The Purpose Prize

I often look through the newspaper or online for inspiration in service work.  Though I am not burnt out quite yet doing volunteer work sometimes I just need a little extra spark of motivation to get the feet going.  Recently, I looked on the internet to find what's called "The Purpose Prize".  I was pleasantly surprised to see my next source of inspiration staring at me directly in the face.  The men and women highlighted are individuals who are avid humanitarians, just like me.  They aim to help in small ways, but end up affecting the world in much larger ways than they anticipated.  I can only hope that each of us PCV's can step into the same light.   Here is the link of Mr. Lardner, from Seattle, WA, my birth town.  Please check out some of the work that the people listed have done for us.

http://www.purposeprize.org/finalists/candidatepage.cfm?candidateid=3408

Empowerment through Arts and Sports

My work, thus far, in St. Lucia has focused around 3 things.  

1)  I have been working with a girl's empowerment group called "Girl's Circle" that has been beneficial not only to the girls, but to myself as well. 

2)  Strengthening and supporting the CARE school programs at Grow Well in the area of IT/Literacy, Arts and Crafts, "maths", and sports.

3)   Developing a plan and materializing it to create after school opportunities for the youth of Gros Islet in the area of arts, sports, and life skills.  

The volunteering work that I have done with CARE has been the most interesting, of yet.  The trainees there (that is what we call the students because it is more of a training program than a school), are bright and unique individuals.  Last Friday we had a sports meet for Track and Field.  We only had enough time to train for a couple of weeks prior to the event due to other constraints, but we managed to still take part in the event.  Unfortunately, only three of the trainees could participate that day.   I have a feeling that a few of the others were nervous or whatnot.  Anyhow, the three that did participate did well, and I am proud of them.  

Ed running in the 200 m.
Dwayne making good headway in front of the Odsan athlete on the 200m.
Cheerleaders excited for the races!
The whole group of athletes at the parade before.

My favorite little cheerleader!  She was rooting for us all!

A few weeks prior to the sports meet, we also took part in an annual spelling bee.  We took fourth place, but the trainees that participated did very well.  There were multiple rounds and most of the words were spelled accurately.  

Stephanie thinking about a word really hard.

The annual spelling bee contestants.  

Girl's Circle has been a good time as well.  The girls are working on becoming more responsible, more well-rounded, and more self-confident.  In the last session, we focused on creativity in life to express yourself.  We used play-dough that I made from scratch, painted and created collages from brought materials.  The girls all had a great time, and they really made things that were nice to look at.  

Pictures that were painted by the girls.

Romana painting a pretty little picture.

Katie and Enah working with play dough to create a butterfly through team work skills.

Empowering youth through the avenue of sports and arts may not be as straight forward as say a self-confidence seminar, however, arts and sports can help the individual express themselves in ways that words sometimes cannot.  Youth can learn that they are unique, that they have talent and skills, that they too can create something that is all their own.  Involvement in arts and sports can lead to improvement in education and self-esteem levels.  Youth can find themselves proud of what they create or how they perform, and this can also improve their overall vision of themselves.  

Small sustainability

Why do you put up with that?


I recently had a conversation with another PCV that asked, "why do you put up with that?" in reference to an individual that has not exactly been treating me with a ton of respect. My answer, "Because I believe in people". There was no hesitation in my voice, no second thought, no awkward pause of unknowing; just an immediate answer that I believe sums up my faith in humanity.


A fair number of people in my own life have given me the same respect when I did not deserve it. There have been times where I was the one giving less than appropriate respect to another person and for some strange reason this person continued to give me their love and respect in return. Recently, a student and I were discussing respect. He was mentioning that there was another boy his age that continued to disrespect him. He said with certainty, "If he does not respect me, then why should I respect him, Miss?" At first, I was surprised at how repulsed I was at this question. However, after thinking about it for a couple of minutes I realized how important this is to understanding other cultures in terms of understanding respect between persons. Maybe not only in understanding cultures but also in understanding individuals.



I used myself as an example to answer this student's question. I responded to him, "Well, take this class for instance. The students come into this class, you along with the rest of them, to learn. At times, a few of you will be disruptive in class and not complete their work. This is being disrespectful to both myself and the rest of the students who are working. Does that mean that because you were being disrespectful to us, that we should not respect you in return?" What do you think his answer was? "Hmmm...no, I suppose not. I want you to respect me. And I do respect you, sometimes, I just have trouble concentrating." I smiled when he said this because he understood what I was trying to get at. Two things struck me out of this conversation:

1. Just because it appears someone does not respect you, does not mean that it is actually true. Sometimes the individuals have their own personal issues that are causing them to be selfish in their own actions and thus, they are "blindfolded" from others at times.

