The country and not so western....

On one of the Sunday nights in the past eight weeks, I decided to join Ashley in Babboneau for what is called a “country and western dance”. Seeing as how where I had been staying with my host family is very close to the location of the dance, I gave in when Ashley asked if I wanted to go. Her host mom and three of her host mom’s friends came to pick me up on the corner by my house. We fit four people in the back seat with no hesitation, except for a little giggling. At one time I am quite sure that my elbow was in someone’s chest and her thigh had been digging into my rear. It was like the volkswagon commercials, where you see twenty people piling up out of this tiny little car.



Actually this reminded me of when cousin Megan was in town to visit and we had all gone to the Mariners game. We had a ride there with no problem. However, me and Megs wanted to go out on the town and thus, needed a ride to the bar. However, there were already six of the family members going home in this car and so, it was pretty packed. Talk about family bonding time. I think after this experience, we were all changed. Not only did we manage to fit 7 or 8 people in the tiny little car that my uncle was driving but we rolled down the windows to roll in style. One of the cousins decided to start singing “apple bottom jeans”, and next thing we know all of us are singing along to it. Including my uncle! So imagine a mixed car of old and young, of all different backgrounds singing as loudly as possible to this rap song. And on top of this, my uncle had admitted he had gas at the beginning of the car ride. You can imagine how that went. This is perhaps one of my favorite moments in Haley history, perhaps.
So not to get off topic, but I thought you should all know that story because it describes my family perfectly. I’ll risk the legality of the situation for the humor that life presents. Anyhow, that Sunday night Ashley and I made our way to the “country and western dance”. Immediately, I wanted to leave. I felt so awkward and uncomfortable! I didn’t know how to dance this way and I looked very much out of place. The one thing keeping me there, well, besides Ashley saying we can’t go yet, was the music. Yes, yes, I will admit, I love country music. There is no denying this. People thought because I could sing the song in full I was going to be a pro dancer. Nope, sorry old buddies, not the case.



Then, I thought to myself: When have I felt completely comfortable and not awkward this entire experience thus far? The answer: not once. So I made the most of it and grabbed a dance partner. It took many different partners and watching others for hours to actually learn this “two-step” (really a three-step). Between dancing with all guys above 60 years old and feeling incredibly awkward, Ashley and I stepped out to grab a Piton at one of the great “bars” in Babboneau. This one is actually a bar! Funny enough, however, is that the name of the bar is “Gordon’s”. Of course it is! (For those not sure why this name is significant it was the name of the place I bartended at for four years before committing myself to the greater good of the Peace Corps). Along the way to the bar, we met a man from England (originally from St. Lucia) and it turned out his family owned the bar. Life is so small in St. Lucia! Another one of the guys that I met that night was so anxious to keep in contact with me because he said he would probably never see me again and guess what? I have seen him four times since then…in the most random places too. This island is VERY small.



So the morale of the story is: despite feeling extremely awkward and uncomfortable for the first half of the night, the rest of the night proved to be very worthwhile! I had a ton of fun, sweated out the one beer I drank, and “just let go”. By the end of the night, I once again felt as if this was the right place for me to be, at the right time. I should be in St. Lucia!



I wish I could record what happens at one of these events just so all of you readers can experience the same thing I experienced. Words can sum it up, but words cannot fully immerse you in the experience. Imagine the scenery… The lights are off but there is a DJ on the stage in the front of the room with a few lights on him. About twenty people are on the dance floor pulling out their best “two-steps”, the men wearing jeans and a t-shirt with gold chains and the women wearing skirts or jeans; the kind of dress that you would find at a downtown late night club. It’s great stuff. There are people all around the outsides watching and talking. Yes, for a minute you feel as if you are warped back into an eighth grade dance; you are a wallflower and waiting for a dance partner. After turning down the first five because 1) he wasn’t attractive enough or 2) you don’t want to embarrass yourself with your horrible western dancing skills, you finally accept to the sixth, somewhat decent guy that is also bad at dancing. Soon after, you realize that picking a bad dancer as a partner was not the best way to go, as now everyone is staring at both of you and smirking. The next time around you dance with a better dancer, but of course the attraction is compromised. The more and more you dance the better the dancers get, and the less you care about who you are dancing with. Now, it’s just all about having fun and not caring one bit. This was the progression of my night; and it was a great experience for me. Wish you could have been there? Come to St. Lucia and I’ll take you to one or I’ll make Ashley take you to one instead.

Laundry awaits....

The rains have been continual for the last week, and I have yet to get my laundry finished... I finally understand how much of a gift having a dryer back in the states is! I have taken for granted the appliances that I had back in Seattle to such a large degree... but now I know. At one point, I had complained because I had to walk outside, down two sets of stairs around the house and down another set of stairs to get to the washing room. To think!

Volleyball in St. Lucia

So, considering that I have gotten a few St. Lucians to read over my blog, I thought it would be a good idea to get the word out that I am looking for a team/place to play volleyball in St. Lucia. Preferrably indoor volleyball. I would eventually like to work with youth in the area of volleyball as well, so if there is anyone out there that is in need of a co-planner or co-trainer for volleyball camps/teams in addition to healthy lifestyles and leadership training for players, please contact me!!! Currently I am in youth development through sporting and healthy lifestyles, so if there is a way I can incorporate volleyball into the mix that would be my dream!

Headline: Tropical Wave to Come.

