"C" is for Baby

My first month of my integration phase has gotten off to a promising start. Every day I've been visiting community organizations and schools where I'll be involved and slowly getting my bearings with how everything runs. Nothing is set in stone during these 3 months of integration as far as where I'll be working, but I'm already interested in 2 of the programs where I've had great interactions with the youth.

The Bel Air Home for Children is for kids taken out of abusive or neglectful families, and there are about 35 children ranging in ages 1-18. From the first day, it was apparent how much these kids just need to be loved. The environment they're coming from has obviously played a major toll on their behavior, and some of them are mentally or physically disabled. I've been spending most of my time in the nursery with the 15 kids under the age of 7, who are are always bouncing off the walls. I do whatever I can while I'm there...sing the boys' favorite song "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" to them, clean up bodily fluids, feed the babies, read books to the attentive ones, and attempt to keep them from killing each other over spilled popcorn. So they always keep me on my toes. One of my favorite stories so far is the day my friends Lauren, Megan, and I were sitting in on the preschool class and Lauren decided to read the Anne Geddes ABC book to them. This is the artist who uses babies in all her subject matter, so every page has a baby dressed in something that corresponds with that letter. But every time Lauren turned the page and asked the kids what it was, they would yell "Baby!" So it became "C is for...Baby!" and the way down to "Z is for...Baby!" It was hysterical. I mean, how could you blame them? That lady is confusing.

The Limes After School Program is held in the afternoons in a large abandoned disco and there are usually 15-30 kids of all ages that come. They get help with their homework, practice reading aloud, draw, or just play around with their friends. It's pretty unorganized so far and I just came to observe in the beginning, but the kids latched right onto me, so I felt like I've been there all along.

Good morning darling!

This is one of the more pleasant greetings I get on my daily walks in town. Let me just say that the Grenadian men are never short for words...or marriage proposals...or obscene ways to shock you before it's even noon.

Well, it's been a month since living on my own and I'm really finding enjoyment in the simple pleasures:
-cooking for myself and finding creative ways to use the leftover contents in my fridge
-reading my 10th book since being here
-learning the guitar...I can play an entire song now!
-being the only one under the age of 50 in the Presbyterian Church choir
-walking on the beach at dusk every week with my hostmom Jessie and having Taco Night at her house

-karaoke nights with the other volunteers, where we're not sure if the locals are laughing at us or with us

-making local friends my age and getting to see a different side of Grenadian culture

Home Sweet Home

I moved into my new apartment right in the heart of town! And it's meant to be because I, Rachel, now live on Green Street (as in Rachel Green from "Friends"). It's very cozy, has a washing machine (glory hallelujah!), and comes already furnished so all I had to do was stock up my fridge!

Come sail away!

This weekend we sailed (with an older British friend of ours) to Grenada's sister island of Carriacou for the Annual Hash. It turned out to be quite the epic hash, traversing the entire island for 4 hours and ending with a sunset swim in the ocean with our clothes.

I've been upgraded

I'm no longer a trainee, but now officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! The past 4 weeks have been full of interesting training sessions and meeting influential community members (including the former Prime Minister George Brizan, 2 famous Grenadian playwrights, Chief of Police, several NGO presidents, and my neighbor George Grant who has his own radio show...and makes delicious Chinese food). Another highlight was learning about the Grenada Revolution in the 1970's-1980's, and how it's still such a controversial topic today and therefore not even taught in schools. The Peace Corps staff said we now know more about it than anyone our age. I was also reminded of how small our world is. During the US intervention in 1983, one of my father's Marine Corps friends was shot down in his helicopter in the field directly across the street from the house I'm living in right now, and my homestay grandmother witnessed the entire thing.

We've also been fortunate to hear many testimonies from individuals whose lives are taboo subjects in Grenada...adolescent motherhood, drug addiction, living with HIV. It's inspiring to meet these people, and also those who've given them a second chance at life. I'm growing even more excited to get involved and see where I can fit into the puzzle. I can't describe the feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself.

I get to live here?

In between Peace Corps training sessions, how could I not take advantage of the beautiful landscape Grenada has to offer...fishing for tuna, snorkeling, swimming at multitudes of beaches, and jumping off waterfalls.





Another thing we've been introduced to is the "Hash," a tradition brought here by the British which is basically a choose-your-own-adventure hike. Locals, expats, and university students meet together every other Saturday to walk or run a trail set out with piles of shredded paper, including false trails which sometimes lead to backtracking. We sweat like animals, but it had some great ocean views along the way and was worth it in the end. And since Hashers are known as "drinkers with a running problems," we got initiated by being dowsed in beer. Sweat + beer = glorious aroma.

Sandflies trump mosquitos

My first week here has already flown by! The 12 other new volunteers and I have been all over St. George's, had sessions on the Caribbean slang language, learned more about the devastation that Hurricane Ivan caused in 2004, walked around town to familiarize ourselves with the local people and markets, visited a Nutmeg Processing Plant (Grenada is the #2 nutmeg exporter in the world), went to the Fish Friday in Gouyave and heard their awesome steel pan band, and all this while being eaten alive by sandflies. They are impossible to catch and then burrow themselves in your skin. In short...they are the devil. Otherwise, I've been having a great time meeting the people I'll be working with and getting to know my community on foot....and building my calf muscles since you can't walk for 5 minutes in Grenada without climbing a hill.

Hello Grenada!

