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!

So much to say, so little time!

So yesterday marked the mid-point of PST (pre-service training). I am both excited and nervous for the next three weeks to come. Assuming that we all make it through the seven weeks of PST, we are sworn-in on, funny enough, Ry's birthday: October 22nd. We move into our own places on October 19th, two days before the swearing-in. I love, love, love my family here but it will be nice to live on my own again, as I have grown quite accustomed to it back in the states. I found out where I will be living (not the exact house) but approx area, and I am pleasantly surprised. I am looking forward to moving closer to the town in which I will be working, Gros Islet.


The mid-training interview went pretty well, I would say. Just as most of my instructors have said in the past, I am quiet in class. Ha ha, what a surprise. I have never been one to be the loud and questionning student, so i am completely aware of being the quiet one. It just takes time. No worries for me.


I began to coach a futbol team at the primary school in Gros Islet on Tuesday, with the PE instructor, Mr. Long. He is only 25, but very knowledgeable in many areas. When it comes to discipling these energetic youth, I am taking notes Jamal! Not only do these kids have LOTS of energy, but they are anxious to get started playing the game. This is both good and bad. It is very hard for me to get them to do the basics. They are constantly trying to be "fancy" and do the more advanced stuff (which I lack at myself), but the basics are the most important part of the game! If you cannot pass straight nor dribble well, then your game is going to be incredibly weak. How do I get it across to these kids that I am trying to make them better players when all they want to do is show-off? That is why I am taking notes from Mr. Long. Though he has only been the PE instructor for a year, he knows how to talk to the kids. With my lack of experience in coaching St. Lucian youth, I will just have to try a variety of tactics to see which one works the best! I made the mistake of wearing a white shirt to practice the other day... it was raining and oh boy, was I dirty by the end of it. Reminder for next time, though the only other tshirt that I brought was one from Lifelong AIDS alliance that promotes condom usage... these kids might be a little young for that. Hmmmmm.



That is another project that I want to get involved with though, healthy lifestyles... in not only sporting but also AIDS and HIV education. I miss working at Lifelong, and I really hope to get involved in the work here... to a much greater extent. So, during the "3-month integration period" I will most likely be finding the right person that I can work with in healthy lifestyle education. Perhaps a few camps or classes can be held...endless possibilities I tell ya! So I am not quite set on this area of work quite yet, but there is interest.



I went out last weekend with my cousin, my brother-in-law, and his friends to the Gros Islet street fair. It was crazy! There was food, music and drinking. It was a lot of fun, and I'm sure that living in Gros Islet, I will find myself there on Friday nights quite often. It really did help me to get to know more people in the community though. It was good to see what all the "youth" of the community do on a weekend! I met a couple of people, which I have been talking to since... hopefully this is the start of making friends in St. Lucia??? The dancing, oh the dancing in St. Lucia... "wining" as they call it here... is very, uhmmm, fun to watch? :P I danced with Trevor, a new friend, and apparently I dance much like a St. Lucian. And apparently that is a good thing!


My brother and sister and cousin are flying to Canada next Sunday. :( They won't be back until Nov. 9th, which by then I will be moved out. It is going to be weird living alone in St. Lucia!


This morning I went to the Grow Well Flea Market Sale. Yay!!! I will be working with Grow Well Inc and the CARE program more in detail after the training. Today, though, I attempted to help a little but there were so many people there in such a small room, I really didn't have any capability of helping; other than making sure that people did not steal things. There was a ton of clothes there, some nice. I got a few things which only cost me a tiny amount of money... it was awesome!! My host mom found some nice things as well. Apparently the flea markets are big in St. Lucia... I am loving it!


Working with Grow Well on Thursday was interesting. The CARE program is such a great program, I am excited to be working with them. The program incorporates emphasis on developmental lessons rather than the typical lessons. For instance, Thursday we discussed Counseling (and what direction to take during an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy), Spirituality, Rap Session, and Public Speaking. It was interesting to see that during the Public Speaking, the students were asked to get up in front of the class and give an impromptu speech! What?!?! I was scared for them. Though after the first couple of tries, the students really began to get good at it. I admired their abilities to do that, as I am not a fan of public speaking myself. There is only one girl in the class, but I am going to try my best to get her to come out of her shell. We played monopoly during the break with the coordinator's 4 year old daughter. It was probably one of the best times during my stay so far in St. Lucia!!!



The boys (which are averaging an age of 16 but look 18-20 (yikes!)) taught me how to play St. Lucia-style dominoes. I won a couple of times then moved on. There are some kids in the class who like to draw, so I am thinking about maybe some arts and crafts programs...now that I can do! I finally invested in some colored pencils last week, and now I have spent some time drawing. Some of the students are really good at it. I'm not sure how long I am going to be helping Mr. Long with the futbol team, or how I am going to schedule the activities. It looks like I will be having to juggle them during the afternoon, unless CARE wants to fit them in during their lessons. Who knows! I'm sure it will become clearer as the weeks move on.


I am currently on my fourth book, and speeding through it quite fast. If anyone feels the need to send me some books, I would appreciate them, though I do have a library in the PC local office, I am sure I will get through all those pretty fast !! :D So one good thing is that I will be living SO close next to one of the only gyms and class centres on St. Lucia!! I'm still not sure how expensive it is, but I am hoping that maybe they need some help with classes or something and might give the poor ol' Peace Corps volunteer a break! I'm hoping that I can meet some people there to branch out communications for healthy lifestyles classes and creating sporting teams for youth and adults...


So it sounds like tonight I am going to a Beach party in Choc, tomorrow I am going to Laborie for a charity BBQ... I'm keeping pretty busy. Next Saturday we are going hiking with Justin, a PCV 77, which is awesome! Yay! I am hoping that I get to shadow one of the 77s so I can see what projects they are working on. It sounds like he had the same issues that I had coming in as far as being productive; but apparently most volunteers do. Since I have been here though, I find myself adopting the more of "it will come" perspective. I hear people say "it will come" all the time, and guess what, it does come! Just like the futbol team work, it came. So give it time, and it will come!


Other than that, lavi bon! (life is good in patois).

Message of the Day

On the radio this morning, the message was :

Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional. Give that a thought... I'll write more later about this...