Life Goes On

The Next Chapter

2009-12-03T00:14:00.003-04:00

10:15pm

Wow. It has been quite awhile since I last blogged. I've had net access since I came back, so I can't blame it on connectivity. Actually, I think I may have been in a bit of a slump about returning from the Peace Corps. Yeah, coming back has been a bit of a twist--falling back into old habits and routines has made my service time seem almost dream-like.

Anyways, I haven't been letting time just slip away. Been keeping plenty busy--hum...seems I'm never content till the pot is boiling over. Since I've come home I have been bouncing back and forth...

On the medical end
Been to the doctors' office for a bum knee and my throat. I've seen two ENTs already, both stuck cameras down my nose to see my vocal folds--the first one was awful and the second wasn't so bad. Perhaps it due to my distraction as I got to see on a tv everything on the camera. Gross yeah, but wicked cool too. I get engrossed watching surgical shows and this one was me. ^_^ Got another throat surgery coming up on the 10th....let's hope this one works longer than the last one.

On the work end
well, let's hope for a better ending so far. At the moment I'm still riding the unemployment train. Cleaned up the resume, but no bites on it just yet. Not a good time in the economy to be returning from the Peace Corps and looking for a job.

On the volunteer end
Yeah, I did say volunteer--but wasn't all the volunteer stuff with the Peace Corps? No....that it seems was just the warm up. Since coming home, I've been getting involved with quite a few organizations and movements. Here's a quick list:
---Organizing for America (OFA for Health Care reform)
---HCAN Illinois (Health Care for America Now)
---Dundee Democrats
---David Hoffman for U.S. Senate Campaign

I'm a 'grunt' on the first two, helping wherever I can for a movement I believe in. Unfortunately the pure vision of universal health care is getting corrupted and twisted via 'debate' and amendments on Capitol Hill. Ok--I'm stopping there before this becomes a rant.
The other two have been giving me tangible things to work on. The Dundee Dems have asked me to help with their website and I also created a Facebook Fan Page for them (CHECK THEM OUT!). Tomorrow we have a monthly meeting and my official duties with the group might be declared. The David Hoffman for U.S. Senate Campaign is something I've been following since I got back, but I just joined the team this week. I'm officially interning (unpaid) for them as a Political Outreach Coordinator for some of the collar counties (Kane, DuPage, and more to come). This means that I will be meeting LOTS of people in local town/county positions as well as the area movers/shakers and getting a good grounding the local political climate. This will bring loads of invaluable experience, contacts, and open many doors for the future. I have no clue what those doors are or where they could lead...but it surely is more than just sitting on the couch watching t.v. would do for me.

On the social end
I hosted this year's Great Pumpkining....and it was wonderful.
Here are some pics from that. Sadly my camera batteries kicked out and knowing Jessica, it will be awhile till I get copies of hers.

Also hosted a Halloween Party. The costumes were fantastic and the good times were rolling.
Here are some pics from that.

The most recent social gathering was Friendsgiving. For those not in the 'know', Friendsgiving is a gathering of friends within a week of Thanksgiving where we all put into a pot luck feast, kick back, and simply appreciate being surround by awesome friends. Games and awesomeness abounded.
Here are some pics from Friendsgiving

Here are a few other quick pics:

Helping out with the OFA Phonebanking

Calling up to support the Strong Public Option. Well I got a few calls in till my voice completely failed.

Helping make posters at an HCAN meeting for the AHIP rally (American Health Insurance Plan--they are the lobbying arm for the health insurance industry)

At the AHIP rally on 17 Nov

My awesome shirt signed by hundreds of people from Spring Village, SVG

And so my friends.....the path goes on....

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

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.

2009-09-21T01:49:00.013-03:00

1 am, 21 Sept 09

Eyes are bugging out, very tired. So much to do and so little time.

I've posted info on Myspace and Facebook already, but I should post here as well. The hammer has fallen on the whole medical situation with the Peace Corps. I got off lucky with the surgery in Panama. I was given the option to go home to the Chicago area or return to post on SVG. The return to post option was based on my monthly check-ups with the local ENT. I was informed that when it came time for a second operation, I would be separated from service. Gut feeling is leading me to believe this time will be about 6-8 months or so from now. I met with our Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO) on last week Friday and she agreed with me on that estimated guess. It is a pity that I probably was not going to make it to the full close of service with everyone else.

Seems as if I a bit premature to think I'd make it even that far. Turns out that the ENT doctor here, while rather good at what he does and very knowledgeable, does not have the equipment required to see deep enough inside the throat to check the problematic areas in completion. That judgment call was determined by PC Office of Medical Services (OMS) in Washington D.C. My PCMO called me just this past Wednesday to inform me of the OMS decision and that I had 7 days to wrap things up on SVG because I was being sent home on a medical separation.

It was kinda like getting hit rather hard in the stomach and I was at a loss for words. I told people here that the med sep day was like a dark rain cloud hanging in the distance. I told them it was as if that rain cloud was blowing in my direction and it would be here eventually--just seems that storm couldn't wait to arrive. Now I'm in the process of trying to reverse myself back into the American world and rediscover how/where to live back home. I spent the last 2 months or so before service getting all my i's dotted and t's crossed so I wouldn't have to worry about anything while I was away. 2 months...and now the PC says I have 7 days to flip back and 'normalize'. I suppose that in of self is better than many med sep. Those who are on medevac don't even get to return to post first to say their goodbyes and gather their personal things. (Those would be boxed and mailed back by PC staff members) At least this way I can get a sense of closure.

That closure hasn't been easy and I'm coming to realize just how many things I've managed to do over the past year and what it has meant for some of the people here. I had a rather tough assignment here when things fell apart with my host organization rather early into the assignment. Since then I dug deep into Spring Village and found niches here to fill. The people of my village have really taken to me come out to show support in my leaving. Many have even asked if they could file petitions and send letters to keep me here--although some of them still think I'm just hoarse and that silly about being sent home for hoarseness.

So I tossed together at the last minute a photo slideshow with music to honor the thngs I've witnessed and embraced over the past year. This tribute is just to my Vincy people that I've shared so much with over the past year. I wanted to have it ready for a going away party that I had on Saturday which much success. I might make one with the wonderful volunteers I've served with if time permits soon.

<< Just discovered that Youtube pulled the sound from the video for copyright issues on the 2nd one, don't know if they will eventually pull sound on the first. So I uploaded the video to Vimeo and have reposted it in one full video clip here for ya!>>>

Spring Village Goodbye from Shawn Rujedi on Vimeo.

One hell of a year. Thank you Spring Village and those who reside therein and the surrounding areas.

And on that note, I'm set to come home back to the Chicago area this coming Wednesday. Life will close this chapter and begin another. I still have a desire to pursue law/grad school in the fall of 2010 and now I just need to figure out the best way to fill the gaps till then.

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

Change. It happens everywhere.

2009-09-14T15:58:00.004-03:00

14 Sept 2009, somewhere around 1:30pm

Avocados (also known here as zabuca or pear) are in full swing. It has been a very tasty past couple of weeks and the guacamole is wonderful. Still haven't gotten too many into guacamole in my village. My host dad refers to it as pickney tootoo...pickney is dialect for kids, so I am sure you can guess the tootoo part. Still too much of any good thing isn't good for you and it is a comical reminder everytime the avocados come raining from the trees and I gobble them up after missing them for so long...and a couple hours later remember why it isn't good to eat too much avocado. Still, it is too yummy to pass up. ^_^ What a wonderful food avocado is.

The yellow face has tasty avocado...the blue faces have none. ^_^

The political situation in SVG is rather interesting for the outsider right about now. They are in the final leg of an attempt for a constitutional referendum. The government has spent the past 6 or so years pulling in the opinions and other inputs from all walks of Vincentians--here and abroad. The government parties were at one time together on this venture, but for a myriad of reasons have since taken different stances. The government (majority party) has been pushing a YES vote and the opposition (minority party) has been pushing a NO vote. There are many Vincentians here that believe neither party should be pushing any sort of YES or NO vote and should only be engaging in educating the people on the new constitution's contents and empowering them to place their own individual votes that remain unswayed by any particular political influence.

I have heard and seen a great deal of political tribalism during my first year here, but this seems to be taking things to a whole new level. If I was to ever pursue political science as a PhD field of study, I think I would return here for a dissertation as I have never seen such levels of political tribalism before and also seen the public and government so close together and readily accessible--a given considering SVG is a small nation.

I will refrain from discussing the bits and pieces of the constitution or my own personal thoughts on it. However, I certainly raised an eyebrow at the words of the Prime Minister in this week's newspapers. He is an incredibly smart and strategically savy individual who does a great deal of planning in much of what he says and does, which is why I will only guess at his selection of published material.

As published in all of this week's major newspapers, the final paragraphy of his "The Dynamic of Constitutional Reform":
PERVERSE TO VOTE "NO"
It is a perversity based o petty politics or a debilitating, personal vanity to vote "NO" in the "referendum election". A "NO" vote has no credible intellectual basis or national interest consideration on which to ground it. A "NO" vote would make our nation the laughing stock of the region and diaspora. The young people and generations unborn would damn us if we are ever so foolish as to vote "NO".

Interesting way to choice to motivate the public Honorable Prime Minister...

As I try to keep up with the barrage of news in the media back home, I wonder why our country is in the process of devouring itself on this Health Care reform. It seems as if our nation is acting very much along the political tribalism lines I see here on SVG. The whole heath care reform that President Obama's administration has been pushing, or many of the addressed aspects of it, should have not been any massive surprise to anyone. At the very least we should have become rather acquainted with his view and ideological goals for this reform during his campaign run for Presidential office. He won the Presidency by a rather healty margin, which should give credence to his plans for the office term. With respect to the other major contenders for the presidency--Senator McCain and Secretary of State Clinton, they both acknowledged the need for this reform and I honestly feel that if Clinton was voted into office that she would have been pursuing much of the same path as President Obama on this issue.

Health Care reform is something that we truly need in our country. I won't say what is currently in the policy cauldron, bubbling away, is a perfect and ideal solution but it is certainly a step in the right direction. As with any significant issue in our nation's political climate, I strongly suggest people to do more individual investigation on these details and form your own opinion. Look into the health care systems of other nations, especially those with strong democratic governments that have a somewhat/greater socialized health care systems in place that is well supported by their public. Continue listening to pundits and political groups if you wish, but seek your own opinions and listen with an open mind to the on-going debates. Our debate should not be at all focused on if we reform or not, but rather on how we do it.

Enough of my ranting....more on what's up with me.

Went to a wedding this past Saturday. One of the volunteers here just finished up his Close of Service after fulfilling his 26 months this past Thursday followed that by marrying his Vincentian finace! How very cool. I was asked to be a groomsman, so I was all gussied up in a black suit and tie--of course it was Caribbean hot, ug. The wedding started a bit late...nearly an hour, probably on time after including for Caribbean time flow. The whole ceremony was great, but there was just one part that struck me as a bit odd. There came a moment when the pastor was having them agree to their respective duties as husband and wife. The wife was asked to submit to her husband, obey him, and recognize him as superior and the head of the household. The husband was asked to respect and love his wife. There was a bit more to both, but they each held the general outlook that was very clearly spoken to dominance and control of the husband.

I found this interesting given the steps forward to bring men and women closer together in terms of fundamental gender equality. I was certainly not expecting this and from what I understand--one of our female volunteers in attendance let her jaw drop after hearing such things. Of course we had our jokes about it later on, but it does give credence and shed light on how many things can/are interpreted here in the social and family structure.

For those wondering about the vocal dilemma--yes, I'm still hoarse. Currently taking some decongestants and that seems to be helping a little bit, but I'm far from being considered at a normal operative level. As for expected full recovery timelines, there are not any. Just go at it one day at a time.

On a personal note, I was talking with another volunteer the other night and we found that we are both experiencing similar situations. It is a strange concept and I'm not sure what to do about it. There seems to be this cyclic sensation of where I'd rather be and what I'd rather be doing. When I am at home--most notably when I'm on the computer/internet--I find my mind drifting to things back home. What I would be doing if I was there right now or how family & friends are doing. Of course email, chat, and various other social connectivity options help keep in touch, but it doesn't stop the 'what-if' questions from coming and life back home certainly hasn't stopped or slowed just because I joined the Peace Corps. There are lots of things that play through the mind, but the overall sensation is one of wanting to be home.

However, the flipside of that situation is when I am not at home. Whether I am just sitting on the block with guys listening to them rant about the current situations here, helping farm bananas, teach computers, or try to help where I can...it makes me glad to be here. It is when I am out and about in my community that helps me keep myself anchored here. To say things are difficult to get done here is an understatement, but I like interacting with the people in my village.

The other volunteer I was talking to had expressed a rather similar experience and it just seems so strange--as if split between two worlds and desiring to be a part of both, but only when engaging in activities that involve one world or the other. It isn't that I'm fighting to get home or entrenching myself to stay here. I'm happy and comfortable here so don't misconstrue these thoughts as a form of homesickness. Just an observation in what's on the mind.

The only thing here right now that is rather unsettling is what I am 'supposed' to be doing. Most of the volunteers here work in the schools and with some secondary programs outside of the schools. There are also a couple that are attached to community groups and that seems to be keeping them rather busy. My groups are keeping me rather busy too...but something seems to be back-firing with them. When I work with one group, I seem to be experiencing some pressure from that organization's "parent group" to back off from what I do with that group. I think the "parent group" of this community organization would like nothing better than to have me disappear from the community efforts--a sense of turfism if you will.

The other group I'm working to support is extremely new and as a community umbrella group it is dependent on participation from other village groups to participate for support. There are a few key people that have expressed interest in supporting the group and I'm very thankful to be able to work alongside them. Yet the majority of village groups that should be participating to fill out the umbrella group simply not there. I've been the length and breadth of this village. I've talked to people here and spent a great deal of time listening--in shops, the street, and on porches. I've sat back and watched others--how they interact; where they go; and I feel as if I've gotten a decent hold on the village realities. When I communicate with them, there is a sense of interest and desire to see certain things happen to improve the quality of life in the village. So I go about learning what it takes to make those things happen and present findings to the umbrella group. Unfortunately, there has been less and less involvement at the umbrella group meetings and I seem to have been left hanging at the end of a stick.

All in all, it isn't bad to deal with and yet I find the missing component to the equation is the motivation to act on what a person says. I have seen mathematical problems and equations that make heads spin and look as if they were written in ancient languages. They seemed impossible, but there are indeed solutions if one knows how to interpret the symbols and approach the equation. The dilemma of how to motivate a person, group, village, or society is an equation that seems more daunting than the previous math problem. There are methods to decode the social symbols and ways to approach social mobility--but how... Ug. It is enough to cause a headache at this point. Going to lie down now and get up later to fix a few computers.

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

President Obama's Health Care speech to Congress on 9 Sept 09

2009-09-10T10:35:00.005-03:00

10 Sept 09 -- 9:30am

As everyone should know--the U.S. is embroiled in the midst health care debate and reform. There are arguments from the left and the right. Both sides offer valid points and nearly none say that the system should remain as it is. We are being torn apart by the media, our politicians, and the general public on what could be one of the most important pieces of legislation of the past 50 years. As pointed out in President Obama's speech, every President since Theodore Roosevelt (who served as President at beginning of the 20th century) has attempted some sort of health care initiative. Let us come together now in order to push forward through the darkness of confusion, scare tactics, and private interests to encourage and support our legislators to create a vibrant bill for the good of all Americans. We can find a way. We will find a way.

So in case you missed, as I did, the live broadcast of President Obama's speech yesterday to the U.S. Congress on this pressing matter I have embedded it here:

--the first 5 minutes of the first clip is applause, but he does start the speech in the first clip--
--for those with great concerns over the cost of the plan, he addresses much of this in part 5--

---had a bit of a problem with the final part of this speech from the person that uploaded it. These last bits are from a different uploader and there is little bit of overlap ---

I am proud to support my President on this issue and if I was not in the Peace Corps, I think that I would be organizing support for it back home--in pubic discussions, door-to-door talks, and whatever it would take to help educate the public to make the right choice for themselves.

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

War against apathy

2009-09-05T15:06:00.002-03:00

It's been awhile since I posted--completely on me. I'm online almost everyday, but finding the words to say just don't come out I suppose.

So a year on island has gone by now (a year as an official volunteer on 20 October). It was one thing to say that we've been here a year and perhaps it felt as such. Yet I think it really came to me when the current volunteers (both those at the 1-yr mark and those who are still here wrapping up their 2-year service) gathered at the air-port to greet the new, incoming volunteers. The airport here is small enough that we were able to assemble along the outer fence line and proceed to scream, hoot, and pound the fence as we saw them coming off their plane. Then we lined up like complete hooligans immediately outside the arrival exit doors waving a Vincy flag for people to walk through as we chanted various things like SVG, Peace Corps, and being wonderfully obnoxious. Thankfully, security must figure it's only once a year for a very short time--so we're forgiven. ^_^ Thanks airport security.

See the all the arrival shots here!

Here's the boss-man, Mr. Cool coming through.

The arrival welcoming crew

We ventured back to the office for a little meet and greet for a few hours. It was nice to see everyone face to face--even the current volunteers. Some of us here meet up from time to time for small events, but as a group we very rarely all get together in one place. This time we had every volunteer on island there and it was very cool. Scott and I stuck around until each host parent came to pick up there respective volunteer and take them to their new homes across SVG. It was akin to watching the box of puppies seeking adoption. ^_^ This arrival was very different from our group's landing last year. We didn't do a meet and greet, but we were met by a few volunteers at the arrival doors very briefly. Didn't have much chance to say hi, because the moment we got past our greeters our host parents were already at the airports to pick us up. Also, we arrived on a Saturday and didn't have anything specific to do until Monday when our training started. This gave us a couple days to figure out something to do as we settled into our village--no word from the staff or other volunteers. This time around, they landed on a Monday and started training the next day. Neither is better or worse, but interesting to compare.

President Obama welcomes you

The whole volunteer SVG crew is now assembled!

So while that was happy, joyful times--there is still plenty to do work to do.
The past couple of weeks has posed to be rather interesting in terms of 'passing the buck'. With my time and energy focusing on the two main groups I'm working with, I've rolled up my sleeves a bit for them.
--The tourism group, Cumberland Valley Eco-Tourism Organization, really needs to come together since their efforts are going to be launched as a small business group responsible for two tourist sites. I'm trying to fill in the training gaps from the larger development projecct, rather large gaps.
--The Spring Village Action Council has been having a hard time gathering its supposed members and putting our long talked about village enhancement project to paper. Seeing that project through is my driving goal while I am here.

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With the tourism project, there is an controlling group that is responsible for strengthening and training some dozen or so community tourism groups. They are covering everything from business fundamentals, accounting, computer training, marketing, safety & security, hospitality, and all sorts of other small start-up training. However, in my opinion, much of this training (at those I've attended) seem to be nothing more than a light dusting on these topics and are not engaging the groups. A few of our group members feel that the rest of the group is not taking the upcoming responsibilities seriously enough. Sometimes I wonder if the provided 'training' in not designed in such a way as to capture the involvement and bring these members on-board. Additionally, I feel as if this light dusting called training won't be sufficient to help these groups manage their sites if they've never managed something similar before.

I've offered extensively to assist the tourism development project team in any way they might see fit. However, there is a general feeling of turfism in that anyone who is not actively working as staff on the project team or contracted by them should be involved with the training. The project liaison and I have bumped heads a few times with my attempts to do some side training for my local village group. I warned the group about this training situation long ago and they didn't seem too concerned. Now that they are starting to realize that the sites will be ready and they'll be operating them by the end of the year (if not sooner), I'm being approached to assist with all sorts of things from the business plans to site marketing to doing the computer work for them. I haven't entirely let myself do all of their work. Just this morning, one of the members was asking me why I didn't get the tourism statistics they needed and I replied because it was them that needed to get it. So we met on middle ground as I sat her down at my computer and had her use her email to communicate to the Ministry of Tourism. They must stand on their own two feet.

Marketing this group is my lastest drive for them. I have a running goal to get them an internet presence (email, social networks, and website) all up and running within two months. They will be alongside me nearly every step of the way. Thankfully, there are not webhosts with relatively easy to use interfaces that allow a person to literally drag-and-drop their way to building a website. Between that and a few tweaks of help, we should have something looking rather nice in the near future. Score one for them and since I'll make sure they can update it themselves, score one for both of us on sustainability.

I've also started to try help a local couple craftspeople to work on their product marketing as well. One of them in involved with the tourism project also--so the repeat coaching should help reinforce the concepts. I'll be happy to provide links for them in the future...

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The Spring Village Action Council has been it's own bunch of fun. We're going to meet later this evening and have lots to discuss. As a group, we were gathered to act as a networked council--bringing to the table representatives from the churches, non-church organizations, and interested individuals. We've noticed it is extremely hard to get many of the groups to respond regularly and many individuals don't seem to really acknowledge us as yet. Must strategically plan on how who we should target to expand membership and drive to enlarge ourselves in order to have sufficient numbers to share responsibilities.

We've been mapping out a development project--a somewhat ambitious one--as a tool to establish the group and provide several needed services to the community. However, without a strong membership base it seems as if our meetings are just going in circles. Tonight I hope to gain commitment to a general timeline for the project. Even if that timeline is long, it will give them something on a calendar to work along. The things we have planned out would greatly benefit the community and I fear should I be sent home early that much of this will fall through...

Crossroad direction and neighborhood (rather than street) signs through the village
Bus shed on the highway
Establish a family play/relax park
Establish an agricultural inputs shop
Complete a bridge to gain access to part of the beach. Currently the river we cross can quickly rise to dangerous levels.
Remodel parts of our community center to reflect changing interests
Remodel and establish a computer training lab in one of the community center rooms.

We can do this, but we have to get motivated and start to write. I've told the members in the group that funding is available for those that work towards it--which has been one of their greatest concerns.

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I think the hardest part of what I do isn't facilitating any particular topic.

It isn't working with kids--->way outside my comfort zone.
It isn't patiently explaining a concept 4, 5 or 12 times to someone.
It isn't trying to communicate with people while being hoarse for the past many months.
It isn't doing lots of walking and hand-shaking to track down people or information to make something possible.

The hardest part about what I do is fight a war against apathy, non-motivation, and a general culture of undermining one another. I've talked on many occasions to people in my village and they will all agree on a particular idea, but none seem to have any idea as to how to start changing that culture. They will readily admit such practices run rampant in the village and the greater St. Vincent, but they won't admit to doing such things themselves. The barest strand of this aspect of Spring/Vincy culture shows that a person would like a certain level of happiness/standard of living. While this is not inherently problematic, the common thread continues that if someone else might become better off by helping that person--such as buy from a shop or contribute in any way to an organization, then a person would avoid or even work against the betterment of the person trying to succeed.

Anyone you ask shall tell you just what this community needs, but the vast majority will not provide any assistance towards the work that needs to be done. Invitations to consultations and other meetings would be announced that offer an opportunity for people come and be heard; yet the far majority do not come. Even recently, there was a land and watershed consultation done that actually had a decent turn-out and when the facilitators mentioned a potential of funding for environmental protection work, members of the audience began spinning question after question about when some group will come and fix this and that for them. The facilitators attempted to bring these people on-board with a collaborative venture, yet the audience members turned away from it. It seems apparent that the majority of the people simply want something done for them without personal investment. The local culture is one of negative criticism and perhaps it would be harder to criticize something negatively if that person had been a stakeholder on the effort.

My work here strongly discourages the "do it for them" approach and I don't believe in it either. Sadly, far too many stories have come from previous volunteers that say if you want something done, you just have to do it yourself. I've had to stoop to that before, but am trying my best to bring at least on person with me when something needs to get done. And so the war on apathy continues....

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

Vincy-versary!

2009-08-26T12:11:00.002-03:00

Kudos to everyone in the EC78 group that came together this time last year in Miami, FL and are here to celebrate our first year in the Peace Corps. This time last year, many of us were big-eyed and full of hope for change and ideology. Lol, some of us still are. After a couple day crash course in a Welcome to the Peace Corps in Miami, we hopped a flight to Saint Lucia where we engaged in another 3-day Peace Corps 'boot camp' of shots, what-to-expect workshops, and paperwork. From there, we hopped to our respective islands to begin our pre-service training and meet the host families that we would live with for the next 7 weeks. So we've already hit one year since leaving home and this Friday will mark our 1 year anniversary of living on our islands. We won't hit our official volunteer anniversary until late October, but I think to many of us this milestone seems a bit more tangible.

Already many of the 'older' volunteers from EC77 have begun to leave SVG. Some finished their service early and a few are still here till their separation date in September. One of them is getting married to a Vincentian right after his close of service. I'll be in a suit and standing at the wedding! On Monday, the new batch (EC80) of volunteers will be arriving. I suppose this makes our crew of EC78 the 'senior' group and will be doing a bit of mentoring for the newbies during their pre-service training. The Eastern Caribbean post has been doing some experimenting with their training programs and schedules over the past few groups--EC78 certainly got it's share of guinea pig time. I wonder what will hold in store for this new batch.

So what now? We are nearing the top of the hill. Most of us are working on the projects and efforts that will take us down the rest of the hill. Some of my fellows work in the schools and they are gearing up for the next upcoming term in 2 weeks. I'm keeping busy with the village action council and the tourism group--as I try to focus my efforts onto these organizations. I've still got a few side items, but I'm not dedicating as much time to them now. I don't know if I will be tutoring kids after school or how much drumming/dance I'll be doing--the voice just can't handle it. Sadly, I don't think the kids realize that when they ask me repeatedly and wonder why I have to pause when trying to talk to them.

Thinking about how difficult it is for me to communicate verbally, I sometimes wonder just if I'll be here to see the Vincy-versary round 2. Right now, with any sort of moderate noise--like a passing car--you would not be able to hear me. This is becoming rather troublesome and I'm not sure what the next few months will hold. Perhaps if I can make it past the hurdle of December like this, then I'll know a bit better how things will pan out. Time will tell.

Either way! It's good times for now as we celebrate our Peace Corps anniversary!!! ^_^

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

Linux = happy

2009-08-13T02:09:00.003-03:00

I am still trying to wean myself completely off of Windows and it should be coming soon. I'm a firm believer in open-source and Linux has so much to offer--especially for developing countries and small organizations/businesses that can't afford heavy hitting costs of computer software.

