Kids Say the Darndest Things

*Thunder*

Nate (Juliet’s  friend):  Doesn’t thunder sound like Voldemort talking?

Juliet: I wish everything in the world was beautiful. I wish everything in the world was pink.

Juliet (looking through a picture book of the ABC’s): I is for Ice Cream, J is is Jelly bean, L is for Tiger

Juliet: soooo what do you want to talk about?

Me: I don’t know,  what would you like to talk about?

Juliet: hmmmm what about poop coming out of our bodies?

Me: How about rainbows?

Juliet: OK!

Nate: Imagine if rain had feet

Me: So when it fell to the ground would it walk away?

Nate: yep!

Me: Where would it go?

Nate: Africa.

Nanny Nightmare

I have now been watching Juliet for 4 weeks, and so far it’s been smooth sailing.  Juliet has been listening to me, doesn’t complain, doesn’t run off, and as of today has never even cried!  While I knew this couldn’t last forever, I could not possible have been prepared for what I was about to experience, a public tenter tantrum.

We’ve all been the spectators of these humiliating experiences. Maybe you’re walking down isle 9 in the super market and there’s a child screaming at his mom that he wants to buy every candy bar on the shelf.  You walk past, trying not to stare, and think “that sucks”, but what you should be thinking is “what am I going to do when that happens to me!” because let me tell you one day it will and it is as awful and embarrassing as it looks.

There we were sitting on the corner of 76^th and Amsterdam, enjoying our ice cream we had just gotten from 16 handles. We had had a long day but still had one more thing on our agenda, art class. When Juliet was done with her ice cream I stood up and said “ok let’s start heading over to art class.” When Juliet said “no, I want to go home.” I looked at her confused, and said “what do you mean, you love art class! We’re going to be late so let’s start walking over.” Next thing I know she’s crying and jumping and screaming. Obviously at this point all I wanted to do was take her home in order to have all the people stop staring at me like I was a kidnapping this child. However while that was what I wanted to do I also didn’t want to reward such outrageous behavior by giving her what she wanted; one of my many parenting tips I’ve picked up.  All I could think of was to sit and try and wait for her to calm down. I wasn’t about to start yelling at her in the middle of the street, and she was acting like a crazy person so I couldn’t talk to her.  To make a long story short, she never calmed down, I had to call her mom, and ended up taking her home.

So next time you see a mother/father/babysitter dealing with an unreasonable screaming child in a public space know that it is as embarrassing at it looks, and that one day it will probably be you, so have some empathy 

Nanny Diaries: Entry 1

So I have been working as a nanny on the upper west side of Manhattan for several weeks now. The Job I accepted is with a nice family with two children: Juliet who is 4, and Matthew who is 6. While this is absolutely not what I saw myself doing, or rather want to be doing, the job has worked out quite nicely and will be over in September.  

Juliet and Matthew

Thus far Matthew has had camp so I have only had Juliet. She has taken a while to warm up to me but her and I are getting along just fine. She’s funny, extremely easy going, and loves to read.  Our days consist of play dates, hours at the parks, and various classes like swimming, gymnastics, yoga, and art. They live right off the park near all the museums so it is an ideal location for optimal entertainment. 

My eye is still recovering, however I am fully functional and for the most part I am not bothered by it. The only time that I have difficulty is in the light, and then I just put on my very fashionable geriatric sunglasses. They were given to me by my doctors and they fit over my glasses and wrap around my head. They are quite ridiculous, but obviously I can pull them off.  

It’s frustrating when people are constantly asking me how I am doing because I know they want me to say “I’m doing a lot better thank you, my eye is fully healed and my life is back on track!” and all I want to say to them is if that’s the answer you’re looking for then don’t bother asking. But honestly who would be ok after something like this. In a matter of 3 days I, 1.went blind 2.was taken away from my new home without so much as being able to say goodbye 3.Lost the only thing I’ve ever worked for, aka the Peace Corps 4.and am now a nanny working for the complete opposite demographic. How the fuck would you be doing? And while this might sound like I’m looking for a pitty party, that is not it at all. I want people to be able to laugh about it, because I really just want this whole situation to be behind me and be a funny story, because really my life sounds like the punch line to a bad joke

I don’t know how long it’s supposed to take for one to get over something like this, and while my intension is still to try to go get medically cleared to go back to the peace corps, I go back and forth about whether it is still the right thing to do at this point, or if it’s just the only plan I’ve ever had and I’m too scared to start over and come up with a new one.

While it is my intension to go back to the Peace Corps, I’m not an idiot and want to have all my bases covered. I’ve applied to a few jobs in the fall, all abroad and several of which are seasonal which would enable me to have something to do during these next few months but not close the doors on going back to the Peace Corps if that is really want I want to do. 