Just to catch you up...I joined the Peace Corps! I flew into Grenada this morning and found out I'll be living in the capital of St. George's for the next 2 years, which is a beautiful harbor town set against the lush hills on the Caribbean side of the island. I was anticipating getting placed way out in the sticks, having the typical "Peace Corps experience" and washing my laundry in the river, but I'm just as happy to be in town because of all the opportunities and organizations there are to work with. As someone told me, community development is needed at every level, no matter how stable things may appear on the surface. So I'm excited to see where I can get involved. The challenge will be not diving in head first...they told us to take it easy the first 3 months and focus on building relationships and slowly integrating...or "liming with a purpose."

Hurricane Dean

Apparently I'm a heavier sleeper than I thought because I snoozed right through the hurricane last night and this morning (which is saying a lot because even just the rain on these metal roofs is LOUD!). I also love lightning storms so maybe that had a calming effect on me as well. Anyway, Hurricane Dean passed through St. Lucia without doing too much structural damage, but unfortunately wiped out a lot of banana crops on the eastern side of the island. All of us volunteers were bunkered down in our homes so we weren't blown away. The electricity and water were shut off though, so I had my first experience showering with a bucket.

We're scheduled to leave for Grenada tomorrow, but all the flights are being pushed back so we'll have to wait and see. I'm just glad we survived our first hurricane. And I'm happy to be spending more time with my homestay family, who have been nothing but wonderful!

Goodbye St. Lucia!

The past 2 weeks we've been working in small groups with various community organizations, in order to get our feet wet and practice facilitation and strategic planning. So this week, we gave a final presentation to the group and were so excited with how well everything came together. It was an added bonus when the group leader told us we did all their work for them, which was a huge encouragement to us.

I was also elated to get to play volleyball one night with the locals and some of the volunteers. It felt so good to get out on the court again, no matter how hard the guys were spiking. Not so great when the nurse told me the next morning that my wrist was sprained, but what's a flesh wound?

The second to last day, we volunteers held a Day Camp for the kids of the Mon Repos community focusing on the theme "Healthy Communities: Inside & Out" and had a great turnout. I co-facilitated the team-building games station and it was awesome to see everyone working together beyond what we had planned. So much energy in these guys!

Our final day of training was eerie. Not only did we have to say goodbye to 70 people we had just spent the last 3 intensive weeks with (we felt like kids at summer camp), but also were being told of a hurricane closing in on St. Lucia. So after the guacamole-making festivities and goodbyes, the staff cut the day short and had us all bunker down in our homes until further notice. First hurricane in the Caribbean, here we go.

I will never take espresso for granted

Training was pretty tiring this week and the weather attempted to ruin our fun, but we made the most of it and played a series of ultimate frisbee and tackle soccer games with the locals in the rain. Which as you can imagine just turned into an all-out mud brawl and we eventually called it a night when we couldn't tell what color our shirts had begun.

This weekend we went to a Fish Fry in a small fishing town called Anse La Raye, which is a street party where the locals cook up all kinds of seafood & baked goods, play Soca music, and just hang out along the waterfront. And of course there was karaoke again (they LOVE it here), and the night ended with about 50 of us volunteers joining together for the most boisterous rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" that I've ever experienced. It was amazing. I also found a stray kitten that I tried to take home, but my friends mentioned something about rabies.

Other highlights of the weekend were Culture Night (where the volunteers and community members came together to perform their talents), finding a cafe that sold cappuccinos, going to a local dance hall (yet unfortunately discovering their favorite music is country), watching a meteor shower, and sleeping for 12 hours one night, only to have my 2 year-old homestay sister come into my room and run back to her granny yelling "Rachel is dead!"

Gros Piton...check!

St. Lucia has 2 prominent peaks jutting out of the sea called the Pitons (Petit Piton and Gros Piton) and half of us volunteers just conquered Gros! I'm still not sure how my quads didn't explode on the 8 million stone steps up or how my knees didn't give out on the 8 million back down. We all felt like champions, but our legs were jello for the next 2 days. Totally worth it though.

This weekend we had a beach picnic with all of the volunteers and their host families, where we made a mess of ourselves with the fresh fruit and played in the water all day like kids. Then in the evening, we hit up the local karaoke night where friends of mine graced the audience with a riveting duet of Aladdin's "A Whole New World." Complete with hand motions and off-pitch tones.

Did I mention mosquitos love me?

For the next 3 weeks in St. Lucia, we'll be training in a rural village called Mon Repos while living with homestay families. I jumped right into the action by attending a wedding with my homestay mom, of which my favorite cultural moment was the Celine Dion marathon blasting over the speakers at the reception. Classic. The heat and humidity is also pretty intense here, so it looks like I'll be glued to my fan for the next 2 years. (example: Mike Brady)

Rainy Season in the Caribbean has also begun and life literally comes to a screeching halt when it starts to rain...and I mean dump. The sky opens up and empties every droplet of moisture. So the weather pretty much controls our daily life, but sometimes it's nice to just sit back and wait for it to let up. Except when you're at the beach, which then in our case, we just jumped in the ocean and swam anyway. Was it bad that there was lightning in the distance?

At the end of the week, we received our island placements and I found out I'm going to GRENADA! I'm even more excited because we have an exceptionally fun group and and a solid island director. We celebrated by hitting up the local bakery and eating way too many coconut turnovers...mmm!

I joined the Peace Corps!

The past 2 days in Miami were filled with Peace Corps orientation sessions with 70 other volunteers, so we're all very anxious to finally fly to St. Lucia today! I've already met some great people and am extremely excited about the possibilities ahead of us.