My TV has been out since I got back from Mexico. It’s been nice… I have the new computer and have been messing around with that, I started studying for the LSAT, and I read more without the TV.

I’m especially glad to be missing the media blitz of 9/11 commemorations. I can remember and commemorate on my own, without listening to our "President" continue to hijack the event for his own dubious political ends. In my opinion, that’s what 9/11 has become in the media and in politics, a means to an end; a justification for continued violence and denied human rights. I love my country (and am proudly serving it), but I have been saddened and embarrassed to see the eroding integrity of the fundamental values since 9/11.

Enough about that.

I just got to the PC office. As I was coming up the outside stairs, there was a ruckus across the street. When I got to my floor, I went out on the porch that looks over the street and the house with the ruckus. Everyone in the neighborhood was out on their porches. A man had entered the house and had dragged the woman out, ripping off her shirt. She was screaming for someone to call the police, to help her, and that she had a restraining order against the man. He was screaming that this was all OK because she was his wife and she was with another man. Peter, who is our new Safety and Security Officer, (and a former Chief of Police), went to call the police. Several rastas came running from up the street with cutlasses. Finally the man ran away, and a jeep came around the corner and picked up the woman. The "other man" went back into the house to get his shoes, and then he left. Then the belligerent man drove away in his minibus. Big excitement in Sans Soucis.

There is a big hub-bub right now in the government and public sphere. The government has brought the issue of abortions being illegal up for review. It is the stuff of all the talk shows and opinion columns. What they’re trying to pass is to make it legal for a woman to get an abortion if the pregnancy is a threat to her own health or if she is pregnant due to rape. You’d think they were really pushing the envelope, from all the outcry and backlash. I wonder what the everyman’s opinion is though. (The outcry and backlash is from the same people who have outcry and backlash over everything.) Last night I was watching a talk-news show with Paul and Mary. Even with Mary’s fervent Catholicism, she had an open mind to the issue. They had a priest on the show who was against legalizing abortion in these select circumstances. He also took the opportunity to decry all contraceptives. Finally it got to be too much. He was telling outright lies. He said that a woman who has an abortion after being raped is more traumatized than a woman who brings to term and raises the child, and she has a 300% increased risk of cancer. No specification of what cancer. He said that natural family planning/rhythm method was more secure than any other type of contraceptive.

I had to walk away.

Today in the newspaper, all but one of the columns was against loosening the restrictions against abortion. The one rational woman raised the issue of the little girl who was raped and murdered a year ago, the fifth time she had been raped. She was 14. There were speculations that she was pregnant. Countless 9 and 10 year-olds have borne children.

I know there are safe, respectable doctors who will provide abortions, but that’s out of the price range for most people here. Martinique is also an hour’s boat ride away.

Things are going very well now. I started this week on a free pass to try out the gym. It’s right across the street from swimming, so it’s very convenient. I’ve done two classes this week with Deb. I’m sore, but it feels good. I think I’ll end up joining. They give us a deal because we’re volunteers, and I’ll meet new people.

Work is the same.

A couple weeks ago we had seven new volunteers assigned to St. Lucia. They are younger on the whole than our group was, but seem like a good crew. Most of them are stationed in smaller communities in the south of the island. One girl will be working partially with NSDC and the Choiseul Arts and Crafts Center. Another girl went to UW. They have their swearing-in ceremony on Saturday.

I have a new PLAN. Not all together new, but a modification. Like I said, I’m studying for the LSAT. I’ll probably take that in June. Law school apps are due in December or January, which would have me actually starting law school in fall 2005. What to do in the time between PC and Law school weighed heavily on my mind. I don’t know how good it would be for my mental health to go and loaf around Mukwonago for a year. And I don’t want to scrounge for a temp job, just to be paid a fraction above minimum wage. The option exists to extend my time here, either to stay in St. Lucia or to be part of the pioneers who are going into St. Kitts sometime this fall.

But one day I had a little idea come into my head. My pal, Amanda, formerly of PC-St. Vincent, recently started an English teaching job in Korea. Other people I’ve known here and there have done similar things in Japan. So one action-packed day at work, I sat around and looked at those types of programs. They really looked interesting, and I am highly qualified! That’s a good feeling for a change! The emphasis is on cultural exchange and English teaching, so full knowledge of Japanese isn’t necessary. I think I’ve proven myself culturally-adaptable, and that’s about all you need. There is another position in the program to be a sports instructor. I would be qualified for that with swimming, but they require fluent Japanese. So I’ve spent the few weeks since returning from Mexico scraping together a resume, pleading for recommendations and checking daily for them to upload the application for next year. It will be a one-year program that leaves next August. It will have me back just in time for school to start in Fall 2005.