasted like.


The rest of the night was spent relaxing, playing card games, taking walks and generally enjoying the time there.


The last day there was the usual final day in a hotel--get stuff together and make sure nothing was left behind. Having some time to kill before the ferry, Noah and I wandered off to check out the abandoned hotel area--which probably would have had the perfect 'creepy/horror' look if it was dark out. There are many cabins in between social halls; white statues all over the grounds; and overgrowth & disrepair added to the overall effect.


Noah and I enjoyed a great game of chess before leaving. It was the first between us and I'm sure that he will be looking towards future games as much as I will be.

The ferry ride back to St. Vincent was nice, spending much of it with our feet dangling off the top railing and enjoying the rocking of the boat. The rain greeted us shortly after landing--ending a great trip. I can't wait to go back...learned quite a bit there just looking around.
It may have even inspired some of our group talks about started a more jointly-focus effort on environmental projects together.

Here are the links to the whole trip photo albums:
Facebook Photo Album 1
Facebook Photo Album 2
Facebook Photo Album 3

Hope everybody had a great and happy new year!

Stay safe and well,
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn