...and it's moving on here, and back home. We just celebrated our first anniversary, and we'll be celebrating two more before we leave this place. My brother just had a birthday, each of our cousins a child (congratulations and congratulations!), and the first of many friends' weddings is occurring as I write this post. Yet another just got engaged. Best wishes to everyone as these events occur. And Mom, in case we get caught up in craziness at site and don't make it to the internet in the next few weeks, happy birthday and anniversary!
We're sad to be missing all this stuff, but of course life here is pretty exciting. We're finishing training this week, and moving to site at the end of the week. The two of us are heavily involved in putting together the party for swearing-in, so between that and the anniversary, there's been some reminiscing back to last year. As a current volunteer put it, you need four things for a good party: Enough food, good music, low lighting, and booze. Of course, having great people there is a plus as well.
This last one won't be a problem, but we will have fewer of the great people. We started in the U.S. with 33 people; we're now down to 30. The bonds formed here are strong, and so the last week has been rough, as some amazing people have decided to return to the U.S. and pursue different paths. Of course, we're happy that they made the best decision for them, and I for one look forward to hearing about their different adventures in the next few years. I hope they didn't take too many worms back to the States as tagalong passengers.
We've already disclosed to our families stories about our site, which we visited a week or two ago. We're in a small farming community, just a bit off the beaten path of the country. Not far though -- no 17-hour drive for us, or multiple boat rides, as with some of our compatriots. Just a ferry ride; and by the time we leave, we won't even have that, as there's a new bridge being built along our route.
Our site village just got electricity (referred to as "current") within the last year, so we're coming right in a period of big change in our community. A businessman donated amazing computers (pretty much top-of-the-line, by any standards) to the secondary school where I'll be working, so I'll be spending some time helping students familiarize themselves with that sort of thing. Mostly, though, I'll be doing some counseling and community interventions. The school and village are having some issues with student retention (and resident retention), suicide, and other things, so we'll see what can happen. My partner will be working with multiple elementary schools in our village area (they all feed into the one secondary school), focusing on literacy.
Everyone at our site seems pretty excited that we're there (as are we), and it feels like we have a great deal of support. From the students and youth, to staff, community leaders and other organizations, people seem ready for us to be there and are ready to get involved in whatever it is we end up doing. We're also anxious to dive in, get to know the people and the community, and figure out how best we can serve the area. We may end up involved in some local business opportunities as well, connecting people and expanding infrastructure. The thing I love most about our organization is the freedom we will have to find how best we can fit into and change existing structures and best effect positive change at our site. Two years from now, we may be doing work that no one (ourselves, our organization, our community) ever predicted. If you like structure and clearly defined job descriptions, giggle yourself to sleep at night picturing me working with a local fishing co-op.
That's all for now. We've grabbed a lot of books from the organization's library; volunteers about to leave the country are giving numbers in the (many) dozens when recounting the books they've read over their period of service. With no TV and little social life, there's little to do aside from integrate, work, and read.
What a great couple of years!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Random info about the country
Thought I'd do a brief post to share random thoughts and things I've noticed about my new home. Some of these things are funny, particularly since they occur no matter what mood you're in, or what your own agenda is, so feel free to imagine any number of situations with these occurrences. So here, in no particular order, are a few:
First off, the population has remained almost flat for several decades now, and for the entire country is less than 800,000; this is because of the constant outgoing flood moving to the U.S., and also Canada and the rest of the Caribbean. I've been told that many people here consider the country to be a 51st state of the U.S. Everyone has family there, but it's almost entirely in New York; so if you say that you're from the U.S., it is often (reasonably) assumed that you're from New York. There's a lot of coverage of the States and Europe in the news. Overall sentiment toward the U.S. is hugely positive.
Cricket is not just a sport. It's a religion.
"Just now" is a term used to denote an upcoming time; that time may be upcoming in 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 months. This is *not* a contextual term -- that is, you can't tell from the situation what the heck period of time is meant. When you hear "Just now" used, you better just find something with which to occupy yourself for a while. Obviously, people from the U.S. are some of the most time-anal people in the world, so this is a bit of an adjustment.
People here, particularly men, like big speaker systems. In cars, in homes, anywhere. In every car trunk is a huge added-in bass speaker box. Driving time is not talking time. It is bass-thumping time. 5 in the morning can also be bass-thumping time, if your neighbor is feeling spunky, and this is normal.
The main means of transportation for us is the MiniBus system. They're vans, which seat anywhere from 12 to 30 depending on how high people are willing to stack themselves (we get out once the stacking starts, and it isn't all that common). They basically work like multi-person taxis with set routes, and are really pretty brilliant. So you just go to the nearest main road, and stand by the side of the road til one comes along (in anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes), and then go til you hit the point on their route closest to your stop -- so sometimes you ride a few Minibuses to get to your destination. The minibuses also subscribe to the "Biggers is Better" theory of stereo speakers, and by the time I return stateside I may be legally deaf. All they play is Akon (a rapper); there is a Minibus with a DVD player and screen (yeah, I know, pretty crazy), but they play Akon music videos. It's very strange, and I now know Akon's entire repertoire. Michael Bolton is also popular. With the exact same people that play Akon. Who have no problem reconciling this in their minds.
Making a kissing sound is a great way to get people's attention. This can be done in a sexual way, but is also done by street vendors, or between family members. People here can let loose a kissing sound that can be heard at 30 yards. I'm still practicing mine (much to my partner's chagrin).
