Too Much Whining

Pre-Service Training in Grenada has been a montage of soca music, shaking of "de bam bam,"sweating profusely, scratching mosquito bites, trying to speak in dialect and failing miserably, trips to the beach, and endless hours of training. If you tried to ask me what I did last week I probably couldn't tell you. I don't even know what day it is, I'm so tired. However, it's mostly been a blast! Those of us who were lucky enough to be sent to Grenada were flown in at one of the most exciting times of the year.

Upon arrival we immediately had a long weekend to celebrate Emancipation Day, which is a celebration of the emancipation of slaves in Grenada in 1834. A very large percentage of Grenadians are descended from African slaves who were brought here through the British transatlantic slave trade. People wear traditional African clothing during the celebration of Emancipation Day, and my town hosts a drum festival where bands march and dance behinds trucks full of people doing African drumming. There was also a concert that showcased the drumming and African dance.

In addition to Emancipation Day, we also got carnival... again! If you read my previous blog posts you probably know that carnival is my favorite thing ever. So obviously I was VERY excited about getting another one. However, I learned very quickly that I need to build some more stamina before attempting Grenada's carnival next year...

My first carnival event in Grenada was White in the Moonlight. This is an all night soca concert where everyone wears white and rely heavily on second winds, third winds, fourth winds... all of the winds. I arrived with my host sister and her husband around 10:30. That was my first mistake. Not drinking Red Bull was my second.

After dancing pretty conservatively due to exhaustion and feeling awkward about not being able to whine adequately, I was feeling pretty tired come 4am. That's when I got a text from another Peace Corps trainee that they had finally arrived. THANK GOD! Somebody to do mediocre whining with me! And it turns out 4am is the best time to show up to this event because that's when the music really gets started. Pretty much upon her arrival the crowd started to go nutzo and Lavaman came up on stage to bring down the house. We danced all the way through the sunrise and morning rain shower waiting for the headlining act- Marshall Montana. I've never experienced a more powerful 8th wind! We danced probably until 9am when my knees started to buckle from being on my feet for 10 hours and my host family decided it was probably best not to kill the new trainee after only a week.

Photo credit: http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com

Next was J'Ouvert. I just want to say that I was not at all prepared for Grenada's J'Ouvert based on what went down in St. Lucia! I probably should've done some research before hand so I could appreciate it the way I do now, having learned about the history. Traditionally, J'Ouvert is a celebration of freedom to do whatever you want- dance as lewdly as you want, dress up however you want, stay out as late as you want. Because of that there tends to be a lot of really raunchy dancing- a woman lying on the ground and having a man thrust at her bam bam, women surrounded by a group a gyrating men, and people hopping from one person to the next without reservation. For me, this was a bit much and it was hard to escape the large numbers of thrusting and grinding pelvises. Thank god for host family human shields! However, even though I didn't want to partake in that kind of dancing myself, I can appreciate the fact that this is a demonstration of what the Grenadians are now allowed to do freely, whereas in the past they would be punished severely for the same behavior.

Photo credit: http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com

In Grenada they also have the Jab Jab, which means "devil devil." The Jab Jab cover themselves in motor oil, wear horns and chains, and carry around an array of objects like doll heads, live snakes (though this is technically illegal), real cow heads, and torches. This form of Jab Jab is strictly a Grenadian thing and will not be seen in any of the other Caribbean islands. While this sounds and looks pretty shocking there's so much history related to the Jab Jab. Way back in the day the French colonizers used to make a mockery of their black slaves for one of their events by dressing up like them and blackening their skin. After they were freed, the former slaves then mocked their masters, who they considered to be "devils."The Jab Jab is a satirical and artistic expression of freedom, however shocking it may seem.

We did it!!

And as exciting as carnival is, I should probably also include that I'm now officially a Peace Corps volunteer! Team Grenada, as we like to call ourselves, swore in a few days ago, performed a skit in dialect which did not go horribly, and spent the whole day feeling very proud of ourselves. Next week we all start setting up for our schools, so our fun will be taking a very different form in the next several months.

