It’s been awhile since I’ve updated. Things have actually been busy. And I’ve been waiting on a GUEST ENTRY from a certain RECENT VISITOR. Possibly public humiliation will motivate her ;-)

Events

Last week I made a little stop in at the Emergency Room at Tapion Hospital.

Our swimming class is now taking place at Glencastle Hotel pool (I’ll explain all that later…) The pool is a bit narrow and quite deep for the little kids. I was working with Tarick, who is only 4 and in the learn-to-swim program. Class was almost over, so we were doing some jumps. I was treading water, and he was jumping in to my arms. The first jump was fine. On the second one, we had a bit of trouble though. For one, the sun was in my eye. Two, I had looked away for a split second. Three, Tarick did an amazing Superman flying leap. The result was that he jumped and landed right on my head. It was completely jarring, and my first thought was "does this kid still have all his teeth?" He did, and surprisingly wasn’t hurt or shaken up at all. Then I realized I couldn’t close my jaw. I worked at it for a minute, as I tried to hold it together for Tarick, the other kids, and all the parents that were watching. But it was pretty clear that something was WRONG with my jaw. So I called Freda, the PC nurse, and she said to go to the emergency room. Eric came and picked me up at swimming, and then we went to the hospital. Unfortunately the timing was just off, because all the doctors and radiologists had just gone home and had to be called back in. In the mean time, the nurse tended to me, bursting a vein in my hand trying to set up an IV (eventually she gave me a shot in the middle of my leg), and then I got to lie around in a hospital bed and wait for the doctor. I even got to wear a hospital gown and get pushed around in a wheelchair. In the end, the doctor said there was no major damage. They shot me up with painkillers, gave me a prescription, and sent me on my way.

But… it still hurts. I’m going in to see the specialist next week. We’ll see!

Work has been going really well. Now I’m working with Ms. Yarde, the remedial class teacher. I was fed up with going to school every day and doing nothing, so I threw myself at the mercy of the director, and she suggested I work with Ms. Yarde. Ms. Yarde has about 5 boys in her class, Vicky, Ronald, Troy, Bertrand, and Dorvaughn. Bertrand is new, and a bit more advanced than the others. He’s good at maths and reads at a second- or third grade-level. That compared to the other boys who are working on the alphabet and the letter sounds. So I work aside with Bertrand on his maths (add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions) and on his reading. It’s been rewarding because I can see where he has trouble, work on it, and get him past it. There aren’t many books in the classroom; we’ve been reading selections out of a children’s’ encyclopedia. So I swiped The BFG by Roald Dahl from the PC office. We’re reading it aloud and I ask them questions for reading (and listening) comprehension. (Unfortunately someone beat me to swipe Harry Potter #1!!)

School finishes for the summer in the middle of July. Most of the boys will go home for several weeks. That will be it for me!

Swimming has been CHAOS. Ever since Joanna left around the beginning of March, I’ve had the class alone. I haven’t been able to find anyone to replace me, let alone to help give some relief now. I talked with the other coaches and parents, and they were able to find someone. Andy had formerly been employed by the pool itself, teaching lessons for their team and for the schools that come in during the day. Due to a number of reasons that I wont go in to, he left the pool but agreed to work volunteer with us. After the first class, the owners of the pool freaked out and said Andy was not welcome in the pool at all. (Then kind of difficult for him to do his new job teaching the schools program for the ministry when this is the only pool on the island). Anyways, that left me with the whole class again. Then the club was able to get Sherma to volunteer with us. Sherma had also left her job teaching lessons for the pool. Well, not only did they forbid her from coming in the pool, but they assailed her and tried to forcibly remove her IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR CLASS! She handled it very well, such that the kids didn’t know what was going on, but many of the parents had their feathers ruffled. How horrible can this woman be if the owners of the pool are the ones screaming and swearing for her to leave, in front of 100-some children? That’s the end of my commentary on that. So Sherma couldn’t help the class either. But after that, the club took action and found a different pool for my class. We went to the Bay Gardens Hotel. It was great because the pool was a good size, shallow, warm, and a good location. And since the class was there, Andy came back. But then the Bay Gardens had complaints from hotel guests that we were noisy and they couldn’t use the pool (for one lousy hour in the late afternoon…), so we had to find ANOTHER pool to use. Now we’re at the Glencastle Hotel. Like I said, it’s nice, but kind of deep and small. But it’s been working great to have both Andy and me coaching. He is very experienced and good with the kids.