Peace Corps Blog Turned Nanny Diaries

I have officially been medically separated from the Peace Corps. While my eye is doing 1000 times better then it was, it is still in the recovery process and the PC decided that it was in my best interest to have 4-6 months for my health to stabilize. With that being said, even when the healing process is complete my eye will never be the same. I will never have the same vision as I once had, and it may not get better then what it is now. Currently, while i can see things out of my, it is like looking through a fogy window. Things are hazy and blend together. The reason for this is because I am looking through the scar that was once my ulcer. Depending on your much the scar fades will determine how much clearer my vision gets. This can take up to 6 months. In the end I think separating me was the right decision, and now I can be monitored by my doctors and focus on getting better. As of right now my plan is to return as soon as I can, which is the beginning of October. However a lot can change in 4 months and I'm keeping my options open.
SO in the mean time I have been looking for work. However my ability to get places has been extremely restricted. First, I don't have a car. Second, up until 5 days ago I wasn't aloud to drive. Under the orders of my parents I was instructed to take a driving lesson to make sure that I was still able to drive with the same ability as before. I called a first time driving school and scheduled a lesson. My instructor was a woman name Neirtha and she loves Wendy's! Every time we drove past a Wendy's she was scream "oh I love that Wendy!" Until finally I asked her if she was hungry and wanted to stop and grab something. She was delightfully surprised by my offer and had me pull into the next drive through. She shared her fries with me, so I liked her.  While the driving issue was resolved I still do not have a car, so being able to get to my new hypothetical job posed a problem. It was a definite reality check coming back home and once again living in the new jersey suburbs having to rely on a car.
It wasn't until my father suggested that I look for nanny jobs in NYC that I had a direction. I began talking to people about becoming a nanny and I learned that there is a whole online system, kind of like Craigs List but only for child care workers and families looking. I was pointed in the direction of two websites and began the process. With in 1 weeks I was scheduling interviews back to back and beginning to have a lot of options. I began to see the Upper West/East Side life of New York City that I'd only seen in movies, such as Uptown Girls or Nanny Diaries. I figured if Brittany Murphy could do it, so could I! I began interviewing with families and seeing the different dynamics. There were the families that had door mans, live in house keepers, and nanny's to cater to their multiple children and escort them all around the city. There were the families that lived in the Hampton s for the summer. There were working moms, and stay at home moms, moms that alphabetized their  children books, and moms that has their kids scheduled for 3 classes a day from water aerobics to art class to basketball. 
In the end I was accepted a job that was offered to me by a nice family living on the upper west side. The mother and I got along really well and seemed to be on the same page. Her and her husband have two kids: Julliet, whose 4, and Mathew, whose 6. The commute is about 45 minutes and involves me taking a bus and two trains. I have been soliciting all my friends that live up town or off the C train for week day sleepovers. While I'm really excited to start being busy again I'm also a little scared. For my first two days of work I accompanied Claudine, the mother, for their daily activities in order to get accustomed to their schedules. I began to realize just how different growing up in the city is and how so many more accidents can happen. I also observed other families and watched kids publicly yelling at their moms and/or nanny's and realized that soon that will be me yelling "STOP!" and "NO!" in crowded public spaces. I've listed to mothers tell stories about their children having to poop behind bushes in the park, because they couldn't get to a bathroom soon enough. I've been to swim lessons and art class and am slowly learning the ropes but I can't help think that I'm in over my head. 
Tomorrow is my first official day. Lets hope everyone makes it through the day! 

'Eye Eye' Captain!

So it’s been about a month since I’ve written and a lot has happened, a major thing being that my computer crashed, hence the reason I haven’t written. But for a quick overview things have been pretty awesome. My work sites have been working out I love all my counterparts and I’m really excited to change over to NTA. I started 1 day a week there last week and it was wonderful.  I’ve also started a collection of activities to keep myself busy, which have all come together really nicely. First I went on my first Hash 2 weeks ago, which I love! Hashing is basically a quick hike through the bush and then a social after. It has a big rugby following which is pretty awesome and has a very similar vibe. You get a hasher name, you exercise, and you party. Basically it’s the same thing. I also Joined the SSU boot camp. About 10 minutes from my house is the Special Security Unit (SSU) army base. Through the ministry of health they started this boot camp program which means that the base holds work out classes every day at 5. I went to my first class last Monday and it was great! It’s broken down into beginner, intermediate, and advanced, so you can chose how hard you want to work yourself. Then on days off they do hikes and hashes. They did a hash to Hog island last week that I went on. Everyone was really nice and welcoming. My landlord also goes in addition to another teacher from my school attachment. It’s a good way to have my face seen and meet people. I also started taking this stain glass window making class which is awesome!!! And guitar lessons are coming along. Basically things have been working out pretty well until some recent unfortunate events…

At this moment I am sitting in New Jersey, with an eye patch on, squinting at the computer as I try to tell this story. It all happened very fast, but the story starts last Friday.  I went to work as usual but at around 10am my eyes started becoming very bothered by the light. I was straining to keep them opened and becoming very tired. I eventually asked to go home early, assuming I had put my contacts in the wrong eye or they were just being weird. I took out my lenses and passed out. When I woke up 2 hours it was time to get ready to head into town, because I was meeting the other volunteers at the other end of the island to go turtle watching.  I put in a fresh pair of lenses and headed on my way. I had no problems throughout the two hour bus ride to Sauters however almost immediately upon exiting the bus my eye began tearing and had turned red. When all the volunteers saw the situation they all began making jokes of pink eye, as most would do when they see a pink irritated eye. At this point I didn’t think it was anything serious so I took ym contact lenses out, put on my glasses, and began the 30 minute hike to the secluded beach we would spend the night.

Upon reaching the beach we began setting up our tents. The irritation in my eye aws coming in waves. The reoccurring discomfort was making me nervous so I thought it was best to call Jeremy, our Peace corps Medical Officer (PCMO) and let him know that something was up. Based on my symptoms Jeremy was not concerned and reassuered me that he’d call me the next day and we’d go from there. At this point I was relieved and remained excited about the possibilitiy of seeing a turtle that evening. However only hours later, my eye swelled shut, and I began to feel extreme amounts of pain. Granted the environment I was in was not ideal, being surrounded by sand and all.

