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
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
05 December 2008
27 November 2008
T-Day....so full...so good.
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.
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.
20 November 2008
Searching for green gold and now free texting!!!
Another day in Caribbean...
For some of us--like our Florida volunteers, the weather patterns and warmer climate this time of year are normal. Personally, I've been in warmer places, but I don't think I've ever gone a full year without seeing a 'northern' winter. A couple people back home tell me about how cold it is getting and snow will be right around the corner. I certainly won't get any of that down here. A bit strange, even surreal to the mind--wet and dry season only, when I'm used to 4 seasons back home. Speaking of wet--it's still raining plenty here. It's now been 7 days straight with breaks in-between the down pours; heard it is supposed to go through Saturday. No worries for me though, just makes transportation a bit more difficult (they don't like driving in the rain and don't drive as late in the evenings) and tends to keep people from attending meetings in the village.
Spring Village is a more rural village, mostly farmers here. Even many of the people who don't farm as a livelihood still maintain some sort of agriculture to supplement themselves. One of the major things they farm here is banana. There is even an organization called Fair Trade that correlates the farming efforts and production. I got all excited to hear that there were so many banana farmers here and figured that it would be raining bananas. I really like them--they taste great and are extremely good for you. Funny thing--I can't really find any for sale. I'm surrounded by banana farmers and don't see any on the street corners here. Sure, I can find them in town--but I want to try and buy more of my local foods in the village if I can.
I see plenty of plantain, but no banana. haha, I learned by doing that ripe yellow plantain is still tricky to get out of it's skin and really doesn't taste good at all when raw. I managed to get another member of the banana family--called a fig (not to be confused with the date type of fig). It is smaller, chubby, and a bit sweeter--and they need longer to ripe. There is also another member of the banana family here called a grindy--also rather tasty. Grindy, fig, and banana are all ok to eat ripe--so those will be the ones I search for later. Plantain are nice, but I'd rather eat ripe than cooked fruit. Sunday, I am supposed to be getting up early (5am?) to meet up with some of the banana farmers and go work with them in the mountain. I've seen them coming in before, boxing up blue bags of banana that go onto large flat bed trucks to be exported later. They told me that if I really wanted banana, it's best to get some from them when they come back from the mountain. ^_^ The hunt will soon be over! lol, I've also learned from them that there are 2 sub-types of banana....but I can't recall their names. One is more like what we find back home and the other is a type that is preferred here. Perhaps I will find the difference. I joked with one of the locals that we should do a blind taste test and see if they can identify which of the banana types they are eating.
Banana, Fig, Plantain. I haven't seen red banana here, but the grindy looks more like the red ones--only yellow when ripe.
Yesterday I finally got to deliver a letter to the Ministry of Education officially requesting that I be allowed to use the school's computer lab to teach computer classes. The school principal says that it is ok, but I needed her to give me the letter--which I've been waiting for +/- 2 months now to receive from her. Finally, Tuesday I drafted the letter myself and brought to her for her edits and signature. Sometimes we just have to do things ourselves...now I wait for the red tape to clear and I will have some very happy locals. ^_^ The only thing I don't like about the computer lab is the operating systems on the computers. They used to have older desktops, kinda slow but usable for sure, that had Windows XP. Some time before I arrived, the ministry had them changed to these little box things (smaller than micro cases if you've seen one) that don't even have floppy or cd drives on them--just 2 usb in the front. I think they are flash memory based (didn't see a fan on it either) since I was told that we aren't really supposed to store things on them. Worst part about them--they are running Windows CE. It is windows, but doesn't run like the conventional windows system that I'm used to and I don't know much of anything about it. I believe that it is similar to what you might find on a PDA running a Windows environment, like 5.0. So there goes all the little training and educational software I was going to use--it's not compatible. Time to get creative again. ^_^ Good times, that's why I'm here.
Keeping on the nerd train...
