8/12/02
It’s been a busy few days.
Last week was more of the same kind of training.
Some of the people have taken a real negative attitude on it too.
It’s kind of annoying for a number of reasons.
First off, we’re all at the same training.
It’s boring for everyone, but most of us manage to deal with it
and not complain constantly. Secondly,
in the
Eastern Caribbean
we have the shortest training compared to any other Peace Corps region.
Most of them have 3 months or more of training, and we have 3
weeks. I think we can handle
it for that long. Also, most
other regions also have language training, which I can imagine would be
incredibly slow-going. Then
thirdly, I was talking with Shanet, my host
sister. She asked how much
we have to pay to be in the Peace Corps.
I told her that it’s free and that we actually get paid for
everything and have to go through a selection process.
She couldn’t understand why anyone would not want to
go.
I know that it’s meant for some people and not for others, but
at the same time if you went through all the processes, you made it.
If these people really wanted to be here, you’d think they
could handle it! We all need
to vent at times, but there are about 3 people who take it to the
extreme.
This
is our last week for this part of training, and our last week all
together and with the host families.
I’m anxious to find out what will be next, but at the same time
it will be sad to leave the host families and to split up all the
Trainees.
Last Thursday was “culture night”.
They do it every year, and it’s a night where the Trainees and
members of the community do skits and dances.
I headed up a group doing a Survivor
skit. I’ve never actually
watched the show, but the premise is obvious enough.
I wrote the skit, and I thought it was relatively amusing, if I
do say so, and the people who acted in it were good too.
Our rehearsal was funny, but it really fell apart on stage.
It was embarrassing. There
were some technical difficulties with the sound system, and with some
people who decided to change their lines at the last minute.
But also I think the audience was not as familiar with the show
as we thought they were. American
TV is very common here, but not to the annoying level it is in the
states. Nonetheless, my host
family said they liked it, and I decided to leave it at that rather than
worry if they were being patronizing.
Otherwise the culture show went really well.
It was fun to see everyone out.
There were several really neat ethnic-type dances put on by
groups from the community.
The
weekend was really busy. Friday
night was a group birthday party for two girls who had birthdays during
the week. We went to a
touristy bar in an area called
Rodney
Bay
. About half of the
volunteers came out for that. Rum
is a major product on the island here, so that’s the base of a lot of
drinks. Rum punch is a
popular drink, but it’s REALLY strong.
The good thing is that the rum drinks are cheaper than anything
else. Also popular is the
local beer, Piton. I wasn’t
out super late that night. Some
people stuck around till 3 or so, but I went home at
1:30
.
All
day Saturday was interviews. Officially
they use these to place us into assignments on the different islands,
but unofficially things were pretty much set already.
Still, they’re not giving us any indication of where we’ll be
until Thursday. Everyone is
really antsy to know, and making all kinds of speculations.
After the interviews, most everyone went to one beach or another.
There’s one called
Choc
Beach
that’s not far. Actually
none of them are far, but this one is pretty nice and accessible.
We hung out there most of the afternoon.
On the way home, I was on the bus going into my neighborhood, and
I saw a big group of people and lots of cars.
One guy stopped and got out there, and when I looked, my host mom
was there too. I got out and
hung around for a while. It
was an open-air religious revival. Krishna
was there too, and Shawna, one of the
volunteers, several families of other volunteers, relatives of my host
family, and my fan club--the youth group from the 7th Day
Adventist Church. It was a
neat feeling, going somewhere like that and knowing a lot of people.
I decided not to go out on Saturday night, and I went to bed
early instead.
Sunday
I got up early and a group of us went on an island trip and to the Sulphur
Springs. At the same place
is also the world’s only drive-thru volcano.
It was really stinky there, but cool.
We could see the bubbling pools of water and steam.
The water is naturally black from all the minerals.
Further down the stream is hot, but not boiling.
We bathed in the stream under a waterfall.
It was the first hot shower I’ve had in 3 weeks.
The other thing to do there is bathing in the mud of the stream.
Everyone has soft skin now. I’ll
have some funny pictures.
We
had many stops on our trip. We
stopped off at one road-side place and bought cassava bread and mangos.
We stopped at other places for lunch, a beach, and once for a
flat tire. I hadn’t been
on other parts of the island yet. The
south is a lot flatter than the north, where we are living.
It looked a little more wind-swept, and the waves were bigger in
the water. It would probably
take 4 hours to drive all the way around the island. When
we got back, I went for ice cream with my family and Daryl from the
youth group.
But
speaking of driving around the island, I got to talking with my mom
about cars and driving and stuff. Their
car is a 1996 Corolla, and it has 7500 miles on it.
She couldn’t believe that it’s common for cars in the
US
to have more than 100,000. Also
she was telling me about the costs for driving here.
There were like 15 different fees from taking driving lessons to
getting your actual license, to insuring your car.
The insurance is lots more here too, but if you saw the driving
you’d understand why! They
find it pretty amazing that all the volunteers know how to drive and
probably have their own cars.
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