Making it to morning was definitely a struggle, but as soon as I heard stirring around from the other tents I got up and informed another volunteer, Jack, that I needed to go to the hospital. She immediately took action in finding me a ride. AS everything began to come together we realized that we still had to figure out a way to hike me back through the bush unable to see. At this point I had a sweatshirt wrapped around my head to block the sun light out, and basically looked like a drunk mummy. As my friends guided me out of the bush we were met at the other end by the wonderful man who would drive me to the hospital.

My experience at the hospital was a quick one  a Dr. Avichi saw me and concluded that I had a bad case of conjunctivitis, aka pink eye, so he prescribed me a steroid/antibiotic drop and sent me on my way. AS the pain subsided I began to feel relieved, however it was not until the next day when I lost all vision in my left eye that I began to freak out.  From this point things began to move very quickly. I saw an optomologist on Monday who corrected my first diagnosis and said that I had an Ulcerated Cornea. I was prescribed new drops and sent home.

That white circle is a hole directly over my cornea.
aka it's not suppose to be there 

As this new information began to  spread to Jeremy, my parents, and eventually DC, it took only a matter of hours for them to decide to medically evacuate me from Grenada. I was a flight first thing the next morning, final destination DC.

My experience in the airports was a mixture of publicly laughing and crying to myself.

Moment I laughed: walking into a pole in the middle of the cafeteria in the San Juan airport while wearing an eye patch.

Moment I cried: having to emergency land in the Bahamas on our way to Miami because the Miami airport had been shut down for weather conditions. 

Moment I laughed: being put in a wheel chair after my flight to DC and being brought to my baggage like an actual disabled person.

Times I cried: being put in a wheel chair after my flight to DC and being brought to my baggage like an actual disabled person.

Moment I laughed: Walking into the men’s bathroom

Moment I cried: running to my gate in Miami and being told I was not on the flight.

aka an emotional roller costar. Also known as the story of my life. 

As soon as I got to DC I began seeing doctors. The doctor in DC sent me to John Hopkins. From there I will be referred to someone in NY and from there I will be flying to Miami to see a specialist who does special amniotic graphs for this specific problem.  Conclusion being: I WILL GET BETTER!  AND I WILL BE GOING BACK TO GRENADA! 

Did the Pied Pieper collect children, rats, or frogs?

              So as you know I had some issues with frogs while living with my host family. They seem to follow me where ever I go! I would find them all over my room: alive, dead, on the floor, in my bed, everywhere. No one else seemed to be having this problem.

                Over the span of last week we all began moving into our apartments. With Passover and Easter being last weekend I decided to wait until Tuesday to move in. Therefore throughout the weekend I began hearing horror stories from my fellow volunteers about finding cockroaches, maggots, and swarms of mosquitoes throughout their apartment. I began to get nervous.

I also have never lived alone before and was freaking out about that, but because I am an excellent planner I had planned to get my open water diving certificate our first week as volunteers, therefore I had Megan and Sonja (also referred to as Mama Sonja) staying with my all week because they were also getting their certificate. When Megan arrived she proceeded to tell me this horrifying story about how she was taking a shower in her apartment and when she turned on the water a cockroach crawled out of the drain. This story scared me out of taking a shower that first day. The next day we had been scuba diving all day and I couldn’t put off taking a shower any longer. Mama Sonja, being the wonderful mother she is, offered to take the first shower. Megan took the second. At this point I felt that it was safe for me to have my turn. I began my shower as normal: Shampoo, conditioner, face wash. As I went to grab my Body wash I saw something on the container, I turned it around and realized it was a frog! I began screaming “FROG IN THE SHOWER! FROG IN THE SHOWER!” As I was cowering in the corner of my shower, Mama Sonja runs to my rescue, comes in the shower, catches the frog and runs out setting it free. I swear, if I didn’t know better I was Pied Piper of Frogs. 

Since Last Time I…

• Swore in as a Peace Corps volunteer
• Broke my camera 
• Celebrated Passover
• Celebrated Easter
• Moved into my very own/very first apartment
• went shopping for said apartment
• ordered a new camera
• Found two frogs in my sink 
• Got my Scuba Diving Open water Certificate
• Had the girls over for some wining and dining
• Cooked Calliloo for the first time
• Went to Fish Friday 
• Hiked the tallest mountain in Grenada: Mount St. Catherine. 

Can I borrow that?

                The long awaited day of swearing in is finally approaching! Come this Thursday I can officially call myself a Peace Corps Volunteer. The only problem is I have nothing to wear. While I did bring a few things that would be appropriate somehow I have lost a significant amount of weight and am having issues fitting into a majority of my things. Therefore, this week whenever someone was wearing something that looked like it could work I asked if I can borrow it. I’ve also had to go to a few volunteers places and try on their things. By the end of the week I had accumulated a significant amount of clothing to try and work with. I came home and told Yavett my problem. She came into my room and we tried to put some things together and I then I gave her a little fashion show of all my options. It reminded me of being at home. After I go on a shopping spree I always come home and insist that my mom let me try everything on and get her opinion. This was a similar situation, except instead of a shopping spree it was raiding other volunteers closets, and instead of my mom I had Yavett who has extremely different taste then I do. Some of the coordination’s we were putting together were rather comical from an American fashion point of view. At the end of the fashion show we concluded that none of my stuff worked. I told her I would work it out and it would fine.

Two hours later Yavett comes into my room and says

"My girl, did you know I could sew” I start to laugh and tell her no I didn’t know that

“My girl laughs at me! You didn’t know? I never told you I can sew?! I can sew good you know!”