I was playing around with the plug-ins available for Mozilla Firefox and came across yet another reason why Firefox RULES! They have a plug-in called WataCrackaz AutoSMS; crazy name huh? But this little toolbar (which I usually stay away from toolbars) allows you to select a global region, choose a cell carrier, enter a telephone #, and message to send (suggested under 100 characters) all for FREE!!! Since it sits in the toolbar, I just have to be online and use the toolbar--too simple! Not extra websites to visit or log into. Simply awesome. I've sent a couple texts out back home--but not sure yet if they actually got them. Sent one to my phone here and I got it within a matter of seconds. Sweet....
Getting my yellow fever vacination tomorrow. I don't need it to live here, but one of the other volunteers is taking a trip to South America soon and it is required for her to go there. They needed 3-4 people to get the vaccine in order for it to be feasible to sent the vial to St Vincent.....so I volunteered (yet again....that word is becoming common in my daily life huh?) to get stuck. Not sure if there will be any side effects, but at least I will have the vaccine in case I go on any interesting trips to the Central or Southern Americas.
The PCVs and our staff will be celebrating Thanksgiving this year Thursday the 27th. Our boss, Mr. Cool, has stated we will be joining celebrations with the Taiwanese volunteers and their staff on island. I didn't even know the Taiwanese celebrated Thanksgiving. If they don't, perhaps this is just a good time for cultural exchange. I've met one of them here already, very briefly, and I'm excited for the event. They are making some of their national dishes and we are going to be making some of ours. I am with 2 others on pie duty. I was intending to make 2 pumpkin pies, was even going to make everything from scratch. However--the cost was getting too steep for me, scratch or from canned. So looks like we are having a bunch of apple pies instead. Strange that the apples here are imported, but will be cheaper to create. I've never made apple pie from scratch before so this will be a learning experience. Pie day will be Wednesday. ^_^ Yum. I think we are baking a test pie to see how it goes first....double yum.
Stay safe and well.
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn
For some of us--like our Florida volunteers, the weather patterns and warmer climate this time of year are normal. Personally, I've been in warmer places, but I don't think I've ever gone a full year without seeing a 'northern' winter. A couple people back home tell me about how cold it is getting and snow will be right around the corner. I certainly won't get any of that down here. A bit strange, even surreal to the mind--wet and dry season only, when I'm used to 4 seasons back home. Speaking of wet--it's still raining plenty here. It's now been 7 days straight with breaks in-between the down pours; heard it is supposed to go through Saturday. No worries for me though, just makes transportation a bit more difficult (they don't like driving in the rain and don't drive as late in the evenings) and tends to keep people from attending meetings in the village.
Spring Village is a more rural village, mostly farmers here. Even many of the people who don't farm as a livelihood still maintain some sort of agriculture to supplement themselves. One of the major things they farm here is banana. There is even an organization called Fair Trade that correlates the farming efforts and production. I got all excited to hear that there were so many banana farmers here and figured that it would be raining bananas. I really like them--they taste great and are extremely good for you. Funny thing--I can't really find any for sale. I'm surrounded by banana farmers and don't see any on the street corners here. Sure, I can find them in town--but I want to try and buy more of my local foods in the village if I can.
I see plenty of plantain, but no banana. haha, I learned by doing that ripe yellow plantain is still tricky to get out of it's skin and really doesn't taste good at all when raw. I managed to get another member of the banana family--called a fig (not to be confused with the date type of fig). It is smaller, chubby, and a bit sweeter--and they need longer to ripe. There is also another member of the banana family here called a grindy--also rather tasty. Grindy, fig, and banana are all ok to eat ripe--so those will be the ones I search for later. Plantain are nice, but I'd rather eat ripe than cooked fruit. Sunday, I am supposed to be getting up early (5am?) to meet up with some of the banana farmers and go work with them in the mountain. I've seen them coming in before, boxing up blue bags of banana that go onto large flat bed trucks to be exported later. They told me that if I really wanted banana, it's best to get some from them when they come back from the mountain. ^_^ The hunt will soon be over! lol, I've also learned from them that there are 2 sub-types of banana....but I can't recall their names. One is more like what we find back home and the other is a type that is preferred here. Perhaps I will find the difference. I joked with one of the locals that we should do a blind taste test and see if they can identify which of the banana types they are eating.