Came across a website that talked about the various PC vs. Mac commercial and wondered why Linux was never mentioned. Well, maybe they're worried about that underdog creeping up quick. For the technophiles, you might be using Linux systems in all sorts of small electronics. It takes a bit of getting used to--but there are so many sweet things about it and the help forums are packed full of helpful people.

Here's some great reasons why you should check out Linux:

FREE-->Nearly everything about it is LEGALLY FREE
OPTIONS-->Lots of cool options for nearly everything! (that's what happens when you unleash a world of interested geeks with access to everything internal)
BETTER UPDATES-->Many Linux varieties update the WHOLE computer software--not just the OS, but programs too
MORE OPTIONS-->Many Linux varieties offer a nice way to just find, download, and install/uninstall all sorts of programs with just a few clicks--again LEGALLY FREE.
SECURITY-->You're not immune to most computer ailments like viruses, but most are not written for Linux (yet) and so the just became a much safer place. So you won't be paying nosebleed rates for software that bogs down your computer or sneaking around with illegal versions of that same software hoping someone didn't put a virus into that.
EVEN MORE OPTIONS, Personalize it!-->Linux has SO MANY flavors (called distrobutions or distros for short) and they can fit almost any interest. Many new to Linux (like me) will find themselves comfortable in a similar to Windows environment.
RESURECTIONS-->Got an old PC lying around and sad that it barely runs? Maybe the physical stuff is still good. Try to put certain versions of Linux (like Puppy Linux) in it and watch it become reborn with a whole new speed and vigor you didn't think possible.
CUTENESS-->With a cute penguin as the mascot, how can you go wrong? ^_^

Thought I'd embed a few of the possible future commercials you might find coming soon:
(I liked them. The first is cute.)

The Origin... from Agustin Eguia on Vimeo.

Wanna know more--Google it to find a whole new world ahead.
Stay well and happy
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

Welcome Back

2009-08-08T02:27:00.005-03:00

8 August 09--about 1-2am local time.

Just reached back to SVG late last night. The plane touched down about 10pm and I was back in Spring by 11. You know you're well adjusted to a place when you step back into the familiar and are glad to be there. Indeed, I'm glad to be back in my home in Spring. Although I'm grumbling at seeing all the little things I left messy when I left--just something to work on now that I'm back.

It's going to take me a few days to get myself reoriented to what going on here in the village and with the other groups I work with. Spent part of today walking up the village road to wave hi to others who live here. I'm sure that if I just came back and didn't say hi, the gossip would run--they'd know I'd be here and comments on my rudeness would come about. Certainly don't want that. People here really like to have that individual attention, bring the news to them sort of thing. Considering that many of them were concerned that I was gone so long, I really don't mind taking the time to walk around and let others know I'm back.

I suppose the hardest part about being back is that fact that I'm just about as vocally hoarse now as when I left and this has left many people confused. Some even joked that I was on vacation and not on medevac. lol, sure that would have been grand.

Many of the EC77 volunteers are finishing up their 2 years of service and are jumping through the various hoops to perform their close of service. One already left while I was away on Medevac and a few more are leaving this coming Monday. From now till Sept 15, they will trickle away leaving only a few until their very end date. One of them will be getting married to a Vincentian woman right after close of service. (PC policy says we can't get married while in service) I was asked to stand as a groomsman for him--way cool. The new wave of volunteers to SVG, EC80 (There was an EC79 but none of them came to SVG), will be coming at the end of August. When they arrive it will mark my groups 1 year on island marker. Kinda strange to think we've been here this long. Our mid-service won't be till late October, but still 1-year away from our comfort bubble is a mile stone nonetheless. Our group will advance to become the senior volunteer--inheriting all the new questions about van rides and where to find the best deals as well as showing the new volunteers some cool places to visit. How weird.

Looks like I won't be taking the LSAT in September like I wanted. Doesn't look like I'll be able to get all the t's crossed and i's dotted that I'll need before the end of this month AND have it snail mailed back and processed before the end of August. I'll probably shoot to try and take it here in December instead--my last shot for this year if I want to get a chance to enter for the fall of 2010. Probably won't fly home for that one--expensive plane tickets, darn holiday pricing.

Reflecting a bit on Panama, I realized that I ate Cinnabon WAY TOO MUCH. lol. Ok, so I had it 3 times in about 3.5 weeks. That is quiet a bit for me, especially considering that I would only have it on a rare occasion back home. That was one of those places I'd tend to avoid back home. Can't figure out what drove me to get it once, much less than three times, while I was in Panama. Found it rather amusing to be reading about various bad foods for ya when I stumbled upon this little gem:

"Cinnabons and malls are inseparable. Consider it a symbiotic relationship: Researchers have found that men are turned on by the smell of cinnamon rolls, and further studies have shown that men are more likely to spend money when they’re thinking about sex."

From reading some of the good/bad food choices out there, I came across a report talking about some of the 'better' food items found in most grocery stores back home. I suggest talking a look at it. It's not just all the 'super good for you so it probably doesn't taste good' items. Of course I must clarify that there are many good things for you that taste great--IMO. But this list says things like if you are going to buy ice cream, which is the best choice in terms of health. Woot, it was Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip--very tasty indeed. (oh the lactose pain is worth it sometimes)

So check out 125 Healthiest Supermarket Food Items

I finally got some pics posted from Panama onto Facebook--last count 115.
Click here to go to the album link.
Here's a few highlights from there:

There was a freakin' carousel inside one of the malls!

Not to mention a T-Rex!

Loads of the Diablo Rojos (Red Devil) Public Buses

Some cool ant-drug mural artwork

Little leaf-cutter ants srambling about

and....Hummingbirds! I saw more in one spot than I've ever seen before.

A sloth hanging out in a tree--way super cool, probably my favorite thing I saw.

Gotta have a toucan shot. ^_^

Go Go Gadget Binoculars

Yeah, I went to the Panama Canal. Honestly, I only when because I happened to be in Panama. I've seen a system on a much smaller scale, but the idea is the same and although it is an engineering wonder I wasn't super impressed. I totally dug watching the sloth climb about more. ^_^

Big boat getting pulled through into the canal locks.

Well it's very late now and I should have been in bed awhile ago. Got a full day of catching up to do.

Still smiling and living life one day at a time.

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

Hi, I'd like you to meet your latest unauthorized tennet--RRP.

2009-07-23T16:54:00.007-03:00

23 July 2009, around 18:00 local Panama Time

Had the throat surgery on Friday--probably should have posted an update since then as I've had many people asking how I've been doing. Stalled on the post until I had something relevant to say other than I felt fine (mostly), was waiting till my first follow-up appointment with the ENT which was yesterday.

So from Friday till Wednesday in a nutshell--went in for the operation, went smoothly as far as I know. Sure I had to wear one of those awful hospital gowns (grump) and had to get wheeled around in a chair with a little blanket on my lap. You'd think I was an ICU patient or something.

They knocked me out with a general anesthetic and I woke up in a recovery room. Must have been some really good stuff, because I remember getting up and walking around--but I don't remember if/when I changed myself back into my clothes. lol. Ricardo picked me up and took me back to the hotel--where I passed out for another couple hours. On the ride back, I did find out the doc found much more than just the one polyp--but I'd have to wait on the pathology lab results at my follow-up for more details. Otherwise, it was time for a couple days of horse-sized Tylenol, for a pain I didn't feel, and told to keep completely silent for 4 days.

What was odd to me...was that I felt just fine going into the hospital, but when I woke up/got out I had noticed my nose was running. Since the nasal sinus are all part of the ENT fun, I didn't think much of it--maybe just a little post op fun that had to clear. By the time I woke up from my nap it was evident that I seemed to have caught the very annoying common cold. Puffy/teary eyes, mega runny nose that simply would not stop, and chain-sneezes.

The lady who cleans and restocks the hotel room during the day was probably wondering how I managed to go through toilet paper as fast as I did. The chain sneezes were the harsh part. I felt pretty good, but those chain-sneezes had a way of making the throat feel like fresh sandpaper. Must admit they are a good way of clearing a crowd though. ^_^ The cold final abated mostly by mid/late Monday...all gone by Tuesday. Thank goodness. Decided to give myself an extra day of silence due to the rough-up my throat had probably received.

Not being able to speak, Ricardo provided me with a nice pad of paper to write little messages to everyone if I needed to communicate. Of course, my Spanish grammar is even worse than my speaking skills. However, he also loaned me a dictionary that has proven useful on several occasions. Hung out over the weekend and meet a few more Panama PC volunteers. Good people, good stories, and I'm glad to have met them even though it took something poopy like this to allow the introductions.

Monday and Tuesday were nice and quiet--I pretty much hid in the hotel room all day and studied/worked on what I could.

TANGENT-->A quick shout and thanks to my buddy Will in New York, who had shipped me a couple books. I just finished reading one of them yesterday thanks to some of the recent quiet time; I read slowly, boo.
I recommend the book Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston (Pulitzer Prize Winning Reporter). "Free Lunch answers the great mystery of our time: How did our strong and growing economy give way to job uncertainty, debt, bankruptcy, and fear for millions of Americans? Acclaimed reporter David Cay Johnston reveals how government policies and spending have reached deep into the wallets of the many to benefit the top tenth of 1 percent of the wealthiest." Not something I would have picked up 5 years ago, but good for knowledge for a future in policy analysis.
Find it on amazon.com

By the late evening on Tuesday, I started trying to talk again by reading words from Free Lunch out loud. My goodness, I'm now more hoarse then before the surgery! That's right, my voice is just audible over a whisper level. This came to me as quiet the surprise, since the ENT here had told me to expect a proper voice return. Just had to wait for the appointment the next day for more answers.

Shortly before noon, I met with Dr. Crespo--the local ENT I've been with here and the one who did the operation. It was a relatively quick follow-up. Got to sit in a chair, stick out the toungue while he popped a mirror into the mouth to see down the throat--just like previous visits here or back on SVG. Turns out he was surprised that my voice had not come back as yet and didn't like the idea of me trying to talk at whisper volume. Says I need to push it up and out and get louder--but everytime I do it makes my head feel funny... He was happily surprised that I was able to do some counting exercises with sufficient volume in a single breath as he though I would have greater difficulty with my laryngeal movement and attributes me with a healthy lung capacity. My verdict, I'll push when I talk, but I'll still try to limit the talking for now.

We talked a bit about what the problem was and how my throat had not just one growth, but many growths--on and under the vocal cords, on the larynx, and even the back of the epiglottis. He wasn't able to see them before, but did remove them all during the operation. After talking with him, I went to see the local PC doctor on staff to check in with her. She wasn't surprised that I was still hoarse, due to the amount of nasties that were removed from my throat. She is expected a longer healing time to recover my voice. Hum...conflict in medical opinions? Between the 2 doctors, they figure I should be fine to send back to SVG by mid-next week. That will give a few more days to get and early check on my voice, but honestly if it progresses at this rate I don't see it getting too much better by then. It will also give a few more days to get further information from the pathology lab on the wonderful mass of info I've researched below. I've already made it VERY clear to the PCMO (PC doc) that I'm eager to get back to work on SVG, but I want to be very sure about all the details from my operation and any/all lab results. I should be able to get a comprehensive report by early next week.
This isn't something to play with...read on...

So the news everyone has been waiting for...what was this problem in the first place?
Ready for your biology class? ^_^ I got good news and bad.

First the good news. Well the good news is that it is not cancer, as a few people I've talked to had asked right away.
Now the bad. I should expect this problem to come back and most likely several times.
But why?
When the ENT was in the operating room with me under sedation, he was able to see and work better in my throat. Of course my gag reflex when I was awake probably didn't help much either. What he removed was no polyp--it was a papilloma. What is papilloma you ask and how is it different from a polyp? Nasal polyps (as there are many types) are abnormal tissue growths on stalk ends, usually in mucous rich areas, often filled with excess mucous. Papilloma however is a benign epithelial (skin) tumor (not cancer!) that grows with finger-ish projections from the base. So what would cause these papilloma? Nearly always and almost assuredly in this case--a virus. In my case, the Human pappilomavirus more commonly known as HPV.

SEXY IMAGE!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding. Yuck! >.<

But isn't HPV and STD (sexually transmitted disease) and cancer causing? Yes and no. HPV, like many virii, has many types. There are around 100 or so types of HPV that are known and only about 9 of them are known to be nasty, lil cancer-causing versions. Around 60 or so types are wart forming on the outer skin--like the feet and hands. The other 40 or so are mucous varieties. Was the ENT able to tell me more about which variety of HPV type was in my throat? Not yet--but I did ask him for a pathology follow up...so that I will know before I leave Panama.

Since the follow-up I have taken it upon myself to begin digging and learn as much as I can. And here is where some of my researched readings differ, but more of them tend to agree that the same HPV types 6 and 11 (both non-cancerous) are responsible for causing the HPV STD commonly known as genital warts but is also the typical cause for papilloma in the throat (larynx, vocal cords, epiglottis, etc.). However many of the readings claimed that although the types were the same that transmission and how it occurs were different from the tradition STD variety.

Here's some funky research on HPV 6 and 11 (note most research on this reflects the STD-based info):

HPV is a common virus. It affects +/- 6 million Americans every year, mostly between 15 and 25.
For the sexually active, about 1/2 to 3/4 of everyone will have had HPV at some point in their lives. Yes, it is possible for a person to have HPV and not know it, nor have any symptoms.
HPV tends to pass through a person and the immune system typically clears the body of it 70% in the first year and 90% in the second year.
It is not based through fluids--like blood or mucous. It is passed on skin to skin contact. One should note that condoms are not proven effective against HPV since the skin contact area is typically more vast of a region than the male or female condom will protect. This could explain the very high transmission rate, especially among younger people.

RRP usually isn't aggressive, but can be if untreated or for those whose immune systems are weak to it.

A bit on the non-sexual parts of HPV and a bit more pertinent to what's going on inside me:

HVP can exist in the throat and not show signs, but once the papilloma form it's a different ballgame. Papilloma in the throat is known as Respiratory Papillomatosis (RRP).
Only about 5% of people get HPV in their respiratory tract, but only about 1/1000 will have it become RRP (Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis).
It is called recurrent, because of it's viral nature and likelihood to occur again and again and again, etc.
The common procedure at the medical moment is removal (variety of ways with CO2 laser laryngoscopy preferred) but they will tend to regrow. The speed and vigor of regrowth often depends on the individual and their immune system's response to the HPV.
Removal of RRP is almost required, as if left unchecked the papilloma may grow to obstruct the airway and eventually cause asphyxiation.
RRP is more commonly found in young children--most often because they tend to contract it from a mother with HPV through the birth canal. If is much more dangerous to younger children than to adults.
It is not as common in adults (typically 2 per 100,000) and usually affects only the voice/airway.
Don't forget to WASH YOUR HANDS! A small study did show that HPV DNA can be carried under the fingernails as a transmission agent. (This will make it just about impossible to track down the source of transmission to a single carrier.)

++So can I be cured? Does a vaccine exist?
--Well...it really isn't known as yet. There is NO direct cure/vaccine proven to work against HPV as yet for those that have it. There is a vaccination series that has been approved for women under the age of 27, but there are conditions to it--which makes me even wonder about it's effectiveness. From what I understand, the younger women volunteers (<27) who joined the Peace Corps did receive this shot as part of our staging medical cocktail of shots. Boys? Well, we're left in the dark for now.

++What about treatments?
--Well...there are some treatments, but they mostly vary in methods of removal and have not offered substantial cures. Some only seem to delay the occurrence for longer periods of time. There have been some trials with various drugs and therapies, only 1 that I've come across has seriously seemed to have worked and kept the papilloma at bay. Great care must be taken during removal and how continual removal may affect a patient--because if vocal fold scarring should occur, this would likely result in permanent hoarseness.

--I will probably start trying to ramp up my intake of cabbage (common on SVG), brocolli (not common and very expensive on SVG), flaxseeds, walnuts, and soybeans. The cabbage and brocolli are part of the cruciferous vegetables that provide something called Indole-3-carbinol. This little guy has been seen to "alter the growth pattern of RRP." The latter 3 foods are all high soruces of omega-3 fatty acids (flaxseeds and walnuts are higher than salmon) and omega-3 has also been identified as an agent to help inhibit tumorous growths--of which papilloma qualify.

++Will RRP just go away like the other studies show STD HPV?
--Well...if it does, I haven't come across literature about it as yet. There is the RRP Foundation that helps those with serious RRP and links research between doctors and translates it for patients. From what I've read there, it hasn't just up and disappeared like the people who get warts on their feet or genitals.

++Some say HPV in the genital region can become cancerous, what about in the throat?
--HPV 6 and 11 are both classified as low-risk. HPV that occurs in the genital region and causes cancer is most likely not type 6 or 11; 70% of gential region cancer from HPV are types 16 or 18 (and there are still 7 others after that). I have not yet come across anything that has linked RRP and any particular throat cancers.

Some of the places I was doing some research:

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on a totally different note---I'm rockin' out having a few dork days messing with the Puppy Linux operating system and using Enlightement 17 (macpup_opera puplet version) on my laptop. One of the few linux distros that can get the wireless to work out-of-the-box on my laptop. On the road to conversion and it is nice. ^_^

--definitely something to look into for those of you who have older computers (especially those that came originally Win98). Puppy Linux is legally free, relatively easy to use (only cause there is a bit of a curve for basic linux use), and will give that old computer a new life and vigor you didn't think possible!
--Better yet, check the website and download the latest stable version (should be 4.2 or 4.2.1)...burn it to a cd and reboot your computer from the cd. After a couple super easy questions, you'll be able to try it "live" on your computer without causing any harm or changes to your regular system. Rock it out with Puppy! When you're finished, shut down and the disc will eject. When you restart without the disk, your computer should be just as it was before (unless you did something evil...)
Click here to check out Puppy Linux!
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See, always something to smile about. ^_^

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

bienvenidos a Cuidad de Panama & Hola PCVs de Panama!

2009-07-15T02:38:00.009-03:00

16 July 2009 11:12 am Panama Time

Been in Panama a few days now. My trip here was interesting enough--plenty of hurry up and wait. My medevac is the first time have left SVG. Well, I'm not counting the couple Grenadines so far and it was certainly the first time flying out since my arrival. The whole trip had a very surreal feel to it from the stepping onto the plane to getting settled in the hotel room.

I bounced from SVG to San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was in itself its own experience. I've never been to that airport before and since it is an entry point into the US, I had several customs/security checkpoints beyond the normal amount. For those who have not been there--that place is rather large. Hard to gauge and although it isn't as massive as Chicago O'hare--it certainly felt like it. Of course, I felt like I was tossed right back into shopping central with all of the traditional big name airport stores there--from food to clothing and duty free products. The big change came from the Spanish being spoken. After a few hours, I was underway to Panama City and arrived in the night. It's been awhile since I did any night flights and Panama City had a long stretch of lights along the coast. It reminded me of twinkling Christmas lights. On the flipside--it was really cool flying off SVG and being able to name all the villages I could see, including Spring Village! What was once a myriad of colors homes scattered along an island coastline as I flew in about 10 months ago has transformed into something familiar, something inside the 'comfort zone'.

Panama City, or Ciudad de Panama in Spanish, seems to be a very developed city. There are many towers (sky-scrapers) being built with all sorts of shops and stores lining the streets and heavy traffic zipping along. There are many casinos and a healthy nightlife buzzing with internationals. As I walk down the streets, I see faces that reflect world-wide ethic representation. In many ways it reminds me of the sprawling and hectic US cities, but does have its own flavor for sure.

From what I'm told, there is a large rise in foreign retirees coming here for the lower costs of living and well-reputed medical centers. From quick observation, that seems to be true as there are so many billboards advertising various new tower-homes of luxury and style mostly advertised in English as well as a plethora of medical centers and clinics. There seems to be some sort of medical care center on every street.

On the Peace Corps side of things, they have been fantastic thus far. Ricardo, a Panamanian working at the PC office as a medical assistant, has been wonderful in showing me around the general hotel area and pointing out hot spots of interest. He gave me a tour of the PC office and introduced me to other staff and volunteers. According to him, his main duty is to make sure that medevacs are taken care of and he has been nothing except excellent in that regard. He picks me up and takes me to the proper medical center--recall there are a few--and helps with translations to make things flow smoothly. I am very grateful for his help, because even if my Spanish was better I would still have a hard time communicating with my hoarse voice if I tried to ride one of the local buses--the diablo rojos. Yeah, it is a school bus; each one is personalized and given its own sense of flair. There are many of them that run all day and late into the night. I've rode in them a few times already...but with a crash course from another PCV.

I have also been thankful to the handful of volunteers that I've met so far. It has been a rather eye-opening experience to be able to bounce stories, situations, and perspectives off of others who at one time left home under similar ideals and to see how our experiences have differed. I want to particularly give a shout out to Yemi--an extended (in her 3rd year) PCV who has kinda taken me under her wing the past couple days. She has shown me a few good places to eat--as she's also a vegetarian--and we've spent a few hours just bouncing thoughts. She's also introduced me to several other volunteers and many of us went out the past couple of nights.

I suppose that I'm lucky to be able to meet so many volunteers here. I'm told there are approximately 170 PCVs here in Panama and there are typically only 10 or so that are in the city at any given time. However, there have been many more here since they are in for COS (close of service) medical check-ups and for other training programs. What has also been great has been talking to these other volunteers about the lines of work they do. In the Eastern Caribbean, we focus almost everything into our Community Development program--youth and NGO development sectors. I believe we has a couple Business Development PCVs, but they are few and far between. Panama PCVs are involved in diversified programs such as Community Economic Development, Environmental Health, Agriculture, and even a newer program on English-based Tourism. The logistics of the office and PCV work/communication seems to vary greatly and even the training programs are very different. I was surprised to find out how much PCVs are used to plan the PST (pre-service training) of new volunteers and senior volunteers play a much more active role during the PST training period.

I've always heard that people often refer to the EC post with romantic notions about our Caribbean homes and often wonder why we are working there. I was asked this a few times by PCVs here and I'll admit many EC PCVs (myself included) have doubted our purpose or position there. There is no doubt the need for our presence and we do recognize the need for poverty alleviation for sure. However, there is talk if we are a bit 'spoiled' and I don't know just how much of that might be true. PCVs in the EC--at least SVG--has readily access to cell phones that work just about anywhere--mine worked even up on the volcano, away from any settlements. We also have available cable tv and high-speed internet in our homes, for those who wish to pay for it. We have relatively quick and easy access to our capitol city (we are on a small island of course), we provides constant face-time with our staff and access to a wide range of stores for general needs. Do some of these things spoil us in SVG or are they more of a required tool to be used by us as the expectations of our partners here rise with the newer technology?

VS
Round 1! OR Find Balance

My hats off to the Panama PCVs, as I've been told many of whom are living in the conditions atypically imagined by a volunteer. They follow a 70/30 policy--volunteers are placed in the 70% poorest villages and 30% of volunteers are placed in indigenous communitities. Point of info--there are no more indigenous communities on SVG anymore and have not been for a long time. Many of the volunteers here don't have electricity and use a river source for water. They build aqueducts and compost latrines. They work alongside communities trying to teach about why sources of clean water are so important; farming techniques to shift away from slash-n-burn; and how to develop business & tourism without destroying what resources they have. These are the sorts of things I had wondered if we still did in the Peace Corps (from a previous blog) and it seems I have found my answer.

Some of these volunteers have to walk for a long period of time, cross riverbeds (which means they don't travel out off-site if the river is too high), and then take a bus for several hours to reach the PC office in Panama City. They often bring large backpacks, because if they need to come to the office they stay a day or two to get everything done. Everyone I met here tells me they stay at hostels in they city and are really on their own for much of their needs. For the most part, everything they need is found out closer to their communities and are sustained from them. This is certainly not the case on SVG--but is that because of its smaller size? Of course this means that cell coverage, internet, and tv are certainly not available in many parts of the country yet. It is interesting to hear the contrasts between Panama City itself and the rural areas--like night and day.

Regardless of my time here for medical reasons, I'm glad to have come here and had the opportunity to meet these other volunteers and hear their stories. It isn't known if I will be able to do any site visits yet, but I'd surely like to get that opportunity. I'd much rather see how PCVs live and work here versus see the Panama Canal or beach fronts any day. To my pleasant surprise, many of the volunteers I was introduced to were on or closing their 3rd year of service. Wait...isn't PC just a 2 year gig? Yes, but we have the option (with staff support) to extend our service in the same or similar areas of work. It seems that Panama tends to groom many volunteers into additional years of service--they really love it here. I know I don't get much communication with volunteers from the other islands in the EC, but I don't know of anyone who has extended for additional service time...

--Oh and just to reflect again on how developed Panama City is...I spent a good part of the day at the Allbrook shopping mall yesterday that would give just about any mall I've been to in the US a run for its money. Very large two-story with so many stores and only a couple had multiple locations.

Brag point--I even got to see the new Harry Potter 6 (for only US$4) at a cinema that would rival the AMC30 screens back home. That place was nearly identical in theater design and style.

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

Vincy Mas--Mardi Gras Parade--and a quick shot of Jouvert

2009-07-12T06:49:00.004-03:00

12 July 2009 about 6am Vincy Time

So after a few days already of very little sleep, I completely crashed for several hours and got up in time to catch a ride back to town for the Mardi Gras Parade. It was a very cool experience.

A few months back, groups that design the costumes (new designs every year) started to release their concept drawings. Honestly--I didn't think much of them; in fact I thought many of them looked rather silly. However, I must admit that when I saw them actually worn by people in 3-D, they looked very cool indeed. These costume production designers to my understanding, create a bunch of these costumes and sell them to people who are interested in marching in the parade and competition. These costumes are not cheap! They range in the ball park from EC$300-500 from what I hear. One of the local guys, Boston, ended up getting his for less I think because he waited until the last minute to strike a bargain discount.

So each outfit has a designer and theme name to them. Some I know and are modeled after local things--like breadfruit and saltfish, ital (rasta-vegetarian style of cooking), adrenalin, goat cook, etc. There were so many varieties of costumes and the mass of people wearing them was amazing. I've been to parades before, but not ones that had some many people in coordinated outfits. I did notice there were predominately more women than men dressed up and I haven't looked into why as yet. There were also these giant costume pieces. I suppose they would compare to a float in a parade back home, except that most of these are very ornately detailed and usually pulled by a chest harness.