There are men called Touts who work as a sort of subcontractor to stir up business for their employer. For example, in the main Minibus park in the capital city, the MB operators get Touts to fill up their bus. Mostly the Touts yell and kiss (for the sound, dummy, not for romance), or cajole to do this; sometimes the try to grab you and get you in the bus (if you don't take a firm stand, you may end up on a bus to god-knows-where). Sometimes (and this is a really tricky one) the Touts will fill up an empty bus themselves, so that you'll get in thinking that, with the bus full, the driver will leave soon and not have to sit around waiting for more passengers; once a few passengers get in, the Touts get out, and there you are, waiting for a bus to fill. Good, huh?
Basically, the people are great here, and there's a lot of ingenuity in ways that you may not be used to if you're coming from somewhere else. There's a ridiculous amount of technical skill here, as well -- many many people can fix their own cars, and every day I meet people who can do welding, electrician work, plumbing, carpentry, and on and on. All that's missing, in some cases, is enough demand to keep them busy.
First off, the population has remained almost flat for several decades now, and for the entire country is less than 800,000; this is because of the constant outgoing flood moving to the U.S., and also Canada and the rest of the Caribbean. I've been told that many people here consider the country to be a 51st state of the U.S. Everyone has family there, but it's almost entirely in New York; so if you say that you're from the U.S., it is often (reasonably) assumed that you're from New York. There's a lot of coverage of the States and Europe in the news. Overall sentiment toward the U.S. is hugely positive.
Cricket is not just a sport. It's a religion.
"Just now" is a term used to denote an upcoming time; that time may be upcoming in 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 months. This is *not* a contextual term -- that is, you can't tell from the situation what the heck period of time is meant. When you hear "Just now" used, you better just find something with which to occupy yourself for a while. Obviously, people from the U.S. are some of the most time-anal people in the world, so this is a bit of an adjustment.
People here, particularly men, like big speaker systems. In cars, in homes, anywhere. In every car trunk is a huge added-in bass speaker box. Driving time is not talking time. It is bass-thumping time. 5 in the morning can also be bass-thumping time, if your neighbor is feeling spunky, and this is normal.
The main means of transportation for us is the MiniBus system. They're vans, which seat anywhere from 12 to 30 depending on how high people are willing to stack themselves (we get out once the stacking starts, and it isn't all that common). They basically work like multi-person taxis with set routes, and are really pretty brilliant. So you just go to the nearest main road, and stand by the side of the road til one comes along (in anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes), and then go til you hit the point on their route closest to your stop -- so sometimes you ride a few Minibuses to get to your destination. The minibuses also subscribe to the "Biggers is Better" theory of stereo speakers, and by the time I return stateside I may be legally deaf. All they play is Akon (a rapper); there is a Minibus with a DVD player and screen (yeah, I know, pretty crazy), but they play Akon music videos. It's very strange, and I now know Akon's entire repertoire. Michael Bolton is also popular. With the exact same people that play Akon. Who have no problem reconciling this in their minds.
Making a kissing sound is a great way to get people's attention. This can be done in a sexual way, but is also done by street vendors, or between family members. People here can let loose a kissing sound that can be heard at 30 yards. I'm still practicing mine (much to my partner's chagrin).
There are men called Touts who work as a sort of subcontractor to stir up business for their employer. For example, in the main Minibus park in the capital city, the MB operators get Touts to fill up their bus. Mostly the Touts yell and kiss (for the sound, dummy, not for romance), or cajole to do this; sometimes the try to grab you and get you in the bus (if you don't take a firm stand, you may end up on a bus to god-knows-where). Sometimes (and this is a really tricky one) the Touts will fill up an empty bus themselves, so that you'll get in thinking that, with the bus full, the driver will leave soon and not have to sit around waiting for more passengers; once a few passengers get in, the Touts get out, and there you are, waiting for a bus to fill. Good, huh?
Basically, the people are great here, and there's a lot of ingenuity in ways that you may not be used to if you're coming from somewhere else. There's a ridiculous amount of technical skill here, as well -- many many people can fix their own cars, and every day I meet people who can do welding, electrician work, plumbing, carpentry, and on and on. All that's missing, in some cases, is enough demand to keep them busy.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Halfway done with training!
We're about halfway done with training. Last week we took a trip to a small Amerindian village. Everyone slept in hammocks with mosquito nets. We swam in the black water, took a hike in the woods, played soccer with the children, and just relaxed for two days. It was a very refreshing trip. Some people did end up getting worms in their feet from walking barefoot in the sand. They look like a blackhead, but when popped, a worm comes out! We were all pretty paranoid for a few days, wondering if we would get worms.
We're learning how to make some pretty incredible foods, such as roti (a very thick, pita-like bread), chana, chicken curry, pumpkin curry, passion fruit juice, etc. The food here is amazing, and fruits are readily available.
Tomorrow we are all getting together for the Fourth of July to eat traditional food, play cricket, and swim in the black water. Thursday we will find out our site placements. The anticipation is almost unbearable. We will then spend a week at our sites.
If anyone would like our mailing address, just let us know.
We're learning how to make some pretty incredible foods, such as roti (a very thick, pita-like bread), chana, chicken curry, pumpkin curry, passion fruit juice, etc. The food here is amazing, and fruits are readily available.
Tomorrow we are all getting together for the Fourth of July to eat traditional food, play cricket, and swim in the black water. Thursday we will find out our site placements. The anticipation is almost unbearable. We will then spend a week at our sites.
If anyone would like our mailing address, just let us know.
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