Banana, Fig, Plantain. I haven't seen red banana here, but the grindy looks more like the red ones--only yellow when ripe.
Yesterday I finally got to deliver a letter to the Ministry of Education officially requesting that I be allowed to use the school's computer lab to teach computer classes. The school principal says that it is ok, but I needed her to give me the letter--which I've been waiting for +/- 2 months now to receive from her. Finally, Tuesday I drafted the letter myself and brought to her for her edits and signature. Sometimes we just have to do things ourselves...now I wait for the red tape to clear and I will have some very happy locals. ^_^ The only thing I don't like about the computer lab is the operating systems on the computers. They used to have older desktops, kinda slow but usable for sure, that had Windows XP. Some time before I arrived, the ministry had them changed to these little box things (smaller than micro cases if you've seen one) that don't even have floppy or cd drives on them--just 2 usb in the front. I think they are flash memory based (didn't see a fan on it either) since I was told that we aren't really supposed to store things on them. Worst part about them--they are running Windows CE. It is windows, but doesn't run like the conventional windows system that I'm used to and I don't know much of anything about it. I believe that it is similar to what you might find on a PDA running a Windows environment, like 5.0. So there goes all the little training and educational software I was going to use--it's not compatible. Time to get creative again. ^_^ Good times, that's why I'm here.
Keeping on the nerd train...
I was playing around with the plug-ins available for Mozilla Firefox and came across yet another reason why Firefox RULES! They have a plug-in called WataCrackaz AutoSMS; crazy name huh? But this little toolbar (which I usually stay away from toolbars) allows you to select a global region, choose a cell carrier, enter a telephone #, and message to send (suggested under 100 characters) all for FREE!!! Since it sits in the toolbar, I just have to be online and use the toolbar--too simple! Not extra websites to visit or log into. Simply awesome. I've sent a couple texts out back home--but not sure yet if they actually got them. Sent one to my phone here and I got it within a matter of seconds. Sweet....
Getting my yellow fever vacination tomorrow. I don't need it to live here, but one of the other volunteers is taking a trip to South America soon and it is required for her to go there. They needed 3-4 people to get the vaccine in order for it to be feasible to sent the vial to St Vincent.....so I volunteered (yet again....that word is becoming common in my daily life huh?) to get stuck. Not sure if there will be any side effects, but at least I will have the vaccine in case I go on any interesting trips to the Central or Southern Americas.
The PCVs and our staff will be celebrating Thanksgiving this year Thursday the 27th. Our boss, Mr. Cool, has stated we will be joining celebrations with the Taiwanese volunteers and their staff on island. I didn't even know the Taiwanese celebrated Thanksgiving. If they don't, perhaps this is just a good time for cultural exchange. I've met one of them here already, very briefly, and I'm excited for the event. They are making some of their national dishes and we are going to be making some of ours. I am with 2 others on pie duty. I was intending to make 2 pumpkin pies, was even going to make everything from scratch. However--the cost was getting too steep for me, scratch or from canned. So looks like we are having a bunch of apple pies instead. Strange that the apples here are imported, but will be cheaper to create. I've never made apple pie from scratch before so this will be a learning experience. Pie day will be Wednesday. ^_^ Yum. I think we are baking a test pie to see how it goes first....double yum.
Stay safe and well.
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn
28 October 2008
Happy Independence Day SVG!
Hey readers!
It's been a crazy week, that's for sure. Plenty of things going on—both here and at home.
--CONGRATS!
Not sure if I should be doing this, but I want to shout out the Congrats to a particular couple of homies back home that popped the question and said yes. Who? Find out yourself. Haha, that’s my way of trying to cover myself incase they didn’t want it announced. Oh well, cat’s out of the bag. ^_^
--SHOES!