“No Yavett you never told me!” I can’t stop laughing

“My girl still laughs! You want to come and see some things” I tell her sure, even though most likely none of her things will fit seeing that she is 5 foot 2 and much curvier then I am. We go down stairs and she brings me to a huge closet in the laundry room and starts rummaging through it. She begings pulling things out saying that she made it. Some of the things were very pretty but would never work for the ceremony. She explains,

“These are all my big clothing. I lost a lot of weight and these don’t fit anymore. I cried about it.”

“You cried because you were happy?” I ask. I expected the answer to be yes, because at home people are always dieting and trying to lose weight.

“NO! I was so upset! I use to have the biggest bum! I loved my big bum and now it’s gone!” she exclaimed. She began pulling out pairs of pants and showing how big the butt area was so I could visualize just how big her “bum” was.

“Well I have a small bum” She turns to look at me and glanced me up and down. She then comes up behind me and cups my butt,“Yep, No bum here! Hey so can you wear pants? I may have a pant suit.” She then digs further into the closet and pulls out a bright Orange Pant suit. “try this on” So I strip down in the laundry room and put on this orange suit, that is 4 sizes too big.  The pants came zippered right below my bust and then I basically was swimming in the jacked. She clearly had had the pants hemmed because they belled out below my ankles. I started laughing because I knew I had to look ridiculous.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera,
but i would assume I looked something like this...

She then looks me up and down “hmm that could work! Go show Alysha and Mighty upstairs.” I look at her and can’t believe she is actually going to have me parade around the house in this outfit for the whole family to see. I walk upstairs and as soon as Alysha sees me she spits up her food,

“What are you doings? What are wearing!”

“She looks good! I want her to wear this to ceremony” Yavett says

“No, the jacket is way too big.” Alysha says. I nod at her and silently mouth the words thank you.

“Ok maybe this doesn’t work. Oh girl I wish you had told me that you needed something, I would have made you a dress” I tell her it’s fine I’ll find something.

“You know you need to stop running so much, that’s why you lost all your bum and your clothes don’t fit!” We all laugh and I go to take off the suit. 

Just another day living at the Joseph residence.   

Attack of the Clorox

"Yavett, I found a frog."

"Where?! "

"It’s right here. It just went into the bathroom."

"Ok hold on."

I see it hop out of the bathroom towards the hallway. Yavett appears with a Clorox bottle.

"Where’d it go!"

"Yavett what are you going to do?"
"I’m going to Clorox it’s skin!"

"No yavett! Don’t kill it!" I could see the frog in the corner of my eye and tried to stand so she couldn't see it

"Why? It’s not suppose to be in here.I knows not to come in here!"

"No catch it and put it outside."

"No, it has no right. Why does it think it has the right to be in here?!" She looked around but couldn't find the frog. I watched as it hopped away but kept quiet.   

When I say Peace Corps What Do You See?

When someone tells you they are going into the Peace Corps what do you imagine? Do you see that person living in a mud hut? Playing with children? Working in a field? I know when I applied to the Peace Corps I had a certain image in my head about what that meant. I pictured myself going out into communities of developing countries and saving the children. A lot of my images changed when I found out I was coming to the Caribbean. The image of living in a hut had vanished; the image of walking a mile to pick up my mail disappeared. All the stories I had heard from past volunteers didn’t apply here. The eastern Caribbean is far more developed then other countries. This does not mean they do not need our help or that there aren’t  children to “save”, it just means I might do the saving while living in an apartment with running water and internet access. However yesterday I experienced the true Peace Corps image. Which, up until now, I wasn’t sure I was going to.

                There have been some issues regarding my work sites so I have taken the steps to possibly change them. Yesterday we were schedule a “networking” day. This was perfect because it allowed me to spend a day at my new possible work site, The National Training Agency. The NTA is working to train unemployed youth in both life and technical skills in order to make them a more competitive candidate in their given field. There are a variety of different sectors that the NTA provide training for and when they finish their training they receive a level 1 certificate, which is suitable for an entry level job. They can reach up to level 5 which would be the equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.

Cosmotology Training Site

      I spent my day shadowing a woman named Kay. We had met hiking with the “institute hikers” group so we were already familiar with each other. She had an extensive itinerary planned so I could get a general idea of all the things that happen in the office. The morning was dedicated to getting to know the office and visiting different training sites. First we stopped at the Cosmetology training site. We walked into this small classroom where a group of women were sitting around a woman receiving a pedicure.  Off to the side I saw a collection of products used for beautification: Hair spray, foot cream, scrubs, etc. I was given the opportunity to introduce myself and ask them questions. The next site we went to was for computer skills. This group was significantly bigger and was sitting in rows. When we got there the trainers were reading aloud the students’ scores that they had received on their interview ability.    First I thought it was strange that they were reading the scores aloud. I can only imagine the anxiety it would have caused if my professors has read my paper grades in front of the class room along with their comments on what I needed to improve on.

Computer Skills Training Site

As the trainer read the scores aloud I noticed that all of their scores were based on appearance:

“Hair,10; Makeup,7; Color coordination,9;Posture;8” Not till the very end would they mention their actual interview.

“They thought you were pleasant. A little too shy, but that you would make a good candidate.” I realize that first appearances are very important, however there is so much more to an interview besides the color coordination of your outfit. On top of that the feedback on their interview was extremely limited and vague. Most of the comments were very similar to each other and overall not very helpful. I would be interested to go back and see what the training sessions are like when they are actually training.

On the itinerary, the afternoon was blocked out for “recruiting” however I did not know what that would entail. We took the company car, a man named Dax drove us. They said we were heading for the country, which is about 7 miles away but an hours drive. As we approached our destination we began to turn up a street and stopped at the corner where an old man was sitting.

