'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.