2. Just because someone else does not immediately give you their respect does not mean that they do not deserve it in return. Depending on your level of faith, God's will is for us to love unconditionally. I do not usually write in terms of what religion implies on us, but for this sake, I am a strong believer. If you give another person love and respect, in spite of them deserving it, they may just turn around and give another person that same love and respect that you gave to them. It's extremely hard sometimes, don't get me wrong, but there is nothing more essential to human development work than to having faith in other people unconditionally.


I have been pleasantly surprised to see the attitude of this particular student change overtime. Despite his spontaneous and short spurts of ADD, generally, he is a great kid and an intelligent student when he puts his mind to it. Not to mention a worthy athlete and artist. Now, all that is needed is his own recognition of his abilities and then I have managed to affect one person in my work; as small as it is. Small sustainability is perhaps the most important.

"Cook-up" Night with Girl's Circle

Chicken Curry and the Circle!

On Friday night we held the first ever "Cook-up" night for Girl's Circle.  Girl's Circle is a group that works on empowering young females to be responsible, make good decisions, and respect others.  Growing up as a young woman in a community that emphasizes males as the power holders is not an easy experience.  Girl's Circle offers girls ranging from 8 years to 18 years old a place to go to discuss issues that arise from being a young female.  This particular project packet we talk about different things every week that address what it is like to be a girl.  It is intended to be an eight-week "course", but it ends up being more around 16 because of the St. Lucian style of life.  The girls are all unique and energetic, but still are in need of some direction in life.  They are young and just need a few more female role models to guide them in the right direction.  There are around 11 girls in the group so far, but only 8 of them made it to the cook-up night.

A "cook-up" is a time when people get together and cook things up.  Hmmmm, go figure!  Rosemary, one of the Girl's Circle facilitators in addition to myself, makes amazing

 Chicken Curry.  I had expressed desire to learn how to cook a delicious chicken curry a couple of weeks beforehand, and thus, a cook-up resulted.  We cooked chicken curry, plantains, and chocolate cake.  We also made golden apple juice.  The golden apples came

 straight from my backyard, and the juice was absolutely delicious!!!  Every girl was given a task to complete in the cooking process.  Many of the girls were in charge of peeling and cutting the golden apples for preparation stages of making the juice.  Other girls were in charge of cutting onions, blending the juice, helping Rosemary with the chicken, and washing the dishes.  

While the food was busy cooking, a few of the girls went to play monopoly and dance around.  The others stayed up stairs and learned how to cook plantains, watched Camp Rock, and talked with the "adults".  Not much chaos ensued until after dinner and before desert.  It does, however, take a little while to cook food with 8 teen girls at your house!  It took us a total of 4 and a half hours to cook and eat!  

The girls are all amazing girls that I know have so much potential to turn into fine women.  I very much enjoy being around the girls and I am glad that I got to be a part of the group!  I look forward to having them over the next two years.  It is extremely important to empower girls in this age range.  It can make all of the difference in their lives.  If a girl can mold herself into a motivated and strong individual, the world can certainly be changed.  A powerful woman, especially in a community like this one, can do a lot for the community.  She has the potential to have a good job and support her family, be inspiration for

 other young women, and help to mold other girls' lives along the way.  

Christmas in the Caribbean Part 3/3

CLIMBING   ST. LUCIA'S TALLEST MOUNTAIN

Over the Christmas "break" a group of us went up to climb Mt. Gimie. Mt. Gimie is the tallest mountain on St. Lucia at 3,117 ft from the base to the top. We hiked from the beginning of the trailhead in Soufriere. It took us two hours to get from the trailhead to the base near the river and another two hours to get from the base to the top. This is no walk in the park type of trail once you reach the base, however. Mt. Gimie is steep. You are climbing up the mountain for the entirety of the last two hours. So when someone asked me what I did for the weekend, I said with pride, "I climbed another mountain!". Figuratively and physically!  

The hike to the base was fairly easy and had nice scenery.  A few of us got lost along the way for about 15 minutes.  The three guys in front of me decided to sprint up the mountain trail so we accidently missed the subtle pathway and headed towards another direction.  Oops.   We eventually found our way back to the trail and moved along the way.  On the way up, after we passed the base at the river, we saw numerous openings of an amazing view.  It is much darker in the rainforest trails, so when you reach an opening it feels like you are looking out at heaven.  I could hear "ahhhhhhhhhh" everytime we reached one!  Though, I think one of the times was one of my hiking pals singing it outloud.  