“Are there youth up this road? Unemployed youth?” Kay said

“Yes continue down this road and you’ll see people,” Replied the man.

Signing my First Trainy up for the Garment Production
training course

As we continued up the road we began seeing people outside and on their porch. We parked the car and Kay handed me a clip board which had several applications on it, along with brochures. Kay began walking towards the people and calling out  to them,

                “Hi  we are with the National Training Agency and we are looking for unemployed youth in the St. Andrew’s area who are interested in getting technical training in Cosmetology or Garment Production. People began gathering around as she explained. All the girls were between 17-23 years old and more than half of them carried a baby on their hip. As the woman filled out their applications I was handed their babies. I helped answer questions as best I could, but mostly I directed them to Kay. The girls asked questions about the other training opportunities, but Kay explained that these were the only trainings offered in St. Andrews at the moment and the other ones they would have to travel to St. Georges for. This is a problem because they are only given a daily stipend of $15 for transportation. It has also posed a problem for the mothers because they are unable to find child care for long periods of time. I observed these girls and listened to their stories. They were all in ratty clothing, several had not graduated high school, and most said they had never worked before. After all the girls signed up we got back in the car and went to the next village over and did the same thing. We did this all afternoon until we finally ended at a school. I girl living in Trivoli had contacted Kay inquiring about the program. Kay offered to come out and talk to her and asked her to bring anyone else who was interested. We were expecting a maximum of 10 girls but when we walked into the classroom it was closer to 25. Kay was overjoyed with the turn out. We explained the program and began handing out applications. With only two pens everyone had to wait. Once again I was handed babies to hold as each mother looked over her application. Have you ever the show Dog Whisperer? Because I’m telling you, I’m the Baby Whisperer.

Baby number 1

Baby Number 2

Baby Number 3

By the time all of this was done it was nearly 7 oclock and we had an hour and a half drive to get home. It had been a 12 hour work day, but it didn’t feel like work at all. I got to talk to so many people, and see what life is really like here. Children playing in the streets, flying kites, men gathering outside their rum shops, woman baking in there homes. It was everything one would imagine when you hear Peace Corps. 

Random Acts of Kindness

          As Youth Developers in training one of our tasks was to plan a service learning activity with one of our school placements. From the beginning we were told that we would be evaluated but weren’t given defined criteria. We all began to stress and imagine the worst, aka that we would fail the assignment, be publicly humiliated, and then be sent home.

Tamika(middle) and Kazia(right) giving their friend
a heart for a hug. 

                We were given 2 months to come up with an activity but was given no real guidance as to how long the activity should be, what it should entail, or that we would eventually have to give a presentation in front of ALL of our superiors explaining in detail the steps that were taken to reach our final outcome. However, seeing as I am anything but a procrastinator I chose to ignore the fact that I was missing this vital information and hadn’t even been to my school assignment yet, and started researching service learning activities. Before I knew it I had started and finished my plans within 24 hours.  My idea consisted of two steps. The firs t is something I stole from camp (Shout out to Frost Valley YMCA! ) We use to have an activity called Random Acts of Kindness. During this block of time your cabin could chose to do a selection of things: Set up the dining hall, make jewelry for another cabin, help paint something around camp, etc. The one I incorporated for my activity is called Hearts for Hugs. Every child is given cut out hearts and then is told to go out and find someone to give the heart to in exchange for a hug. For my activity I added that they also had to pay that person a compliment. The idea of this was to get the class thinking about what it means to be nice to others, how it feels to be nice, and the types of reactions they would get. I assigned the activity right before lunch, so they were all given an hour to give away 3 hearts. When they came back we talked about all of these things and then I introduced the main activity. This is when my boss came to observe and evaluate me.

Miss James admiring her hearts 

THIS is the funny part, and not a haha laugh out loud kind of funny, a shocked/”wow this is something I will have to get use to” kind of funny. I’m use to being in an American school system where on the first day of class we are given a list of all the necessary materials, a schedule of our assignments, and the criteria that we will be evaluated on. For this project I found out that I would be observed three days before the activity, found out I would have to give a presentation in front of my superiors that would be based on very specific criteria which I received THE DAY BEFORE I was doing the activity, aka yesterday.  At that point there was not much I could change, I had been working for weeks on acquiring the necessary materials to do the project, and working logistics out with my counterpart, Miss Lazore. While my project was pretty simple and to the point, there were definitely things I would have done differently had I been given this information when I had received the assignment.  

Andel writing his Letter

                So as soon as Eugene got there I tensed up and tried to remember the steps I had laid out to explain me reason behind the service we were doing, aka the learning aspect. This is when I introduced the second activity. While researching idea’s on service learning I found a website that had a registry for chronically ill children in America.  So for the rest of the afternoon I had the children write letters to their assigned pen-pal.  The literacy level of the class is way below where it should be at so I had to write sample letter’s for the class so that they could copy and fill in blanks. Of course I stressed myself out for no reason, and as always everything worked out. Eugene was impressed with my ability to control the class, however little does he know that as soon as he left the kids completely lost focus and were bouncing off the walls like they were on liquid crack. Overall while the activity went relatively smoothly and can be deemed a success the experience made me see how much  do not now, nor ever want to be a teacher. Anyway to conclude this entry, I can happily say that today is not the day I failed, got publicly humiliated, or got kicked out of the Peace Corps.

Who Are You Calling Fat?

          Weight is one of the many things that is seen differently here. It is very common for people, including men, to comment on women’s weight to their face. For instance one may say “oh I see you’re gaining size” or even more bluntly “you’re getting fat.”   Yavett has told me several times to cool it on the mayonnaise or I will gain size. It’s hard for me to explain to Grenadians my love for condiments, so I just let it go.

