Day #23 Valentines day

Watch this!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMKzLycjKMU

So this morning I awoke to this sweet video that made me cry. I feel s special that Joe put that together for me. I was sad that I had to rush off to training. Today we where supposed to go over debilities in the community, and I feel that they could have covered a lot more areas of it, but oh well. It was a very long day and I cant wait to go home and see what my host family has planed for tonight.      

Day #22 Chicken FEED!!!!!!

So agin training was long but I learned some valuable things about giving criticism to my students and teaches. We also had are second Kreowl lesson. I am having a hard time with the language but I think that I will be abel to pick some of it up, thank  goodness that Grenada's national language is english. After training was over I had my first interview, I was worried but it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. We just talked about how I was doing as a hole, host family, training, safety, and mentally. They also provided us at the beginning of the week with a hand out to fill out asking us questions based around what we had been learning. So that went well. I was exited when I got home because the boys where still hard at work with the chickens and I was asked if I wanted to some and watch slash help. I was so exited because a big truck was sitting outside and the boys had to unload all of the feed from it. It was crazy how fast they unloaded is and their was more than 400 bags of it. I ended up talking to the customs agent while they unloaded. In the Caribbean as I'm sure you all ready know their is a big problem with dug smuggling so they have to come out and inspect trucks that come from Jamaica and other such places. He was a very nice man, we talked about the PC and about things around town. I really wanted to help the boys unload but due to y back problems that I had in the past I don't want to add any extra stress to it. I did lift 3 bags just to try it and yes each bag was 55lb. once we had more than 500 bags in the shed we moved to the silo. The boys had to set all of the bags up, open them and dump them in. I was exited because they showed me how o open them, it was a bit tricker that I though it would be. They however where supper fast at it, so I just had to stay out of the way. I cleaned and helped one of the younger guys pick up trash. It was supper fun I dont know why I am drawn to the farm but I like it a lot. When that was said and done I when with my host father into the heart of the capital to drop some of the boys off. I had never been to that area before way up high on the mountain. We had a nice talk. When I came back I showered because I smelled funny and ate dinner. all and all it was a good day. I am truly amazed at how hard some people work in the world. I give you guys props for that.Im going to miss them all when I leave St. Lucia.                    

Day #21 youth panel

Today started off slow in training but after we lunch we went to a youth panel, it was a grate experience. We had 6 young men and woman who talked to us. The first was a young man who was educated and interested in theater. He expressed the fact that many people in St. Lucia don't think that you can be a dancer, or that art is really a career that you can have. The next was a 19 year old boy who had drooped out of school but had found his way back onto the right track. He talked to us about bulling in schools, drug, gang activity and how he discovered what it was like to be on the right track. After that was a young woman who decided that he community needed a change so she started a program where young kids come come and work on the communities well being together. It became a safe place for young boys and girls who had challenging home lives. It was sad to her about the abuse, mental and physical and what they had to do to survive in the world that they are living in. One of the most touching stories came from a girl who was almost raped by one of her teachers, she became a teen mother at the age of 17. She talked about why their is so much teen pregnancy, about HIV/AIDS, and how men treat woman in the Eastern Caribbean. One of my favorite speakers works in the National skills development center, it is one of the most amazing places, they take in people who have little to no life skills and train then for careers. It is a program that offers internships along with the education in a work environment. They also offer HIV/AIDS and other STD teasing, free contraception as well. Last but not least we had a young man who was influenced by a peace corps volunteer who came in 2007 if i remember correctly he started a pole vaulting program. To this day they have competitions and he went to represent St. Lucia and got second place. I think its so amazing to see some ones secondary working so effectively. He was promoting healthy habits and sports. The day ended well and now I am off to bed because I need an early night.

Day # 20 Tiered

Today was training agin we went over some more strategies for working with are students. Today was primarily about strategies to keep are students intrigued in what we are teaching but we also talked about all of the ups and downs we will have emotionally threw out are tour. They tried to provide outlets for us to go to when we are feeling alone or stressed out.  I have three more weeks to go in St. Lucia before I head to Grenada. I found today when I met my grenada director for the first time that I will be delivered strait to my host family from the air port.  It still amazes me that I have started my tour in the Peace Corps. I had so many fears before I came here, things are coming together slowly. I know I have just started my trip of a life time and it is amazing, I know that I have so much more to go threw, achieve and over come.  It was a a long day and I am tiered. I think that I a fatigued from all of the new things such as environment, people and training classes. I am having so much fun so I am hopping to be my peppy self shortly. On a happy note I love being an older sibling its fun!    