So, anybody who knows me should know that I am not the world’s biggest connoisseur on shoes. In fact, they would also know that I am certainly not a fan of ‘open’ shoes. I like ‘em able to complete cover with grip—like sneakers. Well, I have 2 new types of shoes that go on both ends of the footwear spectrum. A few weeks ago, I got what everybody else would call galoshes; here they are called water boots. They are almost up to my knees and green; got them from the banana association, so I know they are good stuff. It took a bit of saving from my training money (EC$35), but it makes working in the fields here SOOOO much better and more enjoyable. Cleaning muddy sneakers sucks. >.< During training, I would work sometimes with my hostdad in the ‘backyard’ farm and nobody really saw me in them. Lol…there were some crazy looks from the locals when they saw me walking down the main street in my water boots and ‘bush’ clothes. It was a good thing that they get to see me in such a way that I can say—I am one of you. Well, I’m not yet but after 2 years I’ll probably be a bit closer. Hopefully if I budget right, I’ll be able to afford heavy rubber gloves (EC$20) and a cutlass with a sharpening file (EC$20-10). The cutlass is pretty much a machete with a blade partway down the back edge and a pointy tip. I love my water boots and they are great! I was supposed to go up to the mountain farms to work with the banana farmers this morning, but I never got picked up. : ( Talked to them again and I should get another chance soon.
The other pair of shoes will be more of a shock to the friends and family…but where what I called a necessary evil purchase. I got a pair of flip-flops. I hate them, but they are surely useful. I hate the floppy on the foot slap sound and how they kick back mud, sand, and other small bits. I don’t like how the foot is uncovered and how easily I’ve already stubbed and cut up my toes, not to mention how easily filthy my feet get. Mur. However, they are great to quickly slip on if it starts to rain and I have clothes on the line—found out rained on clothes get smelly when they dry. They are also very good for the beach, as I was getting very tired of having sandy sneakers. So I reserve them for certain occasions and still love my sneakers 100-fold.
--Happy Independence SVG!
Monday was the actual 29th Independence Day of St. Vincent & the Grenadines although the event was celebrated across the weekend. People here proudly displayed their colors of yellow, green, and blue. Patriotism is shown on different levels, much like our displays back home. Soca music, the Caribbean flavor, was played more than usual on the radios. I saw a few people making ‘bamboo cannons’ and heard a few go off, but didn’t see any when they actually fired. That is the local sort of firework, which involves putting oil into a piece of bamboo. I didn’t really see any fireworks like we’d know them from home. Something to note from what I’ve learned so far…and sometimes I wonder if this is a reflection in the general attitudes of the younger Vincentians when it comes to national pride. Whereas the people of the U.S.A. had fought a war over their independence, the people of SVG peaceful negotiated and earned independence from Britain—transitioning from a colonial state to a member of its commonwealth.
--Mustique!
As part of the Independence Day celebrations, a few of the US and Canadian volunteers got on a ferry for a special holiday celebration trip to the Grenadine island of Mustique. Some may know this place to be vacation home to the rich and famous. I’m told that Mic Jagger and Shania Twain, as well as several celebs, have massive homes there. No, I didn’t get to go on any little tours and I didn’t see anybody famous. In fact, in terms of the people around—it seemed rather drab. Granted, the locals were great and they reassured us that the tourist season is just starting and the fact that it is a private island does limit who comes and goes. Visually, the island is stunning. It is the first of my Grenadine experiences and the overall look of the place could have gone on any stereotypical brochure for the tropical Caribbean. White sandy beaches, rolling blue waves, and lush greenery were abundant. I was surprised, but I saw lots of cacti not far from the beachfront. Apparently they grow in this climate nicely. The sand was so fine that it stuck to everything and plenty of it came back home in the crevasse of my trunks. I still get nervous when I swim out in the open waters, but I went out a decent distance with a couple others. I can swim, but I need to become a stronger swimmer and practice more. Of course, I ended up with fairly mean sunburn between the shoulder blades—but I’m building a rather solid tan already from being outside so much. We didn’t have much time on the island, so nearly all of it was spent at a place called Macaroni beach—I have no clue why it is called so, but took lots of pics—and another place, the famous Basil’s Bar & Restaurant. I didn’t have any drinks or eats at Basil’s—it was out of my budget, but the look and layout was cool. Every year they have a large blues festival, maybe I’ll get to go someday.