Along the way a couple of us saw a few local birds and a tarantula.  I still think that the tarantula was trying to climb the mountain because the poor little bugger was almost to the top!  Benton, a hiking buddy who lives in Trinidad right now, almost stepped on it!   Once we reached the top, most of us had barely missed the view.  It was cloudy that day so we did not get to see much; but it was still worth it.  Just as the third group of us were getting to the top of the mountain, we were all starting to head down again.  It gets dark in the rainforest early in the day, so we had to make good timing!

The way down felt like it took forever.  It had started raining the minute that we had started down the mountain, so we were in for a challenge.  We ended up splitting up into three groups as we were going down.  The first two groups made it back down to the base and back to the trail head by around 8 pm.  It took us about 4 and a half hours to climb down.  The third group, however, took 8 and a half hours to get down!!!!!  We were waiting for them to come back for 4 hours in the van!!!  We actually debated sending in a search party for them.  

During the course of "the wait" we had people talking in their sleep, shared stories of past Mt. Gimie "hikers", learned a few things about each other, and listened to Wayne's collection of 80's music.  We reached back home around 3:00 am in the morning after what had almost been a 24 hour day!   

A Quarter of a Century is worth a million words

I've just spent my 25th birthday in "paradise".  

When I was a young girl I had my life all laid out for me.  I planned on finishing college when I was 21, finding the man of my dreams and a perfect career, marrying by the time I was 24, having children at the ago of 26 or 28, and spending the rest of my life being settled.  Note that I said "When I was a young girl, I had my life all laid out for me".  Ever since I "grew up", I became increasingly aware of the fact that I was nowhere near "settling".  In fact, there were a few things that I needed to accomplish before I could even begin to think about "the rest of my life".  The Peace Corps has always been one of these accomplishments.  

Turning 25 has always been my "fear year".  For some strange reason 25, to me, sounds older than 30 or even 35; even though I know full well I won't think this way when I am 30 I have always thought of 25 as the "defining year".  Perhaps it is the defining year.  I know that in the last 6 months of being 24, I found myself becoming satisfied with who I am and where I am in life.  I am perfectly alright, in fact quite content, that I have not gotten married or "settled" in life.  While I know that the time may be soon on the rising, I am happy where I am at.  25 isn't so scary anymore!  Maybe I am having my quarter-life crisis and this is my poor attempt to justify the human being's certainty of death.  Or perhaps I am just dealing with being another year older; still somewhat caught between being a young adult and an old adult.  25 is the middle age of adulthood.  

Elaine and Ashley walking down the Vigie Beach on Old Year's night day.

Turning 25 on an island, however, was quite possibly one of the best ways to celebrate it.  I was distracted just enough to forget it was my birthday until about an hour before everyone came over to my apartment.  For anyone that knew me previously before I joined the Peace Corps, they would also know that I am not a big fan of my birthday.  For some reason there is something that always goes wrong.  What I found out recently was that the reason why they were often so bad was because I would put too much emphasis on having it go "perfectly".  When they didn't, of course I was let down.  However, this year I went with the flow.  I didn't want to celebrate in any big way.  All I wanted and ever want again for my birthday is to celebrate it with a few of my closest friends or family doing whatever we feel like doing that day.  

Yoko giving her "tough" St. Lucian look that the guys give to her.

That is exactly how I celebrated my New Years in the Caribbean with the Peace Corps.  

Old Year's Night (Aka New Year's Eve) day I spent with two other PCV's at Vigie beach.  We took a walk through the cemetary and just limed.  It was a restful day.   9 other Peace Corps volunteers, Yoko (a Japanese volunteer), and my landlord and I had a spaghetti feed at my apartment and then went down to "the ramp" (the local beach by my place) to watch fireworks.  Of course, almost half of the island had the same idea!  After the ramp, we went to celebrate in the streets of Rodney Bay.  Along with 1,000s of other Lucians (guestimation by Ashley), we roamed the streets and had our fair share of drinks for the new year.  It was a memorable evening.  Nothing too special and nothing too bad.  It was the New Years I was hoping for; just another night out!  Sorry I only have pictures from the Spaghetti feed thanks to suggestions that we leave anything valuable at home due to increased rates of thievery during Old Year's Night celebration.  

Some of the volunteers and my landlord at my apartment during Old Year's Night.