Travels

Two weeks ago was our Close of Service conference in Grenada. I was a little disappointed with the way my flights worked out, because I wasn’t able to spend any extra time in Grenada to check out the island. But as it was, I was home by 9am on my travel-home day, so that was nice!

The purpose of the conference was to help us sum up what we’ve done (for resume, and just for general purposes), talking about de-integrating and saying goodbye on-island, and readjusting back to the US. It was all interesting and worthwhile topics, though there are always a few who have to run their mouths ad nauseum.

It was also a chance for us to see everyone for a last time. Even though we basically met, were scattered to the winds, met again a year ago, and then in Grenada, it was really nice. The bond of common experience is very strong. Several people are going to end up in the Chicago/Milwaukee area, so that will be cool too. Some I’m quite close with already, and others it will be cool to get to know. Also good to know there will be someone at hand who’s been there too.

Our hotel in Grenada was really nice. It was essentially a beach resort. Unfortunately it was overcast and rainy most of the time. That left opportunity to check out the exciting supermarket nearby, Subway, and TCBY.

Last weekend Eric and I went to St. Maarten. (For those unable to read thru the lines, Eric is my BOYFRIEND!) It was a chance for me to use up my last vacation days, as PC doesn’t allow us to travel in the last three months of our service. For Eric, it was a chance for him to get off the island for some leisure, since most of his travel is business-related. We initially had looked at going to the Grenadines (I liked it that much!!!), but things were booked up. LIAT, the regional airline, had some packages to St. Maarten, but we ended up booking on our own. We stayed at a resort just outside of Phillipsburg, the capitol of the Dutch side of the island. It was on a peninsula, so it had water frontage on both sides. The location was similar to Sandals Grande on Pigeon Island, for those who are familiar. It even had a fort!

The resort was just right. It wasn’t overbearing like Sandals, yet offered all the services and amenities. We had a bit of a scuffle when we arrived… thru some snafu our reservation was lost, so they put us up in one of the timeshare rooms. It was huge! All the better for us!

The first day we just hung out at the resort. I lay around by the beach and Eric explored the fort. That night we ate at a nice Tex-Mex place in Simpson Bay, the tourist area. Mmm, enchilada!

Saturday we went into town. It was only about a 15-minute walk. St. Maarten caters quite a bit to cruise ships and duty free shoppers. So there were many nice shops. I had read ahead of time that you could find a lot of electronics. I have been in the market for a digital camera, since mine is a dinosaur and on its last legs. I did some research and decided that if the price was right, I’d buy one there. The electronics shops were exactly like the ones in New York, and all owned by East Indian guys. We (actually Eric) haggled most of the day with three of them for cameras for each of us. I got a Digital Canon Elph S410, just the one I wanted, and with memory and a case. The price was right. Eric got a fancy Digital Rebel and all sorts of accessories to go with. He got a really good deal. In between all the haggling, we did some other looking around too. I got a shell necklace like I had been looking for, and got to look in the upscale Ralph Lauren and Hilfiger shops. Those struck me as a bit silly, though, because they were all the same prices as in the US! Later that night we went to a really nice restaurant on the French side. I took Eric out for his belated birthday. The place was really cool, so we wined and dined high-style.

Sunday we just hung around the resort again. In the afternoon we went for massages. It was my first real massage; the only other one being when I was a guinea pig at NSDC and got rubbed down with cooking oil. Needless to say, this was a lot nicer. They had incense burning and relaxing music instead of 30 students and a teacher looking on. Later, when we were swimming, I stuck my hand in some sort of poisonous electric coral and got a nice burn. It quit hurting after about a day, but is still red! Oops… That night we ate at the hotel restaurant. My pizza was good, but otherwise a rather forgettable experience.

The next day we flew out, back to paradise!

It’s looking like I’ll be back in the US at the end of August. I’m taking an LSAT class and the test in October. After that I haven’t a clue.

The big question, what will happen with the website? Well, I’d like to do a couple things. First, I’d like to wrap up my experiences with a best/worst list of some sort, but I need help from THE READERS! (and now I get to find out who all is peeping my site). So please send me any questions or suggestions… best, worst, most fun, most annoying… whatever. AND/OR any questions you have for me about Peace Corps, the application process, my service, St. Lucia, etc.

This will serve both for me to tell some stories, but also to bring the website to a bit of a close…

…yet keep it going. I’m hoping to compile an FAQ aimed at people interested and preparing for Peace Corps.

So PLEASE contribute! Give me something to do while I’m unemployed! THANKS!