                A few weeks ago Leanne and I were at a bbq talking to some men and they asked us “so do you have any kids.” And both of us instinctively laughed, because to us at this point in our lives, as 23 year old single women, in the Peace Corps, financially unstable, even the thought of having kids is funny. The man who asked was confused by our laughter. Another man explained, “See here having kids is different. Similar to how you think of your weight. When I was in American,” he continues “ I was at a restaurant and our women was curvy and I told her she was fat. She was extremely offended and stormed off! But here we like size!! So I thought I was giving her a compliment.” I tried to imagine a random man calling me fat, and it definitely would end in me crying, which if you know me, really isn’t saying much.

                Anyway, while I have heard stories, I have not experienced it for myself until yesterday. Yavett and I were in the Supermarket and as we were checking out Yavett says to the Checker

“Hey, why you getting fat? Why is your bum spreading?”

The checker remains silent, so Yavett repeats herself.  

“Hey, why you getting fat? Why is your bum spreading?”

“I would rather not answer that.” The checker says, as calmly as ever.

I couldn’t help but laugh, so I had to excuse myself. 

What Does Frozen Crab Mean to You?

I don’t know why but everything in the freezer is kept in plastic bags or wrapped in news paper. Every once in a while Yavett will get live crabs from the market, she then puts them into the freezer which then slowly kills them. These are the one thing that are not wrapped in a plastic bag. Therefore every time I open the freezer there are several dead crabs scattered amongst the freezer staring at me, and almost every time I jump. Last night as I pulled the ice cream out of the freezer it got caught on one of the crabs and it came flying at me out of the freezer. As it hit the floor, its frozen claws broke off and shot out in different directions like some sort of weapon. All the while I am screaming.

“My girl what happened!” I hear come from the living room. I run in and tell Yavett that there is a dead crab on the floor and that I’m too scared to pick it up.

“eh I don’t feel like getting up right now. Just pick it up with a spoon.”

I make my way back into the kitchen, and just stared at the crab working up the courage to pick it up. I found two of the largest spoons I could find, maneuvered the spoons around the crab, picked it up, threw it back into the freezer, and slammed the door so I didn’t have to have it look at me anymore.  When I came back into the living room with my ice cream cone Yavett asked if I had done it.

“yes, but Yavette, I hate those crabs.”

“Hush my girl, the ice cream will make it better.” 

This week I…

1. Found a Frog in my bed.
2. Learned how to make Balloon animals
3. got caught in a rain storm on the beach
4. Got spiked in the face with a volleyball
5. Learned what Wining is (look it up on Youtube)
6. Got mistaken for Queen Elizabeth 

Volleyball on Island Time

Ever since I got here I have been looking for a way for me to play volleyball. Through other Peace Corps volunteers I was put in touch with a man named junior who runs a club team.  He told me to come to the courts on the Carinage at 3:30 on Sunday and we could work something out. While people have explained to me that time here is different than it is in the states, and when people say 3:30 they don’t mean 3:30, I still can’t get myself to show up to anything later than the time they tell me to be there! An old camp rhyme rings in my head: “Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable.”

So of course I get to the courts at 3:30, and of course I am the ONLY person there. At 4:00 a few people showed up. They looked pretty young but they had a volleyball and were hitting around, so I worked up the courage and went over and asked to hit around with them. We did this for maybe 30 minutes, more people showed to play basket ball, some other people showed up and were skate boarding. I was beginning to get confused as to what was going on here. At around 4:45 some older looking people arrived and began to sit against the fence. At this point I was so confused as to who was here to play what and who I should be introducing myself to. I decided to sit along the fence, at this point it is now 5:00. I heard people asking where Junior was, so I figured these were the people I should be sitting with, which then made me realize that the people I had been playing with for the past 45 minutes had nothing to do with the club. As it approached 5:30 people started complaining saying “junior told us to be here at 3:30, where is he!” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud! These people were complaining about waiting around since 3:30, when I was the ONLY person here at that time. When Junior got there, at 5:30, people began warming up, and he came over and introduced me to everyone. The warm up is happening very quickly and all of sudden the girls line up to start doing spikes. I’ve never done spiked in my life! I try to stay in the back of the line and have people cut me to avoid going. I try to explain that I’ve only played very casually, but the girl behind me insists that I go. As the girl sets the ball for me I jump, and of course I jump too early and land back on the ground before my hand could reach the ball, and end up spiking it right into the net. The people sitting on the side lines laughed. I tried to hide my embarrassment, and the fact that  I was completely overwhelmed. When we actually started playing it was 6:00. The two teams, the girl’s team and the boy’s team, were going to have a scrimmage. It would be best out of 3 games. They rotated me into the second game. I was extremely nervous and more or less avoided the ball in hopes to avoid embarrassing myself again. The few times the ball came my way I handled myself well. At the end of the night I asked the captain of the girl’s team, Stacie, if I could come back to their next practice, she said yes. At this point I thought that everything was set, however I didn’t realize that after I left they would be discussing whether I was good enough to join the club. Last night I received an email from junior reading “Cara, so we evaluated your playing, you bounce well, but I noticed some things you might want to work out. We would like to invite you to come back and play, and if we decide to invite you to be a member it will be 10 dollars a month.”  I felt like I had applied to a job and made it to the second round of interviews. Practice is at 6:30am on Saturday, aka tomorrow, so tonight might be another lame night at home.