What's a tropical wave anyhow? Apparently there is one coming in St. Lucia. This might entail power outages and some bad weather. Though, the last week has been so rainy and ehhh that I have tried to do my laundry (the same set) three times to no avail. Everytime I hang it out to dry, ooops there it is again, that stubborn rain! So in the ways of Jason, another EC78, "Wikipedia says" that a tropical wave is:

Tropical waves (see first picture below), or easterly waves, also known as African easterly waves in the Atlantic region, are a type of atmospheric trough, an elongated area of relatively low air pressure, oriented north to south, which move from east to west across the tropics causing areas of cloudiness and thunderstorms...

and

Tropical waves are generally carried westward by the prevailing easterly winds along the tropics and subtropics near the equator. They can lead to the formation of tropical cyclones (picture #2) in the north Atlantic and northeast Pacific basins.

So despite the fact that this is not a hurricane, it is still my very first tropical wave!!! For some reason, I am a little more excited to be in this wave then I should be! Don't worry mom, i'll be safe and sound.

Everyone do the Muscle Dance...

Did the muscle dance today for my presentation on the main muscles of the human body... it was great. Everyone was shaking their gluteus maximuses to the sound of the hokey pokey... you wish you could have been there to see it, don't you?!!!! I know, I know, you are jealous. I put my bicep in and put my bicep out and I shook it all about, that's what I did... for sure.

I loved the other groups' presentations as well. Some great ideas came out of these short presentations. I cannot wait to see what else all of the PCVs come up with in the future. Now I just have to come up with an activity in the schools for next Thursday, yay!

Oktoberfest was a blast! I met Ashley there at about 5 pm, after getting home from the airport in Vieux Fort to drop off my Fwe, se se and cousin... (brother, sister and cousin) That was a whole 'nother story in itself.

I am not sure whether it is typical for St. Lucian families to do this, but practically the entire family went to the airport to drop them off for what is going to be a month trek in Canada. I was surprised for a few reasons:

1) People in Seattle go to the airport so often that when it comes to family there really is no reason to go to the airport with them (that and the security is so tedious that you cannot get past the front doors)

2) We stayed through the entire process from beginning to ending. We were there two hours before their flight to check them in and then half an hour after their plane took off just to make sure that their plane had no reason to return.

3) Almost everyone in the family cried at one point. It was adorable! It almost made me cry because everyone else was crying. I could not believe it though, it seemed as if they were leaving for years instead of months.

I loved the whole experience at the airport because it really struck me how valuable family life is in St. Lucia. I am so envious of this! I have always wanted to have that type of family connection in my life. I have a great relationship with my immediate family members, sure, but how we express it is much different in Seattle. I was extremely moved by the thought and emotion that was put into their trip. Here's a picture of Nasha, me and Shernan at the airport.

So after the airport came the Oktoberfest. I know, I know, can you believe it?!? They have Oktoberfest in St. Lucia?!?! When I saw the sign promoting it a couple of weeks ago I was in heaven. I automatically felt like I was back in Seattle. Octoberfest is a great time of the year in Fremont, Seattle and so I just knew I had to make an appearance at this one. I came to find out that it was the first one ever in St. Lucia. They were promoting "beers from around the world", which I came to find out was four beers from the Caribbean. I still had a great time despite :).

On my way to grab a bus to go down to Gros Islet, I ran into Angus who caught me a taxi (which I insisted I couldn't afford) and it ended up being on the house so that was a nice surprise! Then after getting off of the taxi, Cory (a friend I met within the first weeks of getting here) saw me walking towards the event and picked me up to give me a ride closer! Then, within being inside of the event for five min. I ran into Jamal, another teacher from the primary I am working at. Then came the Peace Corps mail dude, another teacher from the secondary and then Trevor (another friend I met early on). It was absolutely crazy that I ran into pretty much the only people I know here in St. Lucia! The event was pretty large-scale and there were tons of people there. After testing a few Red Stripe Lights, me and Ash went out and "wined". Much to our surprise, we got to see Herb Black perform!!! It was awesome! here is a video link I got off of Melaney's website of him doing "suzette" at the Anse La Raye primary..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCXISzDp4OA

Perhaps the best part of the night was running into a girl from the UK that is here doing forestry in Dennery who happened to be carrying around a blow up version of Spongebob Square Pants. This was hilarious simply for the fact that Scotty, another PCV on St. Vincent, takes pictures with a doll of SBSP around the world to send to his friend back home. What are the chances!?!?! So random!

Overall, it was a great night. Unfortunately I woke up too late the next morning to go on the tour with my manman (mother) and her friends!!! I hope there is another one to go on sometime though.

The current run down now is that I have a tummy ache and some bathroom problems, not like any of you want to know... just thought I would let you realize all of the accommodations moving to a new country brings! Ha. Definitely the result of change in diet, drinking the water, and/or being dehydrated from the amount of heat. Just another part of life we ignore in our own hometown until we get sick, but when you are not at home it's definitely much harder to deal with. Fluids are my best friend.

Other than that, tomorrow I am giving a presentation with some of the other PCTs on the muscular system. Oh boy. It's been years since I studied up on that, other than going to the gym to lift weights! It will be fun though, I hope, because I am going to make all of the other PCTs dance the hokey pokey to muscles. Ok, I am officially a weirdo. Today I did a presentation on Water Safety and recreation wearing a snorkel mask... that was exciting...sure. That's all I got for now. It's been a roller coaster in the last week for reasons that I will disclose later, but training will be over on the 22nd!!!! wooohooo.

In regards to other blogs!

Ps. The other blogs that I am following (on my site it says that I am following them) are good sources of information about what life is like in St. Lucia, in addition to my own. Many times people write about an experience or a way of life in a way that is better described than my own blgos will do, or I just forget to write about it all together, so people PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the other's blogs as well! Time to finish laundry and pray it doesn't rain when they are outside on the line!