Taking our oath

And the sorting hat says...

The last few weeks have been very of busy for us trainees! After six weeks of waiting and worrying, we finally found out our placements for the next two years! Due to all of the nerves we have been experiencing one of the peace corps trainees suggested we find out our islands sorting hat style. So our country director, now known by me as "Dumbledoor," dressed up a party hat she happened to have and called us up to a chair one by one to be "sorted." When my name was called my hands started shaking and I kept repeating "please let me be with a friend, please et me be with a friend" over and over in my head. The sorting hat come down and our country director, shouted "GRENADA!"

I don't think I've ever been more relieved in my life! Grenada has been my top choice for a number of reasons, one of the biggest being the amount of special education work that has been done on the island and increased opportunities to utilize my skills for working with students with special needs as my secondary project. I'm also very happy that I have a great group of volunteers going with me and I won't have to worry about being completely isolated.

We had one final week of training, where we tried our best to spend a lot of time with our friends and host families before saying goodbye. Originally the plan was for us all to depart Saturday morning and to have a half day on Friday so that we could have some last hoorahs with everyone. Well, Tropical Storm Bertha wasn't having any of it. She decided to roll in on Friday, which led to us needing to be consolidated so that it would be easier to get to the airport in the wake of the storm. So instead of having that afternoon to hang out, we all had to rush home, pack, and meet at the consolidation point mid afternoon- leaving behind our host families and the volunteers assigned to St 
Lucia in a very teary goodbye.

Aside from being sad about missing out on Friday afternoon, consolidation actually was pretty great. My roommate and I got there really early and ordered a pizza, which made everyone super jealous. Sorry not sorry! We also went swimming in the pool, had a great buffet dinner, and had some quality time with the rest of the trainees. The. It was a 4am wake up call to depart for our respective islands.

Upon arrival in Grenada we were greeted by the current volunteers serving in Grenada, and some of the PC staff. We were given necklaces with different local spices on them since Grenada is called The Spice Isle.  I was very thankful for having something to cover up  whatever smells my clothes had acquired after a long morning of traveling. 

My host mom  picked me up from the Peace Corps office in St. George's, and drove me about 45 minutes though the mountains and rainforest to my new home just outside Grenville. Grenville is one of the bigger cities on Grenada, and my school is also very urban. Between a fire and a hurricane the original building was damaged so badly it couldn't be used. Several wooden buildings were put up, I'm told initially as a temporary solution, and are still being used today. Because of the way they were constructs there aren't actual classrooms, rather there are blackboards used to separate the space. I'm told there's lots of kids and I should expect quite a bit of noise. I'll find out for sure in about a month when I start working, but for now I'm just soaking it all in!

Carnival!

My body hurts! Yesterday was jam packed with dancing and singing in celebration of St Lucia's carnival, and it also just happened to be my birthday. It's gonna be pretty hard to top this next year!

Covered in mud, and I don't care!

My day started at 2:30am when I woke up to attend J'Ouvert, which is basically an early morning kick off party for Carnival. I headed out with my friend, Grace, her host brother and some of his friends. We spent the first hour or so just observing and trying to figure out how people dance the way they do. You basically have to have full control of your butt so you can move it in every possible way without the rest of your body moving. Despite hours of practicing I'm still not able to wine. I'm pretty sure some people laughed when I tried. I don't blame them!

As the sun started to rise we made our way further into Castries, down to where the judging stage is for parade of the bands to dance and see the bands.The bands that were walking in the morning weren't the bands that were competing in the afternoon, but they were all about fun! One of the bands covered themselves and others in mud. We were the "others!" I was just standing innocently on the sidewalk and some chick just came up and smeared mud all over my chest. It only got worse- my arms, legs, face, hair, clothes, and inside my ears! That last one was only discovered several hours later.

