March for the Disabled

I got a kitten!

St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Lauren, Megan, Andrew, Kris, Paul, and I all went to St. Vincent & the Grenadines for 5 days and had a blast! We visited the gorgeous Owia Salt Ponds...

spent a night on Bequia island...

hiked the active volcano La Soufriere (which also meant traversing the entire north part of the island with our backpacks for 9 hours)...

jumped off ocean cliffs in Chateau Bel Air (and swam for our lives when we spotted a shark about 50 yards away!)...

All thanks goes to the Vincy Peace Corps volunteers who took such great care of us and planned out our whole trip!

Peace Corps Director Visits Grenada

We were honored to have the Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter visit Grenada, especially since we were only 1 of 2 islands in the Eastern Caribbean that he was able to fit in (good choice if I might say so myself). We had a luncheon at the beautiful & historic plantation house in Mt. Fendue and discussed the current changes going on within the Peace Corps and the world in general (i.e. the food crisis). It was a pleasure to meet such an intelligent and genuine man, and reassuring to see that even the "higher ups" of the Peace Corps are as compassionate and authentic as the ground level.

Mama Howard's visit

My mom came to visit me this week! It was so refreshing to see her and so fun to show her my world down here. She got to do everything from touring Fort George with my Grensave class...

having a relaxing day on the beach...

visiting some of the island’s gardens and the cocoa plantation...

going to the Tivoli Drumfest and meeting my crazy friends...

snorkeling at the underwater statues and being swarmed by fish...

watching my volleyball practice, helping me teach at the Limes Program, having dinner with my homestay family, meeting my director Franka, having dinner with my community partners, treating me to sushi and a pedicure, and even helping me clean my apartment! Aren't Moms the best? We had so much fun and of course it wasn't enough time with her. Let's see if she thinks I'm worth it to fly for another 20+ hours on 3 different planes to do it again. I love you Mom!

HIV Health Fairs

Following the HIV/AIDS workshop that I attended in St. Lucia, a co-worker and I set up tables at health fairs in 2 poorer communities. We had a great turnout at both and were able to reach about 200 people in total, ages 16 to about 60. At the first fair, we conducted both male and female condom demonstrations and distributed approximately 1,000 condoms to the surrounding community, while educating them on HIV and STI’s. We found that the photographs of infected body parts were especially effective in getting their attention...you would understand if you saw them too. The small shop owners were very receptive to us and welcomed the information. At the second fair, we had an even larger crowd (and more men) and they were especially captivated by the visual tools illustrating the female anatomy and the female condom. It was exciting how many people showed interest and were willing to learn more about how they can personally prevent the spread of HIV.

Yo quiero tacos!

Peace Corps Goal #2. To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the people served.

I brought tacos to my friends. Lisa and Junior had NEVER had them before, much less even knew what a tortilla was! What??? Ummm, you're welcome.

Tobago

This week I went to Tobago…as part of my job! I went to a Peer Counseling Trainers Workshop with 2 of my co-workers from Hope-Pals, an HIV/AIDS advocacy group I work with, and we got to stay at an all-inclusive resort (thank you Red Cross International)! The training sessions were really interesting and it was even more of an experience for me to hear so many stories firsthand from people who are HIV+. It made the material much more real. By the end of the week, I scored high enough marks on my exams and teach-back session that I received my Trainer’s Certificate!

Our last and only free day on the island consisted of me taking my 62-year old friend Keith and our taxi driver on a wild goose chase to try to find the sites where "Swiss Family Robinson" was filmed. No one I spoke with seemed to know what movie I was talking about, but oddly enough, the random taxi driver had grown up on the land where the film crew had camped for part of the time! Obviously a lot had changed since 1960, but he remembered most of the locations and I was able to narrate for him what happened in each spot. It was quite humorous, and cool to know I was walking where Fritz, Ernst, and Francis had roamed.

St. George's Volleyball

This was our 2nd official volleyball game against Grenville and we are still undefeated!

The men played as well, but unfortunately lost this time...I blame the rain. Lisa and I still had fun keeping score and getting soaked though.

Football...not soccer

I'm finally learning to say it correctly.

Today was a great day. Not only did Grenada kill the US Virgin Islands 10-0, but Brady, Andrew, and I all got jerseys from the players after the game! All I had to do was ask, but I think there was a little more begging involved on the guys' parts. Ahhh, it finally pays to be a woman down here! Then we all played in the rain and acted like groupies by stalking one of the players named Shane...one of our new favorites, if not only for his sweet mohawk.

Beach Day with the Limes kids

Just another day at the beach with some of my kids from the Limes program...