The other half of the trip was the ride itself. The ferry ride over was absolutely nuts! There was food, drink, and music pounding the whole way. I’ll go on record to say that the whole day I only had 3 beers and one shot (out of a passion-fruit rind), so I wasn’t a wild drunk. People were dancing and having a great time. I thought the ride over was fairly wild, but the return trip blew us away. That evening, all the new volunteers got broken in Vincy-style. Ok, now I’ve said that people here dance…..but for the most part there is only one style of dancing. It is called ‘winding’ almost identical to the ‘grinding’ seen in clubs back home, only that some winding makes most grinding look rated-PG. Now most of the volunteers don’t crazy when we wind and are certainly on the innocent & fun-loving side of the things, keeping it rated-PG. Yes, I was winding a bit—but honestly, I’d prefer a more ‘regular’ kind of dancing that is more interactive with the dance partner and doesn’t feel like I’m trying dry hump someone. Sadly, it is expected as a guy to be involved with this sort of thing and helps gain respect and even prestige among the male peers. Nearly all of the men in our little group had plenty of winding experiences. Sometimes we helped rescue our female companion volunteers—who were quite often sought out by the local men. Yeah, the girls winded a bit too…but I think most of them shared my desire for good dancing fun that didn’t feel so explicit. Unfortunately, if you want to dance and hit the dance floor…better stay with one partner and keep to yourselves. Otherwise, it’s considered fair game on the dance floor. Sure, people get plenty turned down—both men and women—but the offers from both sides will keep coming.
We got back into town much later than we expected and were super lucky to catch vans home. They don’t usually run on Sundays and I think part of our luck was due to people moving about for the holiday. After I got home, I couldn’t really sleep and went out to socialize a bit with my community members. There was a Jamaican artist—Ginjah?—headlining a show down at my local beachfront, so I checked it out. Well, turns out that I didn’t get in since I didn’t want to spend the EC$25, that I didn’t have anyways, on a ticket and I’m glad I didn’t. Found out, as I’ve heard is a bit common for shows like these, the artists tend to start really late—I got there after 11 and he hadn’t taken the stage yet. They also don’t use live bands typically and sing along with cd music. Now I’m not sure, but that is almost karaoke-like and I certainly wouldn’t want to pay for that kind of performance. I’ve heard some people love the shows and others, like me, would want more out of it. Either way, they tend to draw big crowds and most have a really good time. Only stayed about an hour, no drinking or dancing, and it got me some positive face time with some people in the area.
--Getting Involved
I think I’m finally getting a bit more ‘in’ with my community. Sure, I’m still in what many might call our ‘honeymoon’ faze, but I am feeling a bit more settled. I haven’t gotten out into our community as much as I’d like, but I am recognizing faces more often and remembering the names to them. People, not just the kids anymore, call out my name when I pass or when I say hello to them. The van driver will sometimes drop me off next to my home instead of just at the bus stop. I think part of this has been due to a good location of my new apartment and the fact that many people walk by it.
Unfortunately for some reasons still unknown to me, my landlady has decided that she does not wish to rent out the apartment further and my boss is searching for a new home in the village for me. There are a whole host of ups and downs to this—but I’ll remain positive and hope that my new place, wherever it may be, will be suitable and as good of a location as this one….although there are rather few places to rent in a smaller village.
Probably next week, I’ll be starting tutoring sessions. I had talks with the local primary school principal and will meet with primary school teachers in the morning. I’ll most likely be tutoring 4 days a week, 2 hours each day—each broken into 1 hour blocks. Monday/Wednesday will be for the primary levels and Tuesday/Thursday will be for secondary levels. Hopefully, I will identify people within the village who will assist in tutoring sessions so that we may reach more students. I’ll also be working more with the Ministry of Youth to revive the old 4-H club in village and hopefully create a big brother/sister type mentoring project. This will take quite a bit of time before that becomes a reality, but is something for the future. I hope to take more of a backseat role in these so I’ll have time to focus on my community organization development, but these things are sorely needed here as well.