The Institute Hikers

Hiking with the "Institute Hikers" group on Saturday, February 25th

This is a raw Coco plany. The bean is under the white coating that you see in this picture. When the plant is raw like this people suck on that white coating and spit out the bean. The white coating is slimy and sweet, and the bean is bitter and dry. 

Week 4: February 19th-26th

4 weeks of training down and 5 more to go! A few things happened this week. First I finally got to visit my second primary work site, the Lutheran school. My counterpart here is Janelle. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Grenada 17 years ago. The school is still in the process of being built so we met in Grand Anse in a rented space. Grand Anse is a 10 minute bus ride from town and is directly on the beach, this is probably the town I will be moving to once training is over. The day was pretty relaxed. I met with Janelle, the pastor, and the pastor’s wife Ellen. All of which are ex-pats. The pastor and Ellen moved to Grenada 4 years ago and are originally from Seattle.   The three of us went over what the goals of their school are and some possible projects I can work on. The room is filled with musical instruments ranging from pianos to drums to guitars. They explain to me that in the afternoon children from the church come and teach lessons, practice, and mess around. When the children got there I was asked if I was interested in learning to play the guitar, when I said yes, I was given my first lesson!

Saturday was pretty awesome! Our youth developer trainer is a part of several hiking groups, one of which goes hiking on the last Saturday of every month. This Saturday they were doing a waterfall hike and invited us all to come along. We were told to meet at 6 am, so of course Leanne and I woke up at 5 and arrived on time. However the Grenadians did not start showing up until 6:20,6:30, and 6:45, aka Island time.  We drove into Grenville, the second biggest city on the island, and met the rest of the hikers. There were 13 of us in total. We began our way up the path when we bumped into a Mr. Paterson. He explained to us that he ran a duck farm, in case any of us wanted duck on our way back.

Mrs. Kay: How much are they?

Mr. Patterson:  $5 a pound, so around $45 a duck.

Mrs. Kay: I’ll take two. Can you have them slaughtered by 12?

Mr. Patterson: yep!

We continued on our way. 10 minutes or so down the path Mr. Drakes see’s a Yam sticking out of the ground. He says “hold on! I want this yam!” he puts down his back pack and takes out a compact shovel!  We all stand around as he begins to dig. Once Drakes has dug up the yam we continue. Every couple of feet people are pointing out different trees saying, “that’s a pineapple tree, a cashew tree, a mango tree, a cinnamon tree, a coco tree.” As we were walking people were picking things and eating. In America I’m not sure one would describe this experience as a hike, but more of a picnic. At each waterfall we would all sit around and hang out and go swimming. The group was wonderful and overall the day was fantastic. I’m very excited to go hiking with them again.

My goal since I got here was to find a volley ball group that I could play with regularly. In my experience I have made all my friends through sports, so I figured I might as well try it here. I was put in touch with this man, Junior, who has a team that practices Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. So this afternoon I am going to go my first practice so we’ll see how it turns out! 

My First Guitar Lesson with Marvin

I see Rainbows like this everyday

Week 3: February 12th-19th

My first two weeks here have gone relatively smoothly. Leanne and I go running every morning, which means waking up at 5:30, which for here is relatively late. Interesting fact, Grenadians hate the sun. They do everything they can to avoid it. Therefore if one is going to exercise it means waking up before the sun comes up.  So, when in Grenada, do as the Grenadians do. Anthony, my host father, exercises in the morning as well, so after Leanne and I run around the port along the water I meet him at the track and walk some laps with him. When I get back Anthony has picked coconuts from the back yard and cut it open for me to drink with breakfast. It’s a pretty nice way to start off the day. This past weekend I got to go to the BBC which was amazing. Leanne and I spent the whole day there, and then met up with the other volunteers later in the afternoon.

I am the third volunteer to live with the Josephs, and what’s awesome is that the other two girls who have lived with them are still on island, Katie and Stephanie. Let me explain, there are three sets of voluneets on island right now: the group that has been here for two years and is getting ready to leave (EC 81), the group that has just finished their first year (EC 83), and us (EC 84). Having Katie and Stephanie as a resource has been wonderful. I really enjoy listening to them discuss all the projects they’ve done and talk about all their friends and the types of things they do on their spare time. Katie also works at one of my work sites which has also been really helpful.

As a peace corps volunteer we are given a primary work site and a school attachment. The school attachment is one day a week and only lasts 6 months and is meant solely to help us integrate and meet more people. The primary work site is the job which we are meant to be our full time job. As time progresses we are then suppose to pick a secondary work site based on our interests. My situation is a little different because I’ve been assigned two work sites: The Limes school for special education and The Lutheran school. I’m a little disappointed that I’ve been placed at two schools, only because I do not see myself pursuing a career in the education system, but we will see how it goes. There is however a children’s home, The Belair Home, which I am very interested to check out. Katie also works here so before training is over I will be given the opportunity to shadow her.

This past Friday my host family took me and Leanne to a cook out their friends were having. It was really fun except for the fact that I was more or less falling asleep on myself (I have found that I am very tired here). It was a very interesting social scene. When we first got there the men all gathered in a circle and began to talk and drink heavily while the women sat on the outskirts. My host father kept asking me if I wanted a drink I kept insisting that I was fine, however he thought I was just being shy so he kept asking. Finally when Leanne and I agreed to have a glass of wine, my host mother looks over at me and goes “don’t be getting drunk now! I aint driving you home!” I’m pretty sure they think that we Americans can’t handle out alcohol.

The one thing that I can’t get over here is the driving. Every time I get into a car I think back to when my mom use to take me driving when I got my permit and she would grip the side of the car out of fear. I can honestly say that there are not road rules. People drive at all kinds of speeds, pass each other as they please, and on top of it there are not side walks! People and cars share the road. So I haven’t decided which one is scarier, walking or being in the passenger seat.