The costumed people would gather near Victoria Park, where they would go inside on stage and put on a little show for the judges. Then they would take places next to a party truck--which is really a rather large truck that has been rigged with a generator, many speakers, and a dj--and once they get a large enough group together, they add to the already marching parade procession. I heard there was a 2nd part of the judging that viewed groups on the street at a certain venue, but I didn't confirm it. After a lap around town, some groups kept going and others too breaks. As the day wore on....more and more costumed groups added to the fray, but also regular people started piling into the streets and jumping up with the party trucks and the costumed people. Eventually, it became another street jump till about 10pm when that marked the end of Carnival for this year. It was good times. From what I learned, one of the volunteers got the chance to spend time helping make the costumes and evenutally earned one to keep and wear for the parade. I might try to do that for next year.

Here's a link to the parade pics in my Facebook album.
Otherwise enjoy a sample from these below:

And for those of you who scrolled down this far...
I don't have many pictures from the all night-morning J'Ouvert (joo-vay), because that was the wildest/craziest night of all of Carnival. I was warned ahead of time not to wear anything I cared about. People there go off the hook and paint each other up, dance however they want around the party trucks, and have a good time.

I wore my stained up banana shirt and wrote 'Ripe Banana' on the back--locals thought that was hilarious. I also wore my waterboots, because I could care less if those got painted up. The kicker was that I wore a green school girl's skirt--idea and provided for by my friend in the village Claire. She insisted on the idea saying that many people dress up like that. Honestly, a few did--but not many. It also made me the talk of Spring Village...although I haven't worked out just how good or bad that talk might be. Apparently, several say I am now the most macho guy in Spring simply because none of the other men were gutsy enough to do that. I wonder if macho is really the work though when a skirt is involved...? I also wore my silver sunglass frames minus lens that I got from the recently deceased Murphy in tribute--he loved his jump-ups.

At J'Ouvert, I went from whiteboy to human tomato. I got painted red from my head to waist nearly completely. I didn't even realize my entire head/face was coated read until I passed by a reflective store window later in the morning. I just about freaked, but it was a good time. This little bash started around midnight for us in town and the guys I was with finally pulled out around 10:30am. Somehow, we piled 5 adult men into the backseat of a regular sized 4-door sedan. That was painful. I managed to grab a couple pics from my friend Caroline, who was selling drinks in town at the time and we were hanging out near her spot. There are still a few more pics out there--better close ups from when we got back into Spring Village, but I don't have copies of those yet.

Here I am, the human tomato.

Ended up jumping in the river with a scrub brush, rag, and bar of soap--got most of it off, but I still had a red sheen for a few days. The paint seeped through my clothes so much that I think I might have damaged my local phone. Oops. I also have a cloth pouch I use as a wallet that was strapped around my neck--yeah...all the white parts are now pink. Good times. >.< Lesson learned.

Now I've got about 30 minutes till I'm expected to be picked up and head off to the airport...mur. Looks like I didn't sleep tonight after all. If you're not sure why I'm going or for what--hit the post archive on the left and look for the one called Medevac.

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

Vincy Mas--Fire Fete & Soca Monarch

2009-07-12T05:45:00.002-03:00

12 July 2009 about 5:45 am Vincy time

Last post I gave a intro of the what's what that I've learned about Carnival so far.
About half of the stuff I did, I went with a local crew of guys from my village. I pass a rum and general foods shop--Black Struggler's Bar on my way home on a regular basis. There I've kinda been 'adopted' by the guys who hang out there: Clive, Boston, Moto, Alfa, Franky, Shany, and several more. It was they who first told me to make sure I got my ticket to Fire Fete.

Fire Fete & Soca Monarch--a comparison
Both events, Fire Fete and Soca Monarch were held in the large stadium area of Victoria Park. Both events had live soca music performers. The big differences: Fire Fete had lots of people, but nearly the massive crowds of Soca Monarch. This allowed us to dance and move about much easier. The stage shows at Fire Fete were not as dramatic as Soca Monarch, yet then again Soca Monarch was to compete to determine who would be the reigning champ until next year with all the prestige and winnings the go along with it.

Fire Fete was the same night as Panorama and I really wanted to go to that (same ticket got into both). However, they guys I was with didn't really want to leave until later--which put us arriving into town too later for that show. Oh well--next year. With Fire Fete, we all crammed into a van and did something akin to the pub crawls back home, but could have been called a village crawl. We stopped a few places to get 'warmed-up' for the festivities. In town, vendors lined the streets selling drinks, food, and other stuff--like my friend Caroline who did face painting.

Soca Monarch
Scott, Todd, Marco, (all other PCVs) and I got into this event for free. We were originally asked if we would like to participate on stage with Skinny Fabulous (the reigning 2008 Soca Monarch) who happens to live very close to Todd. I was estatic and jumped at the chance. However, things being what they are here...the communication with the guys running the performance plans didn't turn out so well. That means I didn't get to go to the practice sessions and costume sizing that would have been necessary for the stage show. However, the 4 of us still proved out worth by helping out as stage hands. We assembled costumes pieces/props and helped move out dance platforms to be used during Skinny Fabulous' performance. I also got the extra duty of running over to one of the large pavilions to work the lighting. Skinny needed the lights cut for the glow stick part of his shows.

Once the stage crew work was over, I joined the massive crowds--way too many people. I hung with a few of the other volunteers who were up in front, but later bounced over to where they guys from my village where hanging out. I had with me a banner flag that I made and waved about most of time I was in the crowd. Displaying banners is just one of those random things to do as part of the festivities. Soca Monarch is where people show off their banners and try to see who has the biggest and best of them all. Many of the perfomers were good. Skinny ended up winning and thus maintaining his crown as Soca Monarch, however there was a massive negative crowd reaction that wanted the #2 guy--Fireman to take the crown.

Click on this link to jump to my Facebook album with all my pics from that night.
Otherwise, here's a few selections from the night and some videos taken by others of the top performers. Also a chance for you to hear the music that has been playing on repeat for the past couple weeks---over and over and over and over. Well you get the idea.

Ottley, Clive and Moto (left to right)

one side of my banner

the other side--next year if I make one, it's only going to have one side and be in dark paints. Too hard to see the other colors at night and when light hits, then both sides are visible at the same time. Lesson learned.

Victoria Park full-up for Soca Monarch. Yeah I know it's dark and not very clear...but just wanted to try and show the massive crowd swell.

Making glow stick outfits. They were very cool.

Which looked like this guy!

Scott and I getting ready to move dance platforms out. Marco (left) and Todd (right) are turned around.

Between the rain the crowd dancing/stomping...the mud pits formed. My shoes became mud bricks. UG...a total pain to clean. Should have worn my waterboots in hindsight. Lesson learned.

Rosemay (on the left, my hostmom that I stayed with for 7 weeks) and Caroline selling drinks

Caroline painted up Ottley's face for the Soca Monarch fest.

SOCA MONARCH SONGS!!!!!!!
Winner--2008 and now 2009 Soca Monarch--Skinny Fabulous singing Beast Leh Go

I know that song quality isn't the best live....so here's the song normally:

2nd Place--Fireman Hooper singing Flags Invasion

Didn't find a normal version...only the live one. Sorry.

3rd Place--Problem Child singing Mad House
The videos I found at the time of this posts really did't have a decent live quality, so I'm jumping straight to the normal video so you can hear it.

Next post.....Mardi Gras Parade!

Stay safe and well
ciao tutti
~your local wannbe jedi
~Shawn

Carnival Review--Let it begin

2009-07-12T05:07:00.004-03:00

12 July 209 just after 4am Vincy time

Alright....so I'm supposed to be sleeping, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
Said that I'd do a once over for the what's what from the recent SVG Carnival--so here it goes.

For those unfamiliar, Carnival is a massive cultural bash that is the largest tourism (on all levels) force here on St. Vincent & the Grenadines. I can't speak for the other Eastern Caribbean countries, but since they also have their own Carnival events I'll assume this to be true for them as well. In fact, some of the other islands hold their Carnival in short conjunction with the neighbor islands. I believe this helps attract the "Carnival hoppers" who island jump from one Carnival to the next.

A brief history...
As I've learned from AllAhWe.org, the Caribbean Carnival of today was born between the African cultures from the slave trade and the Catholic practices brought by colonialism. European Catholics have their 'carnevale' or 'putting away the meat' as practiced during their time of Lent and the Mardi Gras or 'fat Tuesday' time shortly thereafter as part of the religious celebrations. These traditions were brought with them and mixed with the African slaves. Over time, the African decorations from natural materials such as grass, feathers, bones, etc. became a standard of costuming for these events. Cultures and time evolve and have brought us into the festival periods of Carnival we know today. Carnival in this form can be found in many places throughout the world, not just in the West Indies--although they have their own distinct flavor for it here.

Technically the Carnival holiday here fell on July 6&7th but the events span more than a solid week and some events stretch intermittently as long as a month into what they call "Vincy Mas". Here's the date line-up for the Vincy Mas from this year:

2 May--Official Launch
30 May--Miss SVG pageant; multi-category pageant with the winner to represent in Miss Carnival
19 June--Fantastic Friday; not really sure what that was
26 June--Ragga Soca; music competition between live performers
27 June--Junior Carnival; a jump-up time for the younger kids enjoy
28 June--Junior Pan Fest; chance for the youth steel pan bands to come out and show their stuff & compete
29 June--Mas on the Move; a street party I think
39 June--Junior Calypso/Soca; youth performance competition by music categories
1 July--Glow; a big bash with mostly Soca music and of course....lots of glowing goodies--sticks, wands, light-up toys
2 July--Panorama & Fire Fete; a back-to-back event night with the regular steel pan band competitions followed by a soca jump-up
3 July--Miss Carnival Pageant with contestants represented from several Eastern Caribbean countries.
4 July--Soca Monarch; the largest and hands-down most popular event. A jump up contest show down between 20 soca artists with massive stage shows
5 July--Dimanche Gras; an early look at some of the crazy costumes and calypso artists show down competitition
6 July--Jouvert (pronouce it joo-vay); this bash starts early in the morning around 3ish and goes until mid morning about 9-10ish. Of course, many people are hanging out before then on the streets getting 'warmed up'. This is perhaps the craziest/most wild event of the Carnival.
6 July--Evening Street Party; hang out on the sidelines or purchase a shirt 'pack' with goodies and join in the varied 'shirt jam' crews as they bounce through the streets of Kingstown dancing with party trucks.
7 July--Mardi Gras; the final day of Carnival. It starts with costume judging and parades through town followed by a day of jovial parties and street jumps till about 10pm when everything stops.

These are some postcard art that were made available to promote the Carnival. More info can be found at the SVG Carnival website. You can link to that site to find out more about some of the performers, winners of the competitions, and more about the festivals and their sponsors.

More posts to come about the events I attended.

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

Medevac

2009-07-12T01:25:00.004-03:00

12 July 2009 1am local time

The time has come. Peace Corps is officially sending me to Panama for the throat surgery. I'm not sure entirely what it shall entail. I'll be leaving in a few hours for the airport--hoping to Puerto Rico for a few hours of layover and then bounced to Panama. Given the arrival time, I believe that I'll just be checking into my designated hotel and staying there the evening.

The next day, I'll meet with the Panama PCMO and Country Director for the formalities and get appointments set with doctors there. Then pending on those recommendations, I'll be given an operation date. Few more days of recovery and making sure all parts in in working order and I'll be on my way back to SVG. Shouldn't be more than 2 weeks--which is good, cause I have stuff to do! I'm not sure how my internet connection options will be while I'm there...but I'm bringing my laptop just in case. I'll send updates as I get them if possible.

During my downtime in Panama, I hope to be hitting the LSAT prep books hard! I haven't been spending nearly as much time with them as I'd want. Actually I'm guilty of not even opening them in over a week. Ug. I did send out a request to get an approval from the local University of the West Indies to take my LSAT exam here...but no dice as yet. If I don't hear anything back by the time I return from Panama, I'll probably have to start making arrangement to get back home for it.

---------------------------------------------------------

Earlier this week, we had our Carnival. I'll put up a post about that later on...but now I have to make sure I'm all packed to go and get a couple hour nap. It's late here, but I can't ever seem to fall asleep early.

For those who do not want to wait for me to post pics....here are some links to my photo albums:

Soca Monarch--a night of Soca music performers competing to be the #1 artist.

Mardi Gras Parade--so many cool costumes! I gotta get one for next year. ^_^

Jouvert (say it Joo-vay) with me all red, pics from other's cameras. (I still need to collect one more camera that has lots of good shots!

I'm crossing my fingers with our the fledgling Spring Village Action Council. We recently finished doing 85 surveys of community members to gather input and endorsement for series of development activities we hope to do in the near future. We had our general meeting tonight and I reviewed the results for those surveys--general stats and comments. Now I've put the ball in the groups's hands and have given them the 2 weeks that I'm away to sift through the comments and ideas to work out exactly which items they will decide to pursue. Then when I get back, I'll be showing them how to do a feasibility study and get the red tape moving along. The slow road is being walked one step at a time.

Alright....I'm off. Wish me luck.

alright...it's bad math humor.

Stay safe and happy
ciao tutti
~your local wannbe jedi
~Shawn

Upcoming surgery and news from home.

2009-07-01T18:00:00.010-03:00

Met with my PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) yesterday and after our conversation solidified the next step on my throat problem. We have now approached the 'last' option of surgery. The local ENT doctor here has assured me that this is a relatively easy and quick procedure.

Treatment
Correction of the underlying voice abuse cures most nodules and prevents recurrence. Removal of the offending irritants allows healing, and voice therapy with a speech therapist reduces the trauma to the vocal cords from improper singing or protracted loud speaking. Nodules usually regress with voice therapy alone.

Most polyps must be surgically removed to restore a normal voice. Cold-knife microsurgical excision during direct microlaryngoscopy is preferable to laser excision, which is more likely to cause collateral thermal injury if improperly applied.

In microlaryngoscopy, an operating microscope is used to examine, biopsy, and operate on the larynx. Images can be recorded on video as well. The patient is anesthetized, and the airway is secured by high-pressure jet ventilation through the laryngoscope, endotracheal intubation, or, for an inadequate upper airway, tracheotomy. Because the microscope allows observation with magnification, tissue can be removed precisely and accurately, minimizing damage (possibly permanent) to the vocal mechanism. Laser surgery can be done through the optical system of the microscope to allow for precise cuts. Microlaryngoscopy is preferred for almost all laryngeal biopsies, for procedures involving benign tumors, and for many forms of phonosurgery.

Last full review/revision July 2008 by Clarence T. Sasaki, MD
Content last modified July 2008
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec08/ch092/ch092h.html

So the next step is preparing the necessary documents to make this happen. The current plan will be to ship me to Panama, to a hospital PC uses for the region, where I will have to be reassessed by additional doctors there. Pending that everyone agrees, I will have the little procedure and most likely be on the silent requirement for a few days. From what my PCMO told me, I'll expect to be off island for 10-14 days. What is up in the air is a recent request I've made to have the process done back in Washington DC. I've had some discussions with a volunteer on St. Lucia and was told that is the best way to go. Since my PCMO had mentioned DC or Panama as an earlier option--I hope it isn't too late to shift to DC. Heck, they'll have to fly me to Miami just to bounce me back to Panama instead of the hop up to DC.

---UPDATE TO BLOG (2 July, 10:20am): Just had a conference call with my PCMO and Country Director (boss of all the Eastern Caribbean islands on post). It seems that Panama is my only option for treatment--take it or leave it. By leave it, that means a refusal of proposed medical care which was clear spelled out (by PC policy) a request for early termination of service. So...that was an easy choice, I'm going to Panama although the exact dates are still TBA.---

If things stick to the intended schedule, I'll be going sometime during the week of July 12th... At first I figured the time away would really mess with my work plans here and then I realized that I haven't really been giving myself much of a break. No I don't consider time I spend on the computer as a break; even though I spend too much time in my opinion on the computer--half of it is work related anyways. So if I get sent of island for the operation, I can use that time to catch up on studying my LSAT prep books. Yeah, I haven't opened them in well over a week. >.< I need to get on that..

More info to come as I get it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've heard from several people back home...and times are hard. Financially, emotionally, physically people I know are facing difficulties from so many different directions and some are a bit lost on what to do with themselves. Even though things move and shift here at their own West Indian pace of life--I feel somewhat removed as if living in a vacuum from the rest of the world. I read some news headlines on the net and get email/chat updates from friends and family. Still, it seems a bit awkward not being able to do much of anything from here.

Back home, friends and family could always count on me to pause whatever projects I was working on and give a hand where it was needed. Sometimes it would be spending hours talking at Dennys just till life's mysteries seemed to make a bit more sense. One more than one occasion it was surprising homies with several bags of groceries and things they could use to help out when they were down. It was answering the call in the middle of the night to settle disputes or roadside rescues.

If it is one thing that life assures us, it is that the drama will never stop. I used to claim that life is one giant soap opera--every day is like another episode and depending where you are and who you're with it's like guest starring in a different show. Right now, I'm in a different show and I can't make the cameo role back home. Nonetheless, the drama continues in both places. Personally, stress is what we make of it and managed as best we can. Even with my throat situation and the many tough experiences we have here as volunteers, I'd say my stress level is near negligible. Even with the varied levels of chaos back home amid friends and family alike, my personal stress levels are again negligible. Yet I can't help but feel isolated from it all--helpless, unable to be that person I always was.

Not much sense in complaining about it. But for any of my readers from back home--know that at least my thoughts are with you.

Sometimes a song strikes a chord. For those unfamiliar with Within Temptation, I highly recommend them.

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

Too big for one person anyways....

2009-06-30T01:52:00.003-03:00

I had just finished getting a quick afternoon shower to freshen up before heading out for to teach my Monday night computer class when I heard my landlord outside calling for me. He's been storing some things for another person in a side room and a few appliances inside my rented home. He told me last night to expect moving out a couple pieces in the near future.

Of course, I took that as later in the week or with some local things....perhaps after Carnival week. I certainly wasn't expecting him to tell me minutes before I wanted to leave to teach that they would be moving the things this evening. Nor was I expecting so many things in the house to go.

My only table, 1/2 the chairs, an Armour I was using to hold office/computer supplies, the refridgerator, and my bed were on the unexpected list of things to be removed. The fridge and bed was a big surprise and I got stuck taking everything out and onto the counter. Sadly, the pumpkin I had previously frozen must get used by tomorrow....it is now a big mushy mesh, boo. Good thing I didn't have anything that would spoil too quickly. Fortunately, my landlord managed to get another refridgerator while I was away teaching. I have no clue where it came from, but I'm not asking either. ^_^ He got me a little patio style table too, so everything is peachy.

I don't really need a bed frame and I have a mattress. Tossed it on the floor and I'm a happy camper. More futon-like and I enjoy being closer to the ground. That's the way I had it back home, so this is that much better.

So my house is all good, but I honestly find it to be too big for one person. So I dragged my mattress and smaller table into the main room and am trying to do things more 'studio style'. Since I don't let the village kids inside, I think this will work out just fine. Good times all around. Outside of keeping my clothes and a few things in the other rooms, I won't be using them so much. Still, I do feel awkward having a big house all to myself when I see so many families with many people living in a house of the same size or often much smaller.

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

horray for energy policy changes!

2009-06-27T02:47:00.002-03:00

I have yet to read all the fine print of the legislation bill and sadly probably won't find the time to do so. We cleared the House and now have fingers crossed on it's trip into the Senate.

House Passes Historic Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill
-----------SEE BELOW--------------------------

The House of Representatives passed the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act, sponsored by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Edward J. Markey, Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

This landmark bill will revitalize our economy by creating millions of new jobs, increase our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and preserve our planet by reducing the pollution that causes global warming.

“Today we have taken decisive and historic action to promote America’s energy security and to create millions of clean energy jobs that will drive our economic recovery and long-term growth,” said Chairman Waxman. “After more than three decades of being held hostage to the influence of foreign energy suppliers, this legislation at long last begins to break our addiction to imported foreign oil and put us on a path to true energy security.”

“Today the House has passed the most important energy and environment bill in our nation’s history,” said Chairman Markey. “Scientists say that global warming is a dangerous man-made problem. Today we are saying clean energy will be the American-made solution. This legislation will create jobs by the millions, save money by the billions and unleash investment in clean energy by the trillions.”

The bill contains the following key provisions:

Requires electric utilities to meet 20% of their electricity demand through renewable energy sources and energy efficiency by 2020.
Invests $190 billion in new clean energy technologies and energy efficiency, including energy efficiency and renewable energy ($90 billion in new investments by 2025), carbon capture and sequestration ($60 billion), electric and other advanced technology vehicles ($20 billion), and basic scientific research and development ($20 billion).
Mandates new energy-saving standards for buildings, appliances, and industry.
Reduces carbon emissions from major U.S. sources by 17% by 2020 and over 80% by 2050 compared to 2005 levels. Complementary measures in the legislation, such as investments in preventing tropical deforestation, will achieve significant additional reductions in carbon emissions.
Protects consumers from energy price increases. According to recent analyses from the Congressional Budget Office and the Environmental Protection Agency, the legislation will cost each household less than 50 cents per day in 2020 (not including energy efficiency savings).

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

Some fun quotes I stumbled upon

2009-06-27T00:55:00.003-03:00

Now and then I enjoy reading quotes.
Some are inspirational, others funny, and many more are simply good to help put things into perspective.

I hope you'll enjoy a few of these as much as I did.
Drop a comment and say which was your favorite or perhaps add another to the list! ^_^

Never trust a Game Master with a big smile.
--unknown
"Do you see no hope?"
"Hope is the denial of reality. It is the carrot dangled before the draft horse to keep him plodding along in a vain attempt to reach it."
--Conversation between Tanis Half-Elven & Raistlin, Dragonlance Chronicles
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
--Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
People who want happy endings have to write their own.
--Paine, Final Fantasy X-2
The hardest person to ever know is yourself.
--Paine, Final Fantasy X-2
Know thyself --Ancient Greek aphorism
We have choices. Some people like to stand in the rain without an umbrella. That's what it means to live free.
--Roger Smith, The Big O
All that is gold does not glitter;
not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither;
deep roots are not reached by the frost.
--excerpt from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities.
--Dr. Seuss
We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.
--Sam Keen, from To Love and Be Loved
In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away
--Shing Xiong
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.
–-unknown
If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0 – unknown
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
--Frank Herbert, Dune
I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.
--A. Whitney Brown
I dream of a better tomorrow... where chickens can cross roads and not have their motives questioned
--Unknown
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
--Dale Carnegie
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
--Oscar Wilde
Familiarity, the first myth of reality: What you know the best, you observe the least.
Devotion, the second myth of reality: The faithful are most hurt by the objects of their faith.

Conviction, the third myth of reality: Only those who seek the truth can be deceived.

Fellowship, the fourth myth of reality: As the tides of war shift, so do loyalties.

Trust, the fifth myth of reality: Every truth holds the seed of betrayal.

--Magic, The Gathering
The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington engineering mid-term. The answer was so "profound" that the Professor shared it with colleagues, and the sharing obviously hasn't ceased...

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or Endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote Proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let us look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa Banyan during my Freshman year, "...that it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you.", and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze."

This student received the only A.

--Unknown

good times.

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

Reflections

2009-06-18T13:59:00.003-03:00

I do not have a grass thatch roof nor do I go digging for grubs. I do not teach in classrooms with dirt floors. Pencils and paper are not scarce. I do not spend my evenings in darkness or bask by candles or ground fire light. Public transportation in the form of a van which passes my village more than once or twice a day and I can cross the whole country in a matter of hours by vehicle. There are so many stereotypes or things that one might envision experiencing that I have not encountered. It is not to say that are others out there who don't share in these things--they do.

I wake up in a bedroom, much like the one I might have at home. Button-ups, polos, and slacks are my mainstay--like so many office jobs back home. I walk down the street where I live and speak to people in the same language I've grown up with--English. Sure there are variations of it here, but then again I've had issues understanding some English back home as well. Students don't like to study and have their own source of problems--is that so different from the schools back home? Our own educational system has its woes as well. I walk through a food market on a weekly basis, not unlike the farmer's markets back home. Just a stones throw away are grocery stores. Inside these grocery stores, you can find local goods as well as items imported from several places for a price of course. There are hair and fashion salons as well as eateries that vary from fast food to multi-course delights and hand-made treats. Home decoration studios, sporting equipment, office supplies, small electronics, hardware, banks, credit unions, and even classic 'department' stores line the main streets of the capital and are slowly growing outward towards the rural areas.

Many people take great pride in their appearance and the younger members of the community dress themselves in the same fashions I might find the youth back home wearing. The same youth play video games, watch dvds, and chat on the internet like any kid from back home would. Do all them do so? No, but then again not all the youth back home are fortunate (if that word should be described as such) to have those pleasantries. Where back home people gather at enclosed bars with a jukebox or an open beer garden with a live band, people here gather at their favorite watering holes--typically a small rum shop--here spending hours talking to whoever sits next to them while playing cards or domino. Is that so different? Many of them are happy to share their experiences with you, much like a person who has had several drinks while sitting at a bar back home.

Listening closely, you might learn about their world travels--visiting more places than many people I know. They are carpenters, electricians, engineers, nurses, teachers, shop owners, bankers, vendors, political analysts (of a sort), and the unemployed. They are you and me as they perform some of the same jobs and display the same skills I could find in so many people in the workforce back home. The community shows a divisive line between those that participate and support their community through group activity and those who keep themselves sheltered behind windows and stone walls. At times, these groups don't always function or are gripped with indecision and ill-communication among its members, but is this so different from some groups back home in a place where the problems are not any more or less complex or varied? Many of the people who close themselves off from the community are effective and capable people who do not participate for their own reasons--leaving much of the work to rest on the shoulders of a select few. Again, this is seen all to often in many communities back home.

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer placed in a country that might not seem like the same sort of country you'd expect us to serve in. The average person might envision us serving in the same sort of countries you find on a television promotional spot to assist with some sort of poverty alleviation campaign, typically depicting African scenes of malnourished children. In many cases, we do work alongside efforts to stem such things. I however have never come to see such with my own eyes. Peace Corps has had approximately some 195,000 volunteers in approximately 139 countries since its inception. So we have been to many places and done many things. However the Peace Corps of the future is a different nature from whence we came.

Most of us won't be building physical bridges, training on basic nutrition or water sanitation, or even showing how micro-credit systems work. Well perhaps there will always be a need for such things, but we are entering a new era of microchips and a growing sense of environmental consciousness. The demands for previous training (pre-pre-service) of a volunteer is rising. It is no longer enough that we simply know the basics of a topic, as instructed during a few short weeks of service training. The same people we assist are seeking specialists--people who are not only computer experts and business professionals and environmental engineers, but also with the competence to teach and understand what it takes to create sustainability and community mobilization. These practices cannot be instilled with a few short weeks that must also be shared with the plethora of other changes that bombard a volunteer's senses.