On New Years Day, or my official birthday, a few of us volunteers went over to the Country Director's home for a brunch.  It was a very nice brunch!  I waited for a little while for Justin, another Peace Corps volunteer, to get ready to head up on our way to Margo's.  We were a couple hours late, but Margo warmly invited us in despite.  There were some other volunteers there when we arrived.  After greeting everyone and grabbing some nice OJ, we also were invited to eat in the brunch buffet.  Oh it was so nice to have hot food and delicious, hot food at that.  A variety of egg casseroles were made, in addition to a fresh fruit salad.  Yummy!  After getting in a bite to eat, we all played a game of Scrabble.  Oh how I love Scrabble!  Me and Hallie were on a team.  We did not win, but we came in a close third.  (Yes, it was out of 3).  Margo, as I discovered, is quite the Scrabble player.  She knows all of the words that you would never know in your lifetime unless you memorized the dictionary.  She is my Scrabble idol.  Sorry, Jay, you have been replaced.  

After Margo's house I got to spend a quiet night at my apartment with the company of Hallie.  It was a nice and relaxing birthday night.  All in all, being 25 may sound monumental to some but to others it's just another birthday of getting older.  To me, 25 isn't so bad.  In fact, I kinda like being 25.  How many other people can say that they spent their 25th birthday in the Caribbean while they were in the Peace Corps?  Well one, actually, that I know of....it was Ashley's birthday a short 4 days later!

   Me and Ashley outside my apartment on her 25th birthday.

Christmas Time in St. Lucia 2/3

When work is going slow, live with passion.

      During the holiday season in St. Lucia the workplace slows down and the nightlife speeds up.  More time is spent on "fets" (holidays parties) and more time is spent in the streets catching up.  I was amazed to find out that despite the amount of work to be done, life in the workplace is put on hold.  As we are now continuing on with the new term, I am thankful for the holiday "hold".  I was worried that with so much time just to spend liming with the community I would fall into an anti-work mode.  However, after about three weeks of small events and parties of every kind I am more than ready to get back to working.  

   Christmas in St. Lucia was quite different.  Normally I would be working up until Christmas eve, if not Christmas day.  Here, however, schools and NGOs get out around the 12th of December.  We have a few events in honor of Christmas tradition such as parties and gift baskets to make but most of the holiday is devoted to spending quality time with friends and family.  I love St. Lucian holidays!  

   Working with members of Club 60, I helped put together hampers for Christmas.  In these hampers, we placed household goods including but not limited to:  detergent, soap, rice, baking powder, sugar, flour, candies, juices, and etc.. In order to get 60 baskets to use and have enough supplies for all 60 baskets we had to go from store to store looking for the items.  Fortunately, I did not have to go around shopping for the items because being a PCV, I am carless and would be absolutely no help in the shopping department.  So instead, I helped with organizing the baskets and getting them filled, wrapped, and prepared for the following Monday.  We had a formal give-away day, in which the representative from The Landings was there to help give the hampers out.  Frank Weeks is the representative from The Landings.  They fund a lot of the activities and projects for Grow Well.  Club 60 is one of these funded projects.  Club 60, as I have briefly talked about before on my blogs, is a program for helping to keep the retired active within the community.  The hampers will be an annual event from now on!  The Landings will also be helping to fund the after-school programs that I am working on as we speak.  Thank you Landings!

    It was a pleasure to have been able to finally meet and greet with most of the Club 60 members.  Each of them have a very sweet and compassionate character.  I love each and every one of their smiles!  Not to mention their fascinating personalities...with loads of humor.   I am hoping to work more and more with Club 60 in the future.

    I took part in a few other events such as a Youth Expo in Soufriere working with kids in arts and crafts with a PCV from Soufriere.  We taught the kids how to make bracelets from thread...most of them enjoyed it thoroughly.  It was nice to see even the boys walk out of the classroom wearing what they made from that day and being so darn proud of the final result!  

I am so thankful Hallie offered me a place to help out that day!

    Over the holiday, I did start to miss the kids that I work with at the primary and CARE.  Something about getting to see them on a daily basis makes my work feel meaningful.  Their hugs and excitement everytime they see me lets me know that I am here for a good purpose; for these kids.  I know that I am just one little granule in the overall scheme of their lives but I am faithful that one little granule can make even the slightest difference in the color or texture of the whole pot.  I am ecstatic that school is started up again!  

    During my time "off", I took part in a few hikes as well.  Mt. Gimie and the across the island rainforest trail were the prominent ones.  Look for part 3/3, I will be talking about these hikes.