Already, I am digging in with my primary group—SUDO—and building ties with another group, who will be responsible for managing/maintaining tourism project for the nearby Cumberland beach. I’m also peeking into an activity session organized by the government backed Adult Education Unit. As of tomorrow, they will be hosting cake baking and decorating training for enrolled participants. This program will hope to provide the technical skills that could aid a start-up business should the participants so desire. I’ve gotten the keys to the community center and will soon be working on cleaning up a large storage room and transforming it into a ‘community organization center’ room. Here CBOs, as they are known, will be able to come and gather—hold meetings and workshops as well as have space to keep documents and other project materials. It will also become my unofficial office I suppose. Good times. The next real trick will be to work on the community calendar project…to help everybody learn what’s going on where and when and so some spaces are double used. The community center is decently-sized, but within the past week has claimed to host 3 different meetings around the same time on the same day. Fortunately, these won’t need the same rooms, but none of them know about the other meetings….this could be problematic and this is exactly the sort of reason why we need this calendar up and running.
Wow…this is lots to read huh? I suppose the rest will have to wait until later. Unfortunately, the dsl internet seems to go up and down lots here and I pre-typed this Tuesday evening around 7-8pm. The internet was down at the time of this posting and hopefully won’t take too long for me to come back to the community center where I use the internet and post this.
I cast my absentee vote into the mail…..do the right thing and go vote by Nov. 4th. It matters less to me who you vote for, but more importantly that you go and cast your vote.
Stay safe and well everyone.
Ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn
It's been a crazy week, that's for sure. Plenty of things going on—both here and at home.
--CONGRATS!
Not sure if I should be doing this, but I want to shout out the Congrats to a particular couple of homies back home that popped the question and said yes. Who? Find out yourself. Haha, that’s my way of trying to cover myself incase they didn’t want it announced. Oh well, cat’s out of the bag. ^_^
--SHOES!
So, anybody who knows me should know that I am not the world’s biggest connoisseur on shoes. In fact, they would also know that I am certainly not a fan of ‘open’ shoes. I like ‘em able to complete cover with grip—like sneakers. Well, I have 2 new types of shoes that go on both ends of the footwear spectrum. A few weeks ago, I got what everybody else would call galoshes; here they are called water boots. They are almost up to my knees and green; got them from the banana association, so I know they are good stuff. It took a bit of saving from my training money (EC$35), but it makes working in the fields here SOOOO much better and more enjoyable. Cleaning muddy sneakers sucks. >.< During training, I would work sometimes with my hostdad in the ‘backyard’ farm and nobody really saw me in them. Lol…there were some crazy looks from the locals when they saw me walking down the main street in my water boots and ‘bush’ clothes. It was a good thing that they get to see me in such a way that I can say—I am one of you. Well, I’m not yet but after 2 years I’ll probably be a bit closer. Hopefully if I budget right, I’ll be able to afford heavy rubber gloves (EC$20) and a cutlass with a sharpening file (EC$20-10). The cutlass is pretty much a machete with a blade partway down the back edge and a pointy tip. I love my water boots and they are great! I was supposed to go up to the mountain farms to work with the banana farmers this morning, but I never got picked up. : ( Talked to them again and I should get another chance soon.
The other pair of shoes will be more of a shock to the friends and family…but where what I called a necessary evil purchase. I got a pair of flip-flops. I hate them, but they are surely useful. I hate the floppy on the foot slap sound and how they kick back mud, sand, and other small bits. I don’t like how the foot is uncovered and how easily I’ve already stubbed and cut up my toes, not to mention how easily filthy my feet get. Mur. However, they are great to quickly slip on if it starts to rain and I have clothes on the line—found out rained on clothes get smelly when they dry. They are also very good for the beach, as I was getting very tired of having sandy sneakers. So I reserve them for certain occasions and still love my sneakers 100-fold.