We spent several hours listening to the same four songs- Kabawe (the rum shop song), Balanga, Whining in a Circle, and the song of this years carnival, Hurt It. Still don't know what it means but I found myself just randomly yelling "Hurt It" along with everyone else. The party finally ended a little after 7am and we all piled back into the car, trying our hardest to keep the mud on our bodies and not the seats. You can probably guess how well that worked!

After a power nap and a bucket bath, which for the record is pretty useless when you're caked in mud,  it was time for the REAL party! Three of us got a ride down from my mom just in time to see the first band come through. The whole parade lasted a few hours, and just when you thought you saw the craziest person another band came by in a skimpier bikini, men on horseback dressed as Trojans, and of course somebody dropping their head to the floor and shaking their butt in your face. Because obviously.

While walking around we found a discarded belt with fringes and neon gems. So naturally I told my friend to grab it and then I wore it the rest of the day. I've already decided I'm jumping next year just so I can be covered in glitter, gems, and feathers!

It was also really funny to think that many of the people jumping are total professionals outside of Carnival. In the US you'd probably be judged for wearing the types of outfits I saw in public, and depending on your job you may even lose respect. But here it was just part of the celebration, and in this situation anything goes! My kind of people!

 Throughout the rest of the afternoon my group of 3 continued to acquire friends as we walked further into Castries, until I ended up seeing most of my new PC friends, which was all I really wanted for my birthday! And in true St. Lucia style we packed 10 of us into my host mom's SUV, including one person standing through the sunroof. Quite possibly the most fun I've ever had on a car ride!

 I got really lucky with this nation-wide birthday party, and I want to send a big "thank you" to everyone who came out and made my day extra special. I LOVE PEACE CORPS!!!

Trying to have a costume with
these colors when I jump!!

So excited to dance!

Me and my cool belt that we found.

The Baby Incident

So much for updating once a week! I’ve been pretty busy with training, exploring St. Lucia, and just being a boss, so here’s one massive story/photo dump. I give you permission to skip to the end for the best part!

In the last few weeks I’ve been to the sulfur springs in Soufriere, which is basically a black, smelly hot tub that’s heated by a volcano, and to a few different beaches, including Pigeon Point, which is my new favorite. At Pigeon Point, some people from my group met this guy, Edward, who was octopus hunting and brought them along for the experience. They got octopus, cuttlefish, and a few types of unidentified fish. I’m definitely trying to find Edward once I get me snorkeling gear!

For the 4^th of July one host family decided to have a barbecue, which was probably the best idea anyone has ever had! We ate a lot, danced a bit, played some card games, and had an overall awesome time. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, our host decided to set some steel wool on fire and swing it around like some sort of sparkler on steroids. It was all very American.

Alright, so now that I’ve gotten that update out of the way I figure I should probably let you know about the work I’ve been doing so you don’t think I’m just bumming around 24/7. That’s just the weekends.

In training we’ve talked about a lot of different things- health and safety, cross cultural differences, education, etc- but in the last few weeks our main focus has been literacy training, which is what I’ll be doing for the next 2 years. This pretty much entails dumping a bunch of information on us as fast as humanly possible so that we have everything we need in order to do our jobs. For me, most of this is review because I studied elementary education as an undergrad and then speech pathology as a grad student. So I’ve got this whole education thing down.

Other people, not so much. There are quite a few of us who have never taught at all or taught much older students, and they’re getting several years worth of college in just a few weeks, so naturally they are feeling overwhelmed. I’d probably be crying in a corner eating ice cream if I were them. That being said, we are getting really great information and honestly I don’t see how else they could provide us with so much given the short amount of time the PC allots for training. I think in the long run it will be very helpful to have had so much info, but for now it’s feeling like a lot.

Because we’ve been so stressed my rooftop has become increasingly more popular. My host mom has an amazing view of the ocean and sunset, so anytime we have a bad day at training several of us just go and watch the sunset on my roof. So it’s pretty much on a daily basis. This week was especially stressful because we are planning for model school next week, so on Friday I had a pretty baller rooftop party. Well, pretty great until “The Baby Incident.”