Day #19 Dauphin Beach St. Lucia

Today was my lazy day, so when I woke up I finished my blog from last night and washed my laundry. Some I had to hand wash but I got to use a washing machine for the rest so that was nice. When I was done with that I went into my room, I wanted to Skype some people but no one was up yet so I ended up falling asleep in bed before my host dad called me to eat lunch and get ready to go to the salon to get my hair done. I think I was spoiled today I got my hair corn rowed, nails painted and toes done as well. In St. Lucia they like bright colors so my toes are purple yellow and green. I like right colors so that worked out grate. By the time I was done Jenna was their to pick me up and she had all of the girls with  her, her mom to, her moms grate and supper funny. We went up the mountain to Dauphin beach. It is a historical beach because Carbs and Arawaks came and settled their.  So we saw some of the drawings that they had done on rock, we even got to see some of the rocks that they carved out and used to eat out of, and mack food in. On the beach their are small coconuts and lots of almond trees, the almonds are naturally salted from the sea water. It was a good trip, we all had fun. When we got back it was time for dinner and resting.   

Some of the local almonds and the plates of the Caribs.

Day #18 Chicken Farm

Ok so yesterday was a full day of fun. I started the day off by meeting Chase and Gabi for coffee. I had a vanilla chi ice tea, it was so yummy. After that we took several busses to get to are consolidation point. All that means that if their is some kind of disaster, or tropical storm working that we all go and meet up in one place. So when We got their we went over the handout and got a tour. When that was all done Me, Chase, Gabi and Myra went up the street to Rodny bay mall that was interesting. I wanted to hurry home so I could get started on the chicken farm. when I got home I ran up stairs got changed and headed down to the chicken houses. I really like the staff that I got to work with. My fist job was to clean the eggs. they supply eggs to almost all of the north part of St. Lucia so they clean thousands of eggs every day. I was exited because I surprised by being so fast, and I only broke 2 so that was good. After I got threw all of my eggs we went to go collect eggs so that we could finish cleaning eggs and package them. It was interesting to watch the chickens reactions when I would take their eggs. It was so cute because Arron my host brother who is 5 decided that we he was going to help me collect eggs. It didn't take very long because we only collected from one are of the chickens the rest had been collected before I got their. I did get to help feed the chickens well I got to watch,  I cant lift huge sacks of feed. I helped the boys with the switches that turned the comvaer belts on and off. My host dad loves his chickens and he does a check every day to make sure that everything is working properly. After that it was clean up time. I am hopping to go and work their agin next saturday so I can do some of the other jobs. I had a lot of fun getting dirty and getting to know the staff. When we where all done cleaning up my host mom took me on a walk and showed me some more plants that can be used for cooking. She was also trying to teach me some Kreol but its kind of like math it doesn't fit in my brain, but I'm going to keep trying. Then it was time to get ready for dinner. We all went to one of the local pizza places, it was crazy they had a kids playground, bigger than anything I have ever seen, it had one of those bungie    rides that you see at the fair pulse cotton candy. After dinner we got some ice cream so yummy I had raisen rum. It was a bit late but we walked threw the mall agin and window shopped. It was a good night and i got to see the island lights from on top of the mountain. It was a good day and I took lots of pictures so look on my face book.
              

Day #17 The conch horn

I like training because I learn something new every day but it is hard to sit still all day. Today we talked about creating relationships with teachers and are students. So the tittle of this post is conch horn because today while we where in class we kept herring a loud honking sound and it turned out to be that when ever they go around sounding of the horn it means that they have returned from fishing and that they have fresh fish for sail. They drive around down every street blowing the horn.After all of are classes We walked to the corner store for a popsicle, I was also looking for post cards but they didn't have any so I went looking for my host sister. She was not their so I headed home for supper. That was about it for the evening I made some more juice that was fun. I have also been spending time with the family.  I am exited for this weekend.

Its been a long week so I'm going call it an early night