Looking around my own host country, I see development in action. Much of it has been in transformation over the decades as it changes shape and context within umbrella networked NGOs and Government ministries. Hands shake and papers are signed. Donations pour in from other countries--the European Union, Taiwan, Japan, Cuba, Venezuela, and the United States (of a fashion) just to name a few. This builds roads, schools, libraries, other infrastructure as well as provide opportunities for locals to learn how to maintain that which they are given. Growing companies are bringing telecommunications up to par with other developed nations with high-speed internet and VOIP phone systems now that most of the island has fiber optic coverage. Cell phones are everywhere and may soon (if not already) become more widely used than land lines. Businesses operate at international levels and tourism development reaches out to remind locals, regionals, and internationals alike about the wonders of the Caribbean shores and forests.

With all this development in action, training on-going, and education (academic and informal) on the rise, one might wonder why the Peace Corps is even here. To be honest, I ask myself that everyday. When I got on a plane to Miami to converge with 38 other eager volunteers, my head wasn't awash with African savanna, Asian linguistics, or Eastern European social constructions. Rather, I knew I was going into a 'partially developed' country who residents spoke English. Actually I didn't know much about my host country at all beyond the scope of tourism advertisments. People see our presence here and compare it to the same adverts. The critics want to know why we are here, as do I.

I see so many things, yet have a hard time explaining them as a purpose or driving force. It isn't to say that there isn't poverty, or educational work and HIV/AIDS awareness to do--there is plenty of it for years to come. Yet nearly every aspect of our duties or assignment areas has a local component to cover it. Our current volunteer work places us into community sites to engage at the grass-roots level. It is hard to find a niche in which to fit since nearly every volunteer would agree that the most constructive assistance would be to work through government ministry or national-level NGO. This country has a very top-down system based upon its history and direction of leadership. While the debate could be held on the values of this type of system, we are only interested in how the volunteer could best provide their services. Of course it may change in time, but we are here today. Without the iconic disparity and obvious-to-the-eye problems to tackle, we find meeting the needs of the communities does not often match the skills of the volunteer, many of us may find it hard to become attached to our work. Temptation is all around--from the nearby beach or nature trail to aimlessly wandering the nearby capital or even hide inside with the comfort of books or the high-speed internet for those willing to pay for it.

All of us are here for community development in some form or another. I get up everyday with something to do in mind. Whether it gets done at all or even started is sometimes at the mercy of those in the community I work with. Frustration runs rampant and trying to avoid becoming jaded is sometimes a greater challenge than preparing for the activities themselves. Sometimes I sit down at the end of the day, simply exhausted not from hours of intensive work but from a lack of interaction or at least what I would say would be positive interaction.

I look at so many other outside agencies that pour in volunteers, financial support, and other resources. When I see this I wonder, what is the point? Does Peace Corps have the better solution--trying to empower people to utilize what resources they have and create a positive change for the future--while these outside agencies may in fact be creating a dependency on foreign aid and stifling the growth potential of the locals? Or is it in reverse? Does the support from the foreign agency beyond the supply of volunteer aid actually give the locals a base from which to build and grow--while Peace Corps offers a less perhaps substantial approach in the current scene as its volunteers scratch and scramble to try and find every cent needed to push even the smallest of community activities. I am not a policy analyst, not yet anyway, but I am sure both posses their merits and flaws. The only immediate detriment comes into play when locals expect Peace Corps volunteers to provide similar support--financially and otherwise--as their fellow foreign development groups have provided and those resources are, in most cases, simply not there.

Even without the resource and policy strategies, does this mean that I am failing as a volunteer? That is hard to say. I have had this discussion with various staff on several times. To this end I must compare two assessments--Peace Corps' mission and my own satisfaction. According to the Peace Corps website

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:
Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Looking at each goal individually:

The first goal is easily obtained under a short scope of detail. My host nation is eager for any sort of support, thus an interested country. In terms of meeting their need for trained men and women--as long as we can perform in some sort of operational success to train even a few from an entire mass, there will be support to say it was successful. Whether it was or not, based upon quantity or quality metrics, remain outside the stated context of these goals; note it also says 'helping' and not fulfillment or similar wording of the same. I am also reminded of the other systems in place on island that are operated by host nationals that perform these same duties.
The second goal seeks to promote a better understanding of American culture. In this regard, I find that I don't have to work as much as perhaps volunteers in other parts of the world. American culture has been pouring into this country in the form of produced goods and many businesses and organizations have been adopting practices of their American counterparts. Popular music from back home finds its way onto the radios and mp3 players of the young and old alike. I have been able to contribute in my own little way to show some differences of my culture. Yet in every way that I am different as an American, I am also different among other Americans such that other Peace Corps volunteers here are sharing characteristics of our combined culture that differ from each other's individual culture.
The third goal seeks to embed a sense of learning and experience of our host national culture upon ourselves to widen our perceptions and foster a sharing of learned culture when we return home. In this regard, I have been taking part in many things here from the life of agriculture to the death and accompanied funerals. I will continue to seek how the people live their lives on a daily basis and carry that imprint with me as yet another filter of understanding. I cannot speak the same for other volunteers, but I would assume the others may experience it on some level that increases with the rate of involvement within the community. Peace Corps calls it integration.

It is said that a person is the harshest critic of him/herself. Perhaps this is true when attempting to determine if one has been successful as a volunteer. Most people--of which I am categorized--tend to objectify and measure our success based upon tangible results. However development work, as we are constantly reminded, is a process and one that does not usually offer immediate dividends on our inputs. As worked up about the process, or seemingly lack thereof, I must resign myself to wonder if 2, 5, or 10 years from now that the work I am contributing will have some bearing or influence upon the activity of that time. It must truly be difficult to gauge for effective development planning when the results are a long-term investment rather than a quick-return.

Sure, I meet with people in various capacities and organziations. I work with adults and children alike on activities from reading to computers to organizational capacity building. I strive everyday to do something for positive change and hope that it sticks--to become part of the new bedrock for tomorrow. Can I do more? Perhaps and I will probably try to add a bit more here and there. I've told many people that I will gladly work myself till I have nothing left to give on several projects in the hopes that something will stick and carry itself out to become sustainable. I would much rather do that than invest all my effort into 1 or 2 things and carry the risk of them still falling through.

As a volunteer, I'd say my hardest job is to think of this process and the mysterious cloud of possibilities that is the future here. It might be easier if after 40 years of Peace Corps commitment on island, there was some sort of visible sustained evidence of previous volunteer work to motivate and inspire current volunteers. Yet, the sheer lack of those things I believe is causing an reciprocal effect and becoming a discouraging factor. I don't know which end is more responsible--the post-service efforts themselves for not becoming sustainable or perhaps Peace Corps' lack of provided documentation to incoming volunteers to at least highlight what was done and tried on this small island nation over the years. For although the times and culture are shifting, as are the agencies involved--the adage of 'those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it' remains true. 40 years of development work should be long enough to see those returns, yet the process that we are so often reminded of still remains a mystery.

To that end...I will continue my work to contribute what I can for now.

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

the dead don't worry about mosquitoes

2009-06-14T22:42:00.008-03:00

Buried by buddy Murphy today in good Vincy style. People from all over gathered in and around the church area. Many people didn't bother with the church service part, although they were very well dressed. Once the services were over they put his casket into the hearse which would drive slowly up the village towards the graveyard. While the hearse drove on, they would be followed by steel pans and boom drums playing merry songs--most of them gospel. The people trailed all around in a 'jump-up' of song and dance, much akin to a road party. We sang and danced our way all the way up to the cemetery.

After the pastor said a few words, his body was laid to rest. Even in nicely ironed dress clothes, I still grabbed a shovel and helped toss the dirt to cover his casket. We don't just make the burial ground even with rest of the ground--it becomes a mound that creates perhaps a 3' high dome of dirt. Then the mound is covered with little flowers, various leaves, and small plants that are just rammed into the loose dirt. We dance in circles around the mound while holding lit candles that are then placed into the dirt to burn themselves down. From the cemetery we have another 'jump-up' back down to the village for refreshments.

It might be just me--but I don't think I've fully acclimated to the West Indies weather here yet. Sure, we have our cool spells and all the rain we've been having has helped, even though that spiked the humidity. :( So even in my white shirt and under my umbrella, I was still cooking. You can imagine what sort of mess I might have looked like after a couple jump-ups. Maybe I'll be next....

Even still, I managed to find good times dancing in the street. I'm pretty sure the locals who were looking on had a good laugh and great time. There was a very old woman doing a little dance to the steel pan and the crowd was smiling at her and gave her space. So what did I do? I jumped right next to her and mimicked her every move, causing an eruption of laughter and surprise. Just my style I suppose. There was another good laugh as we were coming back down and one lady started to wind up on me (local style of dance--most easily identified by front to back dry humping, intensity varies). Integrated as I am and not really giving a hoot, I joined in and again it seemed I was a crowd pleaser. Oh the things I do for integration...

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But yes, the wet season is coming in force. Today there were like rain sprinkles, even though the clouds looked happy and fluffy--so strange. Friday night and Saturday brought with them torrents of rain. Now that I've gotten myself a scuba mask and fins (YEAH! ^_^), I was supposed to go with a couple guys to go dive fishing in our bay. Too bad all the rain clouded the waters--from the stirred up sand and the dark runoff coming in heavily from the river estuary in our bay. So diving was rescheduled till further notice. boo.

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Finally figured out what was wrong with my throat and got a cure.

Actually, that would be too easy wouldn't it? Went back to the ENT doctor Wednesday. Said good news is that red swelling on the vocal cords seems to have abated, however the polyp is still there and has become more refined and pronounced. He didn't say if the latter was good or bad... For now, I get to wait until my inhaler comes in the mail and use that for a few weeks. If significant change isn't seen, the doc is recommending a surgery to remove it and then send it to the lab for analysis. The procedure he says is rather easy to do and he has done several at our local hospital in Kingstown. Until then, I'm still very hoarse but need my voice to work.

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St. Vincent and the Grenadines is currently undergoing a draft bill to propose a new constitution for the country. The constitution currently in place for almost 30 years now ever since SVG gained independence from England. The current government has been gathering and reviewing information to develop this new version. Much of it is the same, but there are several big changes. I won't got the drawn out stuff, but I did see a few things I wanted to note. It seems that SVG is trying to do like many states back home and put a legal definition for marriage.

The proposed constitution defines marriage to be allowed between a person who is born biologically male and a person who is born biologically female. My dear readers--let's not hold debate on this, as I'm sure opinions are split. I am doing my best to stay apolitical, but I must raise an eyebrow at the determinate of being 'born biologically'. What about those few people who are born to both genders? I suppose their intention is to rule out those who have changed genders, but it still makes for a messy hot-button issues. Certainly not as hot-button as back home, but there are those who disagree with same gender marriages that yet don't think it belongs in the constitution.

Actually I had an enlightening discussion with a Vincentian about this topic. This person, who is qualified to speak on such matters, told me that the EU offers quite a bit of funding for various projects. However there is a large quantity of that funding that has some portion of it with requirements that relate to LGBT issues--a sort of if you want the rest, you'll have to include this type of funding. He spoke of increasing pressure on the West Indies islands to reduce the homophobic attitude, but it appears the majority of people simply are not interested in that sort of change. So while he did not say it directly, such constitutional clauses like a heterosexual only marriage and retention of buggery laws would allow a country to reject the sections of such funding as it might challenge sovereign constitutionality.

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Not sure what it is, but for some reason my bathroom seems to be the base of operations for an army of mosquitoes. Ok perhaps not an army, but surely enough to be very annoying. I thought I found a spot near my toilet that led to who knows where and I thought they were coming in from there. I plugged it up with a towel and that seemed to keep them to a minimum. Now, they're back and I see them flitting about in the corners of my eyes. So for now, I am hunting them one by one--trying to keep ahead of the reinforcements.

It will be an epic battle.....

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Lastly, I recently read another volunteer's blog-->Karen on St. Lucia, where she credited some photos to her friend and linked to a site displaying all sorts of trash issues. More than 9 months here and I'm glad that I still get ticked off as seeing all the garbage here on the streets, rivers, and beaches. It isn't as bad in my village as compared to the larger town areas or Kingstown--where some streets smell terrible from it. However, the trash situation here was put into context when I saw some of these linked pictures. Sure, I know garbage is a problem in many countries--developed and developing alike. Not too long ago, Italy had it's own garbage crisis where it was piling high in the streets of Napoli and much of it got shipped up to Germany. Unfortunately, the rise of populations, consumer habits, and mass production are contributing to a booming catastrophe just waiting to happen. The answer isn't as easy as reduce/reuse/recycle or use less packaging--the economics and politics of garbage goes much deeper.

Check out the photos I saw by clicking on this picture below:

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

Davy Jones come ah tek he ah-way

2009-06-04T12:55:00.004-03:00

Ok, so I've never heard anybody here actually say the name 'Davy Jones'. And no matter how long I've been here, I still get fun, random thoughts of all things pirate-like. ^_^ For those who don't know who Davy Jones is, legends label him as a sort of devil/god of the seas who claimed the lives of drowned sailors--where they came to rest at his 'locker' on the bottom of the sea. More recently, Disney portrayed him as an undead care-taker of soles aboard the Flying Dutchman.

But why worry about 'ol Davy right now? Well, this week I've taken off the bandanna to pay a bit of respect to a guy named Murphy. Honestly, he was one of the village drunks--as I rarely saw him sober. He was also one of the obnoxious, yet funny people here I have had the pleasure of meeting. He was the only fella who would dance to any sort of music; he'd dance like everybody should--as if nobody was looking. He was a free spirit of sorts and liked simple & silly things. One of his trademarks was wearing sunglasses without the shaded lens to parties. He even gave me a pair, silver frames--no lens, and I admit that I still have them & have worn them to a few parties before. Of course, I got quite a few good laughs when people saw the white guy looking like Murphy--now I'll be the only one wearing them like that.

That's right--the only one. Murphy died this past Sunday, drowned down at Cumberland Bay next to my village. I wasn't there and heard about it the next day. From what I understand, he was drunk as usual and went for a sea bath--perhaps a swim.

I really wonder why drunk people like to swim. Moreover, I wonder why those who might be nearby (I don't know if there were any at that time.) would let a drunk person into the water. Murphy makes the second person that has drown at the bay in the 9 months I've been here; both drownings were alcohol related.

Either way, I'll just remember the crazy dancing, no lens-sunglasses guy and honor the memory. And just another reminder why I don't touch the strong rum.

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On another slightly disappointing note, I was supposed to do a small workshop with the local tourism group last night. We were supposed to start at 6pm and have a regular meeting with my session afterwards. I was there minutes to 6 and got the place set-up. The president was the first to show around 6:20 and a couple others from the group walked by wondering if there was a meeting around 6:45 after I had locked the community center back up.

Seems consensus from a few was they forgot--although it was talked about by most within the past 2 weeks and the session was their request. Normally meetings that don't take place don't bother me so much anymore...I'm kinda numb to it these days. However, I spent a decent amount of time putting the session together for them and took an extra trip to town just to make them tons of hand-out copies since they like those sorts of things. Whatever....

One of these days...

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

Start of a new season

2009-06-02T00:29:00.008-03:00

Hey everyone.

What does today mark?
June 1st (thanks Wikipedia) ^_^
--a day that marks admitting 2 into the U.S., Kentucky (15th state, 1792) and Tennessee (16th, 1794).
--1963 – Kenya gains internal self-rule (Madaraka Day).
--1967 – The groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album by The Beatles is released
--1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine
--1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

Today is also:
--International Children's Day in many places around the world.
--National Tree Planting Day in Cambodia
--National Day Against Homophobia in Canada

But most notably--here in the North Atlantic, June 1st marks the opening of the hurricane season.

Communities are gearing up. NEMO (National Emergency Management Organization) will soon be conducting sessions in various communities and disaster preparation jingles will take the airwaves. And what a better way to begin the first day of hurricane season that plenty of pouring rain.

I woke up to the sound of the rain coming down, of course it was 5 minutes before the alarm was set to go off. Don't ya hate waking up before the alarm? The rain has been on and off all day and is closing out the day with another symphony of droplets on rooftops. I got to hear thunder this morning. Sure we get plenty of rain depending on the season, but thunder is something I don't often hear in SVG. Dunno, perhaps it is just me missing it, but given the volume of rain we get--I can probably count the thunder one one hand since I've been here. I don't usually think about it until I hear that rare moment and just enjoy it. Thunder is something I've always enjoyed, coming from Chicagoland where the thunder rolls loudly and crashes like an overzealous timpani drummer. I'll admit a bit of nostalgia and why not. For some it's Starbucks, but for me it's nature's orchestra of thunderstorms and lightning showers that streak the sky.

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Ok before the worry worts back home get ready to unleash themselves--let me say that I've been eating plenty of food and trying to make sure I've got a fairly balanced diet. I even snack quite a bit on crackers/biscuits, banana bread, and was apples (recent addiction). I even started to get a little of what I call my rice pocket belly; alright so it isn't a gut but just my name for it. lol. However, I've still dropped a few more pounds. I was holding steady at 161.4ish for awhile and as of Friday I'm down to 156.7. I haven't weighed so little in a LONG time; I can't even remember how long ago that was. Even in some of my peak training back in high school, I never dropped below 160 and usually sat around 165. I know we are expected to lose some weight.....but I'm going to need to start adjusting my cloth sizes soon.

Voice update--still hoarse, although I can croak out sounds here and there at audible levels. I'm still supposed to keep silent, but have come to the realization that I can't really be an effective volunteer and remain silent. I tried to use my dry-erase board and carry it with me everywhere, but either many people were having difficulty reading what I wrote or noticed I could talk and insisted I do so. Also, I still teach and work alongside community groups that require some level of vocal participation.

My doc on St Lucia (who overseas our med care here) called and told me after consulting with the PC med team in Washington D.C. that I am to go on an inhaler. Not sure what I'll be inhaling or for how long....first time going on one. Supposedly it will take a couple weeks to get here, so more info on that as it comes. I'm told to take it easy on the voice, even with the inhaler, for another 6 weeks and see how we go. If it doesn't get better, more drastic measures will be investigated.

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Got contacted recently from a person on Barbados affiliated with UNIFEM/FAO. She wants my help kick-starting a dormant (but shouldn't be dormant) women's group here in Spring Village. This group started a few years ago, but for reasons I don't know yet have simply stopped meeting altogether. I've been here 9 months now and didn't even know they had existed.

So, now I'm equipped with a list of names and I've been talking to a few of them. They seem interested in regrouping which will make my efforts easier. However, if it's one thing I've been learning--people here love to start and meet for a bit, but the longer efforts/groups last the more the people participating become like magnets with matching polarity.

I'm also prepping to start doing some workshops on organizational strengthening. They will start as a supplement to some communication/leadership training our local tourism has been doing. I'll be testing it out with a fun activity--personality tests and emotional intelligence & how they can affect the work environment communication. If that goes well, I'll be continuing with organization ethics and conflict of interest. I'll be trying to get the Adult and Continuing Education Unit & Community Development Units involved as well--but I'm not holding my breath on that. With proper mobilization, I'll continue the workshops into a series for most major aspects of business/CSO management. I haven't taught these courses, but did rather well on them back in college. Armed with the internet--there is plenty of research material. Now I just need to dig out the time to create my handouts and workshop plans.

In fact, I should be doing that now. hehehehe

Alas, I've been munching on Crix multi-grain crackers...another local weakness...and am starting to slip in my well know food comas.

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

email to my legislature

2009-05-23T23:39:00.002-03:00

Just sent out email to:

Bill Foster 14th District US Representative
Michael Noland 22nd District Illinois State Senator
Keith Farnham 43rd District Illinois State Representative
Richard J. Durbin US Senator
Roland Burris US Senator
Pat Quinn Illinois Governor

It was regarding the rising costs of higher education in our country. Rather sad, those tuition rates are going up faster than wages do. I can only put faith in the leadership we have and hope for the best from our state and national government as well as educational institutions of higher learning.

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

Looking ahead

2009-05-22T00:24:00.003-03:00

Voice update--no change. Still very hoarse. Some people say they can hear my voice getting better, but I don't hear it. If anything, I've become more cognizant of what I'd describe as a constant dryness in the back of my throat and sometimes soreness from speaking. Now before I get jumped on by those who would say--but you're not supposed to be talking, yes I know that. I don't talk if I can usually avoid it, but it isn't easy.

I carry around a small dry-erase board and marker to write out most of my thoughts. That works great for those that can read the words and read them at a pace that can actually create a conversation. If anything, this experience has enlightened me to the seriousness of the adult reading problem. I already know how poorly many of the children read and I have to talk with them. I'm still attending my meetings with various organizations and again, I might start writing but end up talking when my ideas became misconstrued. Getting a bus to stop or answering phone calls has been it's own challenge especially if there is any sort of background noise. Of course there are also those people who I write words to communicate with and they look at me as if I was stupid and inform me that I can just talk to them since they heard me talking with someone else nearby (who was one the people who don't read well). That's a fun one to explain to a person who doesn't want to work any harder than what it takes--even in conversation.

Anyways, things are still moving along here.

Not always as I'd like them to, but who says we get what we want. Half of our job is just finding a way to make it work with what we get. Hum...perhaps I might coin it Social MacGyverism. Been having the usual bought of attendance dilemmas with meetings lately, which of has been affecting the progress of various group efforts. Perhaps some of it might be attributed to the Carnival season in the air, but it is still too early for the big events to steal away the attentions of most people.

Been on that roller coaster again of the what the heck are we doing here while going through the corkscrews of love my job/hate my job. Either way, I'm here and trying to keep a balance of everything here to keep sane.

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”--Buddhist teaching and quote.

The two year roller coaster really makes that lesson an interesting day to day practice. It is hard not to think of our futures after the Peace Corps--particularly on those frustrating days of waiting for an activity to start and you're missing more than half of the committed people while pondering if people are actually taking our seriously.

Either way, whether things going peachy or not I need to start looking ahead to life after service. Many of us have aspirations of graduate school and many of those would like their applications far in advance. This means that I'll be spending some of my free time hoping through grad school websites and the various programs offered. The cost of higher education is rather sad and finding creative ways to pay for graduate school might sadly take up just as much time for many a student as the time they spend in class and studying. That's just not right. Service in the Peace Corps looks great for applicants, but it would be nice to have a tuition reduction as a thank you as well.

It would be nice to have some standardized support for return volunteers and I think I'll actually contact my congressmen on that soon. The average university that I've seen tends to offer a 'discount' of waiving the cost of on average 6-18 credit hours of coursework--not very much in the scheme of things. Of course, many universities have stepped up to support return volunteers and I do appreciate that. However, many of those programs are in education or social-work and not what I'm looking to pursue. I'm looking for degree plans that will help me return to work on the international job market. Working with some of these organizations and getting a closer proximity to working with government officials (if not regularly as I'd like) has only reinforced my desire to work abroad in a composite government scene such as the United Nations.

Right now, Columbia of New York is topping my list with their Masters in International Affairs--Energy & Environment specialty track. I'm also strongly considering their law school for international law. I've taken my GRE, but I'll have to find a way to take my LSAT if I do apply to law school and that probably means I'll have to go off island for it. After seeing so many policy issues in the world and even reflecting on them back home--I'm surprised more volunteers haven't gone into law that I'm aware of and I haven't seen a Law School with a return volunteer tuition break. (not saying they are not out there, just haven't seen it yet)

Grad tuition is frightening. Columbia's Masters program is near $40k in tuition alone for the year--it's law school is much more. A couple years of that, 4 if I pursued the dual degree option and I'd be able to buy a small house. Scary the cost of education. Having a desire to work outside the US is also a very scary risk--especially if that work is not via the U.S. Government. Trying to justify living abroad where work pay might be on par with standards of living and yet make sure to earn enough to send money back home for the student loans for gosh knows how long is a scary venture.

Too bad I didn't want a degree in economics--I do want to thank Western Illinois University for their contribution to our service. I read a leaflet in our office from them and they offer a full ride tuition waiver, stipend, and internship for many of their programs. Too bad it is focused from their Department of Rural Affairs and I am looking for one that will help me connect and get the leg up into the international scene.

Recently, our Country Director sent us an email to clarify a few things regarding Early Termination. It's name is fairly self-explanatory. We are volunteers, yes we are on a contract, but we are not bound to be here. If we follow a series of procedures, we may 'early terminate' our service and go home.

Only the volunteer can weigh those pros can cons since it is a case by case basis. What most volunteers here are grumbling about, particularly those wanting to attend grad school, is our Close of Service date. My group, EC78, has a COS date of 15 October 2010. This puts us just outside of the fall semester start time by 1-3 months. Given that most graduate programs start only in the fall, we would have to find ways to occupy ourselves for nearly an entire year. For someone who has just given 26 months of service--that is a rather crappy thank you. The start and end timing of our service is said to be part of the country assignment's needs--however this is debatable.

80% of EC76 (the group that left before we arrived) early terminated. Many of them did it those last few months before before their COS. To me this sends a clear message and not one that regards them having a direct problem with their service here. Of course an early termination is not without its drawbacks either. For those who wish to work for the government, we are granted a one-year non-competitive eligibility for employment (a handy thing to have). Early terminating denies us this benefit. For those who don't see themselves in the life of public service--giving that up probably doesn't matter. For those of us who may go into government work, that's a sacrifice.

So while I'm living here and happily for the most part and looking forward to finishing my service as scheduled, I am still trying to keep an eye on the future without disrupting the present. Looks like there is plenty to investigate and ponder for later on.

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

my month of silence

2009-05-13T22:48:00.003-03:00

ok, so my month won't be exactly silent--but fairly close.

For those that don't know, I've 'lost' my voice and very rather hoarse the past couple weeks. My voice was getting softer since I've gotten here and now I sound like I've swallowed a frog in my better moments. So today I went to an ear/nose/throat (ENT) doctor as suggested by my Peace Corps Medical Doctor on St. Lucia.