M host mom’s best friend’s daughter, Tara, needed a place to crash with her 17month old for a few days until her new apartment was ready so she stayed in the spare bedroom at our house. On the night of the rooftop party my host mom and Tara left to go do something, and we continued living our lives.

After about an hour or so, one of my friends went downstairs and discovered that they had left the baby home, presumably thinking we’d be home and able to check up on her. Except nobody told us. Not only that, but the baby got sick and puked on the floor and all over my friend. So I’m having a grand ol’ time on my roof and then I just hear a very nervous “Christinaaaaa,” and I turn around to see my friend covered in puke, holding the baby over a bush so she can continue puking. So then I grabbed the baby, got puked on, and nearly slipped in vomit trying to get her to the bathroom. Thank god for my friends because they all helped to clean up the mess, and I don’t do well with other people’s vomit. We’re lucky it was just the baby’s puke that we were cleaning up. My host mom and Tara come home just as we’re finishing the clean up, of course, and laughed about it as I wiped carrot chunks off my dress. Maybe this is a difference in culture, and in retrospect it was kind of funny, but that night will forever be known as “The Baby Incident.”

PST Week 1

I've successfully completed my first week of Pre-Service Training (PST)! Really, all that means is I was able to get myself out of bed in the morning and make the 5 minute walk to the training center every day. Nothing too intense. One time my homestay mom (let's call her Lanette... because why not!) even drove me to the training site because it was raining. She literally dropped me off at the door so when I stepped out of the car I was inside. Rough life. Sorry to everyone who had to wait in the rain for the bus!

But as easy as the week was, the weekend was even easier! In my mind the weekend started on Friday afternoon when we were all let loose on the town of Castries. We walked through the market, some square with a fountain, and walked by a church that was having a funeral service. We were supposed to be doing a scavenger hunt to familiarize ourselves with the town, but we ended up at Church's Chicken and Dominos. So I'm going to go ahead and say my team won. Don't hate the playas, hate the game.

On Saturday Lanette decided we should make "bakes" or "floats." It's similar to the fried dough you'd get at fairs in the US, but not as sweet and MUCH better. Basically you take about 3cups of flour (I'm completely guessing here because we didn't measure so you should probably look up a real recipe) and you mix it with a spoonful of salt, two spoonfuls of sugar, and a packet of yeast. Then you pile it up and make a big hole in the middle with a spoon, which you fill up with warm water. You then gently kneed it and adjust the water/flour so that it is not too sticky. Cover it with a dish cloth for about an hour to rise, and when it's done rising you pull off bits a little larger than a golf ball and flatten them like a mini pizza. You deep fry these until golden brown on each side. We added cheese to ours, but you can add whatever fillings you want, or eat it plain. I plan on having these every day for the rest of my life, because YOLO.

Me being a jerk to the octopus for the sake
of this shot

On Saturday I also finally had a chance to go to the beach!! Those of you who know me well can probably guess that I stayed in the water for roughly 2 hours. And it was GLORIOUS. The water was the perfect temperature and a beautiful blue-green color. While we were straight up chillin, someone from our group spotted a creature practically crawling out of the water like something out of a horror film. Turns out it was a Blanket Octopus, which are rarely sighted and typically live in the deeper waters. It was pretty majestic until we all crowded around it and she detached a limb in order to confuse us and escape. Sorry little friend!

Blanket Octopus

After feeling mighty sunburned we made our way back up to Babonneau. Feeling like a boss, I confidently led myself and my friend to the bus stop. After at least 15 minutes of no Babonneau buses some kind soul realized we actually had no idea what we were doing and pointed us in the direction of the REAL bus stop.  Well that wasn't exactly the right bus either because it only took us part of the way. After a somewhat awkward bus ride we still had to walk up the hill to our neighborhood, which is no 

fun when you're sunburned and its 85, humid, and sunny. 

