Things have finally calmed down a bit.

Last weekend, we had a visit from the PC Regional Director in DC. Unfortunately the General Director wasn’t able to make it. Nonetheless, we had a nice day in Soufriere. Several people made presentations, and we had a lunch. I gave a welcome speech. I got a bit nervous and it didn’t go totally according to plan, but it was still OK.

Things at school are coming along well. I’m focusing right now on the Auto Repair/Welding program. Mr. Samuel, the teacher, has a design for a composting drum that he got from the internet. He’s modified it so that it’s made with a used gas tank and several soldered rods to hold it up. You put your biodegradable waste inside and crank the little handle, and in a few weeks you have compost. The model they’re working on now is a mini garden model. But there are plans to make them using larger drums. Lord knows there are enough of those lying around St. Lucia. The boys have also made two barbecue models. The larger is made with an old tire rim and is about 2.5 feet tall. The other is smaller and made from half a gas tank. I think those could sell really well, especially among the Peace Corps. So I’ve been laying out a modified business plan to work on with Mr. Samuel. Mostly what we need to work on is the costing/pricing and advertising.

Mr. Williams in the woodshop is working on a big cabinetry job.

Otherwise, things are going well at school. They just received 3 1000-gallon water tanks. Hopefully that will help a bit with the water issues.

Here are a few funny things to think about:

Another volunteer (non PC) is teaching a Virtues program. I sat in one day. The program is really good, the kind of thing that if one of the boys listens and takes it to heart, it will really have succeeded. So this one day we were talking about Patience. Somehow, one of the boys brought up what he would do if someone broke into his house. Not surprisingly, but disturbingly, the boy said he’d shoot the intruder. Megan, the volunteer, and I tried to reason with the boy and say that you must be patient and wait for Police help (which is a problematic thing to tell the boys, they don’t usually see the police as friendly or helpful, and sometimes they truly are not.) Megan told the boy he must have faith that the thief-intruder will pay for his sins X number of times in heaven, and if the boy shoots, he will have to do the same. The boy was not persuaded. He kept repeating that he has his gun, he has a permit, he can shoot. Only after several rounds of this did I realize that the boy thought a gun permit was license to shoot people… Kind of scary, and I bet he’s not the only one with that misconception.

On a lighter side, the boys were really curious about my trip home. We were watching TV and they asked me "do they have this in the US, do they have that?" One of the boys told me that he wanted to go to the US. He asked how much it cost. I told him it was a lot. He said, "Do you pay your money to the pilot?" I said no… and later I understood that he was thinking of it like the bus. And it even seemed strange to me explaining it to them: "no, you go to some office in town and give them all your money, then you can go on the plane". Why not give it to the pilot? It makes sense in a way.

Yesterday when I was watching my court TV shows, they had one on about an 11 year-old boy in MI who shot and killed another boy. They were attempting to try him as an adult. Luckily that failed, and they put him in a reform/training school. It made me think of the one boy at school who was convicted of murder. He’s not exceptional in any way among the other boys. He’s not loud or raucous or violent that I’ve ever seen. He tends to be very mellow while some of the others have fights and are quarrelsome. I wonder some about the background of his case, and even more about what goes on in his head.

Today I’m going to Grand Anse Beach, on the Atlantic side. I’ve never been there before, but it’s on my big list of things to do before I go home.

I have all my plans set for my Easter Weekend trip to the Grenadines. I’m flying out the Thursday before Easter, then taking the ferry that day to Canouan. There, I’m staying with another volunteer. Saturday I’m taking the ferry again to Union Island. I found a cheap guesthouse there that other volunteers recommend. I think there may be a number of volunteers around for the weekend too. Then on Tuesday, I’m taking the island-hopper flight back to St. Vincent. I’ll probably meet up with a pal there for the day. I’m flying back here Tuesday night. The following week Kristy comes to visit!