The visit was rather quick, perhaps 20 minutes, and his office was very well kept. Anyways, he checks my ears and all is good there. That was rather fun because he had a tv hooked up to his 'ear-scopes' and I got to see a rather clear picture inside my head. ^_^ Then he goes into the throat with a little mirror and he has me trying to make high-pitch 'eeeee' sounds. Of course I certainly didn't sound like Josh Groban with a mirror in the throat helping me rediscover my gag reflex.

He didn't really tell me what he saw until he finished making a few sketches on the paper records. The results were not good--let's hope not really bad, just not good.
Thought I'd add a few images to help explain:

What you see here are healthy vocal cords. They are spread apart when not in use and close up as we make different sounds.

From what the doctor said, I have a good-sized polup on my vocal cords. He didn't really say which, but I doubt that matters. It would look something like this:

He doesn't believe it to be cancerous or anything serious like that since I don't smoke and I don't know of any such histories in the family. A problem like this isn't uncommon and is often happens to singers, teachers, and others who raise their voice frequently. He believes my polyp is most likely bacterial or viral in nature and major cause for alarm. Still stinks. >.<

His treatment for now will consist of me trying not to talk for the next month unless I really need to do so. (Good thing I have a 8"x10" dry erase board.) He also prescribed a few pills for me to take a daily histamine tablet of 5mg Neoclarityn for 10 days. I have a follow-up appointment with him for next month. If the polyp hasn't gotten better...well let's hope it does. Otherwise he said he might have to opt for an easy surgical procedure to remove it.

So let's all hope for a quick and quiet month.

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

Digital Photography & Internet course ideas....

2009-05-12T10:55:00.002-03:00

Alright, so I've been teaching basic computer classes here in my village. They are small classes, only 4 people at the most per class--1 per computer. I looked around at a few instructional sites I found online for computer classes and ended up creating my own set of 'study sheets' & exam for the class by merging many of the examples and adding my own flavor.

I've wanted to teach classes at the next level up with subjects like office software, internet skills, and digital photography--but I don't always have the time or the computers are not always available during those times. Still, I'd like to start creating additional study sheet and learning materials for those types of courses. I teach directly from those sheets--so if a student was late or missed a lesson, they would be able to make up any materials on their own. I hope, I would able to put together the learning material for intermediate level work. Then self-motivated people would be able to pick up the study sheets and work at their own pace.

Office learning material is easy enough to find. Heck, so many things are available through sites like Microsoft's Office website, Alison.com, and similar sites that I shouldn't have to worry about any of that coursework.

However, I'd really like to teach a class on intro to digital photography & one on mid-level internet skills. I only know these topics based on personal experience, but even then I most likely know a bit more than most people here in my village. There are not many digital cameras and those in use are most point & shoot with no regard for light, position, or other aspects. Most internet users here don't really know how to modify search information to target what they want to find or use the internet beyond social sites. Hi5 is the BIG thing here and no I do not have a profile on it.

So I was hoping to use this blog here as a chance to solicit some feedback from my wonderful readers. If you have any ideas, advice, or other things to contribute--drop some comments below or send me an email (address is on the sidebar to the right). I'm listing below some topic points. If you think I should add or remove any further topics--just say so. If you know a bit about a particular topic or where I can find some great info to help make a study sheet--add some feedback.
Thanks! ^_^

Here are a few topics I was thinking of covering in the Internet course:

How the internet works--hardware & software overview
What is a network--compare local, wireless, and personal networks
General internet usage--compare major topics--social, business, educational, etc.
Search Engines--web, image, refining results, etc.
Email
News
Chat & Social Networking
Shopping & Banking
How to use the internet as a tool for learning & personal growth
How to use the internet as a business tool.

Here are a few topics I was thinking of covering in a digital photography course:

Intro to the digital camera (point & shoots)--how does it work, types of cameras, handling & basic care
Mega-pixels & resolution--what does that really mean to the user
Memory Cards--compare types, storage amount & it direct relation with mega-pixels
Zoom--digital vs. optical and how they affect the image
Discuss a few concepts: shutter-speed, aperture, using a flash, focusing, ISO
Things to think about--shooting at night, shooting at day, fluorescent light, water reflection (polarize),
How to transfer pictures from a digital camera to a computer
General image file types & compression--jpg, tiff, raw
Very basic intro to image editing software (software to be used, yet to be decided)--cropping, resize, retouch, red-eye, color settings
Things to consider when buying a digital camera & perform comparisons with current camera models on the internet

well, that pretty much exhausted my idea list for now. Of course, I'll still need to fill in the details for each on the study sheets--but hopefully you'll drop your thoughts first. ^_^ Thanks again.

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

Did you know?

2009-05-11T14:14:00.002-03:00

Amy dropped me this video in a chat.
Way cool....informational.

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

Youth Explosion

2009-05-06T17:00:00.002-03:00

So when my recruiter asked me how I'd feel walking through a village and constantly being greeted as if I was a celebrity. She asked me how I'd feel if they wanted to hold my hand and let them follow me. For many who know me from back home--that is a tough one to answer nicely, but I sucked it up and said sure, why not.

Since then, those very things have indeed come to pass and I've learned that I'm really not so bothered with it. Well most of them are alright and they do indeed call out to me as if I am some sort of neighborhood celebrity. Several do like holding my hand and one even calls me her best friend--of course that stops as soon as I tell her she can't use the computers.

What I wasn't prepared to deal with was running youth groups. My official title role is NGO/Institution developer, which seems to suggest a wide variety of duties. It really means be ready to do just about anything. Our PC training covered several major topics, but in my opinion was preparing us to deal with youth--not sure if it was even meant to do that either. So with little formal youth training and limited youth group experience, I quickly found myself immersed in activities I admit I started for the kids of Spring Village. From after school studies to the ECHO drum and dance crew, they have become a part of my regular schedule here.

Now I've been a boy scout and afterwards a boy scout leader. I suppose the big difference between the experiences then and now is the activity structure & participation. Back then, there were many adult leaders to divide up the work, organize the boys, and keep things running smoothly. The boy scout program was well established and had systems in place to help those leaders stick to a general framework and activity guide. Here, for the most part it's been dicey.

I've been very fortunate to find a couple people here in the village that are interested in the remedial reading part of the after school studies program and I'm grateful for them. Still we find ourselves stumbling along as we try to develop our methods & programs--without much support from the local school environment. ECHO has been a mixed bag. On one hand, there is some great support outside the village from another drummer--but he is a very busy person and hard to reach for the times ECHO will meet. Adult support for ECHO here in Spring is limited as best, although the youth coming to the meetings has been growing weekly. Now I'm faced with a group that has become perhaps too large and I've been unable to control.

Despite the size of the group, I find some of the youth are getting very good at knocking me from my center and I find myself rekindling aggressive urges. This is something that needs to be stopped now. It took me a long time to find the quiet inside and uncover a well-spring of patience. Most days I can undergo most rigors and not be bothered, yet some of these activities are starting to find quick ways to unnerve me. So I'm at a cross-roads and currently sitting back chewing on the idea of which road to walk.

One road follows an extreme change to discontinue these youth activities altogether. Doing so would allow me to focus more intently on other projects, such as the village council and teaching computers. I often find myself wondering if/how they might last without me after service anyways--given that I've been continually searching for others (adults) to help supervise activities such as ECHO.

Another road would be to either divide the groups into smaller chunks or eliminate some of the youth from attending. Both have their own merits and flaws. By splitting the kids into smaller groups, I would be able to manage them more effectively and they would be able to share some of the limited resources (like the drums) better. However, I don't have any extra time during the week to bulk up on the number of ECHO meetings I can have, so the kids would have to settle on coming to a biweekly instead of a weekly session (each group would alternate weeks). This in-turn slows their learning progression skill development for performance-based activities. By eliminating some of the kids from the youth activity, then I would have to specify/select how many kids I will keep active and how many should be dismissed. I can already see that to be a sticky situation, trying to find fair methods to select a few and be able to rationalize to community parents why I all of a sudden told their children they can't participate regardless of how well they might have behaved.

The third road walks the path of the wait and see. Stick it out a bit longer and see if any other opportunities present themselves. It is nice to remain optimistic and try to keep driving others in the community to get involved, but reality takes its toll and I worry about changes in my personal attitude/behavior. While this road is a nice thought--it will probably remain a thought.

In the end, I accept the fact that I made an awfully big sandwich and am currently taking big bites out of it. In hindsight, I'm not sure if I would have really been able to make a smaller sandwich or if I would have just had to go without one. But the day moves forward and I've got some plans to consider. It would have been so much easier if I would have had a functioning CBO to work with when I arrived as it should have been--but we make due with what we have and move onward making the best of things.

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

Gosh they really hate lines.

2009-05-01T22:38:00.003-03:00

Ok, so my buddy Will in New York sent me this chain email with a terrible pun...
Apparently someone had said that the day we had a black president, pigs will fly. Well right around the 100 days, the swine flu.
Tasteless, sure--but that's life. ^_^

Being sick stinks--the flu especially. I got it probably late last week, but it didn't really hit me till Sunday & Monday. You know the kind that makes your who self ache whenever you move your head. I'm fine now and no it wasn't swine flu. Just regular, good 'ol make the life miserable flu. Figure I most likely got it from doing all those reading assessments at the school the past couple weeks. Coming into close proximity with more than one kid sniffing back his cold is a fairly reasonable guess. And for the worry worts out there (cough...mom...cough), the Peace Corps has issued us special tablets to go into our medical kits to be taken if the avian or swine flu should outbreak here.

Outside of a brief run-in with the flu, I've still been keeping busy. Sunday night I went to the larger venue of Gospel Fest in Kingstown. I went to show support and take some pics for the Super Kidz group from Spring. This larger gathering was to bring together all the top performers from the zonal areas; our zone was from the blog I detailed in Chateau. There were many performances, some of them very cool. Now although I'm not a Christian--I know a good performance and these were very entertaining. I must admit, the swing dancers really through me for a loop when I saw that!

Here's a few videos of the other groups. I'm not putting up the pics/videos from the Super Kidz--although they were great, it was the same songs & dance from the other show and available on an earlier blog.
The photo albums from that night are here:
Part 1
Part 2

This one should be a group called KLT, somewhere from the Windward side

This one is a dancing couple from the Marriaqua Valley on the Windward side

This one features Jason Mighty--that night's special performance. Hailing from Jamaican, he is well known in the Gospel circles and the crowd ERUPTED for his hour or so long performance. This was his closing song and one that is extremely popular here. Alright, I admit I don't know the name of the song. Gospel was never really my cup of tea.

The stands are overflowing with Vincentians at Victoria Park

In other updates--

ECHO, the drum and dance group is coming along slowly. The kids want to do a sponsor walk to raise some funding for more drums. They should be doing a sponsor walk from Chateau to Spring Village--roughly two hours along a mountainous highway road. They plan to grab the drums and play along the way. I'll be hoping for a good turn-out, although I'm not to sure how driven they are to walk around and ask for their sponsors. Oddly, I'm finding a bit of a reversal on this one... The kids that are normally very motivated to do the drumming and activities don't really want to do they walk and complain it's too hard/far. Many of the other kids--the ones who often don't take things seriously and goof off seem more determined to make this walk work.
Time will tell.

We'll also be expanding into the dance section very soon...getting a small boombox would be great and is on the equipment to get list. The kids caught me watching some breakdance and beatbox stuff and have decided they really want to give that a try. Oh my...yet another skill I have very little talent or knowledge and will be relying on the WONDERFUL resource of Youtube. The most & best beatboxing I ever did is a rather nostalgic moment of youth--I must have been 16 or 17. I recall there were either 11 or 13 of us packed into by buddy Greg's station wagon, also called the shag wag with the winter orb air conditioner. We drove around and everybody made a different sound effect or rhythm line and complied it into this cacophony that might have bordered music. Good times. The breakdancing...is entirely all new turf for me, but I'll admit I've got interest in learning.

I think I've found a semi-effective punishment for the kids that misbehave around me--typically during the Tuesday/Thursday after-school study sessions. They call them 'lines'. That's right, those wonderfully monotonous line after line repetition of some idea to reflect the ideal behavior or reminder of what they should not do again. The kids seem to really squirm at the idea of even 10 or 20 lines. Lucky them...I remember getting them by the page--front & back--at a time. Of course, I don't know if I should stick with regular lines. I'm considering carrying around a dictionary with me and have them copy definitions--maybe learn something along the way. Yeah, I understand it's a negative punishment and we are supposed to be doing positive reinforcement practices but if the PC wants to get on my butt about it then they should have sent a person with more experience working with youth.

Got another village council meeting tomorrow night...crossing my fingers for good turnout on this one. We are voting in the constitution framework and hopefully putting some things in place to start mobilizing and working the various sub-committees of the council. We will also be listing the ad-hoc committee to start putting together what we'll be calling the "Spring Village Enhancement Project" which will contain several smaller development efforts in a wide variety of areas across the village. I'll do a full blog on that alone once we settle on more specific details.

On an entertainment note--I watched to very good movies in the past week or so...
Normal and The Children of Huang Shi. Normal is a gender-affairs drama and The Children of Huang Shi is a war drama and I recommend them both.

And on that note...I'm out for now. Plenty on the mind to go ponder.

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

suckered into youtube

2009-04-24T02:21:00.003-03:00

Ok, so I don't normally click on random things on website. However this time around, YouTube won. I can't beatbox, but I saw this video as one of the first listed for some sort of wildcard. Since I'm easily distracted by methods that turn a person into a human sound machine--I had to take a quick look. This kids is AMAZING! At least I stopped there as I'm sure I could have lost countless hours looking at these sorts of videos.

----Ok, I was wrong....I got sucked back in....a bit of beatbox and of course continuing on the human sound machine, an amazing ventriloquist--Jeff Dunham

and if I got on a puppet kick, just can't close out without a bit of Terry Fator--ventriloquist, singer, impersonator....all-in-one!
[for the record, I really don't get into those reality shows...but come on--it's Terry Fator!]

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

On the notes of another

2009-04-23T23:15:00.000-03:00

Well, there has been some recent Peace Corps activity in the news of late....let me share just a bit.

[Note for other PCVs, Kim & Geoff have been posting on this also--repeat info]

A world of needs, a dwindling Peace Corps
There is a mention of our Caribbean post on the article--a brief note of one wondering why we serve here. There are mixed reviews on this and I've read a few, but I will keep my mouth shut on this one.

More older Americans signing on to volunteer abroad
Apparently there has been a wave of 50+ year old applicants for volunteering from the US to go abroard. I have the distinct pleasure of meeting a few of them in our group of PCEC78 and the wonderful experience of working with on of them here on SVG.
Here's a pic of our friend George on St. Kitts

Here's a song that has been IMMENSELY popular here on the islands. Never saw the video until I was reading Kim/Geoff's blog and thought it was apt to keep it going for others to pass it on. Give yourself the few minutes, it's worth it.

and of course, the boring and dry stuff for last--unless you are twisted like me and enjoy reading mounds of legal jargon....well, I'd post links from the Library of Congress, but their site is saying something about current errors sending temporary files....maybe later.
Keep on the look out for Peace Corps to hopefully get a boost from Congress:
H.R.1388
Title: A bill entitled "The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, an Act to reauthorize and reform the national service laws."
Sponsor: Rep McCarthy, Carolyn [NY-4] (introduced 3/9/2009) Cosponsors (37)
Related Bills: H.RES.250, H.RES.296, S.277
Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 111-13 [GPO: Text, PDF]
House Reports: 111-37

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

Gospel Fest in Chateau

2009-04-19T20:36:00.002-03:00

There seems to be something to celebrate or be aware of every month; actually there seems to be many themes each month. Previously I mentioned that is was child abuse awareness & prevention month. It also happens to be the month of Gospel Fest. Every weekend at sites across SVG, there are shows, concerts, and all sorts of other activities sponsored by faith-based organizations.

From what I've gotten to learn, there are festivals that take place in each of the zones (geographic areas that divide up SVG). At each zonal fest, people compete in a variety of categories such as solo, duet, and group singing, musical instrument performance, drama, and dance. Every performance is judged and given certificates of participation. Those that score well on their performance are given medals--based only by their own performance and not competing with other groups. Top performers will be gathered at the end of the month for a Gospel Fest rally in Victoria Park (one of the sports stadiums) in Kingstown.

We had our zonal festival last night and I got to tag along with a youth church group--Super Kids--and several other supporters from Spring Village. We gathered at the Chateau Primary School and joined up with many other churches. Of course, things started on 'West Indies time' and lasted later than expected. Instead of 1030, we clocked out after midnight.

Many of the performances were rather good and since I don't normally attend recitals or other social gatherings like this--for me it was as if somebody spliced American Idol with a church revival service. Either way, I had a good time and I think those that know me from the village where happy to have me along. I saw a couple people with cameras, but not many--so I also willingly offered to be the group photographer. I think they'll like having copies of their pictures. I took a few videos of the performances from Spring Village people--but sadly my video quality capabilities are not very good on my camera.

Here are clips from what I took and the videos:
(full photo album on facebook Part 1 and Part 2)

Hum....3 judge panel setup look familiar? Well there were certainly no Simon's that night.

Miss Simone, who is also one of our reading tutors.

Teacher Pat, another of our reading tutors--waiting for her song to start, a duet with Simone

Some of the Super Kids

lol, not sure why....but I think the pic above turned out cool. I might crop it a bit later to remove the extra face.
The crowd swells

The Super Kids Choir, as led by Mrs. Campbell--who is also the 6th grade teacher at our local primary school.

Ok, so I had to be in 1 photo...lol, boy am I shiny--can't even tell I'm tan.

Super Kids Dancing

Nini got a silver for her performance

Simone and Teacher Pat got silvers for their performances

The Super Kids got a gold for their choir song. Teacher Pats daughter accepted the award.

The Super Kids got a gold for their dance performance as well--blitzing the stage and going NUTS!

And here are the videos I took...could be better, but not bad.
Keep in mind this is for Gospel Fest, so you're prepped for the genre.

Nini belts out the praise

Simone's solo performance

Teacher Pat and Simone's Silver Duet

Super Kids Choir Performance

Ok, so while this kid is not from Spring Village--I actually don't know who he is at all--did a dramatic (gold winning) performance of a preacher in sermon. AND HE WAS AMAZING! The spitting image of many that I've seen here and back home. Although this clip is not quite 4 1/2 minutes, it is only a part of what he did...must have been around 10 minutes, which is LOTS for a little guy.

The final performance of the night was the dance show from the Super Kids and it was really well done! They worked hard and earned that gold! Kudos to them.

So while that was a really good time, I think my 4gb flash drive with all sort of PC docs and paperwork fell out of my pocket last night....I can't seem to find it today and it is driving me NUTS. >.< boo. Life in balance.

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

Easter Monday at Owia Salt Ponds

2009-04-16T23:18:00.008-03:00

This past Easter Monday was a public holiday here in SVG. Now maybe I just worked too much back home--but I don't remember having an extra day for Easter back home. Here everything shuts down; people pack up for cookouts; and everyone goes off to some relaxing spot.

Many Vincies with transportation will head to pastures far from them. The leeward folks go 'country' out to the windward side and vice versa. The folks from 'town' (Kingstown) will go up either direction. Of course, the far north of both leeward and windward are were all the best 'touristy' spots are at. Our crew ventured from our turf in north leeward and traveled a few hours (2.5ish?) around the mainland to the far Owia Salt Ponds. Owia is very far north--much more so than the leeward side goes and is nearly at the northern tip of the island. We had to go all the way around, because SVG is one (if perhaps the only) Eastern Caribbean island/mainland that does not have a circular/main ring road.

We left early, shooting for 730 and with the typical delays got out of Spring maybe about 830 or so and arrived in Owia around 11am. The place was already filling in nicely with people from all over. Several football and cricket games were played in what small patches the park provided. We, like a few others, found a little niche off the sidewalk trail and set up our cook. The typical Vincy one-pot was on the menu--with the first batch being a callalou soup and second some form of meat soup. Neither caters to this lone vegetarian and so I 'walked' (local expression for bring something with you) with my lunch, a tasty batch of basil rice and chunks.

The entire Owia Salt Ponds has been targeted for the National Tourism Project, which is performing upgrades & improvements on chosen sites across SVG. The Owia Salt Ponds was still under construction, but the upper park area seemed complete with a circular park & walkway and several gazebos inside the grassed middle. New cement steps, semi-steep, go down from the park area and take you down to the salt ponds at ocean level.

The salt ponds themselves seemed to be formed from the large rocks that have settled along the beachfront, creating a wall-like effect. Here the sea tides seem strong and when they reach certain heights, splash water over small rock outcrops and keep the ponds full. Small ponds chain link themselves in a patchwork along the beachfront. Small fish and other creatures can be easily seen in these ponds and one must be wary of the random congo snake (not poisonous, but I hear the bite is rather painful) or sea egg (local name for the spiny sea urchins).

I suppose this place is popular to begin with, but since it was a public holiday--the salt ponds was bursting with attention with kids jumping off rocks and diving for glass bottles they would fill and drop to the bottom. In other areas they simply splashed in the shallows or relaxed on the rocks. I bounced around snapping pictures of all sorts of little fish and trying to climb around some very sharp rocks on the far beach edge in order to get a fleeting moment of the large waves coming up to pound the rocks. The leeward side tends to have very call waters compared to the windward side. At one point I miscalculated how high the wave would hit and got half-drenched. Luckily, I managed to partially cover myself behind a rock and shield the camera.

Back down at the main pond area, I eventually got into the water. It took me a bit--I didn't seem as brave as the general public around me. Something about seeing a mass of sea urchins clinging to the upper edges of the rocks.....right where I would be grabbing to pull myself in and out of the deeper waters....seemed to dissuade my interests of jumping in. After a bit of coaching, I jumped in and was told that I would just have to swim around the the farther shallows to get in and out. ug...that meant navigating the youth. Oh well, should expect a total get-away on a holiday. ^_^

The picture above I ended up keeping because I thought it sadly humorous that I should set the camera down with the timer set and as I rush across slick rock--I should slide a foot right through a puddle and have the camera catch my colorful expression as I realized I had a wet shoe.

I hung out with the others back at our little squat spot for a good part of the day and as evening fell we all worked our way up to a dance party going on. If I had thought it was crowded during the day, I was sadly mistaken when viewing the masses drawn for the evening festivities. A few of us even managed to get inside a decently-sized building where the dj was playing and I must admit that sardines would be extremely comfortable in that place with room to stretch. Some guy tried to lift my wallet, but I politely took his hand (already in my pocket) and pulled it away empty. Funny, the guy started reacting as I grabbed him and that he didn't do anything wrong. The scene ended at that. The few of us in then squeezed out as it was simply too crazy to have a good time. The group stood around and limed for a bit longer and finally embarked on the long ride home. Of course that was after the traditional wait for the couple missing stragglers who don't like to answer their phones when the group tries to locate them.

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

More Spring drumming!

2009-04-14T14:02:00.006-03:00

As you might know, I've been working to help get a drumming group off the ground here. It is slowly coming along and I've had to do nearly all the start-up work myself. I've got a bunch of kids that love to drum, which is a great thing. Haven't been able to really attract the older secondary school kids or adults. It's a shame, because there are several adults who know how to play the hand drums, but don't seem to want to participate.

Our little group now has 3 djembe drums, a dun-dun, and a few other small instruments--like an old car part as a steel wheel. I hope to experiment and figure out how to make bamboo flutes and xylophones. The idea from those came after seeing some in town, but failing to garner the support to teach the kids how it was made. I'm also hoping to figure out how to transform used cans--mostly vegetable & V8--into single note steel pan drums. So far I'm 0 for 4, I keep breaking them. >.<

We've been able to get the instructional support from a person by the name of Selly from the village of Rose Hall. He is an amazing person and drummer. He lives and breathes community support and activity. The only drawback remains his free time schedule--as he is always busy. We've been practicing late on Saturdays, set for 7pm but often starting later, as that is when he can come. However, the community center where we practice is starting to have other meetings there (often ones I need to attend) and the carrying-sound of the drums are often deafening for those meetings. So we need to find a new night...

Selly and I planned a moonlight drum event that kicked off well this past Saturday night. Of course both he and the moon arrived late, but it went over very well with the community. He was supposed to have his Rose Hall Drummers start at 8pm, but they didn't arrive until 9pm. ECHO, the name of the Spring Group, entertained a few people from 730 till 9 and then after while Selly made other preparations. His group drummed for awhile, perhaps 1030 or so. He was also supposed to bring some dancers to teach Spring people how to do the Quadrille dance--but they were unable to come. That didn't stop him from putting on a little dance show for everyone on his own. ^_^ I also had prepared a long piece of bamboo that Selly affixed with 12 colored ribbons. We closed up the event by trying to teach Spring people how to braid the maypole--a big cultural thing here (probably from the British-origin heritage I think). There were many laughs all around. The whole purpose of the event was to promote the drum and dance activities in Spring Village and hopefully bring out a few older youth/adults. Having the younger kids is fine, but I need to older ones to help teach how to run a community group and do the in-house stuff like set up a CBO bank account. I have to thank the SVG Youth Affairs Department for funding the event--they provided the funds to pay for the Rose Hall Drummers transportation and snacks.

Here are many pic from the event--some are fuzzy as I've been letting a kid (Mixalot) try his hand with my camera, but he hasn't really learned about focus or flash yet. Some of the pics are from Friday night in our little meeting room/workshop and the others are from the Saturday night drum event. All pics can be found on my Facebook album

Below are a few videos of us having fun doing some drumming on our 'off-night'.
You'll probably want to make sure the Heather Small-Proud song is not playing at the bottom of the page.

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

In Vincy news headlines

2009-04-14T12:11:00.002-03:00

Just thought I'd toss up a few more things going on here in the Vincentian islands.... These are mostly core topics from the 3 papers I read each week: The Vincentian, The News, and Searchlight.

Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) is our only hospital here on SVG. It is next to a gas station and has been for years. However the current administrator is now calling the close proximity a health and safety hazard. He says one of them needs to be relocated.

Newspapers here are talking quite a bit about the upcoming Summit of the Americas coming to Trinidad & Tobago this coming weekend. SVG is a close ally with Cuba and there is much discussion about trying to bring Cuba back into the mainstream and trying to persuade the US to remove the embargo.

SVG is officially in the dry season for some time now. We don't have the traditional 4 seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter like back home. We have Wet and Dry; it still rains, but not nearly as much. It is dry enough to have bushfires. There have been a few and there are many advertisements and articles about good practices and how to avoid starting bushfires. This week's Searchlight even featured an article to remind people that starting a bushfire (as a way to hunt iguana or get rid of snakes) or poisoning a river (to catch fish) can earn you 6 months in jail.