My Backyard

Week 2: February 2nd-February 8th

I’ve officially had my first weekend in Grenada. We arrived Saturday morning, we had the first flight out of St.lucia which left at 6:30It was a very early morning to say the least. When we arrived in Grenada the current volunteers were waiting for us at the airport. It was a really good way to be introduced to the country. They gave us a quick tour through town, and when we arrived at the peace corps office we got some time to talk and ask questions before our host families picked us up. It was a huge stress reliever when they all knew my host family and work sites and had only good things to say about both. At 11:30 My host mother, Yavette Joseph, Picked me up. As soon as she walked in everyone gave her a big hug. She runs a small shop where she serves breakfast and lunch which is how all the volunteers know her. I said goodbye to all the volunteers and wished them luck, we all wouldn’t be seeing each other again until Monday. The Josephs live in St. George walking distance from the Peace Corps training office. They live at the top of a driveway that is set at a 90 degree angle, but it has the most incredible view of the harbor (seen in picture above). The house is beautiful and surprisingly very big. It has two floors, the top floor having three bedrooms and the bottom floor consisting of two apartments, one of which their son, Mighty Man, lives in. Yavette gives me a quick tour and then says that if I’m up for it that she would like to take me in to town to do some shopping. As soon as we get into town Yavette starts saying hello to people, she knows everyone. As we are walking through the Market I notice that if I am not obviously standing next to Yavette that I get mistaken as a tourist and get bombarded with people trying to sell me stuff. Yavette shows me all the different kinds of fruit and vegetables that she will get for me to try: there’s bread-fruit, love apples, yellow apples, okra, mangos, 5 fingers (or star fruit), coconut, pumpkin, guava, dashin, and yams. Half of the things I had never heard of and the other half I wouldn’t have recognized, for instance the avocados are as big as the coconuts and are a completely different color. When we were done shopping Yavette asked me if I was up for going to Grenville to get fish. I didn’t know what going to Grenville meant so I said sure. Turns out Grenville is a 45 minute bus ride away. When we get to Grenville we look for a shop to buy a bucket, I have no idea why. Even though I’m sure Yavette explained to me why we needed a bucket her accent is so think I only understand a quarter of the things she says. When we find a bucket we make our way to the fish market. Outside the market there are a group of boys standing around with machetes, Yavette goes over and talks to one of them who then follows her over to the market. At the market she looks at all the fish and then selects the one she wants and then pays the fisherman. The fisherman hands the fish to the boy following us around, who then takes the bucket and tells us to wait. This boy cleans and cuts up the fish which he then puts into our bucket. Once he is done he brings it back over to us and Yavette pays him. Seeing that I’ve been away since 3 am I’m basically sleep walking, so we make our way back to St. Georges and I call it a day. We wake up early the next morning to go to church. Walking into church that morning I could have sworn I was walking into an amateur Christian rock band concert. There were four women singing on stage accompanied by a man on the drums, an electric guitar, an electric piano, and then several tambourines scattered through the crowd. To the right was a huge screen which had the lyrics to each song so everyone could follow along. It was mildly ridiculous. Tuesday was Independence day. Independence Day is huge! The day before Independence Day is colors day, so everyone wears yellow green and red. And by everyone I mean EVERYONE! There is a huge cultural performance that goes on at the big stadium which started at 1:30. Before we headed down there Mighty Man drove me and Leanne to the beach. The water is a mixture of bright blues and greens and there was barely anyone out on the beach which was perfect. We came back to change and make our way to the stadium. Overall it was long and boring but then out of nowhere they had parachuter’s dropped from above and flew down into the center of the stadium! One of the parachuter’s didn’t make it and fell into the crowd. It reminded me of something you’d see on America’s funniest home videos. After that we went and met Mr.Jo and Mighty Man at a party up at Fort George. It was a huge cook out! People were dancing and grinding up on each other, there was a huge pot of Boildown, which is the national dish. When we went over to get some food someone offered me Pigs foot, which I had to pass on. I can’t help but think about how quickly life can change. A month ago I would have been walking to temple on Friday, and now I’m driving to church on Sunday. A month ago I wouldn’t have been able to find pork anywhere and now I’m being offered pigs foot.

Week 1: St Lucia

This first week we were in Pre-service training, also known as PST (there are acronyms for everything). Overall it’s been a lot of information about all of the bad things that can possibly happen to us ranging from sexual assault to rashes and skin fungi.

While the days have been really long I’ve gotten to go to the beach everyday! A few of us have swam laps at sunset which has been a great way to exercise and release some stress. I still haven’t processed that I live here now and that I will be able to do this everyday for the next two years.

Yesterday afternoon we received our work site information. I’ve been assigned to two schools in the St. George’s area: The Limes, a school for special education, and The Lutheran School. It says that at Limes i will be “assisting with current activities in the school” while at the Lutheran school it says I will be “assisting with planning and development (knowledge of databases using filemaker pro would be an asset).” Well I have no experience working with special education and no knowledge of filemaker pro so this should definitely be a learning experience.

For the next two months I been assigned a host family: Anthony and Yvette Joseph. If the experience is anything like the one I had in Israel then  know it will be wonderful. I’m really excited to meet them on Saturday! If this arrangement works out I could potentially live with them past training until I wish to move into independent housing.

It’s been wonderful meeting the entire Eastern Caribbean volunteer group. While everyone is really excited to get to their posts and get started, I know it will be really exciting when we all come back together for mid service training a year from now.