10/8/02

I’ve been a bit lazy about writing lately.

This weekend was pretty busy. I’ve started working with a swim club in the area. Last week I was just sort of sitting around and meeting people.

After swimming on Friday, I went out with Deb and Renee and Renee’s friends Verena, Tania and Ani. Verena and Tania live at Balenbouche Estate, a heritage tourism site in the South. They were all in town for the weekend, and we went for a drink. The girls were really nice. Since Verena and Tania are involved in tourism and from the south, they have a strong interest in the Choiseul Arts and Crafts Center, where I often am. They may turn out to be a good resource for me when I’m down there. It was also nice just to meet some girls who are pretty much on the same page as I am.

On Saturday, I went to town early for some errands. I had to buy a minutes card for my cell phone, and get some groceries. On the way back from there, I stopped by Deb’s new place. I arrived just as she and her friends were coming in with her van of stuff. I helped them unload and shuffle furniture around. Deb’s place is really nice. She has a really great sea view with a porch that goes the length of her apartment. It’s a two bedroom with two bathrooms. Her location is better than mine, but to get to her place, you have to go up a steep hill.

Later I pretty much just hung around. I watched some of the Badger game on TV--it wasn’t that pretty.

All day Sunday I was at a swim meet. This was the qualifying meet to create a national team to go to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Games. The swim teams are very competitive. I’m working with the Trident team.  The kids are really good, but I think it’s the drama involved that makes it competitive.  Apparently about a year ago, a number of families broke out of the Trident team and formed the Rodney Heights team. The kids seem to be friendly for the most part, but some of the parents won’t speak to each other. They take this split seriously.  Even more galling is that Rodney Heights has more swimmers, some of the best swimmers, and consequently wins the meets.

The meet was nice though. I got to know the names of most of the kids, and I met a lot of the parents. There were several people there that I already knew (which means I must be almost somebody). Guy Mayers, the president of the chamber of commerce and keynote speaker at our swearing-in, was there with 3 of his kids. Also, Denis, the Canadian volunteer at NSDC was there with his kid, working as a timer. I met several new people too. I had heard that there was some sort of Canadian volunteer corps, but we had never seen any Canadians around. But I met the three volunteers at the swim meet. Their parent organization works thru the Commonwealth Games and works to bring about positive change and development through sports. The girls, Shannon, Heather and Sam, are working at the St. Lucian Olympic Committee, a swimming program and OECS. They are here for 8 months all together, and have been here for one month so far. They are living together in an apartment in Rodney Bay (the schnazzy area of the city). It was really nice to meet them since there are fewer young people on the island. There’s a big get-together in a couple weeks with us and the Japanese volunteer corps and the Canadians will probably come along too.

Monday was a holiday. It was Thanksgiving. There was no work or school, so the beach was packed. It was honestly the busiest I’ve seen the beach. And by now, I can distinguish between the locals and the tourists--most were locals. We met the Canadians there, and also bumped into Andrew, one of the American officials for PC. I had seen some of the swim-teamers there previously, and they were there yesterday as well.  Several of the parents of this group of kids have yachts.  The kids will come in to shore on the dinghy and mess around for the afternoon.  Yesterday they came in with their boat and then took out little sailboats. Other times they’ll water ski.  I should make friends with them!

I had a number of wild animal adventures yesterday.  At the beach there are a bunch of old posts that are still in the water.  Some are 20 feet tall and the local kids will shinny up them and dive off the top. Others are just stumps under water, or barely break the surface.  I found one that was about three inches underwater, out deeper than where I could touch.  I dove off it several times with no problem. It’s kind of barnacle-y and scratchy, but it was ok.  Then one time I dove off and as soon as I came up my hand hurt like hell.  I thought that I had cut it on the barnacles and the salt was stinging.  I went to wash off my hand with fresh water from my bottle, but it still hurt.  I noticed that there were little white hairs sticking in the palm of my hand. It looked kind of like spun glass at Christmas.  I washed the hairs off, but it still really hurt.  Evidently I bumped into a jellyfish.  Or more likely I squashed it with my hand.  It hurt all day like hot needles all over the palm of my hand.  Actually the salt water made it feel better.

I still swam.  Margaret brought her goggles, so I borrowed them and went to look at the bottom of the sea.  I saw some crabs walking around, and lots of little fish.  I went back to look at the posts.  They’re kind of reef-like underwater.  There were some different fish there and a squid.  The squid was about 6 inches long and brown.  I was a little paranoid after the jellyfish, so I kept my distance.  I just have visions of Sr. Jan’s biology class when she told us about a Portuguese Man of War that could eat a person (and Seamus Holloway shouted out "Man, that would suck!!).

On the way home, a rat ran right in front of me. That was about enough wild animals.

Today was a pretty slow day at work.  In the afternoon I started for real with the swim team.  I’m actually teaching swimming to the little kids who don’t know how to swim.  Today there were two kids.  They were doing ok.  The little girl was nervous about getting water up her nose.  She was trying really hard, which is what counts.  The little boy would kind of stop swimming in the middle of his lap.  He kept swallowing water and burping.  We also practiced jumping into the deep end of the pool.  They were kind of shaky when they couldn’t touch the bottom.  I got to swim with them and push them towards the ladder.

Tomorrow Selma and I are going back to Choiseul to set up the job attachments for the new group. Those are always busy days.