Happy Easter! (part 2)

I spent Easter weekend at Lauren's house in the country with her and Megan, and we had such a relaxing time together. We mostly stayed in our pajamas and watched TV, a novelty I don't have, but surprisingly don't miss too much. Lauren also surprised us with candy baskets on Easter morning just like my Mom used to (a.k.a. a plastic ice cream tub with construction paper taped on...haha, oh the Peace Corps resourcefulness). My favorite part was that some of her neighbor kids were sweet enough to make us kites so we relived our childhood and flew them on the ridge at sunset...me singing "Let's go fly a kite" all the while.

Happy Easter!

"Miss, did you MAKE this?"
"Why, yes I DID boil that egg...all by myself."
"It's delicious!"

Oh to be appreciated by young minds who don't yet know the uncomplicated process of boiling an egg. I brought in some hard-boiled eggs so my kids at the Limes Program could learn how to dye the eggshells and decorate them for Easter. They told me they had never done this before or had even heard of it...to which I was in shock. Although I couldn't blame them because the tradition doesn't make much sense to me in the first place, but hey...it's fun and easy and they colored those eggs like it was nobody's business. And about 5 minutes after we had finished, a few of the boys couldn't wait any longer and cracked them open to eat.

Grensave's International Food & Drink Day

One of the NGO's I work with had their big annual fundraiser today, where there is live music, dancing, and booths representing countries from all over the world selling their local cuisine. I was in charge of coordinating the Children's Village outside and got some of the other PC volunteers to help me man the toy raffle, face painting, and Bouncy Castle...which was the biggest hit by far! I believe I heard the words "The Bouncy Castle is the greatest place in the world!" escape one child's mouth. We had a great turnout overall and made a great profit...thanks especially to giant inflatable structures.

Mustaches...they're not just for the French.

In honor of our friend Nicole's 25th birthday, we celebrated like normal grown-ups and had a "Mustache/ White Shirt & Sharpie" party. What does one do at this type of party, might you ask?
Rule #1. You must wear white in order for your friends to draw graffiti on you throughout the night.
Rule #2. You must come bearing a mustache...whether this be grown, drawn on, or attached somehow.

I opted for a creepy, curly 'stache similar to "V for Vendetta" and had it sketched on with eye liner. My friends had everything from the "Hitler patch" to the "Yosemite Sam" waterfalls of chin hair, which Lauren made with construction paper and taped to her face! We were classy, let me tell you!


Although this all lasted only about 30 minutes. I was standing still so someone could write on my back and so I asked Lauren if she could hand me some cake to tide me over (a girl's gotta eat). She saw this as a prime opportunity, and I don't blame her, to shove the ENTIRE piece of cake into my mouth and then smear the chocolate frosting all over my face...thus the food fight ensued! Let's just say one thing led to another and later we were cleaning cake and salsa dip and whatever else was once an appetizer, off every surface of the kitchen and living room. There was definitely cake on the ceiling too. It was fantastic! Although it does sadden me a little that so much perfectly good chocolate cake ended up on the floors rather than in my mouth.

AIDS doesn't discriminate...why do we?

This week I flew out to St. Lucia for an HIV/AIDS workshop funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, designed for some of the Peace Corps volunteers and our community partners who are working in the field of HIV awareness. Our facilitators were from all over the Caribbean and did an excellent job teaching and leading us in activities surrounding the topics of the biology of the virus, stigma & discrimination, prevention & intervention techniques, raising awareness, and planning specific projects for each of our communities. We also had 3 HIV+ guest speakers who bravely shared their stories with us and left some of us in tears. I was in awe of the bold approach they take on life and how they aren't afraid to speak out and be the face of HIV. HIV/AIDS is still such a fragile subject here and some have been practically ostracized from their friends and family once their status is made known, not to mention the treatment their children get, even though they made not be HIV+. All in all, the conference was exceptional and the trainers were great at what they do...very engaging and so much fun to learn from!



Then I got to spend the weekend with my good friends Lilly (a volunteer on St. Lucia) and Adam (St. Kitts & Nevis) down in Lilly's fishing village of Anse la Raye! We had so much fun just unwinding, cooking meals together, singing karaoke at the Fish Fry, hitting up the beach, and going on long walks. It was also great to see Lilly in her element with her community...teaching PE at the primary school, her daily walking club with whichever women and children want to come along, playing violin in her church, getting personal updates from her postman, and my all-time favorite...they have a town crier! You pay him a few bucks and at 5pm he starts ringing his cow bell and spreads the news! I love it! Needless to say, great times were had!

Happy Birthday Shereen!

One of my favorite girls from the Limes Program turned 18 this week! She's a huge support to me during classes and helps me keep the kids from causing too much destruction. They have to listen to her too because she's related to most of them and they'll have to answer to their mothers later if they misbehave, haha! So I took her out for ice cream on her birthday and then later we had a party at her house with the whole neighborhood. She pretends she's shy and avoids the camera at all cost (hence why she's not in many of these photos), but I got one of her!