This month holds Gospel Fest. It is an entire month of programs that move around the country--songs, dance, drama, etc. The events are mostly on the weekends and promote Christian values and praise. They tend to be a rather sizable events. [Don't think I'll be planning to attend any as of yet.]

[Continuing on the religious note:]
There was an opinion article in this week's Vincentian paper discussing the one true religion, part 1 of a series. It seems to be an attempt to reach out to the various Christian faiths and tell them that there is only one true form of Christianity and that there should not be splinter factions with varies interpretations and teachings. Interestingly enough, the article does not provide an opinion as to which faith within Christianity is the 'right' one--at least not yet.

SVG is in the process of building an international airport. For now, most of our international traffic is bounced in from St Lucia, Trinidad, Barbados, or Puerto Rico. The airport is not expected to be finished until 2012 [times listed vary]. Depending on who you talk to (professionally, politically, or otherwise), you will hear drastic differences on if the airport is a good idea or not and to what degree. There is a massive concern over the financial borrowing and operations for the construction. Recent news discusses how a 'final master plan' was not a true final nor master plan after all... There are also articles that mention the acquisition of more lands to plan for future expansion opportunities that were not previously part of the plan--again causing for debate. [Time will tell on this one. Sadly, I won't be able to fly out of it once my PC service closes.]

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the volcano's, Mt. Soufriere, eruption--13 April 1979. Previously it erupted in 1902. Several articles have been released to review what life was like during those times and how science & technology have better equipped the nation to forecast and prepare for future eruptions. [The Peace Corps does have an emergency plan for volcanic eruptions.]

Vincentians tend to be very good at making handicraft. 4 handicraft artisan entrepreneurs, sponsored with the Center for Enterprise Development (CED), were able to attend the 6th Caribbean Arts and Crafts Festival. Vincentians also made a presence at the 11th Annual Miami Fashion Week. SVG is not a textile nation by any means, but there seems to be a growing interest in the fashion design industry.

A political party, the SVG Green Party, was refused permission to hold a march and rally to voice support for the election of President Obama. [Perhaps a bit late in my opinion for such a rally.] According to the article in the Vincentian, "refusal of permission as being an act to appease Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran and goes on to declare that it seems the ULP regime [current government party] is putting the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran before the people of SVG."

This month is Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month. There was an article published in The News that I thought I'd copy here:

CUT THEM OFF!
Males who sexulally abuse young chlidren should not only be castrated but have their penises cut off. So says Chairperson of the Child Abuse, Awareness, and Prevention Committee, Pastor Lemuel Samuel. Samuel made the comments while speaking to The News during a rally held at Heritage Square in Kingstown last Friday.
...The passionate Samuel add, "I use those adjectives without any form of apology because we have cases and facts and figures whereby men are guilty of specifically saying that they have made their daughters adn they must have sex with them and break them in before any other man.
I describe those persons as mentally ill; I may go as far as to say that we may need to have some of these not just castrated but to take their penis off." said the outspoken Pastor. ...

For those that did not know, buggery (a term interchangeable with sodomy) is against the law here. While this does not affect most persons--it is an act commonly associated with the male homosexuals. An article in The News covers an opinion from the Minister of Health--Dr. Douglas Slater--about decriminalizing homosexuality during talks about how to stem the rise of HIV/AIDS transmission.

During his address, Dr. Slater said "the laws in the region criminalize it and I"m saying that it is very difficult for any Government to change that because the general population does not support decriminalization and we ought to reflect the wishes of the majority."
..."In SVG and in the Caribbean there is a great deal of homophobia; there is a rejection to sex workers; to me sometimes a very bigoted and critical position because many of the person who publicly talk about are involved in it." said the health Minister who added "men who have sex with men are seen not as human beings bu as animals; if you make statements and act in any way that might be perceived as in support of them you are labeled but the reality is that they exist, they are our brothers, sisters, fathers, uncles, children, but I believe in the Christian principle of humanity and love and support despite whatever you may be."

[Interestingly enough, to my knowledge HIV is transmitted at a higher rate among heterosexuals than homosexuals--at least in the Caribbean. This may be in part due to the high rates of promiscuity among many men having multiple women and lack of condom use.]

There were more articles in all the papers about how the major competing telecommunication companies--LIME (formerly Cable & Wireless) and Digicel are giving away prize money for various competitions. I will interject my opinion on this, as I see these every week and can only wonder what becomes of it all. These companies are spending large amounts of money, at least in the common person's perspective. What is it really helping? Have they done studies to see if the impacts of cash rewards are enough to bribe loyal users to continue service and hopefully spread the word of their respective companies greatness? Both companies do contribute and sponsor select sports teams, development activities, and other events. However, could monies given to individuals be better spent through increased development aid and through other funding opportunities for the masses rather than single individuals? There are many here I've conversed with that say the general mindset of the Vincentian is one of the "begging-bowl" and "they keep their minds on how to get money to buy dinner rather than how to plan to fund themselves to eat for the week." How are the cash incentives from LIME and Digicel doing anything to derail the begging-bowl? A better educated individual, sewn and grown from a well-developed country, would be more likely to find or create better employment, make more money, and thus spend more back into telecom companies--their products and services. Of course, this is all my opinion.

CCTV is currently not allowed in the courtroom as permissible evidence due to a lack of rules that state how the footage should be acquired and controlled until used as evidence. It is allowed if a judge deems it so. Soon, there may be rules to cover this sort of evidence.

The SVG may soon be undergoing constitutional reform. While this has implications here on many levels--it is a vastly divided argument. SVG has been an independent nation for almost 30 years now and much of the current government legislation has a distinctively British flavour. Many in government feel it is time to advance the constitution to address modern needs. There are many topics raised--one of the major ones noted is the idea of term limits for the Prime Minister. Some say that it is necessary to allow up-and-coming leaders as well as provide for the dynamics of leadership and prevent power-struggles. Others say that a PM should not be limited as might a presidency--they follow different styles of government. Additionally, those against the limits have been known to say there is a lack of strong leadership in SVG, a quality needed for a PM. [Although there was no follow-up that I've read to say why there might be a lack...]

And so....these are just a bit of the things that are going around here that influence my life and the lives of those around me.

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

I'll never understand HIV as a tool for revenge

2009-04-01T22:46:00.003-03:00

Hey out there in Never Never Land

This Saturday past, the tourism group had a fund-raiser bbq at a political rally. Now I know Peace Corps volunteers are not supposed to get involved with politics, but the rally was for anyone--I even saw opposition party people there--and I was there on a fund-raiser. That being said, it was fun. We were getting ready for it early during the day and we were set up till there till after 1 am. Wah, what a day. Got up at 530am for banana shipment too. Let's just say I road up into the banana fields lying down in the back of the truck with my hat pulled over my face. It got some good laughs from the locals that ride up with us.

This is our regional area rep--the Honorable Dr. Jerrol Thompson. He is the Minister for Telecommunications, Science, and Industry

And this is the Prime Minister, the Honorable Dr. Ralph Gonsalves

This week the kids on are Easter break for 2 weeks. This means that I've still been going to our community center library for study time, but nobody shows up. So I've been filling that time by doing a bit of research and typing up computer lesson study sheets. In some of my free time, I'm slowly building what I call a 'learning resource cd'. The idea is that it could be distributed to other volunteers and villages with computers; when inserted it would give a browser with subjects and contain videos, documents, and internet links on a variety of topic areas.
We'll see how that turns out. No rush on it with everything else going on.

They say when you get a craving for a particular food, you are missing something in your diet that the food you are craving may help fulfill. Some sort of physio-psychological link if you believe it--I do. But what if you just have the munchies and they don't go away? Lately, I walk into my kitchen and feel like snacking--but I don't buy lots of snacks and I can only eat so many bananas till I get into trouble. ^_^ lol So I'm left with the snacking urge that I haven't been able to knock the past few days. I have these super tasty little cracker--Shirley's biscuits in regular and ginger--but they really aren't good to eat in mass quantity. >.<

Still on food...
Not sure if I said this before, but we have a dry soy protein food here called Chunks. It runs about EC$6-7 for an 8oz bag and looks like dry dog food. Not to let looks be deceiving, but they are probably the coolest food I've found here yet. They are great in many dishes, but let me bow at their supreme tasty value when added to a stir fry. And I don't know what happened to my soup tonight. I've been making plenty of soup using pumpkin as a base and it is really good--mixing up what vegetables to add, mostly fresh, local goods. Tonight I did pumpkin, eggplant (a staple lately), christophene (a green starchy food), carrots, and beans--simple, harmless, and tasty. I think the problem came when got the urge to add a can of green peas. Gave it a funky smell. Boo. First kitchen failure in awhile. >.<
hehe, I'll have to fix the palate with some wonderful chunks dishes later on.

I totally got nailed by an April Fool's Day prank today. Got a message from another volunteer saying they did something stupid and were being asked to leave the island. It seemed a very plausible thing and I was totally taken in by it--called that volunteer to call him an idiot and I got nailed. So funny--I didn't even realize today is already 1 April. Wow, it's April already....

And now a clipping from this past weekend's newspaper, The Vincentian, From the Just Ask Ole George (a sort of Dear Abby) and copied word for word:

My boss has it too!
Dear George,
I have tested positive for the HIV virus and since that time (1 month ago), I have not slept properly. I have not told anyone and I do not see myself doing so anytime soon. I look good and the men are going crazy about me, especially the men in my office. My boss has been on my case for the last couple of months or so. He treats me like dirt at work. I had to give in to his sexual demands when I first applied for the job, and since that time he has been using me for his fun stick. I have not told my boyfriend, and further more, he trusts me completel. My boss brags to me on the amount of women he has been through and he finds particular pleasure in getting women who have their husbands or boyfriends, to give in to him. He offers good money if you go his way. If I am HIV positive, I know he has to have it as well because we always had unprotected sex. I am only sorry for his wife. I intend to carry my little secret to my grave and I am going to teach the men of this country a lesson when it comes to tampering with another man's woman.
Way Out

Geez...I empathize with her anger and frustrations--but that certainly is not a good thing to do. Many more people will become HIV positive because of the actions of her ad people like her should she act upon the words she wrote. This is not a good thing. Sadly, even though there is enough HIV awareness/condom usage education--the facts of the day still show vast numbers of people not using them even though they could recite the jingles and facts flawlessly. Ultimately, it is the decision of the individual--not matter what work others do, we can't make those choices for them.

And with that I'm gone.

Second star to the right and on till morning....

Stay Safe and Happy
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

2009-03-26T02:03:00.004-03:00

Oh my, so leave it to me to make this my 3rd posting in one evening after not posting for around 2 weeks--at least I didn't crunch it into on long blog. lol, I ramble too much as it is.

So here's an update on what I've been up to:

My pilot group of basic computer class students (4 adults) finished, sadly only with a 50% pass rate on their exam although I can explain the ones that didn't. Since then, I've started another group of 4 adults and a before school group of 4 primary school students, both on the basic course. They all seem to be chugging along nicely. I detest early morning stuff, but the 730-830, 2 days a week seem to work nicely for the primary school students. I find it humorous the younger students complain about all the material I have them learn, whereas the adults (most have never touched a computer) don't make any comments about the amount of material.

--------------------

The village council I've been coaching is like a slow sluggish engine in winter. Sometimes is wobbles a bit and chokes, but its' warming up and will soon be running smoothly. The executive group is motivated and has a great core to lead. I'm proud of the people in place and am confident that I'll be able to step back and let them stand on their own. If I'm able to do so this early in my service, I believe that it will certainly have enough time to prove sustainable by the time I leave (score 1 point for me. ^_^)

The sub-committees, which handle the various aspects of our village however still need a bit of fire under the pants. But hey, it's a new group and concept for them, so we'll need a couple months to really build the organization dynamics. With the stronger core at the lead--I'm confident they can guide the sub-committees into action. Time will tell.

We have 4 sub-committees, with at least 3 people in each.

Sports
Education & Culture
Agriculture, Environment, Health, & Infrastructure
Community Mobilization

I'll be meeting with our exec group tomorrow to draft our council constitution and draft the new management plan for our community center.
Some of the activities in the works for our sub-committees include: a community cricket game day, writing a grant proposal to get funds to build a community bulletin board, launching a reading festival event, and starting an youth executive program. The last part finds adolescent youth in the community to become Assistant _____ position to match an executive on the council. The goal will be to help prepare and empower that youth to perform the duties of the executive role and gain valuable experience.

--------------------

Drumming is coming along nicely. I can already identify which kids are now regulars and perhaps get some sort of program in place. I've had to put an age minimum of 10 in place to help reduce the chaos of kids that come during practice. Ok so the younger ones still come, but at least I can tell the youngsters upfront they won't be playing that day. I'm still having a hard time getting some of the older kids and adults out. Hopefully our new direction will seek to bring them in. I need to find an adult community partner on this if I am to implement the larger plan...

The larger plan is to build a youth-driven and adult-coached club, much like a Boy Scout troop, that focuses on volunteer roles and uses sound and motion as tools for education and recreation. I've been asking around--poking a few names out and ECHO seems to have a nice 'ring' to it. I'm sure it might be better to have an group come together to give it a name and the usual start-up papers in order to help develop a sense of ownership to the group. However, it is hard enough to get anyone outside of primary school to show interest in many things--especially if they are not getting any sort of remission. Having a name and draft papers already in place will probably make things a bit easier to get a start-up group together. So I am building the name and papers after bouncing ideas of individuals on the street and offices.

People here tend to enjoy acronyms and given the nature of the group, I thought ECHO be good for Every Choice Helps Others. What you think? We are targeting to be a group that focuses initially on music (drums and percussion) and dance (African, Afro-Carib, and Freestyle most likely) to help spread educational messages. When we're not performing or practicing--we would hope to take messages to the streets and not only learn about the issues, but learn how to talk about them intelligently (public debate?). Part of seeking out issues will also be trying to help find and implement positive solutions to overcome local issues. This will foster service learning activities and events--anything from helping repair homes to food drives. I'd like to see an environmental twist in there as well, but if I can get a group volunteering on any issue regularly--I'll take that just the same.

So if you know anyone that is looking for a bit of philanthropy, we could use some help with instruments. lol. Actually, bless the internet--I hope to learn to build a bamboo flute, shak, and other local instruments. I am searching for people here that could teach such things, but either they want too much $ to show others how to craft such things or in most areas the cultural knowledge has become forgotten already.

Saturday, Kay (one of the kid's mom and one of few community activists) and I took a group of kids up to the village of Rose Hall. The Rose Hall Cultural and Development Organization was putting on a Heritage and Culture Festival as part of the larger Vincy Homecoming/30 yrs independence nationwide series of activities. The organization's VP is the one who has been mentoring our young drummers and asked if we would be willing to perform at the festival. So with about 1 month of drumming and 1 week to practice a folk song he gave us--we went to find adventure.

Of course, West Indies time kicked in....the van to pick us up did so about 1hr 45 min after we were asked to be ready to go. Good thing we had the drums to keep the kids occupied. The event started an 1-1.5 hours late too.

The kids had fun--running amok watching the different groups perform. There was a donkey race, poetry, hand drumming, boom (stick) drumming, steel pan drumming, various types of dances, and a couple live band shows. There was a large party, called a 'blacko' afterwards--but we didn't stay for that and got the kids home. It was fun trying to find our missing van driver also--got back over an hour after the permission slips said we would be back. Fortunately, I haven't been reamed by any parents yet.

Of course, I would have taken lots of pictures, but I'm having issues with my camera battery still. mur. I did see someone I know taking many shots and he said I could get a set copy--now I just have to track that guy down again and get them...

I should mention that next time, I don't think we'll be doing a song. I kept telling the kids to slow down the speed of their singing. Of course on stage the flew through it super fast. Let's just say the song should go 5 mph, in practice they when 10-15mph and on stage they went 40 mph. It was over in a matter of seconds. Of course it might have been a saving grace that a drunken Rasta managed to get up on the stage and dance to the kids singing. This led to not only the crowds laughter, but the kids were laughing too. One of them nearly fell over laughing and was unable to recover himself--just kept laughing. Those that could stop were not able to get back into sync with each other. Yet I think it was a good thing--the kids performance might not be remembered for going super fast, but being interrupted by a drunk. I don't mind the kids had such an experience. I'm sure for most of them it was their first time on stage and there was lots of people (a few hundred at least). That coupled with only a week to practice the song we received when we've only been practicing drumming skills...yeah... It was a learning experience.

Isn't this hat ridiculous? lol...thanks Dave. I'm wearing it regularly now and it is nice to keep the sun off my pasty melon head--but a few of the locals are calling me cowboy. Interesting....

---------------------------

I learned something new the other day about fishing here. They have a decent sized fish (no clue how big really, but at least the length of my arm and good girth) that they call a dolphin. Yes, it is a fish. The animal we call dolphin back home--they call a porpoise. To them there is no difference, not that it makes a big deal here in the day to day. If you didn't know the difference, read this. However, there are still people here who do not acknowledge the local food known as Black fish as actually being Pilot Whale and not a fish. (That part I've known for awhile.)

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

What's on your playlist?

2009-03-26T01:45:00.002-03:00

Music, something that everybody listens to and might agree that music is a part of life that influences what we do, how well we do it, and even who we are. Many of us surround ourselves with sound that either matches our mood or in attempts to bring ourselves into a particular mindset. At local performances, when walking down the road, while working-out, studying, or perhaps as a background during tea with a friend--we surround ourselves with sounds.

So here is a quick list of artists I've been listening to lately. Some of them are reflections of who I am at this time in my life, while others are one I simply enjoy listening to regularly. Many of them I've kept on my playlist of life and those that know me could probably figure out which ones those are.

So who's on your playlist right now?

Nightwish
Josh Groban
Heather Small - Proud (The background song of my blog from the youtube video below)
Taiko (Japanese Drumming)
Leaves Eyes
Lacuna Coil
Albannach
Anastacia
Christina Aguilera
Depeche Mode
Gypsy Kings
Simon and Garfunkel
Flogging Molly
VNV Nation
Within Temptation
Shakira
M.C. Chris
Epica
Hammerfall
Assemblage 23

Music, influencing life and influenced by life

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

Thoughts of PCV, immersion, & technology

2009-03-26T01:12:00.004-03:00

Geez....it feels like forever since I last posted a blog. According to blogger, it's been about 19 days--still feels like more than that. I read up on some of the blogs I follow (you should check them out too) and recall how one of them said that things here are so busy and are the 'new' is wearing off. She's right, so many things here are becoming normal and it while the little things are important--I may forget to mention them here.

Which jumps me to thoughts I've been having; they are more like curious musings actually. I recognize that perhaps I'm spoiled here with readily available internet both at my local community center and in my home. I can't speak for other PCVs around the world, but I'm fairly sure there are many of them that do not have consistent access to the internet--some perhaps not even computers. Moreover, I think back 10 or 20 years or so when computers and the internet were not the great linkage holding so many of us together.

While I can only speak for myself, I'm sure there are many other PCVs out there spending hours in front of the computer. Sure some of it is blogging and bouncing around social networkings sites, checking emails, and digging up the latest research to help prepare us for the next day's work. On one hand, I'm grateful for the internet and the time I spend on my computer. Without it, I probably would have had a much harder time learning about remedial reading coaching skills, drum lessons, various sporting rules & activities, easy-to-use business templates, and a host of other useful ventures. Yet, I wonder what is the cost of spending so much time on the computer. One principal of business economics is that of opportunity cost--everything we do is made from a choice. By pursuing one option we give up another, even if we are unaware of what that option might have been.

Sometimes I wonder if I would be spending more nights on 'the block' or in the domino sheds at the local shops or perhaps wandering down the the bayside. Sure, I do a great many things in my community--everyone in my village will attest to that. Yet as I wander down the road coming home from meetings and lessons, I still feel the outsider even though so many have done so much to bring me into the fold. I'm curious to know how I'd feel or what I'd do if I was completely disconnected from the computer. Of course, the quasi-technophile I am would experience a withdrawl period. However, Would I be forging closer bonds and ties with individuals in my community? Would I be developing those relationships and discovering things (good or bad) about my community, the place, people, and their needs that go by unspoken as I sit in my home typing away on this very blog.

Perhaps still would have gone home and curled up with a good book instead of a video display. Everything has a cost--what would I be doing if not this? I'll probably never know as long as I have my electronic umbilical cord. Often my thoughts stray to wonder if their is an entire cultural shift in the volunteer experience from the internet's communication revolution. Now PCVs share their photos, thoughts, stories, and very lives with world at large. People can see and hear about what we are doing at the very touch of a button. This also provides us with a tool to keep in a 'close' proximity. Or course, that makes for a fantastic people-based network for post-volunteer opportunities. Yet the mind still wanders--are PCVs with consistent internet services of today having different experiences as a volunteer than those who serve in areas without it or with volunteers who served before the internet and computers were household names?

Not that this really matters to my service here, just tangent my mind seems to drift on from time to time.

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

The little victories keep ya going.

2009-03-07T23:49:00.002-04:00

So I had a guest out recently. It was a nice refresher to have a visitor from home for a few days. I didn't really do the typical touristy thing and take time off to show her all around. Instead, I keep to my wonderfully busy schedule full of literacy and computer classes, meetings with community groups, mobilization efforts, and all sorts of other things that keep me bouncing around my village. It served a good glimpse into life as a volunteer. At least now, I'll have a friend back home that can relate to my efforts on the ground here. I can't speak fully for her experiences, but the trip overall was a bit of a double-edged outcome in my opinion.

Of course like most of the volunteers--she picked up on the initial judgments: the people are super nice; the scenery is gorgeous but has concerns over the mass of litter; the bewilderment of the educational systems; and the overwhelming difficulty trying to mobilize people here to participate in activities. I could tell from her reaction to some of my activities that she had great doubt over the role, duties, and expected results we were meant to fulfill. There even came a time when she asked me what the heck was I doing here....not to mean if I was being lax but rather my purpose as an individual with my background. It seems that nearly all the things I am doing don't fall into aspects of my life that I've had much training/experience.

For the most part--I'm working on creating a music, drama, and dance group; advising a tourism group; teaching computer skills classes; forming a volunteer literacy team and conducting lessons; strive to mobilize my community in developing a village council; plan and mobilize sporting events; fostering an environmental education program; and a host of other smaller duties. People who know me could attest that I don't have a musical bone at all, have never had any sort of theatrical experiences, am terrible at sports (I barely know anything about most sports really), and have great difficulty instructing literacy at remedial levels. I was brought here to help organizations, but most I haven't even been able to get my own host organization that requested me to come to SVG as their PCV to sit down and do a simple SWOT analysis or other sort of assessment inquiry. From what I understood, she felt that if the sorts of things that I am working on were to be the real needs of the community--then the PC should have put in a volunteer who is experienced in those fields. I don't assume to know the back-end of the PC process to know why they choose who they do for the places we go. However, I'm busting my tail usually 6-7 days a week and sometimes for long hours, doing my best for now.

Having a friend from home really crank down hard on the 'why are you here' button wasn't easy to deal with, but I'm still here fighting the good fight even after she left. I will say, it's a good feeling to be here because I'm making the choice to be here. That makes it much more rewarding at the end of the day. I'm slowly trying to rearrange what I'm doing here so that it better aligns with my skills & interests. Long road, but I'm still here--fighting that good fight.

Tonight I got a little victory, one of those moments that seem to instantly display an answer to the 'why am I here' question. I had just finished a long 2 hour village council meeting and was chatting with our newly chosen chairperson. That person informed me that he had been inquiring for nine years about the need to create a village council. With my help on the ground, we are finally getting that ball rolling after a few months of prep and early meetings. Crossing my fingers to continue and build momentum. Although everything we had achieved during that 2-hour meeting was enough to be happy for the day's work--the chairperson's remark about starting to fulfill a long ambition was today's real prize.

It's the little victories that are keeping me going.
I'll just have to wait and see how things flow.

Tomorrow is our 2nd day of Volleyball lessons & games. Maybe there will be another little nugget of victory tomorrow.

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On another note, I got to check my body weight at the office yesterday; I've dropped another 5 lbs--bringing me to 161.4 lbs from my original ~186 lbs. I eat a good amount regularly and don't eat 'garbage' foods...but I feel ok, so I'm going with it for now.

So much to do, so little time.

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

Letters + Sounds = Good Times

2009-02-22T15:18:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I've been saying that I'd put up a few more pics as of late and now it's time to get to it.

Over the past few weeks, some of the village kids I work with on literacy have been helping create a few Scrabble boards. I really wanted to support the company and buy a few, but the number of boards I would need to keep the kids from fighting over them and high cost made it prohibitive. So we got some wood scraps donated from a local wood shop. A couple hours later after I cut it up with their saws and bought some sandpaper, we got to smoothing everything out. We marked up 500 little letter tiles and are putting grids on a few game boards. We have 2 games ready to play and 3 more under way. Scrabble is a great way for the kids who need help with phonics (yeah, there are quite few) and to help others expand their vocabulary through creative letter assembly.

I'm also very excited how our lil hand drumming group is coming together. Our village has wanted to see drumming and drama come back. Sadly, as previous posts detailed--we haven't had much support to get the steel pan back up and running. It is 'on hold' for now until resources can be allocated for it. The original idea was to use hand drummers as our back-up rhythm section. However, hand drumming seems to be a more likely start-up venture. Who knows, perhaps with hand drumming success down the road, we could fund our steel pan revival.

But for now, we have been working with a person from a nearby village. He is a vibrant member of a development and cultural group who remembers well fond memories of working with a volunteer that lived in his village of Rose Hall. Working together, he has agreed that his group would become a mentor organization to help foster drumming, drama, and dance activities here in Spring Village. He is a great drummer and comes here once a week to help us out. He brings drums for us to practice on and I've managed to get the Ministry of Education to order a few for our school.

As our group is nurtured into a performing arts organization--we are hoping to reinvest into the education of our community. In order to make our group a strong reality, I need to mobilize adults in Spring--a slow, but gradual process. I find we have several people who drummed or were part of a drama group in the past. Now, I will seek to overcome the obstacles they provide as reasons not to participate. We will grow. We have the history and new potential.

Oh yeah...following up from my last post...I don't know how, but the ninja dogs we have here managed to get into the box I was keeping that goat skin until it could be picked up. Some dog is very happy, or at least was.

I've always been into drumming, but have very bad musical rhythm. Maybe I will get it this time around.
Good things to follow.

