Happy New Year!

My boys after we picked up trash from the field
Grade six with their nature art
My dad and Randolph
Nature art-ing

Jerome's artwork

A view from Ottleys. My kids shows me a trail that goes all the way up the mountain which I never knew about
Zach and I made a magnificent hole on the beach. Tourists actually asked to take pictures of it when we were finished.
Hiking up Ottley's trail
A couple of ladies at J'ouvert
My EC 78 crew!
you gotta get painted
Christmas breakfast at the church I attend
I had a week-long camp for my 5th graders during the break. They're watching the movie "Up". (thanks, mom!)
This is Jah Cure, a Jamaican artist who came to perform in St. Kitts. We tracked him down after the concert and hung out with him for a bit
Kim getting me situated at J'ouvert
J'ouvert Joy!
The volunteers. I'm not really sure why I couldn't turn and face the camera, but look at that sun coming up!
Morning time
Friends and volunteers at Thanksgiving. My dad is chatting with his new friend, David.
Playing games at Thanksgiving
Socializing at Thanksgiving

(As always, the pictures can be enlarged if you click on them. Sorry they are all weirdly ordered, I’m not really sure how to organize them)




Whew!

Hello to everybody and happy, happy New Year! I hope everyone’s holidays were full of warmth and togetherness. I miss my friends and family from home so very much and I can’t believe it’s only nine months until I’m home for good! I’m trying to live in the moment, but the anticipation of being surrounded by the truly familiar cannot help but occasionally bubble up to the surface and create tiny bursts of excitement.

As far as my life here, things have been quite well. I go through unpredictable bouts of loving it here and not being able to imagine myself anywhere else, or being induced into an agoraphobic state, unable to go outside and face the sweltering heat or the roller coaster traffic. Loneliness sometimes overcomes me and creates a self-perpetuating cycle of avoiding people because I’m sad, and being sad because I’m avoiding people. However, regardless of whatever listless state I’m in, leaving the house to go to the school almost always rewards itself. The kids effortlessly and unintentionally lift my spirits and remind me quickly why I endure the homesickness, heat, and island fever.

The after-school program is going quite well. My fifth graders have written a play that we intend to have ready to perform by May. I am so incredibly proud of them for what they have created. All I asked them to do was focus on issues that are creating negativity in St. Kitts and Nevis and they came up with four different topics that will be performed as short acts in the play. Their ideas were:

-A kid moves to St. Kitts (from Alaska, mind you) and gets bullied and feels very alone, so he decides to join a gang. The gang members pressure him to commit a crime and he decides to not do it, so the gang members come after him and make it very difficult for him to leave the gang.

-Two girls fight over a new boy at school and allow him to ruin their friendship. The teacher has to intervene and mend their friendship back together

-A woman who is HIV positive shows up for her first day at work and everyone is really rude to her. She hears a group of people talking about her in the next room and saying how scared they are of getting HIV and how they don’t want to touch her desk. She calls her brother and cries about how hard it is to be discriminated against and how ignorant they are to think they can contract the virus through casual contact. (In true, dramatic fashion) the woman dies and the co-workers are sad they never got to apologize so they go to her brother’s house and become friends.

-The fourth act is going to be on littering and the kids want to exhibit their artistic side, so we’re going to use materials that would otherwise be trash and create a visual lesson on how garbage and littering affects St. Kitts and Nevis.

I am pretty sure that writing the play is the easiest part, since it involves the kids sitting down and just verbally expunging their bounty of imaginative thoughts, and I tremble at the thought of organizing these kids and keeping them focused on memorizing lines, overcoming stage fright, building a set, making costumes, etc. Even just typing that made my palms sweaty. I’m really hoping I can get some of the other teachers to help me, but they usually rush home right after school to retrieve their own children and take care of their homes. We shall see..

Grade six has gravitated away from theater and I’m finding that hands-on activities keep them more occupied and pacified. Our projects are based on building things out of natural or recycled resources. I think I already briefly touched on this plan, but so far we have made nature art by going out and gathering only things found in nature like flowers, seeds, leaves, and sand, to paste on colored paper and make art. They loved it and were way more enthusiastic about this project than I ever expected. We are now working on making kites out of recycled materials. In the sugar cane fields there are these really tall grass-like rods that are perfect for drying and using as the frame for a kite. Last week we went walking and picked a ton of them and this week we plan to use those and cut up used plastic bags and make kites. Luckily I have one of the teachers helping me with this project because I honestly have never even flown a kite let alone made one from scratch.

For my high school program, STYLE, my persistence has yielded a slight success, yet I am still hesitant to feel completely re-assured. A guidance counselor from the school called me last week and explained that she understood I was having a lot of difficulty gaining momentum with STYLE and that she has been wanting to start a boys and girl club, so why don’t we just umbrella that project under STYLE and work together. GENIUS! This is the exact ingredient for a potentially sustainable project that I was hoping and waiting for. To have a guidance counselor approach me instead of the other way around is more important than I ever could have understood. She is now a willfully invested partner in this endeavor, instead of me begging her to become enthusiastic towards something that I alone conjured up. She also has the instant credibility of being a born and raised Kittitian, a guidance counselor, and she has already formed acquaintance with many of the parents we will be in communication with. Even things as simple as having a school printer, phone, and contacts lists make a world of a difference in the expediency of this project. Now, I have a group of two high school counselors and Charles who works for the Ministry of Education and was with me from the inception of STYLE. We met last week and outlined the projects we would like to complete by May which include: beautifying the school by adding flowers, classroom decorations (the walls are completely bare and covered in graffiti which creates a very uninspired learning environment), creating a new mural to paint on the main wall of the school, finishing painting the basketball court, and having a song-writing competition that focuses on non-violence. All of these projects will be completed by the selected students as community service and we will reward them with field trips, social gatherings, and beach trips.

As far as my non-work related life, I have been soaking up the last Carnival experience for my Peace Corps service. Carnival season is a time that people all over the island look forward to, even if they are steadfast Christians who refuse to partake in the jammin'. While some may not agree with they partying,nthe laid-back attitude and essence of celebration and relaxation seeps into the atmosphere making everyone a little less stressed. Work slows down to a crawl while the pulse in Basseterre is revved up and energized. Rarely is there a reason to be hanging around in town after dark, but during Carnival season everyone comes out dressed in their finest. Street corners are lined with people selling cook-up, barbecued chicken, and other local favorites, the music is blaring so loudly you can feel it pulsating in your chest, and the streets are too congested to even attempt to drive through because the party has the right of way during Carnival.

J’ouvert was another memorable success yet again. There was a jungle theme this year and although the turn out wasn’t what I remembered from last year, we made the best of it and jammed ‘til the sun came up. I know I explained the premise of J’ouvert last year, but I cannot say it enough that this is the most coveted, anticipated, and celebrated event for me and my fellow volunteers, and really, for most of St. Kitts. The pictures will explain the message that I cannot portray through words.


I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010. We are entering a new decade and I am humbled by the intrepidness of time. Let’s live every moment to its fullest and bask in the joy of the presence, because tomorrow is here before you know it.

Much love and paz,
Alisa