--Happy Independence SVG!
Monday was the actual 29th Independence Day of St. Vincent & the Grenadines although the event was celebrated across the weekend. People here proudly displayed their colors of yellow, green, and blue. Patriotism is shown on different levels, much like our displays back home. Soca music, the Caribbean flavor, was played more than usual on the radios. I saw a few people making ‘bamboo cannons’ and heard a few go off, but didn’t see any when they actually fired. That is the local sort of firework, which involves putting oil into a piece of bamboo. I didn’t really see any fireworks like we’d know them from home. Something to note from what I’ve learned so far…and sometimes I wonder if this is a reflection in the general attitudes of the younger Vincentians when it comes to national pride. Whereas the people of the U.S.A. had fought a war over their independence, the people of SVG peaceful negotiated and earned independence from Britain—transitioning from a colonial state to a member of its commonwealth.
--Mustique!
As part of the Independence Day celebrations, a few of the US and Canadian volunteers got on a ferry for a special holiday celebration trip to the Grenadine island of Mustique. Some may know this place to be vacation home to the rich and famous. I’m told that Mic Jagger and Shania Twain, as well as several celebs, have massive homes there. No, I didn’t get to go on any little tours and I didn’t see anybody famous. In fact, in terms of the people around—it seemed rather drab. Granted, the locals were great and they reassured us that the tourist season is just starting and the fact that it is a private island does limit who comes and goes. Visually, the island is stunning. It is the first of my Grenadine experiences and the overall look of the place could have gone on any stereotypical brochure for the tropical Caribbean. White sandy beaches, rolling blue waves, and lush greenery were abundant. I was surprised, but I saw lots of cacti not far from the beachfront. Apparently they grow in this climate nicely. The sand was so fine that it stuck to everything and plenty of it came back home in the crevasse of my trunks. I still get nervous when I swim out in the open waters, but I went out a decent distance with a couple others. I can swim, but I need to become a stronger swimmer and practice more. Of course, I ended up with fairly mean sunburn between the shoulder blades—but I’m building a rather solid tan already from being outside so much. We didn’t have much time on the island, so nearly all of it was spent at a place called Macaroni beach—I have no clue why it is called so, but took lots of pics—and another place, the famous Basil’s Bar & Restaurant. I didn’t have any drinks or eats at Basil’s—it was out of my budget, but the look and layout was cool. Every year they have a large blues festival, maybe I’ll get to go someday.
The other half of the trip was the ride itself. The ferry ride over was absolutely nuts! There was food, drink, and music pounding the whole way. I’ll go on record to say that the whole day I only had 3 beers and one shot (out of a passion-fruit rind), so I wasn’t a wild drunk. People were dancing and having a great time. I thought the ride over was fairly wild, but the return trip blew us away. That evening, all the new volunteers got broken in Vincy-style. Ok, now I’ve said that people here dance…..but for the most part there is only one style of dancing. It is called ‘winding’ almost identical to the ‘grinding’ seen in clubs back home, only that some winding makes most grinding look rated-PG. Now most of the volunteers don’t crazy when we wind and are certainly on the innocent & fun-loving side of the things, keeping it rated-PG. Yes, I was winding a bit—but honestly, I’d prefer a more ‘regular’ kind of dancing that is more interactive with the dance partner and doesn’t feel like I’m trying dry hump someone. Sadly, it is expected as a guy to be involved with this sort of thing and helps gain respect and even prestige among the male peers. Nearly all of the men in our little group had plenty of winding experiences. Sometimes we helped rescue our female companion volunteers—who were quite often sought out by the local men. Yeah, the girls winded a bit too…but I think most of them shared my desire for good dancing fun that didn’t feel so explicit. Unfortunately, if you want to dance and hit the dance floor…better stay with one partner and keep to yourselves. Otherwise, it’s considered fair game on the dance floor. Sure, people get plenty turned down—both men and women—but the offers from both sides will keep coming.