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

Honoring that goat.

2009-02-14T23:27:00.002-04:00

Became a laughable sight in the afternoon. Met a couple guys in the process of killing a goat this morning. In fact, the thing was tied up to a tree branch by its hind legs and they had cut the throat. It had stopped kicking around only moments before I got close. They were starting to remove the whole head when I got to conversation difference. Talk about new experiences.....

I asked them if they had plans for the skin and told them some of us want to make some hand drums. They said I could have it no problem. I got to collect it hanging over a tree branch when I got back from my village trek. So here I am walking around with a freshly skinned goat skin--fly central--on the end of a stick wondering what the F to do with this thing. Couple of the local guys told me to spread it out and cover the fatty side with ashes--took awhile to find those ashes. Got somebody who should be passing through tomorrow to pick it up and get prepped to make a drum head for us.

People were getting curious as to why a known vegetarian was wandering around with goat skin. Many keep trying to ask me for it--apparently making soup from the skin is rather enjoyable for them. If it wasn't for a drum effort I would have given it to them. However, I'm glad that if people here feel that an animal must die for them, the whole creature is being used somehow.

So as I started to say above, I'm getting involved with a drum group. I'm still working on getting our steel pan drums ready to play (still need proper playing sticks and stands), but getting a proper teacher is going to be hard. We were hoping to get a hand drum section to play as our rhythm section, but they might turn into a whole drum club hopefully. If I got to choose, I'd say I'm more of a hand drum fan too. ^_^ We have a great teacher who come from a nearby village and brings the drums: djembe, conga, and djun djun.

We hang out with a few local kids and learn how to play. I'm forming ideas on how we could try to learn from a group our teacher has in his own village and perhaps put on a joint performance. Since he also works with African roots dance and drama themes--we could learn that angle too and do a combination dance and drum show. I'm thinking with enough practice, we could be ready to do that in August. However, we need to get our own drums for practice and playing. If we do venture on a joint performance, I could probable find some funding sources via Peace Corps by demostrating the HIV/AIDS healthy lifestyles through our efforts. Part of the idea of a combined performance would be increase educational capacity and provide healthy lifestyles and messages through song and dance. While we'll keep our fingers crossed on the funding, I won't hold my breath--which is why I asked about the goat skin in the first place. : )

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

Hanging along

2009-02-09T22:32:00.004-04:00

Plans are underway for my visitor, Amy. ^_^ We have a rough touristy schedule mapped out. Had to drop a few things--like the Tobago Cays trip--because I will still be doing my regular 'work' duties to the fullest. She'll get a taste of being a volunteer instead of just relaxing the whole time--hey, it was her idea.

Talked with another volunteer earlier. Heard something that made sense--kind of a proverbial kick in my pants. Of course, I had already known and understood what was said, but sometimes just hearing it from somebody else makes all the difference. The conversation went something like this:

You know Shawn, the people here probably wouldn't have been anything different if we were not here. They would probably keep doing the same thing they are doing right now. So if try to do some 200 activities here during my 2 years and only 20 of them actually work out--that's still more than what would have probably happened without us here. Sure, by American standards that is a fairly low percent return and probably considered failing. But here, it's a success. That's what keeps us doing it.

Sometimes you come across music that really sets a moment--not necessarily how you feel, but just something that captures a fragment in time. The last one is a song I listen to regularly. It is one of those reality check songs--such a cheezy 80s sound, but holds a message that is still resonant today.

Josh Groban - You are Loved (Don't Give Up)
(He is amazing!)

Nightwish - The Islander
(Nightwish is actually one of my top bands--but Marco doesn't usually sing this much.)

Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning
(so cheezy....so true)

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

This is only a test...BBEEEEEPPPPP

2009-02-09T00:38:00.002-04:00

Ever recall listening to the radio or watching t.v. and hearing that little broadcast test warning...."This is only a test..."? After those words you'd hear a screeching beep sound for several seconds?

Life here right now is stuck in that annoying screeching beep. I've been busting my tail here in my village. By now, I'd say that just about everybody knows about me if they haven't at least met me. I've spent countless hours hanging out talking to people--listening intently to their thoughts, their dreams, and their visions of the community past and future. I work in the fields, help bury the dead, and dance with them on the beach. I help their children learn to read, write up learning resources, seek out government networking opportunities, participate in local organizations, and try to fit into anything a 'Spring Man' might normally do within reason.

This has left me rather busy lately, but I don't mind. I've told many that I like to burn the midnight oil and grind myself to the edge--I've been like that at home and it usually got me the best results. Working long hours for good reasons seems perfectly natural to me and passes time nicely. However, what happens to the psyche when so much work and effort goes in and very little comes out?

Over and over, I have been trying to find different ways to address the concerns and wants of my villagers. Over and over I give them options and ways to work with them to overcome obstacles. I meet with community and youth department 'mobilizers', who are to help me in this quest. When the smoke clears from all the gears that have been overworking, what remains? I am there, typically sitting around waiting for people to show....that never do. I try so hard to get resources, people from outside willing to listen to them and help them with their ideas. They ask for structure and I strive to help put it in place. They ask to revive past clubs and I show them how it is possible. What's missing? They are. I can work to make it possible, but I can't do everything for them--nor should I.

Today I think I lost it for a moment outside our local rum shop. I'm not sure if it would qualify as 'blowing up', since I don't really lose my center. Yet, I made sure to get my point across--disappointed, ashamed, and willing to toss in the towel if things don't change. I was sore about an election that was supposed to happen last night for out community center. The management committee had ended its 2-year term and needed have new people put in place. I had spent a good deal of time drumming up support for this election, talking about it on the block, posters, and through group meetings. It seemed that turn-out would be nice....I didn't expect huge numbers, but a decent crowd would be nice. The meeting was set for 5pm, it wasn't until after 6-630 that we amassed a whopping 7 people. The community center is heart of the village and the villagers couldn't be bothered come out to support it, very sad. This is just one example of what happens here over and over and over. Eventually it wears on you. It doesn't help that the very family I lived with--and a few others here--seem to enjoy listening to all the work I try to do and immediately tell me, "It's ok Shawn. We really appreciate what you're trying to do. And once you leave people will say there was a guy named Shawn here--he was really nice. Although nothing else will stick, it never does. That's just how people are here."

I am supposed to have a community partner. In fact, I just finished filling out a trimester report for the Peace Corps. There were several questions regarding our community partners, what we've done and things of that nature. I was honest--I have a partner on paper, but could probably count on the number times I've met with him on my hands. Simply put, he doesn't seem interested in working with me--he just wants me to work for him at our library/internet cafe and gain local prestige of working with the Peace Corps. The report asked about activities we've been doing, but asked in such a way that we had to list them as they pertain to our objectives list. I left mine blank; I really expect to get a call on that one very soon. However, of everything I've been doing--I don't think any of it could qualify on those objective lists. I haven't even been able to get people together regularly enough to do anything NGO related.

So, we have a Peace Corps IST (in-service training) coming up this week. I plan on talking to my boss then, if not sooner, about my recent disappointments. There must be some changes made. He congratulated me during a recent visit for striving without a community partner and not giving up yet--but I'm rather close and maybe he didn't know how close. I need to review what I'm doing, what I can drop, and what I can change. Most of my activities are not things I would put on my 'like-to-do' list. Yet since I'm here for service to others, what I want isn't as important in the short-term time we are here. However, since that isn't working out--I will give this a little bit longer until I decide to shift things around and start doing things I want to do. Recycling/environmental work. Drumming culture activities. See if I can get some work within the ministry level. If some of those things don't work out and the community still isn't responding, then I would need to consider if this is really what I should be doing. The people and place is great; but I don't want a 2 year vacation/party and I don't want to feel ignored (or worse--used) for 2 years either.

Something is missing from this equation and I need to figure it out.
Soon that annoying test beep will stop and maybe I'll see things clearly at that time.

----------------------------------------------------

On a completely different note, I was looking for recipes for ripe plantains and came across http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes.html . It has some great lil treasures and I recommend it for those who want some creative fun in their diet. I made oatmeal & plantain bars the other day. Didn't have any apple juice and substituted pear juice; it was tasty.

I broke down and bought a pressure cooker earlier this month with our allowance. It has already been worth it--cooking chick peas in under an hour, although they stink. ^_^ Goes great with green peas, carrot, tomato, onions, garlic, and curry.

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

Busy lil bee

2009-02-03T00:37:00.008-04:00

Hum....it's after midnight and I'm getting up nice and early--can we say dawn?
Not something I like to do, but I've got plenty of things to do lately.
Maybe I shouldn't be staying up so late, but I've got a few addictions as of late--namely Yahoo! Chat and Skype. Friends and family know they can find me online in the evenings and with them being 2 hours behind me--I tend to be up rather late these days.

Well, that and I tend to think more clearly in the evenings. I seem to brainstorm the best late at night. Spring is almost like a ghost town in the late night and a great time for a walk. Best of both worlds, just listening to the night sounds and feeling the cool sea winds rolling into the mountain valleys while the mind is reeling around 60mph.

Gives me time to think about all the little things I've gotten myself involved with here within the past few months. I never really put them all together until today.

In no particular order of time/energy spent:

Working (some lobbying in village) to get a community council together. Ideally it would have representation from each church, business, CBO, and other organizations here in Spring as well as be attended by interested individuals. We would be mapping out a community calendar, networking community resources, and striving to bring the community closer through a series of activities with team planning

Assisting with the local tourism group--Cumberland Valley Eco-tourism Organization (although I reserve my opinions on the "eco" part of it). It is comprised of people from Spring (where am) and our neighbors--Gordon Yard and Coulls Hill. Once the construction finishes down by our beach, the tourism group will manage the site and promote the business opportunities. Crash course in business anyone? Guess that business major is about to kick in.

After school lessons for primary and secondary school kids. Not as smooth as I'd like, but a valuable service in my opinion. Now I just have to start on the sustainable part.

Maintaining the internet cafe--of which I'm also building an intrawebsite to host easy access to plenty of 'acquired' e-books....everything from automotive to physics to drawing to encyclopedias/maps (which we don't even have a full set in physical book form) in order to help supplement the physical library. It will also have e-training for the self-motivated with links to the internet on where to learn useful things. Right now, I am the only one working on this and it is taking up many hours of my time.

Investigating new opportunities for cricket competitions and community volleyball games.

Reviving the drama club activities. It hasn't been easy trying to get some of the old group members back around, but I'm working on it. Got supposedly a full support decree from the Ministry of Culture. They offered to hold training workshops-a great resource since I know NOTHING about theater.

Trying to get our community center looking nice and set up with materials to run smoothly on a regular basis---things like toilet paper would be nice. There is a managing committee for the building and I'm trying to work closely with them.

Creating 'scrabble-like' board games as a teachng tool for the language arts/reading program. I got the wood donated and used a saw to cut up the boards and tiles. Making about 5 games worth.

Keeping the momentum of our steel pan revival alive. I've been getting asked what was going on with them since I haven't had them out yet. I' still waiting for a kind donation fomr Liz Mannette's Steel Pan Fashion of Trinidad and Tobago. She is sending the proper rubber to create our pan sticks. Still working on getting the stands to hold them up welded together.

Getting a hand drumming (congo, djembe, and other African-like drums) together. I hope this will serve to be the backbone for our steel pan. I'm a big fan of hand drum and we've got a great teacher willing to help out for the love of drumming.

Chewing on the recycling ideas. Got an email request from my APCD (boss) to investigate the potential for certain types of recycling. Not finding many positive results yet, but I'm not giving up yet either.

Reading through an environmental education book that is in progress. I'd like to help connect environmental education into the classrooms. That is going to require some heavy networking and lobbying with the Ministry of Education, Teacher's Union, and many other stakeholders. Got a Peace Corps/Community Development meeting in the morning. You can be that will be a big topic for me on the agenda

Still haven't gotten my lil home garden started yet....that is big on the to-do list, but always gets left behind for some reason. I'm just not home much during the daylight hours I suppose.

Get geared up to start teaching computer classes. I had surveys out and it seems that I'll be starting with a weekly intro to computers course. Depending on who and when, I'll also be doing a series on the ICDL and office software. Eventually I also plan to hold workshops for adults focusing on parent/child computer activity, how to be responsible, and basic maintenance.

Bi-weekly banana shipments. Getting rewarded with bananas and oranges is a wonderful thing.

Keep trying to forge new resources and cement other ones through what I call handshake meetings at various government and industry departments and ministries every week when I go into town.

I still help with the North Leeward Sports Association, but they really haven't had much going on lately.

Study for personal knowledge--A+ cert, poli-sci and math stuff for grad school, languages--Italian and Spanish. Sadly, I haven't really gotten to anything on this section yet.

I could be missing a few things in there still, but you get the idea. ^_^

Yeah, the hardest part of the week is usually trying to find time to do laundry.
So it seems I am being a busy lil bee and it's time for a nap.

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

Death of a smiley & News from SVG

2009-01-25T11:10:00.002-04:00

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:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

2009-01-22T10:39:00.002-04:00

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'

2009-01-19T12:37:00.004-04:00

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.

-----

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.

-----

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'.

-----

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.

2009-01-12T11:53:00.002-04:00

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

------

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.

-------

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.

---------

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

2009-01-03T13:47:00.002-04:00

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

My 1st Vincy Christmas

2008-12-27T16:00:00.002-04:00

The holidays are upon us!
Christmas has come and gone; Boxing Day was yesterday; and New Year's awaits...

I checked with some people in my community to see if there would be any holiday activities in my village. Things here are rather low-key and quiet (more than normal) in my village for Christmas, so that left me with time to spent on my own for the holiday. There was a party--also called a fete or bashment--at our community center late last night for Boxing night.

Now I've grown up around the Christmas holiday, but I didn't know what Boxing Day was. Sure, I'd seen it on calendars, but whenever I ask someone (even here) I didn't get an informed reply. Turning the to power of the internet and wikipedia--Boxing Day is supposedly a day of charity when gifts are given to those less fortunate. Some still hold that tradition but for many countries, it has become a bank and consumer shopping holiday. The mass retail sales are akin to the U.S. Black Friday/day after Thanksgiving sales. Snopes.com also disproved that is not the holiday to clear the post-Christmas boxes from the house.
Just figured in case anybody else was wondering too.....

We all met on Christmas Eve Day--although we didn't have a white holiday, we did have plenty of rain on and off the past few days.

So Christmas started with me collecting some goodies to bring up to Stephs and contribute to the food--I gathered coconuts from the tree in my backyard and sorrel flowers from the bush in the front and grabbed the breadfruit I was saving. At sun-up I went to the farm and harvested some dasheen leaves to make callalou. We had planted to make our feast with a Vincy theme. Took a van up to Chateau--no more than a 30 min ride--and met with Scott, Steph, and Laird.

The boys decided to go for a hike and wanted to go to Trinity Falls, an estimated 5 hour or so trip...but with all the on and off rain decided to hike Dark View Falls which was much closer. I would have taken pics of this part, but with all the rain decided against it. This was my 3rd time to Dark View and each time I find something new to explore. This time we learned of a mystery 3rd waterfall up in the hills and made it our mission to find it. After climbing around in mountain bush, vine, steep slope, and at time no trail at all--we finally found the location. Sadly, I was the only one to reach the 3rd falls since part of way up involved trusting some vines and climbing up--perhaps I should have been thinking a bit more of safety first... Next time I'm bringing some rope (yeah...I packed rope when I came here) and will help the others climb up.

We spent some time swimming in the 2nd falls and regressed to a elementary kids state--making a somewhat smooth rock into a water slide. Standing at the base of the falls and looking at our surroundings, I'd say that we all were capturing the moment--it was gorgeous. Our little expedition ended with a grapefruit harvest. Once before Scott, Steph, and I used a big stick to knock down some grapefruit; this time Laird and I went into the tree with a big stick and really whacked down some citrus goodness. We must have collected some 20-25 grapefruit at least. Laird stayed for a bit after the hike, but eventually went back home.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out. We roasted the breadfruit for the next day. Steph made an awesome pizza with eggplant, onion, and tomato. It was the firs pizza I've had since coming here. Yeah, pizza is available--but at EC$8 a slice in town, I haven't decided to go for that treat yet.

The next day was the day of food goodness. Before the food, we took a traditional swim in the sea and the water was great despite the heavy waves. For breakfast, we had oatmeal and banana fritters (courtesy of Steph) and some really good juice--a blend of orange, grapefruit, and coconut water. Around mid-day we walked to our APCD's (in-country boss) house, since he lives in Chateau, and sang to him 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'.

Later on we made our dinner feast and all pitched in to make it taste even better. The deserts, ginger beer, and black wine were gifts from Steph's home stay parents. Sweet chunks with dumplings, callalou, steamed banana & plantains, fried breadfruit, mashed wild yam with garlic, onions, and honey, yellow cake, black cake, black wine, ginger beer, and sorrel drink all came together to form a mighty feast. We ate very well and had plenty of leftovers. We learned that blending the 3 of these holiday drinks was very tasty--bringing out our inner bartender. ^_^

Of course it wouldn't be Christmas holiday without one of the many over-played movies of the season. Steph had a copy of A Christmas Movie--which was selected over my copy of The Muppet Christmas Carol; rest assured that I will still watch the muppets later. lol. We played Uno, having forgotten how much fun that game can be. By then it had gotten really late and closed an awesome day.

The next day it was a leftovers day and a few games of Boggle. If you have never played that one--I highly recommend it. We had thought the vans would be running on Boxing Day; we were wrong. So I began my nice long walk back to Spring Village--Scott living much farther opted to stay another night till the vans ran on their normal schedule. No worries, I got picked up part way by someone I knew and dropped off at home. I was surprised though at how many people tried to buy my cutlass from me...but I enjoyed their reaction when I told them that I actually used it regularly and wasn't interested in selling.

Later last night, one of the local guys XC (who I also do banana harvest with) was putting on a party at our community center. It was the normal....loud music and drinks. They started with a free party for the younger kids that ended around 10pm. After shuffling everybody out, we had a party for the adults that went till 3am. I finally got to bed around 5, but it was worth it.

Hope your holiday went well too.
Stay happy and well
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

Here's a few pics to wrap up:
Find the whole album on Facebook at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5866&l=d8dc2&id=1627482248

freshly roasted breadfruit

starting to make the sorrel drink

our feast

YUM!

Steph with Ginger Beer, Me with Sorrel Drink, and Scott with Black Wine

XC and me dancing at the party--this would be a better pic if it was focused. >.<

Back home...

2008-12-22T21:31:00.002-04:00

It hasn't been very long in the scheme of things since we left home.
I can handle homesickess very well, but of course I do miss a few things.

I was going over some pics I was transferring from the last blog and stumbled upon one I took with my phone a few months back with my cat. Ok--so he isn't really my cat, he is my parents cat, but I really dig that fat, purring ball of hair. He's really old (17-18yrs now?) and although he seems healthy when I left I do worry that he won't last my whole time of service.

I hear that it has gotten really cold and snowy back home in Chicagoland. I hear reports from some that it drops to -4F and that a recent snowstorm was to dump 8" of snow. While I don't miss digging my car out of a frozen wonderland, I do miss the chilly reminder of the seasonal change. Swatting a mosquito or wearing a tank top outside in December plays with my head. Perhaps many of you are thinking I'd be a fool to want to be back home right about now, but no worries. I'm content here and if you ever want to get away for a bit you know where to find me. ^_^

Tofu...yummy block of vegetarian goodness. It is available here, but its rather expensive on our budget. However, I have found a delicious alternative--chunks.

There are many more things I could list, but this looks good for the moment.

Moment, funny word. How long really is that; is it the same thing as now? Could it be that by the time you finish saying the word that it has already become the past?
Most of the time when I ask someone how they are doing, they reply good for now or good for the moment and never just good. Perhaps things here are viewed simply in the moment, the moment being all there is at that instance in time and not as a piece of the greater duration.
lol....enough of that for the moment.

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

Lights On, Lights Off

2008-12-22T17:55:00.002-04:00

Lighting up can mean different things, depending on where you are and who you ask. Here is St Vincent and the Grenadines around this time of the year it means something special. Now is the time of the year during the pre-Christmas festivities of 9 mornings when the villages decorate an area of their village with holiday lights, make-shift decorations, and other bright and shiny objects.

Note--unlike back home where many people decorate the outside of individual homes, the vast majority of the people here decorate the central village area rather than individual homes.

In the early morning hours, people celebrate the part that is 9 mornings, but in the evenings the villages are light up with their holiday spirit. The people have more song and dance and some even stay up all night until after the next morning's festivities (typically between 4-7am). Things slow down a near complete stop here during the holidays, so I suppose that is how so people can afford the time to party as they do. Although I should say that many people still get up for jobs too....it isn't all fun and games.

The big stuff for 9 mornings happens in Kingstown and I haven't been a part of any of that yet. This is in part because I have my own difficulties getting up that early after taking part in the evening activities of my village. I have been quite active in helping with my community lighting up. We decorated last week a section of my village along a stretch of road next to a couple shops, an abandoned house, and an old police/agricultural station. We have a theme--expanding the joys of Christmas--but I don't think we represented it very well. Seems kinda hard to make that theme become a visual reality, but perhaps that my lack of artistic insight talking. The theme, along with other factors, was to compromise the basis for a village-to-village competition for the lighting up. The lighting up and judging will continue all the way to Christmas--so I don't know any of the competition result yet.

Our village has been sponsoring some evening sports, 5-ah-side football (soccer) and netball. After the games, there has been nightly on the street singing by village musicians and crowd-goers. A couple of the nights, I got to play "Santa". No I didn't dress the part, but I did have a bag of toys purchased by a local group to give kids after they went up to sing.

Some of the people in my village have been asking if the steel pan drums some of the kids and I have been cleaning will be ready to play for our evening activities. Well I got the drums finished and carried them up to our decorated area; I even collected some bamboo and made little stands for the drums to hang on. However, not only are the drums not yet in proper tune but we also haven't perfected making the sticks for the steel pan. We have been using sticks and rubber from a car tire tube. The kids were ecstatic and went next to crazy trying to play the steel pan. 7 drums among many kids doesn't go too far and some crowd control was needed. ^_^ It didnt last too long though, since 1) it wasn't really music but more like a cacophony and 2) one of the old village pan players took the sticks away and turned the drums over. He said they shouldn't play the until we make proper sticks, that they would only mash up the drums playing as they were. I'm sure the kids didn't like hearing, but just adds to the list of things to do.

Had an interesting experience with our lighting up...
Was trying to figure out Saturday night why we didn't have the lights on well after it got dark. Found out that although we were using electric current from the old police/agro station, we never got official permission to use it. The higher authorities found out and said that we were not allowed to use it. Somebody had negotiated permission to use it at the last minute to keep power until our juding (this past Friday). Seems this little fact slipped by all of us on the lighting up committee from one individual's dropping the ball. Lots of people were disappointed that there were no lighting up activities on a Saturday night. Therefore, after banana farming/shipment Sunday morning, I joined a couple guys to do some rewiring and redirected all of the decorations to pull current from a nearby shop...lights on to off to on again. ^_^

This little incident didn't impact our village too much and the festivities are continuing. However due to who it was that dropped the ball and how they handled it the situation, there is a growing conflict between myself and my attached organization. This is just fuel on that fire.

Either way, I'm glad everything is all bright again. ^_^
Here's some pics of putting together the lights. I wanted to have more pics from our activities, but I didn't have my camera on me at the time.

I know it's out of focus...most people here have not used a digital camera before..

I was collecting the bamboo to cut for the steel pan support

These didn't come out as clear as I had hoped, but you get the idea. ^_^
We still have lots of work to do on these drums.

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

Something FUN, but not so Peace Corps related and Fridays in town.

2008-12-19T18:32:00.003-04:00

Got a link to a movie trailer my brother saw. Since he knows what a fanboy I can be, he sent it to me. Of course, I loved it and feel the need to pass it along.

Enjoy.

If you have problems seeing this trailer, hit the link below:
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/fanboys/trailer

Well, might as well throw in something about life here...Fridays in Kingstown (capital and main shopping area) are normally busy. End of the month Fridays are even busier since most people get paid then. Someone said that today was the pay day since next Friday is Christmas holiday time (the 26th? not last time I checked, but probably here...sure why not). Add in that this is the last Friday before Christmas for holiday shopping = very very very busy day in town and long lines at the grocery store as I have never seen them before.

mur. sometimes the holidays are great but their are ups and downs to everything.

Haven't really had a chance to go and see the 9 morning celebrations in town. Some of the festivities start as early as 4am and I haven't found any transportation (or will to get up) that early yet. I could stay over with one of the volunteers in town, but my community has enjoyed me being in the village in the evenings. Last night I held the gift bag for kids that sang holiday songs at our little holiday light decorated area of the village.

Stay happy and well.
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi (fanboy signature??? ^_^)
~Shawn

Soufriere Hike

2008-12-16T13:25:00.003-04:00

I've heard that others like to read about the adventures we have. Now I believe that everything we do is an adventure of some scale...some more epic than others. This one is certainly epic and was a great experience. I'll be happy to have this adventure again with anyone who visits and is up to the challenge......

The past Friday the 12th, about a 10 Peace Corps volunteers, 2 Canadian volunteers with a visiting friend, a British volunteer from the Richmond Vale Academy group here on SVG, and 2 Vincentians from Georgetown embarked on a the quest to cross from the windward side of Georgetown to the leeward side of Richmond via the hiking trail of the volcano--La Soufriere (somewhere around 4000' above sea level). Sadly, our Taiwanese volunteer friends really wanted to come but couldn't get the spare time to join us. So if any of you are reading this--I'll hike it again with you when we have a free day. ^_^

For those that have seen maps of St. Vincent--there is no road yet that spans the north end of the island to connect the windward and leeward highways. The only way I know of without crossing directly through mountain bush or boating around is the Soufriere trail. Scott and I looked a the map afterward and we estimate our trip to probably have been 7-8 miles, but it was full of ups, downs, and twists.

Some of us spent the night over in Georgetown with fellow volunteers to make it an easier morning start and let me say that we had a delicious dinner. Steve made a great spaghetti sauce with chunks (veg friendly meat alternative) and Scott's garlic bread turned out very tasty--kudos them both! ^_^

The group met early and we got a kick-off by 8am, right on schedule. It was a bit of a walk from Georgetown to where the side road towards the trail began. We paid a couple dollars each (about $30 total) to pile in the back of a dump truck and hitch a +/- 3 mile ride up the side road through banana fields to the trail head. It was well worth the cost and saved us lots of time we needed later on.