Later on that night Lanette brought me out for food at a little bar owned by her friend, Sam (who also happens to be the guy who announces the obituaries on the radio for about an hour every morning). He had prepared blackfish, which supposedly helps men be more... manly? I was not willing to get my own serving, but I tried some of Lanette's. The fleshy part was ok, but then they made me eat the skin so they could see my reaction, and that was not so good. It was thick, chewy, and fishy. I probably should've seen it coming. I also didn't know until just a few minutes ago that blackfish is actually pilot whale fin, which makes me incredibly sad and I wish I had know that before trying it. 

On a happier note, I also got offered to be the first lady by some guy who kept buying us beers and was joking about what would happen if, for some reason, he were appointed Prime Minister. Probably never going to happen but I'll consider it. Trying to get that yacht! 

If you made it this far I thank you for sticking with it, and I bid you adieu. Until next time! Love always, the future first lady of St. Lucia.

Look out St. Lucia- I'VE ARRIVED!

Where to begin! It's been five days since I left Boston to serve with the Peace Corps in the Eastern Caribbean, and I've already had so many experiences! I'll be keeping it short so I don't bore you, but here's a super quick overview of what's happened so far...

I arrived in Miami for an afternoon of "staging" feeling very sad about leaving my old life behind and very anxious about my new one. My biggest concern was being able to make friends, which became even more concerning when I arrived at my hotel and realized a lot of people had already arrived and had started making friends. Playing catch up is never fun! Luckily, as I waited in line to register for staging, a group of fellow trainees adopted me and it's been smooth sailing ever since. When you get down to it we are all here because we share a common goal and we are all crazy enough to be signing up for this, so it's really very easy for us all to get along. I feel very lucky to be part of a tight knit group that includes and embraces everyone, regardless of their differences.

Upon our arrival in St. Lucia the following day we were greeted by PC staff, who helped us get through customs and brought us to our first home- the Benedictine Abbey. My two 49lb (of the 50lbs/bag allowed!) suitcases both made it perfectly in tact! Lucky for me there were plenty of strapping young men willing to carry them for me :) They were also there to help my roommate and I with our leaky toilet and finicky air conditioner (at least we had AC!!!).

The abbey was more than I had really expected- wifi, AC, delicious food, and beautiful views of St. Lucia! It was a great environment for us to continue getting to know one another through walk abouts, card games, group meals, and of course the FIFA World Cup. We stayed here for the weekend and got an introduction to our program, its staff, and medical training. Basically we learned we are all going to get Dengue and/or Chikingunya, parasites, diarrhea, and fungal infections. Yay!

On Sunday we transferred to Babonneau, where we met our homestay families for the first time. My homestay mom is a primary school principle, and she has a daughter a few years younger than me and a 7 year old granddaughter. My room in her house is very nice, with a private bathroom and balcony with the view of the ocean! My first night she taught me to cook rice with lentils, and tuna seasoned with peppers, onion, and parsley from her garden. We also took a trip to her school to get water because her house has not had water in 4 weeks due to the serious drought affecting Babonneau and other regions of St. Lucia. I had my first bucket bath! It's definitely a good thing that I learn how to do daily activities without running water because on St. Lucia you never know when a drought or storm will take away your water supply.

Today was our first official day of training. I was lucky to have a meager 7 minute walk to the training site, when others had to take a 45 minute bus ride! However, I was brought to a whole new level of sweat and stink between the steep hill I had to climb, hot sun, and lack of breeze inside the training center! I'm really hoping my body gets used to this heat! And we were stuck together from 8:30-5! PEE-EEEW! Sorry guys!

For the next 7 weeks I will be hanging out here in Babonneau, and living with my homestay mom. Over the next several weeks will will receive language training for Kweyol, education and literacy instruction training, cultural training, safety/security training, and a few other things. Stay tuned!

View from the abbey

A disturbingly green pond

You can tell there's been a draught!

My room was the second balcony on the top floor!