We got back into town much later than we expected and were super lucky to catch vans home. They don’t usually run on Sundays and I think part of our luck was due to people moving about for the holiday. After I got home, I couldn’t really sleep and went out to socialize a bit with my community members. There was a Jamaican artist—Ginjah?—headlining a show down at my local beachfront, so I checked it out. Well, turns out that I didn’t get in since I didn’t want to spend the EC$25, that I didn’t have anyways, on a ticket and I’m glad I didn’t. Found out, as I’ve heard is a bit common for shows like these, the artists tend to start really late—I got there after 11 and he hadn’t taken the stage yet. They also don’t use live bands typically and sing along with cd music. Now I’m not sure, but that is almost karaoke-like and I certainly wouldn’t want to pay for that kind of performance. I’ve heard some people love the shows and others, like me, would want more out of it. Either way, they tend to draw big crowds and most have a really good time. Only stayed about an hour, no drinking or dancing, and it got me some positive face time with some people in the area.
--Getting Involved
I think I’m finally getting a bit more ‘in’ with my community. Sure, I’m still in what many might call our ‘honeymoon’ faze, but I am feeling a bit more settled. I haven’t gotten out into our community as much as I’d like, but I am recognizing faces more often and remembering the names to them. People, not just the kids anymore, call out my name when I pass or when I say hello to them. The van driver will sometimes drop me off next to my home instead of just at the bus stop. I think part of this has been due to a good location of my new apartment and the fact that many people walk by it.
Unfortunately for some reasons still unknown to me, my landlady has decided that she does not wish to rent out the apartment further and my boss is searching for a new home in the village for me. There are a whole host of ups and downs to this—but I’ll remain positive and hope that my new place, wherever it may be, will be suitable and as good of a location as this one….although there are rather few places to rent in a smaller village.
Probably next week, I’ll be starting tutoring sessions. I had talks with the local primary school principal and will meet with primary school teachers in the morning. I’ll most likely be tutoring 4 days a week, 2 hours each day—each broken into 1 hour blocks. Monday/Wednesday will be for the primary levels and Tuesday/Thursday will be for secondary levels. Hopefully, I will identify people within the village who will assist in tutoring sessions so that we may reach more students. I’ll also be working more with the Ministry of Youth to revive the old 4-H club in village and hopefully create a big brother/sister type mentoring project. This will take quite a bit of time before that becomes a reality, but is something for the future. I hope to take more of a backseat role in these so I’ll have time to focus on my community organization development, but these things are sorely needed here as well.
Already, I am digging in with my primary group—SUDO—and building ties with another group, who will be responsible for managing/maintaining tourism project for the nearby Cumberland beach. I’m also peeking into an activity session organized by the government backed Adult Education Unit. As of tomorrow, they will be hosting cake baking and decorating training for enrolled participants. This program will hope to provide the technical skills that could aid a start-up business should the participants so desire. I’ve gotten the keys to the community center and will soon be working on cleaning up a large storage room and transforming it into a ‘community organization center’ room. Here CBOs, as they are known, will be able to come and gather—hold meetings and workshops as well as have space to keep documents and other project materials. It will also become my unofficial office I suppose. Good times. The next real trick will be to work on the community calendar project…to help everybody learn what’s going on where and when and so some spaces are double used. The community center is decently-sized, but within the past week has claimed to host 3 different meetings around the same time on the same day. Fortunately, these won’t need the same rooms, but none of them know about the other meetings….this could be problematic and this is exactly the sort of reason why we need this calendar up and running.
Wow…this is lots to read huh? I suppose the rest will have to wait until later. Unfortunately, the dsl internet seems to go up and down lots here and I pre-typed this Tuesday evening around 7-8pm. The internet was down at the time of this posting and hopefully won’t take too long for me to come back to the community center where I use the internet and post this.
I cast my absentee vote into the mail…..do the right thing and go vote by Nov. 4th. It matters less to me who you vote for, but more importantly that you go and cast your vote.
Stay safe and well everyone.
Ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn
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