The trail head had a nice info sign and we were surrounded with greenery. The trail was wide and well-maintained. Most of the time we had canopy cover with breaks in the foliage providing wonderful views of the surrounding forest. Bamboo grew in thick patches and its shed bark littered the floor with other leaves. The sounds of the birds and breeze danced in the air and we hiked along in a great mood. Our group split up into three groups on and off based on hiking speed preferences. We were very good (IMO) about making sure nobody was left behind or felt like 'dead weight' as well as taking occasional breaks. Overall the whole place was alive and beautiful and most of us were trying to capture as much as we could with cameras and mind's eye moments.

After awhile, the forest began to thin a bit as we could see misty fog blanketing the valleys and treetops. It gave everything a grey serenity. I really enjoyed the brightness of the day without the harsh direct sunlight. The grey mists also helped bring out the green color of the forest and the flowers. We came across what looked like old river beds of flattened rock where we had snack time and photo ops. By the way, plantain chips are mighty tasty. I also became a small hero offering some dates I picked up for the trip. While some were hanging out, I took a moment to follow some of the rock bed off the main trail and found some cool alcoves. It didn't really go anywhere that I could tell, but looked still looked neat.

The trail lead onward until the trees lessened and we were surrounded in mist and mountain shrubs. We followed a small gorge up he the side of the volcano. Here the winds were really picking up and the mists became light rains for moments at a time. From the twists in the path and mist, we had no clue how far from the top we were until we were nearly at the crater itself! At the top many chose to put on some warmer clothes with no shelter from the winds. We had lunch up there, again my jar of peanut butter (a travel food must!) came to the rescue. ^_^ Other groups coming up to the crater joined the area and there was an overall good atmosphere. It was perhaps here that most of us felt we conquered our trip. It didn't matter we still had a long way down (really long...), we were at the top of the Vincy world.

Inside the crater, there was a small pond to the side and a large rock dome covered with plants in the center. Clouds rose from the crater and joined the clouds that passed us by. From time to time, the clouds broke and we could see a gorgeous skyline surrounding the crater. In the distance we could see the north leeward town of Chateau and ship on the sea. I had heard of something called Soufriere grass, a specific variety that only grows up near the crater. Tradition is to pick a piece to carry back, but I realized than none of us knew what this grass looked like and all the grasses looked like the normal grasses elsewhere. lol--better luck next time.

We walked along the crater rim looking for the trail down the leeward side. Some of us went ahead early so we could climb down into the crater itself. On one side of the crater, people had secured large iron spikes into the rock and wrapped large rope to help descent into the crater below. It was a long way down and the small rocks were sharp, causing more than a few scratches to us on the way down. Inside the crater, everything seemed so massive and we so small. Sulfur permeated the air and we walked towards the rock dome. Of course, we had to have our victory poses and I went up the dome a bit to shot the smoking rocks. It was just after this that I had my only real downer of the whole trip. Because the sulfur smoke kept moisture on my camera, I kept wiping it with a cleaning cloth from my camera pouch. I forgot to zip the pouch shut and inadvertently lost my 3 extra camera specific batteries down into the crags of the boulders. Totally bogus. That oops means that I won't be able to take the barrage of photos I usually do until I get more batteries. Sadly, I wasn't able to shot nearly as much of the leeward trek down as I wanted to since the only battery I had left (in the camera) had died. Boo. >.<

(hint hint, if anyone feels like sending me a holiday gift, this link will take you the kind I lost and can be found at many different retailers....I wouldn't normally ask, but it sucks losing the batteries.)

Climbing up and down the crater wall took a bit out of us and we enjoyed another brief break before finding the trail down. Thankfully, Mark--the British volunteer--had done this hike before, but only from the leeward side. He identified which path we needed to take down, which certainly helped because some of us had already gone another path. It took a little bit to regroup, but had we all followed the wrong trail (there were no signs) who knows how far out of our way we might have gone.

The trail down leeward was a stark contrast to the windward trail. Most noticeably, whereas the windward trail was well-kept the leeward trail was at best a bush trail. The majority of it until under the tree cover was overgrown and the trail could barely be seen. At times, the trail thinned at points so much we had to grab patches of vines to help walk without slipping down the muddy slope. Rain came more often and took mini breaks under the tree cover. I got my first sting from a Jack Spaniard when walking through the bush. For those that don't know what a Jack Spaniard is....think big wasp. It got me on the inner side, last knuckle of my ring finger and it stung like heck! Good boy scout I was, I brought my travel 1st aid kit and a quick swab with a stick kit left it nice and clean.

The leeward trail wound down and back and forth much more than the windward side and across slopes descending into the Richmond valley. At some point, the trail merged along a 'dry', deep riverbed walking on black sand and tall earthen banks. We could see root structures and it the whole thing seemed out of some sort of Indiana Jones film, just waiting for some booby trap to spring. There was even a point in which we encountered a bat cave area--gladly we took a higher trail so that we didn't have to cross their turf and cause them any trouble. The riverbed eventually widened and opened up to the sunlight taking us into the final stretch of the trail. Oddly, there were nearly no signs as we exited the trail and it dumped us directly onto the beach with the sea in front of us.

It was about 1630-ish by this time. We were told the hike would take +/- 8 hours to complete, so that wasn't too bad given our breaks. Although we finished the main hike, we still needed to walk a bit down the beach towards the road. We had to cross a river and a couple streams and we it deeper in spots than we were expecting. I got my cell phone well (it was in my pocket) and the screen has gone screwy. I've left it open to dry since then and hopefully it will be alright. Good thing I brought my unlocked phone from home and the sim card works fine with it here. Once we got to the main road, we were supposed to walk another 45 min or so down to Chateau where some could catch van ride home. However by this time we were concerned that we wouldn't have made it back in time for the vans and a couple of us were extremely beat from the hike--it would have taken much longer than 45 min. Fortunately, I have the phone numbers of a few van drivers and arranged one of them to drive up to where we were for a rescue. ^_^

Great day...long day
Glad I did this one in a large group. It was lots of fun with only a few poopy exceptions.
Now, I'll be better prepped for the next trip. ^_^

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

Drum roll please.......
AND NOW---Pictures!
^_^
These are just some selected pics, but you can find nearly all of them in my public photo albums:
Album 1 of 3
Album 2 of 3
Album 3 of 3

Oops, forgot to hit on Rule #1

2008-12-16T12:32:00.002-04:00

Last night I posted again and meant to cover what I call Rule #1. Seems I got wrapped up in talking about almost everything else and forgot to mention this part.

For me, Rule #1 isn't some formal policy from the Peace Corps or even a neighborly suggestion from community members. It's a personal code that I am trying to follow, just guidelines that I try to keep in order to make my time in the Peace Corps not only enjoyable, but effective. I'm sure that many people create little rules for themselves that govern their daily behavior. Some of them stem from religion, personal goals, professional values, etc. So any one individual's rules are likely to differ and I wouldn't expect my rules to be the right choice for others--just me.

So what is Rule #1?
--Stay on target.
Simple and straightforward. More or less--it means to me that I joined the Peace Corps for reasons and I'm here to do a job. Sure that job also comes along with the general adventures of life, which can pull a person in any direction at any time. So whenever I encounter choices to make here, whether it is project planning and activities or simply how I converse with the people here, I run everything through my rule filter first.

I'll admit that I don't always know what I should be doing with my time here or if what I am doing is perhaps the best usage of my time/skills--but I think that is normal for most of us. So the target I'm trying to stick to isn't always very clear. Perhaps I could describe it as more of a 'gut' thing. Yeah--not very logical for those that know me. However, I do know that I am going to keep trying to do my best and working one day at a time.

Why would I talk about this? Well, normally I wouldn't--but I feel like venting it as an outlet for not desiring to fully disclose to some of my community members how I feel/rational. This also extends into Rule #2. Yeah, I have quite a few--I'm a bit of a list maker. ^_^

Rule #2 is simply put--no drama, but I often allow this to be directly interpreted as 'no relationships'. No, I don't mean the generic meaning of relationship formed by meeting and working with others. I mean the closer relationships like courting, dating, intimacy, etc. I have nothing against other volunteers who choose to follow such decisions. Instead, I would offer support of their choices and wish them the best. Yeah, I understand that people say that 2 years is a long time and what happens happens. Although people back home should know I can be awfully stubborn when I get a particular mindset and goal in mind--I'm driven.

I'll agree that a relationship with a Vincentian is a great way to integrate within the community and gain insight perhaps unattainable from an outsider's perspective. Yet, I really think that any relationships formed here would be a direct violation of Rule #1. I'd lose sight of what I'm focusing on because I am busy thinking about the relationship. Of course there are other reasons as well--such as social acceptability here and the potential for unwanted drama should a relation go sour. The latter is certainly a big concern I am not willing to take from dating a local or volunteer. For me, it is better to 'walk alone' during my service and ensure that I don't do something that could make my time here unpleasant or worse--cause me to desire an early termination.

So back to why I'm writing this now that Rules 1+2 are known. During the past week, I've been engaging with people in my area no more or less than I usually do--but there are a series of questions that are becoming more frequent. Most of the questions center around my 'involvement' with a local girl. They want to know if I 'with anyone here' and after I tell them no, they want to know who I'm interested in and when I plan to get local girl. These sorts of questions have popped up from time to time since I've been here--but I can't believe how often I hear it lately. Daily is a minimum. It was usually from just guys at first, but nowadays it comes anyone--guy, girl, anyone I'm sitting around at the time or working with.

Sadly, even if I was to go and tell them I have someone back home as a first line defense--it doesn't make any difference. Nearly anyone I'm talking to about it doesn't seem to think that there would be any problems with dual (or more) relations and find it to be common and even acceptable. I tried to go neutral in my responses initially, but that got me plenty of funny looks. Lately, I tend to reply with the 'not ready yet' and 'having multiple relations is disrespectful'. That seems to go over better, for now. They reference how many volunteers have found great relationships here and many have married after service. Again, those that know me better would know what some of my personal views on marriage are and that is a conversation that I'm not willing to have with most people here.

It just seems that if I was to really open up with my community members about what I really think and feel about relationships, how I should/should not approach them, and what sort of people I'd be interested in...I would be put into a really awkward situation here and I don't want that. For now, I have a great relation with the community in general and they are very happy with me here. I'd like to keep it that way, so I vent it for all on you.

Hope ya don't mind. ^_^

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

Up and down and all around.....and Rule #1

2008-12-15T23:27:00.002-04:00

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:

Lil' iguana in a tree on banana harvest day

Yes, that is a tray of green bananas on my head!

From the trees, to the shipping, to your supermarket--Fair Trade, these go to England

Mixalot and I scrubbing away

Stay well and have fun
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

Steel song and scales

2008-12-05T21:28:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone out there in Never Never Land.

Plenty of stuff since T-day and plenty coming up.

This past weekend, a few of the us in the village rescued and reclaimed some of the old steel pan drums that have been left to rot in a dilapidated shed. Perhaps 9+ years ago, there was a steel pan group--Pan Vibes--in the village. For reasons I am still researching, they broke apart. I am trying to reform some of the pan activity and fortunately there are other revival efforts going on within SVG. If I can prove there is sufficient community interest, we may be able to tap into deeper resources and expand our efforts. So far, all we have are 7 rusty and out-of-tune steel pan drums. Tomorrow afternoon, several of the kids, myself, and any adults (they seem to be the harder ones to motivate for now) will start sanding off the rust and trying to oil up the drums. Tuning will be a much harder issue and we'll need some technical help for that.

I've met with a member of a nearby Catholic Church parish; they own an old library/church building in the village that has been abandoned for quite awhile. The structure needs lots of work and I'm negotiating an opportunity to use the site as an annex extension for the pan music and other hands-on craft works and activities.

Wednesday night after some of my other meetings, I went down to our beachfront with a few of the guy--to one of the local bars set for tourists. There I met a few new faces and listened to some really cool jams by a few steel pan players, who happened to be catering tunes for tourists from 3 anchored yachts. I stayed up there for a couple hours and had a good time...they even had me play a cow bell. I'm no musician by any means, but they seemed excited just to have me playing along with them. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me, however they are a usual group down there and I'm sure to go back in the future.

Meeting Meeting Meetings seem key this week. I met with one of our former trainers for tea and got a bit of a history lesson of my area. Turns out he used to live here for many many years--1 of which was the principal of our primary school.

Further planning for the tutoring/homework club is underway. I'm trying to get some of the local teachers together so I can get their input and advice--but it has been like pulling teeth. Seems the closer to Christmas we get....the harder it is to get willing attention. Either way, the homework club is starting up with their next term--January 5th. I also want to see about some sort of study camp over the break--just to keep them fresh and have something to do instead of wander the streets

The tourism group I'm a part of is still doing their usual thing and we don't cover much ground. However, we were reassured that our beachfront area of Cumberland Bay will should begin construction of the new tourism and recreation facilities in early January. Our community is very divided on certain aspects of the project. As of the moment, there is a large community square that is used for concerts and festivals. The project will be getting rid of the square and combining its use the sports field into a 'rec' field. There are many here that don't like that idea--myself included.

Recently joined an adolescence group that meets at our local nurse's clinic. Yeah, I know I'm not a youngster anymore...but I hope to get in well with them, since the youth of the village are the real fuel for my efforts of volunteerism and NGO activity for the future. Apathy is deadly.

Went to a sports association meeting...we're almost done with our football (soccer) competition here on the North Leeward side. The finals are this upcoming Sunday and there is expected to be a rather large social bash afterwards. ^_^

I've spent quite a bit of time in Kingstown today and yesterday on my latest little side project. It stems from kids approaching me with homework--this time around with civics questions. I knew the answers, but wanted to show them where they could find their own solutions. We went to the Spring library to help them with questions such as identifying the names of current politicians and positions within the parliament. I was appalled to find there was absolutely no information on St Vincent and the Grenadines. Sure, we have a very small and limited library, but I figured the easiest thing and most logical thing would be to have information regarding one's home nation. Therefore most of my past 2 days has had me running all over to find several of the ministries and departments and attempt to collect print information that would serve nicely in a Vincentian reference section of our library. Many pounds of paperwork and ping-pong attempts to locate the right offices has lead to a somewhat successful venture. Some of the offices I talked to are still putting together info packages to pick up at a later day.

On a completely different tangent--some of the people here say I'm looking a bit thin. Now, I am getting lots of walking down and sweat more than I did back home. I would like to say that I don't eat as much processed foods as I did back home--but that's arguable since I tried to eat rather well then too. However, I weighed 183 lbs when I first got to the Caribbean and 173 when I finished our 7 weeks of training. I visited my medical officer today to get weighed and measure out at 166 now--another 7 pounds for a total of 17 since coming here just over 3 months ago. Yes, I had a talk with her to make sure that I'm ok and I don't want anyone to fret about it.

More banana farming early Sunday morning, yeah!
Somebody just gave me a bag of 5-finger fruit (starfruit) earlier today. There certainly are advantages to living in a more rural community with lots of fruit trees. ^_^

Oh yeah, just about EVERYBODY is gearing up for Christmas. They have a festival called 9 mornings that involves all sorts of activities and I haven't met person here yet that isn't psyched up for it. Can't say too much about it yet--since this will be my first. Read from the links to find out more--of course I'll add my own thoughts as I experience 9 mornings for myself.
http://www.gov.vc/govt/News/TopNews.asp?a=5834
http://itsninemornings.com/video/?q=node/27
But holiday fever has gripped the radio networks and I can almost guarantee that there is at least one, if not more, station at any given time that is playing various Christmas music. I don't recall radio stations doing that back home....not nearly this much.

I see now that my post is very....'all over the place'. Oh well--lots to cover and I'm tired.
G'night all.
Stay well and be happy,
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn

T-Day....so full...so good.

2008-11-27T23:48:00.007-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
So what are you thankful for? Do you know? Do you need to think about it for a moment?

Today was a good and very filling day. But let me backtrack to last night.

Brandon and I made the trek from north leeward to the Mespo on the Windward side to go see our pal Shelby--the secret keeper of apple pie making. We had ourselves a blast making apple pies entirely from scratch....lots of dough, green apples, and plenty cinnamon & sugar later we were doing awesome We made 5 pies, but only 4 made it to the feast. Of course, we had to taste test the pies for scrumdidiliumptiousness and it most certainly was. We even had apples filling mix leftover and we super snacked on it....I think we need a dentist stat. I haven't had that much sugar in a long time and we got mega-giddy. ^_^ Shelby fed us an awesome chili she made the night before and fried up some breadfruit chips to go with the guacamole we we also made. It was a blissful food night. In the morning, I climbed an orange tree and helped pick some lemons in her backyard to make for a super breakfast, but it couldn't compare to the yummy times awaiting us. (pics below)

The Taiwanese (Republic of China) Embassy had approached Mr Cool, our boss, about opportunities to become more involved with the Peace Corps. It wasn't long until the Ambassador offered to host our Thanksgiving Day event and join their volunteers with ours. The Taiwanese have 4 volunteers on St Vincent, each working in a very specific area for 2 years. The Ambassador is currently working with the Vincentian government (and after his gov't) to begin crafting their volunteer program to be more similar to the Peace Corps model of local community residence and activity. How cool is that? We were informed that the Taiwanese have a strong civil society and take great pride in their international outreach. They are certainly quite active here, much to the benefit of the Vincy people.

All of the traditional American dishes were prepared by volunteers (except for a pie and cheesecake) and the Taiwanese contributed their own native dishes. It truly was a feast to behold and no offense to my fellow volunteers to worked hard on their dishes--but I totally pigged out on the Taiwanese food! There were many vegetarian options from both groups. The atmosphere was very pleasant and the climate was great for the day. There was so much food leftover that the embassy provided us with little plastic bags to make our own take-away. Wonderful! So I currently have some very tasty treats awaiting me in my fridge for tomorrow. ^_^ (pics below)

In other recent stuff
--This was in the newspapers from this past weekend, but I forgot to mention it previously. I found this both funny and scary...
Recently, 2 boys--11 and 12--managed to sneak into the airport after dark over the fences, cross the tarmac, gain access to a jet that was staying overnight, feast on snacks and drinks, and fall asleep to be discovered the next day. Now that is a bit funny for kids, but think of what they could have been...scary.

--I wanted to hang out a bit with the other volunteers after we had our T-Day celebration, but I had to get back to my village for a 5pm meeting. I got there a bit late, 25 min or so, which many Vincy's would still consider on time. Who was there? Nobody. >.< Could a couple of people gathered and dispersed before I arrived? Those who were in the area for other reasons told me that nobody else had been around there for awhile. That was the only downer today and it was an important meeting for a tourism group I'm working with.

--Got into an interesting topic later this evening. There is an upcoming netball (similar to basketball and typically played by women) tournament and there was a woman arguing with a man about the required uniform to play the game. She said that her team would like to have the permission to wear pants (I think we could have called them shorts) as part of their uniform instead of short skirts. The man said that he is going strictly with the rules which are international and declare that women must wear the skirt as their playing uniform. It got rather heated and was my first sighting of a gender inequality--since boys who played didn't have to wear skirts. A previous tournament hosted by other people did allow women to wear pants upon request. This time the woman said that she felt it was indecent for a christian woman to wear such things--even with tights underneath. After I left them later, I asked a couple younger (potentially more open-minded women) in the village about their stance. They promptly defended that women should wear skirt regardless and men wear shorts for netball. Puts a spin on the gender perspective.

And now....pictures. ^_^
--oh yeah, I'm rapidly earning the nickname, paparazzi. It's fun to have a nickname, but I haven't figured out if it is given in fun or annoyance yet...

So Good...

Warm welcome from Ambassador Lee

Showing us US states with the names in Chinese. Way cool.

They were surprised at how well I could use chopsticks, even right or left handed

What appeared to be a small racket was actually a bug killing device of coolnes. ^_^

They doubted my ability to eat pumpkin pie with chopsticks.....I won. Btw, hats off to Steph for making a super scrumptious pumpkin pie.

Jacks of all trades?

2008-11-24T09:11:00.005-04:00

Busy lil bee...
Rain still came on and off through the weekend. Looks like it might be starting to break now that we are getting several hours at a time without showers.

This past Saturday kept me doing lots of stuff all day.
---Got up to meet up with some of the primary school local boys to go down to the beach. Not sure why, but the older kids never seem to want to go-maybe they are just too cool. This group was a bit smaller than normal, but it was still fun. We really didn't get to swim in the ocean since all the heavy rains have made the sea very rough and very dirty (estuary at the beach with all the junk washing down >.< ). So the kids decided it was better to swim in the river estuary....lots of playing catcha (what they call tag).
A shortcut--Crossing the river in Spring Village on the way to the beach

Me and Lex--I think I am his favorite person in the village since he always wants to hang out.

Wading at the river mouth to get to the better side of the beach

Dem kids having fun

---Almost as soon as I got back around noon, made a quick lunch and skirted down to Clive's Black Struggler's Bar. This is were I usually 'lime' (if I'm hanging out) and am training to become domino master. ^_^ The neighbors had widened a drive road and they had to knock down part of the bar's shed for the work. So the local guys volunteered to rebuild it better than before. Last weekend they laid the concrete and blocks--I got to help this weekend with the carpentry end of things. Some of them were very happy to see me wanting to help and they got all excited handing me a hammer and nail--showing me where and how to use them. A couple thought it would be funny to get a pencil in my ear and tape measure on my hip, then show me to the others as a newly transformed carpenter. Actually, I think I put in about 6 nails, but I did help moving things along up on the framework. Although many of they guys do not have much of a formal education and some nothing past primary school, they are all tradesmen and build things all the time. It was cool to see them working live a bee hive, back and forth with all the little jobs. So I was a bit of the odd man out anyways. No worries; they were glad to have me there. I didn't get to stay until it was finished....had to get ready for a meeting at 5pm.

Rebuilding the frame

can you spot the one Vincy in action pose... ^_^ As soon as they know a camera is pointing, they love to pose.

wannabe carpenter for a few hours

---From kid sitter to carpenter to meeting organizer.....we had a fairly decent meeting this time around with my host organization--SUDO. It was a longer meeting, over 2.5 hours, and we covered a lot of ground. Now the trick will be to move forward on some of the things we talked about. SUDO runs the village library/internet cafe. The library doesn't keep any of the local papers, nor does it have easy access to any info 'Vincentian'. Some kids needed help to find info on local government ministers and our only resource was the computer...which are not always available. We are also hoping to start decorating the library with themes--since there is a large concern with people not really using the library portion and only using the computers. The group identified a lack of book diversity as a possible problem....so if you know of places willing to ship older books and other useful library type stuff....let me know.

My boss came by for the early part of the SUDO meeting to help address a joint concern (mine and his) about my organization's lack of response and function. It took 3 weeks now to gather its members for a meeting, of only 6 people, and that I'm assigned to the orgnaization and I've seen them perhaps 3-4 times as a group since I've arrived on St Vincent. Later in the meeting, I began to address some major concerns I've had about the structure, records, and general functions of the group as an NGO.....they didn't like what I had to say and I think it may have opened a couple wounds. They fall back on the good history and experiences SUDO has done for Spring Village.....so I hope to spend some time with its members and build the missing historical documentation to help strengthen the group. This should help close the wounds. Many of the various activities I am researching right now--steel pan & music, public speaking & debate, drama & dance, tutoring activities--all can be sponsored by SUDO, but I just don't trust them to take those reigns until they can begin to look more like a functioning NGO. They have been around for decades, but if it wasn't for the stories if its members and the communities stories, you'd hardly know they were around for more than a year. Sure, oral history is good and could be defened by saying they are a developing nation--but seriously? There are groups just as old that are the polar opposite in a positive manner that we will try to use as our benchmarks. Revival of this group is supposed to be one of my number one goals....it is the reason I am here. It will be done.

---Sunday was another action packed day. I was supposed to get up and be outside on the road by 6am to meet up with a group of banana farmers. A bit of celebrating from completing the shed construction from the night before helped me to oversleep a bit. Got up by 6:30....and missed the truck. Tossed on my waterboots, backpack and cutlass and began the LONG walk up the road, 'up da mountain' as they say. The walk through the village was good, as I got lots of suprise and positive comments from people here since they got to see me doing things and dressing just as they do for farming. Once I got out of Spring Village proper, I was on new turf. I'd never walked up the road this far....and was surprised at how long the road went--and I didn't even go all the way up!!! This is a really long road...not sure just how long yet, but there are many farm plots along the way. I think I walked a good 45min at least until I saw the first truck. Not the guys I was supposed to go with, but I knew them anyways so I spent the day with them--RasBen, XC, and their wives.

(lol...worked with them the whole morning and I don't know their names yet--yes there is something awkward when everybody already know your name and you don't know theirs. It is commonplace for now.)

The guys showed me around the banana trees and got a laugh at my cutlass--apparently I didn't need it for banana farming. They use a small wickedly curved knife to cut and trim the bananas. Most of my work was washing the bananas in a solution to slow the spread of 'crown fungal rot' as well as bagging and boxing bananas. I got to eat a yellow one (no clue where XC got it from) and it as great. We also had some fresh paw-paw (paupaya) and tangerines; always best super fresh. When we finished at the boxing shed, we loaded the truck and picked up a few other banana farmers & their boxes along the way. We stopped at the Fair Trade shed where a few others would be doing quality checks on all the boxed bananaas. Those boxes would be purchased by the Fair Trade group and loaded onto a big truck and shipped out. Most of the bananas we harvested go to England.

Evergreens in SVG!!!

RasBen clipping bananas

XC in the back of the truck

A banana shed on the mountain road, but not the one we worked in

Busted...washing the bananas in a preserving solution.

Bagging dem bananas--6 to a regular bag, 8 if they are smaller and into 'kid-pack' bags

Boxing up the bags for later shipping

RasBen in the back with our boxed up bananas

---A quick wash and lunch back home and it was off to the Sunday football game. It was decent game and we had our usual social party afterwards till about 9pm. That was also the norm, but what stuck out was the 15-20 minutes music that I really didn't expect to hear from the djs. Typically they play more localized music, Caribbean dance flavors. They started to play a big band song--swing, swing, swing--as well as other American music like Karma Chameleon and some unknown country song. Moreover, everybody dancing along was loving it, some even singing along. Now I love when people around the world share and enjoy music from all over, but in the weeks I've been going to these little functions this was a first experience. Not a bad one at all, just different--a good time.

That makes for a busy weekend and long blog...

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